keep of me! And how much I am already rejoicing at the thought of
seeing you and hearing you again soon in Leipzig! I was so vexed
not to be in Paris last winter when I knew you were going to
spend some time there. Perhaps I should have been able to be of
some little use to you there. You know that, at all times and in
every country, I shall always be at your service. I should become
too lengthy if I allowed myself to reply in detail to your kind
questions about my new compositions. I worked immensely hard in
Italy. Without exaggeration I think I have written four to five
hundred pages of pianoforte music. If you have patience to hear
half a quarter of them I shall be delighted to play them to you,
so so.
The "Studies after Paganini," which are dedicated to you, will
only appear in two months' time; but I will bring you the proofs,
which have long been corrected, to Leipzig.
Once more many thanks, and many tender and respectful wishes for
everything that can contribute to your happiness. And above all a
bientot.
Yours in admiration and sympathy,
F. Liszt
24. To Robert Schumann in Leipzig
[Autograph in the Royal Library in Berlin.]
Dresden, March 27th, 1840
My dear Schumann,
It is all splendid. Only I should prefer to play the "Hexameron"
last, so as to finish with orchestra. Please, therefore, have the
"Etudes" and the "Carnaval" put after the Mendelssohn Concerto!
[Refers to Liszt's third concert in Leipzig, on March 30th, 1840,
for the benefit of the Orchestral Pension Fund.]
Best remembrances to Mendelssohn and Hiller; and believe me yours
ever,
F. Liszt
I shall certainly return Monday morning, for on Sunday I am
giving a concert for the poor here. But if it should de possible
for me to come on Sunday...but I doubt it. [Together with this
letter a friend, Carl K[ragen?], writes to Schumann: "He [Liszt]
has played me the glorious Mendelssohn Concerto. It was divine!
Tomorrow Tieck is to read Faust for Liszt at my mother's house,
and Liszt is to play at our house with Lipinski!, Do come for it!
Ah, if you could only induce Mendelssohn and his wife to come
too!"]
25. To Franz von Schober in Vienna
[The autographs of all the letters in this collection to Schober
are in the possession of Fran Babette Wolf at Dresden.-Addressed
to the poet and writer, an intimate and worthy friend of Franz
Schubert. He became Councillor of Legation to Weimar, and died at
Dresden in 1882.]
Metz, April 3rd, 1840
I did not get any news from you at Leipzig, dear Schober, as I
expected. I am afraid I was very indiscreet in asking you to be
so good as to undertake this work, which I should have valued so
much, coming from you. [In answer to the distorted reports in
various newspapers of Liszt's visit to Hungary (January, 1840),
Schober, who had been an eyewitness, thought it right to clear up
the misrepresentations, which he did in the form of "Letters
about Liszt's Sojourn in Hungary"; these he published, but much
later (Berlin, Schlesinger, 1843)] But I will not speak of it any
more. If by any chance you have already done it I should be
grateful to you to send it me--otherwise we will not speak of it
any more.
Do you know that I have been pursued by one constant regret
during my journey, the regret not to have induced you to
accompany me? Your society has always been beneficial and
strengthening to me: I do not know why, but I imagine that we
should live smoothly together. Your qualities, your faults (if
you have any), your character and temper, all please me and
attach me to you. You know that I flatter myself I can understand
and appreciate you...Should you see any great difficulty in
joining me somewhere next autumn-at Venice, for example--and in
making a European tour with me? Answer me frankly on this matter.
And once more, the question of money need not be considered. As
long as we are together (and I should like you to have at least
three free years before you) my purse will be yours, on the sole
condition that you consent to undertake the management of our
expenses,--and that you are thoroughly convinced beforehand of
the gratitude I shall feel towards you.
Excuse me, my dear good friend, for entering so plainly into
matters, but we have talked together too openly, it seems to me,
for it to be possible that your delicate feeling on certain
points should be wounded by this.
I have sent back Kiss, of Dresden. He is a good fellow, but a
little awkward, and wanting in a certain point of honor, without
which a man is not a man as I understand the word. So I am alone
now, and am not going to have any one tacked on to me. A former
pupil of mine, Monsieur Hermann, has undertaken to arrange my
concerts, which is a great relief to me. A propos of concerts, I
gave six (in nine days!) at Prague, three at Dresden, and the
same number at Leipzig (in twelve days)--so I am perfectly tired
out, and feel great need of rest. That was good, wasn't it?
Adieu, my dear good friend-let me hear from you soon (address 19,
Rue Pigalle, Paris), and depend entirely upon me--nunc et semper.
Yours ever sincerely,
F. Liszt
Will you be so good as to go to Diabelli's [Music publisher in
Vienna] when you pass by, and advise him again not to publish the
third part of the Hungarian Melodies (which I sent him by Hartel)
without first sending me a proof to Paris to correct. Adieu.
Best remembrances to Kriehuber [A well-known Vienna painter and
lithographer, from whom a number of Liszt portraits have come.]
and Lowy. Why does not the latter write to me?
26. To Maurice Schlesinger, Editor of the Gazette Musicale in
Paris
[Given by L. Ramann, "Franz Liszt," vol. ii., i.]
Sir,
Allow me to protest against an inexact assertion in your last
number but one:--
"Messieurs Liszt and Cramer have asked for the Legion of Honor,"
etc.
I do not know if M. Cramer (who has just been nominated) has
obtained the cross.
In any case I think that you, like every one else, will approve
of a nomination so perfectly legitimate.
As to myself, if it be true that my name has figured in the list
of candidates, this can only have occurred entirely without my
knowledge. It has always seemed to me that distinctions of this
sort could only be accepted, but never "asked for."
I am, sir, etc.,
F. Liszt
London, May 14th, 1840
27. To Franz von Schober
[London, May or June, 1840]
My worthy friend,
A fortnight ago my mother wrote me word that she had given
several letters, which had come for me from Germany, to a
gentleman who was to bring them to me to London. I suppose there
was one from you among the number, but up to now I have not
received anything.
Allow me to repeat once more the request, which I have already
made to you, to come for some time with me (a year or two, and
more if you can); for I feel deeply that, the more we are
separated by time and space, the more my thoughts and my heart go
out to you. I have rarely felt this so strongly, and my wish to
feel you settled with me grows daily stronger.
Moreover the persuasion that I feel that we should pass a happy
and serious life together, makes me again press you further.
Try then to be at liberty as soon as possible, and once for all
make a frank and friendly resolve. I assure you that it will not
be difficult to ameliorate, by each other, our two lives, which
in their different ways are sad and bad thus separated.
Let me have two words in reply on this point--which, to tell the
truth, is the only important one for us both at this moment.
Speak quite freely to me, and depend on me thoroughly.
Yours ever,
F. Liszt
Address care of Erard, 18, Great Marlborough Street.
Need I again assure you that any question will not be a question
between us?
28. To Franz von Schober
Stonehenge, Salisbury, August 29th, 1840
It is with an unspeakable feeling of sadness and vexation that I
write to you today, my dear good friend! Your letter had done me
so much good; I was so happy at the thought of our meeting at the
end of the autumn at latest; I wanted so to feel that I could
rest on your arm, and that your heart, so full of kindness and
brotherly help, was near me,--and, lo and behold! I am obliged to
give it up, or at least to put it off...
An unfortunate engagement which I have just renewed, and which
will keep me in England till the end of January, makes it
impossible for me to say to you the one word which I wish to say,
"Come!"--
England is not like any other country; the expenses are enormous.
I really dare not ask you to travel with me here, for it would
almost ruin us. Moreover we should hardly be able to be together,
for I have three or four compulsory companions, from whom it is
impossible for me to separate. I hoped to have done with all that
by the beginning of October, but now I have to begin again in the
middle of November. If I have time to make my journey to Russia
this year it will be the utmost I can do, but it is a journey
that I am in a way obliged to make after the gracious invitation
of Her Majesty the Empress at Ems. On the 15th of next May I
return again to London, probably by the steamer coming direct
from St. Petersburg.
Where shall I find you in a year--fifteen months? It is very
possible that I shall come and look for you in Vienna, but then I
shall assuredly not leave without taking you with me.
I have some thoughts of spending the following winter at
Constantinople. I am tired of the West; I want to breathe
perfumes, to bask in the sun, to exchange the smoke of coal for
the sweet smoke of the narghileh [Turkish pipe]. In short, I am
pining for the East! O my morning land! O my Aborniko!--
My uncle writes that you have been very good and obliging to him.
I thank you warmly.--Do you meet Castelli from time to time? When
you see him beg him from me to translate the article I published
in the Paris "Revue Musicale" (of August 23rd) on Paganini, and
to get it put into the "Theater-Zeitung". I should be very glad
also if it could be translated into Hungarian, for the Hirnok
(excuse me if I make a mess of the word!), but I do not know who
could do it.
A propos of Hungarian! I shall always value highly the work on my
sojourn in Pest. Send it me as soon as you possibly can, and
address it to Madame la Comtesse d'Agoult, 10, Rue Neuve des
Mathurins, Paris. Most affectionate remembrances to Kriehuber.
His two portraits of me have been copied in London. They are
without doubt the best.
Adieu, my dear excellent Schober. In my next letter I shall ask
you about a matter of some consequence. It is about a Cantata for
Beethoven, which I should like to set to music and to have it
given at the great Festival which we expect to organize in 1842
for the inauguration of the Statue at Bonn.
Yours ever most affectionately,
F. Liszt
29. To Buloz
[Published in Ramann's "Franz Liszt," vol. ii., I.]
Editor of the Revue des Deux Mondes.
Sir,
In your Revue Musicale for October last my name was mixed up with
the outrageous pretensions and exaggerated success of some
executant artists; I take the liberty to address a few remarks to
you on this subject. [The enthusiastic demonstrations which had
been made to him in Hungary, his native land, had been put into a
category with the homage paid to singers and dancers, and the
bestowal of the sabre had been turned into special ridicule.
Liszt repelled this with justifiable pride.]
The wreaths thrown at the feet of Mesdemoiselles Elssler and
Pixis by the amateurs of New York and Palermo are striking
manifestations of the enthusiasm of a public; the sabre which was
given to me at Pest is a reward given by a NATION in an entirely
national form. In Hungary, sir, in that country of antique and
chivalrous manners, the sabre has a patriotic signification. It
is the special token of manhood; it is the weapon of every man
who has a right to carry a weapon. When six of the chief men of
note in my country presented me with it among the general
acclamations of my compatriots, whilst at the same moment the
towns of Pest and Oedenburg conferred upon me the freedom of the
city, and the civic authorities of Pest asked His Majesty for
letters of nobility for me, it was an act to acknowledge me
afresh as a Hungarian, after an absence of fifteen years; it was
a reward of some slight services rendered to Art in my country;
it was especially, and so I felt it, to unite me gloriously to
her by imposing on me serious duties, and obligations for life as
man and as artist.
I agree with you, sir, that it was, without doubt, going far
beyond my deserts up to the present time. Therefore I saw in that
solemnity the expression of a hope far more than of a
satisfaction. Hungary hailed in me the man from whom she expects
artistic illustriousness, after all the illustrious soldiers and
politicians she has so plentifully produced. As a child I
received from my country precious tokens of interest, and the
means of going abroad to develop my artistic vocation. When grown
up, and after long years, the young man returns to bring her the
fruits of his work and the future of his will, the enthusiasm of
the hearts which open to receive him and the expression of a
national joy must not be confounded with the frantic
demonstrations of an audience of amateurs.
In placing these two things side by side it seems tome there is
something which must wound a just national pride and sympathies
by which I am honored.
Be so kind as to insert these few lines in your next issue, and
believe me, sir,
Yours obediently,
Franz Liszt
Hamburg, October 26th, 1840
30. To Franz von Schober
I will write German to you, dear Schober, in order to tell you
all the quicker how much your letter pleased me. I have to thank
it for a really happy hour; and that comes so rarely in my
intolerable, monotonous life! For a fortnight past I have again
put my neck into the English yoke. Every day which God gives--a
concert, with a journey, previously, of thirty to fifty miles.
And so it must continue at least till the end of January. What do
you say to that?--
If I am not more than half-dead, I must still go at the end of
February to Berlin and Petersburg,--and come back to London by
the first steamer at the beginning of May. Then I think I shall
take a rest. Where and how I do not yet know, and it depends
entirely upon the Pecuniary results of my journeys. I should like
to go to Switzerland, and thence to Venice, but I can't yet say
anything definite.
.--. I have today written a long letter to Leo Festetics. I am
hungering and thirsting to go back to Hungary. Every recollection
of it has taken deep root in my soul...And yet I cannot go back!
I am grieved that you can tell me nothing better of Lannoy. I
cannot understand how that is possible. The news of the Queen has
given me great pleasure--if you hear anything more about her let
me know. I have a kind of weakness for her.
About the Cantata I will write to you fully later.
Farewell, and be happy if possible, dear Schober; write again
soon, and remain ever my friend.
F. L.
Excuse the spelling and writing of these lines! You know that I
never write German; Tobias [Tobias Haslinger, the Vienna music
publisher.] is, I think, the only one who gets German letters
from me.
Manchester, December 5th, 1840
31. To Breitkopf and Hartel
London, May 7th, 1841
Schlesinger has just told me that Mendelssohn's Melodies which I
sent you from London have come out. I can't tell you, my dear Mr.
Hartel, how much I am put out by this precipitate publication.
Independently of the material wrong it does me (for before
sending them to you these Melodies were sold in London and
Paris), I am thus unable to keep my word to Beale and Richault,
who expected to publish them simultaneously with you.
The evil being irremediable I have only thought how to get a
prompt vengeance out of it. You will tell me later on if you
think it was really a Christian vengeance.
The matter is this: I have just added a tremendous cadenza, three
pages long, in small notes, and anentire Coda, almost as long, to
Beethoven's "Adelaide". I played it all without being hissed at
the concert given at the Paris Conservatoire for the Beethoven
Monument, and I intend to play it in London, and in Germany and
Russia. Schlesinger has printed all this medley, such as it is.
Will you do the same? In that case, as I care chiefly for your
edition, I will beg you to have the last Coda printed in small
notes as an Ossia, without taking away anything from the present
edition, so that the purists can play the integral text only, if
the commentary is displeasing to them.
It was certainly a very delicate matter to touch "Adelaide", and
yet it seemed to me necessary to venture. Have I done it with
propriety and taste? Competent judges will decide.
In any case I beg you not to let any one but Mr. Schumann look
over your edition.
In conclusion allow me to remind you that I was rather badly paid
for "Adelaide" formerly, and if you should think proper to send
me a draft on a London bank, fair towards you and myself, I shall
always receive it with a "new pleasure"--to quote the favorite
words of His Majesty the King of the French.
With kind regards, believe me, my dear sir, yours most sincerely,
F. Liszt
Be so kind as to remember me very affectionately to Mendelssohn.
As for Schumann, I shall write to him direct very shortly.
32. To Simon Lowy In Vienna
[Autograph in the possession of Madame Emilie Dore in Vienna.]
London, May 20th, 1841
I am still writing to you from England, my dear friend. Since my
last letter (end of December, I think) I have completed my tour
of the three kingdoms (by which I lose, by the way, 1000 pounds
sterling net, on 1500 pounds which my engagement brought me!),
have ploughed my way through Belgium, with which I have every
reason to be satisfied, and have sauntered about in Paris for six
weeks. This latter, I don't hide it from you, has been a real
satisfaction to my self-love. On arriving there I compared myself
(pretty reasonably, it seems to me) to a man playing ecarte for
the fifth point. Well, I have had king and vole,--seven points
rather than five! [The "fifth" is the highest in this game, so
Liszt means that he won.]
My two concerts alone, and especially the third, at the
Conservatoire, for the Beethoven Monument, are concerts out of
the ordinary run, such as I only can give in Europe at the
present moment.
The accounts in the papers can only have given you a very
incomplete idea. Without self-conceit or any illusion, I think I
may say that never has so striking an effect, so complete and so
irresistible, been produced by an instrumentalist in Paris.
A propos of newspapers, I am sending you, following this, the
article which Fetis (formerly my most redoubtable antagonist) has
just published in the "Gazette Musicale". It is written very
cleverly, and summarises the question well. If Fischhof [A
musician, a Professor at the Vienna Conservatorium.] translated
it for Bauerle [Editor of the Theater-Zeitung (Theatrical
Times).] it would make a good effect, I fancy. However, do what
you like with it.
I shall certainly be on the Rhine towards the end of July, and
shall remain in that neighborhood till September. If Fischhof
came there I should be delighted to see him and have a talk with
him. Till then give him my most affectionate compliments, and
tell him to write me a few lines before he starts.
In November I shall start for Berlin, and shall pass the whole of
next winter in Russia.
Haslinger's behaviour to me is more than inexcusable. The dear
man is doing a stupidity of which he will repent soon. Never
mind; I will not forget how devoted he was to me during my first
stay in Vienna.
Would you believe that he has not sent me a word in reply to four
consecutive letters I have written to him? If you pass by Graben
will you be so kind as to tell him that I shall not write to him
any more, but that I expect from him, as an honest man of
business, if not as a friend, a line to tell me the fate of two
manuscripts ("Hongroises," and "Canzone Veneziane") which I sent
him.
I have just discovered a new mine of "Fantaisies"--and I am
working it hard. "Norma," "Don Juan," "Sonnambula," "Maometto,"
and "Moise" heaped one on the top of the other, and "Freischutz"
and "Robert le Diable" are pieces of 96, and even of 200, like
the old canons of the Republic of Geneva, I think. When I have
positively finished my European tour I shall come and play them
to you in Vienna, and however tired they may be there of having
applauded me so much, I still feel the power to move this public,
so intelligent and so thoroughly appreciative,--a public which I
have always considered as the born judge of a pianist.
Adieu, my dear Lowy--write soon, and address, till June 15th, at
18, Great Marlborough Street, and after that Paris.
Yours most sincerely,
F. Liszt
Is the Ungher [Caroline Ungher, afterwards Ungher-Sabatier, a
celebrated singer.] at Vienna? Will you kindly give or send to
her the letter which follows?
Have you, yes or no, sent off the two amber pieces which I gave
you at the time of my departure? I have been to fetch them from
the Embassy, but they were not there. Let me have two words in
reply about this.
33. To Franz von Schober
Truly, dear friend, I should like pages, days, years, to answer
your dear letter. Seldom has anything touched me so deeply. Take
heart for heart, and soul for soul,--and let us be for ever
friends.
You know how I am daily getting more concise; therefore nothing
further about myself, nothing further about Berlin. Tomorrow,
Thursday, at 2 o'clock, I start for Petersburg.
I have spoken to A. It is impossible on both sides. When we meet
and you are perfectly calm, we will go into details. I still hope
to meet you next autumn, either in Florence or on the Rhine.
Leo [Count Festetics] has written to me again. Write to me at
once to Konigsberg, to tell me where to address my next letter to
you. But write directly-simply your address.
I have sent all the proofs of your pamphlet to Brockhaus. Be so
good as to give him direct your final orders in regard to this
publication. I shall be so pleased to have some copies of it
while I am in Petersburg. The subject is very congenial to
me; I thank you once more most warmly for it.
One more shake of the hand in Germany, dearest friend, and in
heartfelt love yours ever,
F. Liszt
Remember me kindly to Sabatier, [The husband of Caroline Ungher,
the celebrated singer previously mentioned.] and don't quarrel
with him about me. To Caroline always the same friendship and
devotion.
Berlin, March 3rd, 1842.
34. To the faculty of philosophy at the university of Konigsberg.
[Printed in L. Ramann's "Franz Liszt," vol. ii., I.]
Much Esteemed and Learned Gentlemen,
It is in vain for me to attempt to express to you the deep and
heartfelt emotion you have aroused in me by your rare mark of
honor. The dignity of Doctor, granted by a Faculty in which, as
in yours, men of European celebrity assemble, makes me happy, and
would make me proud, were I not also convinced of the sense in
which it is granted to me.
I repeat that, with the honorable name of Teacher of Music (and I
refer to music in its grand, complete, and ancient
signification), by which you, esteemed gentlemen, dignify me, I
am well aware that I have undertaken the duty of unceasing
learning and untiring labour.
In the constant fulfillment of this duty-to maintain the dignity
of Doctor in a right and worthy manner, by propagating in word
and deed the little portion of knowledge and technical skill
which I can call my own, as a form of, and a means to, the True
["The beautiful is the glory of the true, Art is the radiancy of
thought." (Author's note.)] and the Divine--
In the constant fulfillment of this duty, and in any results
which are granted to me, the remembrance of your good wishes, and
of the touching manner in which a distinguished member of your
Faculty [Professors Rosenkranz and Jacobi invested Liszt with the
Doctor's Diploma.] has informed me of them, will be a living
support to me.
Accept, gentlemen, the expression of my highest esteem and
respect.
F. Liszt
Mittau, March 18th, 1842
35. To Court-Marshal Freiherr von Spiegel at Weimar
[Given by L. Ramann, "Franz Liszt," vol. ii., 1.]
Monsieur le Baron,
It is very difficult to reply to so gracefully flattering a
letter as your Excellency has been good enough to write to me.
I must nevertheless say that I wish with all my heart and in all
ways that I could answer it. I shall reach Weimar, bag and
baggage, towards the middle of October, and if I succeed in
communicating to others a little of the satisfaction I cannot
fail to find there, thanks to the gracious kindness of their
Highnesses and the friendly readiness of your Excellency, I shall
be only too glad.
Meanwhile I beg to remain, Monsieur le Baron, with respectful
compliments,
Yours obediently,
Cologne; September 12th, 1862. F. Liszt
36. To Carl Filitsch.