Like the violin playing of Paganini, who influenced him profoundly, Franz Liszt stretched the powers of the piano to previously unheard-of limits. Like Paganini he too travelled constantly, applauded as the supreme virtuoso of his instrument.
London saw Liszt as the Infant prodigy, as the glamorous sex-symbol and gifted virtuoso, and as the legendary and much venerated composer of old age.

David Wilde, winner of the International Liszt-Bartok competition in Budapest, tonight plays music from each period and talks about Liszt in London.