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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Heartily, faithfully yours,

F. Liszt

Weimar, July 1st, 1884

From the 12th July till the middle of August I shall be at
Bayreuth.

Tell Huber to do the instrumentation of the "Rheinweinlied" quite
freely, according to his own will and what he thinks best,
without a too careful attention to the printed piano
accompaniment.

345A. To Madame Malwine Tardieu

[Autograph in possession of Constance Bache]

Dear kind Friend,

I have spoken to you several times of my excellent friend--of
more than 20 years--Walter Bache. He maintains himself worthily
in London as an artist of worth, intelligence, and noble
character. His sister has made a remarkable translation of the
"Elizabeth" into English.

Receive the Baches (who pass a day in Brussels) in a friendly
manner.

Cordial devotion,

F. Liszt

Bayreuth, August 9th, 1884

Tomorrow evening I shall be back at Weimar, and shall probably go
to Munich for the second series of the "Nibelungen" performances
(28th August).

Please give my cordial regards to Tardieu.

346. To the Music Publisher Rahter in Hamburg

Dear Herr Rahter,

Best thanks for kindly sending me the Russian "Fantasie" by
Naprawnik--a brilliantly successful concert-piece--and the
Slumber Songs by Rimsky-Korsakoff, which I prize extremely; his
works are among the rare, the uncommon, the exquisite.--The piano
edition of his Opera "Die Mainacht" [The May Night] has either
not reached me or else has got lost.--Send it me to Weimar
together with a second copy of Naprawnik's Russian "Fantasie,"
which is necessary for performance.

Many of my young pianists will be glad to make this "Fantasie"
known in drawing-rooms and concerts.--

With friendly thanks,

F. Liszt

Munich, August 28th, 1884

347. To Richard Pohl

[Printed in the Allgemeine Deutsche Musikzeitung of 24th
October,1884.]

My very dear Friend,

I have long wanted to repeat my hearty thanks to you for the
faithful, noble devotion which you have always bravely and
decidedly shown to the Weimar Period of Progression in the years
1849-58. The third volume of your collected writings "Hector
Berlioz" affords another proof of this devotion, which is highly
to be valued in contrast with the far too general wishy-washy
absence of opinion.

After the unheard-of success of more than 20 performances of "The
Damnation of Faust" by the concert societies of Lamoureux,
Pasdeloup, Colonne, in the same season in Paris--not counting the
theater, for which this work is not suitable, the French Berlioz
literature is increasing. You know Hippeau's octavo book "Berlioz
Intime," which is shortly to be followed by a second, "Berlioz
Artiste." I wish this to profit by your work.

In reading the first volume I was painfully affected by several
passages out of Berlioz's letters, in which the discord and
broken-heartedness of his early years are only too apparent. He
could not grasp the just idea that a genius cannot hope to exist
with impunity, and that a new thing cannot at once expect to
please the ancient order of things.

For the rest, there lies in his complaints against the Parisian
"gredins et cretins" [fools and scoundrels], whom he might also
find in other places, a large share of injustice. In spite of his
exaggerated leniency in favor of a foreign country, the fact
remains that up to the present time no European composer has
received such distinctions from his own country as Berlioz did
from France. Compare the position of Beethoven, Weber, Schubert,
Schumann, with that of Berlioz. In the case of Beethoven the
Archduke Rudolf alone bespoke the "Missa solemnis." The profit
from his rarely given concerts was small, and at the last he
turned to the London Philharmonic Society for support.

Weber acted as Court conductor in Dresden, and wrote his Oberon
at the invitation of London.

Schubert's marvellous productiveness was badly paid by the
publishers; other favorable conditions had he none.

Schumann's biography testifies no patriotic enthusiasm for his
works during his lifetime. His position as musical conductor at
Dusseldorf was by no means a brilliant one...

It was otherwise with Mendelssohn, who had private means, and
who, by his delicate and just eclecticism, clinging to Bach,
Handel, and even Beethoven, obtained continual success in England
and Germany. King William IV. called him to Berlin at the same
time with Cornelius, [This means the painter Cornelius.--Trans.]
Kaulbach, Schelling, and Meyerbeer, which he did not enjoy any
better than Leipzig.

I make no further mention of Meyerbeer here, because he owes his
universal success chiefly to Paris. It was there that all his
Operas, from "Robert" and "The Huguenots" to his posthumous
"L'Africaine," were first performed--with the exception of "Das
Feldlager in Schlesien" [The Camp in Silesia], which also
sparkled later in Paris as "L'etoile du Nord."

Now let us see how things went with Berlioz in his native land.

Like Victor Hugo, he was, after three times becoming a candidate,
elected a member of the "Institute of France,"--similarly
(without any candidature) to be librarian of the Conservatoire;
he was also a collaborator of the highly esteemed "Journal des
Debats" and officer of the Legion of Honor.

Where do we find in Germany similar proofs of distinction? Why,
therefore, the bitter insults of Berlioz against the Paris
"gredins" and "cretins"? Unfortunately it certainly never brought
Berlioz an out-and-out theatrical success, although his nature
leaned that way.

I send you herewith Reyer's feuilleton (Journal des Debats, 14th
September) regarding the latest brochure by Ernst "upon Berlioz."

With hearty thanks, yours most truly,

F. Liszt

Weimar, September 12th, 1884

348. To Sophie Menter

My dear Friend,

My few days' stay at your fairy-like castle Itter [In Tyrol.]
will remain a magic memory.

When you have signed the Petersburg Conservatorium contract let
me know. You know, indeed, that I very much approve of this turn
and fixing of your brilliant artistic career. It requires no
excessive obligations, and will be an advantage to you.

Friendly greetings to the New School from your faithful admirer
and friend,

F. Liszt

Weimar, September 13th, 1884

I am here till the end of October. Later on I shall visit my
friends Geza Zichy and Sandor Teleky in Hungary.

349. To Baron Friedrich Podmaniczky, Intendant of the Royal
Hungarian Opera in Budapest

[Printed in the Pester Lloyd (evening paper of 27th September,
1884).--Liszt having sent Podmaniczky a Royal Hymn for the
opening of the New Hungarian Opera House instead of a Festal
Prelude, which the latter had requested, Podmaniczky wrote to the
Master on the 17th September, 1884, that the motive of the hymn
having been borrowed from a revolutionary song would prove an
"unsurmountable obstacle" to its performance. The letter was also
signed by Alexander Erkel as conductor. Whereupon Liszt wrote the
above reply.]

Dear, Hochgeborener [Many of these titles have been left in their
original language, being unused in England, and having no
equivalent with us.--Trans.] Herr Baron,

To your letter dated the 17th of this month I have the honor of
replying as follows: that the song "Hahj, Rakoczy, Bercsenyi" was
not unknown to me is shown by the piano edition of my "Hungarian
royal hymn" published by Taborsky and Parsch, on the title-page
of which stand the words "After an old Hungarian air." I learned
to know this song from Stefan Bartolus's Anthology, and it took
hold of me with its decided, and expressive and artless
character; I at once provided it with a finale of victory, and
without troubling my head further about its former revolutionary
words I begged Kornel Abranyi, jun., for a new, loyal text with
the refrain "Eljen a kiraly," so that my "Royal hymn" might
attain its due expression both in words and music.

Transformations are nothing rare in Art any more than in life.
From countless heathen temples Catholic churches were formed. In
the classic epoch of Church music--in the 16th century--many
secular melodies were accepted amongst devotional songs, and in
later times the Catholic antiphones were heard as Protestant
Chorales. And this went yet further, not excepting Opera, in
which Meyerbeer utilised the Chorale "Eine feste Burg" for a
stage effect, and in "L'Etoile du Nord" consecrated the "Dessauer
Marsch" into the Russian National hymn. A revolutionary tendency
is commonly ascribed to the universally known and favorite
"Rakoczy March," and its performance has been more than once
forbidden.

Music remains ever music, without superfluous and injurious
significations. For the rest, God forbid that I should anywhere
push forward either myself or my humble compositions. I leave it
entirely to your judgment, hochgeborener Herr Baron, to decide
whether my "Royal hymn" shall be performed in the new Hungarian
Opera House or not. The score, as also the many orchestral and
vocal parts, are to be had at the publishers, Taborsky and
Parsch.

I beg you, Sir, to accept the expression of my high esteem.

F. Liszt

Weimar, September 21st, 1884

[To this Alex. Erkel made the proposal that Liszt's "Konigslied"
("Royal Song"), instead of being performed at the opening of the
new theater on the 27th September, should be given at an "Extra
Opera performance." The Master consented, but did not appear at
this first performance of his work, which took place on the 25th
March, 1885, and met with tremendous applause.]

350. To Walter Bache

[This letter is published, as a Preface, in the English edition
of Liszt's "St. Elizabeth."]

Very honored Friend,

For some twenty years past you have been employing your beautiful
talent as a pianist, your care as a professor and as a conductor
to make my works known and to spread them in England. The task
seemed an ungrateful one, and its want of success menacing, but
you are doing it nobly, with the most honorable and firm
conviction of an artist. I renew my grateful thanks to you on the
occasion of the present edition of the "Legend of St. Elizabeth,"
published by the well-accredited house of Novello. [The
translator of the English edition (Constance Bache) has also
translated many of Liszt's songs into English.]

This work, which was performed for the first time in 1865 at
Budapest, has been reproduced successively in several countries
and languages. Let us hope that it will also meet with some
sympathy in England.

Your much attached

F. Liszt

Weimar, October 18th, 1884

351. To the Composer Mili Balakireff, Conductor of the Imperial
Court Choir in St. Petersburg

Very honored, dear Confrere,

My admiring sympathy for your works is well known. When my young
disciples want to please me they play me your compositions and
those of your valiant friends. In this intrepid Russian musical
phalanx I welcome from my heart masters endowed with a rare vital
energy; they suffer in no wise from poverty of ideas--a malady
which is widespread in many countries. More and more will their
merits be recognised, and their names renowned. I accept with
gratitude the honor of the dedication [to me] of your Symphonic
Poem "Thamar," which I hope to hear next summer with a large
orchestra. When the 4-hand edition comes out you will greatly
oblige me by sending me a copy. From the middle of January until
Easter I shall be at Budapest.

Please accept, dear confrere, the expression of my high esteem
and cordial attachment.

F. Liszt

Weimar, October 2lst, 1884

352. To Countess Louise de Mercy-Argenteau

[Known through her zealous propaganda, in Belgium and France, of
the music of the New Russian School. After the death of her
husband (1888), Chamberlain of Napoleon III., she left her native
land of Belgium and removed to St. Petersburg, where she died in
November 1890.]

October 24th, 1884

Certainly, my very dear and kind friend, you have a hundredfold
right to appreciate and to relish the present musical Russia.
Rimski-Korsakoff, Cui, Borodine, Balakireff, are masters of
striking originality and worth. Their works make up to me for the
ennui caused to me by other works more widely spread and more
talked about, works of which I should have some difficulty in
saying what Leonard once wrote to you from Amsterdam after a song
of Schumann's: "What soul, and also what success!" Rarely is
success in a hurry to accompany soul. In Russia the new
composers, in spite of their remarkable talent and knowledge,
have had as yet but a limited success.--The high people of the
Court wait for them to succeed elsewhere before they applaud them
at Petersburg. A propos of this, I recollect a striking remark
which the late Grand Duke Michael made to me in '43: "When I have
to put my officers under arrest, I send them to the performances
of Glinka's operas." Manners are softening, and Messrs. Rimski,
Cui, Borodine, have themselves attained to the grade of colonel.

At the annual concerts of the German and Universal Musical
Association (Allgemeiner Deutscher Musik-Verein) they have, for
many years past, always given some work of a Russian composer, at
my suggestion. Little by little a public will be formed. Next
year our Festival will take place in June at Carlsruhe. St. Saens
is coming; why not you, too, dear friend? You would also hear
something Russian there.

When you write to St. Saens, please tell him of my admiring and
very constant friendship. By the work of translation which you
have bravely undertaken, I think that you are doing wisely and
skilfully in freeing yourself from the bondage of rhyme, and in
keeping to rhythmic prose. The important point is to maintain the
lyric or dramatic accent, and to avoid the "desastreuses salades
de syllabes longues et breves, des temps forts et faibles"
[disastrous mess of long and short syllables, and of the strong
and weak time]. The point is to make good prose without any other
scruples whatever. It is said that M. Lamoureux is admitting the
"Steppes" by Borodine into one of his programmes. We shall see
what sort of a reception it will have. For the rest, I doubt
Lamoureux's venturing so soon on the Russian propaganda. He has
too much to do with Berlioz and Wagner.

Do not let yourself be disconcerted either by the "ineffable"
carelessness, or by the square battalions of objections such as
these: "It is confusion worse confounded; it is Abracadabra"
[Senseless jabber.]--etc.

Without politeness or ceremony I tell you in perfect sincerity
that your instinct did not lead you astray the day when this
music so forcibly charmed you. Continue, then, your work with the
firm conviction of being in the right path.

Above all I beg that you will not falsely imagine that I am
taking hold of the thing wrong end foremost. When you knock I
shall not merely say, Enter, but I myself will go before you. To
return to Paris and show myself off there as a young composer or
to continue the business of an old pianist in the salons does not
attract me in the least. I have other things to do elsewhere.

Faithful homage.

F. Liszt

P.S.--I do not know what date to put to these lines. I wrote the
first page on the receipt of your bewitching letter. I meant to
reply to it in full, but all sorts of pressing obligations and
botherations intervened...I have also been to the inauguration of
the statue of Bach at Eisenach, illustrated by three concerts,
composed exclusively of numerous works of Bach's (the Mass in B
minor first and foremost); then I was present at a more curious
concert at Leipzig: on my return I had a severe attack of
illness, which prevented me for several days from writing. In
short, this letter ought to have reached you three weeks ago.
Tomorrow, 25th October, I leave Weimar, and shall not return here
till after Easter. If you condescend to continue writing to me,
please address to Budapest (Hungary) till the end of November. A
prompt answer shall follow.

F. Liszt

353. To Madame Malwine Tardieu

Budapest, December 7th, 1884

Dear Kind Friend,

Really and truly when it sometimes happens that I obtain success
I rejoice less over that than over the success of my friends.
Thank you for the pleasant tidings of the brilliant success of
Ossiana [Madame Marie Jaell, the well-known artiste, a friend of
Liszt's.] at Godard's concert. .--.

You do not tell me where the little notice appeared (with my name
at the heading) which you were so good as to send me. [In the
Gaulois, from the pen of Fourcaud, and, later, in the Album of
the Gaulois, to which the most celebrated tone-poets had
contributed a piece of music as yet unpublished.] One of my works
is mentioned in it with the greatest eulogy--the Gran Mass--which
was so unhappily performed at Paris in '66, and more unhappily
criticised then...The mistake I made was not to have forbidden a
performance given under such deplorable conditions. A
philanthropic reason, which is valueless in matters of Art, kept
me from doing so. I did not wish to deprive the fund for the poor
of the assured receipts of more than 40,000 francs. Pardon me for
recalling this vexatious affair, which makes me all the more
sensible of the flattering attention which the same work is
receiving.

To my great regret the performances of Henry VIII. by our very
valiant friend St. Saens, which were to have taken place at
Weimar and Budapest, are put off. Mediocrity, as Balzac said,
governs even theaters. Anyhow its power must sometimes be
intermittent. Please say many cordial things to your husband from
your much attached

F. Liszt

On Wednesday I shall be in Rome, and back here towards the middle
of January.

354. To Freiherr Hans Von Wolzogen

Dear Freiherr,

Hearty thanks for your kind letter. To include me in your noble,
zealous, high-minded efforts in matters for the glorification of
Wagner and according to the wishes of his widow, is to me ever a
duty and an honor.

Faithfully yours,

F. Liszt

Rome, December 18th, 1884

355. To Camille Saint-Saens

[End of 1884 or beginning of 1885.]

Very Dear Friend and Companion in Arms,

Your sympathy for the "Salve, Polonia" [Orchestral Interlude from
the unfinished Oratorio Stanislaus. It was given at the
Tonkunstler-Versammlung in Weimar in 1884, at which Saint-Saens
was present.] makes me quite happy. Still writing music, as I am,
I sometimes ask myself at such and such a passage, "Would that
please St. Saens?" The affirmative encourages me to go on, in
spite of the fatigue of age and other wearinesses.

If you do me the honor of playing one of my compositions at the
Carlsruhe Festival please choose which it shall be: perhaps the
Danse macabre [Dance of Death] with orchestra; or--which I think
would be better, for the public would rather hear you alone--the
Predication aux oiseaux [St. Francis preaching to the birds,
followed by Scherzo and March. [Saint-Saens did not go to
Carlsruhe.]

Cordial wishes for the year '85, and ever your admiringly
attached

F. Liszt

Give my best remembrances from Budapest to Delibes.

356. To Countess Mercy-Argenteau

What wonders you have just accomplished with your Russian concert
at Liege, dear admirable one! From the material point of view the
Deaf and Dumb and Blind Institutions have benefited by it;
artistically, other deaf and dumb have heard and spoken; the
blind have seen, and, on beholding you, were enraptured.

I shall assuredly not cease from my propaganda of the remarkable
compositions of the New Russian School, which I esteem and
appreciate with lively sympathy. For 6 or 7 years past, at the
Grand Annual Concerts of the Musical Association ("Allgemeiner
Deutscher Musik-Verein"), over which I have the honor of
presiding, the orchestral works of Rimsky-Korsakoff and Borodine
have figured on the programmes. Their success is making a
crescendo, in spite of the sort of contumacy that is established
against Russian music. It is not in the least any desire of being
peculiar that leads me to spread it, but a simple feeling of
justice, based on my conviction of the real worth of these works
of high lineage. I do not know which ones Hans von Bulow, the
Achilles of propagandists, chose for the Russian concert he gave
lately with the Meiningen orchestra, of an unheard-of discipline
and perfection.

I hope Bulow will continue concerts of the same quality in
various towns of Germany.

The best among my disciples, brilliant virtuosi, play the most
difficult piano compositions of Balakireff, etc., superbly. I
shall recommend to them Cui's Suite (piano and violoncello).

Considering the rarity of singers gifted at once with voice,
intelligence and good taste for things not hackneyed,--there is
some delay in regard to the vocal compositions of Cui, Borodine,
etc. Nevertheless the right time for their production will come,
and for making them succeed and be appreciated. In France your
translation of the words will be a great help, and in Germany we
must be provided with a suitable translation.

A portion of the articles which you kindly sent me upon your
concert at Liege shallbe inserted in the Neue Zeitschrift fur
Musik. I shall endeavor to find another paper also, although my
relations with the Press are by no means intimate.

Rahter, the musical editor at Hamburg, and representative of
Jurgenson in Moscow, will offer you in homage three of my Russian
transcriptions,--Tschaikowsky's "Polonaise"; Dargomijsky's
"Tarentelle" with the continuous pedal bass of A, A; and a
"Romance" of Count Michel Wielhorsky. Let us add to these the
"Marche tscherkesse" of Glinka, and, above all, the prodigious
kaleidoscope of variations and paraphrases on the fixed theme

[Here, Liszt illustrates with a musical score excerpt]

It is the most seriously entertaining thing I know; it gives us a
practical manual, par excellence, of all musical knowledge;
treatises on harmony and composition are summed up and blended in
it in some thirty pages, which teach the subject very fully--
above and beyond the usual instruction.

My very amiable hosts at Antwerp, the Lynens, have invited me to
return there this summer at the time of the Exhibition, of which
M. Lynen is the president. I am tempted to do so after the
Carlsruhe Festival, as I keep a charming remembrance of the
kindness that was shown to me in Brussels and Antwerp.

In about ten days I return to Budapest, whence you shall receive
a photograph of the old, sorry face of your constant admirer and
devoted servant,

F. Liszt

Rome, January 20th, 1885

A pertinacious editor keeps asking me for my transcription of
Gounod's "Ste. Cecile." If amongst your old papers you should
find the manuscript of it, will you lend it me for a fortnight,
so that it may be copied, printed, and then restored to its very
gracious owner?

February and March my address--Budapest, Hungary.

357. To Camille Saint-Saens.

Very honored, dear Friend,

In order not to become too monotonous I won't thank you any more.
Nevertheless your transcription of my Orpheus for Piano, Violin
and Violoncello charms me, and I beg that you will send it either
to Hartel direct, so that he may publish it at once, or else to
yours very gratefully, so that I may remit it to him, after
having had the pleasure of reading and hearing it at Budapest,
whither, by next Thursday, will have returned

Your much-attached fellow-disciple,

F. Liszt.

Florence, Tuesday, January 27th, 1885.

Goodbye till we meet in May at Carlsruhe.

358. To Madame Malwine Tardieu.

I am writing to the director of our "Musik-Verein" to write to
you, dear friend. You will tell Mademoiselle Kufferath, better
than any one else can, how agreeable it will be to everybody, and
to myself in particular, if she takes part in the concerts at
Carlsruhe--in the last days of May. [This did not come to
anything. Saint-Saens' "Deluge," in which she was to have sung,
was not performed at Carlsruhe, and meanwhile Fraulein Kufferath
married and gave up her artistic career.]

Our "Musak-Verein" has not the advantage of material wealth;
nevertheless we have existed bravely for 25 years without getting
into debt, and faithfully put in practice our principal rule,
which is to perform every year in different towns the valid works
of contemporary composers of any country whatsoever (exclusive of
works for the theater, with the exception of occasional vocal
numbers). This rule, which is difficult to maintain, considering
the expenses and the difficult preparations, distinguishes us
from other musical societies and gives us the character of
pioneers of progress. We have not been behindhand with the group
of composers of young Musical Russia, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Borodine,
Cui, etc., for we have been giving their works for four years
past.

The very gracious Countess of Mercy-Argenteau has been making
them known lately at Liege, with a brilliant success, quite
justified by the qualities of the works and the charm of the
patroness.

Will you, dear friend, be so kind as to express my
acknowledgments to Mr. de Fourcaud, [Musical and Art
Correspondent of the Paris Gaulois, with outspoken Wagner
tendencies and opinions.] and accept the expression of my cordial
affection?

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