It was my good fortune at different times, in Vienna and Rome, to hear him [Franz Liszt] play a few of the great masterpieces of Beethoven, as well as a good many of his own original compositions and inimitable "transcriptions"; moreover, he extemporised twice in my presence — the first time at great length upon Schubert's exquisite Serenade (Staendchen), and the second, more briefly, but with surprising elaboration, upon "Batti, batti." I have therefore been able to appreciate his various qualities as a performer in their three principal developments ; and in all three I found him not only unrivalled, but unapproachable. His interpretation of Beethoven, whilst distinguished from that of almost every other great contemporary pianist by a devout fidelity to the tempi and worded or marked instructions of the composer, was at once dignified, romantic, and passionate. All the secretsof the great master's conceptions were revealed and explained by Liszt's magic touch.