Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt Volume II Part 25

241.

May 19th, 1857.

DEAREST FRIEND,

I received today the enclosed letter from the Hartels. In it they refer to a letter addressed to you, and in case this latter contains any indications as to how the business might be settled, I should like you to send it to me. Otherwise it would be of no use to me.

It is a sad thing that, in order to have a CERTAIN income for the next few years, I am compelled to offer my work for sale in this manner, and in different circ.u.mstances I should calmly bide my time in the firm hope that people would come to me. As it is, I am compelled to try everything, so as to tempt the Hartels to this purchase. Above all, I perceive that your time and occupations will not allow you to acquaint those gentlemen thoroughly with my music. I have, therefore, invited them to come here this summer, and to meet Klindworth, who has announced his visit to me. With his aid I shall give them a piece of my "Nibelungen," which will give them some notion of it.

Be good enough, therefore, to return to me for some time the pianoforte score of "Rhinegold," which we shall want for that purpose.

Delight me soon with satisfactory news of you; you know what I mean by this.

Farewell, and be greeted a thousand times.

Your

R. W.

(I want Hartels' letter back again.)

242.

[Here, Wagner ill.u.s.trates with a 4-bar musical score example.]

[Musical score example continued] You wicked friend! Let me know, at least, by some sign, how you are, and whether you forgive me for my anxiety about you.

May 3Oth, early in the morning, after a good night.

R. W.

243.

WEYMAR, June 9th, 1857.

DEAREST RICHARD,

I returned from Aix-la-Chapelle yesterday, and (barring a little pain in both my feet, which requires some care) I feel so well that I can cheerfully go to my work and various occupations. You must forgive me for not having satisfied your friendly anxiety about my health before this; the fact is, I must endure what is destined to me for your sake and my sake. G.o.d be thanked, I do not lack either strength or a certain tough equanimity.

H. wrote to you about the Aix Musical Festival, which, upon the whole, was satisfactory, both in arrangement and execution, although OUR FRIEND Hiller may demonstrate in the COLOGNE GAZETTE that I have no talent either as a conductor or a composer. The TANNHAUSER overture went splendidly, and your autogragh "ich lieg und besitze,--la.s.st mich schlafen" has given me a happy moment.

Owing to the severe illness of the Princess, my frame of mind has been sad and anxious for more than nine weeks. At my return I found her on the way to recovery, but several months may still pa.s.s before she is quite well again. At present she can scarcely sit up for half an hour every day.

Forgive me for not having written to you sooner, but I had nothing but sad news to tell you, and the poor Princess caused me so much anxiety that I scarcely knew how to bear it.

At last you have found a comfortable habitation which has been prepared for you by tender friends.h.i.+p, and must be all the more pleasant and beneficial to you on that account. I cordially partic.i.p.ate in this essential improvement of your life at Zurich, and am glad that you can give yourself up to your genius, and complete the gigantic mental mountain range of your NIBELUNGEN, without disturbance from neighbouring smiths and pianists. Have the W.'s moved into their villa yet? Convey my humble compliments to the amiable lady, and greet W. most cordially. I hope I shall be able to visit you in the autumn, after the Jubilee of Grand Duke Carl August. It will be celebrated here on September 3rd, 4th, and 5th, on which occasion I shall perform my FAUST symphony and a new symphonic poem THE IDEALS.

In reference to the Hartel affair I enclose his two letters of March 4th and 5th. At the end of February I had a long conversation about the matter at Leipzig with Dr. Hartel, and tried to persuade him to renew his first proposal to you, because that seemed to me the most advantageous thing for you. After a few days' consideration he sent me the letter, dated March 4th, and I replied in the sense of my conversation with him. I tried to show him as clearly as possible that this matter ought to be looked upon as a grand ENTERPRISE rather than as a common COMMERCIAL SPECULATION, and that the firm of Breitkopf and Hartel, which already possessed LOHENGRIN and the three operatic poems, would, in my opinion, be the most eligible for that purpose. I have not kept a copy of my letter, but can a.s.sure you that you need not disavow a single word of it. Hartal's letter of March 16th is identical with that addressed to you. As matters stand, I am very doubtful whether the Hartels will make you a new offer of honorarium unless, of course, the immediate impression of your rendering of the work on them should be so powerful as to overcome their commercial timidity. On your part I should not think it advisable to make them a new offer, and you have, no doubt, hit upon the best idea in inviting them to Zurich, so that you may be able to give them at least some previous idea of your work. This, I think, will be your most favourable chance in the circ.u.mstances. The intention of the Hartels for the present is, of course, to offer you nothing but an eventual honorarium AFTER the publication of the work, and after the expenses of that publication have been covered. You seem to think that I have not had sufficient time and opportunity for determining the Hartels to a different and better proposal, BUT THERE YOU ARE VERY MUCH MISTAKEN; and you may be quite certain that I should willingly have remained at Leipzig for a month or longer, and should have played and sung the RHINEGOLD to the Hartels several times if I had had the slightest hope that our purpose would in that manner be advanced by a hair's breadth. What I laid particular stress on with Hartel, apart from the intrinsic importance of the whole quality and essence of your work, was the possibility and the all but absolute certainty of its performance, which of course is denied on all sides.

At last I told him: "This I will guarantee, by word and deed, that between the completion of the "NIBELUNGEN", which may be expected by the end of the next year, and its performance, scarcely a year will elapse, and that the friends of Wagner, and I foremost amongst them, will do all that is possible to bring that performance about. In this firm conviction I think it desirable that the work should appear in print, so that the necessary standpoint for its judgment may be supplied," etc., etc., etc.

I am sorry to bore you with all this stuff, and only ask you NOT TO GIVE WAY TO IRRITATION, and not to say or to write a single rash word, because the matter is of decided importance, and a trustworthy publisher is not easily found. The publication of the "NIBELUNGEN" in full score and pianoforte arrangement will require an outlay of at least ten thousand thalers, for which few firms will be prepared. For the present I should advise you to keep quite quiet, and to invite the Hartels simply, and if need be repeatedly, to visit you, leaving all further discussion as to the terms of publication till you have given them more accurate insight into the matter; that is, till your meeting at Zurich.

Your

FRANZ.

What is your present address?

Richard Pohl has asked me to inquire of you whether you will be at Zurich in July, and whether he may pay you a visit there?

244.

ZURICH, May 8th, 1857.

At last, dearest Franz, I am able to give you an answer by letter.

First of all, receive my heartiest congratulations on the good state of your health. Your letter has joyfully surprised me, and, to my greatest delight, has made me feel ashamed of my intrusive anxiety about you. Your organisation is a perfect riddle to me, and I hope that you will always solve that riddle in as satisfactory a manner as this time, when I looked on with real anxiety. Heaven grant that your profession of good health may not be that of a Spartan!

All the more sorry do I feel that you have not been able to dispel my anxiety as to the Princess also. At our last meeting at Zurich my impression of your (to me) strange and very exciting mode of life frightened me so much that I am really less astonished at the Princess being on a sick bed than at your being up again. My very eager anxiety about both of you is perhaps in bad taste; for you are accustomed to taking care of yourselves, and acknowledge probably no special right on my part to trouble about you. Heaven grant that patience and good advice may restore our magnanimous friend as soon as possible; when she is once well again I shall be quite willing to plead guilty to the charge of impertinence. You say nothing of the health of her daughter, who was also severely indisposed. May your good star guide you; in one important point I shall always remain a stranger to you all.

I shall have no further trouble with the Hartels, as I have determined finally to give up my headstrong design of completing the "Nibelungen." I have led my young Siegfried to a beautiful forest solitude, and there have left him under a linden tree, and taken leave of him with heartfelt tears. He will be better off there than elsewhere. If I were ever to resume the work some one would have to make it very easy for me, or else I should have to be in a position to present it to the world as a GIFT, in the full sense of the word. These long explanations with the Hartels- -my first contact with that world which would have to make the realisation of my enterprise possible--were quite enough to bring me to my senses, and to make me recognize the chimeric nature of this undertaking. You were the only person of importance, besides myself, who believed in its possibility, but probably for the reason that you also had not sufficiently realised its difficulties. But the Hartels, who are to advance solid coin, have looked into the matter more closely, and are, no doubt, quite right in believing the performance of the work impossible, as the author did not even see his way to its completion without their help.

As regards myself, there was a time when I conceived, commenced, and half finished the work without the expectation of its being performed during my lifetime. Even last winter your confident tone, as you took leave of me, and your hope of releasing me soon from my mute and soundless exile, gave me the courage (which by that time had become a difficult matter) to continue. Such encouragement was indeed required, for, after having been without any stimulus, such as a good performance of one of my works might have given me, my position was, at last, becoming unbearable. Our trials at the piano further contributed towards my becoming thoroughly conscious of the misery of such musical makes.h.i.+fts; indeed, I felt that a good many things would be explained to myself only by a good performance. Since then my last hope has vanished again, and a terrible bitterness has come over me, so that I can no longer have any faith in mere chance. You, my rarest friend, do everything in your power to rouse me again in one way or other, and to sustain my freshness and love of work, but I know that all you say is only for this particular purpose.

So I have at last decided to help myself. I have determined to finish at once "Tristan and Isolde" on a moderate scale, which will make its performance easier, and to produce it next year at Stra.s.sburg with Niemann and Madame Meyer. There is a beautiful theatre there, and the orchestra and the other not very important characters I hope to get from a neighbouring German Court- theatre. In that manner I must try (D.V.) to produce something myself and in my own way which will once more restore freshness and artistic conscientiousness to me. Apart from this, such an undertaking offers me the only possible chance of sustaining my position. It was only by a somewhat frivolous proceeding--the sale of "Tannhauser" to the Josephstadt Theatre at Vienna--that I succeeded in preserving my equilibrium, and this will soon again be threatened, or, at least, is so absolutely insecure, that I had to think of something which would free me from care. For so much I may a.s.sume that a thoroughly practicable work, such as "Tristan" is to be, will quickly bring me a good income, and keep me afloat for a time. In addition to this, I have a curious idea.

I am thinking of having a good Italian translation made of this work in order to produce it as an Italian opera at the theatre of Rio Janeiro, which will probably give my "Tannhauser" first. I mean to dedicate it to the Emperor of Brazil, who will soon receive copies of my last three operas, and all this will, I trust, realise enough to keep me out of harm's way for a time. Whether, after that, my "Nibelungen" will appeal to me again I cannot foresee; it depends upon moods over which I have no control. For once I have used violence against myself. Just as I was in the most favourable mood I have torn Siegfried from my heart, and placed him under lock and key as one buried alive. There I shall keep him, and no one shall see anything of him, as I had to shut him out from myself.

Well, perhaps this sleep will do him good; as to his awaking I decide nothing. I had to fight a hard and painful battle before I got to this point. Well, it is settled so far.

Your three last Symphonic Poems have once more filled me with painful joy. While reading them I was forced again to think of my miserable condition, which makes such things mute to me, to me who knows so little how to help himself. G.o.d knows the greatest delight, such as your "Mountain Symphony," is thus turned to sorrow for me. But I have made these complaints a thousand times, and there is no help for it.

Some unfortunate person has again sent me a whole heap of ridiculous nonsense about my "Nibelungen," and probably expects an approving answer in return. With such puppets have I to deal when I look for human beings. These are the kind of people who continually trouble themselves about me with astounding faithfulness and constancy. Good Lord! it is very well for you to talk.

I shall receive R. Pohl with all the respect due to the Weimar art historiographer. I shall stay in my "refuge," and shall be pleased to see him. To speak at last of something hopeful, let me express my greatest joy at your giving me hope of a visit from you in September. Let me pray you earnestly not to treat this matter lightly, but to turn my hope into confidence. Try to imagine that you have undertaken to conduct a musical festival here, and then I am sure your pa.s.sionate conscientiousness will not allow you to stay away. Really, dearest Franz, such a meeting is a necessity to me this time. I shall enjoy it like a true gourmet. Let me soon hear something definite, and greet Altenburg and all its precious contents from the bottom of my heart. REMAIN well, for you say that you are well, and once more, love me.

Your

R. W.

As regards my address, the very blind know my footsteps at Zurich. About "Tristan" ABSOLUTE SILENCE.