Mephisto Waltz

Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Berlioz, Rossini, Wagner, Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Rubinstein. These musical greats were Franz Liszt’s contemporaries and friends during his long, tempestuous, and productive life—a life lived during one of the richest periods in all musical history.

Born in Austria-Hungary, Liszt learned to play the piano at an early age; he was then taken to Vienna to study und...