I think it can be hard for young people today to understand what was so ground-breaking that made people go so crazy for The Beatles that their reaction was given its own word: Beatlemania.

But more than 120 years earlier the same phenomenon had been observed in concert halls around Europe when people saw Franz Liszt play a recital. Lisztomania wasn’t just a song by French band Phoenix it was also the name given to the wild behaviour of fans of Franz Liszt who would try and steal his gloves, piano strings and even locks of his hair!

I chose Lang Lang’s performance of La Campanella to highlight Liszt’s music as his playing style is flamboyant and has been said to be like Liszt, but given no audio or visual recordings of Liszt exist, how would we know for sure?

-Bill