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BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH DEDICATION PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION, BY CONSTANCE BACHE TABLE OF LETTER THE LETTERS OF FRANZ LISZT, VOL. 1 INFO ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION

BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

The Austrian composer Franz Liszt was a pianistic miracle. He could play anything on site and composed over 400 works centered around "his" instrument. Among his key works are his Hungarian Rhapsodies, his Transcendental Etudes, his Concert Etudes, his Etudes based on variations of Paganinini's Violin Caprices and his Sonata, one of the most important of the nineteenth century. He also wrote thousands of letters, of which 260 are translated into English in this first of a 2-volume set of letters.

Those who knew him were also struck by his extremely sophisticated personality. He was surely one of the most civilized people of the nineteeth century, internalizing within himself a complex conception of human civility, and attempting to project it in his music and his communications with people. His life was centered around people; he knew them, worked with them, remembered them, thought about them, and wrote about them using an almost poetic language, while pushing them to reflect the high ideals he believed in. His personality was the embodiment of a refined, idealized form of human civility. He was the consummate musical artist, always looking for ways to communicate a new civilized idea through music, and to work with other musicians in organizing concerts and gatherings to perform the music publicly. He also did as much as he could to promote and compliment those whose music he believed in.

He was also a superlative musical critic, knowing, with few mistakes, what music of his day was "artistic" and what was not. But, although he was clearly a musical genius, he insisted on projecting a tonal, romantic "beauty" in his music, confining his music to a narrow range of moral values and ideals. He would have rejected 20th-century music that entertained cynical notions of any kind, or notions that obviated the concept of beauty in any way. There is no Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Cage, Adams and certainly no Schoenberg in Liszt's music. His music has an ideological "ceiling," and that ceiling is "beauty." It never goes beyond that. And perhaps it was never as "beautiful" as the music of Mozart, Bach or Beethoven, nor quite as rational . But it certainly was original and instructive, and it certainly will linger.

DEDICATION

To the Memory of MY BROTHER WALTER, AND TO OUR DEAR AND HONORED FRIEND A.J. HIPKINS, ESQ., I DEDICATE THIS TRANSLATION.

--C.B.

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION, BY CONSTANCE BACHE

In writing a few words of Preface I wish to express, first and foremost, my appreciation of the extreme care and conscientiousness with which La Mara has prepared these volumes. In a spirit of no less reverence I have endeavored, in the English translation, to adhere as closely as possible to all the minute characteristics that add expression to Liszt's letters: punctuation has, of necessity, undergone alteration, but italics, inverted commas, dashes and other marks have been strictly observed. It may be objected that unnecessary particularity has been shown in the translation of various titles, names of Societies or newspapers, quotations, etc.; but there are many people who, while understanding French, do not read German, and vice versa, and therefore it has seemed better to translate everything. Where anything has been omitted in the printed letters I have adhered to the sign .--. employed by La Mara to indicate the hiatus. It has seemed best to preserve the spelling of all proper names as written by Liszt, and not to Anglicise any, as it is impossible to do all; and therefore, even at the risk of a seeming affectation, the original form of the name has been preserved. In the same spirit I have adhered to the correct form of the name of our adopted composer Handel, and trust I may be pardoned for so doing on the strength of a little joke of Liszt's own "The English," he said, "always talk about Gluck and Handel!"

La Mara says in her Preface that this collection can by no means be considered a complete one, as there must exist other letters-- to Liszt's mother, to Berlioz, Tausig, etc.--which it is hoped may yet be some day forthcoming. In like manner might there not also be letters to his daughter Madame Ollivier ?

This visit, which took place in 1886, a few months before the Master's death, was for the purpose of his being present at the performance of his Oratorio of St. Elizabeth .

More than forty years had elapsed since Liszt's previous visit to our shores; times had changed, and the almost unknown, and wholly unappreciated, had become the acknowledged King in a realm where many were Princes. Some lines embodying in words England's welcome to this king--headed by a design in which the Hungarian and the English coats-of-arms unite above two clasped hands, and a few bars of a leading theme from the St. Elizabeth--were written by me and presented to Liszt with a basket of roses tied with the Hungarian colors, on his entrance into St. James's Hall on April 6th, 1886.

As a memento of that occasion it has been chosen as frontispiece to the Second Volume.

Constance Bache

London, December 1893

TABLE OF LETTER :

THE LETTERS OF FRANZ LISZT, VOL. 1

My very dear Master,

When I think of all the immense obligations under which I am placed towards you, and at the same time consider how long I have left you without a sign of remembrance, I am perfectly ashamed and miserable, and in despair of ever being forgiven by you! "Yes," I said to myself with a deep feeling of bitterness, "I am an ungrateful fellow; I have forgotten my benefactor, I have forgotten that good master to whom I owe both my talent and my success."...At these words a tear starts to my eyes, and I assure you that no repentant tear was ever more sincere! Receive it as an expiation, and pardon me, for I cannot any longer bear the idea that you have any ill-feeling towards me. You will pardon me, my dear Master, won't you? Embrace me then...good! Now my heart is light.

You have doubtless heard that I have been playing your admirable works here with the greatest success, and all the glory ought to be given to you. I intended to have played your variations on the "Pirate" the day after tomorrow at a very brilliant concert that I was to have given at the theater of H.R.H. Madame, who was to have been present as well as the Duchess of Orleans; but man proposes and God disposes. I have suddenly caught the measles, and have been obliged to say farewell to the concert; but it is not given up because it is put off, and I hope, as soon as ever I am well again, to have the pleasure of making these beautiful variations known to a large public.

Pixis and several other people have spoken much to me of four concertos that you have lately finished, and the reputation of which is already making a stir in Paris. I should be very much pleased, my dear Master, if you would commission me to get them sold. This would be quite easy for me to do, and I should also have the pleasure of playing them FROM FIRST HAND, either at the opera or at some big concerts. If my proposition pleases you, send them to me by the Austrian Embassy, marking the price that you would like to have for them. As regards any passages to be altered, if there are any, you need only mark them with a red pencil, according to your plan which I know so well, and I will point them out to the editor with the utmost care. Give me at the same time some news about music and pianists in Vienna; and finally tell me, dear Master, which of your compositions you think would make the best effect in society.

I close by sending you my heartfelt greetings, and begging you once more to pardon the shameful silence I have kept towards you: be assured that it has given me as much pain as yourself!

Your very affectionate and grateful pupil,

F. Liszt

December 23rd, 1828

P.S.--Please answer me as soon as possible, for I am longing for a letter from you; and please embrace your excellent parents from me. I add my address .

December 23rd, 1829

My Dear M. de Mancy,

I am so full of lessons that each day, from half-past eight in the morning till 10 at night, I have scarcely breathing time. Please excuse me therefore for not coming, as I should have liked to do, to lunch with Madame de Mancy, but it is quite impossible. The only thing I could do would be to come about 10 o'clock, if that would not be too late for a wedding day, and in that case I will beg M. Ebner to come with me. I don't write you a longer letter, for there is a pupil who has been waiting for me for an hour. Besides, we are not standing on ceremony. Ever yours,

F. Liszt

My dear and beloved Master,

It would be impossible to explain to you the why and wherefore of my leaving you so long without news of me. Moreover, I have now only five minutes in which to write to you, for Mr. Luden, a pianist from Copenhagen, is starting shortly, and for fear of delaying his journey I must be brief; but what is postponed is not lost, so cheer up, for very soon you will get a great thick letter from me, which I will take care to prepay, as I should not like to ruin you.

Among all the circles of artists where I go in this country I plead your cause tremendously: we all want you to come and stay some time in Paris; it would certainly do you a great deal of good, and you are so widely esteemed that you will doubtless be well satisfied with the reception you will meet with here. If you ever entertain this idea, write to me, I entreat you, for I will do for you what I would do for my father. I have been making a special study of your admirable sonata , and have since played it at several reunions of connoisseurs : you cannot imagine what an effect it made; I was quite overcome by it. It was in a burst of enthusiasm caused by the Prestissimo, that Mr. Luden begged for a few words of introduction to you; I know your kindness, indeed I could never forget it. I therefore commend him in all confidence of your goodness, until the time when I am so happy as to embrace you myself and to show you all the gratitude and admiration which fill me.

F. Liszt

Paris, August 26th, 1830

It would give us great pleasure, my dear M. Brot, if you would come and dine with us without ceremony tomorrow, Monday, about 6 o'clock; I do not promise you a good dinner,--that is not the business of us poor artists; but the good company you will meet will, I trust, make up for that. Monsieur Hugo and Edgard Quinet have promised to come. So do try not to disappoint us, for we should miss you much. My good mother told me to press you to come, for she is very fond of you. Till tomorrow then! Kind regards and thanks.

F. Liszt

I have been at least six times to you without having the pleasure of seeing you.

Nous disons: "Il est temps. Executons, c'est l'heure." Alors nous retournons les yeux--La Mort est la! Ainsi de mes projets.--Quand vous verrai-je, Espagne, Et Venise et son golfe, et Rome et sa campagne,

Toi, Sicile, que ronge un volcan souterrain, Grece qu'on connait trop, Sardaigne qu'on ignore, Cites de l'Aquilon, du Couchant, de l'Aurore, Pyramides du Nil, Cathedrales du Rhin! Qui sait?-- jamais peut-etre!

Earthly life is but a malady of the soul, an excitement which is kept up by the passions. The natural state of the soul is rest!

Paris, May 2nd

Here is a whole fortnight that my mind and fingers have been working like two lost spirits, Homer, the Bible, Plato, Locke, Byron, Hugo, Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Beethoven, Bach, Hummel, Mozart, Weber, are all around me. I study them, meditate on them, devour them with fury; besides this I practice four to five hours of exercises . Ah! provided I don't go mad, you will find an artist in me! Yes, an artist such as you desire, such as is required nowadays!

"And I too am a painter!" cried Michael Angelo the first time he beheld a chef d'oeuvre...Though insignificant and poor, your friend cannot leave off repeating those words of the great man ever since Paganini's last performance. Rene, what a man, what a violin, what an artist! Heavens! what sufferings, what misery, what tortures in those four strings!

Here are a few of his characteristics:--

May 8th

My good friend, it was in a paroxysm of madness that I wrote you the above lines; a strain of work, wakefulness, and those violent desires had set my poor head aflame; I went from right to left, then from left to right , singing, declaiming, gesticulating, crying out; in a word, I was delirious. Today the spiritual and the animal are a little more evenly balanced; for the volcano of the heart is not extinguished, but is working silently.--Until when?--

Address your letters to Monsieur Reidet, the receiver-general at the port of Rouen.

A thousand kind messages to the ladies Boissier. I will tell you some day the reasons which prevented me from starting for Geneva. On this subject I shall call you in evidence.

Bertini is in London; Madame Malibran is making her round of Germany; Messemaecker is resting on his laurels at Brussels; Aguado has the illustrious maestro Rossini in tow.--Ah--Hi--Oh--Hu!!!

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