Letters of Franz Liszt Volume II Part 78

I am here till the end of October. Later on I shall visit my friends Geza Zichy and Sandor Teleky in Hungary.

349. To Baron Friedrich Podmaniczky, Intendant of the Royal Hungarian Opera in Budapest

[Printed in the Pester Lloyd (evening paper of 27th September, 1884).--Liszt having sent Podmaniczky a Royal Hymn for the opening of the New Hungarian Opera House instead of a Festal Prelude, which the latter had requested, Podmaniczky wrote to the Master on the 17th September, 1884, that the motive of the hymn having been borrowed from a revolutionary song would prove an "unsurmountable obstacle" to its performance. The letter was also signed by Alexander Erkel as conductor. Whereupon Liszt wrote the above reply.]

Dear, Hochgeborener [Many of these t.i.tles have been left in their original language, being unused in England, and having no equivalent with us.--Trans.] Herr Baron,

To your letter dated the 17th of this month I have the honor of replying as follows: that the song "Hahj, Rakoczy, Bercsenyi" was not unknown to me is shown by the piano edition of my "Hungarian royal hymn" published by Taborsky and Parsch, on the t.i.tle-page of which stand the words "After an old Hungarian air." I learned to know this song from Stefan Bartolus's Anthology, and it took hold of me with its decided, and expressive and artless character; I at once provided it with a finale of victory, and without troubling my head further about its former revolutionary words I begged Kornel Abranyi, jun., for a new, loyal text with the refrain "Eljen a kiraly," so that my "Royal hymn" might attain its due expression both in words and music.

Transformations are nothing rare in Art any more than in life.

From countless heathen temples Catholic churches were formed. In the cla.s.sic epoch of Church music--in the 16th century--many secular melodies were accepted amongst devotional songs, and in later times the Catholic antiphones were heard as Protestant Chorales. And this went yet further, not excepting Opera, in which Meyerbeer utilised the Chorale "Eine feste Burg" for a stage effect, and in "L'Etoile du Nord" consecrated the "Dessauer Marsch" into the Russian National hymn. A revolutionary tendency is commonly ascribed to the universally known and favorite "Rakoczy March," and its performance has been more than once forbidden.

Music remains ever music, without superfluous and injurious significations. For the rest, G.o.d forbid that I should anywhere push forward either myself or my humble compositions. I leave it entirely to your judgment, hochgeborener Herr Baron, to decide whether my "Royal hymn" shall be performed in the new Hungarian Opera House or not. The score, as also the many orchestral and vocal parts, are to be had at the publishers, Taborsky and Parsch.

I beg you, Sir, to accept the expression of my high esteem.

F. Liszt

Weimar, September 21st, 1884

[To this Alex. Erkel made the proposal that Liszt's "Konigslied"

("Royal Song"), instead of being performed at the opening of the new theater on the 27th September, should be given at an "Extra Opera performance." The Master consented, but did not appear at this first performance of his work, which took place on the 25th March, 1885, and met with tremendous applause.]

350. To Walter Bache

[This letter is published, as a Preface, in the English edition of Liszt's "St. Elizabeth."]

Very honored Friend,

For some twenty years past you have been employing your beautiful talent as a pianist, your care as a professor and as a conductor to make my works known and to spread them in England. The task seemed an ungrateful one, and its want of success menacing, but you are doing it n.o.bly, with the most honorable and firm conviction of an artist. I renew my grateful thanks to you on the occasion of the present edition of the "Legend of St. Elizabeth,"

published by the well-accredited house of Novello. [The translator of the English edition (Constance Bache) has also translated many of Liszt's songs into English.]

This work, which was performed for the first time in 1865 at Budapest, has been reproduced successively in several countries and languages. Let us hope that it will also meet with some sympathy in England.

Your much attached

F. Liszt

Weimar, October 18th, 1884

351. To the Composer Mili Balakireff, Conductor of the Imperial Court Choir in St. Petersburg

Very honored, dear Confrere,

My admiring sympathy for your works is well known. When my young disciples want to please me they play me your compositions and those of your valiant friends. In this intrepid Russian musical phalanx I welcome from my heart masters endowed with a rare vital energy; they suffer in no wise from poverty of ideas--a malady which is widespread in many countries. More and more will their merits be recognised, and their names renowned. I accept with grat.i.tude the honor of the dedication [to me] of your Symphonic Poem "Thamar," which I hope to hear next summer with a large orchestra. When the 4-hand edition comes out you will greatly oblige me by sending me a copy. From the middle of January until Easter I shall be at Budapest.

Please accept, dear confrere, the expression of my high esteem and cordial attachment.

F. Liszt

Weimar, October 2lst, 1884

352. To Countess Louise de Mercy-Argenteau

[Known through her zealous propaganda, in Belgium and France, of the music of the New Russian School. After the death of her husband (1888), Chamberlain of Napoleon III., she left her native land of Belgium and removed to St. Petersburg, where she died in November 1890.]

October 24th, 1884

Certainly, my very dear and kind friend, you have a hundredfold right to appreciate and to relish the present musical Russia.

Rimski-Korsakoff, Cui, Borodine, Balakireff, are masters of striking originality and worth. Their works make up to me for the ennui caused to me by other works more widely spread and more talked about, works of which I should have some difficulty in saying what Leonard once wrote to you from Amsterdam after a song of Schumann's: "What soul, and also what success!" Rarely is success in a hurry to accompany soul. In Russia the new composers, in spite of their remarkable talent and knowledge, have had as yet but a limited success.--The high people of the Court wait for them to succeed elsewhere before they applaud them at Petersburg. A propos of this, I recollect a striking remark which the late Grand Duke Michael made to me in '43: "When I have to put my officers under arrest, I send them to the performances of Glinka's operas." Manners are softening, and Messrs. Rimski, Cui, Borodine, have themselves attained to the grade of colonel.

At the annual concerts of the German and Universal Musical a.s.sociation (Allgemeiner Deutscher Musik-Verein) they have, for many years past, always given some work of a Russian composer, at my suggestion. Little by little a public will be formed. Next year our Festival will take place in June at Carlsruhe. St. Saens is coming; why not you, too, dear friend? You would also hear something Russian there.

When you write to St. Saens, please tell him of my admiring and very constant friends.h.i.+p. By the work of translation which you have bravely undertaken, I think that you are doing wisely and skilfully in freeing yourself from the bondage of rhyme, and in keeping to rhythmic prose. The important point is to maintain the lyric or dramatic accent, and to avoid the "desastreuses salades de syllabes longues et breves, des temps forts et faibles"

[disastrous mess of long and short syllables, and of the strong and weak time]. The point is to make good prose without any other scruples whatever. It is said that M. Lamoureux is admitting the "Steppes" by Borodine into one of his programmes. We shall see what sort of a reception it will have. For the rest, I doubt Lamoureux's venturing so soon on the Russian propaganda. He has too much to do with Berlioz and Wagner.

Do not let yourself be disconcerted either by the "ineffable"

carelessness, or by the square battalions of objections such as these: "It is confusion worse confounded; it is Abracadabra"

[Senseless jabber.]--etc.

Without politeness or ceremony I tell you in perfect sincerity that your instinct did not lead you astray the day when this music so forcibly charmed you. Continue, then, your work with the firm conviction of being in the right path.

Above all I beg that you will not falsely imagine that I am taking hold of the thing wrong end foremost. When you knock I shall not merely say, Enter, but I myself will go before you. To return to Paris and show myself off there as a young composer or to continue the business of an old pianist in the salons does not attract me in the least. I have other things to do elsewhere.

Faithful homage.

F. Liszt

P.S.--I do not know what date to put to these lines. I wrote the first page on the receipt of your bewitching letter. I meant to reply to it in full, but all sorts of pressing obligations and botherations intervened...I have also been to the inauguration of the statue of Bach at Eisenach, ill.u.s.trated by three concerts, composed exclusively of numerous works of Bach's (the Ma.s.s in B minor first and foremost); then I was present at a more curious concert at Leipzig: on my return I had a severe attack of illness, which prevented me for several days from writing. In short, this letter ought to have reached you three weeks ago.

Tomorrow, 25th October, I leave Weimar, and shall not return here till after Easter. If you condescend to continue writing to me, please address to Budapest (Hungary) till the end of November. A prompt answer shall follow.

F. Liszt

353. To Madame Malwine Tardieu

Budapest, December 7th, 1884

Dear Kind Friend,