Letters of Franz Liszt Volume I Part 4

F. Liszt

Milan, September 22nd, 1838

Will you be so good as to give the enclosed note to the charming woman who is good enough to remember me so kindly?

16. To M. Pacini, Music Publisher in Paris

[Autograph in the possession of M. Alfred Bovet at Valentigney.]

My Dear Monsieur Pacini,

In two or three days at latest from now you will receive the ma.n.u.script for which you asked me for the book of the Hundred and One. [A collective work with contributions by celebrities of the day.] Mr. Hugot has kindly undertaken to bring it to you.

As the t.i.tle implies, it is an Etude (di Bravura) after Paganini.

[Bravura Studies on Paganini's Capricci, arranged for the pianoforte, brought out by Haslinger, Vienna, in 1839. A second, newly arranged edition, dedicated to Clara Schumann, "Grandes Etudes de Paganini," was brought out by Breitkopf and Hartel in 1851.] You will oblige me by recommending the engraver to engrave it very s.p.a.ciously. In addition, you had better, I think, reprint directly afterwards this Etude facilitee, which I have also sent you. This second arrangement is by M. Schumann, a young composer of very great merit. It is more within the reach of the general public, and also more exact than my paraphrase.

Many apologies for having kept you waiting so long for such a small thing, and kind remembrances to Emilien.

Yours affectionately,

F. Liszt

Please send the corrected proofs of this study to Haslinger, musical editor to the Court, at Graben, Vienna.

I must have at least two corrected proofs. Prego! Prego!! [I beg!] leave only such mistakes as are absolutely necessary in order that an edition may be supposed to be correct.

Padua, September 30th, 1838

17. To Breitkopf and Hartel.

[This is the first of the Liszt letters extant in the archives of the firm.]

I am really grieved, gentlemen, at the trouble you have been good enough to take about these unlucky Symphonies, and I hardly know how to express my acknowledgments. As I have already had the honor of telling you, Mr. Mori had been previously engaged to publish these Symphonies, and, as the steps you have taken have not been crowned with success, I will keep to this first publisher, with whom I have every reason to be satisfied up to now.

You can then publish this work in two or three months from now.

[Pianoforte scores of the C minor and Pastoral Symphonies of Beethoven.] Only it is essential that I should correct the last proof, so that the edition may be absolutely correct. I also wish to add the fingering to several pa.s.sages, to make them easier for amateurs. Be so good, therefore, as to send me, through the Emba.s.sy (or by any other opportunity which is not too expensive), two proofs to Rome, where I shall be in about twelve days, and where I expect to remain till the middle of March.

I hope, gentlemen, that you will not have cause to regret the obliging advances that you have made to me in this matter, and for which I am sincerely grateful to you. If you will be so good as to add to the proofs of the Beethoven Symphonies such of the songs of Beethoven (or Weber) as you would like me to transcribe for piano solo, I will then give you a positive answer as to that little work, which I shall be delighted to do for you, but to which I cannot a.s.sent beforehand, not knowing of which songs you are the proprietors. If "Leyer und Schwert" was published by you, I will do that with pleasure. I think that these songs, or at any rate four or five of them, would be rather satisfactory for the piano.

Accept, gentlemen, the expression of my high esteem.

F. Liszt

Florence, January 3rd, 1839

18. To Princess Christine Belgiojoso in Paris

[Autograph in the possession of M. Alfred Bovet at Valentigney.-- Addressed to the celebrated writer and patriot. In 1837 a charity concert took place in her salons, at which Liszt and Thalberg both played.]

It would be self-conceit in me, Princess, to complain of your silence. Your letters have always been for me a favor, a charm. I am not meaning to say that I have the slightest right to them.

Nevertheless, as you do not reply to me any more, I hope you will at least permit me to tell you how very much I feel the very slightest marks of your kindness, and what a price I set upon your remembrance.

Some numbers of the Gazette or Revue Musicale, which have accidentally fallen into my hands at the house of one of my Russian friends (for in this happy country of the Arts, and of music in particular, you can well imagine that no one is foolish enough to spend a thirty francs' subscription on the Revue Musicale), have informed me that you had decidedly raised altar for altar, and made your charming salon echo with magnificent harmonies. I confess that this is perhaps the one regret of my winter. I should so immensely have liked to be there to admire you, to applaud you. Several people who had the honor of being present at these choice evenings have spoken to me about them with enthusiasm.

What a contrast to the tiresome musical soliloquies (I do not know what other name to give to this invention of mine) with which I contrived to gratify the Romans, and which I am quite capable of importing to Paris, so unbounded does my impudence become! Imagine that, wearied with warfare, not being able to compose a programme which would have common sense, I have ventured to give a series of concerts all by myself, affecting the Louis XIV. style, and saying cavalierly to the public, "The concert is--myself." For the curiosity of the thing I copy one of the programmes of the soliloquies for you:--

1. Overture to William Tell, performed by M. L.

2. Reminiscences of the Puritani. Fantaisie composed and performed by the above-mentioned!

3. Etudes and fragments by the same to the same!

4. Improvisation on themes given--still by the same. And that was all; neither more nor less, except lively conversation during the intervals, and enthusiasm if there was room for it.

A propos of enthusiasm, I ought at least to talk to you of St.

Peter's. That is the proper thing to do when one writes from Rome. But, in the first place, I am writing to you from Albano, whence I can only discern the dome, and, secondly, this poor St.

Peter's has been so disguised, so embellished by papier-mache wreaths, horrid curtains at alcoves, etc., etc., all in honor of the five or six last saints whom His Holiness has canonised, that I try to put away the recollection of it. Happily there have not been any workers of miracles to glorify at the Coliseum and the Campo Vaccino, otherwise it would have been impossible to live in Rome.

If nothing occurs to prevent it, I expect to pa.s.s the end of next winter (March and April) in Paris. Will you permit me then to fill up all the gaps in my correspondence from the Rue d'Anjou?

[Here the Princess lived.] I count always upon your friendly and indulgent kindness. But shall you extend this so far as to give me a sign of life before the close of my stay in Italy? I do not know. In any case, letters addressed poste restante, Florence, will reach me till the 1st of next September.

I beg you, Madame la Princesse, to accept the expression of my profound and most devoted respect.

F. Liszt

Albano, June 4th, 1839

Will you be good enough to remember me affectionately to (Madame) your sister and to Mr. d'Aragon?

19. To Robert Schumann

[From a copy from the Royal Library in Berlin.]

Albano, June 5th, 1839

My dear Monsieur Schumann,

At the risk of appearing very monotonous, I must again tell you that the last pieces you were so kind as to send me to Rome appear to me admirable both in inspiration and composition. The "Fantaisie" dedicated to me is a work of the highest kind--and I am really proud of the honor you have done me in dedicating to me so grand a composition.

Op. 17, C dur. With the motto:--