Liszt owned several pianos during his lifetime, but Erard pianos like the one on view at the Metropolitan Museum provided him with instruments capable of the great expressivity for which he was known.

Franz Liszt was the greatest piano virtuoso of his time. He was the first to give complete solo recitals as a pianist. He was a composer of enormous originality, extending harmonic language and anticipating the atonal music of the 20th century. He invented the symphonic poem for orchestra.