Franz Liszt was the first rock star. Women fainted at his concerts, fought over his cigar butts, and wore his portrait in brooches. He was the greatest pianist who ever lived, and he invented the solo recital, the concept of playing from memory, and the practice of turning the piano sideways so the audience could see his profile. Then, at the height of his fame, he took minor holy orders and spent his final decades as an Abbe, composing austere religious music that anticipated the avant-garde.

This episode traces Liszt from his Hungarian prodigy childhood through the years of “Lisztomania,” the Weimar period that championed Wagner, and the religious conversion that turned the world’s most famous performer into a monk.

• The child prodigy years and the virtuoso career that invented the modern piano recital
• “Lisztomania” — the hysterical fan culture that anticipated Beatlemania by a century
• The Weimar years championing Wagner and the symphonic poems that expanded orchestral music
• The religious conversion, the late experimental compositions, and the monk who had been a rock star