Letters of Franz Liszt Volume II Part 64

I remain here till the first week in January at Via and Hotel Alibert.

285. To Camille Saint-Saens

Much-Esteemed Dear Friend,

You are not one of those who are easily forgotten, and you have won your fame valiantly. My feelings of sincere admiration and grat.i.tude have followed you for many years; they are confirmed and increased by the proofs you give of constant and active sympathy.

I wrote to you last summer from Magdeburg on the occasion of the festival. Your remarkable work "La Lyre et la Harpe" figured on the programme; a delay in the translation and in the study of the choruses obliged me, to my great regret, to defer the performance of it till next summer, when the Tonkunstler-Versammlung, which is honored by your active membership and has just named me its Honorary President, will again meet.

Before Christmas Furstner, the publisher, will send you, from me, three copies (score and arrangements for pianoforte solo and duet) of my second Mephistopheles Waltz, dedicated to Camille Saint-Saens. I thank you cordially for giving it so hearty a welcome. No one more than myself feels the disproportion in my compositions between the good-will and the effective result. Yet I go on writing--not without fatigue--from inner necessity and old habit. We are not forbidden to aspire towards higher things: it is the attainment of our end which remains the note of interrogation, being in this something like the end to the Mephistopheles Waltz on b, f--

[Here, Liszt ill.u.s.trates with a musical score excerpt]

intervals which are indicated in the first bars of the piece.

You intimate the friendly desire that I should revisit Paris.

Travelling at my age becomes burdensome, and I greatly fear that I should be found out of place in capitals like Paris or London, where no immediate obligation calls me. This fear does not make me less grateful towards the public, and especially towards my Parisian friends, to whom I acknowledge myself to be so greatly indebted. Besides, I should not like completely to give up the thought of ever seeing them again, although the deplorable performance of the Gran Ma.s.s in 1866 left a painful impression upon me.

This is easily explained on both sides. Nevertheless, it would be too much for me in future to expose myself to such misapprehensions. Without false modesty or foolish vanity I cannot allow myself to be cla.s.sed among the celebrated pianists who have gone astray in composing failures.

By the way, allow me to ask a question. If I were to return to Paris, would you feel disposed, dear friend, to repeat your former offence by conducting any of my works in I know not what orchestral concert? I dare not ask you to do it, but, supposing that a favorable opportunity should occur, I should be very proud to be present. Meanwhile be so good as to remember me very kindly to Viscount Delaborde, and to thank your colleague of the Inst.i.tute, Ma.s.senet, sincerely for his telegram. He will excuse me for not answering him at once. To fulfil the duties of a correspondent is an insoluble problem for your very grateful and devoted friend,

F. Liszt

Rome, December 8th, 1887.

256. To Ludwig Bosendorfer

Very Dear Friend,

I was raised to a very exhilarated state of mind by the many tokens of sympathy and friendship on the 22nd October. [Liszt's 70th birthday.] To give it expression, I wrote several pages of music, but no letters at all. Antipathy to letter-writing is becoming a malady with me...Have the kindness to beg my friends in Vienna to excuse this. Perhaps I may yet live long epough to prove my affection to them in a better way than by words. My health does not preoccupy me at all; it is fairly good and only requires care, a thing which is at times irksome to me.

As usual for the last 10 years, I shall return to Budapest in the middle of January '82.

My best regards to your wife.

Yours faithfully and gratefully,

F. Liszt

Rome, December 8th, 1881

I repeat especially my hearty thanks to Zellner.

287. To Pauline Viardot-Garcia

[The great singer, who still teaches in Paris, was Liszt's pupil for piano.]

Most Ill.u.s.trious and Gracious Friend,

A woman distinguished by her shrewdness and talents, the auth.o.r.ess of several volumes which have had the good fortune to pa.s.s through several editions, has asked me for a line of introduction to you. I have told her what she and all the world besides already knows: that Pauline Viardot is the most exquisite dramatic singer of our time, and besides this a consummate musician and a composer of the most delicate and lively intelligence. To which opinion, as merited as it is universal, Madame X. is prepared to give ample and elegant expression in a notice she meditates publishing upon you.

Pray give a kind reception to your new correspondent, and keep a friendly remembrance of your old and most devoted admirer,

F. Liszt

Rome, December 12th, 1881

288. To Madame Malwine Tardieu in Brussels

[The wife of the chief editor of the Independance Belge]

How good of you, Madame, to make such ready allowance for my delays and shortcomings in correspondence. It is a disagreeable infirmity of mine not to be able to write longer and better letters. Your last kind lines delighted me, and I thank you for them most affectionately. The brilliant success of Ma.s.senet's Herodiade [The first performance of the Opera took place at the Theater de la Monnaie in Brussels, 19th December, 1881.] gives me sincere pleasure; all Paris, after having applauded the work on its first appearance at Brussels, will be all the more ready to applaud it again in Paris itself. For my own part let me confess to you quite in a whisper that I am inclined rather to hold back with respect to certain love-scenes, which, it seems, are necessary on the stage, when introduced into biblical subjects.

They jar on my feelings--excepting in our admirable and valiant friend St. Saens' Dalila, where he has made a glorious love duet which is quite in place; for Dalila and Samson are bound to give themselves to the devil for love's sake, whilst in Ma.s.senet's Magdalen and Herodfade the whole thing is merely conventional...theatrical.

Pray forgive me, Madame, for this opinion, which is slightly pedantic, but without any pretension. When you see Madame Viardot again, tell her that I still cherish an enthusiastic recollection of her--a typical Orpheus, Fides and Rosina,--and, besides, an enchanting composer and a pianist full of ingenious dexterity.

Have you heard anything of her daughter, Madame Heritte? Do you know her remarkable setting of Victor Hugo's "Feu du Ciel"?

Monsieur Becquet [President of the Brussels Musical Society (since dissolved).] has sent me an excellent French translation of my Elizabeth, [By Gustave Lagye.] quite adapted to the sense and rhythm of the music. When this Legend of St. Elizabeth was first performed at Budapest (end of August 1865) the Independance Belge published a most flattering article on the work. .--.

Pray remember most kindly to M. Tardieu your affectionate and devoted servant,

F. Liszt

Rome, January 20th, 1882.

Zarembski has received my orchestration of his charming "Danses Polonaises." ["Danses Galiciennes."]

289. To Colonel Alexander Wereschagin

[The brother of the celebrated painter; formerly adjutant to the Russian General Skobeleff, also an author.]

Dear M. de Wereschagin,

I am very grateful to you for sending me the photograph of one of your brother's admirable pictures. His "Forgotten" is a dismal, ghastly symphony of crows and vultures; I understand it, and deeply enter into his marvellous inspiration.

Be so good as to tell your brother how great is my admiration for his genius, and accept, dear Sir, the expression of my best and most devoted regards.

F. Liszt