ABSTRACT
The first of the great specialists of the nineteenth century was Hector Berlioz, whose instinct for handling the orchestra amounted to genius, and who wrote hardly anything in which the orchestra did not play a conspicuous part. Another great specialist was Frederic Chopin, whose knowledge of and sympathy for the piano was fully as remarkable as that of Berlioz for the orchestra. Chopin wrote scarcely anything but piano music, and nothing in which the piano did not bear its part. The name of Franz Liszt illuminates the greater part of the nineteenth century with a radiance that throws all lesser luminaries into the shade. In him a marvellous endowment joined with nobility and sweetness of temperament to form a personality of singular fascination. Chopin and Liszt are the high-priests of modern pianoforte music. The influence of both has been enormous and widely different in result.
