Please give my respects to your mother, and my cordial remembrances to Joseph and G.o.debski.

Your affectionate and devoted

F. Liszt

Weimar, August 19th, 1873

133. To Walter Bache

Dear Friend,

Often I am behindhand and stop short of thanks with you, but it is certainly not for want of sincere affection and esteem.

Your "9th Annual Concert" has again shown the worth of your talents and the firm constancy of your character. Now in our artistic world character is still more rare than talent.

You n.o.bly unite the two; it is a pleasure to me to acknowledge it, and to count you amongst the most devoted champions of progress and of musical good sense.

At their head, by right of age and capability, walks imperturbably and gloriously Hans de Bulow.

Will you give him the enclosed letter? and believe me ever, dear Bache,

Your very cordially affectionate

F. Liszt

Weimar, August 20th, 1873

134. To Max Erdmannsdorfer, Hofcapellmeister in Sonderhausen

[At present Capellmeister in Bremen; he has rendered good service to the cause of the New-German musical tendency both in Germany and Russia.]

Very Dear Herr Capellmeister,

Your friendly invitation for me to attend the performance of your "Schneewittchen" I am unfortunately unable to accept. Owing to the festivities at the Wartburg it is impossible for me to get away next week. Will you kindly convey to the Princess Elizabeth my regrets as well as my most gracious thanks?

On Sunday, September 28th, I shall have the pleasure of thanking you personally in Sondershausen for arranging and carrying out the extraordinary concert programme. It is my special wish that the two "Faust Episodes" should not be separated--even at the risk of wearying the public for a few minutes with the "Nachtlicher Zug." [Two Episodes from Lenau's Faust (Leipzig, Schuberth).] But this piece does not appear to me altogether so bad...

I beg you again to repeat my sincere praise to the Sondershausen artists who played so admirably here last Monday in the 9th Symphony, and remain, very dear Sir, with marked feelings of esteem,

Yours in all friendship,

F. Liszt

Weimar, September 16th, 1873

Kahnt, Gille, J. Schuberth, La.s.sen and several other friends of mine are going to attend the Sondershausen concerts on the 28th and 29th September.

The Weimar presentation I will bring you.

135. To Otto Lessmann

Dear Friend,

Best thanks for sending Kiel's "Christus"--a work full of spiritual substance, of n.o.ble and fine sentiments, and masterly in execution. Riedel proposes to give a performance of it next winter it Leipzig.

With such a clause as Joachim introduces for the "Novitaten- Concerten"--"that only such composers shall be taken into consideration in the programmes whose renown as artistic representatives of the German nation is established"--Handel, Bach, Mozart, nay even Beethoven, would have come off badly in their life-time!

Whether it is appropriate for the Berlin Hochschule to act in so specially a high and mighty manner remains to be seen. Still it is to be expected that such procedure is likely itself to meet with some other restricting "clauses."

Of the arrangement for 8 hands of the Pastorale and March [From Liszt's Oratorio "Christus."] which I wish to have from you, you will have already heard from Schuberth. Likewise from Kahnt of the couple of pieces from the "Elizabeth."

Au revoir on Sunday, the 28th September, in Sondershausen, where we shall have a curious (sonderliches) Programme. Receive herewith, dear friend, a special invitation, together with the a.s.surance of my friendly attachment.

F. Liszt

Weimar, September 24th, 1873

I shall bring you back your copy of Kiel's Christus to Sondershausen.

136. To Kornel von Abranyi

Dear Valiant Friend,

Your letter, and the printed paper of great fame which accompanies it, recalls to me the saying, "La joie fait peur."

[Abranyi, who was the Secretary of the Festival Committee which had been formed for the celebration of Liszt's Artist-Jubilee in November 1873 at Budapest, had in their name invited Liszt to take part in this.] Nevertheless I could not suit myself to the role of a coward; I will therefore endeavor to surmount my fear and to make myself worthy to share with my brave compatriots in the joy they have prepared for me.

I beg you, in your capacity of secretary of the Festival Committee, to present my most grateful thanks, in good Hungarian, to the most ill.u.s.trious and most reverend President, Monseigneur Haynald, [The Archbishop of Kalocsa, afterwards Cardinal, Liszt's friend of many years. (Being interested in the present collection, he promised to contribute to it the letters addressed to him "by the great artist and n.o.ble man." His death unfortunately prevented the fulfilment of his promise, and the Archiepiscopal Chapter of Kalocsa did not accede to the request of the editor to be allowed to have these letters.)] and to the members of the Committee.

Baron Augusz had written me word that he would come here in the middle of September, to be present at the "Festspiel" [Festival Play] at the Wartburg. He shall soon receive news from me from Rome, where I shall arrive on Sunday. Schuberth is sending you the score and the piano score of the "Christ," together with the biographical notices for which you asked me. My cousin Eduard will send you the "postscript" immediately.

Cordial friendship and fruitful collaboration.

F. Liszt

Weimar, October 1st, 1873

Herewith the programmes of the 2 concerts at Sondershausen at which I was present. This afternoon I start for Rome,--and on the 1st November shall be at Pest.

137. To Martha Remmert