200. To Frau Dr. Steche in Leipzig

Vienna, March 20th, 1858

How many excuses I owe you, my dear lady and kind friend, for all the trouble and disagreeables that the "Preludes" have occasioned you! I can really scarcely pardon myself for having written the piece!--When the Princess informed me of your kind intention I wrote to her that a performance of my things in Leipzig appeared to me untimely, and that I was resolved to let them fall into oblivion rather than to importune my friends with them. Hence the heterogeneousness of the letters and telegrams to you, dear madam, which I beg you kindly to excuse. Candidly, I still think it is better not to have the "Preludes" performed now in Leipzig;[As there had already been a performance of this on the 26th of February, 1857, this can only refer to a performance in the "Euterpe" Concerts.] but I thank you none the less warmly for the kind interest you take in my compositions--in spite of their bad name--and take this opportunity of repeating to you the expression of high esteem and friendly devotion with which I remain

F. Liszt

201. To Professor L. A. Zellner in Vienna

Pest, April 6th, 1858

Dear Friend,

With the

[Here Liszt writes a musical score excerpt of a whole note A falling to quarter note D, in octave below middle C, with the word 'Cre - do' under the notes]

Cre-do we will conclude this time in Vienna! We must not give certain gentlemen any occasion to imagine that I concern myself about them more than is really the case. Faust and Dante can quietly wait for the due understanding of them. I must send them next to Hartel, so that they may be published by the end of this year. Give my very best thanks to h.e.l.lmesberger for the kind way in which he meets me; he will forgive me if I cannot as yet put it to use. Under existing circ.u.mstances it is wise and suitable for me "to strive with earnest consistency for my high aim, regardless of adverse circ.u.mstances and small-minded people."

At the end of next week I go to Lowenberg, and thence back to Weymar. Therefore no concert in Vienna for this season--what may happen later on remains meanwhile undecided.

The Pest concert has also not been given; but possibly my Symphonic Poems may obtain a hearing in Pest sooner than in Vienna, because I may expect much more susceptibility to them here. When I have got my Opera finished, [This must be "Sardanapalus."] I must in any case stay here a couple of month-- and on that occasion, perhaps, I may be able to bring in my Symphonic things in three or four concerts. But there is no hurry whatever for this; the "Elizabeth" and the Opera must be finished first...

My intention had been to get to Vienna yesterday, and to be satisfied with calling only on our four solo-singers and Count Raday in Pest to express my thanks. But I was pressed on all sides in so kind a manner to let my Gran Festival Ma.s.s be heard again that I willingly acquiesced. The articles in the Austrian p[aper], and your brochure, have done the most towards stirring up the general wish. The public is like this--that they only know what they ought to think of a work when they see it printed in black and white!--You have therefore to answer for it if the Ma.s.s is performed here a second time--on Friday afternoon in the Museum-Saal (for the benefit of the Conservatorium) and on Sunday in the Parish Church. On Monday evening I shall be in Vienna. I wrote to Tausig yesterday that we would decide on the evening of our musical meeting at your house after Countess Banffy has chosen on the evening for her soiree (at which Tausig will play).

If I hear anything further about it Tausig shall let you know at once, so that you may be able to make your invitations in advance. On Thursday or on Sat.u.r.day at latest I leave Vienna. All further particulars viva voce.

Yours ever,

F. Liszt

There is no truth in the idea of a private concert. I will tell you in what way I might be able to realize it another time--and will take counsel and consent about it from you.

202. To Eduard Liszt

Dearest Eduard,

It is not enough that I have already been in all sorts of trouble here in connection with the two performances of the Gran Ma.s.s, which will take place next Friday and Sunday (for which four to five rehearsals at the least are indispensable)--but now the post from Vienna brings me bad tidings, for which indeed I was prepared, but which, nevertheless, are by no means desired by me.

I had a long letter yesterday from our friend Z., which I am answering with a decided refusal as regards a nearly impending performance of my Symphonic Poems in Vienna. For this time we will stop at the two performances of the Gran Ma.s.s--neither a note more nor less. Later on we will consider how we shall stand on the next occasion, and I shall take counsel with you about it, because I have the conviction that you not only intend and act for the best and kindest as regards me, but also the most judiciously!--

On Monday evening I shall be back in Vienna--and will expect you directly I reach home. If possible I shall start from Vienna on Thursday evening--but at the latest on Sat.u.r.day early. I have written to Tausig to take my old rooms for me. Much as I should like to come to you, yet this time it is simpler for me to stay at an hotel.

To our speedy meeting, which, alas! will be a good deal clouded for us by these various obstructions. But in Vienna it can't be otherwise. On this account you must soon come again to Weymar, where we can belong to ourselves.

Heartfelt greetings in sincere friendship and loving devotion from

F. Liszt

Pest, April 7th, 1858

203. To Adolf Reubke, Organ-Builder at Hausneinsdorf in the Harz.

[Written on the death of his son Julius Reubke (died June 3rd, 1858), a favorite pupil of Liszt's.]

Dear Sir,

Allow me to add these few lines of deepest sympathy to the poem by Cornelius, ["Bein Tode von Julius Reubke" ("On the Death of Julius Reubke"). Cornelius, Poems. Leipzig, 1890.] which lends such fitting words to our feelings of sorrow. Truly no one could feel more deeply the loss which Art has suffered in your Julius, than the one who has followed with admiring sympathy his n.o.ble, constant, and successful strivings in these latter years, and who will ever bear his friendship faithfully in mind--the one who signs himself with great esteem

Yours most truly,

F. Liszt

Weymar, June 10th, 1858

204. To Prince Constantin von Hohenzollern-Hechingen

[Autograph in the possession of Herr Alexander Meyer Cohn in Berlin.--This very musical Prince was for years Liszt's patron, and often invited the latter to stay with him at his Silesian residence at Lowenberg, where he kept up an orchestra.]

Monseigneur,

When Your Highness was kind enough to express your views to me respecting your n.o.ble design of encouraging in an exceptional manner the progress of musical Art, and to question me as to the best mode of employing a certain sum of money for this object, I think I mentioned to you Mr. Brendel, the editor of the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, as the best man to make your liberal intentions bear fruit. As much on account of the perfect uprightness of his character, which is free from all reproach, as for the important and continuous services which his paper and other of his works have rendered to the good cause for many years past, I consider Mr. Brendel entirely worthy of your confidence.

It is not lightly that I put forward this opinion--and I venture to flatter myself that my antecedents will be a sufficient guarantee to Your Highness that in this matter, as in any others in which I may have the honor of submitting any proposition to you, I could follow no other influences, no other counsels, than those of a scrupulous conscience. Putting aside all considerations of vanity or personal advantage foreign to the end in view, my sincere and sole desire is to make Your Highness's intentions and capital the most productive possible. It is with this view that I have openly spoken of the matter to Brendel, whose letter, which I venture to enclose herewith, corresponds, as it seems to me, with the programme in question.

I venture to beg you, Monseigneur, to look into this attentively, and to let me know whether you will grant permission to Brendel to enter into these matters more explicitly by writing to you direct. In the event of the propositions contained in his letter meeting with the approval of Your Highness, as I trust they may do, it would be desirable that you should let him know without too much delay in what manner you would wish your kind intentions carried out.

In order to fulfill its task of progress, the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik has not spared its editor either in efforts or sacrifices. By the fact that it represents, in a talented and conscientious manner, the opinions and sympathies of my friends and myself, it is in the most advanced, and consequently the most perilous, position of our musical situation; therefore our adversaries lose no opportunity of raising difficulties for it.

Our opinions and sympathies will he sustained, I doubt not, by their worth and conviction; but if Your Highness condescends to come to our aid, we shall be both proud and happy--and it is by spreading our ideas through the Press that we can best strengthen our position.

In other words, I am convinced that, in granting your confidence to Mr. Brendel, the sum that Your Highness is pleased to devote to this matter will be employed in the most honest manner, and that most useful to the progress of Art--and that all the honor and grat.i.tude which your munificence deserves will spring from it--as is the earnest desire of him who has the honor to be, Monseigneur, Your Highness's most devoted and humble servant,

F. Liszt

Weymar, August 18th, 1858

205. To Frau Rosa von Milde

[Court opera-singer in Weimar, nee Agthe; the first Elsa in Lohengrin; a refined and poetical artist]