On 7 March 2003 an international exhibition will be opened at the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum, which was organized in co-operation with the Beethoven-Haus, Bonn and the Stiftung Weimarer Klassik und Kunstsammlungen, Goethe & Schiller Archives, Weimar. Franz Liszt had a very special relationship to Beethoven, whom he regarded as his ideal as an artist, from his early childhood to his death. In the preface to the piano scores made by Liszt from the German master’s symphonies he wrote: "The name Beethoven is sacred in music". The collaboration of the three institutions made it possible to present the topic "Liszt and Beethoven" from many aspects and in a particularly lavishing way.

A great number of original documents (pictures, tokens, manuscript and printed scores, programmes, reviews, diplomas etc.) show Liszt as a pianist, conductor and composer, the incomparable interpreter of Beethoven's music, as a transcriber, adaptor, editor and teacher of his works, the continuer of his musical initiatives, the most efficient fosterer of the realization of the Beethoven monuments in Bonn and Vienna, the author of cantatas glorifying Beethoven.

Some curiosities of the exhibition: Beethoven's death mask, a lock of hair and a piano from Liszt's estate; an early autograph of the "Kreutzer" sonata (played by Liszt with many famous violinists on numerous occasions); the transcriptions of several Beethoven symphonies, among them the 9th symphony in Liszt's autograph and in print; the autograph of Beethoven's Sonata in A flat, op. 110 and Liszt's edition of the same work; Beethoven’s and Liszt’s sketches of Lieder to identical words by Goethe; original caricatures of Liszt playing in a concert; his study in Weimar with Beethoven's portrait on the wall; keepsakes received for his wonderful rendering of Beethoven's works.

An exhibition catalogue in German and in Hungarian containing detailed descriptions and many illustrations is also available. The exhibition will be open until 31 May 2003.