The symphonic poems of the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt are a series of 13 orchestral works, numbered S.95–107. The first 12 were composed between 1848 and 1858 ; the last, Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe, followed in 1882. These works helped establish the genre of orchestral program music—compositions written to illustrate an extra-musical plan derived from a play, poem, painting or work of nature. They inspired the symphonic poems of Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, Richard Strauss and others.
Franz Liszt, after a painting of 1856 by Wilhelm von Kaulbach.
Goethe and Schiller in front of the Deutsches Nationaltheater and Staatskapelle Weimar, where many of Liszt's symphonic poems premiered.
The Altenburg, Liszt's residence in Weimar (1848–1861), where he wrote the first 12 of his symphonic poems.
According to musicologist Norman Demuth and others, César Franck wrote the first symphonic poem.
Franz Liszt was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most prolific and influential composers of his era, and his piano works continue to be widely performed and recorded.
Liszt in 1858
Liszt in 1826 by Jean Vignaud [fr]
Niccolò Paganini (1828)
Marie d'Agoult (1843)