together with every assurance of the sincere affection of
Yours most truly,
F. Liszt
November l0th, 1852
90. To Professor Julius Stern in Berlin
[1820-83; founder of the Stern Vocal Union (which he conducted
from 1847-74), and of the Stern Conservatorium (1850), which he
directed, firstly with Marx and Kullak, and since 1857 alone.]
November 24th, 1852.
My dear Mr. Stern,
I hope you will excuse my delay in replying to your friendly
lines, for which I thank you very affectionately. Mr. Joachim was
absent when they reached me, and all this last week has been
extremely filled up for Weymar (and for me in particular) by the
rehearsals and performance of Berlioz's works. Happily our
efforts have been rewarded by a success most unanimous and of the
best kind. Berlioz was very well satisfied with his stay at
Weymar, and I, for my part, felt a real pleasure in being
associated with that which he experienced in the reception
accorded to him by the Court, our artists, and the public. As
this week has, according to my idea, a real importance as regards
Art, allow me, my dear Mr. Stern, to send you, contrary to my
usual custom, the little resume that the Weymar Gazette has made
of the affair, which will put you very exactly au courant of what
took place. You will oblige me by letting Schlesinger see it
also, and he will perhaps do me the pleasure of letting the
Berlin public have it through his paper (The Echo).
I did not fail to conform to the wish expressed in your last
letter, immediately that Joachim returned to Weymar, and I urged
him much to accept the proposition you have made him to take part
in the concert of the 13th of December. You know what high esteem
I profess for Joachim's talent, and when you have heard him I am
certain you will find that my praises of him latterly are by no
means exaggerated. He is an artist out of the common, and one who
may legitimately aspire to a glorious reputation.
Moreover he has a thoroughly loyal nature, a distinguished mind,
and a character endowed with a singular charm in its rectitude
and earnestness.
The question of fee being somewhat embarrassing for him to enter
into with you, I have taken upon myself to speak to you about it
without any long comment, and to mention to you the sum of twenty
to twenty-five louis d'or as what seems to me fair. If Joachim
had already been in Berlin, or if his stay there could take place
at the same time with some other pecuniary advantage, I feel sure
that he would take a pleasure in offering you his co-operation
for nothing; but in the position he is in now, not intending at
present to give concerts in Berlin, and not having as yet any
direct relations with you, I think you will appreciate the
motives which lead me to fix this sum with you...
If, as I hope, you do not consider it out of proportion, please
simply to be so good as to write a few lines to Joachim direct,
to tell him what day he ought to be in Berlin for the rehearsal
of your concert, so that he may ask a little beforehand for his
holiday from here.
Will you also please give my best regards to Th. Kullak? I have
had the opportunity of talking rather fully about him these last
days with two of his pupils, Princesses Anne and Louise (of
Prussia), and also with their mother, Princess Charles. Mr. Marx
(to whom I beg you to remember me kindly, until I write more
fully to him about the performance of his "Moses") will shortly
receive a letter from Mr. Montag, whom I have begged to bring
with him the arrangements relating to the song parts, which Mr.
Marx will be so kind as to lend us. Probably this oratorio can be
given here towards the end of next January or the middle of next
February, and as soon as the rehearsals are sufficiently advanced
I shall write to Marx to give him positive tidings and to invite
him to pay us a short visit at Weymar.
A thousand frank and cordial regards from
Yours ever,
F. Liszt
You probably already know that Joachim is leaving Weymar to
settle in Hanover at the beginning of next year.
91. To Wilhelm von Lenz in St. Petersburg
[A well-known writer on music and especially on Beethoven;
Imperial Russian Councillor of State (1809-83).]
I am doubly in your debt, my dear Lenz (you will allow me, will
you not, to follow your example by dropping the Mr.?), firstly
for your book, ["Beethoven and his Three Styles" (St. Petersburg,
1852).] so thoroughly imbued with that sincere and earnest
passion for the Beautiful without which one can never penetrate
to the heart of works of genius; and, secondly, for your friendly
letter, which reached me shortly after I had got your book, the
notice of which had very much excited my curiosity. That I have
put off replying to you till now is not merely on account of my
numerous occupations, which usually preclude my having the
pleasure of correspondence, but chiefly on account of you and
your remarkable work, which I wanted to read at leisure, in order
to get from it the whole substance of its contents. You cannot
find it amiss that it has given me much to reflect upon, and you
will easily understand that I shall have much to say to you on
this subject--so much that, to explain all my thoughts, I should
have to make another book to match yours--or, better still,
resume our lessons of twenty years ago, when the master learned
so much from the pupil,--discuss pieces in hand, the meaning,
value, import, of a large number of ideas, phrases, episodes,
rhythms, harmonic progressions, developments, artifices;--I
should have to have a good long talk with you, in fact, about
minims and crotchets, quavers and semi-quavers,--not forgetting
the rests which, if you please, are by no means a trifling
chapter when one professes to go in seriously for music, and for
Beethoven in particular.
The friendly remembrance that you have kept of our talks, under
the name of lessons, of the Rue Montholon, is very dear to me,
and the flattering testimony your book gives to those past hours
encourages me to invite you to continue them at Weymar, where it
would be at once so pleasant and so interesting to see you for
some weeks or months, ad libitum, so that we might mutually edify
ourselves with Beethoven. Just as we did twenty years ago, we
shall agree all at once, I am certain, in the generality of
cases; and, more than we were then, shall we each of us be in a
position to make further steps forward in the exoteric region of
Art.--For the present allow me, at the risk of often repeating
myself hereafter, to compliment you most sincerely on your
volume, which will be a chosen book and a work of predilection
for people of taste, and particularly for those who feel and
understand music. Artists and amateurs, professors and pupils,
critics and virtuosi; composers and theorists--all will have
something to gain from it, and a part to take in this feast of
attractive instruction that you have prepared for them. What
ingenious traits, what living touches, what well-dealt blows,
what new and judiciously adapted imagery should I not have to
quote, were I to enter in detail into your pages, so different
from what one usually reads on similar subjects! In your
arguments, and in the intrinsic and extrinsic proofs you adduce,
what weight--without heaviness, what solidity--without stiffness,
of strong and wholesome criticism--without pedantry! Ideas are
plentiful in this by turns incisive, brilliant, reflected, and
spontaneous style, in which learning comes in to enhance and
steady the flow of a lively and luxuriant imagination. To all the
refinement and subtle divination common to Slavic genius, you
ally the patient research and learned scruples which characterize
the German explorer. You assume alternately the gait of the mole
and of the eagle--and everything you do succeeds wonderfully,
because amid your subterranean maneuvers and your airy flights
you constantly preserve, as your own inalienable property, so
much wit and knowledge, good sense and free fancy. If you had
asked me to find a motto for your book I should have proposed
this,
"Inciter et initier,"
as best summing up, according to my ideas, the aim that you
fulfill by your twofold talent of distinguished writer and
musician ex professo. It is really curious to observe how the
well-known saying, "It is from the north that light comes to us
today," has been verified lately with regard to musical
literature. After Mr. Oulibicheff had endowed us with a Mozart,
here come you with a Beethoven. Without attempting to compare two
works which are in so many respects as different and separate as
the two heroes chosen by their respective historiographers, it is
nevertheless natural that your name should be frequently
associated with that of Mr. Oulibicheff--for each is an honor to
Art and to his country. This circumstance, however, does not do
away with your right to lecture Mr. Oulibicheff very wittily, and
with a thorough knowledge of the subject, for having made of
Mozart a sort of Dalai-Lama, [The head of the temporal and
spiritual power in Thibet (Translator's note)] beyond which there
is nothing. In all this polemical part (pp. 26, 27, etc.), as in
many other cases, I am entirely of your opinion, with all due
justice to the talents and merits of your compatriot. From a
reading of the two works, Mozart and Beethoven, it is evident
that, if the studies, predilections, and habits of mind of Mr.
Oulibicheff have perfectly predisposed him to accomplish an
excellent work in its entirety, yours, my dear Lenz, have led you
to a sort of intimacy, the familiarity of which nourished a sort
of religious exaltation, with the genius of Beethoven. Mr.
Oulibicheff in his method proceeds more as proprietor and
professor; you more as poet and lawyer. But, whatever may be said
about this or that hiatus in your work, the plan of which has
confined you disadvantageously to the analysis of the piano
sonatas, and however much people may think themselves justified
in cavilling at you about the distribution of your materials, the
chief merit, which none could refuse you without injustice, is
that you have really understood Beethoven, and have succeeded in
making your imagination adequate to his by your intuitive
penetration into the secrets of his genius.
For us musicians, Beethoven's work is like the pillar of cloud
and fire which guided the Israelites through the desert--a pillar
of cloud to guide us by day, a pillar of fire to guide us by
night, "so that we may progress both day and night." His
obscurity and his light trace for us equally the path we have to
follow; they are each of them a perpetual commandment, an
infallible revelation. Were it my place to categorize the
different periods of the great master's thoughts, as manifested
in his Sonatas, Symphonies, and Quartets, I should certainly not
fix the division into three styles, which is now pretty generally
adopted and which you have followed; but, simply recording the
questions which have been raised hitherto, I should frankly weigh
the great question which is the axis of criticism and of musical
aestheticism at the point to which Beethoven has led us--namely,
in how far is traditional or recognized form a necessary
determinant for the organism of thought?--
The solution of this question, evolved from the works of
Beethoven himself, would lead me to divide this work, not into
three styles or periods,--the words "style" and "period" being
here only corollary subordinate terms, of a vague and equivocal
meaning,--but quite logically into two categories: the first,
that in which traditional and recognized form contains and
governs the thought of the master; and the second, that in which
the thought stretches, breaks, recreates, and fashions the form
and style according to its needs and inspirations. Doubtless in
proceeding thus we arrive in a direct line at those incessant
problems of "authority" and "liberty." But why should they alarm
us? In the region of liberal arts they do not, happily, bring in
any of the dangers and disasters which their oscillations
occasion in the political and social world; for, in the domain of
the Beautiful, Genius alone is the authority, and hence, Dualism
disappearing, the notions of authority and liberty are brought
back to their original identity.--Manzoni, in defining genius as
"a stronger imprint of Divinity," has eloquently expressed this
very truth.--
This is indeed a long letter, my dear Lenz, and as yet I am only
at the preliminaries. Let us then pass on to the Deluge,--and
come and see me at Weymar, where we can chat as long and fully as
we like of these things in the shade of our fine park. If a
thrush chances to come and sing I shall take advantage of the
circumstance to make, en passant, some groundless quarrels with
you on some inappropriate terms which one meets with here and
there in your book,--as, for example, the employment of the word
"scale" (ut, fa, la, etc.) instead of arpeggio chord; or, again,
on your inexcusable want of gallantry which leads you maliciously
to bracket the title of "Mamselle" (!) on to such and such a
Diva, a proceeding which will draw down upon you the wrath of
these divinities and of their numerous admirers. But I can assure
you beforehand that there are far more nightingales than thrushes
in our park; and, similarly, in your book the greater number of
pages, judiciously thought out and brilliantly written, carry the
day so well in worth and valor over any thinly scattered
inattentions or negligences, that I join with my whole heart in
the concert of praise to which you have a right.
Pray accept, my dear Lenz, the most sincere expressions of
feeling and best thanks of
Your very affectionate and obliged
F. Liszt
Weymar, December 2nd, 1852
As Madame Bettina d'Arnim has been passing some weeks at Weymar,
I let her know about your book. Feeling sure that the good
impression it has made on her would be a pleasure to you to hear,
I begged her to confirm it by a few lines, which I enclose
herewith.--
92. To Robert Radecke in Leipzig
[Printed in the Neue Berliner Musik-Zeitung, November 20th,
1890.--The addressee, afterwards Conductor of the Royal Opera,
and present Director of the Royal Academical Institute for Church
Music in Berlin, was formerly Vice-director of the Leipzig
"Singacademie" with Ferdinand David, and, intoxicated with the
first performance of Berlioz's Faust at Weimar, he had determined
to give such another in the Vocal Union of which he was Co-
director. With this object he begged Liszt for the score. But the
plan was not carried out, as Radecke exchanged his post at New
Year, 1853, for that of a Music Director at the Leipzig Town
theater.]
Best thanks, dear Radecke, for your letter and the approved good
intention.
The "Faust" score will be at your service with great pleasure as
soon as I have got it back from Berlioz. It is probable that the
copy which Berlioz will see about for me in Paris will be ready
by Christmas, so that I shall be able to send it you soon after
New Year.
In the course of the winter I intend also to give a performance
of the little oratorio "La Fuite en Egypte," attributed to the
imaginary Maitre de Chapelle Pierre Ducre. This graceful and
interesting work should meet with approbation in Leipzig, and
offers no difficulty either for voice or orchestra. If you keep
the secret, and let your Gesangverein [Vocal Union] study it
under the name of Pierre Ducre, a composer of the sixteenth
century, I am convinced that it will not fail to make an effect.
[Liszt's playful suggestion about the Flight into Egypt was based
upon the fact that Berlioz, on its first performance, had
mystified the Paris public and brought forward the work under the
feigned name of Pierre Ducre, the organist of the Sainte Chapelle
in Paris in the year 1679.]
Joachim goes the day after tomorrow to Berlin; Cossmann is in
Paris; and Nabich [The first trombone player of the Weimar
orchestra, and a most admirable performer on his instrument.] is
performing in London, Liverpool, and Manchester. None the less we
are giving "Tannhauser" next Sunday (12th) (with subscriptions
suspended!), and for this occasion the entire Finale of the
second act and the new ending of the third will be studied.
Now farewell, and be active and cheerful, is the wish of yours
most sincerely,
F. Liszt
December 9th, 1852
93. To Bernhard Cossmann
[Weimar, December, 1852.]
[The date and ending of the letter are wanting, but from its
contents it may be ascribed to this date.]
Thanks, dear friend, for your kind few lines, which have given me
sincere pleasure. Joachim is not yet back from Berlin, and Beck
[The chief tenor (hero-tenor) at the Court Opera] has again got
his old attack of the throat, and I fear rather seriously, from
which these six years of cures, it appears, have not succeeded in
curing him radically. In consequence of this dearth of tenors,
the performances of Wagner's and Berlioz's operas are going to be
put off till February, when I hope that Tichatschek will be able
to come from Dresden and sing "Tannhauser," "Lohengrin," and the
"Flying Dutchman."
As for Cellini [Berlioz's opera]; we shall unfortunately have to
wait until Dr. Lieber, the new tenor engaged for next season, at
present at the Cologne theater, has learnt the part. I hear
Lieber's voice highly spoken of, and it seems that he possesses
also a dose of intelligence sufficient to understand how he ought
to behave here.--
In the matter of news I have one small item to give you--namely,
that on your return your salary will be raised fifty crowns, to
make the round sum of four hundred.--Laub [Ferdinand Laub, a
noteworthy violinist, was engaged for the 1st of January, 1853,
as Joachim's successor as Concertmeister at Weimar.] will arrive
very shortly, and accepts the propositions which have been made
to him. He will not be...
94. To Wilhelm Fischer, Chorus Director in Dresden
[Autograph in the possession of Herr Otto Lessmann at
Charlottenburg.--The addressee was an intimate friend of Wagner's
("Letters to Uhlig, Fischer, and Heine"--Leipzig, Breitkopf and
Hartel, 1889).]
Dear Sir,
By today's post I have sent you a minutely corrected copy of the
score of the "Flying Dutchman."
As this copy was my own property (Wagner had left it for me after
his stay here in 1869) I could not suppose that Uhlig could
expect it back from me as a theater score. The last letter from
Wagner to me has made the matter clear, and I place this score
with pleasure at his further disposal. I have replied to Wagner
direct and fully; he is therefore aware that I have sent you my
copy. [For fuller particulars about this see the "Wagner-Liszt
Correspondence," vol. i., pp. 207-9.]
Allow me to beg you kindly to make my excuses to Herr Heine
[Ferdinand Heine, Court actor and costumier, famous through
Wagner's letters to him.] that I do not answer his letter just
now. His indulgent opinion of our Lohengrtn performance is very
flattering to me; I hope that by degrees we shall deserve still
better the praise which comes to us from many sides: meanwhile,
as the occasion of his writing was just the matter of the
"Hollander" score, and as this is now quite satisfactorily
settled, it does not require any further writing.
With best regards, yours truly,
F. Liszt
Weymar, January 13th, 1853
Is Tichatschek coming to our "Lohengrin" performance in February?
Please beg him to try to do so. On Weymar's side nothing will be
neglected, and it will be a real joy to us both.
95. To Edmund Singer
[Formerly Concertmeister at Weimar; at present Court
Concertmeister and Professor at the Stuttgart Conservatorium.]
Dear Sir,
I thank you much for your friendly letter, and commission Herr
Gleichauf (in whom you will recognize an admirable viola
virtuoso) to persuade you not to retract your promised visit to
me at Weymar. It would be very pleasant to me to be able to keep
you here a longer time, yet I doubt whether you would be
satisfied with such a modest post as our administrative
circumstances warrant. When we have an opportunity we will talk
further of this; meanwhile it will be a pleasure to me to see and
hear you again. Laub's acquaintance will also interest you; he
has just been playing some pieces with a really extraordinary
virtuosity and bravura, so that we have all become quite warm
about it.
Come, then, as soon as you have a couple of spare days, and be
assured beforehand of the most friendly reception.
With my very best regards,
Yours truly,
F. Liszt
Saturday, January 15th, 1853
96. To Frau Dr. Lidy Steche in Leipzig
[The addressee sang for two winters in the Gewandhaus concerts
(as Frl. Angermann). After her marriage she started a Vocal
Union, in the forties, with which, in December 1853, she gave so
excellent a pianoforte performance of "Lohengrin" at her own
house, and afterwards at the Minerva "lodge," that Hoplit, in his
account of stage performances (Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik), spoke
of the Steche undertaking as a "model performance." This was
before the performance of "Lohengrin" at the Leipzig theater in
January 1854.]
My dear Madame,
I have the pleasure of answering your inquiries in regard to the
performances of the Wagner operas with the following dates:--
For next Wednesday, February 16th, the birthday of H.R.H. the
Grand Duchess, the first performance of the "Flying Dutchman" is
fixed. (N. B.--For that evening all the places are already taken,
and, as a great many strangers are coming, it will be difficult
to find suitable rooms in Weymar.) The following Sunday, February
20th, the "Flying Dutchman" will be repeated; and on the 27th
(Sunday) "Tannhauser" is promised, and on March 5th (Saturday)
"Lohengrin." Between these two performances of February 27th and
March 5th the third performance of the "Flying Dutchman" will
probably take place, of which I can give you more positive
information at the end of this week. The Wagner week proper
begins therefore with February 27th and closes with March 5th,
and if it were possible to you to devote a whole week to these
three glorious works of art I should advise you to get here by
the 27th,--or, better still for you (as you are already quite
familiar with "Tannhauser"), to come in time for the third
performance of the "Flying Dutchman," the date of which is still
somewhat uncertain, but which will probably be fixed for the 2nd
or 3rd March. Immediately after the first performance we shall
get quite clear about it, and I will not fail to let you know
officially the result of the theater Conference here (in which I
am not concerned).
Accept, my dear Madame, the assurance of the high esteem of
Yours most truly,
F. Liszt
Weymar, February 4th, 1853
97. To Gustav Schmidt, Capellmeister at Frankfort-On-The-Maine
[Autograph (without address) in the possession of M. Alfred Bovet
at Valentigney.--The contents show to whom the letter was
addressed.]
Dear Friend,
Berlioz's two symphonies, "Romeo and Juliet" and "Faust," have
been twice given here in the course of this winter with the
utmost success. Berlioz was so good as to lend me the score and
parts,--but with the express condition that they should not go
out of my hands. When, at the request of the Leipzig Academy of
Singing [Singacademie], I asked him some weeks ago whether he
would not allow me to place "Faust" at the disposal of the
Leipzig Institute for a proposed performance, he replied to me as
follows:--
"Considering the deplorable performances of which my works have
often been the victims both in Germany and elsewhere, I have
resolved never to lend them in manuscript. Moreover there are
enough of my works printed in score and in separate parts (the
three Symphonies, several Overtures, the 5th May, the Requiem,
etc.) to make it unnecessary to seek for others. If I made an
exception for you," ["Pour toi." Showing that Liszt and Berlioz
employed the "tutoyer" towards one another.] etc...