Letters of Franz Liszt Volume II Part 86

I have the honor, Monsieur le Grand Marechal, to be, with respect, Your Excellency's very humble and obedient servant,

F. Liszt

Paris, September 30th, 1841

19, Rue Pigalle (Permanent Address).

388. To Eugenio Gomez, Organist of the Cathedral at Seville

[Autograph, without address, in the Liszt-Museum in Weimar. The addressee (born 1802) was both pianist and composer.]

You have been pleased, my dear Monsieur Gomez, to ask my perfectly frank opinion of your "Melodies harmonisees," and-quite frankly [Liszt uses the same expression--tout franc--in each case.]--I am much embarra.s.sed by it, for it is in vain I turn them over and over again; on every side I find only compliments to make you about them. It is true that you could not doubt their sincerity any more than you could the real merit of your work. It is needless to speak of the modesty of true talent; this modesty cannot go to the extent of foolishness, and the Artist and supreme Architect of the spheres gives us Himself the example of this legitimate satisfaction which the consciousness of having done well brings us, by rejoicing over His work each day of the Creation.

One defect, nevertheless, and a very grave defect, which I have discovered in your "Harmonies" by dint of searching, is, that there are only 12 instead of 24 or 48--as all true lovers will wish. Make haste, my dear Monsieur Gomez, set yourself to work, and repair as quickly as possible this unpardonable defect in your labor; and, while extending it to the utmost, think sometimes of your most affectionate and devoted servant,

F. Liszt

389. To Madame(?).

[Autograph, without address, date, and conclusion, in the Liszt- Museum at Weimar.]

[Sevilla, end of December, 1844]

You have not told me too much of the wonders of Seville, Madame, and, nevertheless, you could hardly have told me beforehand of that which I have found the most charming--the letter from Mademoiselle Caroline. Thanks to her charming lines, I found myself in the best possible frame of mind for the enjoyment of all imaginable chefs d'oeuvre, and I could not have been more disposed to admiration and wonderment! During the ten days which I have just spent in Seville I have not allowed a single day to pa.s.s without going to pay my very humble court to the cathedral, that epic of granite, that architectural Symphony whose eternal harmonies vibrate in infinity!--

One cannot use any set phrases about such a monument. The best thing to do would be to kneel there with the faith of the charcoal-burner (if one could do so), or to soar in thought the length of these arches and vaulted roofs, for which it seems that there is even now "no longer time"!--As for me, not feeling myself enough of the charcoal-burner or of the eagle, I am constrained to stand with my nose in the air and mouth open.

Nevertheless my prayer sometimes climbs up like useless ivy, lovingly embracing those knotted shafts which defy all the storms of the genius of Christianity.

Whatever you may think of my enthusiasm for your cathedral, it is a fact that I have been entirely absorbed by it during the ten days I have spent in Seville; so much so, that it was only on the evening before my departure that I could prevail on myself to visit the Alcazar.

In truth, if one might wish for the re-introduction of the bastinado, it would be to apply it exclusively to those malicious wretches who have dared to besmear so many ravis.h.i.+ng flights of fancy, so many fairy-like vagaries, with lime and plaster.

What adorable enchantment and what hideous devastation!

The heart expands--and then contracts at every step. Little do I care for the gardens (which, by the way, slightly resemble the ornamental gardens of a priest); little do I care even for the baths of Maria Padilla, which, in fact, have slightly the effect of an alkaline; but what outlines, what harmonious profusion in these lines, what incredible voluptuousness in all this ornamentation! Would that I could send them you in this envelope, such as I have felt and devoured them with my eyes!

Here are, indeed, many marks of admiration, and you will certainly smile at me, will you not, Madame? But what can I do?

And how, after that, can I speak to you of myself and my paltry individuality?

390. To Madame (?)

[Autograph sketch of a letter, without address, date, and conclusion, in the Liszt-Museum at Weimar.]

[Probably beginning of 1845]

What are your travelling plans for this winter, Madame? Mine are quite unsettled. I did not succeed in leaving Spain, and the fact is that, being well, there is no sense in searching for better elsewhere.The only thing that provokes me is the necessity in which I am placed of having to give up the rest of my duties at Weymar for this winter. But I shall try to take a brilliant revenge in the course of this very year.

In spite of our agreement I have not sent you the bulletin of my peaceful victories in the arena of Madrid [Liszt gave concerts in the Teatro del Circo in Madrid from October till December 1844.](and elsewhere), because you know that there are certain things which are moreover very simple, but which I cannot do.

More than once, nevertheless, I have regretted you in your founder's loge--the first in front--and I have turned to that side in expectancy of the inciting bravos which used to begin before all the others at the brilliant pa.s.sages!

La Melinetti will doubtless have given you my ancient news from Pau! Poor woman, with her luxury of a husband (a superfluity which was not in the least a necessary thing for her), and her little impulsive ways,...she has really promised me to be at length reasonable, steady, and deliberate. I hope she will keep her word. With a little wit, behavior, and tact, she could make herself a very good position in Pau. Mme. d'Artigaux, [When unmarried, as Countess Caroline St. Criq, sixteen years before this time, she had possessed Liszt's whole heart, while hers belonged to him. But the command of her father, Minister St.

Criq, separated eir ways, because he--was only an artist. Liszt thought of her in his last Will, but she left this world before him, at the beginning of the seventies.] who is the most ideally good woman I know, takes a real interest in her. Several other people sincerely wish her well--it only depends on herself to take a good position there--but unfortunately she is too outspoken, and inclined to play tricks.

What do you know of the elegaic and seraphic Chopin? I wrote a few lines from Pau to Mme. Sand, but my letter hardly asked for a reply, and she has, moreover, better things to do.

391. To Madame (?) in Milan

[Autograph in the Liszt-Museum in Weimar]

[1846]

I am at your feet, Madame, and kiss your hands--but it is impossible not to quarrel with you, and that seriously, over the last lines of your letter! Through what absence of mind, let me ask you, could you have written to me, "I do not speak to you of our affairs because I remember that your sympathies are not with us"? Frankly, if you were to tell me that I have never played any but false notes on the piano, and that my calling was that of a retail grocer, this opinion would offer, to my thinking, a greater degree of probability. Evidently, in my double character of citizen and musician, I am not even to exonerate myself from the fault you [ascribe] to me. Suffer me then not to dwell longer upon it, and deign for the future to spare me the pain which all suspicion of this kind would cause me.

Otherwise your letter was a great joy to me; first, as coming from you; and then, as announcing the realization of a wish, an idea, to the postponement of which I had resigned myself as well as I could, but which I had hardly relinquished. Your Sardanapalus comes in the nick of time, just as the 2000 francs will be opportune to the poet. The mode of payment is very simple. Belloni's sister being in Milan, she will have the honor of calling upon you, and an return for the restoration of the ma.n.u.script she will discharge the total of my debt, viz., two thousand francs. Allow me only a last request, which is that you will kindly take the trouble to read the whole libretto through again, and, if it should be expedient, to communicate to the poet direct any observations which you consider necessary. The notes and commentaries which you have added on the margin of Rotondi's libretto (which I keep very carefully) showed such a complete virtuosity in this style of subject that one could not possibly do better than submit with confidence to your decision.--[The plan of composing an opera "Sardanapalus" occupied Liszt for years.]

Thanks to G.o.d, and to this good star which has let me live many years pretty uprightly, "as if I were immortal," as you put it, behold me now since the end of September in last year entirely out of the circle of concerts--and it does not seem likely that I shall soon return to this drudgery.--I shall remain in Weymar till the 15th August; then I shall go and make a tour in the Crimea by way of the Danube, probably returning by Constantinople if I can manage it.--

Next spring "Sardanapalus" will be ready,--and I shall perhaps have to speak to you about another matter at the same time, a matter about which it is worth while speaking to you.--

Be good enough to acknowledge the receipt of these lines; but pray spare me abuse, and be pleased to do me the honor of believing without reserve or restriction in the upright sincerity of my sympathies, and in my frank and firm good-will to transform them into acts or deeds, according to circ.u.mstances, in the degree of which I am capable.

Yours ever, with admiration and friends.h.i.+p,

F. Liszt

392. To Frau Charlotte Moscheles (?)

[Draft of an undirected autograph letter in the Liszt-Museum at Weimar.--Presumably written to the wife of the distinguished piano-virtuoso and teacher Ignaz Moscheles]

I am most grateful to you, Madame, for wis.h.i.+ng to keep me in remembrance on the occasion of the publication of the Alb.u.m of Workers, and I hasten to reply as quickly and as well as I can.

I must, nevertheless, confess to you in all sincerity that I am a little embarra.s.sed as to the choice to be made among the number of useless and unusable ma.n.u.scripts which I should be charmed to put at your kind disposal. After the Arbeiter Chor [workman's chorus] and the Arbeiter Marsch [workman's march] with which I have just gratified two Alb.u.ms in Vienna, your gracious letter comes as a surprise rather short of apropos. How malapropos, is it not? But let us see how to remedy this.--

I thought first of a "Marche funebre" for the use of the bankers; then of an "Elegie" dedicated to the idle; next of "Jeremiades Omnibus" [lamentations for all];--but nothing of that sort quite satisfies me.

In default of perfection, permit me to be satisfied with the relative best (which will be, it seems to me, a better choice): a Paraphrase--charitably adapted to the fingers of charitable pianists who will have the charity to buy and to play it--of Rossini's "Charite;" which I shall have the honor of sending to you through Mr. Kistner early in July. An old saying of a very old Father of the Church would, if needful, justify this choice.

"In things necessary, Unity; in matters doubtful, Liberty; in all things, Charity!"--