ABSTRACT
On the 12th of November 1841, it was still dark, hours before sunrise, when Franz Liszt entered the city of Osnabrück in Lower Saxony. His watch had just turned 6:00 a.m. when he arrived at his local hotel and took a three-hour nap before breakfast. In the afternoon, he improvised a matinée performance at the home of a local citizen and in the evening, he gave a public concert at 7:00 p.m. Very early the next morning, he continued to Bielefeld, where he gave a solo recital the same day, on the 13th of November. 1 This rhythm of life was typical of Franz Liszt, the virtuoso who was known as ‘a dazzling wizard, a showman and superman of the keyboard’. 2 He was able to travel without a passport, like a king in a world that was split by political borders. He was one of the most famous celebrities of his time, like the Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini before him, thrilling audiences from Scotland to Spain, from France to Russia.
