Liszt Macabre

A virtuosity of horror: like the writers, painters and composers of his time, Liszt was fascinated by the macabre. He portrayed terrifying visions of gruesome scenes and Hell itself, going far beyond the traditional usages of the piano. In Totentanz, Pensée des morts, Funérailles and the Mephisto-Walzer, his demoniacal virtuosity is placed at the service of a Romantic imagination obsessed by the Gothic and the fantastical, inspired by medieval frescoes of dancing skeletons and the Grim Reaper with his scythe. Yet, for all that, Liszt never failed to evoke the hope held out by Christian faith.