IT stands to reason that Stephen Hough would be a big Franz Liszt fan.

One of the world's most sought-after classical pianists is also a poet, writer on theology, occasional journalist, avid blogger... oh yes, and prolific tweeter.

This is not a man for whom sitting still holds much appeal.

So there's good reason for him to hold in high regard one of the 19th century's best and busiest composers.

The Franz Liszt many people know is the early Liszt – one who essentially invented the piano recital, and who made women swoon with his playing.

There was, Stephen noted, a lot that happened after that.

"Liszt lived a long life, and in a sense many lives," he says. "He stopped playing in public when he was 35 – the period of being in front of the public in that way was very short, maybe 12 or 13 years.

"He was a towering intellectual – he wrote a lot of words, he wrote a lot of ideas."

And he was working in a time when great ideas were abounding.

"We're talking about a major moment in history," Stephen said.

And Liszt was in the middle of it all. Musically he would help open the door for artists he later championed, such as Wagner and Berlioz. Literature, technology, industry – everything was changing. When it came to the piano, Liszt was a part of that.

"Until Lizst, composers conducted their own music," Stephen said. "Lizst routinely conducted other people's music."

The modern concept of the masterclass – that was Liszt. The profile-to-the-audience piano recital? That too.

And of course, the music itself.

"He changed the way the instrument works," Stephen says. He changed what was thought of as possible.

"He was the Roger Bannister of his time.

"He was a man with many thoughts going on in his mind, many ideas.

"A lot of his time was actually spent teaching other musicians. He was just absorbed in music but he was not absorbed in himself."

Stephen Hough joins the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Marin Alsop in a programme of Liszt's Piano Concertos 1 and 2, as well as Brahms' Tragic Overture and Dvorák's Symphony No.7.

It is at 7:30pm tomorrow at the Royal Concert Hall. Stephen Hough will give a free talk at 6:30pm. Tickets are £10 to £27. Book at trch.co.uk, on 0115 989 5555 or in person at the concert hall box office.