Liszt was influenced by Hungarian gypsies. He was hailed as the "Paganini of the Piano". He was a brilliant improviser determined to make literature into music. He saw virtuosity as an opportunity to be an orator on behalf of human emotion. He wrote Grande Etudes de Paganini, a piano version of Paganini's caprices. He condemmed paganini's ego, despite his own following known as "lizstomania".
