Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 2: From Rome to the End

F >> Franz Liszt; letters collected by La Mara and translated >> Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 2: From Rome to the End

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What excellent and beautiful things the two Hans are going to do
at Hanover! [Hans von Bulow had been appointed Hofcapellmeister
in Hanover, where Hans von Bronsart was Intendant of the
theater.] It is a matter of lively joy to me, and next summer I
hope that my ears will benefit by the new musical regime all in
honor of Art, and the example of which will be of service and
bear fruit far and wide.

Last week I forwarded from the author to your address a copy of
Sgambati's Quintet, dedicated to Bulow; and also a Fugue
(preceded by a grand Prelude and ending in a Chorale--the same
which Guido d'Arezzo made use of to name the six notes of the
gamut: "Ut queant taxis resonare fibris, etc.!"...One of the two
Hans will tell you the rest of the hymn, which is always chanted
on the 24th June, the feast of St. John the Baptist).

Once on a time you used to cultivate fugues with maestria: will
that of Sgambati seem to you classical enough? I almost doubt it,
since in these matters your strictness is extreme. In consequence
of H.M. the Queen of the Netherlands being in mourning, the
"auditions" at the chateau of Loo do not take place this year. I
shall therefore go straight from here to Pest.

Please give my love to your children, and believe me to be for
all time the heartily devoted friend of their papa and mamma.

F. Liszt

(Villa d'Este,) October 2lst, 1877

217. To Eduard von Liszt

Dearest Eduard,

.--. I am told that one or two newspapers announce that I am
going to Paris. I have no thought of doing so, and am moreover
very weary of travelling. What I should prefer would be to remain
firmly fixed in one place, it matters not what, village or city,
till my end, and to go on as quietly as possible with my work. As
this is not permitted to me, I try at least to avoid unnecessary
perambulations, do not go (in spite of various invitations) to
Paris or London, and keep within that already far too extensive
and troublesome triangle, Pest, Weimar, Rome!--So I shall again
spend the next four months here, and then, at the beginning of
April, pay you a week's visit.

Write and tell me where my dear cousin Marie is. [She had shortly
before married Baron von Saar, an officer.] Is her husband
established in Wiener-Neustadt, and in what capacity?

How are our Franz in Graz and his wife?

Heartiest greetings to the Frau Generalissimus-Procuratorin
[Eduard v. L. had in December 1875 become General Procurator.
Liszt called his wife in joke "Generalissima" or "Generalin."]
from your heartily and faithfully affectionate

F. Liszt

Budapest (Fischplat 4), November 23rd, 1877

All friendly greetings to Bosendorfer.

218. To Jules de Zarembski

[A highly gifted pupil of Liszt, born in 1854 in Russian Poland,
died in 1885 at Brussels, where he was Professor in the
Conservatoire.]

Dear Friend,

Thinking that you would spend some weeks at Berlin, I sent the
day before yesterday a letter for you to our friend Bosendorfer,
begging him to have it punctually delivered to you. This letter
enclosed another, which you will remit to Paris to Madame la
Comtesse Taida Rczewazska. She promised me lately at Rome to take
an interest in your success at Paris, and I assured her that your
talent and intellectual gifts would not make her patronage
irksome. Therefore be careful not to give me the lie, and to show
yourself of an amiable disposition at Countess Rczewazska's.

I forgot to ask her where she lives in Paris; but you will find
out without difficulty from some compatriot, or from other people
of the world, which is society. Enclosed are a few lines of
introduction to the illustrious, indefatigable and unageing
publicist, Emile de Girardin. They say of him in joke that he has
an idea every day. If he were to reach the age of Methuselah
ideas would certainly never fail him.

At one time there used to be music in his salon; he understands
it quite as well as the late M. Thiers or the Marechal MacMahon.
However, if M. de Girardin invites you, play there, as I did when
I was last in Paris (in the year '66).--

An excellent recipe against unjust criticisms (of the kind like
that of M. X. which you quote to me) is to criticise oneself
thoroughly before and after--and finally to remain perfectly calm
and follow one's own road!

Cordially yours,

F. Liszt

Budapest, December 13th, 1877

An enthusiastic account of your success at Vienna was given me by
Mme. Tony Raal, who yesterday evening played Tausig's
"Zigeunerweisen" admirably at a concert of M. de Swert. [A
Belgian violoncellist, recently deceased]

219. To Madame Jessie Laussot

Dear and most excellent Friend,

Your "intrigues" are noble, salutary, beneficent, and would win
every advantage in the broad light of day. To take my part in
them, at your command, is one of my most agreeable duties.

[Mme. Laussot was trying to obtain the nomination of Antonio
Bazzini, the excellent violinist and composer (born 1818), as
director of the Conservatoire at Milan, and begged Liszt to
support this choice through the German ambassador Baron Keudell
in Rome, which he did. Bazzini however did not at that time
receive the office, which he at present holds.]

I sent my letter direct to Rome to Baron de Keudell
yesterday..--. Bazzini deserves the post of director of the
Conservatoire at Milan, which ought to be offered to him at the
first onset.

Your most heartily devoted

F. Liszt

Budapest, January 29th, 1878

Our friend Mihalovich will give you news of Budapest. As
elsewhere, I am absorbed here in the most difficult of tasks--to
put up with myself. Happily I receive plenty of help; noble
friendships and dear and beautiful memories light up the path
which I still have to follow before I reach the grave.

220. To Madame Jessie Laussot

Dear and Excellent Friend,

Under present circumstances (indicated in your note of this
evening) I doubt whether your just and noble efforts will attain
their end. [Refers to the as yet unsuccessful candidature of
Bazzini for the directorship of the Milan Conservatoire. See the
preceding letter.]

Without pretending to Catonism, it is a good thing to attach
oneself to good causes, whether favored by the gods or not.

"Victrix causa diis placuit."...So, if you are vanquished on the
battle-field between the Cathedral and the Conservatoire of
Milan, I shall remain on your side, in spite of my reasonable
leaning towards Caesar, and the lawful inheritors of his
idea,...not towards the others, please, because that would drag
me too low and roll me in the mire.

From my heart your old servant and friend,

F. Liszt

Budapest, February 3rd, 1878

221. To the Music Publisher B. Bessel

Dear Sir,

You have been unusually parsimonious in only sending me a single
copy of the Ballade of Count Tolstoy. ["The Blind Bard." Liszt
wrote the melodramatic piano accompaniment to it (1874).] Allow
me then to make use of this copy to indicate the version which I
think should be put into the arrangement for piano (alone without
declamation). I add, the necessary notes and alterations, for you
to publish or not, as you think best, the version subjoined. I
have no claim to the sale of my wares, and am only manufacturing
them...for the honor of Castile!--Count Tolstoy understood this
sentiment; he only has to make a bargain: that is why I have sung
with Tolstoy his Ballade of the "Blind Bard," hoping too for
"peace" at last "for all noble boyars." [Slavonic noblemen.] You
sent me some other publications of your house: "six morceaux pour
piano" by Liadoff; they are pleasantly refined; and the "Russian
national songs edited by N. Rimsky-Korsakoff," for whom I feel
high esteem and sympathy. To speak frankly, Russian national
music could not be more felt or better understood than by Rimsky-
Korsakoff. His notation of the "popular songs" is most
intelligent and most musical; and the accompaniment and harmonies
seem to me admirably adequate. If you publish the version for
piano of "Tolstoy's Ballades" I beg you to send me the proofs
beforehand.

A thousand affectionate compliments.

F. Liszt

Budapest, March 11th, 1878

Please send me in any case half a dozen copies of the "Ballade,"
already printed, to Weimar, where I remain from mid-April till
the end of July.

222. To Walter Bache

Very honored and dear Friend,

I have always to be thanking you; it is from my heart, and will
ever be so.

The programme of your fourteenth "Annual Concert" is again an act
of courage; particularly in London, where my compositions meet
with all manner of obstructions--almost more than elsewhere, from
the Leipzig Gewandhaus down to many greater and smaller
Gewandhausler.

It stands clearly written, a hundred times over, that I cannot
compose; without indulging in unseemly protests against this, I
quietly go on writing, and set all the greater store by the
constancy of some of my friends, particularly Walter Bache, for
the stout-* heartedness which till fourteen times fourteen he has
for so many years displayed.

In the introduction to your fourteenth Programme F. Niecks
[Friedrich Niecks, Professor of Music at the University of
Edinburgh; the writer of the excellent work "F. Chopin as Man and
Musician"], a propos of F. Liszt, said very truly:--

1. "Form is an abstract idea."

2. "A harmonic combination or progression may be against the
rules of a system," etc.

3. "Programm-music is a 'legitimate genre of the art.'" [Portion
in quotes (' ') written in English by Liszt]

Give Niecks my sincere thanks; also to Mr. Manns and
courtoisement Miss Williams [The well-known vocalist Miss Anna
Williams]. The "Funeral Pyre of Joan of Arc" will, I trust, have
done away with her coolness.

With regard to the Tempi I am very yielding in my small pieces,
and gladly allow well-disposed artists to decide this.

Sophie Menter-Popper was recently here and will probably (middle
of May) play in Sir Benedict's model monster-concert, which for
forty years has wielded the sceptre of London successes. Call on
my honored friend Sophie Menter--a rarely natural and excellently
schooled musical individuality. You will feel yourself quite at
home with her, and I told her this beforehand. Yours
affectionately,

F. Liszt

Budapest, March 19th, 1878

From the middle of April till the end of July I remain in Weimar;
later, at the end of August, I go again to the Villa d'Este.

223. To Professor Dr. Ludwig Nohl

Honored and dear Friend,

Of the many pictures of the remarkable group of cypresses in the
Villa d'Este your brother's [Max Nohl, painter] beautiful
poetical drawing is my favorite. For the present of this and the
inscription on it I thank you most heartily. I attempted (last
October) to put down on music paper the conversation which I
frequently hold with these same cypresses. ["Au Cypres de la
Villa d'Este" [To the Cypress of the Villa d'Este). 2 numbers.
Schott, Mainz.] Ah! how dry and unsatisfactory on the piano, and
even in the orchestra,--Beethoven and Wagner excepted--sounds the
woe and the sighing [Das Weh and Wehen] of almighty nature!--

Nevertheless I will most modestly show you this Cypress-Memento
at the piano when we next see each other--I hope in Vienna, where
I am staying during the first week of April with my dear cousin
as usual. Afterwards I go to Bayreuth and Weimar.

Sincerely yours,

F. Liszt

Budapest, March 20th, 1878

224. To Professor Dr. Siegmund Lebert

Honored Friend,

Quite excellent so. Let us divide the revision of the Cotta
edition of the 4-handed Schubert, and for your part look after
all the Sonatas, "Lebenssturme," Scherzi, etc.--If you wish it, a
few pedal marks. and fingerings shall willingly be added to the
Variations Op. 10 and 82. Send me both works to Weimar, with the
rest of Schubert's Waltzes for four hands, which show more
creative power than many big compositions--old or new.

With the few Schubert pieces send me also the scopes of the
Beethoven Concertos and their accompaniments, arranged for a
second piano by Moscheles. My arrangement I will forward you at
the beginning of August. Meanwhile I beg you to give the Freiherr
von Cotta my most grateful thanks.

Very respectfully yours,

F. Liszt

Budapest, March 27th, 1878

From the middle of April till the end of July I remain in Weimar.

225. To Edmund von Mihalovich

Very dear Friend,

I most sincerely feel with you in your grief. "Non ignara
mali"...for I too have wept at the grave of my mother.

A sad but well-written book, "Stello" ("Consultations of the
black doctor"), depicts the sufferings and death of three young
poets,--Millevoye, Andre Chenier, Chatterton,--gathered home
before they had acquired glory here below.

In these moving pages of Alfred de Vigny he asks, "What is one to
think of a world which one enters with the hope of seeing one's
father and mother die?"...Prayer alone can answer this question.
Let us then pray our heavenly Father that His Will may be done on
earth as it is in heaven, and that the work of our life may be
ever conformed to the Divine Will.

Ever yours,

F. Liszt

Bayreuth, April 13th, 1878

226. To Kornel von Abranyi

.--. What could I write to you about Wagner's "Parsifal?" The
composition of the first act is finished: in it are revealed the
most wondrous depths and the most celestial heights of Art.

Ever very sincerely yours,

F. Liszt

Bayreuth, April 14th, 1878

227. To Frau Ingeborg von Bronsart

Dear Kind Friend,

If you have not already done so, you will end by having a bad
opinion of your old and very affectionate servant. My share of
free locomotion is very limited. Having arrived at Weimar last
Wednesday I could not pack off again immediately without
inconvenience. I must therefore await a favorable week for my
Hanover wish. In May "Rheingold" is to be given here, and St.
Saens's "Dalila" again, which I wish to hear and see. Monseigneur
the Grand Duke assured me yesterday that this work made a success
at its first performances; and several people, who often hold a
contrary opinion, agree in their praises of "Dalila."

From the 13th to the 15th June (Whit week) a Tonkunstler-
Versammlung is announced at Erfurt. It will seem pale as compared
with that of Hanover of last year; but I want to be present at
it, considering my unvarying interest in the work undertaken by
the late Brendel and bravely continued by Riedel and Gille. After
having said A, and even B and C, I ought to go through the whole
alphabet.

Formerly, in the first period of your success, I had the pleasure
of applauding and admiring you at the old theater of Erfurt. Now
there is a new and very handsome one, I am told, with more than
1100 seats; besides that a new concert room which I do not know,
any more than I do the theater. I dare not invite you to favor
them with your presence, but if you should come with Hans it
would be charming.

The next time I see X. I shall come upon him to show himself an
editor rather than a shopkeeper ("Kramer") in the little
negotiation of which you speak.

A thousand sincere wishes for the finishing of "Hiarne" [The
Opera composed by Frau von Bronsart, which was given for the
first time in 1892 in Berlin with great success.] and my constant
and very devoted homage to the persevering composer.

F. Liszt

Weimar, Saturday, April 20th, 1878

228. To Eduard von Liszt

Dearest and most honored Cousin,

The accompanying copy of the Budapest telegram will tell you that
I must go to Paris probably at the end of May. I had indeed
refused several private invitations to visit the Paris
Exhibition; for years past both long and short journeys-unless
there is some special reason for them--have been inconvenient,
difficult and repugnant to me. It was on that account that I told
you and others of my having given up the collective-wonder of
Paris.

Now the telegram from Trefort and Szapary (President of the
Hungarian Exhibition in Paris) alters my negative decision.
Without ever talking twaddle about patriotism, yet in all modesty
I will not be wanting where there is something to be done for
Hungary.

[The telegram, dated 21st April, is as follows: "Abbe Franz
Liszt, Weimar. Universal wish that you should represent Hungary
in International Jury of Paris Universal Exhibition. Jury begins
on 1st June, lasts about 2 to 3 weeks. Please accept confidential
mission, and wire reply immediately to Presidential Bureau,
Handelsministerium, Budapest. Minister Trefort. Count Julius
Szapary."

To this Liszt replied: "Most ready for service, Liszt begs for
full particulars of his duties."]

As soon as my duty in Paris as an Hungarian Member in the
International Jury is fulfilled I shall return here. I have
promised to be present at the Tonkunstler-Versammlung in Erfurt
in the last week of June, and on the 8th July Weimar celebrates
the jubilee of the 25th year of the accession of the Grand Duke.

.--. I shall be much pleased to make the acquaintance of Herr
Adalbert Goldschmidt. I have several times hankered after the
score or pianoforte score of his grand work "Die Todsunden" ["The
Mortal Sins"], which, so I am told, has not yet appeared in
print. Is the composer staying long in Hanover? Probably I shall
go to see Bulow and Bronsart there immediately after the Erfurt
Tonkunstler-Versammlung, at the end of June.

You remember that I categorically dissuaded Fraulein Remmert from
giving an orchestral concert in Vienna. In spite of that she had
it announced and advertised,...and in the end there only came of
it a vexatious mancando, perdendosi!

Ah! the artist-world is full of troubles! Thy faithful and
heartfelt-devoted

F. Liszt

Weimar, April 26th, 1878

229. To Hofconcertmeister Edmund Singer

Dear Honored Friend,

Your charming, gifted illustration of my little Quelle [spring]
[Liszt's "Au bord d'une source" (Annees de Pelerinage), for three
violins concertante (Schott, Mainz)] delights me anew. The three
violins flow, splash, bubble and sing--and sound like rainbow
colors.

With friendly thanks for this Artist-gift, I remain your ever
respectfully obliged

F. Liszt

Weimar, May 10th, 1878

230. To Adolf von Henselt in St. Petersburg

[The "German Chopin," as Henselt has been called (1814-1889),
lived in St. Petersburg from the year 1838, where, after Liszt's
first visit there in 1842, they became warm friends. Henselt sent
his "interpretation" of Liszt's Lucia-Fantasia to the latter "for
correction." The above letter is in answer to that.]

My Honored Friend,

The original works of Adolf Henselt's are the noblest jewels of
Art. One longs for more of them...

By-the-by, when Henselt gives a hope of arranging,
"interpreting," "making an effect with" other compositions, he
succeeds so admirably that the public,

the pianists, and the compositions in question are thereby
enriched and favored. Even my little "Lucia"-transcription has
gained much by throe "interpretation," dear friend. Hearty thanks
for this reminiscence of our Petersburg intimacy.

The proof-copy I simply sent back to you, unaltered and nothing
crossed out, as all the various readings are admirably suitable,
and henceforth I leave it to your good pleasure to decide about
the publishing. (In Russia Hofmeister's German copyright holds
good, does it not? . . .)

Tomorrow I go to Paris, and will observe there your
recommendation of the Russian instrument.

Many of your admirers frequently tell me about you; above all
Zschocher and Topfer. You come backwards and forwards to Dresden
and Leipzig; why not also to Weimar?...Answer this modest
question in person here to throe old and most faithful

F. Liszt

Weimar, June 5th, 1878

231. To Eduard von Liszt

[Weimar, June 6th, 1878]

Dearest Eduard,

Adalbert Goldschmidt has brought you Weimar news. I consider his
"Todsunden" a remarkable Art-work. If the composer maintains
himself on these heights in his next Opera his name will become
famous in spite of all the critics...

Nowadays, more than ever, the public thirst for Opera alone.
Everything else in music is nonsense to them. There is a French
saying--"There is some one who is wittier than Mr. de Voltaire;
that is everybody"--and when all the world gets a fancy into its
head one must certainly consider it either reasonable, or
stupid,--but necessary--

With With regard to the delay of the Jury (Class 13, "Instruments
de Musique") I go to Paris next Sunday, 8th June, remain there
till the 19th, and return here on the 20th June on account of the
Erfurt Musical Festival...

Thy faithful, loving

F. Liszt

To simplify our correspondence call me also "Dearest Franz."

My Grand Duke much wishes to have the photograph of your son-in-
law's cousin, the poet Saar. Send me this speedily.

232. To Professor Carl Riedel

Dear Friend,

The further carrying out and arranging of the Erfurt programme I
lease to your long-tried and complete mastery.

I once more recommend Borodin's Symphony; the quartet parts that
are wanting can certainly be speedily written out next week (at
my expense).

The study of the numerous works will offer no difficulties in
Sondershausen; there they are accustomed to step boldly forward.

Friend Riedel conducts my 13th Psalm; Bulow undertakes the two
Faust-episodes (in case these are not struck out, as I did advise
you to do); and I retain the "Hungaria" and Bronsart's Concerto;
but for several reasons I beg that my name may not be put on the
programme as conductor.

I told Concertmeister Kompel [A pupil of Spohr's; died not long
ago at Weimar] and L. Grutzmacher [Solo violoncellist] (the
Weimarer) yesterday that Bulow wishes to play the Bronsart Trio
with them. Both gentlemen are quite agreed about this.

If Frau Erdmannsdorfer would play some other brilliant piano
piece (not of my composition), rather than the often-heard
Hungarian Fantasie, I should prefer it, just because the
programme already contains too many Liszt things, and I could not
myself bear the false appearance of making use of the
Tonkunstler-Versammlungen for bringing forward my compositions...

My real feeling on this matter has been known to you for years
past.--

Early on Saturday, at half-past nine, I go direct from here to
Paris--and on the 2lst June arrives in Erfurt

Yours ever with sincere esteem,

F. Liszt

Weimar, Thursday, June 7th, 1878

My Paris address (from the 10th to the 18th June) will be: Maison
Erard, Rue du Mail, 13.

Do publish the programme in the next number of the Zeitschrift;
two or three slight alterations will not matter in the least.

233. To Vera Timanoff

Dear illustrious One,

I don't know how you will manage to adapt the "Sonnambula" to
your little hands; they will have to trot about on the roofs in
the style of somnambulists.

A revoir, wide awake, the day after tomorrow,--and a thousand
affectionate and devoted regards.

F. Liszt

Thursday [Summer, 1878]

234. To Eduard von Liszt

Dearest Eduard,

I have very little in the way of musical matter to tell you about
my stay in Paris from the 9th to the 18th June. I scarcely found
time to hear the two last acts of Gounod's "Faust" at the Grand
Opera. I was prevented from attending concerts by invitations and
visits elsewhere. But I was able to follow attentively the plain-
song during High Mass at Notre Dame on Trinity Sunday, together
with a very intelligent friend, R. P. Joseph Mohr (Societate
Jesu), a competent judge and promoter of Church music.

Hanslick--who showed himself friendly to me in Paris--will report
in the Neue Freie Presse concerning the 13th class (musical
instruments, etc.), of which he is vice-president.

Madame Erard placed at my disposal a princely suite in her house,
Rue du Mail, 13 (with which Spiridion [Liszt's valet] I was quite
satisfied); a carriage also in addition. Thanks to this
hospitality my expenses were very much diminished, and I only
required 1500 francs..--.

My old friend Belloni has also proved himself most faithful this
time in Paris, and saved me many expenses. It is wonderful how
honest and disinterested he remains, with all his constant
contact with the artist-world!--

Immediately on my return I went to Erfurt for the Tonkunstlcr-
Versammlung (from the 22nd to the 25th July). The whole affair
went off well. I send you in addition the whole programme. Bulow
played in a marvellous and masterly manner.

Everything in Weimar is now in a state of commotion over the
Ducal-Jubilee-Festivities, which begin the day after tomorrow.
The King of the Netherlands, the King of Saxony, Prince Friedrich
Carl of Prussia, several reigning German Dukes and foreign
Princes are expected. Our Emperor and King is sending Prince
Windischgratz with congratulations to the Grand Duke. Victor
Scheffel (the author of "Ekkehard," the "Trompeter von
Sackingen," the "Bergpsalmen," etc.) has written the Festival
Play, which is to be performed in the theater here on the 9th
July. My "Carl-Alexander" March, which was published 20 years ago
(by Bote and Bock) in Berlin, is to serve as Prelude.

For 30 years past I have been incrustated into the Royal house of
Weimar, and shall remain faithful to it.--

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