On 22 October, 1811, virtuoso pianist, composer and music teacher Franz Liszt was born. He was one of the preeminent composers of the Neudeutsche Schule, the New German School, as well as a scholar and a philanthropist.

Liszt is accredited with the invention of the symphonic poem, a phrase he termed to describe a one movement piece of illustrative composition. As well as the imagery he employed in these poems, he was inspired by the folk music of his native Hungary.

In his lifetime, Liszt was hailed as a spectacular public performer, but he was also a scholar, who loved to study and compose ‘transcriptions’ or ‘paraphrases’ of themes from composers he admired. This lead to the composition of works such as Fantaisie on a theme from Beethoven's ‘Ruinen von Athen’ and Grande fantaisie symphonique on themes from Berlioz’s ‘Lélio’, pieces showing Liszt’s experimental nature.

As well as these fantasies, Liszt composed a large body of work born entirely from his own imagination, including piano symphonies.