Liszt

Europe's first modern star performer. 'Lisztomania' was Heine's word for what happened to the women in his audiences. Playing solo recitals from memory, and turning the piano sideways so the audience could see the hands — both standard now, and both his invention. He took minor orders in 1865 and was known thereafter as the Abbé Liszt.

As a composer he has been chronically underrated. He invented the symphonic poem, in which one theme is transformed across an entire work; Wagner's leitmotif technique comes directly out of it. The late piano miniatures — Nuages gris, Unstern — leave tonality almost suspended, thirty years before Debussy. He was also one of the most generous teachers in history and never charged a fee.