He is also considered a Chopin expert and has an impressive collection on him. Burger published four books about Liszt (“A life chronicle in pictures and documents”, 1986 – “Franz Liszt in the photography of his time”, 2003 – “The years in Rome and Tivoli” – “Living and dying in Bayreuth”, 2011) also about Robert Schumann (“A life chronicle in pictures and documents”, 1999) and Erroll Garner (“The life and art of a brilliant pianist”, 2006) and received high awards for this (Grand prix de littérature musicale, Paris 1988 – Ordre pour le mérite culturel, Warsaw 1991 – German Music Edition Prize, 19 – Robert Schumann Prize, 1999). It is a stroke of luck for all admirers of what is perhaps the greatest piano virtuoso of all time that his collection of historical photographs is now to be seen in the immediate vicinity. The city of Bayreuth already owes a large part of the exhibits in the Liszt Museum to the Munich pianist and music writer Ernst Burger. The pianist and music writer Ernst Burger Many stays in Bayreuth were to follow, the thirteenth and last was from July 21st to 31st, 1886 At that time the Steingraeber grand piano with the number 4,328 stood in his salon next to his death room. Later he made music in the Steingraeber hall with Zichy, Stavenhagen and other student friends. Franz Liszt, who visited Bayreuth in October 1872 for the first time, also benefited from this. Since then, with the Rococo Hall (originally from 1754 and still today with the Liszt grand piano in concert use), he has had a suitable space to use as a concert and rehearsal room for the Wagner family, who moved into the neighborhood in 1872. It was a good fortune that Eduard bought Camérier von Liebhardt’s former Margravial Palais in 1871 in order to enlarge his piano manufacture. There he met Eduard Steingraeber again, whom he knew from his last major stay in Vienna in 1846: whenever he played the grand piano from the workshop of Johann Baptist Streicher, it was the budding piano builder Eduard Steingraeber – in the service of Streicher – who was responsible for the concert service.

Franz list collection