Needless to say, the first performer of the Sonata was Liszt himself, who played it frequently to students and friends soon after its completion on the new Erard grand that had been recently sent as a gift from Paris. A public performance by the composer was out of the question after his much publicised renunciation of his virtuoso career. Although this renunciation was far from complete – he continued to perform for charity, and in 1855 even gave the première of his E Concerto with Berlioz conducting – the Sonata's main hope of public performance lay in the hands of Liszt's pupils, several of whom took an interest in the work. This phalanx of pupils included Hans von Bülow, Karl Klindworth, William Mason, Dionys Pruckner, Hans von Bronsart, Peter Cornelius and Joachim Raff, soon to be joined by Carl Tausig and Julius Reubke. Of these, Bülow and Tausig were among the finest pianists of the century, while the keyboard talents of Bronsart, Klindworth and Mason were certainly equal to the difficulties of Liszt's larger works. (Bronsart gave the first performance of Liszt's Second Concerto a few years later.) In the early 1850s the Weimar Liszt students had formed themselves into a group they described as the ‘Society of Murls’, with Liszt as the ‘Padischa’ (President). This was analogous to Schumann's fictional ‘Davidsbund’ (League of David), a group dedicated to fighting for new music against reactionary or ‘philistine’ forces. The reasons for their choice of title are involved and amusing only for those directly concerned, in common with most ‘in-jokes’.