Richard Wagner, the contemporary composer whom Liszt admired above all others (despite the sometimes serious difficulties in their personal relationship), died on February 13, 1883, in Venice. The great composer's death deeply affected Liszt, and in that year he composed the lugubrious piece R.W. – Venezia which unlike most of Liszt's works with foreboding, pensive beginnings does not proceed toward triumph, and makes no attempt to do so. The music simply stops, on a C sharp played pp, and we are left to ponder where we have been.

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