Hungarian-born pianist-composer of prodigious talent, perhaps the greatest pianist of his day. A character of some contradictions, he was a spiritual man who titled himself Abbé, but was also a noted bon viveur. As a composer he had a huge influence on those who followed him and he was important in the development of new forms such as the Tone Poem and the device called metamorphosis in which the 'story' of a character or an idea is developed by the subtle alteration of a single representative musical idea. He was Wagner's father-in-law.
