'Music is the heart of life. It speaks about love; it's impossible for anything good to exist in its absence; it makes everything beautiful.' - Franz Liszt (22^nd October, 1811-31^st July, 1886) said this about the 'job' to which he dedicated his entire life. He was not only a composer, a conductor and a teacher, but he also became famous in the beginning of the 19^th century as a virtuosic pianist.

He was the only child of Adam Liszt, a clerk, and his wife, Maria Anna. His homeplace, Raiding, was at that time part of Transleithania, which was the Hungarian bit of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (which had not formed until 1867). For this reason, his nationality became a controversed issue after the Empire has torn apart. Musicologists split his career into three main periods:

· His virtuosic career (1820-1847) which made him travel a lot. The main center was in Paris. In this period he composed mainly piano works.

· He became a court conductor in Weimar. That is when the second period begins (1847-1864) and it is considered to be the richest in compositions. In this period his career as a soloist reached its peak as well.

· The third and last period is marked by his inclinations toward religious music, and the place where he composes is in Rome.

Certainly, Franz Liszt remains one of the most important composers of the New German School. The proof consists in his opuses: 13 symphonic poems, his Transcendental Studies, the symphonic poem Les préludes, the three Piano Concertos, and the 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies, to name only a few.

Starting on 23^rd February, Franz Liszt is the Composer of the Week on Radio Romania Music. From Monday to Friday at 12:00 the creator of the Arpeggio programme, Irina Cristina Vasilescu will air Franz Liszt's opuses through performances signed by the pianists Elisabeth Leonskaja and Dinu Lipatti, the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Bernard Haitink as a conductor, and the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado.