Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 1, From Paris to Rome:

F >> Franz Liszt; Letters assembled by La Mara and translated >> Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 1, From Paris to Rome:

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Madame Patersi is loud in her praises both of your talent and of
yourself,--and I thank you sincerely for having so well fulfilled
my wishes with regard to the lessons you have been so kind as to
give to Blandine and Cosima. [Liszt's daughters. Blandine (died
1872) became afterwards the wife of Emile Ollivier; Cosima is the
widow of Wagner.] Who knows? Perhaps later on these girls will do
you honor in a small way by coming out advantageously with some
new composition by their master Reinecke, to the great applause
of Papa!

Hiller shows tact and taste in making sure of you as a coadjutor
at the Rhenish Conservatorium, which seems to be taking a turn
not to be leaky everywhere. Cologne has much good,
notwithstanding its objectionable nooks. Until now the musical
ground there has been choked up rather than truly cultivated!
People are somewhat coarse and stupidly vain there; I know not
what stir of bales, current calculations, and cargoes incessantly
comes across the things of Art. It would be unjust, however, not
to recognize. the vital energy, the wealth of vigor, the
praiseworthy activity of this country, in which a group of
intelligent men, nobly devoted to their task, may bring about
fine results, more easily than elsewhere.

At any rate I approve of what you have done, and compliment you
on having accepted Hiller's offer, [Namely, a position as
Professor at the Conservatorium of Cologne, which Reinecke
occupied from 1851 to 1854.] and shall have pleasure in sending
to your new address some of my latest publications, which will
appear towards the end of May (amongst others a new edition,
completely altered and well corrected, I hope, of my twelve great
Etudes, the Concerto without orchestra dedicated to Henselt, and
the six "Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses"). I have also
written a very melancholy Polonaise, and some other trifles which
you will perhaps like to look over.

Let me hear from you soon, my dear Mr. Reinecke, and depend,
under all circumstances, on the faithful attachment of

Yours affectionately and sincerely,

F. Liszt

Eilsen, March 19th, 1851

73. To Dr. Eduard Liszt in Vienna

[An uncle of Liszt's (that is, the younger half-brother of his
father), although Liszt was accustomed to call him his cousin: a
noble and very important man, who became Solicitor-General in
Vienna, where he died February 8th, 1879. Franz Liszt clung to
him with ardor, as his dearest relation and friend, and in March,
1867, made over to him the hereditary knighthood.]

[Weimar, 1851]

Dear, excellent Eduard ,

It will be a real joy to me to take part in your joy, and I thank
you very cordially for having thought first of me as godfather to
your child. I accept that office very willingly, and make sincere
wishes that this son may be worthy of his father, and may help to
increase the honor of our name. Alas! it has been only too much
neglected and even compromised by the bulk of our relations, who
have been wanting either in noble sentiments, or in intelligence
and talent--some even in education and the first necessary
elements--to give a superior impulse to their career and to
deserve serious consideration and esteem. Thank God it is
otherwise with you, and I cannot tell you what a sweet and noble
satisfaction I derive from this. The intelligent constancy which
you have used to conquer the numerous difficulties which impeded
your way; the solid instruction you have acquired; the
distinguished talents you have developed; the healthy and wise
morality that you have ever kept in your actions and speech; your
sincere filial piety towards your mother; your attachment,
resulting from reflection and conviction, to the precepts of the
Catholic religion; these twenty years, in fine, that you have
passed and employed so honorably,--all this is worthy of the
truest praises, and gives you the fullest right to the regard and
esteem of honest and sensible people. So I am pleased to see that
you are beginning to reap the fruits of your care, and the
distinguished post to which you have just been appointed [He had
been made Assistant Public Prosecutor in 1850.] seems to justify
the hopes that you confided to me formerly, and which I treated,
probably wrongly, as so much naive ambition. At the point at
which you have arrived it would be entirely out of place for me
to poke advice and counsel out of season at you. Permit me, for
the sake of the lively friendship I bear you, and the ties of
relationship which bind us together, to make this one and only
recommendation, "Remain true to yourself!" Remain true to all you
feel to be highest, noblest, most right and most pure in your
heart! Don't ever try to be or to become something (unless there
were opportune and immediate occasion for it), but work
diligently and with perseverance to be and to become more and
more some one.--Since the difficult and formidable duty has
fallen upon you of judging men, and of pronouncing on their
innocence or guilt, prove well your heart and soul, that you may
not be found guilty yourself at the tribunal of the Supreme
Judge,--and under grave and decisive circumstances learn not to
give ear to any one but your conscience and your God!--

Austria has shown lately a remarkable activity, and a military
and diplomatic energy the service of which we cannot deny for the
re-establishment of her credit and political position. Certainly
by the prevision of a great number of exclusive Austrians--a
prevision which, moreover, I have never shared--it is probable
that the Russian alliance will have been a stroke of diplomatic
genius very favorable to the Vienna Cabinet, and that, in
consequence of this close alliance, the monarchical status quo
will be consolidated in Europe, notwithstanding all the
democratic ferments and dissolving elements which are evidently,
whatever people may say, at their period of ebb. I do not
precisely believe in a state of tranquility and indefinite peace,
but simply in a certain amount of order in the midst of disorder
for a round dozen of years, the main spring of this order being
naturally at Petersburg. From the day in which a Russian
battalion had crossed the Austrian frontier my opinion was fixed,
and when my friend Mr. de Ziegesar came and told me the news I
immediately said to him, "Germany will become Russian, and for
the great majority of Germans there is no sort of hesitation as
to the only side it remains to them to take."

The Princess having very obligingly taken the trouble to tell you
my wishes with regard to my money matters, I need not trouble you
further with them, and confine myself to thanking you very
sincerely for your exactness, and for the discerning integrity
with which you watch over the sums confided to your care. May
events grant that they may prosper, and that they may not become
indispensable to us very soon.--

Before the end of the winter I will send you a parcel of music
(of my publications), which will be a distraction for your
leisure hours. I endeavour to work the utmost and the best that I
can, though sometimes a sort of despairing fear comes over me at
the thought of the task I should like to fulfill, for which at
least ten years more of perfect health of body and mind will be
necessary to me.

Give my tender respects to Madame Liszt; you two form henceforth
my father's entire family; and believe in the lively and
unalterable friendship of

Your truly devoted,

F. Liszt

74. To Count Casimir Esterhazy

[Autograph (without address) in the possession of Herr Albert
Cohn, bookseller in Berlin.--The addressee was presumably Count
Esterhazy, whose guest Liszt was in Presburg in 1840.]

Let me thank you very sincerely for your kind remembrance, dear
friend, and let me also tell you how much I regret that my
journey to Hohlstein cannot come to pass during your short stay
there. But as by chance you already find yourself in Germany,
will you not push on some fine day as far as Weymar?--I should
have very great pleasure in seeing you there and in receiving
you--not in the manorial manner in which you received me at
Presburg, but very cordially and modestly as a conductor, kept by
I know not what strange chance of fate at a respectful distance
from storms and shipwrecks!--

For three weeks past a very sad circumstance has obliged me to
keep at Eilsen, where I had already passed some months of last
winter. The reigning Prince is, as you have perhaps forgotten,
the present proprietor of one of your estates,--the Prince of
Schaumburg-Lippe. If by chance you are owing him a debt of
politeness, the opportunity of putting yourself straight would be
capital for me. Nevertheless I dare not count too much on the
attractions of the grandeur and charms of Buckeburg! and I must
doubtless resign myself to saying a longer farewell to you.

Let me know by Lowy of Vienna where I shall address to you some
pieces in print which you can look over at any leisure hour, and
which I shall be delighted to offer you. I will add to them later
the complete collection of my "Hungarian Rhapsodies," which will
now form a volume of nearly two hundred pages, of which I shall
prepare a second edition next winter. Hearty and affectionate
remembrances from

Yours ever,

F. Liszt

Eilsen, June 6th, 1851

75. To Theodor Uhlig, Chamber Musician in Dresden

[Autograph in the possession of Herr Hermann Scholtz, Chamber
virtuoso in Dresden.--The addressee, who was an intimate friend
of Wagner's (see "Wagner's Letters to Uhlig, Fischer, Heine"--
London: H. Grevel & Co., 1890), gained for himself a lasting name
by his pianoforte score of Lohengrin. He died January, 1853.]

The perusal of your most kind and judicious article in Brendel's
Musical Gazette on the "Goethe Foundation" [By Liszt, 1850. See
"Gesammelte Schriften," vol. v.] confirms me in the belief that I
could not fail to be understood by you in full intelligence of
the cause. Allow me then, my dear Mr. Uhlig, to thank you very
cordially for this new proof of your obligingness and of your
sympathy--in French, as this language becomes more and more
familiar and easy to me, whereas I am obliged to make an effort
to patch up more or less unskillfully my very halting German
syntax.

The very lucid explanation that you have made of my pamphlet, as
well as the lines with which you have prefaced and followed it,
have given me a real satisfaction, and one which I did not expect
to receive through that paper, which, if I am not mistaken, had
hitherto shown itself somewhat hostile to me personally, and to
the ideas which they do me the small honor to imagine I possess.
This impression has been still further increased in me by reading
Mr. Brendel's following article on R. Wagner, which seems to me a
rather arranged transition between the former point of view of
the Leipzig school or pupils and the real point of view of
things. The quotation Brendel makes of Stahr's article on the
fifth performance of "Lohengrin" at Weymar, evidently indicates a
conversion more thought than expressed on the part of the former,
and at the performance of "Siegfried" I am persuaded that Leipzig
will not be at all behindhand, as at "Lohengrin."

I do not know whether Mr. Wolf (the designer) has had the
pleasure of meeting you yet at Dresden; I had commissioned him to
make my excuses to you for the delay in sending the manuscript of
Wiland. Unfortunately it is impossible for me to think of
returning to Weymar before the end of July, and the manuscript is
locked up among other papers which I could not put into strange
hands. Believe me that I am really vexed at these delays, the
cause of which is so sad for me.

If by chance you should repass by Cologne and Minden, it would be
very nice if you could stay a day at Buckeburg (Eilsen), where I
am obliged to stay till the 15th of July. I have not much
pleasure to offer you, but in return we can talk there at our
ease of the St. Graal...

My pamphlet "Lohengrin and Tannhauser" will appear in French at
Brockhaus' towards the end of July. It will have at least the
same circulation as the "Goethe Foundation," and I will send you
by right one of the first copies.

Kind regards to Wagner, about whom I have written a great deal
lately without writing to him; and believe me yours very
sincerely,

F. Liszt

Eilsen (Buckeburg), June 25th, 1851.

76. To Rosalie Spohr in Brunswick

[niece of Louis Spohr, and an incomparable harpist,--"The most
ideal representative of her beautiful instrument," according to
Bulow; after her marriage with Count Sauerma she retired from
public life and now lives in Berlin.]

After your amiable authorization to do so, Mademoiselle, I have
had your concert announced at Eilsen for Tuesday next, July 8th,
and you may rest assured that the best society of Buckeburg and
of the Badegaste [visitors who go for the baths] will be present.

The price of the tickets has been fixed for 1 florin, which is
the maximum customary in this country. With regard to the
programme, I await your reply, in which I shall be glad if you
will tell me the four or five pieces you will choose, amongst
which will be, I hope, Parish Alvars' Fantaisie on motives from
"Oberon" and the "Danse des Fees."

A distinguished amateur, Monsieur Lindemann of Hanover, has
promised me to play one or two violoncello solos, and the rest of
the programme will be easily made.

As to your route, you had better take the Schnellzug [express]
next Monday, which starts about 11 in the morning from Brunswick,
and brings you to Buckeburg in less than three hours. From here
it will only take you thirty-five minutes to get to Eilsen. The
most simple plan for you would be not to write to me beforehand
even, but to improvise your programme according to your fancy
here. Only let me beg you not to arrive later than Monday
evening, so that the public may be free from anxiety, and to set
my responsibility perfectly at rest in a corner of your harp-
case.

May I beg you, Mademoiselle, to remember me affectionately to
your father? and be assured of the pleasure it will be to see
you, hear you, and admire you anew, to your sincere and devoted
servant,

F. Liszt

Eilsen, July 3rd, 1851

I beg you once more not to be later than next Monday, July 7th,
in coming to Eilsen.

77. To Rosalie Spohr

I am deeply sensible of your charming lines, Mademoiselle, the
impression of which is the completion for me of the harmonious
vibrations of your beautiful talent,--vibrations which are still
resounding in the woods and in your auditors at Eilsen. While
expressing to you my sincere thanks I should reproach myself were
I to forget the piquant and substantial present that your father
has sent me, and I beg you to tell him that we have done all
honor to the savory product of Brunswick industry. The Buckeburg
industry having a certain reputation in petto in the matter of
chocolate, the Princess, who sends her best regards to you and
your family, wishes me to send you a sample, which you will
receive by tomorrow's post. The chocolate, in its quality of a
sedative tonic, will, moreover, not come amiss in the intervals
of your study.

May I beg you, Mademoiselle, to give my affectionate compliments
to your parents as well as to the clever drawing-historiographer
[The younger sister of the addressee, Ida Spohr, at that time
sixteen years old, who was a most gifted creature, both in
poetry, painting, and music. She died young, at the age of
twenty-four] whom you know? and receive once more the best wishes
of yours most truly,

F. Liszt

Eilsen, July 22nd, 1851

78. To Breitkopf and Hartel

Allow me, my dear Mr. Hartel, to make known to you, as a kind of
curiosity, a very long piece I composed last winter on the
chorale "Ad Nos" from the "Prophete." If by chance you should
think well to publish this long Prelude, followed by an equally
long Fugue, I could not be otherwise than much obliged to you;
and I shall take advantage of the circumstance to acquit myself,
in all reverence and friendship, of a dedication to Meyerbeer,
which it has long been my intention to do; and it was only for
want of finding among my works something which would suit him in
some respect, that I have been obliged to defer it till now. I
should be delighted therefore if you would help me to fill up
this gap in the recognition I owe to Meyerbeer; but I dare not
press you too much for fear you may think that my Fugue has more
advantage in remaining unknown to the public in so far that it is
in manuscript, than if it had to submit to the same fate after
having been published by your care.

In accordance with your obliging promise, I waited from week to
week for the preface that Mr. Wagner has added to his three opera
poems. I should be glad to know how soon you expect to bring them
out, and beg you to be so good as to send me immediately three
copies.

Believe me, my dear Mr. Hartel,

Yours affectionately and most truly,

F. Liszt

Weymar, December 1st, 1851

P.S.--Would it perhaps do to bring out my Fugue on the "Prophete"
as No. 4 of my "Illustrations du Prophete"? That was at least my
first intention. [It was published in that form by Breitkopf and
Hartel.] In the same parcel you will find the piano score of the
"Prophete," which I am very much obliged to you for having lent
me.

79. To Louis Kohler in Konigsberg

[An important piano teacher and writer on music, and composer of
valuable instructive works (1820-86).]

Dear Sir,

The friendly kindness with which you have spoken of a couple of
my latest compositions lays me under an obligation of warm
thanks, which I must no longer delay having the pleasure of
expressing to you. I should be very glad if you find anything
that suits you in my next impending piano publication (the new,
entirely revised edition of my Studies, the "Harmonies Poetiques
et Religieuses," and the two years of "Annees de Pelerinage,
Suite de Compositions," etc.). In any case I shall venture to
send this work, with the request that you will accept it as a
token of my gratitude for the favorable opinion which you
entertain of my artistic efforts.

At this moment I have to compliment you also very much on your
arrangement of the Hungarian "Volkslieder" [Folk Songs]. For
several years past I have been occupied with a similar work, and
next winter I think of publishing the result of my national
studies in a pretty big volume of "Hungarian Rhapsodies." Your
transcriptions have interested me much through the correct
perception of the melodies, and their elegant though simple
style.

Senff [The well-known Leipzig music publisher.] showed me also in
manuscript a book of Russian melodies, that seemed to me most
successful. When will it come out?

If by any chance you have a spare copy of your new work, the
exact title of which I do not remember, but it is somewhat as
follows, "Opern am Clavier" [Operas at the Piano] or "Opern fur
Clavierspieler" [Operas for Pianoforte Players] (or, in French,
"Repertoire d'Opera pour les Pianistes"), I should be much
obliged if you would let me have one.

Accept, dear sir, my best respects, and believe me

Yours truly,

F. Liszt

Weymar, April 16th, 1852

80. To Carl Reinecke

My dear Mr. Reinecke,

A very good friend of mine, Professor Weyden of Cologne, who has
just been spending a few days with me here, kindly promises to
give you these few lines and to tell you what pleasure your
present of the "Variations on a Theme of Bach" has given me. It
is a very eminent work, and perfectly successful in its actual
form. While complimenting you sincerely upon it, I must also add
my thanks that you have joined my name to it.

I should have liked to be able to send you some of my new works
for piano, of which I spoke to you before; but, as I have been
altering them and touching them up, the publication of them has
been delayed; nevertheless, I expect that in the course of this
summer the twelve "Grandes Etudes" (definitive edition) and the
"Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses" will successively appear,
and in December or January next the "Annees de Pelerinage, Suite
de Compositions pour le Piano," and the complete collection of my
"Hungarian Rhapsodies." Meanwhile, let me offer you the "Concert
Solo" and the two Polonaises which were written at Eilsen shortly
after your visit to me there.

Joachim starts tomorrow for London, and I have commissioned him
to persuade you to come and see me at Weymar on his return. I
have been much attached to him this winter, and I hold his talent
as well as himself in high esteem and true sympathy.--

Try not to delay too long the pleasure I should have in hearing
your trio; I shall be delighted to make the acquaintance of
Madame Reinecke, and would not wish to be among the last to
congratulate you on your happiness.

In cordial friendship, yours ever,

F. Liszt

Weymar, April 16th, 1852

81. To Carl Czerny

[Autograph in the archives of the Musik-Verein in Vienna.]

My dearest and most honored Master and Friend,

A melancholy event which has thrown our Court into deep mourning-
-the sudden death of the Duchess Bernard of Saxe-Weimar--has not
allowed of my presenting your letter to Her Imperial Highness the
Grand Duchess until a day or two ago. She has been pleased to
receive your letter and your intentions with marked kindness, the
expression of which you will find in the accompanying letter
which she charged Baron de Vitzthum to write you in her name.

May I beg you then to advise Mr. Schott to send me immediately on
the publication of your "Gradus ad Parnassum" a dedication copy,
which I will get suitably bound in velvet here, and which I will
immediately remit to H.I.H.--As regards the form of dedication, I
advise you to choose the most simple:--

Gradus ad Parnassum, etc.,

Compose et tres respectueusement dedie a Son Altesse Imperiale et
Royale Madame la Grande Duchesse de Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Marie
Paulowna, par Ch. Czerny.

[Composed and most respectfully dedicated to Her Royal and
Imperial Highness Marie Paulowna, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-
Eisenach by Ch. Czerny.]

Or if the title be in German:--

Componirt und I. kais. kon. Hoheit der Frau Grossherzogin zu
Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach Marie Paulowna, in tiefster Ehrfurcht
gewidmet, von C. Cz.

What you tell me of the prodigious activity of your Muse obliges
me to make a somewhat shameful acknowledgment of my relative
slowness and idleness. The pupil is far from the master in this
as in other points. Nevertheless I think I have made a better use
of the last three years than of the preceding ones; for one thing
I have gone through a rather severe work of revision, and have
remodeled entirely several of my old works (amongst others the
Studies which are dedicated to you, and of which I will send you
a copy of the definitive edition in a few weeks, and the "Album
d'un Voyageur," which will reappear very considerably corrected,
increased, and transformed under the title of "Annees de
Pelerinage, Suite de Compositions pour le Piano-Suisse et
Italie"): for another thing I have been continuing writing in
proportion as ideas came to me, and I fancy I have arrived at
last at that point where the style is adequate to the thought.
Unfortunately my outside occupations absorb much of my time. The
orchestra and opera of Weymar were greatly in need of reform and
of stirring up. The remarkable and extraordinary works to which
our theater owes its new renown--"Tannhauser," "Lohengrin,"
"Benvenuto Cellini"--required numerous rehearsals, which I could
not give into the hands of anybody else. The day before yesterday
a very pretty work, in an elegant and simple melodic style, was
given for the first time--"Der lustige Rath," [The Merry
Councillor (or counsel)] by Mr. de Vesque, which met with
complete success. Carl Haslinger, who had arrived for the first
performance of "Cellini," was also present at this, and can tell
you about it. In the interval between these two works, on Sunday
last, he had his Cantata-Symphony "Napoleon" performed, and
conducted it himself (as a rather severe indisposition has
obliged me to keep my room for several days).

In the course of the month of June my mother, who proposes to pay
a visit to her sister at Gratz, will have the privilege of going
to see you, dear master, and of renewing to you, in my name and
her own, our expressions of sincere gratitude to you for the
numerous kindnesses you have shown me. Believe me that the
remembrance of them is as lively as it is constant in my heart.

I owe you still further thanks for the trouble you have taken to
make Mr. de Hardegg study Schubert's Fantasia, scored by me, and
I beg you to give him my best compliments. It is perhaps to be
regretted that this work, which contains many fine details,
should have been played for the first time in the Salle de
Redoute, so "redoutable" and ungrateful a room for the piano in
general; in a less vast space, such as the salle of the Musik-
Verein, the virtuoso and the work would assuredly have been heard
more to advantage, and if I did not fear to appear indiscreet I
should ask Mr. de Hardegg to play it a second time, in a concert
room of moderate size.

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