Letters of Franz Liszt Volume II Part 17

With regard to your personal affairs I can but again a.s.sure you that I take the liveliest interest in them. The modesty of your claims, dear friend, is very much out of proportion with the importance of the services you have rendered. One rarely meets with demands that are as just and as unpretending as yours. Be a.s.sured of my sincere readiness to promote your interest in higher quarters, and to do what I can to satisfy you.

With warmest thanks and kindest greetings yours,

F. Liszt

Rome, January 26th, 1868

Sgambati's matinees for Chamber-music are better attended than ever this winter. They include all that is musically interesting as regards Rome.

64. To Walter Bache

Dear Mr. Bache,

I thank you cordially for your kind letter, and beg you to rely always on my feelings of sincere affection and esteem.

It would certainly be a great pleasure to me to see you again in London this summer, yet I could not venture to promise or to keep my promise, and must abstain from either.

Please therefore to make my excuses to the Secretary of the Philharmonic Society, and to thank him for his kind intentions towards me. If an opportunity of realising them should occur later on,--without disappointment or disagreeableness to any one,--I should be much pleased. As regards the present time it is superfluous to give any thought to the proposition you transmit to me, in view of the obligations which will retain me elsewhere.

I am even doubtful whether it will be possible for me to accept the invitation of my German friends to the Tonkunstler- Versammlung at Altenburg in July.--

The good news you give me of Klindworth is very pleasant to me.

May he remember me sufficiently well to know how much I appreciate him and what an affection I have for him.

Sgambati is very much in fas.h.i.+on this winter, and the fas.h.i.+on is perfectly right in this. He sends you a thousand affectionate greetings, and Lippi, [A Roman pupil of Liszt's] Mdlle. Giuli [Liszt's best lady-pupil in Rome] and the other patients of the "Scuola" [School] hold you in warm remembrance.

Accept also, dear Mr. Bache, the a.s.surance of my very sincere devotion.

F. Liszt

Rome, January 30th, 1868

The performance of my symphonic works in London must, like the concert of the Phil. Society, be postponed. Your zeal in this matter touches me much. I would not wish tosuppress it, and only beg you to moderate it so that it may be all the more fruitful.

65. To Dr. Franz Brendel

Dear Friend,

I have nothing to find fault with in the sketch of the Altenburg programme except that my name occurs too often in it. I am afraid of appearing obtrusive if several works of mine are produced at every Tonkunstler-Versammlung. Certainly the repet.i.tion of the 13th Psalm might be permissible and even advantageous to myself, as you kindly remark; also I should not care to raise any protest against the chorus "An die Kunstler," and simply because it has. .h.i.therto been more screamed at than heard, for it has been accounted one of my most culpable heresies to have set these words of Schiller's to music after Mendelssohn, and indeed without copying Mendelssohn and without humoring the customary taste of Vocal Societies. Parenthetically be it said that Schiller and "Manhood's dignity" forbade me to make this composition any pleasanter. I dreamt a temple and not a kiosk!--

If you run the risk of giving this Artists' Chorus in Altenburg I must beg the conductor to take all possible care in rehearsing it--and to aim at the most dignified composure in the performance. Like reverberating marble-pillars must be the effect of the singing!--

Please thank Stade [Director of the Court orchestra, and Court organist in Altenburg (born 1817); he was a friend of Liszt's for many years.] most warmly for his friendly intention to play one of my Organ pieces. He will probably choose either the Variations on the Ba.s.so continuo of Bach's Cantata "Weinen, sorgen, seufzen, klagen" ("Weeping, grieving, sighing, lamenting")--or the BACH- Fugue.

Discuss the matter again with Riedel and Stade, as to whether 3 items by Liszt on the programme are not too much. I will gladly yield to your decision, and wish only there were more prospect of my being able to attend this Tonkunstler-Versammlung. However I cannot say anything definite about it till June.

Sgambati gives a concert next week in Florence. On his return at the end of April it will be decided whether he can undertake the journey to Altenburg or will have to remain here all summer.

Sgambati is decidedly not an artist for a watering-place, although as a virtuoso his talent is extraordinary and undoubtedly effective. He plays Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, and my most troublesome things with perfect independence and in a masterly style. His artistic tendencies and sympathies are altogether "new-German." This winter we heard two of his larger works: a Pianoforte-Quintet and a Nonet for strings. Both of these deserve to be brought out by our Musik- Verein.

Ad vocem of the dedication of Seifritz's Overture, you have come to the right resolution in dedicating the 2nd year's issue of the Almanack to Prince Hohenzollern. I likewise approve of the following numbers being dedicated to the Princes in whose capitals the Tonkunstler-Versammlungen are held.

The first number of the Almanack seems to me very successful. But the historical Calendar might gain in interest by omissions and additions. Mediocre local celebrities such as "H.S. in E., T.D.

in B., L.A. in L.," etc., etc., do not need to figure as historical. As little do a couple of first performances that were given in Weimar under my conductors.h.i.+p. See to it, dear friend, that more important data are collected in good time, and that superfluous data are rejected.

As I told you in Leipzig, the Grand Duke has determined to have me in Weimar for a couple of months during the winter (towards the beginning of '69). Perhaps I may go somewhat sooner.

With the next sending of proofs please ask Kahnt to enclose the ma.n.u.script of the 18th Psalm ("The Heavens declare the glory of G.o.d") for male voices. It is written on very large sheets of music-paper and bound in boards. But in order that the parcel may be made a more convenient size let the boards be removed and the ma.n.u.script paper doubled up. Kahnt will remember that I left him this ma.n.u.script seven years ago.

With hearty greetings, yours most sincerely,

F. Liszt

March 3lst, 1868

66. To Johann von Herbeck

Dear Friend,

My cousin Eduard will bring you the score of the 18th Psalm intended for the Mannergesang-Verein [Vocal Society for Men's Voices] in Vienna. Allow me at this opportunity again to offer you my sincerest thanks for the kindly feelings you have always entertained for me. The further fate of the Psalm forwarded to you I leave wholly in your hands. You will have to decide whether it is suitable for being performed at the Jubilee Festival of the Mannergesang-Verein. If you think it is I shall be glad; still I beg you not to make it any special consideration, and if you think it more advisable not to burden the Festival-programme with it, I shall be quite content, feeling convinced, dear friend, that you will know best what is most to my advantage.

Otherwise the study of it would give no trouble. The Psalm is very simple and ma.s.sive--like a monolith. And, as in the case of other works of mine, the conductor has the chief part to play.

He, as the chief virtuoso and artifex, is called upon to see that the whole is harmoniously articulated and that it receives a living form. In the rhythmical and dynamical climax, from letters B to E (repeated from H to L), as also in some of the ritenuti; especially in the pa.s.sage:

"The law of the Lord is perfect, Converting the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, Making wise the simple, etc.,"

you will find substance to prove your excellence as a conductor.

Well, dear friend, you know what it is brilliantly to arouse a flaming spirit out of dead notes.

Accept the a.s.surance of my sincere esteem and affection.

F. Liszt

Rome, June 9th, 1868

67. To Dr. Franz Brendel

[This is the last of the many letters Liszt addressed to Brendel, who died a few months afterwards.]

Dear friend,