The "Liszt Year" 2011: Recent, Emerging, and Future Liszt Research

Abstract

Liszt scholarship as an academic specialty has evolved steadily since 1911, when the first "Liszt year" was celebrated in Europe. Although the composer's reputation declined during the decades following World War I, it began to rise again during the 1950s and 1960s. Today the field boasts a number of specialized periodicals and a wealth of miscellaneous publications, including important books, monographs, musical editions, and sound recordings issued during the years since author Michael Saffle's Franz Liszt: A Research and Information Guide (New York: Routledge, 2009) was prepared for publication. The present article cites and very briefly describes many, although by no means all, of the Liszt studies issued between 2008 and early 2011. Among the most important publications mentioned are Jonathan Kregor's Liszt as Transcriber (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and Kenneth Hamilton's After the Golden Age (Oxford University Press, 2008); two first-ever editions of orchestral and keyboard works underwritten by the Istituto Liszt (Bologna); and new or revised monographs by Ernst Burger, Serge Gut, Klára Hamburger, Laurence Le Diagon-Jacquin, Bruno Moysan, and Alexander Rehding. It also presents an introduction to Liszt-year activities, including celebrations and scholarly conferences held or—as of January 2011—scheduled to take place in Athens (Georgia), Budapest, Heidelberg, Lucca, New York, Ottawa, Utrecht, Weimar, and three French cities (Dijon, Rennes, and Strasbourg). Finally, it comments on the most important lacunae in contemporary Liszt literature, and it speculates on future directions in Liszt research, especially those associated with ongoing Internet and YouTube projects.