Letters of Franz Liszt Volume II Part 15

By your activity and the character of your publications our interests are naturally similar; I will take care to make them as agreeable as possible to you.

The day after tomorrow I will send you four or five small pages which, if I mistake not, will suit you,--and which may be propagated. It is a simple and easy version for Organ of the hymn "Tu es Petrus," lately performed here on the eighteen-hundredth anniversary of St. Peter. I hope you will find an organist in Paris who is willing to appropriate this piece and by his talent to make it worth hearing.

As I am anxious that your edition should be perfectly correct I beg that you will send me the proofs. Address them to me, from the loth to the 30th August, at Weimar, Grand Duke of Saxe- Weimar, Germany. The performance of my Oratorio "Saint Elizabeth," at the jubilee Festival of the Wartburg on the 28th August, calls me into those parts of Thuringia which "Saint Elizabeth" has ill.u.s.trated.

I shall start from here in about a week. Will you therefore defer what you are so kindly intending to send me until my return to Rome (end of October)? Accept, dear sir, my best thanks, together with the a.s.surance of my very distinguished and devoted sentiments.

F. Liszt

Rome, July 12th, 1867

Here, as in Germany, my name is enough without any more detailed address.

56. To Prince Constantine Czartoryski

[From a rough copy in Liszt's own handwriting enclosed in the following letter. The addressee, President of the Society of the Friends of Music, died in 1891 in Vienna, where he was Vice- President of the Herrenhaus.]

My Prince,

The two letters which you have done me the honor to address to me at Rome and Munich have reached me at the same time. I cannot but feel myself highly flattered at your kind proposition with regard to the performance of my Oratorio "Saint Elizabeth" at one of the concerts of the musical society over which you preside. The great renown of these concerts, the rare capability of their conductor Mr. Herbeck, the talent of the artists who take part in them, and the care that is taken to maintain the traditions of the musical glory of Vienna, make it very desirable for every serious composer to take a place in their programme. Thus I am most sincerely grateful to you, my Prince, for procuring me this honor, which however, much to my regret, I should not be able to accept without some delay.

It would be wearisome to enter into many details; one fact alone will suffice: the score of the "Elizabeth" is to be sent back to be engraved, and I promised the editor not to let it go anywhere else before its publication. Besides this the voice and orchestral parts which were used at the Wartburg are no longer available.

Kindly pardon me therefore that I cannot in this matter satisfy your favorable intentions as I should like. "What is deferred is not lost," says a proverb to which I prefer to attach myself today, while begging you to accept, my Prince, the expression of the sentiments of high esteem and consideration with which I have the honor to be

Your Highness's very humble and devoted servant,

F. Liszt

Munich, October 14th, 1867

57. To Eduard Liszt

Dearest Eduard,

My hearty thanks to you for your letter. It almost made me determine to send Prince Czartoryski an answer in the affirmative; but when I came to think the matter over more fully it did not seem suitable, considering my peculiar position.

Enclosed is a copy of my letter to Czartoryski; I hope you may not disapprove of it; let me give you a few more reasons.

1st. I really cannot at present send off the only existing copy of the score of the "Elizabeth", for it is required for printing.

Nor should I care to have the orchestra and chorus parts from Munich used, and this I wrote to Prince Cz. It was for this very same reason that I declined offers respecting performances of the "Elizabeth" from Dusseldorf, Leipzig, Dresden, etc.

2nd. I do not share your rosy hopes of this work proving a success in towns where my earlier works not only met with little appreciation, but even received unseemly rebuffs. In Vienna, Leipzig, Berlin and even larger cities, the hisses of half a dozen stupid boys or evil-disposed persons were always sufficient to delude the public, and to frustrate the best intentions of my somewhat disheartened friends. In the newspaper criticisms these hissing critics are sure to find numerous supporters and pleasant re-echoes as long as the one object of the majority of my judges of this species is to get me out of their way. The improvement, which is said of late to have shown itself in regard to my position, may be interpreted somewhat thus: "For years in his Symphonic Poems, his Ma.s.ses, Pianoforte works, Songs, etc., Liszt has written mere bewildering and objectionable stuff; in his "Elizabeth" he appears to have acted somewhat more rationally-- still, etc., etc."--Now as I am in no way inclined to cry peccavi for all my compositions, or to a.s.sume that the castigations they received were just and justifiable, I do not consider it advisable to subscribe to the supposed extenuating circ.u.mstances of the "Elizabeth". I well know the proverb: "Non enim qui se ipsum commendat, ille probatus est," and do not think I am sinning against it. However it is possible that my resolute friends may, in the end, be right in a.s.serting that my things are not so bad as they are made out to be!--Meanwhile what I have to do is to go on working quietly and undismayed, without in the smallest degree urging the performance of my works-nay in restraining some friendly disposed conductors from undertaking them.

3rd. After having two years ago excused myself to Herbeck about allowing a performance of the "Elizabeth" in Vienna, I cannot now immediately accept the friendly offer of Prince Czartoryski. It might be somewhat different had Herbeck attended the Wartburg performance, as I invited him to do through Sch.e.l.le. But much as I appreciate and admire Herbeck's talent as a conductor, still I cannot know in advance whether he likes my work or not, or how far he agrees with my intentions. At all events I should have to come to some personal understanding with him on the subject before a performance is given in Vienna, just because this is a matter of importance to me, and the performance ought not to be a dementi of the preceding ones. It is much more to my advantage not to have my works performed at all, than to allow them to be performed in a half-and-half or unsatisfactory manner.--I may say quite frankly that it would certainly be very agreeable to me to stand in a somewhat better light in Vienna as a composer than I have hitherto done. But the time has not come for that--and if it should ever come, half a dozen of my compositions, for instance the 13th Psalm, the Faust and Dante Symphonies, some of the Symphonic Poems, and even, horribile dictu! the Prometheus Chorus, would have to be introduced to the public in proper style. Three concerts would be necessary for this, and would have to be announced beforehand, arranged and rehea.r.s.ed, and there the "Elizabeth" might also then find a place among them. Herbeck would be an excellent one to arrange and conduct these concerts, provided he were not too much afraid of the obligations due to criticism. My personal position will not permit of my taking any part in them as a conductor; nevertheless I should not care to be altogether idle on the occasion, and hence should like, first of all, to have a careful discussion with Herbeck about various points that must absolutely be given thus and in no other way. It was in this sense that I wrote to Czartoryski that: "Ce qui est differe nest pas perdu" ("Aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben") ["Put off is not given up."]--and so I may possibly come to Vienna--in the winter of '69.

First of all, however, I need several quiet months in Rome in order again to take up the work that has been interrupted for so long. The Bulows have persuaded me to spend my birthday with them. The Munich Musik-Schule is in full activity and seems as if it were likely to outstrip the other Conservatoires. Bulow is a.s.suredly justified in saying, "Go and do likewise"!--

Before the end of the month I shall be back in Rome. All hearty good wishes to you and yours, from your faithfully attached,

F. Liszt

Munich, October 16th, 1867

P.S.--Before long you will receive a visit from August Rockel.

This name will probably call up to your imagination--as it has done in many other cases--an ultra-revolutionary agitator; in place of which you will find a gentle, refined, kindly and excellent man. I should like you to cultivate his acquaintance, and can cordially recommend him to you. His daughter (at the Burg Theater) you are sure to know--and you will also know of his old friendship with Wagner and Bulow. It was not till I came here that I became acquainted with Rockel and learned to value him.

Have you read in the Augsburger Allgem. Zeitung the extremely kind notice of my stay in Stuttgart? Best thanks also for sending me your article on the "Wanderer."

58. To Eduard von Liszt

Dearest Eduard,

By some mistake I did not receive your letter of the 16th till today. From my last you will have clearly seen that I do not wish any further performance of the "Elizabeth" before the score is published. As I told you, I have declined the offers from Dusseldorf, Dresden and other towns. Even as regards Leipzig, where I am under special obligations to Riedel (for he has on several occasions got his Society to give excellent performances of the "Gran Ma.s.s," the "Prometheus" choruses, the "Seligkeiten,"

etc.), I shall endeavor to defer the promised performance of the "Elizabeth." The matter would be one of special importance to me as regards Vienna,--and for this very reason I am anxious not to be in too great a hurry. Hence I most gratefully accept your mediation with Prince Czartoryski. Be my kind mediator and point out to him my peculiar position, so that there may not be any sort of vexation--and let the "Elizabeth" remain unperformed. I think I have clearly stated my reasons for this pa.s.sive, or, if you prefer it, this expectative mode of action.

It would interest me to know how the "Coronation Ma.s.s" was performed and received in Vienna. Ask Herbeck in my name not to drag the tempi; the "Gloria," more especially, must be taken the more rapidly as it proceeds--the time to be beaten throughout alla breve. Send me word about this to Rome.

To please the Bulows I shall remain here till October 24th,--and be back in Rome, at latest, on the 30th.

If Bulow goes on working here for a couple of years, Munich will become the musical capital of Germany. In addition to my interest in all musical matters here, my stay has offered many other points of interest and pleasure by my intercourse with Kaulbach, Liebig, Heyse, Geibel, Redwitz, etc.--

Cordially yours,

F. Liszt

Munich, October 20th, 1867

Enclosed is a tolerably good photograph of my humble self.

59. To Peter Cornelius in Munich

Dearest Cornelius,

I am grieved not to have met you yesterday, so as to have thanked you at once for the indescribable pleasure your poem gave me. The little interpreter Lulu [Daniela, the eldest daughter of H. v.

Bulow, now married to Prof. Dr. Thode] recited it twice admirably without the smallest error or stumbling. I most sincerely wish that all your works may find such interpreters as Lulu, so fully able to grasp your sentiments that your audience has nothing to do but to weep--as was our feeling yesterday with Cosima, when we both wept like children!

With all my heart, your

F. Liszt

Wednesday, October 23rd, 1867 [Munich]