Letters of Franz Liszt
Chapter 126 : F. Liszt December 2nd, 1880 (Villa D'este, Rome) Maybe you will tell me yourself

F. Liszt

December 2nd, 1880 (Villa D'este, Rome)

Maybe you will tell me yourself soon in Rome where I am to send the letters; if not, send me your address. I shall remain here till January 5th and be at Budapest on the 15th.

271. To Dr. Friedrich Stade in Leipzig

[Musical writer (born 1844) in Leipzig]

Very Dear Sir and Friend,

Your transcription of "Gretchen" [Out of Liszt's Faust Symphony.]

for pianoforte and harmonium is capital, just as I wished. I only take the liberty of very slightly altering it, and have added ten bars at the end, which are to be henceforth inserted in the score and in my own arrangements of the Faust Symphony. [They follow herewith in the orchestral movement, according to Dr. Stade's copy.]

If you will kindly take the trouble to arrange the entire Faust Symphony for two performers on one piano, I shall be greatly indebted to you. [This was done.] Deal as freely as possible with the figurations and also with the distribution among the seven octaves of the odious keyboard. It seems to me that what may be more laterally accurate ought often to give way to what sounds better and even to what is more convenient for the players at the piano.

Thanking you once more, I remain,

Yours most cordially,

F. Liszt

Rome, December 11th, 1880.

We will play your duet arrangement together before it is published, in Weimar--next spring.

[Here, Liszt ill.u.s.trates with Musical score excerpts]

272. To Professor S. Jada.s.soiin in Leipzig

[Composer (born in 1831), teacher at the Leipzig Conservatoire since 187l]

Dear Sir,

Your setting of the 100th Psalm is n.o.bly religious in feeling and excellent in style. The working out of the choruses is masterly throughout, from beginning to end; a pa.s.sage which comes out with especial brilliancy is that on pages 14, 15-19, 20, "with rejoicing," where the trombones, and then the trumpets and trombones, joyously repeat the subject of the fugue in augmentation.

The Arioso too which follows, "He made us," is most fervent in expression. There is a fine field here for beautiful contralto voices to rejoice in.

My sincere thanks, dear sir, for the dedication of this excellent work. I shall recommend it for performance to such of my friends as are conductors; above all, to Hofcapellmeister Muller-Hartung, whom I shall request to bring out your Psalm at Weimar.

Yours sincerely,

F. Liszt

Villa d'Este, January 10th, 1881

273. To Frau Reisenauer-Pauly in Konigsberg

Dear Madam,

It is one of my duties to deal sparingly in letters of introduction. Still I am quite willing to repeat my opinion that your son Alfred is a highly gifted and brilliantly aspiring pianoforte-player.

Should this conscientious opinion enable him to obtain further recommendations, he is free to make use of it.

Yours sincerely,

F. Liszt

Budapest, January 29th, 1881

274. To Dionys von Pazmandy, Editor of the Gasette de Hongrie

[This letter is printed in French in the Gazette de Hongrie, but is only known to the Editor in the German translation (Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik?).]

Dear Sir and Friend,

You want to know my impression of yesterday's Bulow Concert? Yet it must have been yours, that of all of us, that of the whole of the intelligent audiences of Europe. To define it in two words: admiration, enthusiasm. Bulow was my pupil in music five-and- twenty years ago, as I myself, five-and-twenty years before, had been the pupil of my much respected and beloved master, Czerny.

But to Bulow it was given to do battle better and with greater perseverance than I did. His admirable Beethoven-Edition is dedicated to me as the "fruit of my tuition." Here however it was for the master to learn from the pupil, and Bulow continues to teach by his astonis.h.i.+ng performances as virtuoso, as well as by his extraordinary learning as a musician, and now too by his matchless direction of the Meiningen Orchestra.--Here you have the musical progress of our time!

Yours cordially,

F. Liszt

Budapest, February 15th, 1881

275. To Frau Colestine Bosendorfer in Vienna

[The wife of the celebrated pianoforte-maker, who died young]

Not to see you in Vienna this time, Madame, was a grief to me. It cast, as it were, a melancholy shadow over my stay there, which otherwise was brightened by so cordial a reception.--

I am accompanied by the roses without thorns of my pleasant recollections of you, and my hearty and respectful devotion remains unaltered.

F. Liszt

Weimar, Easter Sunday, April 17th, 1881

Have the kindness to repeat to Bosendorfer the a.s.surance of my very cordial friends.h.i.+p.