In writing about Liszt as a composer, the constant invasion of his piano scores by long passages of challenging and conspicuous technical difficulty is rarely treated seriously. Nevertheless, these spectacular passages were one of the reasons that his invention of the piano recital became such a success. No one before Liszt played an entire public concert on the piano.
The Super Power of Franz Liszt by Charles Rosen | The New York Review of Books. File in: things I don’t recall reading in my music history textbook. (with my emphasis)
Source: nybooks.com
