Published on Franz Liszt Group, on November 5, 2021. If you want to know how the Story Behind series started, I give details in “Story Behind” Series #1″.
Two weeks ago, I posted a “story behind” about an 1871 series of Liszt pictures taken by Fritz Luckhardt in Vienna. I mentioned that Liszt liked these pictures a lot and ordered some copies to sign for friends and to be used as visit cards.
On April 23rd, 1871, Liszt arrived in Vienna. As he was doing each time he was in the Viennese city, he stayed at the Schottenhof, his uncle Franz von Liszt’s place, for some quiet time with his family, until May 2nd. It is during this period that Luckhardt took the series of pictures.
In October 2020, the Liszt Museum Foundation of the Liszt Academy in Budapest purchased one of these visit cards signed by Liszt’s hand. It is rare enough to be acknowledged here. The picture posted is the one that was acquired. I enjoy the fact that these treasures can still be found today. I wish to thank the person who informed me about this initiative.
The purchase announcement says:
“The generous donation of pianist Tibor Szász made it possible for the Liszt Museum Foundation to buy a visiting card with photo and signature of Liszt, created in the Viennese studio of Fritz Luckhardt, 1871. Tibor Szász took his doctorate at the University of Michigan; having held positions at three universities in the USA, he finally became professor of the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg between 1993 and 2018 [Note from Diane Kolin: Tibor Szász is still teaching in Freiburg]. He published extensively on the music of Liszt, Mozart and Beethoven: his study of the Sonata in B minor – considered as a great achievement in Liszt scholarship and translated to several languages – came out in the Journal of the American Liszt Society, and his article about Beethoven and the basso continuo practice can be found in the Cambridge Studies in Performance Practice series. Tibor Szász is giving a concert at the Liszt Museum next year.
Besides the high-value signed photo of Liszt, the Foundation purchased two other visiting cards from the 1860s at the same HT auction: one represents Lajos Haynald, cardinal of Kalocsa (by Ágoston Bülch, Pest), while the other shows János Danielik, canon of Eger, privy councillor of the Pope (by J. Ruwner, Vienna) – both of them belonged to the circle of Liszt’s important Hungarian friends.”
The English version of the announcement is published on their website: https://lisztmuseum.hu/news/new-purchases-121269
You can find the original story about the Luckhardt pictures here: https://www.dianekolin.com/2021/10/story-behind-series-25-october-24-2021/