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 Lisztomania Lisztomania or Liszt fever was the intense fan frenzy directed toward Hungarian composer Franz Liszt during his performances. This frenzy first occurred in Berlin in 1841 and the term was later coined by Heinrich Heine in a feuilleton he wrote on April 25, 1844, discussing the 1844 Parisian concert season. Lisztomania was characterized by intense levels of hysteria demonstrated by fans, akin to the treatment of celebrity musicians today – but in a time not known for such musical excitement. Franz Liszt began receiving piano lessons at the age of seven from his father Adam Liszt, a talented musician