Letters of Franz Liszt Volume II Part 50

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 a.s.sured 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 ill.u.s.trious, 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 n.o.ble, 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 amba.s.sador 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; n.o.ble 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 circ.u.mstances (indicated in your note of this evening) I doubt whether your just and n.o.ble 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 G.o.ds 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 n.o.ble boyars." [Slavonic n.o.blemen.] 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 courtois.e.m.e.nt 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