Letters of Franz Liszt Volume I Part 18

Give my tender respects to Madame Liszt; you two form henceforth my father's entire family; and believe in the lively and unalterable friends.h.i.+p of

Your truly devoted,

F. Liszt

74. To Count Casimir Esterhazy

[Autograph (without address) in the possession of Herr Albert Cohn, bookseller in Berlin.--The addressee was presumably Count Esterhazy, whose guest Liszt was in Presburg in 1840.]

Let me thank you very sincerely for your kind remembrance, dear friend, and let me also tell you how much I regret that my journey to Hohlstein cannot come to pa.s.s during your short stay there. But as by chance you already find yourself in Germany, will you not push on some fine day as far as Weymar?--I should have very great pleasure in seeing you there and in receiving you--not in the manorial manner in which you received me at Presburg, but very cordially and modestly as a conductor, kept by I know not what strange chance of fate at a respectful distance from storms and s.h.i.+pwrecks!--

For three weeks past a very sad circ.u.mstance has obliged me to keep at Eilsen, where I had already pa.s.sed some months of last winter. The reigning Prince is, as you have perhaps forgotten, the present proprietor of one of your estates,--the Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe. If by chance you are owing him a debt of politeness, the opportunity of putting yourself straight would be capital for me. Nevertheless I dare not count too much on the attractions of the grandeur and charms of Buckeburg! and I must doubtless resign myself to saying a longer farewell to you.

Let me know by Lowy of Vienna where I shall address to you some pieces in print which you can look over at any leisure hour, and which I shall be delighted to offer you. I will add to them later the complete collection of my "Hungarian Rhapsodies," which will now form a volume of nearly two hundred pages, of which I shall prepare a second edition next winter. Hearty and affectionate remembrances from

Yours ever,

F. Liszt

Eilsen, June 6th, 1851

75. To Theodor Uhlig, Chamber Musician in Dresden

[Autograph in the possession of Herr Hermann Scholtz, Chamber virtuoso in Dresden.--The addressee, who was an intimate friend of Wagner's (see "Wagner's Letters to Uhlig, Fischer, Heine"-- London: H. Grevel & Co., 1890), gained for himself a lasting name by his pianoforte score of Lohengrin. He died January, 1853.]

The perusal of your most kind and judicious article in Brendel's Musical Gazette on the "Goethe Foundation" [By Liszt, 1850. See "Gesammelte Schriften," vol. v.] confirms me in the belief that I could not fail to be understood by you in full intelligence of the cause. Allow me then, my dear Mr. Uhlig, to thank you very cordially for this new proof of your obligingness and of your sympathy--in French, as this language becomes more and more familiar and easy to me, whereas I am obliged to make an effort to patch up more or less unskillfully my very halting German syntax.

The very lucid explanation that you have made of my pamphlet, as well as the lines with which you have prefaced and followed it, have given me a real satisfaction, and one which I did not expect to receive through that paper, which, if I am not mistaken, had hitherto shown itself somewhat hostile to me personally, and to the ideas which they do me the small honor to imagine I possess.

This impression has been still further increased in me by reading Mr. Brendel's following article on R. Wagner, which seems to me a rather arranged transition between the former point of view of the Leipzig school or pupils and the real point of view of things. The quotation Brendel makes of Stahr's article on the fifth performance of "Lohengrin" at Weymar, evidently indicates a conversion more thought than expressed on the part of the former, and at the performance of "Siegfried" I am persuaded that Leipzig will not be at all behindhand, as at "Lohengrin."

I do not know whether Mr. Wolf (the designer) has had the pleasure of meeting you yet at Dresden; I had commissioned him to make my excuses to you for the delay in sending the ma.n.u.script of Wiland. Unfortunately it is impossible for me to think of returning to Weymar before the end of July, and the ma.n.u.script is locked up among other papers which I could not put into strange hands. Believe me that I am really vexed at these delays, the cause of which is so sad for me.

If by chance you should repa.s.s by Cologne and Minden, it would be very nice if you could stay a day at Buckeburg (Eilsen), where I am obliged to stay till the 15th of July. I have not much pleasure to offer you, but in return we can talk there at our ease of the St. Graal...

My pamphlet "Lohengrin and Tannhauser" will appear in French at Brockhaus' towards the end of July. It will have at least the same circulation as the "Goethe Foundation," and I will send you by right one of the first copies.

Kind regards to Wagner, about whom I have written a great deal lately without writing to him; and believe me yours very sincerely,

F. Liszt

Eilsen (Buckeburg), June 25th, 1851.

76. To Rosalie Spohr in Brunswick

[niece of Louis Spohr, and an incomparable harpist,--"The most ideal representative of her beautiful instrument," according to Bulow; after her marriage with Count Sauerma she retired from public life and now lives in Berlin.]

After your amiable authorization to do so, Mademoiselle, I have had your concert announced at Eilsen for Tuesday next, July 8th, and you may rest a.s.sured that the best society of Buckeburg and of the Badegaste [visitors who go for the baths] will be present.

The price of the tickets has been fixed for 1 florin, which is the maximum customary in this country. With regard to the programme, I await your reply, in which I shall be glad if you will tell me the four or five pieces you will choose, amongst which will be, I hope,Parish Alvars' Fantaisie on motives from "Oberon" and the "Danse des Fees."

A distinguished amateur, Monsieur Lindemann of Hanover, has promised me to play one or two violoncello solos, and the rest of the programme will be easily made.

As to your route, you had better take the Schnellzug [express]

next Monday, which starts about 11 in the morning from Brunswick, and brings you to Buckeburg in less than three hours. From here it will only take you thirty-five minutes to get to Eilsen. The most simple plan for you would be not to write to me beforehand even, but to improvise your programme according to your fancy here. Only let me beg you not to arrive later than Monday evening, so that the public may be free from anxiety, and to set my responsibility perfectly at rest in a corner of your harp- case.

May I beg you, Mademoiselle, to remember me affectionately to your father? and be a.s.sured of the pleasure it will be to see you, hear you, and admire you anew, to your sincere and devoted servant,

F. Liszt

Eilsen, July 3rd, 1851

I beg you once more not to be later than next Monday, July 7th, in coming to Eilsen.

77. To Rosalie Spohr

I am deeply sensible of your charming lines, Mademoiselle, the impression of which is the completion for me of the harmonious vibrations of your beautiful talent,--vibrations which are still resounding in the woods and in your auditors at Eilsen. While expressing to you my sincere thanks I should reproach myself were I to forget the piquant and substantial present that your father has sent me, and I beg you to tell him that we have done all honor to the savory product of Brunswick industry. The Buckeburg industry having a certain reputation in petto in the matter of chocolate, the Princess, who sends her best regards to you and your family, wishes me to send you a sample, which you will receive by tomorrow's post. The chocolate, in its quality of a sedative tonic, will, moreover, not come amiss in the intervals of your study.

May I beg you, Mademoiselle, to give my affectionate compliments to your parents as well as to the clever drawing-historiographer [The younger sister of the addressee, Ida Spohr, at that time sixteen years old, who was a most gifted creature, both in poetry, painting, and music. She died young, at the age of twenty-four] whom you know? and receive once more the best wishes of yours most truly,

F. Liszt

Eilsen, July 22nd, 1851

78. To Breitkopf and Hartel

Allow me, my dear Mr. Hartel, to make known to you, as a kind of curiosity, a very long piece I composed last winter on the chorale "Ad Nos" from the "Prophete." If by chance you should think well to publish this long Prelude, followed by an equally long Fugue, I could not be otherwise than much obliged to you; and I shall take advantage of the circ.u.mstance to acquit myself, in all reverence and friends.h.i.+p, of a dedication to Meyerbeer, which it has long been my intention to do; and it was only for want of finding among my works something which would suit him in some respect, that I have been obliged to defer it till now. I should be delighted therefore if you would help me to fill up this gap in the recognition I owe to Meyerbeer; but I dare not press you too much for fear you may think that my Fugue has more advantage in remaining unknown to the public in so far that it is in ma.n.u.script, than if it had to submit to the same fate after having been published by your care.

In accordance with your obliging promise, I waited from week to week for the preface that Mr. Wagner has added to his three opera poems. I should be glad to know how soon you expect to bring them out, and beg you to be so good as to send me immediately three copies.

Believe me, my dear Mr. Hartel,

Yours affectionately and most truly,

F. Liszt

Weymar, December 1st, 1851

P.S.--Would it perhaps do to bring out my Fugue on the "Prophete"

as No. 4 of my "Ill.u.s.trations du Prophete"? That was at least my first intention. [It was published in that form by Breitkopf and Hartel.] In the same parcel you will find the piano score of the "Prophete," which I am very much obliged to you for having lent me.