Letters of Franz Liszt Volume II Part 11

39. To Prince Constantine of Hohenzollern-Hechingen

Monseigneur,

Your Highness will understand that it is a necessity of my heart to speak to you of a very happy juncture that a.s.sures me henceforth, in full degree, the stability of feeling and of conduct to which I aspired. It seems to me that I should be guilty of ingrat.i.tude and wanting in respect to the condescending friends.h.i.+p with which you are good enough to honor me, did I not let you know of the determination I have taken. On Tuesday the 25th April, the festival of St. Mark the Evangelist, I entered into the ecclesiastical state on receiving minor orders in the chapel of H.S.H. Monseigneur Hohenlohe at the Vatican. Convinced as I was that this act would strengthen me in the right road, I accomplished it without effort, in all simplicity and uprightness of intention. Moreover it agrees with the antecedents of my youth, as well as with the development that my work of musical composition has taken during these last four years,--a work which I propose to pursue with fresh vigor, as I consider it the least defective form of my nature.--

To speak familiarly; if "the cloak does not make the monk" it also does not prevent him from being one; and, in certain cases, when the monk is already formed within, why not appropriate the outer garment of one?--

But I am forgetting that I do not in the least intend to become a monk, in the severe sense of the word. For this I have no vocation, and it is enough for me to belong to the hierarchy of the Church to such a degree as the minor orders allow me to do.

It is therefore not the frock, but the ca.s.sock that I have donned. And on this subject Your Highness will pardon me the small vanity of mentioning to you that they pay me the compliment of saying that I wear my ca.s.sock as though I had worn it all my life.

I am now living at the Vatican with Monseigneur Hohenlohe, whose apartment is on the same floor as the Stanze of Raphael. My lodging is not at all like a prison cell, and the kind hospitality that Monseigneur H. shows me exempts me from all painful constraints. So I shall leave it but rarely and for a short time only, as removals and especially journeys have become very burdensome to me for many reasons...It is better to work in peace at home than to go abroad into the world,--except in important cases. One of these is awaiting me in the month of August, and I shall fulfil my promise of going to Pest at the time of the celebration of the musical fetes that are being got up for the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Conservatoire. My Oratorio of "Saint Elizabeth" and the Symphony of the "Divina Commedia" form part of the programme.

Next year, if Your Highness still thinks of realising your n.o.ble project of a musical congress at Lowenberg, I should be very happy to take part in it, and place myself entirely at your orders and service.

Permit me, Monseigneur, to express anew to you my most grateful thanks for the evidences of sympathy you have so generously accorded to myself and to my works; and graciously accept the homage of unchanging sentiments of most respectful devotion with which I have the honor to be

Your Highness's most humble and affectionate servant,

F. Liszt

Vatican, May 11th, 1865

40. To Breitkopf and Hartel

Dear Herr Doctor,

My old musical weaknesses have not left me! The weakest and worst thing about them is perhaps that I never cease composing; but such wondrous things go wandering about in my head that I cannot help putting them down on paper. And I have wanted to hear something about the fate of the ma.n.u.scripts I sent you for printing. Have the pianoforte scores of the Beethoven Symphonies been published? How has the printing of the Concerto for 2 pianos (in E minor) [Concerto pathetique] progressed? Would you kindly let me have a few copies soon?

With regard to the autographed orchestral parts of my "Symphonic Poems," I should be glad if they could be out by the end of July.

Probably at the beginning of August I go to Pest, where several of my compositions (more especially the "Dante Symphony") are to be performed in connection with the festivities at the Conservatoire. If the parts should be ready, please, dear Herr Doctor, forward them to me to Pest. At present I do not require them here; but should the "Preludes" be ready you would greatly oblige me by sending all the orchestral parts, with four copies of the quartet, if possible by the beginning of next month, to Dr. R. Pohl (571, Hirschga.s.se, Baden-Baden). I have been asked for the loan of them for some festival in Baden conducted by Monsieur Reyer.

Pray kindly excuse all the trouble I am giving you, and receive the expression of my most sincere esteem.

F. Liszt

The Vatican, May 27th, 1865

41. To Dr. Franz Brendel

Dear Friend,

Your favorable accounts of the Tonkunstler-Versammlung in Dessau delighted me greatly. Owing to the crooked way in which my works have been listened to in past years, I have felt oppressed; and in order that my freedom in my work might remain unaffected, I was obliged wholly to disregard their outward success. Hence my absolute distrust of performances of my own compositions, and this was not to be accounted for by any exaggerated modesty on my part. As to the "Battle of the Huns" I was specially doubtful; the Christian significance of Kaulbach's picture--as represented in the "Chorale"--seemed to me a stumbling-block in the way of favorable criticism. Kaulbach had indeed suggested this interpretation by having thrown a special light upon the cross...yet there are neither mendicant friars nor bishops in the picture...and, besides, at the time of the "Battle of the Huns"

the organ was not yet invented! This last sweeping argument was triumphantly hurled at me in Weimar by the infallible censors.

Since then I have hesitated to allow the work to be performed, and have remained satisfied with sending Kaulbach the arrangement for 2 pianofortes. And in that form it was executed [Executirt.]

in his salon, whereupon, of course, there were loud lamentations about my squandering my time upon such an abominable jumble of sounds, when I might be charming people in a more agreeable fas.h.i.+on with my piano-playing!...So if the Dessau Meeting really derived some pleasure from the "Battle of the Huns" I feel richly rewarded for my small amount of suffering.

I beg you to present my best thanks to Fraulein Wigand. [Emilie Wigand, studied under Prof. Gotze in Leipzig.] It is a good deed of hers to have obtained willing ears for my Psalm--and if I am in Germany again next year I shall want to hear it.

I will with pleasure take Weitzmann's place as examiner of the ma.n.u.scripts sent in. Send them to me in parcel form to Rome; I promise to look through them quickly and to let you have my good or bad opinion of them. For such work I am always inclined, and am, perhaps, not an awkward hand at it.

.--. From the Committee in Pest I have not had any news for some time past. I shall, however, hold myself in readiness to start from here by the beginning of August. Meanwhile let nothing be sent to me to Rome. As soon as I know anything definite about my stay in Hungary I will let you know.

With all friendly greetings to your wife, I am your sincerely attached

F. Liszt

July 21st (Villa d'Este-Tivoli), 1865

Any probable performance of the "Elizabeth" in Coburg we can discuss later. I should consider it advisable to have my name but little mentioned in the programme of the next Meeting of the Tonkunstler-Versammlung. As regards a larger work (one to occupy a whole concert) it would be well for Gille to leave the choice of it to the Duke. The local taste would be a very important point in the matter, and, for my own part, I know only too well that people do not want to know or to hear too much of me--in Coburg as well as in many other places!--

42. To Abbe Schwendtner in Buda-Pest

[Autograph in the possession of Frl. Therese v. Lavner in Pest.-- Liszt became acquainted with the Abbe in 1865, and frequently enjoyed his hospitality when visiting Pest, up to the time when he himself became connected with the Musik-Academie there.]

Right Reverend Sir and Friend,

Having returned to my abode here, I cannot refrain from again thanking you most heartily for all the goodness and kindness you showed me in so unusually abundant a measure, during my stay in the town-vicarage of Pest. The five weeks I spent there in the pleasantest way--owing to your considerate care and attention-- will remain an unextinguishable point of light in my life. You admonish, and at the same time encourage and strengthen me, to carry out further the artistic task that is set me. In the hope that your Reverence will in the future continue to show me the sympathy so kindly and generously expressed, I pray you to implore G.o.d's blessing to keep me ever a good child of the State and Church.

May I add another request? On the 22nd October (my birthday) for some years past a Ma.s.s has been read in the Franciscan Church in Pest, and at the words: "Memento Domini" I [am] held in remembrance...I would ask your Reverence to remember my wish that this may be done also on the same day in the parish church.

In sincere veneration and grat.i.tude, I remain cordially and faithfully

Your Reverence's devoted

F. Liszt

The Vatican, September 20th, 1865

My respectful compliments to the amiable lady president of the morning coffee--Fraulein Resi [A niece of the Abbe's.]--who conducts and beautifies the real Magyar hospitality at the Vicarage in an incomparably graceful manner. I shall take the liberty one day of sending Fraulein Resi a few Roman trifles.

Bulow has undertaken to send you the medallion of my humble self, a masterly piece of work by Rietschel. As you will know, Rietschel is the sculptor who made the Lessing statue in Brunswick, the Goethe and Schiller group in Weimar, etc.--

43. To Dr. Franz Brendel

Dear Friend,

Accept my best thanks for having admitted into your Neue Zeitschrift Bulow's account of the Musical Festival in Pest.

These three articles are a masterly piece of work, and, as your paper has for several years past followed the difficult process of my development as a composer in so kind and careful a manner, I wished specially that the very successful performances of the "Elizabeth" and of the "Dante Symphony" in Pest should receive confirmation in the Neue Zeitschrift.

With regard to the "Elizabeth" I have received offers from Vienna and a few other places; but it is in no way my intention to wage war in a hurry with this work. I shall, therefore, decline the invitations with thanks, and await an opportunity more convenient to myself for the next performance. Whether this may be at the Tonkunstler-Versammlung in Coburg I do not know, and, frankly said, this will depend upon the Duke's bon plaisir. [It was not performed at a Tonkunstler-Versammlung in Coburg.] For my own part I am in no great hurry, as I have heard enough of the work in Pest, and found no alterations to make in it. Then also there is no hurry with regard to its publication, and my reply a short time ago to a willing publisher (who, curiously enough, offered me a respectable honorarium for it!) was, that only by next summer could I decide whether to have it published or not.