Chapter VI (11)

All your compositions bear the stamp of distinction and of good taste. This one is charmed to find again in the "Arabesques" you are kind enough to send me. Pray accept my thanks and the expression of my very sincere and devoted esteem.

F. Liszt

(Villa d'Este,) December 25th, 1879.

255. To Frau Reisenauer-Pauly in Rome

[The mother of Liszt's pupil, Alfred Reisenauer]

Dear Madame,

My best thanks for your kind notice of the Roman concert of January 23rd. It seems to me that "populations necessiteuses" [distressed population] would have been better on the programme than "populations affamees" [starving population] of Silesia.

Mendelssohn's excellent Concerti always hold their ground without risk, especially since Berlioz's witty article (published nearly 30 years ago), according to which they are occasionally performed by the pianos alone, without further trouble on the part of the pianist.

While taking affectionate part in the success achieved by your son Alfred, whose talents are duly valued by me, I remain, dear Madame,

Yours truly,

F. Liszt

Budapest, January 30th, 1880.

My cordial greetings to Madame Helbig.

256. To Professor Klindworth in Moscow

Much-esteemed dear Friend,

My sincere thanks for your masterly arrangement of Chopin's Concerto. [The Concerto in F minor; score, orchestral parts and arrangement for 2 pianos published by Jurgenson (Moscow) and Bock (Berlin).] You showed me the first movement of it some years ago in Munich. I consider the modifications in the instrumentation and in the piano part successful. As much transparency as possible should be preserved in the melodious parts.

I conclude that you will impress on M. Jurgenson the necessity of not giving way to the ancient careless abuses of publishers in the 2-piano edition. Thus four lines and two identical copses are requisite for performance.

As leader and head of the now numerous Chopin-Editors, your excellent Jurgenson-Edition authorises you to advance a proudly modest "Sic vos non vobis."

Au revoir this summer in Hall, dear Klindworth. Give my kind regards to your wife.

Yours faithfully,

F. Liszt

Budapest, February 16th, 1880

The last corrected proofsheets of Tschaikowsky's Polonaise dedicated to you leave by today's post addressed to Jurgenson.

257. To the Kammervirtuoso Professor Hermann Scholtz in Dresden

[Pianist and composer (born 1845, pupil of Bulow and Rheinberger), is especially famous as an admirable player of Chopin.]

Much-esteemed Sir and Friend,

I have sincere pleasure in praising and recommending your Chopin- Edition. To Klindworth belongs the merit of having preceded you by his intelligent and practical work. Your publisher, Peters, might be advised in the next thousand copies he issues of the Chopin-Edition signed Hermann Scholtz:--

A. Not to fill up the first volume with Waltzes. Why make this paltry concession to the trifling requirements of the drawing- room? Chopin's Waltzes are certainly charming, elegant and full of invention...still his Polonaises and Mazurkas have a far higher importance.

Chopin is the bewitching musical genius in which the heroically chivalrous Polish nationality finds expression. This chief characteristic ought to be distinctly emphasised in classifying his works. So, first volume: Polonaises, Mazurkas and the Fantasia upon Polish motives.

B. The clear notation of the melodies (indicated by tails turned upwards!), as in the Klindworth-Edition, should be maintained.

C. In works having an orchestral accompaniment an arrangement of that accompaniment for a second piano ought to be printed under the Solo part of the first piano.

(The brains of most pianists become addled by the usual editions, where the essentially melodious and rhythmical character, nay often even the correct bass, is wanting.)

D. This is again addressed to Mr. Peters. He ought not to withhold from the audience your admirable version of the Recitative in the Adagio of the F minor Concerto for Piano Solo, and should add these few pages to your Chopin-Edition.

Yours faithfully,

F. Liszt

Weimar, April 29th, 1880

255. To Sophie Menter

Dear Friend,

The signature of the telegram front Rome announced to me your return to "Hungaria." I met friend Bosendorfer the day before yesterday in Frankfort: we began at once of course to talk about Sophie Menter and her new thickly-leaved Petersburg laurels. Similar plants will bloom for you everywhere according to the capacity of the soil, and will always shade your artistic peregrinations through Europe and America.

Give my kindest regards to Neuschul, from yours cordially,

F. Liszt

Weimar, May 26th, 1880

259. To Jules de Zarembski

Dear Friend,

You have made an excellent choice; and M. Gevaert also. The Brussels Conservatoire keeps in the first ranks: its very active and intelligent Director will take good care not to allow it to degenerate or to sink into idleness; on the contrary, he gives and will give it an entirely progressive impulse. You will have to see that your piano class does honor to the Conservatoire, to its head and to your own name. This will take some years to do; therefore, persevere.

Your three studies are most uncommon, remarkable and successful. The second, in F minor, might be signed Chopin. This exceedingly high praise does not imply that you have in any way been guilty of plagiarism, for in your works original power is manifest.

Perhaps there may be a slight falling-off towards the middle of the third Study; still this does not disturb the total good impression.

When we are chatting together again about music I will explain to you viva voce my antiquated ideas concerning the whys and wherefores of matters belonging to our profession.

I am sending Simon at Berlin at once the good copy of your three Studies. He has sent me the rather bad one of your Mazurkas for two performers. These I played over with the Baroness von Meyendorff yesterday evening. She begs me to tell you our very favorable opinion of these charming productions of your Polish muse.

I am telling Simon that publishers cannot do better than bring out works of value such as Zarembski writes.

Pray, dear friend, present the sincere regards to Mme. Zarembska of your cordially attached

F. Liszt

Weimar, June 1st, 1880

I am just sending off the copies of the Studies and Mazurkas to Simon.

260. To Professor Bassani

Dear Friend,

Your "Studio sinfonico" is fine poetry in music. It reminds me of Venice when I was twenty. The solemn, sad motive (5/4) corresponds to the lagoons and to the gloomy stroke of their waves round the Bridge of Sighs: the other subject soars on high accompanied by the gentle sound of the belfries, announcing, as it were, from a distance the joyfulness of divine hopes.

My cordial sympathy and friendship.

F. Liszt

Weimar, June 4th, 1880

261. To Marie Lipsius

Dear Friend,

Hearty thanks for your persistent kindness; "Carmen" has just arrived, and I now beg you to find out for and send to me another tale of Merimee's, called "Les ames du Purgatoire" [Souls in Purgatory]. It narrates the adventures of Don Juan de Marana, immortalised by Mozart and Lord Byron. Grabbe has also turned his poetical attention towards this mauvais sujet, and gives him as a companion to Faust, which might perplex His Excellency von Goethe.

I hope soon to see you either in Leipzig or Weimar.

Ever yours gratefully,

F. Liszt

Weimar, June 10th, 1880

Tomorrow I shall write to Hartel's that the edition of my "Gesammelte Schriften" could not do better than begin with your excellent version of the "Chopin."

262. To Kornel von Abranyi

Highly Esteemed Dear Friend,

My hearty thanks for the dedication copy of your charming "Nocturnes." "Near the chapel" and "Starry night" belong to my most select intimate Programme.

Aladar Juhasz needs but health to stand forth and hold his own as an excellent artist, virtuoso and composer. The matter of his stipend is now arranged--as we wished it. Juhasz will certainly also greatly distinguish himself at the Klausenburg Musical Festival. My lines of introduction to Trefort, the Minister, must no longer be presented to His Excellency as mustard after dinner. The less scribbling and gossiping the better. "Vitam impendere vero."--

I request that the two accompanying letters in Hungarian may be answered by the General Secretary of the Royal Hungarian National Academy of Music, Abranyi Kornel, in my name. Before I left Budapest we read together the polyphone tattoo by J. K., and I then requested you to make the composer understand that Meyerbeer's far-famed "Rataplan, Rataplan, plan, plan" (in the "Huguenots") is quite enough henceforth for the audience.

Do not delay any longer returning his score to J. Beg Herr P. A. to excuse me for not being a millionaire.

Till the end of July remains in Weimar Yours most faithfully and gratefully,

F. Liszt

Weimar, June 20th, 1880

263. To Freiherr Hans von Wolzogen

Highly esteemed Freiherr and Friend,

.--. Wagner has shown and taught us triumphantly "what style is." You explain the mighty matter admirably in your last writing, dear Sir. That a "School for the culture of style in Bayreuth" should be established, is wished by no one more seriously than by

Yours most sincerely,

F. Liszt

Weimar, July 28th 1880

149. To Friedrich Hofmeister, Music Publisher in Leipzig

Weimar, August 17th, 1880

Dear Sir,

For the last twenty years or more Kirchner has known how sincerely I esteem his compositions. I rejoice to see that he continues adding to their number with freshness and vigor, and am much obliged to you for sending me his "Toys," "Caprices," "Leaves," etc., which you have brought out.

Yours truly,

F. Liszt

265. To Baroness Helen Augusz, Sister of Mercy in Graz

[Daughter of Liszt's late friend, Baron Anton Augusz, of Szegzard in Hungary]

Most revered Sister of St. Vincent de Paule,

Pray always dispose of my feeble services. I am writing to the Baroness de Roner according to your instructions, and request that you will send her the enclosed lines.

M. Tirindelli's [Professor at the "Liceo Marcello" in Venice; violinist and composer.] abilities deserve attention, consideration and encouragement. This you have well understood, and it will be a pleasure to me to second you.

How can I be of use to him?

By recommending him to some publisher in Germany?

Does he intend to travel and give concerts? Your protege, M. Tirindelli, may count upon my sincere readiness to oblige him: the only thing I ask is, that he should write me distinctly in what way I can be of service to him. Yesterday I took the liberty of noting several alterations in his melody "All' Ideale," his Mazurka, and in the Adagio of the Trio which pleases you by its fine feeling.

By the way, this Adagio has been so badly copied that another less faulty one will have to be made before sending it to print. By this same post you will receive the three works with my alterations.

Having arrived here last Saturday, I shall remain at the Villa d'Este till New Year. In the middle of January will return to Budapest

Your very respectful and devoted servant,

F. Liszt

Rome, September 1st, 1880

The most convenient address for me during the next months is: Albergo a Via Alibert, Roma.

266. To Madame A. Rubinstein

Allow me, dear Madame Rubinstein, to dedicate to you my transcription of your husband's charming and very famous Lied. To the very conservative burden "Ach! wenn es doch immer so bliebe" [Ah! could it remain so for ever!] I add that what will certainly always remain as now is, your most respectfully and affectionately obedient servant,

F. Liszt

(Villa d'Este,) October 24th, 1880

267. To Frau Amalie von Fabry in Budapest

Dear Madame,

I do not know whether I talk too much; but I certainly write too little to those who remain constantly in possession of my sincere gratitude. I crave your kindly indulgence therefore for my involuntary shortcomings.

Through your nephew Imre [Baron Augusz, son of Anton Augusz. He died at an early age.] I hear that his mother, Baroness von Augusz, has been so good as to look at my new dwelling in the Academy of Music, and that the arrangement of it, as yet unknown to me, meets her approval. The solicitude you have shown, Madame, in this matter--as well as in other similar ones in the Palatingasse and Fischmarkt during the last 8 years--I beg to acknowledge with warmest thanks. It never enters my head to make exaggerated pretensions with regard to my residential requirements. Decency without display continues to be the right thing for me. I only have one wish at all times: never to be a trouble to my friends anywhere.

It will be agreeable to me if Fanny feels disposed to undertake my modest household service again this winter. She adapts herself well to it with her pretty smiling face.

Pray accept, dear Frau von Fabry, the renewed expression of my old devoted affection.

F. Liszt.

Villa d'Este, Tivoli, November 1st, 1880

On the 15th January I shall again arrive at Budapest.

268. To Frau Anna Benfey-Schuppe

[Autograph belonging to Herr Fritz Donebauer at Prague.--The addressee is an authoress residing at Weimar.]

Dear Madam,

A thousand apologies. I ought long ere this to have written you and my esteemed friend, Dr. Benfey, a letter of thanks, and to have sent your sheetful of questions back answered. [The answers follow in the letter.] Pray excuse this delay.--

I frankly confess that the title of the pamphlet, "Beethoven and Liszt," [Alludes to a pamphlet contemplated by the late husband of the lady addressed.] at first frightened me. It called to my mind a reminiscence of my childhood. Nearly fifty years ago, at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, I used often to notice a harmless poodle keeping company in the same cage with a majestic lion, who seemed to be kindly disposed towards the little chamberlain. I have exactly the same feeling towards Beethoven as the poodle towards that forest-king.

With sincere thanks and regards,

Yours, F. Liszt

November 11th, 1880 (Villa d'Este, Tivoli)

At the end of September, Breitkopf and Hartel sent my own duet arrangements of my twelve "Poemes Symphoniques" at my request to Gottschalg (Weimar). This copy is intended for Dr. Benfey. Gottschalg will likewise willingly place the scores of the "Dante" and "Faust" Symphonies, as well as the arrangement for two pianos of both these works, at your disposal.

The names of the greatest performers figure in the Court concerts, such as, Joachim, Ernst, Vieuxtemps, Bulow, Rubinstein, Bronsart, Tausig, Madame Viardot-Garcia, etc., etc. A few of these concerts were conducted by Berlioz, and their programmes in every case contained nova et vetera (as prescribed in the gospel).

During my direction of the Opera at Weimar, from '49 to '58, the following works were performed there, together with the standing repertoire of Mozart's, Weber's, Rossini's, Meyerbeer's Operas, etc.

February '49 "Tannhauser;" August 28th, '50, "Lohengrin" (first performance); later on "The Flying Dulchman," and Wagner's splendid edition of Gluck's "Iphigenia in Aulis."--Berlioz's "Benvenuto Cellini;" Schumann's "Manfred" (first performance), Raff's "King Alfred," two of Lassen's Operas, Spohr's "Faust" (with the recitatives), Sobolewski's "Comala," Dorn's "Nibelungen" (first performance), etc., etc.--Finally, Peter Cornelius' "Barber of Bagdad"--the last operatic performance which I directed there.

This short list will suffice for your purpose of the pamphlet; to it we may add that several Oratorios and Symphonic works were performed under my direction, such as Marx' "Moses," Rubinstein's "Paradise Lost," Schumann's "Paradise and the Peri" and his concluding scenes in "Faust," etc.; as for Symphonies, the Great Pyramid--Beethoven's "Ninth" (for Goethe's Jubilee in '49), nearly all Berlioz's Symphonies and Overtures, besides other Symphonies and Overtures by Schumann, Raff, Hiller, Bronsart, Joachim, Bulow, etc., most of which were at that time scarcely known or entirely new.

You might obtain better and more detailed information concerning musical life at Weimar (from '49 to '58) from some who took part in it either as performers or friends, especially Gille, Lassen, Gottschalg, Grosse (trombone-player and contrapuntist), Wahlbrull, Milde and his wife, and Fran Dr. Emilie Merian, than from the theater archives.

I have no doubt, moreover, that the present Intendant, Baron von Loen, will readily permit you to inspect the archives of the theater and see any programmes of the Court concerts of that time which may still be forthcoming. You may likewise count upon the obliging readiness of Lassen and Muller-Hartung in making your pamphlet known.

During my summer stay in Weimar in latter years, some pianists have taken to coming there regularly who play my Symphonic Poems well and willingly. I am not able to name any of those who come during the winter. Ask Lassen and Muller-Hartung about this. Enclosed you will find an introduction from me to Madame Merian. She sings my songs with fervent intelligence, from heart to heart.

F. Liszt

November 11th, 1880 (Villa d'Este)

269. To the Committee of the Antwerp Musical Society

Very Honored Gentlemen,

The expression of my sincere gratitude for your very kind letter has been delayed owing to a circumstance which was independent of my will.

I am acquainted with the high character which the Antwerp Musical Society bears; many of those who were present at your Festivals in 1876, '77, and have spoken to me in the liveliest terms of praise of those great musical performances, of the far-famed merits of your director, Peter Benoit, of his Rubens Cantata and of his Oratorio [La Guerre, De Oorlog.] recently sung at Brussels on the occasion of the national commemoration by 900 members of your Society. Greatly flattered by your invitation, I hope, Gentlemen, that my answer to it may not appear discourteous to you. Allow me to decline the honor of directing the Festival you have in view for 1881 and to be present at it as a simple listener. Should any work of mine have been admitted to your programme, I would fain request M. Peter Benoit [One of the chief representatives of Belgian national music (born 1884), Director of the Antwerp Conservatoire] to conduct it, since for the last fifteen years I have declared myself unfit for this work in all countries.

My engagements keep me at Budapest till Easter. After that time I shall be charmed to have the opportunity of assuring you again personally at Antwerp of the sentiments of high consideration and distinguished esteem with which I remain,

Yours faithfully,

F. Liszt

November 16th, 1880 (Villa d'Este,) Tivoli

[The Lisztt-Festival given by the Societe de Musique d'Anvers took place on the 26th May, 1881, under Benoit's direction, in Antwerp. The programme comprised the Gran Mass; the E flat Concerto, played by Fran Falk-Mehlig; the Dance of Death, played by Zarembski; Mignon and other songs, sung by the ladies Kufferath and Schauenburg; and the Preludes.

In a second Festival-Concert on 29th May, arranged by Liszt's former pupil F. von Servais and Jules de Zarembski, Tasso and the Faust Symphony, the Concerto Pathetique (played by M. and Mme. Zarembski), and "Loreley" with orchestra (Mdlle. Kufferath) were performed. Gevaert, the celebrated musical savant, apostrophised Liszt in the opening speech as "the incomparable Virtuoso whose prestige has never been surpassed, nor even equalled; the prolific and inspired composer, who in the numerous domains of Art which he has touched has opened new roads, explored new shores, and left everywhere the luminous imprint of his bold and innovating genius; the eminent head of a School, who may without exaggeration be described as the initiator, par excellence, of the musical movement of our epoch; one of those rare favorites of the gods for whom posterity begins even during their life-time," etc.]

270. To Sophie Menter

Dear, Highly Valued Friend,

If I rightly understand your letter and telegram you are soon going to Paris and London, and also soon coming to Rome. When?-- tell me this clearly. A Roman Sophie Menter Concert is easily arranged and will be a great pleasure for me.

Although introductions from me are quite superfluous for you, I beg you to consider them always at your disposal. The best person to safeguard your interests with the German Ambassadors in France and England will be Frau Grafin Schleinitz. Alter, shorten and improve anything you like in the Fantaisie on the Huguenots. Pieces of this sort ought only to be brought forward by super- eminent virtuosi--Sophie Menter, for instance. The transcriber then hardly serves as "Klecks." [Klecks is the name of Mme. Menter's favorite cat.]

Yours cordially,

F. Liszt

December 2nd, 1880 (Villa D'este, Rome)

Maybe you will tell me yourself soon in Rome where I am to send the letters; if not, send me your address. I shall remain here till January 5th and be at Budapest on the 15th.

271. To Dr. Friedrich Stade in Leipzig

[Musical writer (born 1844) in Leipzig]

Very Dear Sir and Friend,

Your transcription of "Gretchen" [Out of Liszt's Faust Symphony.] for pianoforte and harmonium is capital, just as I wished. I only take the liberty of very slightly altering it, and have added ten bars at the end, which are to be henceforth inserted in the score and in my own arrangements of the Faust Symphony. [They follow herewith in the orchestral movement, according to Dr. Stade's copy.]

If you will kindly take the trouble to arrange the entire Faust Symphony for two performers on one piano, I shall be greatly indebted to you. [This was done.] Deal as freely as possible with the figurations and also with the distribution among the seven octaves of the odious keyboard. It seems to me that what may be more laterally accurate ought often to give way to what sounds better and even to what is more convenient for the players at the piano.

Thanking you once more, I remain,

Yours most cordially,

F. Liszt

Rome, December 11th, 1880.

We will play your duet arrangement together before it is published, in Weimar--next spring.

[Here, Liszt illustrates with Musical score excerpts]

272. To Professor S. Jadassoiin in Leipzig

[Composer (born in 1831), teacher at the Leipzig Conservatoire since 187l]

Dear Sir,

Your setting of the 100th Psalm is nobly religious in feeling and excellent in style. The working out of the choruses is masterly throughout, from beginning to end; a passage which comes out with especial brilliancy is that on pages 14, 15-19, 20, "with rejoicing," where the trombones, and then the trumpets and trombones, joyously repeat the subject of the fugue in augmentation.

The Arioso too which follows, "He made us," is most fervent in expression. There is a fine field here for beautiful contralto voices to rejoice in.

My sincere thanks, dear sir, for the dedication of this excellent work. I shall recommend it for performance to such of my friends as are conductors; above all, to Hofcapellmeister Muller-Hartung, whom I shall request to bring out your Psalm at Weimar.

Yours sincerely,

F. Liszt

Villa d'Este, January 10th, 1881

273. To Frau Reisenauer-Pauly in Konigsberg

Dear Madam,

It is one of my duties to deal sparingly in letters of introduction. Still I am quite willing to repeat my opinion that your son Alfred is a highly gifted and brilliantly aspiring pianoforte-player.

Should this conscientious opinion enable him to obtain further recommendations, he is free to make use of it.

Yours sincerely,

F. Liszt

Budapest, January 29th, 1881

274. To Dionys von Pazmandy, Editor of the Gasette de Hongrie

[This letter is printed in French in the Gazette de Hongrie, but is only known to the Editor in the German translation (Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik?).]

Dear Sir and Friend,

You want to know my impression of yesterday's Bulow Concert? Yet it must have been yours, that of all of us, that of the whole of the intelligent audiences of Europe. To define it in two words: admiration, enthusiasm. Bulow was my pupil in music five-and- twenty years ago, as I myself, five-and-twenty years before, had been the pupil of my much respected and beloved master, Czerny. But to Bulow it was given to do battle better and with greater perseverance than I did. His admirable Beethoven-Edition is dedicated to me as the "fruit of my tuition." Here however it was for the master to learn from the pupil, and Bulow continues to teach by his astonishing performances as virtuoso, as well as by his extraordinary learning as a musician, and now too by his matchless direction of the Meiningen Orchestra.--Here you have the musical progress of our time!

Yours cordially,

F. Liszt

Budapest, February 15th, 1881

275. To Frau Colestine Bosendorfer in Vienna

[The wife of the celebrated pianoforte-maker, who died young]

Not to see you in Vienna this time, Madame, was a grief to me. It cast, as it were, a melancholy shadow over my stay there, which otherwise was brightened by so cordial a reception.--

I am accompanied by the roses without thorns of my pleasant recollections of you, and my hearty and respectful devotion remains unaltered.

F. Liszt

Weimar, Easter Sunday, April 17th, 1881

Have the kindness to repeat to Bosendorfer the assurance of my very cordial friendship.

276. To the Most Honorable Committee of the Wagner-Verein, Berlin

Addressed to Professor Otto Lessmann.

Gentlemen,

A distinction such as that which was conferred upon me yesterday by the Berlin "Wagner-Verein" and by the audience has seldom been received by the highest masters in the musical art, among whom I can only count as an apprentice.

["Les Preludes" and "Festklange," the former under Lessmann's, the latter under Mannstadt's direction, had been performed in the winter garden of the Central Hotel before a numerous audience assembled by invitation. Between the two symphonies, Marianne Brandt sang "Jeanne d'Arc au bucher," and Heinrich Ernst some of Liszt's songs. A banquet concluded the festival.]

Accept my warmest thanks for the "Liszt Festival Concert" of Sunday, 24th April; it remains as a joyous incentive to lifelong continuous work with

Yours respectfully,

F. Liszt

Berlin, Monday, April 25th, 188l

277. To Kornel von Abranyi

Weimar, May 13th, 1881

My Dear Friend,

Rather more than half of my concert-engagements for this year have now been fulfilled. The two performances of "Christus" in Berlin and Freiburg were admirable; the Liszt-Concerts in Freiburg and Baden-Baden likewise; in the first of these the three-part hymn "L'enfant au reveil" was also given, charmingly sung by deliciously clear voices. By way of a rehearsal of this piece the ladies gave a morning serenade in honor of me at the house of my friendly hosts the Rieslers, whose villa will remain most pleasantly in my remembrance. Felix Mottl conducted the Liszt concert in Baden-Baden with "Mazeppa," the "Mephisto- Waltz," the "Hunnenschlacht," and three pieces from the Oratorio "Christus" in a most praiseworthy manner. Bulow's Liszt-evening in Berlin glorious as at Pest and Vienna..--.

I shall stay here till Sunday, 22nd May. On the 24th I shall be at Antwerp. On the 26th is the performance of the "Gran Mass" there.

I am very glad that the Committee of the Musical Festival has chosen just this particular work, which has hitherto been more talked about and abused by the critics than heard. Of course I had left the programme entirely to the discretion of the Committee, for I really have no wish to recommend any work of my own for performance anywhere. My mission is to work on unpretendingly and without troubling myself about advancement.

Yours faithfully,

F. Liszt

My best regards to your wife and sons. I will send you programmes from Antwerp and Brussels. I shall be back here again on the 4th June. From the 9th to the 12th June Tonkunstler-Versammlung in Magdeburg.

278. To Kornel von Abranyi,

Much Esteemed, Dear Friend,

The second copy (with the additional few hundred bars) of the score of my second Mephisto-Waltz is admirably done. Thank Gyula Erkel very particularly in my name for it. I request his acceptance of the enclosed forty florins, as a slight remuneration for the time he has spent on it. I depend upon your firm friendship, which has stood the test of so many years, to find a delicate mode of presenting them to him. The score of the second Mephisto-Waltz will be published next autumn by Furstner (Berlin), and then performances can take place at Budapest and elsewhere.

I am writing to our esteemed Director of the Royal Hungarian Academy of National Music, Franz Erkel, to have Chickering's grand pianoforte, as an excellent and kind gift from America, placed in the music-hall in the Radial-Strasse. This piano, as well as the whole of my possessions in Budapest, will belong to the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music at my death, which is not far off. Correctness remains the motto of

Yours most faithfully,

F. Liszt

Weimar, May 22nd, 1881.

Tomorrow evening I shall be at Antwerp. The Committee there have decided for the Gran Mass to be performed on the 26th May without any pressure on my part. Therefore Eljen Hungaria--in all countries. You may address to Weimar in the beginning of June.

279. To Frau Charlotte Blume-Arends

[A pupil of Liszt's now in Berlin.]

Weimar, August 29th, 1881

Dear Madam,

A good deal of irregularity has crept into my housekeeping during my long indisposition. Your kind letter only reached me yesterday. Thank you heartily for it; I accept the office of godfather. So your son is to be named Franz, and to walk the waters of life firmly and serenely, trusting securely in God, like my patron Saint Francois de Paule, whose motto is: "Caritas." I have long been wishing to thank you by letter for the charming present which decorates my study in the new wing of the Musical Academy at Pest. That elegant work of art is greatly admired by my numerous visitors. It would be charming, were the amiable donor to return and inspect it. The remembrance of you is still vivid in Pest.

Best compliments to your husband from

Yours gratefully and truly,

F. Liszt

I hope to be quite recovered in ten days, and shall then go to Rome.

280. To Otto Lessmann

Weimar, September 8th, 1881

Dear Friend,

I have still to undergo a supplementary treatment of baths and sweatings. [In consequence of a fall, Liszt had been seriously ill all summer.] This I shall do at Weimar. From the 21st to the 30th September I shall be at Bayreuth, and from October till New Year in Rome.

I am sending off the duet version of my Symphonic Poem "From cradle to grave" to Bock to day. .--. I shall send him the score from Bayreuth, because just now I am not able to work more than a few hours a day continuously.

There is so much admirable music written that one is ashamed to write any more. With me it only happens in cases of urgency and from inner necessity.

Thanking you heartily,

Yours ever,

F. Liszt

281. To Francois Auguste Gevaert, Director of the Brussels Conservatoire

[Celebrated Belgian music teacher and composer, born 1828]

Very Honored, Dear Friend,

Among the recollections of my long artistic life one of the dearest to me is that of your kind sympathy. I cherish sincere gratitude for it, of which I should be glad to give you a proof. Allow me, to begin with, to dedicate to you the Symphonic Poem I have just written, which was suggested by a drawing by Michel Zichy entitled "From the cradle to the grave."--The score is short enough, and, it seems to me, free from superfluous repetition.

Lassen has spoken to you about the performance of your Quentin Durward at Weimar. The Grand Duke desires it to take place; his Theater-Intendant, Baron von Loen, was preparing for it, and the singers are certain to take great pains and show all alacrity in performing their several parts well.

To my own regret, in which his Royal Highness shares, as well as his theater company and the audience, the performance has to be adjourned; for the German translation is not forthcoming, and some dawdling on the part of your publisher throws obstacles in the way. Let him soon turn over a new leaf. As for the German translation, I particularly recommend to you my friend Richard Pohl (who is living at Baden-Baden, where he is editor-in-chief of the local newspaper of that charming place). Pohl is distinguished by great musical intelligence and cleverness in translating, of both of which he has given proof in Berlioz's Beatrice and Bennedict and Saint-Saens' Samson.

Lassen and Baron Loen will continue to correspond with you concerning the mise-en-scene of Quentin Durward at Weimar. Small towns have but small successes to offer. You are entitled by right to both large and small ones. Accept them.--

I do not scruple to ask a favor of you, my dear friend. The decoration of the Order of Leopold arrived at a time when I was ill in bed. It was accompanied by a few complimentary lines from the Secretary of the Foreign Office, Baron de Lambermont, as well as by the official document which was to be signed by me. It would have been my most agreeably imperative duty to have thanked Baron de L., and to have expressed my lively feelings of gratitude for this royal favor. This I could not immediately do, owing to the state of my health, which did not allow of my writing, and still renders that occupation very difficult. Add to this that a good deal of disorder had got into my household; several letters and manuscripts have been mislaid, and, notwithstanding all my endeavors, I have not been able to find Baron de L.'s lines again or the document they enclosed. I therefore beg you, dear and highly esteemed friend, to present my apologies to the Baron, and to ask him to send me a duplicate of the document I have to sign. My address from 22nd September to 2nd October will be: Bayreuth (Bavaria); after that, Via and Hotel Alibert, Rome.

Yours, in high esteem and cordial friendship,

F. Liszt

Weimar, September 19th, 188l

282. To Francois Auguste Gevaert

Highly Honored Master and Dear Friend,

Thanks to your kind help I have at last put my business with Baron Lambermont in order and have just written him a letter of very grateful acknowledgment.

Permit me to revenir a nos moutons. Panurge has nothing to do with them, nor has the honorable biscuit-seller of the Gymnase, still less his peaceable neighbor, your publisher Mr. Grus. What we want is the score of your "Quentin Durward" and composer's consent to the performance of it at Weimar. The Grand Duke's Theater-Intendant undertakes the payment of the German translator, my old friend, Richard Pohl, who will certainly take great pleasure in performing his task in the most satisfactory way possible. Baron Loen and Lassen will correspond with you concerning the performance, which is intended to take place in December '82.

My cordial thanks for your favorable acceptance of my dedication. Some months are still necessary for the copying and publishing of the score together with the orchestral parts. Before this is finished 1 will send you the printed pianoforte arrangement for one and for two performers.

Be good enough, dear friend, to give my affectionate regards to Madame Gevaert and to your sons, and ever count upon my very grateful devotion.

F. Liszt

Bayreuth, October 8th, 1881

I shall be in Rome in eight days.

283. To Eduard von Mihalovich

Dearest Friend,

I must be found guilty [of negligence?]. I do not apologise. My aversion to letter-writing has grown excessive. But who could answer more than two thousand letters a year without becoming an idiot?

I have been ailing a good deal for the last three months. As soon as there was an improvement, something else appeared. Do not let us mention this any more, for you know how little my health occupies my thoughts, and how disagreeable it is to me to hear it talked of. In short, I feel sufficiently recovered to set out for Rome the day after tomorrow. My very dear granddaughter Daniela goes with me, and will remain till the beginning of January. This is a providential pleasure on which I did not count at all, but for which I thank the good angels.

I will tell you by word of mouth the minor reasons which prevented me from sooner communicating your two splendid scores and the pianoforte duet arrangements of them to the publishers, Breitkopf and Hartel. Your fine manuscripts have at last reached Leipzig, and you will soon have a letter from the present proprietors of the ancient and illustrious house Breitkopf and Hartel, with their conditions for publication, which will be their ultaiytalunz. They are aware of the sincere interest I take in your works, and will, I trust, share it, without leading you into any expense.

Stern [Adolph Stern in Dresden, author of the libretto.] has given me fairly good news as to the preparations for the performance of your Haubar at Dresden. Young composers are always too impatient.--

Pray remember me cordially to our excellent friends the Veghs, Albert Apponyi, Madame d'Eotvos and her daughter, Mademoiselle Polyxena, and...I was just going to add the name of a charming woman with whom I am out of favor.

Yours ever,

F. Liszt

Bayreuth, October 8th, 1881

My address from the middle of October to the lst of January: Via and Hotel Alibert, Rome.

You are held in affectionate remembrance at Wahnfried. Wagner is finishing the instrumentation of the 2nd act of Parsifal, and gives it his most passionate attention. We shall have something new, marvellous, unheard of, to hear.

M. Humperdink, the lucky triple laureate of the three scholarships, "Mozart," "Meyerbeer," "Mendelssohn," is at work here copying the score of Parstfal; [E. Humperdink, born in 1854, made Wagner's acquaintance in 1880 at Naples, and at the first performance of Parsifal conducted the choruses from on high and the music on the stage. He has been teacher at the Barcelona Conservatoire since 1885.] Joseph Rubinstein [Born 1847 in Russia, he lived a great deal in Wagner's society after 1872, and took an active part in the rehearsals for the Bayreuth Festival Performances in 1875 and 1876, He died by his own hand the 15th of September, 1884, at Lucerne.] is continuing his arrangement of it for piano at Palermo just now, and will complete it later on at Bayreuth. Other artists on the high road to celebrity are also employed in copying this same Opus magnum, the performance of which we shall applaud in July 1882. It will be a next to miraculous and highly fashionable pilgrimage.

P.S.--The busybody Spiridion has been so careless as to carry off a little gold watch of mine that I had merely given him leave to wear while he was in my service. Please ask Spiridion to give you this watch on New Year's Day. You will return it to me about the middle of January 1882, when I go back to Budapest.

284. To Jules de Zarembski

Dearest Friend,

I have rarely done a minor work--big ones bother me--with as much pleasure as that of setting your two Galician Dances for Orchestra. It is quite finished, with a few additions of which I hope you will not disapprove; but my scrawl of a manuscript cannot possibly be sent you: therefore I have asked Friedheim [One of the most pre-eminent among the younger pupils of the Master.] to undertake to copy it, and I will send you this copy before the New Year. If the publisher Simon is inclined to publish this orchestration I will let him have it for a thousand marks; if not, keep it yourself; and make any use you like of it; first of all at the concert in which you are going to bring forward your own compositions exclusively. I wish I could be present at it, and on this occasion I renew to you the sincere and sympathetic esteem in which I hold your noble and rare talents. They will fructify by means of perseverance.

Friedheim's copy will reach you in time to have the parts copied and to add the necessary nuances. Please send me a programme of the concert of which Zarembski as composer is to fill the list. The other programme you are meditating, to be devoted to my works for the pianoforte, seems to me to be too long; this is a defect for which I can only be very thankful to you, and yet I am going to ask you to reduce your recital to the average proportion. An hour and a half of pianoforte music of mine, however admirably played, is more than sufficient.

M. Becquet, President of the Brussels Musical Society, writes to me concerning the performance of my Elizabeth, and M. Radoux, Director of the Liege Conservatoire, likewise. I fear the translation of the libretto and its proper adaptation to the work will be impediments. Nevertheless, if your friend Franz Servais were good enough to undertake the work of revision and of intelligent adaptation to the vocal parts, I should be more easy in my mind, and should only wish to look through the whole before the publisher, Kahnt, prints the French version under the German original. I am now writing this to M. Becquet. Pray give my cordial regards to Franz Servais and my grateful remembrances to Maitre Gevaert.

Enclosed are the photographs with signature for MM. Dumon and Dufour; to which I add a third (recently taken in Rome) for yourself.

I am honored, flattered, and also...overwhelmed by numbers of letters. I have received more than a hundred during the last six weeks; I should have to give ten hours a day to letter-writing if I were to attempt to pay my debts of correspondence: this I cannot do. Even the state of my health, which is not bad but forbids any continuous occupation, is opposed to it. Besides, when my old mania for writing music lays hold of me--as is the case just now--I feel quite unable to use my pen in any other way. I therefore beg you to convey my apologies and very affectionate thanks to M. and Mme. Tardieu for the kindness they show me.

I hope to repeat all this to them personally, for it is not said that I shall not return to Brussels, although travelling is becoming arduous for me. M. Tardieu's present of spirituous liquid has restored me several evenings during my work,...which may be superfluous, but completes what has gone before.

Your very devoted friend,

F. Liszt

Rome, December 4th, 1881

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 gratitude 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 illustrates 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 Mass 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 classed 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 Institute, Massenet, 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 Illustrious and Gracious Friend,

A woman distinguished by her shrewdness and talents, the authoress of several volumes which have had the good fortune to pass 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 Massenet'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 Massenet'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

Budapest, February 5th, 1882.

290. To the Kammervirtuosin Martha Remmert

Dear Martha,

Enclosed are the various readings [Varianten] to my "Todtentanz." [Dance of Death.] I noted them down after hearing the piece last May for the first time with Orchestra at the Antwerp Musical Festival (played by Zarembski in a masterly way). The brief alterations are easy to insert into the instrumental parts, for they only apply to the Horns, and consist in the addition of 7 bars; the rest are pauses in the orchestra while the pianoforte solo continues.

All is accurately indicated in the enclosed copy, so that, should the publisher Siegel (Leipzig) feel disposed to add a complementary sheet to the score, it might be easily printed from this copy. I should not like to trouble Siegel about this; but I authorise you, dear Martha, to communicate the complementary pages A, B, C, to Siegel. [The alterations alluded to did not appear in print.]

I wish you all the success you deserve in your concert productions, and remain always, Yours sincerely,

F. Liszt

Budapest, February 20th, 1882.

291. To Madame Malwine Tardieu

Dear Madame,

You were beforehand with me in knowing that the performance of my St. Elizabeth is to take place, for the first time in French, at Brussels on Sunday, 30th April. If the date is not changed, I shall arrive on the 27th for the last rehearsals.

I hardly venture to accept the hospitality you are so good as to offer me, from delicacy; if, however, you help me ever so little to overcome my scruples, they will vanish. A thousand thanks for the good news you give me of the success of "Samson" and of other works by St. Saens in Germany. He has possessed my admiring friendship for many years.

My very affectionate and grateful regards.

F. Liszt

Budapest, April 11th, 1882

I shall return to Weimar in about ten days, where I shall expect to receive the printed programme from M. Becquet, which is to fix my arrival in Brussels.

Pray thank M. Tardieu for his obliging intention of reproducing the article of the Independance upon the first performance of the St. Elizabeth at Budapest in August 1865. I will tell you by word of mouth who penned those lines. [This article, which was signed Remenyi, was written by Frau Cosima Wagner, Liszt's daughter, and (according to Madame Tardieu's opinion) had "a high interest on account of its poetical and brilliant conception."]

292. To Franz Servais

Very Dear Friend,

It is a grief to me that you will be conspicuous by your absence on the approaching occasion of my return to Brussels. The Liszt- Concert set afloat and directed by you last spring remains one of my pleasantest recollections during my too long artistic career. Even at that time you suggested a performance of my "Elizabeth," and I did not think that it would take place during your absence. My approaching second visit to Brussels is entirely one of gratitude for the sympathetic reception granted to me there at the concert which you directed--an excellent performance of some works of mine. Perhaps the "Elizabeth" may likewise be favored by good luck...M. Lagye has made an excellent French translation of it.

The one thing important for you, my dear Franz, is to complete your Ion [The original tile of the Opera now called "L'Apollonide", which Servais still keeps in his portfolio, though it is finished.]. This will be your advent as composer, for a complete and resounding success in which you have the best wishes of

Yours ever devotedly,

F. Liszt

Weimar, April 22nd, 1882.