A puzzlement came up on the Devoted to Chopin thead, "What did Liszt call himself?" Did he ever use Ferenc as he was christened? Was he always Franz? He signed all the letters I've looked at with the unhelpful "F Liszt." Even to his mother!

"It's Fliszt, young man; you don't say M. Ozart!!"
sorry, couldn't resist!

I would assume Franz since that's what everyone calls him nowadays. I believe it's a similar case with Chopin because rarely is he called Fryderyk; most people call him Frederic. Then again, I may be completely wrong. After all, most people know Mendelssohn as Felix Mendelssohn and not Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy which is actually what he preferred.

Would it not depend upon the social context? Whether he were in Hungary, Austria, Germany or elsewhere might determine the name by which he was addressed. I don't think that "...Franz, since that's what everyone calls him nowadays..." is a particularly relevant statement; who - and where - is "everyone" and what we call him today may not reflect how he was addressed during his lifetime. Do we know what he was called in his native Hungary, or elsewhere in Europe, for that matter?

Regards,

I know that in Austria and Germany he is and was called Franz Liszt because I lived in Germany for sometime and attended an event where "Franz's", not "Ferenc's", piano concerto was played and I've seen old pieces of German sheet music where the composer's name is only written as "Franz".

However, I've always thought of Liszt as an Austrian because Raiding was part of Austria-Hungary, even if it was in the "Kingdom of Hungary". Today Raiding is part of Austria. We must also consider that his mother tongue was German (his Hungarian was very shaky), Adam Liszt was of German blood, and Anna Liszt was born in Austria. I think calling him "Franz" is the most authentic.

Also, my name is Matthew but I don't plan on being called anything else according to where I go which could be anything from Matthias to Matthia or Mattheau or some other crazy form. I don't care how you're country's version of my name is, its MATTHEW. I assume Franz Liszt probably did the same thing. Besides, it'd be kind of annoying to do so anyways.