Plato’s Cave and the Liszt Tradition of Performance

This week I'm presenting at the Musicological Society of Australia, WA Chapter Conference held at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. This conference is designed to showcase some of the fabulous music research that's happening in Western Australia. It is great to see such a wide variety of topics being presented, and a truly inspiring keynote lecture-recital by the ever-amazing Prof Geoffrey Lancaster AO.

My paper is entitled "Plato’s Cave and the Liszt Tradition of Performance". It is an excerpt from my Master's thesis completed in 2020, which was on "Performing the Hungarian Rhapsodies in the Liszt Tradition." You can read the abstract of my paper below:

When the young American pianist and writer Amy Fay first set eyes on the aging figure of Franz Liszt (1811-1886), she was struck with the image of an “old time magician” who had a face “seamed with experience.” A towering musician who in his long life had learnt from Czerny, met Beethoven, heard Paganini, known Chopin as a friend, and been the first protector and supporter of Wagner; for many of his students, the grand old master Liszt was appreciated not only for his talents as pianist and composer in his own right—but also as a vital living link to the musical past. Liszt’s musical opinion was thus often seen as authoritative, even when it did not concern his own compositions. This gave rise to a Lisztian tradition of performance that seemed to live on after his death. Framed in the illustration of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, this paper will draw explore the concept of tradition within the Liszt school, and question how it might inform our performances of his music today.