Letters of Franz Liszt Volume I Part 7

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 s.p.a.ce, 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 pa.s.s 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 a.s.sure 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 a.s.sure 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 a.s.suredly 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 n.o.bility 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 ill.u.s.triousness, after all the ill.u.s.trious 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 G.o.d 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.