The Music Lovers The Music Lovers The Music Lovers is a 1971 British drama film directed by Ken Russell. The screenplay by Melvyn Bragg, based on "Beloved Friend", a collection of personal correspondence edited by Catherine Drinker Bowen and Barbara von Meck, focuses on the life and career of 19th-century Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It was one of the director's biographical films about classical composers, which include "Elgar" (1962), "Delius: Song of Summer" (1968), "Mahler" (1974) and "Lisztomania" (1975), made from an often idiosyncratic standpoint. Much of the film is without dialogue and the story is presented in flashbacks, nightmares, and fantasy
Lisztomania this period, the first reports of intense responses from Liszt's fans appeared, which became referred to as Lisztomania. Liszt arrived in Berlin around Christmas 1841 and word of his arrival soon spread. That night, a group of thirty students serenaded him with a performance of his song "Rheinweinlied". He later played his first recital in Berlin on December 27, 1841, at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin to an enthusiastic crowd. This performance would later be marked as the beginning of Lisztomania, which would sweep generally across all of Europe after 1842. Lisztomania was characterized by a hysterical reaction to Liszt and