Letters of Franz Liszt Volume I Part 30

122. To Gaetano Belloni in Paris

[autograph in the possession of M. Etienne Charavay in Paris]

[September 9th, 1854]

My dear Belloni,

Will you do me the kindness to tell Mr. Escudier that on my last visit to H.R.H. the Duke of Gotha I gave Monseigneur the volume on Rossini, and spoke to him at the same [time] of the desire that Mr. Escudier had mentioned to me in his last letter to be admitted into the order of H.R.H., before putting himself at his command? It goes without saying that I warmly recommended Mr.

Escudier to the Duke; but nevertheless he seemed to turn a little deaf, at any rate with one ear, to the side of the ribbon. In the course of this month I shall probably see the Duke again, and will speak to him again about it. On your side do not neglect Oppelt [a Belgian writer; translated the Duke's opera], who frequently corresponds with Gotha, and rest a.s.sured that I shall not fail to be agreeable to your friends on this occasion.

Yours ever,

F. Liszt

Nothing new here. The theatrical season will open with "Ernani"

on the 16th September at latest; they talk of mounting "Rigoletto" or the "Foscari." Unfortunately the German translations of Verdi's operas are not worth a straw, and we are great purists at Weimar. In November the "Huguenots" will also be given, for the first time at Weymar, the late Grand Duke never having permitted the performance of this work on account of his respect for Luther, whom his ancestors had specially protected.

Hartel is going to engrave several of my scores. Four or five of them will appear in the course of the winter ("Ta.s.so"--the "Preludes"--"Orphee"--"Mazeppa" will be printed first) under the t.i.tle of "Poemes Symphoniques."

I won't write to Escudiers--it will be enough if you let them know of my good intentions in regard to them. You know that I am overdone with correspondence, and, unless it is absolutely necessary for me to write, I abstain from it, so as not to interrupt my work of composition, which is my first raison d'etre.

123. To Eduard Liszt in Vienna

What affliction and what desolation, my very dear friend! [Eduard Liszt, then member of the provincial Court of Justice inthe Civil Senate, had lost his wife from cholera.] Alas! in trials such as these even the sympathy felt by those who are nearest to us can do but little to alleviate the overwhelming weight of the cross which we have to bear. And yet I wish to tell you that in these days of sorrow my heart is near to yours, sympathizing with your suffering, and trusting that "the peace of the Lord," that peace which the world can neither give nor take away, may sustain you.

Ever yours,

F. Liszt

October 10th, 1854

P.S.--Try to come and see me soon!

124. To Anton Rubinstein

Weimar, October 19th, 1854

Schott makes me ashamed, my dear Rubinstein. Here come the new proofs of the "Kamenoi-Ostrow," [Rubinstein had written a number of short pianoforte pieces named after the Emperor's summer residence near St. Petersburg.] which he addresses to me for you, and I have not yet sent you the previous ones! To excuse myself I must tell you that I am frightfully busy (especially at the theater), and that I did not want to put the proofs in a wrapper without writing and thanking you for your charming and clever letter from Leipzig. Well, here is the whole packet at last, which you can send direct to Schott. Nevertheless, I am in your debt for the carriage (which please beg Redslob to put to my account), and for ten crowns which I borrowed from you at the railway. As you are coming back here at the beginning of November we shall have plenty of time to settle these little matters.

The rehearsals of your "Cha.s.seurs de Siberie" begin in the course of next week. You may trust in my zeal, and be a.s.sured that your work will be suitably prepared. I only beg you to be here about the 4th November, in order to give us your own ideas at the final rehearsals. If you decidedly prefer to be a spectator at the performance, I will willingly conduct the work--but perhaps at the general rehearsals the fancy may take you to mount the conductor's chair, as I proposed to you at first: whatever you definitely decide in this matter will only be agreeable to me.

Therefore just do as you generally do, I beg you, without ceremony or bother of any kind.

How do you find yourself as regards the musical atmosphere of Leipzig? Has your "Ocean" obtained the suffrages of the Areopagus which must be its first judge? At which Gewandhaus Concert will Mr. Van II. be heard? If you already know anything positive as to your debuts in Leipzig, write it to me, with a continuation of the commentaries which amused me so much in your former letter.

We have nothing of special news here which can interest you.

Madame Wagner returns to Weymar the day after tomorrow, and next Sunday "Lohengrin" will be given. The Wednesday after that a new singer (Mdlle. Stoger, the daughter of the director at Prague), who possesses a beautiful voice and appears to be highly endowed, will make her debut in "Lucrezia Borgia." On the 24th October I expect Madame Schumann, whom you will already have seen and heard at Leipzig. When you have an opportunity please tell her not to delay her journey to Weymar, for I have made all the arrangements with Mr. de Beaulieu, etc., from the 24th to the 26th, for the Court Concert and for the one which will take place at the theater in her honor.

My "Faust" is finished, and I am going to give it to the copyist in a couple of days. I am very curious to make acquaintance with yours, and to see in how far the beaux-esprits differ whilst meeting on common ground! Your "murrendos" at Leipzig will have proved favorable to your conversations with the Muse, and I look forward to a fine Symphony. A revoir then, dear friend; on the 4th November, or the 5th at latest, we have the first performance of an unpublished tragedy, "Bernhard von Weymar," for which Raff has written a grand Overture and a March, and on the following days your general rehearsals.

Yours in all friendship,

F. Liszt

125. To Dr. Franz Brendel

[Beginning of November, 1854]

Dear Friend,

Pohl's article on Lieder und Spruche, etc. (Songs and Sayings), appears to me to be of general interest to the public--therefore I begged you to put it in your paper.

Touching what you have reserved of Raff's, I am quite of opinion that you should also make room for him in his critical examinations of the Minnesingers. [The German poet-singers of the Middle Ages.] The ground is an interesting and attractive one-- and if a rather warm discussion should ensue later on between Raff and Pohl, the field of the Minnegesang (love-song) is by far the most agreeable for both, as well as the more entertaining for your readers. Ergo, put Pohl's article into your next number.

Raff can then spring his mines in honor of the Minnegesang when he pleases. This may make a quite pleasant and harmless joke-- perchance a crown of lilies will mingle with it in the end and shape the affair into a University concern...Your paper, in any case, will not suffer. Therefore set to work and go through with it!

In Bussenius [Bussenius, under the pseudonym W. Neumann, published the set of biographies "The Composers of Recent Times"

(Balde, Ca.s.sel).] you have rightly found the man of whom I previously foretold you somewhat. I think that by the New Year he will settle at Gotha, and carry on there with his firm (Balde) greater literary and publishing undertakings. Meanwhile don't speak of this. When the outlook is more certain, and things are favorably settled, I will tell you more.

I gladly accept your friendly invitation to write an article for your New Year's number. In the course of the next few days you will receive the article on Clara Schumann, and shortly afterwards the second half of "Robert Schumann."

Cornelius has been rather unwell for several days, which has delayed the translation. [Peter Cornelius translated the articles written in French by Liszt--with the collaboration of the Princess Wittgenstein--for the Neue Zeitschrift; those which are published in vols. iii. to v. of the "Gesammelte Schriften."]

Will you, dear friend, be so good as to give my special thanks to Herr Klitzsch for his article in today's number? By the favorable manner in which he enters into the intentions of my Ma.s.s, and the artistic sympathy he shows for my endeavour, he has given me a very great pleasure. Probably a good opportunity will present itself, later on, for me to undertake a further work in the religious style, as I feel and conceive it, by the composition of a "Missa Solemnis" for mixed chorus and orchestra...For the present I cannot, however, occupy myself with this; but aufgeschoben soll nicht aufgehoben heissen. [A German proverb-- "Put off is not given up."]

When I come to Leipzig I shall have the pleasure of calling on Klitzsch and giving him my best thanks in person. If you think I ought to write him a few lines before then, let me know.

Litolff was here several days, and we have come nearer together both from a friendly and an artistic standpoint. His fourth Concerto (Conzert-Symphonie) is a marked advance on the previous ones. He played this, as well as the third Concerto, the day before yesterday, in a truly masterly and electric, living manner. Frau Dr. Steche will have told you about it. Perhaps in your next number you will put in a short appreciative notice of Litolfff's appearance here.

Rubinstein left for Leipzig at midday today. The performance of his Symphony ["Ocean"; given for the first time, November 16th, 1854, at the Gewandhaus Concert for the Poor.] is fixed for the 16th at the Gewandhaus, and later on he will also appear as a pianist. Hartel, Hofmeister, and Schott have already taken about thirty of his ma.n.u.scripts, which is about the smaller half of his portfolio!--

About the Berlin "Tannhauser" affair I cannot for the moment say more than that I have always made Wagner feel perfectly at liberty to put me on one side, and to manage the matter himself, according to his own wishes, without me. But so long as he gives me his confidence as a friend, it is my duty to serve him as a discreet friend--and this I cannot do otherwise than by giving no ear to transactions of that kind, and letting people gossip as much as they like. Don't say anything more about it for the present in your paper. The matter goes deeper than many inexperienced friends of Wagner's imagine. I will explain it to you more clearly by word of mouth. Meanwhile I remain pa.s.sive-- for which Wagner will thank me later on.

Yours most truly,

F. Liszt

N. B.--Pohl wishes his Minnesinger article not to be signed with the name Hoplit, but with the letters R. P., when it appears in your paper.

126. To Anton Rubinstein

Your "Dialogue Dramatique" a propos of your "Ocean" is a little chef-d'oeuvre, and I shall keep it, in order, later on, to put it at the disposal of some future Lenz, who will undertake your Catalogue and the a.n.a.lysis of the three styles of Van II. We laughed with all our hearts, a deux, in the little blue room of the Altenburg, and we form the most sincere wishes that Gurkhaus, [Princ.i.p.al of the music firm F. Kistner in Leipzig.] the deus ex machine, may have come to put you out of the uncomfortable state of suspense in which the Gewandhaus public did you the honor to leave you. To tell the truth, this decrescendo of applause, at the third movement of your Symphony, surprises me greatly, and I would have wagered without hesitation that it would be the other way. A great disadvantage for this kind of composition is that, in our stupid musical customs, often very anti-musical, it is almost impossible to appeal to a badly informed public by a second performance immediately after the first; and at Leipzig, as elsewhere, one only meets with a very small number of people who know how to apply cause and effect intelligently and enthusiastically to a piece out of the common, and signed with the name of a composer who is not dead. Moreover I suspect that your witty account is tainted with a species of modesty, and I shall wait, like the general public, for the accounts in the newspapers in order to form an opinion of your success. Whatever may come of it, and however well or ill you are treated by the public or criticism, my appreciation of the value that I recognize in your works will not vary, for it is not without a well-fixed criterion, quite apart from the fashion of the day, and the high or low tide of success, that I estimate your compositions highly, finding much to praise in them, except the reservation of some criticisms which almost all sum up as follows--that your extreme productiveness has not as yet left you the necessary leisure to imprint a more marked individuality on your works, and to complete them. For, as it has been very justly said, it is not enough to do a thing, but it must be completed.

This said and understood, there is no one who admires more than I do your remarkable and abundant faculties, or who takes a more sincere and friendly interest in your work. You know that I have set my mind upon your "Ocean" being given here, and I shall beg you also to give us the pleasure of playing one of your Concertos. In about ten days I will write and tell you the date of the first concert of our orchestra.