Letters of Franz Liszt
Chapter 112 : 204. To Otto Reubke at Halle-on-the-Saale [Now Music Director at the University there]

204. To Otto Reubke at Halle-on-the-Saale

[Now Music Director at the University there]

Dear Herr Reubke,

Your Arrangement [of Schubert's B minor duet for pianoforte alone] pleases me uncommonly. I beg you to notice the alterations I have made on the accompanying sheet of music-paper. This version is not quite so much like the original as yours, but, as the great thing is to bring out a fortissimo, we may well allow inaccuracies of this kind in favor of the performer and of effect.

You are requested to add to your excellent Arrangement of the Schubert Rondo much pedal and some fingering,

By your warmly attached

F. Liszt

Budapest, November, 1876

205. To Marianne Brandt, Kammersangerin in Berlin

December 3rd, 1876

Dear honored Friend,

What is always very pleasant and dear to me is your goodwill.

With my hearty thanks for it I send today the little notice.

"Jeanne d'Arc au bucher" ["Joan of Arc at the Stake"] came out a few months ago at Schott's (Mainz). This short dramatic Scena can be sung with either pianoforte or orchestral accompaniment. The chorus is conspicuous by its absence. Johanna [Jeanne] alone has to perform. N.B.--Only the second edition (published 1876) is to be used; not the first, which also came out at Schott's 30 years ago. Schott sent me no copy of it; it was too much trouble for Berlin to correspond with Mainz via Budapest. Herr Capellmeister Mannstadt [Now Capellmeister at the Court theater in Wiesbaden.]

will therefore be so kind as to order the "Johanna" (full score and piano score) at Schott's, if you really have the goodness to sing it. [It was done in honor of Liszt's presence in Berlin, which was celebrated by the performance of some of his works.]

There might possibly be special feelings now in Berlin against it, in spite of Schiller's Tragedy, "Die Jungfrau von Orleans."

Therefore think the matter over.

For years past I have been mostly obliged to dissuade people from the performance of my large works. The general public usually goes by what is said by the critics, whose most prominent organs among the newspapers are hostile to me. Why should I go into useless quarrels and thereby compromise my friends? Peace and order are the first duties of citizens, which I have doubly to fulfil both as honorable citizen and artist.

As for the rest, dear friend, if it suits you to sing any one of my musical compositions, be a.s.sured of the sincerest thanks of

Yours most truly,

F. Liszt

206. To the Committee of the Beethoven Monument in Vienna

[From a copy by Dr. Mirus in Weimar]

December 10th, 1876

Honored Gentlemen,

Rejoiced to be able to help you, I will work with you with a full heart and both hands in the concert for the Beethoven Monument.

Allow me to answer your friendly remark about the performance of Beethoven's Choral Fantasia thus,--that I should not think of performing any other work at this concert than one absolutely written by Beethoven, and consequently my share in the concert programme will consist of the E-flat major Concerto. [It did not consist of that. Liszt did after all play the Pianoforte Part of the Choral Fantasia, Op. 80.]

I beg you will kindly communicate to the honored Secretary of the Committee, Herr Zellner, my hints with regard to the Beethoven Scholars.h.i.+p in Leipzig.

Accept, Gentlemen, the expression of my high esteem.

F. Liszt

207. To Eduard von Liszt

Budapest, January 2nd, 1877

Dearest, Most Honored Cousin,

I always remain faithful to thee in heartiest agreement with thy thoughts and feelings. Every year brings us nearer to the fulfilment of our hope in Jesus Christ the Savior!

"He that endureth to the end shall be saved!"--

I am now quite recovered from my little attack. If there were nothing worse in this world than sprained legs and physical suffering, one could be quite satisfied. Moreover I belong to the very favored and happy ones, even as regards physical suffering.

There is nothing particular going on here which I need mention.

Four times weekly I have a cla.s.s for pianists and pianistes, native and foreign. Half a dozen of these distinguish themselves and will be able to grow into capable public artists.

Unfortunately there are far too many concerts and concert- players. As Dingelstedt quite truly said, "The theater is a necessary evil, the concert a superfluous one." I am trying to impress this sentence on my disciples of the Hungarian Academy of Music.

As you know, Budapest possesses three musical Inst.i.tutions: the Conservatorium (which has existed 36 years and counts several hundred scholars), the Hungarian Theatrical School, and the new and still small Academy of Music. An excellent younger friend of mine, Count Geza Zichy, is president of the Conservatorium; an older one, Count Leo Festetics, president of the Theatrical School; and my humble self acts in the same position at the Academy of Music, whose Director Franz Erkel and General Secretary Abranyi proceed most zealously and judiciously. I have only pleasant relations with them both, and the Minister Trefort is already well-disposed towards me, because he knows that I save him unnecessary annoyance and expense. Most likely the Academy of Music will in two years' time be so flouris.h.i.+ng that there will be more to say about it; in the meantime let us study--and be silent. .--.

Heartiest greetings to thy family, and au revoir in Schottenhof [Eduard Liszt's home in Vienna.] in the middle of March, on the occasion of the "Beethoven-Monument Concerts."

Thy

F. Liszt

The Christmas week has beggared me. Be so good as to send me very quickly 500 gulden, for I have hardly 60 left.

208. To Walter Bache

Truly, dear Bache, you are a wonder-working friend. Your persevering trouble, exertions, expenditure of time and money for the production of my bitterly-criticised compositions in London during the past fifteen years, are among the most uncommon occurrences in the annals of Art. Once again heartiest thanks; please also to thank Mr. Manns properly for his excellent conducting of "Mazeppa." Things of that kind are awkward both for conductors and performers. But how can one go on making music with what is idly convenient, even when this is raised into importance under the guise of being cla.s.sical?

Hueffer's translation of Wagner's letter pleases me. Friendly greeting to Hueffer [Musical author in London, lately deceased]

and Dannreuther [Musician in London] from

Your grateful and very devoted