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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Please tell Madame Laussot that she would wrong me if she did not
count me amongst her most truly affectionate and devoted
adherents. I especially preserve a grateful remembrance of her in
connection with the "Ideale," and all that attaches to it. She is
of the very small number of noble and intelligent exceptions in
the too great number of my friends and acquaintances. I was
speaking to this purpose the day before yesterday to a young
person of Grecian origin who lives in Florence at the Count de
Sartiges' house (and who frequents Madame Laussot's concerts).
The Athenian plays the piano marvellously and charmingly.

You will bring me Ehlert's Scherzo with other of his
compositions.

Meanwhile I commission you to give my best compliments to Ehlert.

A thousand cordial and affectionate things, and a revoir next
winter.

July 2nd, 1864, Madonna del Rosario

F. Liszt

Thanks for the triple photograph, [Probably of Mme. Laussot,
Pinelli and Bache, who were taken together.] which is thrice
welcome.

33. To ?

[Autograph letter (without address) in the possession of Monsieur
Etienne Charavay in Paris. The letter appears to be addressed to
a friend in Vienna.]

Dear Friend,

The parcel of music you kindly announce has not yet come; but I
will not delay in sending you my thanks, as I am about to leave
here for six or seven weeks.

The day after tomorrow I travel to Carlsruhe to attend the
Tonkunstler-Versammlung, the concerts there (conducted by Bulow)
being given between August 22nd and 26th. Thence I go to Weimar
on a visit. By the end of September I shall be with my dear
mother in Paris, and back here by the middle of October. You must
not be surprised if in newspaper-fashion I leave it undecided
whether or not I change my abode and remain in Rome for ever.

The words for ever remind me of the 22nd Psalm (according to the
usual Protestant numbering the 23rd) which, in reality, I
composed for a tenor, whereas the 137th is meant for a mezzo-
soprano (Fraulein Genast, now married to Herr Merian, in Basle).

I am therefore surprised that you should have proposed the latter
Psalm and not the 22nd for Herr Erl, and I fear the effect of it
will not be good sung by a tenor. The violin accompaniment which
on several occasions is in unison, as well as the concluding
chorus, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem," are written exclusively for
women's (or boys') voices, and thus demand a female soloist.
Besides which it seems to me that the sentiment and spiritual
tonality of the Psalm do not move in the masculinum. Israelitish
gentlemen must not be called upon to sigh, to dream and to
abandon themselves to their grief in any such way.

I shall be much pleased to become fully acquainted with the new
works by Kremser, Hasel and Ziehrer, which you promise me, on my
return.

Meanwhile with best thanks and kind greetings, yours in all
friendship,

F. Liszt

Rome, August 7th, 1864 (Madonna del Rosario)

34. To Eduard Liszt

Weimar, September 7th, 1864 (In the blue room of the Altenburg)

It grieved me to have to do without your presence at the
Tonkunstler-Versammlung in Carlsruhe, dearest Eduard. Your
letter, however, speaks of your having made some advance in your
career, and this greatly delights me. I hope you will soon have
more definite news to communicate to me on the subject. You know
that to see you prosperous is one of the satisfactions I most
desire in life!--

As regards the Tonkunstler-Versammlung you will find a kindly and
satisfactory resume of the proceedings in the supplement of the
Allgemeine Augsburger Zeitung--3lst August, 1st to 3rd September.
Bulow was unfortunately prevented by serious illness from
conducting. From a personal as well as an artistic point of view
I felt his absence very keenly--however no complaint whatever can
be made about the performance, and the reception accorded by the
audience, especially to my Psalms, was extremely favorable. I
assuredly never expected to meet with such sympathetic
appreciation, after my experiences of former years. Friend Lowy
had, on this occasion, no reason to hide himself in a seat at the
back! In the Chamber-music soirees three of my Songs ("Es muss
ein Wunderbares sein," "Ich liebe Dich," and "Mignon") were sung
by Herr and Frau Hauser, and an encore was demanded. Remenyi
played magnificently, and Fraulein Topp [Alida Topp, a pupil of
Liszt's.] is a marvel.

At the conclusion of the Tonkunstler-Versammlung I started early
on Sunday morning for Munich with Cosima (who remained with me
the whole week of the concerts). Hans was confined to bed at the
Bairischer Hof; his nervous rheumatic complaint has now settled
in his left arm, which he will probably be unable to move for
several weeks to come. In addition to the physical pain he
suffers most grievously from this enforced state of inactivity.
To endure things patiently is to some natures an absolute
impossibility. He travelled back to Berlin, ill as he was, last
Saturday, accompanied by his wife, and I have promised to go and
spend a couple of days with him after my visit to Prince
Hohenzollern in Lowenberg, where I go in a day or so.

Of Wagner's wondrous fortune you are sure to have heard. No such
star has ever before beamed upon a tone-or a word-poet. N.B.--
H.M. the King of Bavaria addresses his communication, "To the
Word-and Tone-Poet, Richard Wagner." More by-and-by about this
remarkable affair of Wagner's. I saw him in Munich on several
occasions, and spent one day alone with him in his villa on the
Starnberger See.

I have been here since the day before yesterday. .--.

Continue to love me--as I do you.

With all my heart your

F. Liszt

Address me to Weimar (at the Altenburg). I must return here from
Lowenberg (between the 15th and 8th September) in order to await
the Grand Duke at the Wartburg.

35. To Breitkopf and Hartel

Dear Herr Doctor,

Together with the corrected proofs of the Pastoral and the C
minor Symphonies (in which I found one or two errors) I sent you
(from Weimar) my pianoforte arrangement of the 3rd instrumental
movements of the 9th Symphony. After various endeavors one way
and another, I became inevitably and distinctly convinced of the
impossibility of making any pianoforte arrangement of the 4th
movement for two hands, that could in any way be even
approximately effective or satisfactory. I trust you will not
bear me any ill-will for failing in this, and that you will
consider my work with the Beethoven Symphonies as concluded with
the 3rd movement of the 9th, for it was not a part of my task to
provide a simple pianoforte score of this overwhelming 4th
movement for the use of chorus directors. Arrangements of this
kind have already been made, and I maintain that I am not able to
furnish a better or a more satisfactory one for helpless
pianofortes and pianists, and believe that there is no one
nowadays who could manage it.

In my edition of the 9th Symphony for two pianos, prepared for
Schott, the possibility was offered to me of reducing the most
essential parts of the orchestra-polyphony to ten fingers, and of
handing over the chorus part to the second piano. But to screw
both parts, the instrumental and vocal, into two hands cannot be
done either "a peu pres or a beaucoup pres!"

In case other proofs of the remaining Beethoven Symphonies are
ready, you might send me them to Weimar before Tuesday, 20th
September. I should be glad at the same time to receive the
splendid 6 Mottets of Bach in eight-voice parts (among which is
"Sing unto the Lord a new song"). I am all the more in need of
reading such works, as I am at present unable to hear a
performance of them.

Next week I shall again spend a few days in Weimar (or
Wilhelmsthal); thence I go to pay my mother a visit in Paris, and
by 18th October, at latest, I shall be back in Rome.

Yours respectfully and sincerely,

F. Liszt

Schloss Lowenberg, September 14th, 1864

I requested Herr Kahnt to return to you with my best thanks the
copy of the Symphonic Poems which was kindly forwarded to me in
Carlsruhe.

36. To Breitkopf and Hartel

Dear Herr Stadtrath, [Town Councillor]

In compliance with the wish you so kindly express, I will again
make an attempt to "adapt" the 4th movement of the 9th Symphony
to the piano, and soon after my return to Rome will set to work
upon the required tentative. Let us hope that the variation of
the proverb: "Tant va la cruche a l'eau qu'a la fin...elle
s'emplit"--may prove true. [So often goes the pitcher to the
water that at last it is filled.]

While talking of various readings allow me to draw your attention
to an exceptionally valuable collection. A very carefully and
well-trained musician with whom I have been acquainted for many
years past--Herr Franz Kroll (in Berlin)--has, with industrious
and unceasing perseverance, been collecting, copying and
arranging for publication the noteworthy various readings of
Bach's manuscripts of the "Wohltemperiertes Clavier." [The well-
tempered Piano] Last week he showed me several of them, and I
became convinced of the substantial interest of the collection
and encouraged friend Kroll to send you a full account of them.
In now enclosing his letter to you--written at my instigation--I
take upon myself, with pleasure and the fullest conviction, the
musical duty of advocating the publication of these various Bach
readings, and of heartily recommending Kroll's work as an
essentially useful, complementary addition to your admirable
edition of the "Bach-Gesellschaft" [The Bach Society].

Pray accept, dear Herr Stadtrath, the assurance of my sincere
esteem and devotion.

F. Liszt

Wilhelmsthal, October 1st, 1864

37. To Madame Jessie Laussot

You will be good enough to excuse me, dear Madame, for having
delayed replying to your kind letter. Amongst your many rare
qualities there is one that I particularly admire; it is the
prowess of your musical sympathies. Nevertheless I must scruple
to expose you to too harsh trials, and, knowing by experience
with how little favor my works meet, I have been obliged to force
a sort of systematic heedlessness on to myself with regard to
them, and a resigned passiveness. Thus during the years of my
foreign activity in Germany I constantly observed the rule of
never asking any one whatsoever to have any of my works
performed; more than that, I plainly dissuaded many persons from
doing so who showed some intention of this kind--and I shall do
the same elsewhere. There is neither modesty nor pride in this,
as it seems to me, for I simply take into consideration this
fact--that Mr. Litz [Liszt quotes the very common misspelling of
his name which has frequently been seen since he was "le petit
Litz" in Paris.] is, as it were, always welcome when he appears
at the Piano (--especially since he has made a profession of the
contrary--) but that it is not permitted to him to have anything
to do with thinking and writing according to his own fancy. The
result is that, for some fifteen years, so-called friends, as
well as indifferent and ill-disposed people on all sides, sing,
enough to split your head, to this unhappy Mr. Litz, who has
nothing to do with it, "Be a pianist, and nothing but that. How
is it possible not to be a pianist when, etc., etc."

Possibly they are right--but it would be too much to expect me to
sign my own condemnation. Far from that, I confess that
contradiction ends by tempting me seriously, and that I am
resolved to pursue it to the end, without any illusion or
approbation whatever. Only at certain moments I fancy that that
judicious maxim of Champfort is somewhat applicable to me
"Celebrity is the punishment of talent and the chastisement of
merit."

Our friend Sgambati is happily in a fair way to incur this
punishment and chastisement--and certainly with very good reason.
He has done wonders this winter at his four concerts, which have
had a success both of fashion and of real good taste. I, for my
part, have gained a thorough affection for Sgambati, and the
remarkable development of his talent of so fine and noble a
quality interests me keenly.

A thousand very cordially affectionate and devoted things.

F. Liszt

Rome, March 6th, 1865

38. To Dr. Franz Brendel

Dear Friend,

While awaiting from you definite word about the next Tonkunstler-
Versammlung in Dessau, let me, meanwhile, thank you for your last
communication. The main interest of the musical performances is,
of course, on this occasion centred in Riedel and his Verein. In
the programme-sketch I notice my Psalm 137 at the very beginning.
What lady takes the solo?--mind and soul are indispensable in it.

Bronsart wrote to me at the beginning of March that he
entertained the idea of a concert-tour to the Russian provinces
on the Baltic. I should be glad to hear that the Euterpe squabble
and quarrel in connection with the T.K.V. in Dessau were at an
end, and that Bronsart was to undertake the conductorship.

As a supplement to this I send you herewith the programme of the
concert held in the hall of the Capitol, where for some years
past no special festivities have been given, and probably never
anything of this kind before. For the first time the different
orchestras in Rome (the Sistine, St. Peter's, Lateran and
Liberian) all united to give a performance which upon the whole
may be said to have been as successful as it was well received.

The concert was proposed to the Holy Father, and approved of by
him. Owing to the exceptional character of the undertaking,
which, like that of last year, was made to fit in with the plan
of the detailed arrangements--(some ladies belonging to the
aristocracy, and commissionaires distributed the tickets which
were sold at a minimum, no advertising, etc.), I determined to
give my co-operation. I played the "Cantique" (the last number of
the "Harmonies poetiques et religieuses" published by Kistner),
and, as there was no end to the applause, I added my
transcription of Rossini's "Charite" (published by Schott).
Everybody in Rome with any claim to culture was present, and the
hall was more than full.

With friendliest greetings, your sincerely devoted

F. Liszt

April 3rd, 1865

P.S.--Please get Kahnt to inquire of Hartel as soon as possible,
how far the printing of my arrangement of the Beethoven
Symphonies has progressed, and whether I may rely upon his
sending--during Easter week as already settled--the orchestral
parts (autographed) of several of my Symphonic Poems,--more
especially of the Dante Symphony? It is possible that the Dante
Symphony may be performed here towards the end of April. But you
shall have further news of me before that.

Bote and Bock will shortly publish a very simple Hymn of mine
(for pianoforte) entitled "The Pope's Hymn."

39. To Prince Constantine of Hohenzollern-Hechingen

Monseigneur,

Your Highness will understand that it is a necessity of my heart
to speak to you of a very happy juncture that assures me
henceforth, in full degree, the stability of feeling and of
conduct to which I aspired. It seems to me that I should be
guilty of ingratitude and wanting in respect to the condescending
friendship with which you are good enough to honor me, did I not
let you know of the determination I have taken. On Tuesday the
25th April, the festival of St. Mark the Evangelist, I entered
into the ecclesiastical state on receiving minor orders in the
chapel of H.S.H. Monseigneur Hohenlohe at the Vatican. Convinced
as I was that this act would strengthen me in the right road, I
accomplished it without effort, in all simplicity and uprightness
of intention. Moreover it agrees with the antecedents of my
youth, as well as with the development that my work of musical
composition has taken during these last four years,--a work which
I propose to pursue with fresh vigor, as I consider it the least
defective form of my nature.--

To speak familiarly; if "the cloak does not make the monk" it
also does not prevent him from being one; and, in certain cases,
when the monk is already formed within, why not appropriate the
outer garment of one?--

But I am forgetting that I do not in the least intend to become a
monk, in the severe sense of the word. For this I have no
vocation, and it is enough for me to belong to the hierarchy of
the Church to such a degree as the minor orders allow me to do.
It is therefore not the frock, but the cassock that I have
donned. And on this subject Your Highness will pardon me the
small vanity of mentioning to you that they pay me the compliment
of saying that I wear my cassock as though I had worn it all my
life.

I am now living at the Vatican with Monseigneur Hohenlohe, whose
apartment is on the same floor as the Stanze of Raphael. My
lodging is not at all like a prison cell, and the kind
hospitality that Monseigneur H. shows me exempts me from all
painful constraints. So I shall leave it but rarely and for a
short time only, as removals and especially journeys have become
very burdensome to me for many reasons...It is better to work in
peace at home than to go abroad into the world,--except in
important cases. One of these is awaiting me in the month of
August, and I shall fulfil my promise of going to Pest at the
time of the celebration of the musical fetes that are being got
up for the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the
Conservatoire. My Oratorio of "Saint Elizabeth" and the Symphony
of the "Divina Commedia" form part of the programme.

Next year, if Your Highness still thinks of realising your noble
project of a musical congress at Lowenberg, I should be very
happy to take part in it, and place myself entirely at your
orders and service.

Permit me, Monseigneur, to express anew to you my most grateful
thanks for the evidences of sympathy you have so generously
accorded to myself and to my works; and graciously accept the
homage of unchanging sentiments of most respectful devotion with
which I have the honor to be

Your Highness's most humble and affectionate servant,

F. Liszt

Vatican, May 11th, 1865

40. To Breitkopf and Hartel

Dear Herr Doctor,

My old musical weaknesses have not left me! The weakest and worst
thing about them is perhaps that I never cease composing; but
such wondrous things go wandering about in my head that I cannot
help putting them down on paper. And I have wanted to hear
something about the fate of the manuscripts I sent you for
printing. Have the pianoforte scores of the Beethoven Symphonies
been published? How has the printing of the Concerto for 2 pianos
(in E minor) [Concerto pathetique] progressed? Would you kindly
let me have a few copies soon?

With regard to the autographed orchestral parts of my "Symphonic
Poems," I should be glad if they could be out by the end of July.
Probably at the beginning of August I go to Pest, where several
of my compositions (more especially the "Dante Symphony") are to
be performed in connection with the festivities at the
Conservatoire. If the parts should be ready, please, dear Herr
Doctor, forward them to me to Pest. At present I do not require
them here; but should the "Preludes" be ready you would greatly
oblige me by sending all the orchestral parts, with four copies
of the quartet, if possible by the beginning of next month, to
Dr. R. Pohl (571, Hirschgasse, Baden-Baden). I have been asked
for the loan of them for some festival in Baden conducted by
Monsieur Reyer.

Pray kindly excuse all the trouble I am giving you, and receive
the expression of my most sincere esteem.

F. Liszt

The Vatican, May 27th, 1865

41. To Dr. Franz Brendel

Dear Friend,

Your favorable accounts of the Tonkunstler-Versammlung in Dessau
delighted me greatly. Owing to the crooked way in which my works
have been listened to in past years, I have felt oppressed; and
in order that my freedom in my work might remain unaffected, I
was obliged wholly to disregard their outward success. Hence my
absolute distrust of performances of my own compositions, and
this was not to be accounted for by any exaggerated modesty on my
part. As to the "Battle of the Huns" I was specially doubtful;
the Christian significance of Kaulbach's picture--as represented
in the "Chorale"--seemed to me a stumbling-block in the way of
favorable criticism. Kaulbach had indeed suggested this
interpretation by having thrown a special light upon the
cross...yet there are neither mendicant friars nor bishops in the
picture...and, besides, at the time of the "Battle of the Huns"
the organ was not yet invented! This last sweeping argument was
triumphantly hurled at me in Weimar by the infallible censors.
Since then I have hesitated to allow the work to be performed,
and have remained satisfied with sending Kaulbach the arrangement
for 2 pianofortes. And in that form it was executed [Executirt.]
in his salon, whereupon, of course, there were loud lamentations
about my squandering my time upon such an abominable jumble of
sounds, when I might be charming people in a more agreeable
fashion with my piano-playing!...So if the Dessau Meeting really
derived some pleasure from the "Battle of the Huns" I feel richly
rewarded for my small amount of suffering.

I beg you to present my best thanks to Fraulein Wigand. [Emilie
Wigand, studied under Prof. Gotze in Leipzig.] It is a good deed
of hers to have obtained willing ears for my Psalm--and if I am
in Germany again next year I shall want to hear it.

I will with pleasure take Weitzmann's place as examiner of the
manuscripts sent in. Send them to me in parcel form to Rome; I
promise to look through them quickly and to let you have my good
or bad opinion of them. For such work I am always inclined, and
am, perhaps, not an awkward hand at it.

.--. From the Committee in Pest I have not had any news for some
time past. I shall, however, hold myself in readiness to start
from here by the beginning of August. Meanwhile let nothing be
sent to me to Rome. As soon as I know anything definite about my
stay in Hungary I will let you know.

With all friendly greetings to your wife, I am your sincerely
attached

F. Liszt

July 21st (Villa d'Este-Tivoli), 1865

Any probable performance of the "Elizabeth" in Coburg we can
discuss later. I should consider it advisable to have my name but
little mentioned in the programme of the next Meeting of the
Tonkunstler-Versammlung. As regards a larger work (one to occupy
a whole concert) it would be well for Gille to leave the choice
of it to the Duke. The local taste would be a very important
point in the matter, and, for my own part, I know only too well
that people do not want to know or to hear too much of me--in
Coburg as well as in many other places!--

42. To Abbe Schwendtner in Buda-Pest

[Autograph in the possession of Frl. Therese v. Lavner in Pest.--
Liszt became acquainted with the Abbe in 1865, and frequently
enjoyed his hospitality when visiting Pest, up to the time when
he himself became connected with the Musik-Academie there.]

Right Reverend Sir and Friend,

Having returned to my abode here, I cannot refrain from again
thanking you most heartily for all the goodness and kindness you
showed me in so unusually abundant a measure, during my stay in
the town-vicarage of Pest. The five weeks I spent there in the
pleasantest way--owing to your considerate care and attention--
will remain an unextinguishable point of light in my life. You
admonish, and at the same time encourage and strengthen me, to
carry out further the artistic task that is set me. In the hope
that your Reverence will in the future continue to show me the
sympathy so kindly and generously expressed, I pray you to
implore God's blessing to keep me ever a good child of the State
and Church.

May I add another request? On the 22nd October (my birthday) for
some years past a Mass has been read in the Franciscan Church in
Pest, and at the words: "Memento Domini" I [am] held in
remembrance...I would ask your Reverence to remember my wish that
this may be done also on the same day in the parish church.

In sincere veneration and gratitude, I remain cordially and
faithfully

Your Reverence's devoted

F. Liszt

The Vatican, September 20th, 1865

My respectful compliments to the amiable lady president of the
morning coffee--Fraulein Resi [A niece of the Abbe's.]--who
conducts and beautifies the real Magyar hospitality at the
Vicarage in an incomparably graceful manner. I shall take the
liberty one day of sending Fraulein Resi a few Roman trifles.
Bulow has undertaken to send you the medallion of my humble self,
a masterly piece of work by Rietschel. As you will know,
Rietschel is the sculptor who made the Lessing statue in
Brunswick, the Goethe and Schiller group in Weimar, etc.--

43. To Dr. Franz Brendel

Dear Friend,

Accept my best thanks for having admitted into your Neue
Zeitschrift Bulow's account of the Musical Festival in Pest.
These three articles are a masterly piece of work, and, as your
paper has for several years past followed the difficult process
of my development as a composer in so kind and careful a manner,
I wished specially that the very successful performances of the
"Elizabeth" and of the "Dante Symphony" in Pest should receive
confirmation in the Neue Zeitschrift.

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