Letters of Franz Liszt Volume I Part 62

Yours very gratefully,

F. Liszt

December 30th, 1860

Towards the middle of January I am going to Paris or a couple of weeks to see my mother (who is still constantly ill).

251. To Dr. Franz Brendel.

[Beginning of January, 1861]

Dear Friend,

A thousand thanks for your letter, and still more excuses that I have delayed so long with my answer. On New Year's Day we had a grand Court-concert--on the top of which there was a banquet at the Erbprinz, which lasted till four o'clock in the morning; on the other days perpetual dinners and suppers, at which I was also obliged to be present. Besides all this, the final revision of my second concerto (and a couple of smaller piano pieces) occupied me much. Schott had undertaken the publication of them, and I did not wish to annoy him by letting the somewhat numerous alterations which had to be made in them wait to be corrected until the proofs were printed, etc., etc.

From all the transitions and connection of the movements (which I am now most carefully working out in the Concerto), I pa.s.s at once without transition to the answering of your questions.

1. I think Bronsart's engagement for next year at four hundred thalers is advisable.

2. If Weissheimer has really made himself impossible, Damrosch should be the next one to be thought of, as a colleague of Bronsart. There is no hurry about this affair, and we will talk over it again viva voce.

3. The remaining four hundred thalers for X. I will send you at the end of this month. If you should require them sooner write me a couple of lines.

4. The question of leave of absence is not easy to decide, so long as no definite date is fixed for the concert. Frau Pohl, for instance, had had leave once already--but then the date of the concert was altered, and in consequence of her absence it was of no use. For the rest I don't doubt that Frau Pohl can get leave of absence once more--I only beg you to let me know definitely the day, so that I may inform Dingelstedt of it.

5. With regard to the co-operation of Messrs. v. Milde and Singer, it has its difficulties. They are both not without scruples in regard to the Euterpe, which, though they do not say so in so many words, might be summed up as follows: "If we co- operate in the Euterpe, we shut the golden doors of the Gewandhaus in our faces, and injure ourselves also in other towns, in which the rule of the Gewandhaus prevails. Ergo, it is more desirable, prudent(!), for us to act..." The rest you can add for yourself. Milde complains of the thanklessness of the part in the "Sangers Fluch," ["The Singer's Curse," by Schumann]

the awful cold of the winter season, all the disagreeables in connection with obtaining leave, etc. Singer does not know what piece to choose, and also the E string of his violin is not quite safe, and more of that kind.

6. Fraulein Genast is in a still worse position, for she is not quite independent of the intimidation (on cla.s.sical grounds) of her father, and is, moreover, engaged for the next Gewandhaus concert (for the part of the Rose in Schumann's "Rose's Pilgrimage"). None the less she said to me from the beginning that she was perfectly ready to do whatever I thought advisable.

In view of this surmise I must naturally be all the more cautious. She sings on the 22nd in Zwickau, on the 24th (probably) at the Gewandhaus, and on the 31st in Aix-la-Chapelle.

I have therefore advised her to come to an understanding with you herself personally in Leipzig on the 23rd, and to co-operate with you by preference as a singer of Lieder (with pianoforte accompaniment) at the soiree of the Euterpe on the 29th.

Yesterday evening I marked the following three songs for her, as the most suitable for the purpose:--

A. "The Pilgrimage to Kevlaar" (composed for E. Genast lately by Hiller, and still in ma.n.u.script).

B. A song of Rubinstein's: for instance, "Ah! could it remain so for ever!" (Tender allusion to the Gewandhaus!)

C. The three Zigeuner (by me).

The three songs would make up two numbers of the programme.--

I especially beg of you, dear friend, not to make any protest against the song of Hiller. The plainly fair and just thing, which has nothing in common with the "elevated right" which is bestowed exclusively on Capellmeister Rietz and his a.s.sociates (as the Leipzig University expressed it), consists simply in not shutting the door to publicity in anybody's face, or maliciously and slyly casting stones and mud at him. Regardless of the fact that we must not expect that they on their side will deal thus with us, we must consistently and faithfully carry out and fulfill this simple justice and fairness, and thus show the gentlemen how people of a n.o.bler mind and more proper cultivation behave. You perhaps remember the opinion which I have many times given and proved by actions--especially at the Versammlung- Versammlung, when Frau Dr. Reclam sang Hiller's (somewhat mediocre) Psalm, and...etc. After that I vote especially for the performance of one of Rubinstein's larger works, such as the proposed Symphony, and beg you to appoint Bronsart for it.--It would lead me too far to explain my views in detail; that I have no concessions or favoritisms in view in this matter goes without saying.

7. The co-operation of the violinist recommended by Schuberth must be considered, and even qualified, according to his talent.

8. "Ta.s.so" can quite well be performed without the harp. A pianino will do quite well, and I beg you most earnestly not to put yourself to any inconvenience for my things. In my orchestral works I have taken the larger measure of instrumentation (Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Dresden--or, if you prefer personal names, Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Berlioz); but in spite of this most of them can be performed in smaller proportions, as has been most strikingly shown, for instance, in Sondershausen. The chief thing before all else is the conductor; if he be a good and reliable musician things may then be well managed in a variety of ways--and in "Ta.s.so" especially the harp is hardly wanted. So don't bother yourself any more about it, and soothe Bronsart.

If I am not mistaken, I think I have now answered all the princ.i.p.al questions in your letter. As to what concerns personal matters we will talk about that shortly. I shall write one of these next days to Schuberth (as soon as I have finished my revisions for Schott). He has made me a proposal to which I am inclined to agree. [The rest of the letter is missing.]

252. To Dr. Franz Brendel

Dear friend,

I expressly wish that Weissheimer should accompany the songs which Fraulein Genast will sing at the Euterpe soiree. I have especially commissioned him to make the motive of this wish of mine, if necessary, still clearer to you. With regard to the choice of songs you will easily come to an understanding with the amiable singer. But I, for my part, hold to the opinion that Hiller's "Wallfahrt nach Kevlaar" is well suited to the programme.

The "Faust" Symphony must be written out quite fresh once more before I send it to Schuberth. By the 15th February he will receive the ma.n.u.script, together with a couple of lines for Dorffel, who is almost indispensable to me as the corrector of this work. I shall be over head and ears in work the next few weeks, in order to do all that is necessary before I start on my journey to Paris, which I shall probably do on the 20th February.

Best thanks for all the information in your last letter. Some things, indeed most things, are still going very badly--upon which we cannot and must not make ourselves any illusions;--but if we are proof against these things we shall come out of them.

Before and after Lowenberg (in the middle of February) I shall come and see you in Leipzig.

Meanwhile hearty greetings and thanks from your

F. L.

January 20th, 1861

You shall have the small sum for X. in the course of the week.

253. To Dr. Franz Brendel

Dear friend.

By yesterday's post I sent you--

A. The score of the second act of the "Flying Dutchman"--and two orchestral parts of the duet (these latter in order that the copyist, in writing it out, may guide himself by these, and may not add the terzet-ending, as it stands in the score--Weissheimer will give Thumler the exact speed). Beg Thumler to send me the score back soon, as it may possibly be wanted at Easter in the theater.

B. The last part (Mephistopheles and final chorus) of the "Faust"

Symphony in score--and the complete arrangement of this same Symphony for two pianofortes.

Will you be so good as to give these ma.n.u.scripts to Schuberth? I hope he will keep his promise and not delay the publication of the work. At the end of this week I will send Schuberth the score and the four-hand piano arrangement of the two Faust-episodes ("Der nachtliche Zug" "The Nocturnal Procession")--and the "Mephisto-Waltz"). I should be glad if these two things could come out in the course of this year.

C. For Kahnt, the small score of the chorus "Die Seligkeiten"

["The Beat.i.tudes"], which I also hope may soon be published. It has been given here a couple of times in the Schloss orchestra and the parish church, and, as I have been told many times, has been spoken of in an exceptionally favorable manner. I have written few things that have so welled up from my innermost soul.

I think I shall be ready with the revision of the "Prometheus"

score by next Sat.u.r.day. I have already made two arrangements (for two and four hands, not two pianofortes) of the Reapers' Chorus, which I give Kahnt gratis. He shall get the whole packet early next Monday at the latest. Weissheimer tells me that the edition of the score shall be ready by the middle of July. If Kahnt prefers to let the Prometheus be copied, I have nothing to say against it; I only beg that in this case he will employ a very clever and exact copyist-and, as I have already told him, that he will preserve the size of the other Symphonic Poems.

N.B.--The division and distribution of the score--so that there may be as few unnecessary rests as possible, and that, where it can be done (as, for instance, at the beginning of the Tritons'

Chorus, the Reapers' Chorus, etc), two sets of staves should be printed on one page--I beg that this may be entrusted to Herr Dorffel. I also do not wish the work to look like a conductor's score on the outside!--and, before it is given into the hands of the engraver or copyist, it is necessary that the parts where two sets of staves come on to one page should be clearly indicated.

My copyist here has made a very careless scrawl of the "Prometheus" score, and I have therefore taken other work out of his hands, and have given him a good scolding. But there is no time to have a new score written, and therefore Dorffel must largely help out with the matter.

N.B.--The piano arrangement must be put below the score, as it is in the ma.n.u.script.