The man was a star. And he was a believer, writing not only piano music but also great sacred works. Franz Liszt usually went on tour with several grand pianos and a large crucifix in his carriage. He was the first international pianist ever. Women loved him. He came from Hungary, was a cosmopolitan, an educated citizen and donated part of his income to good causes...

Sometimes he felt like a trained poodle. "Stylistically speaking, Liszt was a chameleon," says Prof Dr Wolfram Huschke, Liszt expert and former rector of the Franz Liszt School of Music in Weimar. And in an almost postmodern way: "The man constantly reshaped his own works." A personality ahead of his time?

The piano musician and composer Franz Liszt arrived in Weimar in 1848. Here, on the Ilm, people were urgently looking for a worthy replacement for Schiller and Goethe and found him in Liszt. There he was, cultural input in a class of its own. The people of Weimar were happy. And so was Liszt. He enjoyed the tranquillity of the small town, the recognition, the steadiness of his new existence - and created the majority of his works in Thuringia.

Incidentally, the piano world back then looked very different to ours. Do you know any piano maker other than Steinway? Exactly. Back then there were Èrards, Boisselots, Broadwood & Sons. Each manufacturer produced instruments with an unmistakable sound. The music of the Hungarian Franz Liszt changed with the development of piano-making technology. From a mobile phone bone with an aerial to an iPhone within a few years - Franz Liszt must have experienced something similar in the 19th century.