After hearing Liszt in 1841, François-Joseph Fétis wrote, “This is the creation of the piano; until now we had no idea what it was.” In forging modern piano virtuosity, Liszt has generally been credited for stimulating the development of the modern piano itself. However, it is often forgotten that the relationship between piano and pianist was rather more symbiotic, for the instrument played its own role in shaping Liszt's virtuosity throughout his entire life and oeuvre.

The piano was the instrument of Liszt's virtuosity, but the nineteenth-century pianos Liszt performed on were very different from the modern piano used today. Liszt's long career spanned a period of rapid piano development. As a boy, he played on Viennese fortepianos, but by the time of his death, he was endorsing massive Steinway grands. During the nineteenth century, the piano continually evolved, usually in quest of greater volume and sonority but without sacrificing quickness of action. This chapter therefore explores the correlation between the development of Liszt's virtuosic and innovative pianism and the developing nineteenth-century piano.

In 1837, Liszt described his close affinity to the piano thus: “My piano is to me what a ship is to the sailor, what a steed is to the Arab, and perhaps more because even now my piano is myself, my speech, and my life. It is the intimate personal depository of everything that stirred wildly in my brain… . Its strings quivered under all my passions; its docile keys obeyed my every whim.” Despite the poetic embellishments, which could be attributed to the public nature of the statement, Liszt here described quite clearly his acute awareness of the piano's capabilities. Liszt wanted the piano to respond to his “every whim,” and to do so, he would have tailored his technique specifically to his instrument. Thus, despite infamous sensational reports of vanquished, wrecked pianos, and popular imagery that portrays Lisztian virtuosity as a Herculean feat, Liszt cannot truly be said to have composed music for performance that was impossible to conquer in live performance—at least for him. It was simply too risky for his unimpeachable reputation; he needed to appear in the best possible light.