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diff --git a/39754.txt b/39754.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4986d92 --- /dev/null +++ b/39754.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13816 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Franz Liszt, by James Huneker + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Franz Liszt + +Author: James Huneker + +Release Date: May 21, 2012 [EBook #39754] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRANZ LISZT *** + + + + +Produced by Albert Laszlo, Henry Flower and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +Italic text is denoted by _underscores_, bold text by =equal signs=, and +gesperrt text by ~tildes~. + + + + +FRANZ LISZT + + + + +[Illustration: The Youthful Liszt] + + + + + FRANZ LISZT + + BY + JAMES HUNEKER + + _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_ + + NEW YORK + + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + + 1911 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + + PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER, 1911 + +[Illustration] + + + + + TO + HENRY T. FINCK + + + "Genie oblige."--F. LISZT + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. LISZT: THE REAL AND LEGENDARY 1 + + II. ASPECTS OF HIS ART AND CHARACTER 34 + + III. THE B-MINOR SONATA AND OTHER PIANO PIECES 59 + + IV. AT ROME, WEIMAR, BUDAPEST 78 + + V. AS COMPOSER 103 + + VI. MIRRORED BY HIS CONTEMPORARIES 201 + + VII. IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF LISZT 327 + + VIII. LISZT PUPILS AND LISZTIANA 353 + + IX. MODERN PIANOFORTE VIRTUOSI 418 + + INSTEAD OF A PREFACE 439 + + INDEX 443 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + The Youthful Liszt _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + Liszt's Birthplace, Raiding 8 + + Adam Liszt--Liszt's father 12 + + Anna Liszt--Liszt's mother 12 + + Daniel Liszt--Son of Liszt 16 + + Blandine Ollivier--Daughter of Liszt 16 + + Cosima von Buelow--Daughter of Liszt 20 + + Liszt, about 1850 36 + + Liszt at the piano 40 + + The Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein 50 + + A Matinee at Liszt's 66 + + Countess Marie d'Agoult 80 + + Liszt in his atelier at Weimar 100 + + Pauline Apel--Liszt's Housekeeper at Weimar 328 + + Liszt and His Scholars, 1884 358 + + Liszt's Hand 404 + + Last Picture of Liszt, 1886, Aged Seventy-five Years 416 + + The Final Liszt Circle at Weimar--Liszt at the Upper Window 436 + + + + +I + +LISZT: THE REAL AND LEGENDARY + + +I + +Franz Liszt remarked to a disciple of his: "Once Liszt helped Wagner, +but who now will help Liszt?" This was said in 1874, when Liszt was well +advanced in years, when his fame as piano virtuoso and his name as +composer were wellnigh eclipsed by the growing glory of Wagner--truly a +glory he had helped to create. In youth, an Orpheus pursued by the +musical Maenads of Europe, in old age Liszt was a Merlin dealing in +white magic, still followed by the Viviens. The story of his career +is as romantic as any by Balzac. And the end of it all--after a +half century and more of fire and flowers, of proud, brilliant +music-making--was tragical. A gentle King Lear (without the consolation +of a Cordelia), following with resignation the conquering chariot of a +man, his daughter's husband, who owed him so much, and, despite +criticism, bravely acknowledged his debt, thus faithful to the end (he +once declared that by Wagner he would stand or fall), Franz Liszt died a +quarter of a century ago at Bayreuth, not as Liszt the Conqueror, but a +world-weary pilgrim, petted and flattered when young, neglected as the +star of Wagner arose on the horizon. If only Liszt could have +experienced the success of poverty as did Wagner. But the usual +malevolent fairy of the fable endowed him with all the gifts but +poverty, and that capricious old Pantaloon, the Time-Spirit, had his +joke in the lonesome latter years. As regards his place in the musical +pantheon, this erst-while comet is now a fixed star, and his feet set +upon the white throne. There is no longer a Liszt case; his music has +fallen into critical perspective; but there is still a Liszt case, +psychologically speaking. Whether he was an archangel of light, a +Bernini of tones, or, as Jean-Christophe describes him, "The noble +priest, the circus-rider, neo-classical and vagabond, a mixture in equal +doses of real and false nobility," is a question that will be answered +according to one's temperament. That he was the captain of the new +German music, a pianist without equal, a conductor of distinction, one +who had helped to make the orchestra and its leaders what they are +to-day; that he was a writer, a reformer of church music, a man of the +noblest impulses and ideals, generous, selfless, and an artist to his +fingertips--these are the commonplaces of musical history. As a +personality he was an apparition; only Paganini had so electrified +Europe. A _charmeur_, his love adventures border on the legendary; +indeed, are largely legend. As amorous as a guitar, if we are to +believe the romancers, the real Liszt was a man of intellect, a deeply +religious soul; in middle years contemplative, even ascetic. His +youthful extravagances, inseparable from his gipsy-like genius, and +without a father to guide him, were remembered in Germany long after +he had left the concert-platform. His successes, artistic and +social--especially the predilection for him of princesses and noble +dames--raised about his ears a nest of pernicious scandal-hornets. Had +he not run away with Countess D'Agoult, the wife of a nobleman! Had he +not openly lived with a married princess at Weimar, and under the +patronage of the Grand Duke and Duchess and the Grand Duchess Maria +Pawlowna, sister of the Czar of all the Russias! Besides, he was a Roman +Catholic, and that didn't please such prim persons as Mendelssohn and +Hiller, not to mention his own fellow-countryman, Joseph Joachim. +Germany set the fashion in abusing Liszt. He had too much success for +one man, and as a composer he must be made an example of; the services +he rendered in defending the music of the insurgent Wagner was but +another black mark against his character. And when Wagner did at last +succeed, Liszt's share in the triumph was speedily forgotten. The truth +is, he paid the penalty for being a cosmopolitan. He was the first +cosmopolitan in music. In Germany he was abused as a Magyar, in Hungary +for his Teutonic tendencies--he never learned his mother tongue--in +Paris for not being French born; here one recalls the Stendhal case. + +But he introduced into the musty academic atmosphere of musical Europe a +strong, fresh breeze from the Hungarian _puzta_; this wandering +piano-player of Hungarian-Austrian blood, a genuine cosmopolite, taught +music a new charm, the charm of the unexpected, the improvised. The +freedom of Beethoven in his later works, and of Chopin in all his music, +became the principal factor in the style of Liszt. Music must have the +shape of an improvisation. In the Hungarian rhapsodies, the majority of +which begin in a mosque, and end in a tavern, are the extremes of his +system. His orchestral and vocal works, the two symphonies, the masses +and oratorios and symphonic poems, are full of dignity, poetic feeling, +religious spirit, and a largeness of accent and manner though too often +lacking in architectonic; yet the gipsy glance and gipsy voice lurk +behind many a pious or pompous bar. Apart from his invention of a new +form--or, rather, the condensation and revisal of an old one, the +symphonic poem--Liszt's greatest contribution to art is the wild, +truant, rhapsodic, extempore element he infused into modern music; +nature in her most reckless, untrammelled moods he interpreted with +fidelity. But the drummers in the line of moral gasolene who controlled +criticism in Germany refused to see Liszt except as an ex-piano virtuoso +with the morals of a fly and a perverter of art. Even the piquant +triangle in his piano-concerto was suspected as possibly suggesting the +usual situation of French comedy. + +The Liszt-Wagner question no longer presents any difficulties to the +fair-minded. It is a simple one; men still living know that Wagner, to +reach his musical apogee, to reach his public, had to lean heavily on +the musical genius and individual inspiration of Liszt. The later Wagner +would not have existed--as we now know him--without first traversing the +garden of Liszt. This is not a theory but a fact. Beethoven, as Philip +Hale has pointed out, is the last of the very great composers; there is +nothing new since Beethoven, though plenty of persuasive personalities, +much delving in mole-runs, many "new paths," leading nowhere, and much +self-advertising. With its big drum and cymbals, its mouthing or melting +phrases, its startling situations, its scarlet waistcoats, its hair-oil +and harlots, its treacle and thunder, the Romantic movement swept over +the map of Europe, irresistible, contemptuous to its adversaries, and +boasting a wonderful array of names. Schumann and Chopin, Berlioz and +Liszt, Wagner--in a class by himself--are a few that may be cited; not +to mention Victor Hugo, Delacroix, Gautier, Alfred de Musset, Stendhal. +Georg Brandes assigns to Liszt a prominent place among the Romantics. +But Beethoven still stood, stands to-day, four square to the universe. +Wagner construed Beethoven to suit his own grammar. Why, for example, +Berlioz should have been puzzled (or have pretended to) over the first +page of the Tristan and Isolde prelude is itself puzzling; the Frenchman +was a deeply versed Beethoven student. If he had looked at the first +page of the piano sonata in C minor--the Pathetic, so-called--the enigma +of the Wagnerian phraseology would have been solved; there, in a few +lines, is the kernel of this music-drama. This only proves Wagner's +Shakesperian faculty of assimilation and his extraordinary gift in +developing an idea (consider what he made of the theme of Chopin's C +minor study, the Revolutionary, which he boldly annexed for the opening +measures of the prelude to Act II of Tristan and Isolde); he borrowed +his ideas whenever and wherever he saw fit. His indebtedness to Liszt +was great, but equally so to Weber, Marschner, and Beethoven; his +indebtedness to Berlioz ended with the externals of orchestration. Both +Liszt and Wagner learned from Berlioz in this respect. Nevertheless, how +useless to compare Liszt to Berlioz or Berlioz to Wagner. As well +compare a ruby to an opal, an emerald to a ruby. Each of these three +composers has his individual excellences. The music of all three suffers +from an excess of profile. We call Liszt and Wagner the leaders of the +moderns, but their aims and methods were radically different. Wagner +asserted the supremacy of the drama over tone, and then, inconsistently, +set himself down to write the most emotionally eloquent music that was +ever conceived; Liszt always harped on the dramatic, on the poetic, and +seldom employed words, believing that the function of instrumental music +is to convey in an ideal manner a poetic impression. In this he was the +most thorough-going of poetic composers, as much so in the orchestral +domain as was Chopin in his pianoforte compositions. Since Wagner's +music-plays are no longer a novelty "the long submerged trail of Liszt +is making its appearance," as Ernest Newman happily states the case. But +to be truthful, the music of both Liszt and Wagner is already a little +old-fashioned. The music-drama is not precisely in a rosy condition +to-day. Opera is the weakest of forms at best, the human voice +inevitably limits the art, and we are beginning to wonder what all the +Wagnerian menagerie, the birds, dragons, dogs, snakes, swans, toads, +dwarfs, giants, horses, and monsters generally, have to do with music. +The music of the future is already the music of the past. The Wagner +poems are uncouth, cumbersome machines. We long for a breath of +humanity, and it is difficult to find it outside of Tristan and Isolde +or Die Meistersinger. Alas! for the enduring quality of operatic music. +Nothing stales like theatre music. The rainbow vision of a synthesis of +the Seven Arts has faded forever. In the not far distant future Wagner +will gain, rather than lose, by being played in the concert-room; that, +at least, would dodge the ominously barren stretches of the Ring, and +the early operas. The Button-Moulder awaits at the cross-roads of time +all operatic music, even as he waited for Peer Gynt. And the New +Zealander is already alive, though young, who will visit Europe to +attend the last piano-recital: that species of entertainment invented by +Liszt, and by him described in a letter to the Princess Belgiojoso as +colloquies of music and ennui. He was the first pianist to show his +profile on the concert stage, his famous _profil d'ivoire_; before Liszt +pianists either faced the audience or sat with their back to the public. + +The Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein--one naturally drops into the Almanac de +Gotha when writing of the friends of Liszt--averred that Liszt had +launched his musical spear further into the future than Wagner. She was +a lady of firm opinions, who admired Berlioz as much as she loathed +Wagner. But could she have foreseen that Richard Strauss, Parsifal-like, +had caught the whizzing lance of the Klingsor of Weimar, what would she +have said? Put the riddle to contemporary critics of Richard II--who +has, at least, thrown off the influence of Liszt and Wagner, although he +too frequently takes snap-shots at the sublime in his scores. Otherwise, +you can no more keep Liszt's name out of the music of to-day than could +good Mr. Dick the head of King Charles from the pages of his memorial. + +His musical imagination was versatile, his impressionability so lively +that he translated into tone his voyages, pictures, poems--Dante, +Goethe, Heine, Lamartine, Obermann, (Senancour), even Sainte-Beuve (Les +Consolations,) legends, and the cypress-haunted fountains of the Villa +d' Este (Tivoli); not to mention canvases by Raphael, Mickelangelo, and +the uninspired frescoes of Kaulbach. All was grist that came to his +musical mill. + +In a moment of self-forgetfulness, Wagner praised the music of Liszt in +superlative terms. No need of quotation; the correspondence, a classic, +is open to all. That the symphonic poem was secretly antipathetic to +Wagner is the bald truth. After all his rhapsodic utterances concerning +the symphonies and poems of Liszt--from which he borrowed many a +sparkling jewel to adorn some corner in his giant frescoes--he said in +1877, "In instrumental music I am a _reactionnaire_, a conservative. I +dislike everything that requires verbal explanations beyond the actual +sounds." And he, the most copious of commentators concerning his own +music, in which almost every other bar is labelled with a leading +motive! To this Liszt wittily answered--in an unpublished letter +(1878)--that leading motives are comfortable inventions, as a composer +does not have to search for a new melody. But what boots leading +motives--as old as the hills and Johann Sebastian Bach--or symphonic +poems nowadays? There is no Wagner, there is no Liszt question. After +the unbinding of the classic forms the turbulent torrent is become the +new danger. Who shall dam its speed! Brahms or Reger? The formal +formlessness of the new school has placed Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner on +the shelf, almost as remotely as are Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. The +symphonic poem is now a monster of appalling lengths, thereby, as Mr. +Krehbiel suggests, defeating its chiefest reason for existence, its +brevity. The foam and fireworks of the impressionistic school, Debussy, +Dukas, and Ravel, and the rest, are enjoyable; the piano music of +Debussy has the iridescence of a spider's web touched by the fire of the +setting sun; his orchestra is a jewelled conflagration. But he stems +like the others, the Russians included, from Liszt. Charpentier and his +followers are Wagner _a la coule_. Where it will all end no man dare +predict. But Mr. Newman is right in the matter of programme-music. It +has come to stay, modified as it may be in the future. Too many bricks +and mortar, the lust of the ear as well as of the eye, glutted by the +materialistic machinery of the Wagner music-drama, have driven the +lovers of music-for-music's-sake back to Beethoven; or, in extreme +cases, to novel forms wherein vigourous affirmations are dreaded as +much as an eight-bar melody; for those meticulous temperaments that +recoil from clangourous chord, there are the misty tonalities of +Debussy or the verse of Paul Verlaine. However, the aquarelles +and pastels and landscapes of Debussy or Ravel were invented by +_Urvater_ Liszt--caricatured by Wagner in the person of Wotan; all the +impressionistic school may be traced to him as its fountain-head. Think +of the little sceneries scattered through his piano music, particularly +in his Years of Pilgrimage; or of the storm and stress of the +Dante Sonata. The romanticism of Liszt was, like so many of his +contemporaries, a state of soul, a condition of exalted or morbid +sensibility. But it could not be said of him as it could of all the Men +of Fine Shades--Chateaubriand, Heine, Stendhal, Benjamin Constant, +Sainte-Beuve--that they were only men of feeling in their art, and +decidedly the reverse in their conduct. Liszt was a pattern of chivalry, +and if he seems at times as indulging too much in the Grand Manner set +it down to his surroundings, to his temperament. The idols of his +younger years were Bonaparte and Byron, Goethe and Chateaubriand, while +in the background hovered the prime corrupter of the nineteenth century +and the father of Romanticism, J. J. Rousseau. + + +II + +[Illustration: Liszt's Birthplace, Raiding] + +The year 1811 was the year of the great comet. Its wine is said to have +been of a richness; some well-known men were born, beginning with +Thackeray and John Bright; Napoleon's son, the unhappy Duc de +Reichstadt, first saw the light that year, as did Jules Dupre, Theophile +Gautier, and Franz Liszt. There will be no disputes concerning the date +of his birth, October 22d, as was the case with Chopin. His ancestors, +according to a lengthy family register, were originally noble; but the +father of Franz, Adam Liszt, was a manager of the Esterhazy estates in +Hungary at the time his only son and child was born. He was very +musical, knew Joseph Haydn, and was an admirer of Hummel, his music and +playing. The mother's maiden name was Anna Lager (or Laager), a native +of lower Austria, with German blood in her veins. The mixed blood of her +son might prove a source of interest to Havelock Ellis in his studies of +heredity and genius. If Liszt was French in the early years of his +manhood, he was decidedly German the latter half of his life. The Magyar +only came out on the keyboard, and in his compositions. She was of a +happy and extremely vivacious nature, cheerful in her old age, and +contented to educate her three grandchildren later in life. The name +Liszt would be meal or flour in English; so that Frank Flour might have +been his unromantic cognomen; a difference from Liszt Ferencz, +with its accompanying battle-cry of _Eljen!_ In his son Adam Liszt +hoped to realise his own frustrated musical dreams. A prodigy of +a prodigious sort, the comet and the talent of Franz were mixed up by the +superstitious. Some gipsy predicted that the lad would return to his +native village rich, honoured, and in a glass house (coach). This he +did. In Oedenburg, during the summer of 1903, I visited at an hour or +so distant, the town of Eisenstadt and the village of Raiding (or +Reiding). In the latter is the house where Liszt was born. The place, +which can hardly have changed much since the boyhood of Liszt, is called +Dobrjan in Hungarian. I confess I was not impressed, and was glad to get +back to Oedenburg and civilisation. In this latter spot there is a +striking statue of the composer. + +[Illustration: Anna Liszt + +Liszt's Mother] + +It is a thrice-told tale that several estimable Hungarian magnates +raised a purse for the boy, sent him with his father to Vienna, where he +studied the piano with the pedagogue Carl Czerny, that indefatigable +fabricator of finger-studies, and in theory with Salieri. He was +kissed by the aged Beethoven on the forehead--Wotan saluting young +Siegfried--though Schindler, _ami de_ Beethoven, as he dubbed himself, +denied this significant historical fact. But later Schindler pitched +into Liszt for his Beethoven interpretations, hotly swearing that they +were the epitome of unmusical taste. The old order changeth, though not +old prejudices. Liszt waxed in size, technique, wisdom. Soon he was +given up as hopelessly in advance of his teachers. Wherever he appeared +they hailed him as a second Hummel, a second Beethoven. And he +improvised. That settled his fate. He would surely become a composer. He +went to Paris, was known as _le petit Litz_, and received everywhere. He +became the rage, though he was refused admission to the Conservatoire, +probably because he displayed too much talent for a boy. He composed an +opera, Don Sancho, the score of which has luckily disappeared. Then an +event big with consequences was experienced by the youth--he lost his +father in 1827. (His mother survived her husband until 1866.) He gave up +concert performances as too precarious, and manfully began teaching in +Paris. The revolution started his pulse to beating, and he composed a +revolutionary symphony. He became a lover of humanity, a socialist, a +follower of Saint-Simon, even of the impossible Pere Prosper Enfantin. +His friend and adviser was Lamenais, whose Paroles d'un Croyant had +estranged him from Rome. A wonderful, unhappy man. Liszt read poetry and +philosophy, absorbed all the fashionable frenzied formulas and +associated with the Romanticists. He met Chopin, and they became as twin +brethren. Francois Mignet, author of A History of the French Revolution, +said to the Princess Cristina Belgiojoso of Liszt: "In the brain of this +young man reigns great confusion." No wonder. He was playing the piano, +composing, teaching, studying the philosophers, and mingling with +enthusiastic idealists who burnt their straw before they moulded their +bricks. As Francis Hackett wrote of the late Lord Acton, Liszt suffered +from "intellectual log-jam." But the current of events soon released +him. + +[Illustration: Adam Liszt + +Liszt's Father] + +He met the Countess d'Agoult in the brilliant whirl of his artistic +success. She was beautiful, accomplished, though her contemporaries +declare she was not of a truthful nature. She was born Marie Sophie de +Flavigny, at Frankfort-on-Main in 1805. Her father was the Vicomte de +Flavigny, who had married the daughter of Simon Moritz Bethmann, a rich +banker, originally from Amsterdam and a reformed Hebrew. She had +literary ability, was proud of having once seen Goethe, and in 1827 she +married Comte Charles d'Agoult. But social sedition was in the air. The +misunderstood woman--no new thing--was the fashion. George Sand was +changing her lovers with every new book she wrote, and Madame, the +Countess d'Agoult--to whom Chopin dedicated his first group of +Etudes--began to write, began to yearn for fame and adventures. Liszt +appeared. He seems to have been the pursued. Anyhow, they eloped. In +honour he couldn't desert the woman, and they made Geneva their +temporary home. She had in her own right 20,000 francs a year income; it +cost Liszt exactly 300,000 francs annually to keep up an establishment +such as the lady had been accustomed to--he earned this, a tidy amount, +for those days, by playing the piano all over Europe. Madame d'Agoult +bore him three children: Blandine, Cosima, and Daniel. The first named +married Emile Ollivier, Napoleon's war minister--still living at the +present writing--in 1857. She died in 1862. Cosima married Hans von +Buelow, her father's favourite pupil, in 1857; later she went off with +Richard Wagner, married him, to her father's despair--principally +because she had renounced her religion in so doing--and to-day is +Wagner's widow. Daniel Liszt, his father's hope, died December, 1859, at +the age of twenty. Liszt had legitimatised the birth of his children, +had educated them, had dowered his daughters, and they proved all three +a source of sorrow. + +[Illustration: Blandine Ollivier + +Daughter of Liszt] + +He quarrelled with the D'Agoult and they parted bad friends. Under the +pen name of Daniel Stern she attacked Liszt in her souvenirs and novels. +He forgave her. They met in Paris once, in the year 1860. He gently told +her that the title of the souvenirs should have been "Poses et +Mensonges." She wept. Tragic comedians, both. They were bored with one +another; their union recalls the profound reflection of Flaubert, that +Emma Bovary found in adultery all the platitudes of marriage. Perhaps +other ladies had supervened. Like Byron, Liszt was the sentimental hero +of the day, a Chateaubriand Rene of the keyboard. Balzac put him in a +book, so did George Sand. All the painters and sculptors, Delaroche and +Ary Scheffer among others made his portrait. Nevertheless, his head was +not turned, and when, after an exile of a few years, Thalberg had +conquered Paris in his absence, he returned and engaged in an ivory +duel, at the end worsting his rival. Thalberg was the first pianist in +Europe, contended every one. And the Belgiojoso calmly remarked that +Liszt was the only one. After witnessing the Paderewski worship of +yesterday nothing related of Liszt should surprise us. + +[Illustration: Daniel Liszt + +Son of Liszt] + +In the meantime, Paganini, had set his brain seething. Chopin, Paganini +and Berlioz were the predominating artistic influences in his life; from +the first he appreciated the exotic, learned the resources of the +instrument, and the value of national folk-song flavour; from the second +he gained the inspiration for his transcendental technique; from the +third, orchestral colour and the "new paths" were indicated to his +ambitious spirit. He never tired, he always said there would be plenty +of time to loaf in eternity. His pictures were everywhere, he became a +kind of Flying Hungarian to the sentimental Sentas of those times. He +told Judith Gautier that the women loved themselves in him. Modest man! +What charm was in his playing an army of auditors have told us. Heine +called Thalberg a king, Liszt a prophet, Chopin a poet, Herz an +advocate, Kalkbrenner a minstrel, Madame Pleyel a Sibyl, and Doehler--a +pianist. Scudo wrote that Thalberg's scales were like pearls on velvet, +the scales of Liszt the same, but the velvet was hot! Louis Ehlert, no +mean observer, said he possessed a quality that neither Tausig nor any +virtuoso before or succeeding him ever boasted--the nearest approach, +perhaps, was Rubinstein--namely: a spontaneous control of passion that +approximated in its power to nature ... and an incommensurable nature +was his. He was one among a dozen artists who made Europe interesting +during the past century. Slim, handsome in youth, brown of hair and +blue-eyed, with the years he grew none the less picturesque; his mane +was white, his eyes became blue-gray, his pleasant baritone voice a +brumming bass. There is a portrait in the National Gallery by Lorenzo +Lotto, of Prothonotary Giuliano, that suggests him, and in the +Burne-Jones picture, Merlin and Vivien, there is certainly a transcript +of his features. A statue by Foyatier in the Louvre, of Spartacus, +is really the head of the pianist. As Abbe he was none the less +fascinating; for his admirers he wore his _soutane_ with a difference. + +Useless to relate the Thousand-and-One Nights of music, triumphs, and +intrigues in his life. When the Countess d'Agoult returned to her family +a council, presided over by her husband's brother, exonerated the +pianist, and his behaviour was pronounced to be that of a gentleman! +Surely the Comic Muse must have chuckled at this. Like Wagner, Franz +Liszt was a Tragic Comedian of prime order. He knew to the full the +value of his electric personality. Sincere in art, he could play the +grand seignior, the actor, the priest, and diplomat at will. Pose he had +to, else abandon the profession of piano virtuoso. But he bitterly +objected to playing the role of a performing poodle, and once publicly +insulted the Czar, who dared to talk while the greatest pianist in the +world played. He finally grew tired of Paris, of public life. He had +been loved by such various types of women as George Sand--re-christened +by Baudelaire as the Prudhomme of immorality; delightful epigram!--by +Marie Du Plessis, the Lady of the Camellias, and by that astounding +adventuress, Lola Montez. How many others only a Leporello catalogue +would show. + +His third artistic period began in 1847, his sojourn at Weimar. It was +the most attractive and fruitful of all. From 1848 to 1861 the musical +centre of Germany was this little town immortalised by Goethe. There the +world flocked to hear the first performance of Lohengrin, and other +Wagner operas. A circle consisting of Raff, Von Buelow, Tausig, +Cornelius, Joseph Joachim, Schumann, Robert Franz, Litolff, Dionys +Pruckner, William Mason, Lassen, with Berlioz and Rubinstein and Brahms +(in 1854) and Remenyi as occasional visitors, to mention a tithe of +famous names, surrounded Liszt. His elective affinity--in Goethe's +phrase--was the Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein, who with her child had +deserted the usual brutal and indifferent husband--in fashionable +romances. Her influence upon Liszt's character has been disputed, but +unwarrantably. She occasionally forced him to do the wrong thing, as in +the case of the ending of the Dante symphony; _vide_, the new Wagner +Autobiography. Together they wrote his chief literary works, the study +of Chopin--the princess supplying the feverish local colour, and the +book on Hungarian gipsy music, which contains a veiled attack on the +Jews, for which Liszt was blamed. The Sayn-Wittgenstein was an intense, +narrow nature--she has been called a "slightly vulgar aristocrat," and +one of her peculiarities was seeing in almost every one of artistic or +intellectual prominence Hebraic traits or lineaments. Years before the +Geyer and the Leipsic _Judengasse_ story came out she unhesitatingly +pronounced Richard Wagner of Semitic origin; she also had her doubts +about Berlioz and others. The Lisztian theory of gipsy music consists, +as Dannreuther says, in the merit of a laboured attempt to prove the +existence of something like a gipsy epic in terms of music, the fact +being that Hungarian gipsies merely play Hungarian popular tunes in a +fantastic and exciting manner, but have no music that can properly be +called their own. Liszt was a facile, picturesque writer and did more +with his pen for Wagner than Wagner's own turbid writings. But a great +writer he was not--many-sided as he was. It was unkind, however, on the +part of Wagner to say to a friend that Cosima had more brains than her +father. If she has, Bayreuth since her husband's death hasn't proved it. +Wagner, when he uttered this, was probably in the ferment of a new +passion, having quite recovered from his supposedly eternal love for +Mathilde Wesendonck. + +[Illustration: Cosima von Buelow + +Daughter of Liszt] + +A masterful woman the Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein, though far from +beautiful, she so controlled and ordered Liszt's life that he quite shed +his bohemian skin, composed much, and as Kapellmeister produced many +novelties of the new school. They lived on a hill in a house called the +Altenburg, not a very princely abode, and there Liszt accomplished the +major portion of his works for orchestra, his masses and piano +concertos. There, too, Richard Wagner, a revolutionist, wanted by the +Dresden police, came in 1849--from May 19th to 24th--disguised, carrying +a forged passport, poor, miserable. Liszt secured him lodgings, and gave +him a banquet at the Altenburg attended by Tausig, Von Buelow, Gille, +Draeseke, Gottschalg, and others, nineteen in all. Wagner behaved badly, +insulted his host and guests. He was left in solitude until Liszt +insisted on his apologising for his rude manners--which he did with a +bad grace. John F. Runciman has said that Liszt ought to have done even +more for Wagner than he did--or words to that effect; just so, and there +is no doubt that the noble man has put the world in his debt by piloting +the music-dramatist into safe harbour; but while ingratitude is no crime +according to Nietzsche (who, quite illogically, reproached Wagner for +_his_ ingratitude) there seems a limit to amiability, and in Liszt's +case his amiability amounted to weakness. He could never say "No" to +Wagner (nor to a pretty woman). He understood and forgave the Mime +nature in Wagner for the sake of his Siegfried side. There was no Mime +in Liszt, nothing small nor hateful, although he could at times play the +benevolent, ironic Mephisto. And in his art he mirrored the quality to +perfection--the Mephistopheles of his Faust Symphony. + +Intrigues pursued him in his capacity as court musical director. The +Princess Maria-Pawlowna died June, 1859; the following October Princess +Marie, daughter of Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein, married the Prince +Hohenlohe, and Liszt, after the opera by Peter Cornelius was hissed, +resigned his post. He remembered Goethe and his resignation, caused by a +trained dog, at the same theatre. But he didn't leave Weimar until +August 17, 1861, joining the princess at Rome. The scandal of the +attempted marriage there is told in another chapter. Again the eyes of +the world were riveted upon Liszt. His very warts became notorious. Some +say that Cardinal Antonelli, instigated by Polish relatives of the +princess, upset the affair when the pair were literally on the eve of +approaching the altar; some believe that the wily Liszt had set in +motion the machinery; but the truth is that at the advice of the +Cardinal Prince Hohenlohe, his closest friend, the marriage scheme was +dropped. When the husband of the princess died there was no further talk +of matrimony. Instead, Liszt took minor orders, concentrated his +attention on church music, and henceforth spent his year between Rome, +Weimar, and Budapest. He hoped for a position at the Papal court +analogous to the one he had held at Weimar; but the appointment of +music-director at St. Peter's was never made. To Weimar he had returned +(1869) at the cordial invitation of the archduke, who allotted to his +use a little house in the park, the _Hofgaertnerei_. There every summer +he received pupils from all parts of the world, gratuitously advising +them, helping them from his impoverished purse, and, incidentally, being +admired by a new generation of musical enthusiasts, particularly those +of the feminine gender. There were lots of scandals, and the worthy +burghers of the town shook their heads at the goings-on of the +_Lisztianer_. The old man fell under many influences, some of them +sinister. He seldom saw Richard or Cosima Wagner, though he attended the +opening of Bayreuth in 1876. On that occasion Wagner publicly paid a +magnificent tribute to the genius and noble friendship of Liszt. It +atoned for a wilderness of previous neglect and ingratitude. + +With Wagner's death in 1883 his hold on mundane matters began to relax. +He taught, he travelled, he never failed to pay the princess an annual +visit at Rome. She had immured herself, behind curtained windows and to +the light of waxen tapers led the life of a mystic, also smoked the +blackest of cigars. She became a theologian in petticoats and wrote +numerous inutile books about pin-points in matters ecclesiastical. No +doubt she still loved Liszt, for she set a spy on him at Weimar and thus +kept herself informed as to how much cognac he daily consumed, how many +pretty girls had asked for a lock of his silvery hair, also the name of +the latest aspirant to his affections. + +What a brilliant coterie of budding artists surrounded him: D'Albert, +Urspruch, Geza Zichy, Friedheim, Joseffy, Rosenthal, Reisenauer, Grieg, +Edward MacDowell, Burmeister, Stavenhagen, Sofie Menter, Toni Raab, +Nikisch, Weingartner, Siloti, Laura Kahrer, Sauer, Adele Aus der Ohe, +Moszkowski, Scharwenka, Pachmann, Saint-Saens, Rubinstein--the latter +not as pupil--Borodin, Van der Stucken, and other distinguished names in +the annals of compositions and piano playing. Liszt's health broke down, +but he persisted in visiting London in the early summer of 1886, where +he was received as a demi-god by Queen Victoria and the musical world; +he had been earlier in Paris where a mass of his was sung with success. +His money affairs were in a tangle; once in receipt of an income that +had enabled him to throw money away to any whining humbug, he complained +at the last that he had no home of his own, no income--he had not been +too shrewd in his dealings with music publishers--and very little cash +for travelling expenses. The princess needed her own rents, and Liszt +was never a charity pensioner. During the Altenburg years, the +_Glanzzeit_ at Weimar, her income had sufficed for both, as Liszt was +earning no money from concert-tours. But at the end, despite his devoted +disciples, he was the very picture of a deserted, desolate old hero. And +he had given away fortunes, had played fortunes at benefit-concerts +into the coffers of cities overtaken by fire or flood. Surely, the +seamy side of success. "_Wer aber wird nun Liszt helfen?_" This half +humorous, half pathetic cry of his had its tragic significance. + +Liszt last touched the keyboard July 19, 1886, at Colpach, Luxemburg, +the castle of Munkaczy, the Hungarian painter. Feeble as he must have +been there was a supernatural aureole about his music that caused his +hearers to weep. (Fancy the pianoforte inciting to tears!) He played his +favourite Liebestraum, the Chant Polonais from the "Glanes de Woronice" +(the Polish estate of the Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein) and the sixteenth +of his Soirees de Vienne. He went on to Bayreuth, in company with a +persistent young Parisian lady--the paramount passion not quite +extinguished--attended a performance of Tristan and Isolde, through +which he slept from absolute exhaustion; though he did not fail to +acknowledge in company with Cosima Wagner the applause at the end. He +went at once to bed never to leave it alive. He died of lung trouble on +the night of July 31st or the early hour of August 1, 1886, and his last +word is said to have been "Tristan." He was buried, in haste--that he +might not interfere with the current Wagner festival--and, no doubt, is +mourned at leisure. His princess survived him a year; this sounds more +romantic than it is. [Madame d'Agoult had died in 1876.] A new terror +was added to death by the ugly tomb of the dead man, designed by his +grandson, Siegfried Wagner; said to be a composer as well as an amateur +architect. Victories usually resemble each other; it is defeat alone +that wears an individual physiognomy. Liszt, with all his optimism, did +not hesitate to speak of his career as a failure. But what a magnificent +failure! "To die and to die young--what happiness," was a favourite +phrase of his. + + +III + +"While remaining itself obscure," wrote George Moore of L'Education +Sentimentale, by Flaubert, "this novel has given birth to a numerous +literature. The Rougon-Macquart series is nothing but L'Education +Sentimentale re-written into twenty volumes by a prodigious +journalist--twenty huge balloons which bob about the streets, sometimes +getting clear of the housetops. Maupassant cut it into numberless +walking-sticks; Goncourt took the descriptive passages and turned them +into Passy rhapsodies. The book has been a treasure cavern known to +forty thieves, whence all have found riches and fame. The original +spirit has proved too strong for general consumption, but, watered and +prepared, it has had the largest sale ever known." + +This particular passage is suited to the case of Liszt. Despite his +obligations to Beethoven, Chopin and Berlioz--as, indeed, Flaubert owed +something to Chateaubriand, Bossuet, and Balzac--he invented a new form, +the symphonic poem, invented a musical phrase, novel in shape and gait, +perfected the leading motive, employed poetic ideas instead of the +antique and academic cut and dried square-toed themes--and was +ruthlessly plundered almost before the ink was dry on his manuscript, +and without due acknowledgment of the original source. So it came +to pass that the music of the future, lock, stock, and barrel, +first manufactured by Liszt, travelled into the porches of the +public ears from the scores of Wagner, Raff, Cornelius, Saint-Saens, +Tschaikowsky, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Borodin, and minor Russian composers +and a half-hundred besides of the new men, beginning with the name of +Richard Strauss--that most extraordinary personality of latter-day +music. And Liszt sat in Weimar and smiled and waited and waited and +smiled; and if he has achieved paradise by this time he is still +smiling and waiting. He often boasted that storms were his _metier_, +meaning their tonal reproduction in orchestral form or on the +keyboard--but I suspect that patience was his cardinal virtue. + +Henry James once wrote of the human soul and it made me think of Liszt: +"A romantic, moonlighted landscape, with woods and mountains and dim +distances, visited by strange winds and murmurs." Liszt's music often +evokes the golden opium-haunted prose of De Quincy; it is at once +sensual and rhetorical. It also has its sonorous platitudes, unheavenly +lengths, and barbaric yawps. + +Despite his marked leaning toward the classic (Raphael, Correggio, +Mickelangelo, and those frigid, colourless Germans, Kaulbach, Cornelius, +Schadow, not to mention the sweetly romantic Ary Scheffer and the +sentimental Delaroche), by temperament Liszt was a lover of the +grotesque, the baroque, the eccentric, even the morbid. He often +declared that it was his pet ambition to give a piano recital in the +_Salon Carre_ of the Louvre, where, surrounded by the canvases of Da +Vinci, Raphael, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Rembrandt, Veronese, and +others of the immortal choir, he might make music never to be forgotten. +In reality, he would have played with more effect if the pictures had +been painted by Salvator Rosa, El Greco, Hell-Fire Breughel, Callot, +Orcagna (the Dance of Death at Pisa), Matthew Gruenwald; or among the +moderns, Gustave Dore, the macabre Wiertz of Brussels, Edward Munch, +Matisse or Picasso. Ugliness mingled with voluptuousness, piety doubted +by devilry, the quaint and the horrible, the satanic and the angelic, +these states of soul (and body) appealed to Liszt quite as much as they +did to Berlioz. They are all the apex of delirious romanticism;--now as +dead as the classicism that preceded and produced it--of the seeking +after recondite sensations and expressing them by means of the eloquent, +versatile orchestral apparatus. Think what roles Death and Lust play in +the over-strained art of the Romantics (the "hairy romantic" as +Thackeray called Berlioz, and no doubt Liszt, for he met him in +London); what bombast, what sonorous pomp and pageantry, what sighing +sensuousness, what brilliant martial spirit--they are all to be found in +Liszt. In musical irony he never had but one match, Chopin--until +Richard Strauss; Berlioz was also an adept in this disquieting mood. +Liszt makes a direct appeal to the nerves, he has the trick of getting +atmosphere with a few bars; and even if his great solo sonata has been +called "The Invitation to Hissing and Stamping" (thus named by +Gumprecht, a blind critic of Berlin, about 1854) the work itself is a +mine of musical treasures, and a most dramatic sonata--that is if one +accepts Liszt's definition of the form. Here we recall Cabaner's +music--as reported by Mr. Moore--"the music that might be considered by +Wagner as a little too advanced, but which Liszt would not fail to +understand." + +Liszt's music is virile and homophonic, despite its chromatic +complexities. Instead of lacking in thematic invention he was, perhaps, +a trifle too facile, too Italianate; he shook too many melodies from +his sleeve to be always fresh; in a word, he composed too much. +Architecturally his work recalls at times the fantastic Kremlin, or the +Taj Mahal, or--as in the Graner Mass--a strange perversion of the +gothic. Liszt was less the master-builder than the painter; color, not +form, was his stronger side. And like Chateaubriand his music is an +interminglement of religious with moods of sensuality. An authority has +written that his essays in counterpoint are perhaps more successful than +those of Berlioz, though his fugue subjects are equally artificial; and +he fails to make the most of them (but couldn't the same be said of +Beethoven, or of the contrapuntal Reger?). Both the French and Hungarian +masters seem to have concocted rather than have composed their fugues. +All of which is the eternal rule of thumb over again. The age of the +fugue, like the age of manufactured miracles, is forever past. If you +don't care for the fugal passages and part-writing in the Graner Mass or +in the organ music, then there is nothing more to be said. Charles Lamb +inveighed against concertos and instrumental music because, as he wrote, +"words are something; but to gaze on empty frames, and to be forced to +make the pictures for yourself ... to invent extempore tragedies is to +answer the vague gestures of an inexplicable rambling mime." This +unimaginative condition is the precise one from which suffered so many +early and too many later critics of Liszt's original music. If you are +not in the mood poetical, whether lyric, heroic, or epic, then go to +some other composer. And I protest against the parenthetical position +allotted him by musical commentators, mostly of the Bayreuth brood. The +Wagner family saw to it that the mighty Richard should be furnished with +an appropriate artistic pedigree; Beethoven and Gluck were called his +precursors. Liszt is not a transitional composer, except that all great +composers are a link in the unending chain. But, though he helped Wagner +to his later ideas and style, he had nothing whatever to do with the +Wagnerian music-drama or the Wagnerian attitude toward art. Berlioz, +Liszt, and Wagner are all three as different in conception and texture +as Handel and Haydn and Mozart; yet many say Handel and Haydn, or, worse +still, Mozart and Beethoven. Absurd and unjust bracketings by the +fat-minded unmusical. + +In musicianship Liszt had no contemporary who could pretend to tie his +shoe-strings, with the possible exception of Felix Mendelssohn. And in +one particular he ranks next to Bach and Beethoven--in rhythmic +invention; after Bach and Beethoven, Liszt stands nearest as regards the +variety of his rhythms. His Eastern blood--the Magyar came from +Asia--may account for this rhythmic versatility. It is a point not to be +overlooked in future estimates of the composer. + +How then account for the rather indifferent fashion with which the Liszt +compositions are received by the musical public, not only here, but in +Europe? This year (1911) the festivals in honor of the Master's +Centenary may revive interest in his music and, perhaps, open the ears +of the present generation to the fact that Strauss, Debussy and others +are not as original as they sound. But I fear that Liszt, like any other +dead composer--save the few giants, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven--will be +played as a matter of course, sometimes from piety, sometimes because +certain dates bob up on the calendar. His piano music, the most grateful +ever written, will die hard, yet die it will. + +Musicians should never forget Liszt, who, as was the case with Henry +Irving and the English speaking actors, was the first to give musicians +a social standing and prestige; before his time a pianist, violinist, +organist, singer, was hardly superior to a lackey. Liszt was the +aristocrat of his art; his essential nobility of soul, coupled with his +flaming genius, made him that. And he came from a cottage that seemed +like a peasant's. A point for your anarch in art. + +Whatever the fluctuations of the chameleon of the Seven Arts, the best +music will be always beautiful; beautiful with the old or the new +beauty. Ugliness for the sheer sake of ugliness never endures; but one +must be able to define modern beauty, else find oneself in the +predicament of those deaf ones who could not or would not hear the +beauty of Wagner; or those blind ones who would not or could not see the +characteristic truth and beauty in the pictures of Edouard Manet. The +sting and glamour of the Liszt orchestral music has compelling quality. +Probably one of the most eloquent tributes paid to music is the +following, and by a critic of pictorial art, Mr. D. S. MacColl, now +keeper of the Wallace Collection in London. He wrote: + +"An art that came out of the old world two centuries ago with a few +chants, love-songs, and dances, that a century ago was still tied to the +words of a mass or an opera, or threading little dance movements +together in a 'suite,' became, in the last century, this extraordinary +debauch, in which the man who has never seen a battle, loved a woman, or +worshipped a god may not only ideally but through the response of his +nerves and pulses to immediate rhythmical attack, enjoy the ghosts of +struggle, rapture and exaltation with a volume and intricacy, an +anguish, a triumph, an irresponsibility unheard of. An amplified pattern +of action and emotion is given; each man fits to it the images he +will." + + + + +II + +ASPECTS OF HIS ART AND CHARACTER + + +I + +LISZT AND THE LADIES + +The feminine friendships of Franz Liszt gained for him as much notoriety +as his music making. To the average public he was a compound of +Casanova, Byron and Goethe, and to this mixture could have been added +the name of Stendhal. Liszt's love affairs, Liszt's children, Liszt's +perilous escapes from daggers, pistols and poisons were the subjects of +conversation in Europe three-quarters of a century ago, as earlier Byron +was both hero and black-sheep in the current gossip of his time. And as +Liszt was in the public eye and ubiquitous--he travelled rapidly over +Europe in a post-chaise, often giving two concerts in one day at +different places--he became a sort of legendary figure, a musical Don +Juan. He was not unmindful of the value of advertisement, so the legend +grew with the years. That his reputation for gallantry was hugely +exaggerated it is hardly necessary to add; a man who, accomplished as +much as he, whether author, pianoforte virtuoso or composer, could have +hardly had much idle time on his hands for the devil to dip into; and +then his correspondence. He wrote or dictated literally thousands of +letters. He was an ideal letter-writer. No one went unanswered, and a +fairly good biography might be evolved from the many volumes of his +correspondence. Nevertheless he did find time for much philandering, and +for the cultivation of numerous platonic friendships. But the witty +characterisation of Madame Plater holds good of Liszt. She said one day +to Chopin: "If I were young and pretty, my little Chopin, I would take +thee for husband, Ferdinand Hiller for friend, and Liszt for lover." +This was in 1833, when Liszt was twenty-two years of age and the +witticism definitely places Liszt in the sentimental hierarchy. + +La Mara, an indefatigable and enthusiastic collector of anecdotes about +unusual folk, has just published a book, Liszt und die Frauen. It deals +with twenty-six friends of Liszt and does not lean heavily on scandal as +an attractive adjunct; indeed La Mara (Marie Lipsius) sees musical life +through rose-coloured spectacles, and Liszt is one of her gods. For her +he is more sinned against than sinning, more pursued than pursuer; his +angelic wings grow in size on his shoulders while you watch. Only a few +of the ladies, titled and otherwise, mentioned in this book enjoyed the +fleeting affection of the pianist-composer. Whatever else he might have +been, Liszt was not a vulgar gallant. Over his swiftest passing +intrigues he contrived to throw an air of mystery. In sooth, he was an +idealist and romanticist. No one ever heard him boast his conquests. + +Did Liszt ever love? It has been questioned by some of his biographers. +His first passion, however, seems to have been genuine, as genuine as +his love for his mother and for his children; he proved more admirable +as a father than he would have been as a husband. In 1823 as "le petit +Litz" he had set all musical Paris wondering. When his father died in +1827 he gave lessons there like any everyday pianoforte pedagogue +because he needed money for the support of his mother. Among his +aristocratic pupils was Caroline de Saint-Criq, the daughter of the +Minister of Commerce, Count de Saint-Criq. It must have been truly a +love in the clouds. Caroline was motherless. She was, as Liszt later +declared, "a woman ideally good." Her father did not enjoy the prospect +of a son-in-law who gave music lessons, and the intimacy suddenly +snapped. But Liszt never forgot her; she became his mystic Beatrice, for +her and to her he composed and dedicated a song; and even meeting her at +Pau in 1844, just sixteen years after their rupture, did not create the +disenchantment usual in such cases. Berlioz, too, sought an early love +when old, and in his eyes she was as she always had been; Stendhal burst +into tears on seeing again Angela Pietagrua after eleven years +absence. Verily art is a sentimental antiseptic. + +[Illustration: Liszt, about 1850] + +Caroline de Saint-Criq had married like the dutiful daughter she was, +and Liszt's heart by 1844 was not only battle-scarred but a cemetery of +memories. She died in 1874. They had corresponded for years, and at the +moment of their youthful parting, caused by a cruel and extremely +sensible father, they made a promise to recall each other's names at the +hour of the daily angelus. Liszt averred that he kept his promise. The +name of the lyric he wrote for her is: "Je voudrais m'evanouir comme la +pourpre du soir" ("Ich moechte hingehn wie das Abendrot"). + +Before the affair began with the Countess d'Agoult, afterward the mother +of his three children, Liszt enjoyed an interlude with the Countess +Adele Laprunarede. It was the year of the revolution, 1830, and the +profound despondency into which he had been cast by his unhappy love for +Caroline was cured, as his mother sagely remarked, by the sound of +cannon. He became a fast friend of Countess Adele and followed her to +her home in the Alps, there, as he jestingly said, to pursue their +studies in style in the French language. It must not be forgotten that +the Count, her husband, was their companion. But Paris wagged its myriad +tongues all the same. Liszt's affiliation with Countess Louis Plater, +born Graefin Brzostowska, the Pani Kasztelanowa (or lady castellan in +English; no wonder he wrote such chromatic music later, these +dissonantal names must have been an inspiration) was purely platonic, +as were the majority of his friendships with the sex. But he dearly +loved a princess, and the sharp eyes of Miss Amy Fay noted that his bow +when meeting a woman of rank was a trifle too profound. (See her +admirable Music Study in Germany.) The truth is that Liszt was a +courtier. He was reared in aristocratic surroundings, and he took to +luxury as would a cat. With the cannon booming in Paris he sketched the +plan of his Revolutionary Symphony, but he continued to visit the +aristocracy. In 1831 at Stuttgart his friend Frederic Chopin wrote a +"revolutionary" study (in C minor, opus 10) on hearing of Warsaw's +downfall. Wagner rang incendiary church bells during the revolutionary +days at Dresden in May 1849. Brave gestures, as our French friends would +put it, and none the less lasting. Liszt's symphony is lost, but its +themes may have bobbed up in his Faust and Dante symphonies. Who +remembers the Warsaw of 1831 except Chopin lovers? And the rebellious +spirit of Wagner's bell-ringing passed over into his Tetralogy. Nothing +is negligible to an artist, not even a "gesture." Naturally there is no +reference to the incident in his autobiography. If you are to take +Wagner at his word he was a mere looker-on in Dresden during what +Bakounine contemptuously called "a petty insurrection." Nietzsche was +right--great men are to be distrusted when they write of themselves. + +With the Madame d'Agoult and Princess Wittgenstein episodes we are not +concerned just now. So much has been written in this two-voiced fugue in +the symphony of Liszt's life that it is difficult to disentangle the +truth from the fable. La Mara is sympathetic, though not particularly +enlightening. Of more interest, because of the comparative mystery of +the affair, is the friendship between George Sand and Liszt. Naturally +La Mara, sentimentalist that she is, denies a liaison. She errs. There +was a brief love passage. But Liszt escaped the fate of De Musset and +Chopin. Balzac speaks of the matter in his novel Beatrix, in which +George Sand is depicted as Camille Maupin, the Countess d'Agoult as +Beatrix, Gustave Planche as Claude Vignon, and Liszt as Conti. +Furthermore, the D'Agoult was jealous of Madame Sand, doubly jealous of +her as a friend of Liszt and as a writer of genius. Read the D'Agoult's +novel, written after her parting with Liszt, and see how in this Nelida +she imitates the Elle et Lui. That she hated George Sand, after a +pretended friendship, cannot be doubted; we have her own words as +witnesses. In My Literary Life, by Madame Edmond Adam (Juliette Lamber), +she said of George Sand to the author: "Her lovers are to her a piece of +chalk, with which she scratches on the black-board. When she has +finished she crushes the chalk under her foot, and there remains but the +dust, which is quickly blown away." "How is it, my esteemed and beloved +friend, you have never forgiven?" sadly asked Madame Adam. "Because the +wound has not healed yet. Conscious that I had put my whole life and +soul into my love for Liszt she tried to take him away from me." + +One would suppose from the above that Liszt was faithful to Madame +d'Agoult or that George Sand had separated the runaway couple, whereas +in reality Liszt knew George Sand before he met the D'Agoult. What +Madame Sand said of Liszt as a gallant can hardly be paraphrased in +English. She was not very flattering. Perhaps George Sand was a reason +why the relations between Chopin and Liszt cooled; the latter said: "Our +lady loves had quarrelled, and as good cavaliers we were in duty bound +to side with them." Chopin said: "We are friends, we were comrades." +Liszt told Dr. Niecks: "There was a cessation of intimacy, but no +enmity. I left Paris soon after, and never saw him again." It was at the +beginning of 1840 that Liszt went to Chopin's apartment accompanied by a +companion. Chopin was absent. On his return he became furious on +learning of the visit. No wonder. Who was the lady in the case? It could +have been Marie, it might have been George Sand, and probably it was +some new fancy. + +[Illustration: _After an oil painting by J. Danhauser_ + + Victor Hugo Paganini Rossini + Dumas George Sand Countess d'Agoult + +Liszt at the Piano] + +More adventurous were Liszt's affairs with Marguerite Gautier, the lady +of the camellias, the consumptive heroine of the Dumas play, as related +by Jules Janin, and with the more notorious Lola Montez, who had to +leave Munich to escape the wrath of the honest burghers. The king had +humoured too much the lady's extravagant habits. She fell in love with +Liszt, who had parted with his Marie in 1844, and went with him to +Constantinople. Where they separated no one knows. It was not destined +to be other than a fickle passion on both sides, not without its +romantic aspects for romantically inclined persons. Probably the closest +graze with hatred and revenge ever experienced by Liszt was the Olga +Janina episode. Polish and high born, rich, it is said, she adored +Liszt, studied with him, followed him from Weimar to Rome, from Rome +to Budapest, bored him, shocked him as an abbe and scandalised +ecclesiastical Rome by her mad behaviour; finally she attempted to stab +him, and, failing, took a dose of poison. She didn't die, but lived to +compose a malicious and clever book, Souvenirs d'une Cosaque (written at +Paris and Karentec, March to September, published by the Libraire +Internationale, 1875, now out of print), and signed "Robert Franz." Poor +old Liszt is mercilessly dissected, and his admiring circle at Weimar +slashed by a vigourous pen. In truth, despite the falsity of the +picture, Olga Janina wrote much more incisively, with more personal +colour and temperament, than did Countess d'Agoult, who also caricatured +Liszt in her Nelida (as "Guermann"), and the good Liszt wrote to his +princess: "Janina was not evil, only exalted." [I have heard it +whispered that the attempt on Liszt's life at Rome was a melodramatic +affair, concocted by his princess, who was jealous of the Janina girl, +with the aid of the pianist's valet.] + +La Mara shows to us twenty-six portraits in her Liszt and the Ladies; +they include Princess Cristina Belgiojoso, Pauline Viardot-Garcia, +Caroline Unger-Sabatier, Marie Camille Pleyel, Charlotte von Hagn, +Bettina von Arnim, Marie von Mouchanoff-Kalergis, Rosalie, Countess +Sauerma, a niece of Spohr and an accomplished harp player; the Grand +Duchess of Saxony, Maria Pawlowna, and her successor, Sophie, Grand +Duchess of Weimar, both patronesses of Liszt; the Princess Wittgenstein, +Emilie Merian-Genast, Agnes Street Klindworth, Jessie Hillebrand +Laussot, Sofie Menter, the greatest of his women pupils; the Countess +Wolkenstein and Buelow, Elpis Melena, Fanny, the Princess Rospigliosi, +the Baroness Olga Meyendorff (this lady enjoyed to an extraordinary +degree the confidence of Liszt. At Weimar she was held in high esteem by +him--and hated by his pupils), and Nadine Helbig--Princess Nadine +Schahawskoy. Madame Helbig was born in 1847 and went to Rome the first +time in 1865. She became a Liszt pupil and a fervent propagandist. Her +crayon sketch drawing of the venerable master is excellent. In her +possession is a drawing by Ingres, who met Liszt in Rome, 1839, when the +pianist was twenty-eight years of age. We learn that Liszt never +attempted "poetry" with the exception of a couplet which he sent to the +egregious Bettina von Arnim. It runs thus, and it consoles us with its +crackling consonants for the discontinuance of further poetic flights on +the part of its creator: + + "Ich kraxele auf der Leiter + Und komme doch nicht weiter." + + +II + +A FAMOUS FRIENDSHIP + +The perennial interest of the world in the friendships of famous men and +women is proved by the never-ceasing publication of books concerning +them. Of George Sand and her lovers how much has been written. George +Eliot and Lewes, Madame de Recamier and Chateaubriand, Goethe and his +affinities, Chopin and George Sand, Liszt and the Countess d'Agoult, +Wagner and Mathilde--a voluminous index might be made of the classic and +romantic _liaisons_ that have excited curiosity from the time when the +memory of man runneth not to the contrary down to yesteryear. Although +Franz Liszt, great piano virtuoso, great composer, great man, has been +dead since 1886, and the Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein since 1887, +volumes are still written about their friendship. Indeed, in any +collection of letters written by Liszt, or to him, the name of the +princess is bound to appear. She was the veritable muse of the +Hungarian, and when her influence upon him as a composer is considered +it will not do to say, as many critics have said, that she was a +stumbling-block in his career. The reverse is the truth. + +The most recent contributions to Liszt literature are the letters +between Franz Liszt and Carl Alexander, Archduke of Weimar; Aus der +Glanzzeit der Weimarer Altenburg, by the fecund La Mara; and Franz +Liszt, by August Goellerich, a former pupil of the master. To this we +might add the little-known bundle of letters by Adelheid von Schorn, +Franz Liszt et la Princesse de Sayn-Wittgenstein, (translated into +French), a perfect mine of gossip. Miss von Schorn remained in Weimar +after the princess left the Athens-on-the-Ilm for Rome and corresponded +with her, telling of Liszt's doings, never failing to record new +flirtations and making herself generally useful to the venerable +composer. When attacked by his last illness at Colpach, where he had +gone to visit Munkacszy, the painter, Miss von Schorn went to Bayreuth +to look after him. There, at the door of his bed-chamber, she was +refused admittance, Madame Cosima Wagner, through a servant, telling her +that the daughter and grand-daughters of Franz Liszt would care for him. +The truth is that Madame Wagner had always detested the Princess +Wittgenstein and saw in the Weimar lady one of her emissaries. Miss Von +Schorn left Bayreuth deeply aggrieved. After Liszt's death her +correspondence with the princess abruptly ceased. She tells all this in +her book. Even Liszt had shown her his door at Weimar several years +before he died. He detested gossips and geese, he often declared. + +The interest displayed by the world artistic has always centred about +the episode of the projected marriage between the princess and Liszt. +A dozen versions of the interrupted ceremony have been printed. +Bayreuth, which never loved Weimar--that is, the Wagner family and the +Wittgenstein faction--has said some disagreeable things, not hesitating +to insinuate that Liszt himself was more pleased than otherwise when +Pope Pius IX forbade the nuptials. Liszt biographers side with their +idol--who once said of his former son-in-law, Hans von Buelow, that he +had no talent as a married man. He might have lived to repeat the +epigram if he had married the princess. Decidedly, Liszt was not made +for stepping in double-harness. + +Liszt, the most fascinating pianist in Europe, had been the most +pursued male on the Continent, and his meeting with the Princess +Sayn-Wittgenstein at Kieff, Russia, in February, 1847, was really his +salvation. He was then about thirty-six years old, in all the glory of +his art and of his extraordinary virility. The princess, who was born in +1819, was living on her estate at Woronice, on the edge of the Russian +steppes. She was nevertheless of Polish blood, the daughter of Peter von +Iwanowski, a rich landowner, and of Pauline Podoska, an original, +eccentric, cultivated woman and a traveller. In 1836 she married the +Prince Nikolaus Sayn-Wittgenstein, a Russian millionaire and adjutant to +the Czar. It was from the first a miserable failure, this marriage. The +bride, intellectual, sensitive, full of the Polish love of art, above +all of music, could not long endure the raw dragoon, dissipated gambler +and hard liver into whose arms she had been pushed by her ambitious +father. She made a retreat to Woronice with her infant daughter and +spent laborious days and nights in the study of philosophy, the arts, +sciences, and religion. The collision of two such natures as Carolyne +and Liszt led to some magnificent romantic and emotional fireworks. + +We learn in reading the newly published letters between Liszt and the +Grand Duke Carl Alexander of Weimar that the pianist had visited Weimar +for the first time in 1841. The furore he created was historic. The +reigning family--doubtless bored to death in the charming, placid little +city--welcomed Liszt as a distraction. The Archduchess Maria Pawlovna, +the sister of the Czar of Russia and mother of the later Kaiserin +Augusta, admired Liszt, and so did the Archduke Carl. He was covered +with jewels and orders. The upshot was that after a visit in 1842 Liszt +was invited to the office of General Music Director of Weimar. This +offer he accepted and in 1844 he began his duties. Carl Alexander had +married the Princess Sophie of Holland, and therefore Liszt had a strong +party in his favour at court. That he needed royal favour will be seen +when we recall that in 1850 he produced an opera by a banished +socialist, one Richard Wagner, the opera Lohengrin. He also needed court +protection when in 1848 he brought to Weimar the runaway wife of Prince +Wittgenstein. The lady placed herself under the friendly wing of +Archduchess Maria Pawlovna, who interceded in vain with the Czar in +behalf of an abused, unhappy woman. Nikolaus Wittgenstein began divorce +proceedings. His wife was ordered back to her Woronice estate by +imperial decree. She refused to go and her fortune was greatly curtailed +by confiscation. She loved Liszt. She saw that in the glitter of this +roving comet there was the stuff out of which fixed stars are fashioned, +and she lived near him at Weimar from 1848 to 1861. + +This was the brilliant period of musical Weimar. The illusion that the +times of Goethe and Schiller were come again was indulged in by other +than sentimental people. Princess Carolyne held a veritable court at the +Altenburg, a large, roomy so-called palazzo on the Jena post-road, just +across the muddy creek they call the River Ilm. The present writer when +he last visited Weimar found the house very much reduced from its former +glories. It looked commonplace and hardly like the spot where Liszt +wrote his symphonic poems, planned new musical forms and the +reformation of church music; where came Berlioz, Thackeray, George +Eliot, and George Henry Lewes, not to mention a number of distinguished +poets, philosophers, dramatists, composers, and aristocratic folk. +Carolyne corresponded with all the great men of her day, beginning with +Humboldt. The idea of the Goethe Foundation was born at that time. It +was a veritable decade of golden years that Weimar lived; but there were +evidences about 1858 that Liszt's rule was weakening, and after the +performance of his pupil's opera, The Barber of Bagdad, by Peter +Cornelius, December 15, 1858, he resigned as Kapellmeister. Dinglested's +intrigues hurt his unselfish nature and a single hiss had disturbed him +into a resignation. The daughter of Princess Wittgenstein married in +1859 Prince Hohenlohe-Schillingsfuerst, and in 1861 the Altenburg was +closed and the princess went to Rome to see the Pope. + +At the Vatican the princess was well received. She was an ardent +Catholic and was known to be an author of religious works. Pius IX bade +her arise when she fell weeping at his feet asking for justice. She +presented her case. She had been delivered into matrimony at the age of +seventeen, knowing nothing of life, of love, of her husband. Wouldn't +his Holiness dissolve the original chains so that she could marry the +man of her election? The Pope was amiable. He knew and admired Liszt. He +had the matter investigated. After all it was an enforced marriage to a +heretic, this odious Wittgenstein union; and then came the desired +permission. Carolyne, Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein, born Ivanovska, +was a free woman. Delighted, she lost no time; Liszt was told to reach +Rome by the evening of October 21, 1861, the eve of his fiftieth +birthday. The ceremony was to take place at the Church of San Carlo, on +the Corso, at 6 A. M. of October 22. + +What really happened the night of the 21st after Liszt arrived no one +truly knows but the principals. Lina Ramann tells her tale, La Mara +hers, Goellerich his; Eugen Segnitz in his pamphlet, Franz Liszt und Rom, +has a very conservative account; but they all concur if not in details +at least in the main fact, that powerful, unknown machinery was set in +motion at the Vatican, that the Holy Father had rescinded his permission +pending a renewed examination of the case. The blow fell at the twelfth +hour. The church was decorated and a youth asked the reason for all +the candles and bravery of the altars. He was told that Princess +Wittgenstein was to marry "her piano player" the next morning. The news +was brought by the boy to his father, M. Calm-Podoska, a cousin of +Carolyne, who, with the aid of Cardinal Catarani and the Princess +Odescalchi, begged a hearing at the Vatican. Cardinal Antonelli sent the +messenger bearing the fatal information. The princess was as one dead. +It was the end of her earthly ambitions. + +How did Liszt bear the disappointment? At this juncture the fine haze of +legend intervenes. His daughter Cosima has said (in a number of the +_Bayreuther Blaetter_) that he had left Weimar for Rome remarking that he +felt as if going to a funeral. Other and malicious folk have pretended +to see in the melodramatic situation the fine Hungarian hand of Liszt. +He was glad, so it was averred, to get rid of the marriage and the +princess at the same stroke of the clock. Had she not been nicknamed +"Fuerstin Hinter-Liszt" because of the way she followed him from town to +town when he was giving concerts? But Antonelli was a friend of the +princess as well as an intimate of Liszt. We doubt not that Liszt came +to Rome in good faith. In common with the princess he accepted the +interruption as a sign from on high, and even when in 1864 Prince +Wittgenstein died the marriage idea was not seriously revived. Carolyne +asked Liszt to devote his genius to the Church. In 1865 he assumed minor +orders and became an abbe. + +Pius IX, a lover of music, had on July 11, 1863, visited Liszt at the +Dominican cloister of Monte Mario, and to the Hungarian's accompaniment +had sung in his sweet-toned musical voice. Liszt was called his +Palestrina, but alas! in the churchly music of Liszt Rome has +never betrayed more than a passing interest; and to-day Pius X is +ultra-Gregorian. Liszt, like a musical Moses, saw the promised land but +did not enter it. + +The friendship of the princess and Liszt never abated. He divided his +days between Weimar, Rome, and Budapest (from 1876 in the latter +city), and she wrote tirelessly in Rome books on theology, mysticism, +and Church history. She was a great and generally good force in the life +of Liszt, who was, she said, a lazy, careless man, though he left over +thirteen hundred compositions. Women are insatiable. + +[Illustration: The Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein] + + +III + +LATER BIOGRAPHERS + +The future bibliographer of Liszt literature has a heavy task in store +for him, for books about the great Hungarian composer are multiplying +apace. Liszt the dazzling virtuoso has long been a theme with +variations, and is, we suspect, a theme nearly exhausted; but +Liszt as tone poet, Liszt as song writer, as composer for the +pianoforte, as litterateur, the man, the wickedest of Don Juans, the +ecclesiastic--these and a dozen other studies of the most protean +musician of the last century have been appearing ever since the +publication of Lina Ramann's vast and sentimental biography. Instead of +there being a lack of material for a new book there is an embarrassment, +not always of riches, from industrious pens, though few are of value. +The Liszt pupils have had their say, and their pupils are beginning to +intone the psalmody of uncritical praise. Liszt the romantic, +magnificent, magnanimous, supernal, is set to the same old harmonies, +until the reader, tired of the gabble and gush, longs for a biographer +who will riddle the various legends and once and for all prove that +Liszt was not perfection, even if he was the fascinating Admirable +Crichton of his times. + +Yet, and the fact sets us wondering over the mutability of fame, the +Liszt propaganda is not flourishing. Richard Burmeister, a well known +pupil and admirer of the master in Berlin has assured us that while +Liszt is heard in all the concerts in Germany, the public is lukewarm; +Richard Strauss is more eagerly heard. Liszt's familiar remark, "I can +wait," provoked from the authority above mentioned the answer, "Perhaps +he has waited too long." We are inclined to disagree with this dictum. +Liszt once had musical and unmusical Europe at his feet. His success was +called comet-like, probably because he was born in the comet year 1811, +also because his hair was long and his technique transcendentally +brilliant. His critical compositions were received with less approval. +That such an artist of the keyboard could be also a successor to +Beethoven was an idea mocked at by the conservative Leipsic school. +Besides, he came in such a questionable guise as a _Symphoniker_. A +piano concerto with a triangle in the score (the E flat), compositions +for full orchestra which were called symphonic poems, lyrics without a +tune, that pretended to follow the curve of the words; finally church +music, solemn masses through which stalked the apparition of the haughty +Magyar chieftain, accompanied by echoes of the gipsies on the putzta +(the Graner Mass); it was too much for ears attuned to the suave, +melodious Mendelssohn. Indeed the entire Neo-German school was too +exotic for Germany. Berlioz, a half mad Frenchman; Richard Wagner, a +crazy revolutionist, a fugitive from Saxony; and the Hungarian Liszt, +half French, wholly diabolic--of such were the uncanny ingredients of +the new music. And then were there not Liszt and his Princess +Wittgenstein at Weimar, and the crew of pupils, courtiers and bohemians +who collected at the Altenburg? Decidedly these people would never do, +even though patronised by royalty. George Eliot and her man Friday, +proper British persons, were rather shocked when they visited Weimar. + +Liszt survived it all and enjoyed, notwithstanding the opposition of +Ferdinand Hiller, Joseph Joachim, the Schumanns, later Brahms and +Hanslick, the pleasure of hearing his greater works played, understood, +and applauded. + +Looking backward in an impartial manner it cannot be said that the Liszt +compositions have unduly suffered from the proverbial neglect of genius. +A Liszt orchestral number, if not imperative, is a matter of course at +most symphony concerts. The piano music is done to death, especially the +Hungarian Rhapsodies. Liszt has been ranged; the indebtedness of modern +music to his pioneer efforts has been duly credited. We know that the +Faust and Dante symphonies (which might have been called symphonic +poems) are forerunners not only of much of Wagner, but of the later +group from Saint-Saens to Richard Strauss. Why, then, the inevitable +wail from the Lisztians that the Liszt music is not heard? Christus and +the other oratorios and the masses might be heard oftener, and there are +many of the sacred compositions yet unsung that would make some critics +sit up. No, we are lovers of Liszt, but the martyrdom motive has been +sounded too often. In a double sense a reaction is bound to come. The +true Liszt is to emerge from the clouds of legend, and Liszt the +composer will be definitely placed. A little disappointment will result +in both camps; the camp of the ultra-Liszt worshippers, which sets +him in line with Beethoven and above Wagner, and the camp of the +anti-Lisztians, which refuses him even the credit of having written a +bar of original music. How Wagner would have rapped the knuckles of +these latter; how he would have told them what he wrote to Liszt: "Ich +bezeichne dich als Schoepfer meiner jetzigen Stellung. Wenn ich +komponiere und instrumentiere--denke ich immer nur an dich ... deine +drei letzten Partituren sollen mich wieder zum Musiker weihen fuer den +Beginn meines zweiten Aktes [Siegfried], denn dies Studium einleiten +soll." + +Did Wagner mean it all? At least, he couldn't deny what is simply a +matter of dates. Liszt preceded Wagner. Otherwise how explain that +yawning chasm between Lohengrin and Tristan? Liszt, an original stylist +and a profounder musical nature than Berlioz, had intervened. +Nevertheless Liszt learned much from Berlioz, and it is quite beside the +mark to question the greater creative power of Wagner over both the +Frenchman and the Hungarian. Wagner, like the Roman conquerors, annexed +many provinces and made them his own. Let us drop these futile +comparisons. Liszt was as supreme in his domain as Wagner in his; only +the German had the more popular domain. His culture was intensive, that +of Liszt extensive. The tragedy was that Liszt lived to hear himself +denounced as an imitator of Wagner; butchered to make a Bayreuth +holiday. The day after his death in 1886 the news went abroad in +Bayreuth that the "father-in-law of Wagner" had died; that his funeral +might disturb the success of the current music festival! Liszt, who had +begun his career with a kiss from Beethoven; Liszt, whose name was a +flaring meteor in the sky of music when Wagner was starving in Paris; +Liszt the path-breaker, meeting the usual fate of such a Moses, who +never conquered the soil of the promised land, the initiator, at the +last buried in foreign soil (he loathed Bayreuth and the Wagnerians) and +known as the father-in-law of the man who eloped with his daughter and +had borrowed of him everything from money to musical ideas. The gods +must dearly love their sport. + +The new books devoted to Liszt, his life and his music, are by Julius +Kapp, August Goellerich (in German), Jean Chantavoine and Calvocoressi +(in French), and A. W. Gottschalg's Franz Liszt in Weimar, a diary +full of reminiscences. These works, ponderous in the case of the +Germans, represent the vanguard of the literature that is due the +anniversary year. To M. Chantavoine may be awarded the merit of the most +symmetrically told tale; however, he need not have repeated Janka Wohl's +doubtful _mot_ attributed to Liszt apropos of priestly celibacy: +"Gregory VII was a great philanthropist." This reflects on the Princess +Wittgenstein, and Liszt, most chivalric of men, would never have said +anything that might present her in the light of pursuing him with +matrimonial designs. That she did is not to be denied. Dr. Kapp is often +severe on his hero. Is any man ever a hero to his biographer? He does +not glorify his subject, and for the amiable weakness displayed by Liszt +for princesses and other noble dames Dr. Kapp is sharp. The compositions +are fairly judged, neither in the superlative key, nor condescendingly, +as being of mere historic interest. There are over thirteen hundred, of +which about four hundred are original. Liszt wrote too much, although he +was a better self-critic than was Rubinstein. New details of the quarrel +with the Schumanns are given. The gifted pair do not emerge exactly in +an agreeable light. Liszt it was who first made known the piano music of +Robert Schumann. Clara Schumann, with the true Wieck provinciality, was +jealous of Liszt's influence over Robert. Then came the disturbing +spectre of Wagner, and Schumann could not forgive Liszt for helping the +music of the future to a hearing at Weimar. The rift widened. Liszt made +a joke of it, but he was hurt by Schumann's ingratitude. Alas! he was to +be later hurt by Wagner, by Joachim, by Brahms. He dedicated his B-minor +sonata to Schumann, and Schumann dedicated to him his noble Fantaisie in +C. After Schumann's death his widow brought out an edition of this +fantaisie with the dedication omitted. The old-fashioned lady neither +forgot nor forgave. + +We consider the Kapp biography solid. The best portrait of Liszt may be +found in that clever and amusing novel by Von Wolzogen, Kraftmayr. The +Goellerich book chiefly consists of a chain of anecdotes in which the +author is a prominent figure. Herr Kapp in a footnote attacks Herr +Goellerich, denying that he was much with Liszt. How these Liszt pupils +love each other! Joseffy--who was with the master two summers at Weimar, +though he never relinquished his proud title of Tausig scholar--when the +younger brilliant stars Rosenthal, first a Joseffy pupil, Sauer, +and others cynically twitted him about his admiration of Liszt's +playing--over seventy, at the time Rosenthal was with him--Joseffy +answered: "He was the unique pianist." "But you were very young when you +heard him" (1869), they retorted. "Yes, and Liszt was ten years younger +too," replied the witty Joseffy. + +Goellerich relates the story of the American girl who threw stones at the +window of the Hoffgartnerei, Liszt's residence in Weimar, and when the +master appeared above called out: "I've come all the way from America to +hear you play." "Come up," said the aged magician, "I'll play for you." +He did so, much to the scandal of the Liszt pupils assembled for daily +worship. The anecdotes of Tausig and the stolen score of the Faust +symphony (Liszt generously stated that the score was overlooked), are +also set forth in the Goellerich book. + +But he, the darling of the gods, fortune fairly pursuing him from cradle +to grave, nevertheless the existence of this genius was far from happy. +His closing years were melancholy. The centre of the new musical life +and beloved by all, he was a lonely, homeless, disappointed man. His +daughter Cosima, a dweller among memories only, said that the music of +her father did not exist for her; Weimar had been swallowed by Bayreuth, +and the crowning sorrow for Liszt lovers is the tomb of Liszt at +Bayreuth. It should be in his beloved Weimar. He lies in the shadow of +his dear friend Wagner, he, the "father-in-law of Wagner." Pascal was +right; no matter the comedy, the end of life is always tragic. Perhaps +if the tragedy had come to Franz Liszt earlier he might have profited by +the uses of adversity, as did Richard Wagner, and thus have achieved the +very stars. + + + + +III + +THE B-MINOR SONATA AND OTHER PIANO PIECES + + +I + +When Franz Liszt nearly three quarters of a century ago made some +suggestions to the Erard piano manufacturers on the score of increased +sonority in their instruments, he sounded the tocsin of realism. It had +been foreshadowed in Clementi's Gradus, and its intellectual resultant, +the Beethoven sonata, but the material side had been hardly realised. +Chopin, who sang the swan-song of idealism in surpassingly sweet tones, +was by nature unfitted to wrestle with the problem. The arpeggio +principle had its attractions for the gifted Pole, who used it in the +most novel combinations and dared the impossible in extended harmonies. +But the rich glow of idealism was over it all--a glow not then sicklied +by the impertinences and affectations of the Herz-Parisian school; +despite the morbidities and occasional dandyisms of Chopin's style he +was, in the main, manly and sincere. Thalberg, who pushed to its limits +scale playing and made an embroidered variant the end and not a means +of piano playing--Thalberg, aristocratic and refined, lacked dramatic +blood. With him the well-sounding took precedence of the eternal +verities of expression. Touch, tone, technique, were his trinity of +gods. + +Thalberg was not the path-breaker; this was left for that dazzling +Hungarian who flashed his scimitar at the doors of Leipsic and drove +back cackling to their nests the whole brood of old women professors--a +respectable crowd, which swore by the letter of the law and sniffed at +the spirit. Poverty, chastity, and obedience were the obligatory vows +insisted upon by the pedants of Leipsic; to attain this triune +perfection one had to become poor in imagination, obedient to dull, +musty precedent, and chaste in finger exercises. What wonder, when the +dashing young fellow from Raiding shouted his uncouth challenge to ears +plugged by prejudice, a wail went forth and the beginning of the end +seemed at hand. Thalberg went under. Chopin never competed, but stood, a +slightly astonished spectator, at the edge of the fray. He saw his own +gossamer music turned into a weapon of offence; his polonaises were so +many cleaving battle-axes, and perforce he had to confess that all this +carnage of tone unnerved him. Liszt was the warrior, not he. + +Schumann did all he could by word and note, and to-day, thanks to Liszt +and his followers, any other style of piano playing would seem +old-fashioned. Occasionally an idealist like the unique De Pachmann +astonishes us by his marvellous play, but he is a solitary survivor of a +once powerful school and not the representative of an existing method. +There is no gainsaying that it was a fascinating style, and modern +giants of the keyboard might often pattern with advantage after the +rococoisms of the idealists; but as a school pure and simple it is of +the past. We moderns are as eclectic as the Bolognese. We have a craze +for selection, for variety, for adaptation; hence a pianist of to-day +must include many styles in his performance, but the keynote, the +foundation, is realism, a sometimes harsh realism that drives to despair +the apostles of the beautiful in music and often forces them to +lingering retrospection. To all is not given the power to summon spirits +from the vasty deep, and thus we have viewed many times the mortifying +spectacle of a Liszt pupil staggering about under the mantle of his +master, a world too heavy for his attenuated artistic frame. With all +this the path was blazed by the Magyar and we may now explore with +impunity its once trackless region. + +Modern piano playing differs from the playing of fifty years ago +principally in the character of touch attack. As we all know, the hand, +forearm and upper arm are important factors now in tone production where +formerly the fingertips were considered the prime utility. Triceps +muscles rule the big tonal effects in our times. Liszt discovered their +value. The Viennese pianos certainly influenced Mozart, Cramer and +others in their styles; just as Clementi inaugurated his reforms by +writing a series of studies and then building himself a piano to make +them possible of performance. With variety of touch--tone-colour--the +old rapid pearly passage, withal graceful school of Vienna, vanished; it +was absorbed by the new technique. Clementi, Beethoven, Liszt, Schumann, +forced to the utmost the orchestral development of the piano. Power, +sonority, dynamic variety and novel manipulation of the pedals, combined +with a technique that included Bach part playing and demanded the most +sensational pyrotechnical flights over the keyboard--these were a few of +the signs of the new school. In the giddiness superinduced by indulging +in this heady new wine an artistic intoxication ensued that was for the +moment harmful to a pure interpretation of the classics, which were +mangled by the young vandals who had enlisted under Liszt's victorious +standard. Colour, only colour, all the rest is but music! was the motto +of those bold youths, who had never heard of Paul Verlaine. + +But time has mellowed them, robbed their playing of its too dangerous +quality, and when the last of the Liszt pupils gives his--or her--last +recital we may wonder at the charges of exaggerated realism. Indeed, +tempered realism is now the watchword. The flamboyancy which grew out of +Tausig's attempt to let loose the Wagnerian Valkyrie on the keyboard has +been toned down into a more sober, grateful colouring. The scarlet +waistcoat of the Romantic school is outworn; the brutal brilliancies and +exaggerated orchestral effects of the realists are beginning to be +regarded with suspicion. We comprehend the possibilities of the +instrument and our own aural limitations. Wagner on the piano is absurd, +just as absurd as were Donizetti and Rossini. A Liszt operatic +transcription is as nearly obsolete as a Thalberg paraphrase. (Which +should you prefer hearing, the Norma of Thalberg or the Lucia of Liszt? +Both in their different ways are clever but--outmoded.) Bold is the man +to-day who plays either in public. + +With Alkan the old virtuoso technique ends. The nuance is ruler now. The +reign of noise is past. In modern music sonority, brilliancy are +present, but the nuance is inevitable, not alone tonal but expressive +nuance. Infinite shadings are to be heard where before were only piano, +forte, and mezzo-forte. Chopin and Liszt and Tausig did much for the +nuance; Joseffy taught America the nuance, as Rubinstein revealed to us +the potency of his golden tones. "Pas la couleur, rien que la nuance," +sang Verlaine; and without nuance the piano is a box of wood, wire and +steel, a coffin wherein is buried the soul of music. + + +II + +"The remembrance of his playing consoles me for being no longer young." +This sentence, charmingly phrased, as it is charming in sentiment, could +have been written by no other than Camille Saint-Saens. He refers to +Liszt, and he is perhaps better qualified to speak of Liszt than most +musicians or critics. His adoration is perfectly comprehensible; to him +Liszt is the protagonist of the school that threw off the fetters of the +classical form (only to hamper itself with the extravagances of the +romantics). They all come from Berlioz, the violent protestation of +Saint-Saens to the contrary notwithstanding. However this much may be +urged in the favour of the Parisian composer; a great movement like the +romantic in music, painting, and literature simultaneously appeared in a +half dozen countries. It was in the air and evidently catching. Goethe +summed up the literary revolution in his accustomed Olympian manner, +saying to Eckermann: "They all come from Chateaubriand." This is sound +criticism; for in the writings of the author of Atala, and The Genius of +Christianity may be found the germ-plasm of all the later artistic +disorder; the fierce colour, bizarrerie, morbid extravagance, +introspective analysis--which in the case of Amiel touched a brooding +melancholy. Stendhal was the unwilling forerunner of the movement that +captivated the sensitive imagination of Franz Liszt, as it later +undoubtedly prompted the orphic impulses of Richard Wagner. + +Saint-Saens sets great store on Liszt's original compositions, and I am +sure when the empty operatic paraphrases and rhapsodies are forgotten +the true Liszt will shine the brighter. How tinkling are the Hungarian +rhapsodies--now become cafe entertainment. And how the old bones do +rattle. We smile at the generation that could adore The Battle of +Prague, the Herz Variations, the Kalkbrenner Fantasias, but the next +generation will wonder at us for having so long tolerated this drunken +gipsy, who dances to fiddle and cymbalom accompaniment. He is too loud +for polite nerves. Technically, the Liszt arrangements are brilliant and +effective for dinner music. One may show off with them, make much noise +and a reputation for virtuosity, that would be quickly shattered if a +Bach fugue were selected as a text. One Chopin Mazurka contains more +music than all of the rhapsodies, which I firmly contend are but +overdressed pretenders to Magyar blood. Liszt's pompous introductions, +spun-out scales, and transcendental technical feats are not precisely in +key with the native wood-note wild of genuine Hungarian folk-music. A +visit to Hungary will prove this statement. Gustav Mahler was right in +affirming that too much gipsy has blurred the outlines of real Magyar +music. + +I need not speak of Liszt's admirable transcriptions of songs by +Schubert, Schumann, Franz, Mendelssohn, and others; they served their +purpose in making publicly known these compositions and are witnesses to +the man's geniality, cleverness and charm. I wish only to speak of the +compositions for solo piano composed by Liszt Ferencz of Raiding, +Hungaria. Many I salute with the _eljen!_ of patriotic enthusiasm, and I +particularly delight in quizzing the Liszt-rhapsody fanatic as to his +knowledge of the Etudes--those wonderful continuations of the Chopin +studies--of his acquaintance with the Annees de Pelerinage, of the Valse +Oubliee, of the Valse Impromptu, of the Sonnets after Petrarch, of the +Nocturnes, of the F-sharp Impromptu of Ab-Irato--that etude of which +most pianists never heard; of the Apparitions, the Legends, the +Ballades, the brilliant Mazurka, the Elegier, the Harmonies Pestiques et +Religieuses, or the Concerto Patetico _a la_ Burmeister, and of numerous +other pieces that contain enough music to float into glory--as Philip +Hale would say--a dozen composers in this decade of the new century. [It +was Max Bendix who so wittily characterised the A-major concerto as +"Donizetti with Orchestra." Liszt was very often Italianate.] + +[Illustration: _After a lithograph by Kriehuber in the N. Y. Public +Library_ + + Kriehuber Berlioz Czerny Liszt Ernst + +A Matinee at Liszt's] + +The eminently pianistic quality of Liszt's original music commends it to +every pianist. Joseffy once said that the B-minor sonata was one of +those compositions that plays itself, it lies so beautifully for the +hand. For me no work of Liszt with the possible exception of the +studies, is as interesting as this same fantaisie that masquerades as a +sonata in H _moll_. Agreeing with those who declare that they find few +traces of the sonata form in the structure of this composition, and also +with those critics who assert the word to be an organic amplification of +the old, obsolete form, and that Liszt has taken Beethoven's last sonata +period as a starting-point and made a plunge into futurity--agreeing +with these warring factions, thereby choking off the contingency of a +spirited argument, I repeat that I find the B minor of Liszt truly +fascinating music. + +What a tremendously dramatic work it is! It stirs the blood. It is +intense. It is complex. The opening bars are truly Lisztian. The gloom, +the harmonic haze, from which emerges that bold theme in octaves (the +descending octaves Wagner recalled when he wrote his Wotan theme); the +leap from the G to the A sharp below--how Liszt has made this and the +succeeding intervals his own. Power there is, sardonic power, as in the +opening phrase of the E-flat piano concerto, so cynically mocking. How +incisively the composer traps your consciousness in the next theme of +the sonata, with its four knocking D's. What follows is like a drama +enacted in the netherworld. Is there a composer who paints the infernal, +the macabre, with more suggestive realism than Liszt? Berlioz possessed +the gift above all, except Liszt; Raff can compass the grisly, and also +Saint-Saens; but thin sharp flames hover about the brass, wood and +shrieking strings in the Lisztian orchestra. + +The chorale, usually the meat of a Liszt composition, now appears and +proclaims the religious belief of the composer in dogmatic accents, and +our convictions are swept along until after that outburst in C major, +when follows the insincerity of it in the harmonic sequences. Here it +surely is not a whole-heart belief but only a theatrical attitudinising; +after the faint return of the opening motive is heard the sigh of +sentiment, of passion, of abandonment, which engender the suspicion that +when Liszt was not kneeling before a crucifix he was to a woman. He +blends piety and passion in the most mystically amorous fashion; with +the cantando expressivo in D, begins some lovely music, secular in +spirit, mayhap intended by its creator for reredos and pyx. + +But the rustle of silken attire is back of every bar; sensuous imagery, +a faint perfume of femininity lurks in each cadence and trill. Ah! +naughty Abbe have a care. After all thy tonsures and chorales, thy +credos and sackcloth, wilt thou admit the Evil One in the guise of a +melody, in whose chromatic intervals lie dimpled cheek and sunny tress! +Wilt thou allow her to make away with spiritual resolutions! Vade, retro +me Sathanas! And behold it is accomplished. The bold theme so eloquently +proclaimed at the outset is solemnly sounded with choric pomp and power. +Then the hue and cry of diminished sevenths begins, and this tonal +panorama with its swirl of intoxicating colours moves kaleidoscopically +onward. Again the devil tempts the musical St. Anthony, this time in +octaves and in A major; he momentarily succumbs, but that good old +family chorale is repeated, and even if its orthodoxy is faulty in spots +it serves its purpose; the Evil One is routed and early piety breaks +forth in an alarming fugue which, like that domestic ailment, is happily +short-winded. Another flank movement of the "ewig Weibliche," this time +in the seductive key of B major, made mock of by the strong man of music +who, in the stretta quasi presto, views his early disorder with grim and +contrapuntal glee. He shakes it from him, and in the triolen of the bass +frames it as a picture to weep or rage over. + +All this leads to a prestissimo finale of startling splendour. +Nothing more exciting is there in the literature of the piano. It is +brilliantly captivating, and Liszt the Magnificent is stamped on every +bar. What gorgeous swing, and how the very bases of the earth seem to +tremble at the sledge-hammer blows from the cyclopean fist of this +musical Attila. Then follow a few bars of that Beethoven-like andante, +a moving return to the early themes, and softly the first lento +descends to the subterranean caverns whence it emerged, a Magyar Wotan +majestically vanishing into the bowels of a Gehenna; then a true Liszt +chord-sequence and a stillness in B major. The sonata in B minor +displays all of Liszt's power and weakness. It is rhapsodic, it is +too long--infernal, not "heavenly lengths"--it is full of nobility, a +drastic intellectuality, and a sonorous brilliancy. To deny it a +commanding position in the pantheon of piano music would be folly. And +interpreted by an artist versed in the Liszt traditions, such as +Arthur Friedheim, this work compasses at times the sublime. + +It is not my intention to claim your attention for the remainder of the +original compositions; that were indeed a terrible strain on your +patience. In the Annees de Pelerinage, redolent of Vergilian meadows, +soft summer airs shimmering through every bar, what is more delicious +except Au Bord d'une Source? Is the latter not exquisitely idyllic? +Surely in those years of pilgrimage through Switzerland, Italy, France, +Liszt garnered much that was good and beautiful and without the taint of +the salon or concert platform. The two Polonaises recapture the heroic +and sorrowing spirit of Sarmatia. The first in E is a perennial +favourite; I always hear its martial theme as a pattern reversed of the +first theme in the A-flat Polonaise of Chopin. But the second Liszt +Polonaise in C minor is the more poetic of the pair; possibly that is +the reason why it is so seldom played. + +Away from the glare of gaslight this extraordinary Hungarian aspired +after the noblest things. In the atmosphere of the salons, of the Papal +court, and concert room, Liszt was hardly so admirable a character. I +know of certain cries calling to heaven to witness that he was anointed +of the Lord (which he was not); that if he had cut and run to sanctuary +to escape two or more women we might never have heard of Liszt the Abbe. +One penalty undergone by genius is its pursuit by gibes and glossaries. +Liszt was no exception to this rule. Like Ibsen and Maeterlinck he has +had many things read into his music, mysticism not forgotten. Perhaps +the best estimate of him is the purely human one. He was made up of the +usual pleasing and unpleasing compound of faults and virtues, as is any +great man, not born of a book. + +The Mephisto Valse from Lenau's Faust, in addition to its biting broad +humour and satanic suggestiveness, contains one of the most voluptuous +episodes outside of the Tristan score. That halting, languourous, +syncopated, theme in D flat is marvellously expressive, and the poco +allegretto seems to have struck the fancy of Wagner, who did not +hesitate to appropriate motives from his esteemed father-in-law when the +desire overtook him. He certainly considered Kundry Liszt-wise before +fabricating her scream in Parsifal. + +Liszt's life was a sequence of triumphs, his sympathies were almost +boundless, yet he found time to work unfalteringly and despite myriad +temptations his spiritual nature was never wholly submerged. I wish, +however, that he had not invented the piano recital and the Liszt +pupil. + + +III + +I possess, and value as a curiosity, a copy of Liszt's Etudes, Opus 1. +The edition is rare and the plates have been destroyed. Written when +Liszt was fresh from the tutelage of Carl Czerny, they show decided +traces of his schooling. They are not difficult for fingers inured to +modern methods. When I first bought them I knew not the Etudes +d'Execution Transcendentale, and when I encountered the latter I +exclaimed at the composer's cleverness. The Hungarian has taken his opus +1 and dressed it up in the most bewildering technical fashion. He gave +these studies appropriate names, and even to-day they require a +tremendous technique to do them justice. The most remarkable of the +set--the one in F minor No. 10--Liszt left nameless, and like a peak it +rears its head skyward, while about it cluster its more graceful +fellows: Ricordanza, Feux-follets, Harmonies du Soir (Chasse-neige, and +Paysage). The Mazeppa is a symphonic poem in miniature. What a superb +contribution to piano literature is Liszt's. These twelve incomparable +studies, the three effective Etudes de Concert (several quite Chopinish +in style and technique), the murmuring Waldesrauschen, the sparkling +Gnomenreigen, the stormy Ab-Irato, the poetic Au Lac de Wallenstadt and +Au Bord d'une Source, have they not all tremendously developed the +technical resources of the instrument? And to play them one must have +fingers of steel, a brain on fire, a heart bubbling with chivalric +force; what a comet-like pianist he was, this Magyar, who swept European +skies, who transformed the still small voice of Chopin into a veritable +hurricane. Nevertheless, we cannot imagine a Liszt without a Chopin +preceding him. + +But, Liszt lost, the piano would lose its most dashing cavalier; while +his freedom, fantasy, and fire are admirable correctives of the +platitudes of the Hummel-Czerny-Mendelssohn school. Liszt won from his +instrument an orchestral quality. He advanced by great wing-strokes +toward perfection, and deprived of his music we should miss colour, +sonority, richness of tinting, and dramatic and dynamic contrasts. He +has had a great following. Tausig was the first to feel his influence, +and if he had lived longer would have beaten out a personal style of his +own. Of the two we prefer Liszt's version of the Paganini studies to +Schumann's. The Campanella is a favourite of well equipped virtuosi. + +In my study of Chopin reference is made to Chopin's obligations to +Liszt. I prefer now to quote a famous authority on the subject, no less +a critic than Professor Frederick Niecks, whose biography of Chopin is, +thus far, the superior of all. He writes: "As at one time all +ameliorations in the theory and practice of music were ascribed to Guido +of Arezzo, so it is nowadays the fashion to ascribe all improvements and +extensions of the pianoforte technique to Liszt, who, more than any +other pianist, drew upon himself the admiration of the world, and +through his pupils continued to make his presence felt even after the +close of his career as a virtuoso. But the cause of this false opinion +is to be sought not so much in the fact that the brilliancy of his +artistic personality threw all his contemporaries into the shade, as in +that other fact, that he gathered up into one web the many threads +new and old which he found floating about during the years of his +development. The difference between Liszt and Chopin lies in this, that +the basis of the former's art is universality, that of the latter's, +individuality. Of the fingering of the one we may say that it is a +system, of that of the other that it is a manner. Probably we have here +also touched on the cause of Liszt's success and Chopin's want of +success as a teacher." + +Niecks does not deny that Liszt influenced Chopin. In volume 1 of his +Frederick Chopin, he declares that "The artist who contributed the +largest quotum of force to this impulse was probably Liszt, whose fiery +passions, indomitable energy, soaring enthusiasm, universal tastes and +capacity of assimilation, mark him out as the opposite of Chopin. But, +although the latter was undoubtedly stimulated by Liszt's style of +playing the piano and of writing for this instrument, it is not so +certain as Miss L. Ramann, Liszt's biographer, thinks, that this +master's influence can be discovered in many passages of Chopin's music +which are distinguished by a fiery and passionate expression, and +resemble rather a strong, swelling torrent than a gently gliding +rivulet. She instances Nos. 9 and 12 of Douze Etudes, Op. 10; Nos. 11 +and 12 of Douze Etudes, Op. 25; No. 24 of Vingt Quatre Preludes, Op. 28; +Premier Scherzo, Op. 20; Polonaise in A-flat Major, Op. 32. All these +compositions, we are told, exhibit Liszt's style and mode of feeling. +Now the works composed by Chopin before he came to Paris and got +acquainted with Liszt, comprise not only a sonata, a trio, two +concertos, variations, polonaises, waltzes, mazurkas, one or more +nocturnes, etc., but also--and this is for the question under +consideration of great importance--most of, if not all, the studies of +Op. 10 (Sowinski says that Chopin brought with him to Paris the MS. of +the first book of his studies) and some of Op. 25; and these works prove +decisively the inconclusiveness of the lady's argument. The twelfth +study of Opus 10 (composed in September, 1831) invalidates all she says +about fire, passion, and rushing torrents. In fact, no cogent reason can +be given why the works mentioned by her should not be the outcome of +unaided development. [That is to say, development not aided in the way +indicated by Miss Ramann.] The first Scherzo alone might make us pause +and ask whether the new features that present themselves in it ought not +to be fathered on Liszt. But seeing that Chopin evolved so much, why +should he not also have evolved this? Moreover, we must keep in mind +that Liszt had, up to 1831, composed almost nothing of what in after +years was considered either by him or others of much moment, and that +his pianoforte style had first to pass through the state of fermentation +into which Paganini's playing had precipitated it (in the spring of +1831) before it was formed; on the other hand, Chopin arrived in Paris +with his portfolios full of masterpieces, and in possession of a style +of his own as a player of his instrument as well as a writer for it. +That both learned from each other cannot be doubted; but the exact gain +of each is less easily determinable. Nevertheless, I think I may venture +to assert that whatever may be the extent of Chopin's indebtedness to +Liszt, the latter's indebtedness to the former is greater. The tracing +of an influence in the works of a man of genius, who, of course, neither +slavishly imitates nor flagrantly appropriates, is one of the most +difficult tasks. If Miss Ramann had first noted the works produced by +the two composers in question before their acquaintance began, and had +carefully examined Chopin's early productions with a view to ascertain +his capability of growth, she would have come to another conclusion, or, +at least have spoken less confidently." + +To the above no exception may be taken except the reference to the +B-minor Scherzo as possibly having been suggested by Liszt. For me it is +most characteristic of Chopin in its perverse, even morbid, ironical +humour, its original figuration; who but Chopin could have conceived +that lyrical episode! Liszt, doubtless, was the first who introduced +interlocking octaves instead of the chromatic scale at the close; Tausig +followed his example. But there the matter ended. Once when Chopin heard +that Liszt intended to write an account of his concerts for the _Gazette +Musicale_, he said: "He will give me a little kingdom in his empire." +This remark casts much illumination on the relations of the two men. +Liszt was the broader minded of the two; Chopin, as Niecks points out, +forgave but never forgot. + + + + +IV + +AT ROME, WEIMAR, BUDAPEST + + +I + +ROME + +The Roman candle has attracted many spiritual moths. Goethe, Humboldt, +Platen, Winckelmann, Thorwaldsen, Gregorovius and Liszt--to mention only +the first at hand--fluttered to Rome and ascribe to it much of their +finer productivity. For Franz Liszt it was a loadstone of double +power--the ideality of the place attracted him and its religion anchored +his spiritual restlessness. + +Liszt liked a broad soul-margin to his life. Heine touched on this side +of Liszt's character when he wrote of him: "Speculation has the greatest +fascination for him; and still more than with the interests of his art +is he engrossed with all manner of rival philosophical investigations +which are occupied with the solution of all great questions of heaven +and earth. For long he was an ardent upholder of the beautiful +Saint-Simonian idea of the world. Later the spiritualistic or rather +vaporous thoughts of Ballanche enveloped him in their midst; now he is +enthusiastic over the Republican-Catholic dogmas of a Lamennais who has +hoisted his Jacobin cap on the cross.... Heaven knows in what mental +stall he will find his next hobby-horse!" This was written in 1837, and +only two years afterward Liszt paid his first visit to Rome. + +Based on letters and diaries of Liszt, Gregorovius, Ad. Stahr, Fanny +Lewald, W. Allmers, Cardinal Wiseman, Jul. Schnorr von Carolsfeld, and +Eugen Segnitz, a study of Franz Liszt in Rome may be made. + +The time spent in the Eternal City was unquestionably an important one +in Liszt's life and worthy of the detailed attention given it. Rome in +1839 presented a contradictory picture. Contrasted to the pomp of the +Vatican were the unprincipled conditions of the city itself. Bands of +robbers infested it and the surroundings, making it as unsafe as an +English highway during the glorious but rather frisky times of Jonathan +Wild and his agile confreres. So, for instance, Massocia and his band +kidnapped the pupils of the seminary in Albano, and when the demanded +ransom was not forthcoming defiantly strung up these innocents on trees +flanking the gateways of Rome. So, too, the political freedom of the +city found a concession in the privilege of Cardinal Consalvi, who +permitted foreign papers of every political party to be read openly; +while the papal edict declared null and void all contracts closed +between Christian and Hebrew. + +In matters of art things were not much better. The censor swung his axe +in a most irresponsible and, now to us, laughable manner. Overbeck's +Holy Family was condemned because the feet of the Madonna in it were too +bare; Thorwaldsen's Day and Night was offensive in its nudeness; +Raphael's art was an eyesore, and the same discriminating mind, Padre +Piazza, would have liked to consign to the flames all philosophical +books. + +The musical taste and standard was not elevating at this time. Piccini, +Paisiello, Cimarosa, Sacchini, Anfossi, Sarti, Righini, Paer, and +Rossini wrote purely for the sensual enjoyment of the people. + +Even the behaviour of the masses in theatres was defined by an edict +issued by Leo XII. Any poor devil caught wearing his hat in the theatre +was shown the door; if an actor interpolated either gesture or word not +provided for in the prompt-book he was sent to the galleys for five +years; the carrying of weapons in places of amusement was punishable +with life sentence in the galleys, and wounding another during a row +earned a death verdict for the unfortunate one; applause and hisses were +rewarded by a prison term from two months to half a year. + +[Illustration: Countess Marie d'Agoult] + +Liszt's first visit to Rome occurred in 1839, and in company with the +Countess d'Agoult. A strange mating this had been. Her salon was the +meeting-place where enthusiastic persons foregathered--aesthetes, +artists, and politicians. Liszt became a member of this circle, and +the impressionable young man of twenty-three was as so much wax in the +hands of this sensation-mongering woman six years his senior. Against +Liszt's wishes she had followed him to Berne, and there is plenty of +evidence at hand that he assumed the inevitable responsibilities with +good grace and treated her as his wife, but evidently not entirely to +her satisfaction. She fancied herself the muse of the young genius; but +the wings of the young eagle she had patronized soon out-stripped her. + +Their years of wandering were noteworthy. From Paris to Berne and +Geneva; then two trips back to Paris, where Liszt fought his keyboard +duel with Thalberg. They rested awhile at Nohant, entertained by George +Sand, which they forsook for Lake Como, some flying trips to Milan +and eventually Venice. It happened to be the year of the Danube +flood--1837--and the call for help sent Liszt to Vienna where he gave +benefit concerts for the sufferers. This accomplished, the pair returned +to Venice and threaded their way to Rome by way of Lugano, Genoa, and +Florence. + +Originally Liszt had no intention of concertising on this trip; but he +excused his appearances on the concert platforms in the Italian cities: +"I did not wish to forget my trade entirely." + +The condition of music of the day in Italy held out no inducements or +illusions to him. He writes Berlioz that he wished to make the +acquaintance of the principal Italian cities and really could hope for +no benefiting influence from these flighty stops. But there was another +reason why he was so little influenced, and it was simply that Italy of +the day had nothing of great musical interest to offer Liszt. + +His first public appearance in Rome was in January, 1839. Francilla +Pixis-Goehringer, adopted daughter of his friend Pixis and pupil of +Sonntag and Malibran, gave a concert at this time, and it was here that +Liszt assisted. After that the Romans did what ever so many had done +before them--threw wide their doors to the artist Liszt. Thus encouraged +he dared give serious recitals in face of all the Roman musical +flippancy. He defied public taste and craving and gave a series of what +he called in a letter to the Princess Belgiojoso "soliloques musicaux"; +in these he assumed the role of a musical Louis XIV, and politely said: +"le concert c'est moi!" He quotes one of his programmes: + +1. Overture to William Tell, performed by Mr. Liszt. + +2. Fantaisie on reminiscences of Puritani, composed and performed by the +above named. + +3. Studies and Fragments, composed and performed by the same. + +4. Improvisation on a given theme--still by the same. That is all. + +This was really nothing more than a forerunner of the present +piano-recital. Liszt was the first one who ventured an evening of piano +compositions without fearing the disgust of an audience. From his +accounts they behaved very well indeed, and applauded and chatted only +at the proper time. + +Liszt, realising that he had nothing to learn from the living Italians, +turned to their dead; and for such studies his first visit to Rome was +especially propitious. Gregory XIV, had opened the Etruscan Museum but +two years before and was stocking it with the treasures which were being +unearthed in the old cities of Etruria. The same pope also enlarged the +Vatican library and took active interest in the mural decorations of +these newly added ten rooms. The painters Overbeck, Cornelius, and Veit +were kept actively employed in this city, and the influence of their +work was not a trifling one on the painter colony. The diplomat Von +Bunsen and the Cardinals Mezzofanti and Mai exerted their influences to +spread general culture. + +An interesting one of Liszt's friendships, dating from this time, is +that with Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, director of the French +Academie. Strolling under the oaks of the Villa Medici, Ingres would +disentangle for his younger friend the confusion of impressions gathered +in his wanderings among Rome's art treasures. Himself a music lover and +a musician--he played the violin in the theatre orchestra of his native +place, Montauban, at some performances of Gluck's operas--Ingres admired +Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and above all Gluck, upon whom he looked as +the musical successor to AEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Under such +sympathetic and intelligent guidance Liszt's admiration for the other +arts became ordered. After a day among the forest of statues he would +coax his friend to take up the violin, and Liszt writes almost +enthusiastically of his Beethoven interpretations. + +It is entirely within reason to argue that we owe to this new viewpoint +such of Liszt's compositions as were inspired by works of the other +arts. Such, to name a few, were the Sposalizio and Il Penseroso--by +Raphael and Michelangelo--Die Hunnenschlacht--Kaulbach--and Danse +Macabre--after Andrea Orcagna. That Liszt was susceptible to such +impressions, even before, is proven by his essay Die Heilige Caecelia by +Raphael, written earlier than this Roman trip; but under Ingres' hints +his width of vision was extended, and he began to find alluring +parallels between the fine arts--his comprehension of Mozart and +Beethoven grew with his acquaintance of the works of Raphael and +Michelangelo. He compared Giovanni da Pisa, Fra Beato, and Francia with +Allegri, Marcello, and Palestrina; Titian with Rossini! + +What attracted Liszt principally during his first stay at Rome was the +religion of art, as it had attracted Goethe before him. Segnitz quotes +against this attitude the one of Berlioz, whom the ruins of Rome touched +slightly, as did Palestrina's church music. He found the latter devoid +of religious sentiment, and in this verdict he was joined by none less +than Mendelssohn. + +The surroundings, the atmosphere of Rome, appealed to Liszt, and under +them his individuality thrived and asserted itself. The scattered and +often hurried impressions of this first visit ordered themselves +gradually, but the composite whole deflected his life's currents into +the one steady and broad stream of art. Like Goethe, he might have +regarded his first day at Rome as the one of his second birth, as the +one on which his true self came to light. The Via Sacra by which he left +Rome led him into the forum of the art world. + +In June, 1839, after a stay of five months, Liszt, accompanied by the +Countess d'Agoult, left Rome for the baths at Lucca. The elusive peace +he was tracking escaped him here, and he wandered to the little fishing +village San Rossore. In November of the same year he parted company with +Italy--and also with the countess. The D'Agoult had romantic ideas of +their union, in which the inevitable responsibilities of this sort of +thing played no part. Segnitz regards the entire affair as having been a +most unfortunate one for Liszt, and believes that the latter only saved +himself and his entire artistic future by separating from the countess. +The years of contact had formed no spiritual ties between them and the +rupture was inevitable. + +With her three children d'Agoult started for Paris there to visit +Liszt's mother; later, through Liszt's intervention, a complete +reconciliation with her family was effected. Although after the death of +her mother the countess inherited a fortune, Liszt continued to support +the children. + +Leaving San Rossore the artist began his public life in earnest. It was +the beginning of his virtuoso period and Vienna was the starting-point +of his triumphal tournee across Europe. This period was an important one +for development of piano playing, placing the latter on a much higher +artistic plane than it had been; in it Liszt also inaugurated a new +phase of the possibilities of concert giving. It was the time in which +he fought both friend and enemy, fought without quarter for the cause of +art. + +As a composer Liszt, during his first stay in Italy, 1837-40, was far +from active. The Fantaisie quasi Sonata apres une lecture de Dante and +the twelve Etudes d'execution transcendante both came to life at Lake +Como. There were besides the Chromatic Galop and the pieces Sposalizio, +Il Penseroso and Tre Sonetti di Petrarca, which became part of the +Annees de Pelerinage (Italie). His first song, with piano accompaniment, +Angiolin dal biondo crin, dates from these days. The balance of this +time was devoted to making arrangements of melodies by Mercadante, +Donizetti, and Rossini, and to finishing the piano transcriptions of +the Beethoven symphonies. These and a few others about cover his list of +compositions and arrangements. + + +II + +Immediately after Liszt's separation from the Countess d'Agoult began a +period of restless activity for him. The eight nomadic years during +which he wandered up and down Europe, playing constantly in public, are +the ones in which his virtuosity flourished. To-day we are inclined to +mock at the mere mention of Liszt the virtuoso--we have heard far too +much of his achievements, achievements behind which the real Liszt has +become a warped and unrecognizable personality. But it was a remarkable +tour nevertheless, and so wholesale a lesson in musical interpretation +as Europe had never had before. Whenever and wherever he smote the +keyboard the old-fashioned clay idols of piano playing were shattered, +and however much it was attempted to patch them the pieces would not +quite fit. Liszt struck the death-blow to unemotional playing, but he +destroyed only to create anew: he erected ideals of interpretation which +are still honored. + +When he accepted the Weimar post of Hofkapellmeister in 1847--he had _en +passant_ in a term, lasting from December, 1843, to February of the +following year, conducted eight successful concerts in Weimar--it +looked as if his wild spirit of travel had dissipated itself: +_ausgetobt_, as the Germans say. + +With scarcely any time modulation this versatile genius began his career +of Hofkapellmeister, in which he topsy-turvied traditions and roused +Weimar from the lethargy into which it had fallen with the fading of +that wonderful Goethe circle. At this point the influence of woman is +again made manifest. + +Gregorovius, the great antiquarian, gives us a few glimpses of her in +his Roemischen Tagebuechern. He admits that her personality was repulsive +to him, but that she fairly sputtered spirituality. Also that she +wrote an article about the Sixtine Chapel for the _Revue du Monde +Catholique_--"a brilliant article: all fireworks, like her speech"; +finally, that "she is writing an essay on friendship." + +When the possibility of marriage with the Princess went up into thin air +Liszt began contemplating a permanent residence in Rome. Here he could +live more independently and privately than in Germany, and this was +desirable, since he still had some musical problems to solve. First of +all, he turned to his legend of the Holy Elizabeth, completing that; +then Der Sonnen-Hymnus des heiligen Franziskus von Assisi was written, +to say nothing of a composition for organ and trombone composed for one +of his Weimar adherents. Frequent excursions and work so consumed his +hours that soon we find him complaining as bitterly about the lack of +time in Rome as in Weimar. + +Rome of this time was still "outside of Italy": the reverse side of the +Papal medallions showed Daniel in the lion's den and Pope Pio Nono +immersed in mysticism. The social features were important. Segnitz +mentions "die Koelnische Patrizierin Frau Sibylle Mertens-Schaaffhausen, +Peter Cornelius, die Dame Schopenhauer," the Ottilie of Goethe. Besides +the artists Catel and Nerenz there was Frau von Schwarz, who attracted +Liszt. She boasted friendship with Garibaldi, and her salon was a +meeting-place of the intellectual multitude. Liszt seems to have +been king pin everywhere, and it is refreshing to read the curt, +unsentimental impression of him retailed by Gregorovius: "I have met +Liszt," wrote the latter; "remarkable, demoniac appearance; tall, +slender, long hair. Frau von Schwarz believes he is burned out, that +only the walls of him remain, wherein a small ghostly flame flits." To +add to the list of notables: the painter Lindemann-Frommel; the Prussian +representatives, Graf Arnim and Kurt von Schloezer; King Louis I, of +Bavaria, and the artists Riedel, Schweinfurt, Passini, and Feuerbach the +philosopher. + +Naturally Liszt participated in the prominent church festivals and was +affected by their glamour; it even roused him to sentimental utterance. + +Germany and the thoughts of it could not lure him away from Rome, nor +could the summer heat drive him out. The Holy Elizabeth was completed by +August 10, 1862, and with it he had finished the greater part of his +work as composer. Never did he lose interest in German art movements, +and was ever ready with advice and suggestions. + +A severe shock, one which sent him to bed, came to him about the middle +of September of this year, when his youngest daughter, Blandine +Ollivier, the wife of Louis Napoleon's war minister, Emile Ollivier, +died. Liszt turned to religion and to his art for consolation; he slaved +away at the Christus oratorio and wrote two psalms and the instrumental +Evocatio in der Sixtinischen Kapelle. Invitations from London, Weimar, +and Budapest could not budge him from Rome; deeper and deeper he became +interested in the wonders and beauties of his religion. + +The following year--1863--finds him hard at work as ever. His oratorio +is not achieving great progress, but he is revising his piano +arrangements of the Beethoven Symphonies. In the spring he changes his +quarters and moves into the Cloister Madonna del Rosario, in which he +had been offered several rooms. These new lodgings enchant him. Situated +on the Monte Mario, the site commanded a view of Rome and the Campagna, +the Albano Mountains and the River Tiber. So Signor Commendatore Liszt, +the friend of Padre Theiner, is living in a cloister and the religious +germs begin to sprout in this quiet surrounding. Liszt esteemed the +priest highly as an educated man and admired his personality. +Gregorovius, on the other hand, could pump up no liking at all for the +hermit-like Padre, discovered him dry and judged his writings and +philosophy as dry, archaic stuff. + +In Italian politics and Italian music Liszt found nothing to attract +him. The latter was crude, as regards composition, and generally +resolved itself into Drehorgel-Lyrik. The piano was at that time not an +Italian object of furniture, and in the churches they still served up +operatic music with the thinnest religious varnish. In the salons one +seldom heard good music, so that Liszt, through his pupils Sgambati, +Berta, and others was able to work some reform in these matters. + +On July 11, 1862, the tongue of all Rome was wagging: Pope Pius IX had +paid Liszt a visit at the Cloister Santa Maria del Rosario. Liszt +recounts that His Holiness had stayed with him about half an hour, +during which time the pianist had played for him on the harmonium and on +the little working piano. After that the Pope had spoken earnestly to +him and begged him to strive for the heavenly, even in earthly matters, +and to prepare himself for the eternal sounding harmonies by means of +the passing earthly ones. + +Liszt was the first artist who had been honored thus. A few days later +the Pope granted him an audience in the Vatican, when he presented Liszt +with a cameo of the Madonna. + +Segnitz quotes from two of Liszt's letters in which he voices his +religious sentiments, and hopes that eventually his bones may rest in +Roman earth. + +Rather a remarkable phase of Liszt now was that he tried with might and +main to live down and forget his so-called "Glanzperiode," the one of +his virtuosity. An invitation from Cologne and also one from St. +Petersburg to play and display once more "that entrancing tone which he +could coax out of the keys" aroused his wrath. He asks, is he never to +be taken more seriously than as a pianist, is he not worthy of +recognition as a musician, a composer? On the other hand, nothing +flattered him as much as when an Amsterdam society performed his Graner +Messe and sent him a diploma of honorary membership. Furthermore, he +derived much encouragement from an article in the _Neue Zeitschrift fuer +Musik_, written by Heinrich Porges, in which Liszt's compositions were +seriously discussed. + +Liszt found time to revise the four Psalms, 13--this was his favourite +one--18, 23, 137; and during this year he also composed for the piano +Alleluja, Ave Maria, Waldesrauschen, Gnomenreigen, the two legends, Die +Vogelpredigt and Der heilige Franz von Paula auf den Wogen schreitend; +then the organ variations on the Bach theme Weinen, klagen, sorgen, +zagen, and the Papsthymus. He again took up his former project of making +piano arrangements of the Beethoven quartets. + + * * * * * + +The year after this one was remarkable for the facts that Liszt was +coaxed to play in public on the occasion of a benefit for the Peter's +Pence, and that he participated in the Karlsruhe music festival. He left +Rome in August and journeyed first to St. Tropez to visit his daughter's +grave; then to Karlsruhe. After this he went to Munich and visited Hans +and Cosima von Buelow on the way to Weimar. Finally a trip to Paris to +see his aged mother, and he returned to Rome at the end of October. +Besides working on his oratorio and making some piano transcriptions, he +composed only two new numbers, a litany for organ and a chorus with +organ accompaniment. + +Two public appearances in Rome as pianist occurred during the spring of +1865, and then, to the surprise of many, on April 25, Liszt took minor +orders of priesthood, forsook the Cloister and made his abode in the +Vatican next to the rooms of his priestly friend Monseigneur Hohenlohe. + +Gregorovius writes of this appearance of Liszt as the virtuoso: "He +played Die Aufforderung zum Tanz and Erlkoenig--a queer adieu to the +world. No one suspected that already he carried his abbe's socks in his +pockets.... Now he wears the cloaklet of the abbe, lives in the Vatican, +and, as Schloezer tells me, is happy and healthy. This is the end of the +genial virtuoso, the personality of a sovereign. I am glad that I heard +Liszt play once more, he and his instrument seemed to be grown +together--a piano-centaur." + +As we look back at the step now and are able to weigh the gradual +influence which asserted itself on Liszt the act seems to have been an +inevitable one. At the time, however, it was more or less unexpected. + +He assures Breitkopf & Haertel that his old weakness for composition has +not deserted him, that he must commit to paper some of the wonderful +things which were spooking about in his head. And the public? Well, it +regretted that Liszt was wasting his time writing such dreadful +"Tonwirrwarr." Liszt smiled ironically--and continued to compose. + +His patriotism sent him travelling once more--this year to Pesth, where +he conducted his arrangement of the Rakoczy March and the Divine Comedy. +He returned to Rome and learned that his friend Hohenlohe was about to +be made cardinal, an event which had its bearing on his stay in the +Vatican. + +Liszt moved back to the Cloister after Hohenlohe had given up his +quarters in the Vatican for a cardinal's house. This year--1866--is also +a record of travel. After he had conducted his Dante Symphony in +Rome--and the natives found it "inspired but formless"--he went to +Paris to witness a performance of his Mass. Report had preceded him that +he was physically a wreck, and he delighted in showing himself to prove +the falsehood of the rumour. And partly to display his mental activity +he began theological studies, so that he might pass his examination and +take higher orders. + +In addition to his Paris trip he also wandered to Amsterdam to hear his +Mass once more. Immediately after his return to Rome he completed the +Christus oratorio and began work on the arrangements of the Beethoven +quartets. He soon found that he had attacked an impossible task. "I +failed where Tausig succeeded," he lamented; and then explained that +Tausig had been wise enough to select only such movements as were +available for the piano. + + * * * * * + +His compositions this year were not very numerous--some piano extracts +out of his oratorio and sketches for the Hungarian Coronation Mass. +Politics were throwing up dense clouds of dust in Rome, the Papal +secular power was petering out, and in consequence Liszt, who hated +politics, was compelled to change his residence again, moving this time +to the old cloister Santa Francesca Romana. Here he met his friends +weekly on Friday mornings, and besides animated conversation there was +much chamber music to be heard. + +The Hungarian Mass was finished early in 1867, and Liszt went to Pesth, +where he conducted it with much success when Francis Joseph was made +King of Hungary. Then he appeared at the Wartburg Festival, and on his +return trip stopped at Lucerne to greet Wagner. After a short stay at +Munich, with Cosima and Hans von Buelow, he found himself once more in +Rome and was allowed a few months of rest. Besides the Hungarian Mass he +composed this year a Funeral March on the occasion of Maximilian of +Mexico's death--it appeared later as the sixth of the third collection: +Annees de Pelerinage. His piano transcriptions were confined to works by +Verdi and Von Buelow, and as a souvenir of the days passed with Wagner at +Triebschen he transcribed Isolde's Liebestod. + +The social features of his stay in Rome were becoming unbearable, and +Liszt could only command privacy by being rude to the persistent ones. +Several little excursions out of Rome during the spring were followed by +a long journey in the summer with his friend Abbe Solfanelli. First to a +place of pilgrimage; then to the city of Liszt's patron saint, Assisi, +and from there to Loreto. When Liszt re-entered Rome he found the social +life so exigent that he was driven to the stillness of the Campagna, and +lived for some time in the Villa d'Este. This--1868--was his last year +at Rome, for the middle of January of the following year found him +settled in Weimar again. Although he was still spared many years in +which to work, yet the eve of his life was upon him. If he had hoped to +find finally in Weimar homely rest and peace he was doomed to +disappointment. He remained a wanderer to the end of his days. + +There remains to be made a mention of his compositions during his last +year at Rome. Principal among these was the Requiem dedicated to the +memory of his deceased mother and his two children, Daniel and Blandine; +then three church compositions and the epilogue to his Tasso, Le +Triomphe du Tasse, and the usual transcriptions for the piano. + +Whether or not Liszt's interest in matters religious abated is not made +very clear. So much is certain that his plans for taking higher orders +came to nothing. Was the Church after all a disappointment to him? One +recalls his childish delight when first he was created Abbe. Then he +wrote Hohenlohe: "They tell me that I wear my _soutane_ as though I +always had worn one." + + * * * * * + +The Hungarian Government elected the Abbe honorary president of the +Landes Musikakademie in 1873. This gave Liszt's wanderings still a third +objective point, Budapest. + +In Weimar his time was now devoted more to teaching than to composing, +and the Liszt pupils began to sprout by the gross. The absurd +sentimentality which clings about this period has never been condemned +sufficiently. Read this entry in the note-book of Gregorovius and draw +at least a few of your own conclusions: "Dined with Liszt at Weimar. He +was very lovable, made up to me and hoped at parting that I would give +him my confidence. This would be very difficult, as we have not one +point in common. He has grown very old; his face is all wrinkled; yet +his animation is very attractive. The Countess Tolstoy told me yesterday +that an American lady living here had stripped the covering off a chair +on which Liszt had sat, had had it framed and now it hung on her wall. +She related this to Liszt, who at first seemed indignant and then asked +if it were really true! If such a man does not despise mankind then one +must give him great credit for it." + +Still Liszt fluttered to Rome from time to time. "If it had not been for +music I should have devoted myself entirely to the church and would have +become a Franciscan; It is in error that I am accused of becoming a +'frivolous Abbe' because of external reasons. On the contrary, it was my +most innermost wish which led me to join the church that I wished to +serve" he said. + +During these later visits he took up his abode in the Hotel d'Alibert. +His rooms were furnished as plainly as possible--in the one a bed and a +writing-desk, and the second one, his reception and class-room, held a +grand piano. Some of his pupils lived at the same hotel--Stradal, +Ansorge, Goellerich, Burmeister, Stavenhagen, and Mademoiselle Cognetti. + +Liszt's daily mode of life is rather intimately described. He arose at +four in the morning and began composing, which he continued until seven. +His pupils would drop in to greet him and be dismissed kindly with a +cigar. After a second breakfast he attended early mass in the San Carlo +Church, where he was accompanied by Stradal; then back to his rooms, and +after an hour's rest he would work or pay some visits. + +His noon meal was taken regularly with the Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein, +who now lived a retired life and devoted herself to religious studies. +These visits brought to Liszt much peace and to the Princess happiness; +they were still devoted to each other. After this meal Liszt returned to +his quarters and rested. Only on every other day he taught. The pupil +played the composition of his own choice and Liszt's criticisms would +follow. Muddy playing drove him frantic, and he often told his pupils to +"wash their dirty linen at home"! He taught liberal use of the pedal, +but with utmost discretion. The one thing he could not abide was +pedantic performance: "Among artists there is not the division of +professors and non-professors. They are only artists--or they are not." + +Occasionally he would play for a small assembly--once he favoured the +few with the D-flat Etude, and the crossing left hand struck false notes +repeatedly. He played the piece to the end, and then atoned for his +bulls by adding an improvisation on the theme which moved the assembly +to tears! + +During these class hours a small circle of intimate ones was usually +invited. The Princess Wittgenstein was noticeably absent; but there were +the Princess Minghetti, the Countess Reviczy--to whom the Fifth Rhapsody +is dedicated--and several barons and artists--Alma Tadema among the +latter. Depend upon it, wherever Liszt pitched his tent there were some +titles in the neighbourhood. From two until six in the afternoon these +lessons lasted. Then the small audience withdrew and Liszt played cards +with his pupils for one hour. + +About eight in the evening Liszt would take himself to the house of the +Princess Wittgenstein and sup with her. This meal consisted principally +of ham, says the biographer, and Hungarian red wine. By nine he had +usually retired. + +Stradal seems to have been one of his favourites and accompanied Liszt +on some of his little excursions to the beloved cloisters, San Onofrio +and Monte Mario, then into the Valle dell' Inferno. Here under the Tasso +oak Liszt spoke of the life of the great poet and compared his own fate +to that of Tasso. "They will not carry me in triumph across the Capitol, +but the time will come when my works will be acknowledged. This will +happen too late for me--I shall not be among you any more," he said. Not +an untrue prophecy. + +[Illustration: Liszt in His Atelier at Weimar] + +During these trips he gave alms freely. His servant Mischka filled +Liszt's right vest pocket with _lire_ and the other one with _soldi_ +every morning. And Liszt always strewed about the silver pieces, +returning to his astonished servant with the pocket full of copper coins +untouched. + +Rudolf Louis, another Liszt biographer, tells an amusing story which +fits in the time when Pius the Ninth visited Liszt in the cloister. +While most of the living composers contented themselves with envying +Liszt, old Rossini tried to turn the incident to his own advantage. He +begged Liszt to use his influence in securing the admission of female +voices in service of the church because he--Rossini--did not care to +hear his churchly compositions sung by croaking boys' voices! Of course +nothing came of this request. + +The incident itself--the Pope's visit to Liszt--caused much gossip at +the time. It was even reported that Pio Nono had called Liszt "his +Palestrina." + +M. Louis also makes a point which most Wagner biographers seem to have +overlooked in their hurry to make Richard appear a very moral man, +namely, that the little Von Buelow-Cosima-Wagner affair did not please +Papa Liszt at all. Truce was patched up only in 1873, when Liszt's +"Christus" performance at Weimar was witnessed by Wagner. Bayreuth of +'76 cemented the friendship once more. + +Read this paragraph from the pen of the cynical Gregorovius; it refers +to the Roman performance of the Dante Symphony in the Galleria Dantesca +when the Abbe reaped an aftermath of homage: "The Ladies of Paradise +(?!) poured flowers on him from above; Frau L. almost murdered him with +a big laurel wreath! But the Romans criticised the music severely as +being formless. There is inspiration in it, but it does not reach(?!). +Liszt left for Paris. The day before his departure I breakfasted with +him at Tolstoy's; he played for a solid hour and allowed himself to be +persuaded to do this by the young Princess Nadine Hellbig--Princess +Shahawskoy--a woman of remarkably colossal figure, but also of +remarkable intelligence." + + + + +V + +AS COMPOSER + + +Richard Wagner wrote to Liszt July 20, 1856, concerning his symphonic +poems: + +"With your symphonic poems I am now quite familiar. They are the only +music I have anything to do with at present, as I cannot think of doing +any work of my own while undergoing medical treatment. Every day I read +one or the other of your scores, just as I would read a poem, easily and +without hindrance. Then I feel every time as if I had dived into a +crystalline depth, there to be all alone by myself, having left all the +world behind, to live for an hour my own proper life. Refreshed and +invigorated, I then come to the surface again, full of longing for your +personal presence. Yes, my friend, _you have the power! You have the +power!_" + +And later (December 6, 1856): "I feel thoroughly contemptible as a +musician, whereas you, as I have now convinced myself, are the greatest +musician of all times." Wagner, too, could be generous and flattering. +He had praised the piano sonata; Mazeppa and Orpheus were his favourites +among the symphonic poems. + +Camille Saint-Saens was more discriminating in his admiration; he said: + +"Persons interested in things musical may perhaps recall a concert given +many years ago in the hall of the Theatre Italien, Paris, under the +direction of the author of this article. The programme was composed +entirely of the orchestral work of Franz Liszt, whom the world persists +in calling a great pianist, in order to avoid acknowledging him as one +of the greatest composers of our time. This concert was considerably +discussed in the musical world, strictly speaking, and in a lesser +degree by the general public. Liszt as a composer seemed to many to be +the equal of Ingres as a violinist, or Thiers as an astronomer. However, +the public, who would have come in throngs to hear Liszt play ten bars +on the piano, as might be expected, manifested very little desire to +hear the Dante Symphony, the _Berges a la creche_ and _Les Mages_, +symphonic parts of _Christus_, and other compositions which, coming from +one less illustrious, but playing the piano fairly well, would have +surely aroused some curiosity. We must also state that the concert was +not well advertised. While the "Spanish Student" monopolized all the +advertising space and posters possible, the Liszt concert had to be +satisfied with a brief notice and could not, at any price, take its +place among the theatre notices. + +"Several days later, a pianist giving a concert at the Italien, obtained +this favour. Theatres surely offer inexplicable mysteries to simple +mortals. The name of Liszt appeared here and there in large type on the +top row of certain posters, where the human eye could see it only by the +aid of the telescope. But, nevertheless, our concert was given, and not +to an empty hall. The musical press, at our appeal, kindly assisted; +but the importance of the works on which they were invited to express +an opinion seemed to escape them entirely. They considered, in +general, that the music of Liszt was well written, free from certain +peculiarities they expected to find in it, and that it did not lack a +certain charm. That was all. + +"If such had been my opinion of the works of Liszt, I certainly should +not have taken the trouble to gather together a large orchestra and +rehearse two weeks for a concert. Moreover, I should like to say a few +words of these works, so little known, whose future seems so bright. It +is not long since orchestral music was confined to but two forms--the +symphony and the overture. Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven had never +written anything else; who would have dared to do other than they? +Neither Weber, Mendelssohn, Schubert, nor Schumann. Liszt did dare." + +Liszt understood that to introduce new forms he must cause a necessity +to be felt, in a word, produce a motive for them. He resolutely entered +on the path which Beethoven, with the Pastoral and Choral Symphonies, +and Berlioz, with the Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy, had +suggested rather than opened, for they had enlarged the compass of the +symphony, but had not transformed it, and it was Liszt who created the +symphonic poem. + +This brilliant and fecund creation will be to posterity one of Liszt's +greatest titles to glory, and when time shall have effaced the luminous +trace of this greatest pianist who has ever lived it will inscribe on +the roll of honour the name of the emancipator of instrumental music. + +Liszt not only introduced into the musical world the symphonic poem, he +developed it himself; and in his own twelve poems he has shown the chief +forms in which it can be clothed. + +Before taking up the works themselves, let us consider the form of which +it is the soul, the principle of programme music. + +To many, programme music is a necessarily inferior _genre_. Much has +been written on this subject that cannot be understood. Is the music, in +itself, good or bad? That is the point. The fact of its being +"programme" or not makes it neither better not worse. It is exactly the +same in painting, where the subject of the picture, which is everything +to the vulgar mind, is nothing or little to the artist. The reproach +against music, of expressing nothing in itself without the aid of words, +applies equally to painting. + +To the artist, programme music is only a pretext to enter upon new ways, +and new effects demand new means, which, by the way, is very little +desired by orchestra leaders and kapellmeisters who, above all, love +ease and tranquil existence. I should not be surprised to discover that +the resistance to works of which we speak comes not from the public, but +from orchestra leaders, little anxious to cope with the difficulties of +every nature which they contain. However, I will not affirm it. + +The compositions to which Liszt gave the name symphonic poem are twelve +in number: + + 1. Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne, after Victor Hugo. + 2. Tasso, Lamento and Trionfo. + 3. Les Preludes, after Lamartine. + 4. Orphee. + 5. Promethee. + 6. Mazeppa. + 7. Fest-Klaenge. + 8. Heroide funebre. + 9. Hungaria. + 10. Hamlet. + 11. La bataille des Huns, after Kaulbach. + 12. L'ideal, after Schiller. + +The symphonic poem in the form in which Liszt has given it to us, is +ordinarily an ensemble of different movements depending on each other, +and flowing from a principal ideal, blending into each other, and +forming one composition. The plan of the musical poem thus understood +may vary infinitely. To obtain a great unity, and at the same time the +greatest variety possible, Liszt most often chooses a musical phrase, +which he transforms by means of artifices of rhythm, to give it the +most diverse aspects and cause it to serve as an expression of the most +varied sentiments. This is one of the usual methods of Richard Wagner, +and, in my opinion, it is the only one common to the two composers. In +style, in use of harmonic resources and instrumentation, they differ as +widely as two contemporary artists could differ, and yet really belong +to the same school. + + +THE BERG SYMPHONY + +"Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne"--or, as it is more familiarly known, +"Die Bergsymphonie"--is ranked among the earliest of Liszt's symphonic +works. The first sketches of this symphonic poem were made as early as +1833-35, but they were not orchestrated until 1849, and the composition +had its first hearing in Weimar in 1853. + +A German enthusiast says this work is the first towering peak of a +mountain chain, and that here already--in the first of the list of +Symphonic Poems--the mastery of the composer is indubitably revealed. +The subject is not a flippant one, by any means: it touches on the +relation of man to nature--das Weltraetsel. Inspiration came directly +from Victor Hugo's poem, "Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne." The subject +is that of Nature's perfection contrasted to Man's misery: + + Die Welt ist volkommen ueberall, + Wo der Mensch nicht hinkommt mit seiner Qual. + +Only when one withdraws from the hurdy-gurdy trend of life, only from +the height of mountain does one see Truth in perspective. This is "What +one hears on the Mountain." + + Zuerst vermorr'ner, unermess'ner Laerm, + Undeutlich wie der Wind in dichten Baeumen, + Voll klarer Tone, suessen Lispelns, sanft + Wie'n Abendlied, und stark wie Waffenklirren. + + Es war ein Toenen, tief und unausprechlich, + Das flutend Kreise zog rings um die Welt + Und durch die Himmel ... + + Die Welt, Gehuellt in diese Symphonie, + Schwamm wie in Luft, so in der Harmonie. + +This is the key-note to the introductory measures of Liszt's work. Out +of the sombre roll of the drum--which continues as a ground tone--the +different instruments assert themselves. Muted strings imitate the rush +of the sea; horns and woodwind hint at the battling of elements in +chaos, while the violins and harp swerve peacefully aloft in arpeggios. +The oboe chants sanft wie'n Abendlied, the beautiful melody of peaceful +idyllic nature. After this impression becomes a mood Liszt resumes the +poetic narrative and individualises the two voices: + + Vom Meer die eine; wie ein Sang von Ruhm und Glueck, + + Die and're hob von uns'rer Erde sich, + Sie war voll Trauer: das Geraeusch der Menschen. + +The voice of Man is the first to be heard. It obtrudes itself even while +the violins are preaching earthly peace, and eventually embroils them in +its cry of discontent. All this over the pedal point of worldly noises. + +There is a sudden pause, and in the succeeding maestoso episode the +second voice is heard--Nature's Hymn: + + Der praecht'ge Ocean ... + + Liess eine friedliche frohe Stimme hoeren, + Sang, wie die Harfe singt in Sion's Tempeln, + Und pries der Schoepfung Schoenheit. + +Here there is composure and serenity, which diminishes to a tender piano +in string harmonics. But in the woodwind a dissenting theme appears from +time to time: Man and his torments invade this sanctity of peace. His +cry grows louder, and one hears in it the anguish of the pursued one. +The strings forsake their tranquil harmonics and resolve themselves into +a troublous tremolo, while the clarinettes, in a new theme, question +this intrusion. Meanwhile the misery of Man gains the upper hand, and in +the following Allegro con moto there sounds all the fury of a wild +chase: + + Ein Weinen, Kreischen, Schmaehen and Verfluchen + Und Hohn und Laesterung und wuest' Geschrei + Taucht aus des Menschenlaermes Wirbelwogen. + +The orchestra is in tumult, relieved only by a cry of agony coming from +Man; even the sea theme is tossed about, and the Motif of Nature +appears in mangled form. This fury lashes itself out by its own +violence, and after the strings once more echo the cry of despair all is +silent. Two light blows of the tam-tam suggest the fear which follows +upon such a display of tempestuous terror. + + ... warum man hier ist, was + Der Zweck von allem diesen endlich, + Und warum Gott ... + Bestandig einet zu des Liedes Masston + Sang der Natur mit seiner Menschen Schreinen. + +This Warum is asked dismally, and as an answer the theme of Nature +reappears in its brightest garb. Question and answer succeed each other, +and are stilled by the recurring cry of Man until a final Why is +followed by a full stop. + +The poet, weary of this restlessness, is searching for the consolation +of quietude; and here--as might be expected of Liszt--comes the thought +of religion shown by the Andante religioso. It is here, too, in the +realm of religious peace that the two antagonistic voices are +reconciled; they interweave, cross and are melted, one in the other. + +This, the most intricate and longest part of the score, was employed by +Liszt to show his instrumental mastery. The two principal themes--the +two voices--are made to adjust with great skill, and are then sounded +simultaneously to prove their striving after unity. + +The poet is almost convinced of this equalisation, when, without warning +and with the force of the full orchestra, brilliantly employed, a new +theme appears. This is repeated with even greater frenzy of utterance, +and usurps the theme of Man and that of Nature. The whole is the idea of +Faith, at which the poet now has arrived. A deep satisfaction silences +every sound--the clashing of the elements ceases and the last sigh +breathes itself out. Once more the plaintive "Why" is heard, and +resolves itself in a reminiscence of Man's fury. The trumpets quiet all +by intoning that sacrosanct Andante religioso, which concludes in a +mysterious chord through which the notes of the harp thread themselves. +The theme of Nature's Hymn returns pizzicato in the basses, and is +answered by harp arpeggios and chords in the brass. A few taps of the +tympani, with which the composition ends, give the ring of finality. + +Arthur Hahn believes that this symphonic poem offers a solution to the +discord of the universe; that the ending with the two tympani taps and +the hollow preceding chords suggest a possible return of the storm. +Liszt made numerous sketches for this work two decades before its +composition. + + +TASSO + +For the Weimar centennial anniversary of Goethe's birth, August 28, +1849, Liszt composed his Tasso: Lamento e Trionfo. And this stands +second in order of his symphonic poems. At the Weimar festival the work +preceded Goethe's Tasso, being played as an overture. + +When the first part of this Tasso symphonic poem was written--there are +two parts, as you will see later--Liszt was not yet bold as a symphonic +poet, for he thought it necessary to define the meaning of his work in +words and thus explain his music. + +Liszt's preface to Tasso is as follows: "I wished to define the contrast +expressed in the title of the work, and it was my object to describe the +grand antithesis of the genius, ill-used and misunderstood in life, but +in death surrounded with a halo of glory whose rays were to penetrate +the hearts of his persecutors. Tasso loved and suffered in Ferrara, was +avenged in Rome, and lives to this day in the popular songs of Venice. +These three viewpoints are inseparably connected with his career. To +render them musically I invoke his mighty shadow, as he wanders by the +lagoons of Venice, proud and sad in countenance, or watching the feasts +at Ferrara, where his master-works were created. I followed him to Rome, +the Eternal City, which bestowed upon him the crown of glory, and in him +canonised the martyr and the poet. + +"Lamento e Trionfo--these are the contrasts in the fate of the poet, of +whom it was said that, although the curse might rest upon his life, a +blessing could not be wanting from his grave. In order to give to my +idea the authority of living fact, I borrowed the form of my tone +picture from reality, and chose for its theme a melody to which, three +centuries after the poet's death, I have heard Venetian gondoliers sing +the first strophes of his Jerusalem: + + Canto l'armi pietose e'l Capitano, + Che'l gran Sepolcro libero di Cristo. + +"The motif itself has a slow, plaintive cadence of monotonous mourning; +the gondoliers, however, by drawling certain notes, give it a peculiar +colouring, and the mournfully drawn out tones, heard at a distance, +produce an effect not dissimilar to the reflection of long stripes of +fading light upon a mirror of water. This song once made a profound +impression on me, and when I attempted to illustrate Tasso musically, it +recurred to me with such imperative force that I made it the chief motif +for my composition. + +"The Venetian melody is so replete with inconsolable mourning, with +bitter sorrow, that it suffices to portray Tasso's soul, and again it +yields to the brilliant deceits of the world, to the illusive, smooth +coquetry of those smiles whose slow poison brought on the fearful +catastrophe, for which there seemed to be no earthly recompense, but +which was eventually, clothed in a mantle of brighter purple than that +of Alfonso." + +Following this came--in later years, it is true--a strange denial from +Liszt himself. He admitted that when finally his Tasso composition began +to take form Byron's Tasso was nearer his heart and thoughts than +Goethe's. "I cannot deny," he writes, "that when I received the order +for an overture to Goethe's drama the chief and commanding influence on +the form of my work was the respectful sympathy with which Byron treated +the manes of the great poet." + +Naturally this influence could not have extended beyond the Lamento +since Byron's poem is only the Lament of Tasso, and has no share in the +Trionfo. Now the anti-programmites could make a very strong case out of +this incident, and probably would have done so long before this if they +had known or thought about it. But then this question of the fallibility +of programme music is an eternal one. Was it not the late Thayer, +constantly haunting detail and in turn haunted by it, who could not +abide Beethoven's Coriolanus in his youth because he only knew the +Shakespeare drama and could not fit the Beethoven overture to it simply +because it would not be fitted? And now some commentators declare that +Beethoven must have known the Shakespeare work, that he could not have +found his inspiration in the forgotten play of Von Collin. + +Liszt's Tasso opens with a descending octaved theme in C minor, meant to +depict the depressed mood and oppressed station of the poet. Wagner has +made mention of Liszt's particular aptitude for making such musical +moments pregnant with meaning. Here it expresses the tragedy of the +poet's life, and a second theme is his agonised cry. Gradually this +impatience is fanned to fury, and culminates in a wild outbreak of pain. +The tragic first theme, now given fortissimo by the full orchestra and +long sustained, spreads its shadow over all. The characteristic +rehearsal of the themes concludes the introduction to the work. + +With an adagio the principal motif is heard in full for the first time; +it is the boat song of the Venetian gondoliers, and embraces in part the +first tragic theme with which the composition opened. You recall what +Liszt said about the expressiveness of this sombre song. He has +heightened its gloom by the moody orchestration in which he has embedded +it. + +As a contrast comes the belief in self which forces its way to the soul +of the poet, and this comes to our ears in the form of the noble main +theme--the Tasso motif--which now sounds brilliantly in major. These two +moods relieve one another, as they might in the mind of any brooding +mortal, especially a poet. + +The next picture is Tasso at the court of Ferrara. The courtly life is +sketched in a minuet-like allegro and a courteous subsidiary. How aptly +Tasso is carried away by the surrounding splendour we hear when the +Tasso theme sounds in the character of the gay minuet. This theme +becomes more and more impassioned, the poet has raised his eyes to +Leonore, and the inevitable calamity precipitates itself with the +recurrence of the wild and frantic burst of rage and fury. + + Alles ist dahin! Nur eines bleibt: + Die Thraene hat uns die Natur verliehen, + Den Schrei des Schmerzes, wenn der Mann zuletzt + Es nicht mehr traegt. + +With this, the first half of the first part of the work closes. + +The second half concerns itself with the poet's transfiguration. His +physical self has been sacrificed, but the world has taken up his cause +and celebrates his works. + +A short pause separates the two divisions. Now the glorious allegro has +an upward swing, the former dragging rhythms are spurned along +impetuously. The Tasso theme is glorified, the public enthusiasm grows +apace, and runs to a tremendous climax in the presto. Then there sounds +a sudden silence--the public pulse has ceased for a moment--followed by +a hymn, built on the Tasso theme. The entire orchestra intones this, +every figure is one of jubilation, save the four double basses which +recall the rhythm of the former theme of misery; but--notice the logic +of the composer--its resemblance is only a distant one, and it is heard +only in the lowest of the strings. So this composition concludes. + +The Epilogue to the Tasso symphonic poem was written many years +afterward. Liszt called it Le Triomphe funebre du Tasse, and its first +performance was under Leopold Damrosch in New York in 1877. The subject +must have pursued Liszt through most of his life, and he seems to have +felt a certain affinity with the dead poet. We all know that the public +denied him credit for his compositions. + +Goellerich in his Liszt biography mentions that once during his stay in +Italy the composer, in a covered wagon, had himself driven slowly over +the course along which the corpse of Tasso had been taken. And of this +incident he is supposed to have said: "I suffered the sad poetry of this +journey in the hopes that one day the bloody irony of vain apotheosis +may be spared every poet and artist who has been ill-treated during +life. Rest to the dead!" + +The analysis of this work is short and precise. The musical programme is +simple. It opens with a cry of distressful mourning, while from the +distance the cortege approaches. A reminiscence of the Tasso theme is +recognisable in this pompous approach and the mood changes to one of +triumph. In the midst of all this the public adoration is mingled with +its tears, and the two climax in the Tasso motive. + + +LES PRELUDES + +The third of Liszt's symphonic poems, Les Preludes, was sketched as +early as 1845, but not produced until 1854, and then in Weimar. +Lamartine's Meditations Poetiques set the bells tolling in Liszt's mind, +and he wrote Les Preludes. "What is life but a series of preludes to +that unknown song whose initial solemn note is tolled by Death? The +enchanted dawn of every life is love; but where is the destiny on whose +first delicious joys some storm does not break?--a storm whose deadly +blast disperses youth's illusions, whose fatal bolt consumes its altar. +And what soul thus cruelly bruised, when the tempest rolls away, seeks +not to rest its memories in the calm of rural life? Yet man allows +himself not long to taste the kindly quiet which first attracted him to +Nature's lap; but when the trumpet gives the signal he hastens to +danger's post, whatever be the fight which draws him to its lists, that +in the strife he may once more regain full knowledge of himself and all +his strength." + +Corresponding to the first line of the programme the composition opens +promisingly with an ascending figure in the strings, followed by some +mysterious chords. Liszt had that wonderful knack--which he shared with +Beethoven and Wagner--of getting atmosphere immediately at the first +announcement. Gradually he achieves a climax with this device, and now +he has pictured the character--his hero--in defiant possession of full +manhood. + +"The enchanted dawn of every life is love" reads the line, and the music +grows sentimental. That well-known horn melody occurs here, a theme +almost the character of a folk-song; then the mood becomes even more +tranquil until-- + +"But where is the destiny on whose first delicious joys some storm does +not break?--a storm whose deadly blast disperses youth's illusions, +whose fatal bolt consumes its altar." Here was one of those episodes on +which Liszt doted, a place where he could unloose all his orchestral +technique, piling his climaxes furiously high. + +"And what soul thus cruelly bruised, when the tempest rolls away, seeks +not to rest its memories in the pleasant calm of rural life?" There was +nothing else for Liszt to do but to write the usual pastoral peace +dignified by Handel and Watteau. + +"Yet man allowed himself not long to taste the kindly quiet which first +attracted him to Nature's lap; but when the trumpet gives the signal he +hastens to danger's post, whatever be the fight which draws him to its +lists, that in the strife he may once more regain full knowledge of +himself and all his strength." The martial call of the trumpets and the +majestic strife is made much of. Liszt tortures his peaceful motives +into expressing war, and welds the entire incident into a stirring one. + +Logically, he concludes the work by recalling the theme of his hero upon +whose life he has preluded so tunefully. + + +ORPHEUS + +Of the origin of his Orpheus Liszt writes: "Some years ago, when +preparing Gluck's Orpheus for production, I could not restrain my +imagination from straying away from the simple version that the great +master had made of the subject, but turned to that Orpheus whose name +hovers majestically and full of harmony about the Greek myths. It +recalled that Etruscan vase in the Louvre which represents the +poet-musician crowned with the mystic kingly wreath; draped in a +star-studded mantle, his fine slender fingers are plucking the lyre +strings, while his lips are liberating godly words and song. The very +stones seem moved to hearing, and from adamant hearts stinging, burning +tears are loosing themselves. The beasts of the forests stand enchanted, +and the coarse noise of man is besieged into silence. The song of birds +is hushed; the melodious coursing of the brook halts; the rude laughter +of joy gives way to a trembling awe before these sounds, which reveal to +man universal harmonies, the gentle power of art and the brilliancy of +their glory." + +The "dull and prosaic formula"--so some English critic put it--differs +in this work from that of most of the others of Liszt's symphonic +poems. The short cutting themes are absent and sharp contrasts are +generally avoided; the music flows rather in a broad melodic stream, +serene but magnificent. It is rather difficult to fit a detailed +programme to the composition, and the general outline is not so sharply +dented with incidents as some of the others. + +Again atmosphere is evoked and the mood achieved by the lyre preluding +of the poet. Then the voice of Orpheus rises with majestic calm, and +swells to a climax which is typical of the majestic splendour of art. +This sweeps all sounds of opposition before it and leaves in its trail +awe-stricken man. It is with this mood that the work closes in a +marvellous progression of chords, harmonies daring for their day. + + +PROMETHEUS + +The same general plan of conception and interpretation, but of course +much more heroic, has Liszt employed in the next symphonic poem, +Prometheus. It is a noble figure that Liszt has translated into music, +the Titan. The ideas he meant to convey may be summed up in "Ein tiefer +Schmerz, der durch trotzbietendes Ausharren triumphiert." Immediately at +the opening the swirl of the struggle is upon us, and the first theme is +the defiance of the Titan--a noble yet obstinate melody. The god is +chained to the rock to great orchestral tumult. His efforts to break +the manacles incite further musical riot, and then comes the wail of +helpless misery: + + O Mutter, du Heil'ge! O Aether, + Lichtquell des All's! + Seh, welch Unrecht ich erdulde! + +This recitative leads into a furious burst when the shackled one +clenches his fists and threatens all Godhead. Even Zeus is defied: + + Und mag er schleudern seines feurigen Blitzes Loh'n, + In weissen Schneesturms Ungewittern, in Donnerhall + Der unterirdischen Tiefe werwirren mischen das All: + Nichts dessen wird mir beugen! + +Then arises the belief in a deliverer, a faith motif which is one of +those heartfelt inventions of the melodic Liszt. After this the struggle +continues. Magnificently, the god, believing in his own obstinate will +for freedom, the composition concludes on this supreme note. + + +MAZEPPA + +The sixth of Liszt's symphonic poems, Mazeppa, has done more than any +other to earn for its composer the disparaging comment that his piano +music was orchestral and his orchestral music Klaviermaessig. This +Solomon judgment usually proceeds from the wise ones, who are aware that +the first form of Liszt's Mazeppa was a piano etude which appeared +somewhere toward the end of 1830. + +Liszt's orchestral version of Mazeppa was completed the middle of last +century and had its first hearing at Weimar in 1854. Naturally this is a +work of much greater proportion than the original piano etude; it is, as +some one has said, in the same ratio as is a panoramic picture to a +preliminary sketch. + +The story of the Cossack hetman has inspired poets and at least one +painter. Horace Vernet--who, as Heine said, painted everything hastily, +almost after the manner of a maker of pamphlets--put the subject on +canvas twice; the Russian, Bulgarin, made a novel of it; Voltaire +mentioned the incident in his History of Charles the Twelfth; Byron +moulded the tale into rhyme, as did Victor Hugo--and the latter poem was +used by Liszt for the outline for his composition. + +The amorous Mazeppa was of noble birth--so runs the tale. But while he +was page to Jan Casimir, King of Poland, he intrigued with Theresia the +young wife of a Podolian count. Their love was discovered and the count +had the page lashed to a wild horse--_un cheval farouche_, as Voltaire +has it--which was turned loose. + +From all accounts the beast did not allow grass to grow under its hoofs, +but lashed out with the envious speed of the wind. It so happened that +the horse was "a noble steed, a Tartar of the Ukraine breed." Therefore +it headed for the Ukraine, which woolly country it reached with its +burden; then it promptly dropped dead. + +Mazeppa was unhanded or unhorsed by a friendly Cossack and nursed back +to happiness. Soon he grew in stature and in power, becoming an Ukraine +prince; as the latter he fought against Russia at Pultowa. + +That is the skeleton of the legend. Liszt has begun his musical tale at +the point when Mazeppa is corded to the furious steed, and with a cry it +is off. This opens the composition; there follow the galloping triplets +to mark the flight of the beast, irregular and wild. Trees and mountains +seem to whirl by them--this is represented by a vertiginous tremolo +figure, against which a descending theme sounds and seems to give +perspective to the swirling landscape. + +When the prisoner stirs convulsively in the agony of his plight, the +horse bounds forward even more recklessly. The fury of the ride +continues, increases, until Mazeppa loses consciousness and mists +becloud his senses. Now and again pictures appear before his eyes an +instant as in a dream fantastic. + +Gradually, as an accompaniment to the thundering hoof falls, the passing +earth sounds as a mighty melody to the delirious one. The entire plain +seems to ring with song, pitying Mazeppa in his suffering. + +The horse continues to plunge and blood pours from the wounds of the +prisoner. Before his eyes the lights dance and the themes return +distorted. The goal is reached when the steed breaks down, overcome with +the killing fatigue of its three days' ride. It pants its last, and a +plaintive andante pictures the groaning of the bound Mazeppa; this dies +away in the basses. + +Now the musician soars away in the ether. When he returns to us it is +with an allegro of trumpet calls. Mazeppa has been made a prince in the +interim and is now leading the warriors of the steppe who freed him. +These fanfares lead to a triumphal march, which is the last division +of the composition. Local colour is logically brought in by the +introduction of a Cossack march; the Mazeppa theme is jubilantly shared +by trumpet calls, and the motif of his sufferings appears transformed as +a melody of victory--all this in barbaric rhythms. + +In form the work is free; two general divisions are about as much as it +yields to the formal dissector. It follows the poem, and, having been +written to the poem, that is really all the sequence demanded by logic. + +Liszt was decidedly at a disadvantage as a composer when he lacked a +programme. Usually in composing his purpose was so distinct, the music +measuring itself so neatly against the logic of the programme, that his +symphonic compositions should be most easily comprehended by an +audience. + + +FESTKLAeNGE + +There is no definite programme to Liszt's Festklaenge. Several probing +ones have been hot on the trail of such a thing. Pohl knew but would +not tell. He wrote: "This work is the most intimate of the entire group. +It stands in close relation with some personal experiences of the +composer--something which we will not define more clearly here. For this +reason Liszt himself has offered no elucidation to the work, and we must +respect his silence. The mood of the work is 'Festlich'--it is the +rejoicing after a victory of--the heart." + +This is mysterious and sentimental enough to satisfy any conservatory +maiden. But Liszt died eventually, and then Pohl intimates that the +incident which this composition was meant to glorify was the marriage of +Liszt with the Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein--a marriage which never came +off. + +Philip Hale has taken up the question in his interesting Boston Symphony +Programme Notes, and summons several witnesses: "Brendel said that this +symphonic poem is a sphinx that no one can understand. Mr. Barry, who +takes a peculiarly serious view of all things musical, claims that +Festival Sounds, Sounds of Festivity or Echoes of a Festival is the +portrayal in music of scenes that illustrate some great national +festival; that the introduction, with its fanfares, gives rise to strong +feelings of expectation. There is a proclamation, 'The festival has +begun,' and he sees the reception of guests in procession. The event is +great and national--a coronation--something surely of a royal character; +and there is holiday making until the 'tender, recitative-like period' +hints at a love scene; guests, somewhat stiff and formal, move in the +dance; in the finale the first subject takes the form of a national +anthem. + +"Some have thought that Liszt composed the piece in honour of the +fiftieth anniversary of the entrance into Weimar of his friend and +patroness Maria Paulowna, sister of the Czar Nicholas I, Grand Duchess +of Weimar. The anniversary was celebrated with pomp November 9, 1854, as +half a century before the noble dame was greeted with Schiller's lyric +festival play Die Huldigung der Kuenste. + +"This explanation is plausible; but Lina Ramann assures us that +Festklaenge was intended by Liszt as the wedding music for himself and +the Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein; that in 1851 it seemed as +though the obstacles to the union would disappear; that this music was +composed as 'a song of triumph over hostile machinations'; 'bitterness +and anguish are forgotten in proud rejoicing'; the introduced +'Polonaise' pictures the brilliant mind of the Polish princess." + +When this symphonic poem was first played in Vienna there were +distributed handbills written by "Herr K.," that the hearers might find +reasonable pleasure in the music. One of the sentences goes bounding +through the universe as follows: "A great universal and popular festival +calls within its magic circle an agitated crowd, joy on the brow, heaven +in the breast." + +In whichever class you choose to place the Festklaenge--whether in that +of a higher grade of wedding music or as music incidental to some +national event--you are apt to find contradictions in the music itself. +So it is most reasonable to waive the entire question of a programme +here, and take the music at its word. It must be admitted that this +composition is not among Liszt's great ones; the big swing is missing +and honesty compels the acknowledgment that much of it is blank bombast, +some of it tawdry. + +The introductory allegro is devoted to some tympani thumps--a la +Meyerbeer--and some blaring fanfares which terminate in a loud, blatant +theme. + +Then comes the andante with the principal subject of the work, meant to +be impressive, but failing in its purpose. The mood changes and grows +humourous, which again is contrasted by the following rather melancholy +allegretto. This latter spot would serve to knock some of the festival +programme ideas into a cocked hat. + +The work eventually launches into a polonaise, and until the close Liszt +busies himself with varying the character and rhythms of the foregoing +themes. Finally the martial prevails again, decorated with fanfares, and +thus the composition closes. + +Festklaenge had its first performance at Weimar in 1854; but the composer +made some changes in the later edition that appeared in 1861, and this +version is the one usually played to-day. + +A Liszt work which we seldom hear is "Choere zu Herder's 'Entfesselte +Prometheus,'" which was composed and performed in Weimar in 1850. + +On August 25 of that year there was a monument unveiled to Johann +Gottfried Herder in Weimar, and the memory of the "apostle of humanity" +was also celebrated in the theatre. This accounts for the composition of +the symphonic poem Prometheus, which served as an overture to these +choruses, written for voices and orchestra. Richard Pohl has put the +latter into shape for solitary performance in the concert room. + +Prometheus sits manacled on the rock, but the fury of his rebellion is +over. Resolutely he awaits the decree of fate. At this point the Liszt +work takes up the narrative. The Titan is soliloquising, while man, +aided by the gift of fire, is calmly possessing the world. The elemental +spirits look enviously at the power of man and turn to Prometheus with +plaints; the Daughters of the Sea lament that the holy peace of the sea +is disturbed by man, who sails the water imperiously. Prometheus answers +Okeanus philosophically that everything belongs to every one. + +Then the chorus of the Tritons glorifies the socialistic Titan with +"Heil Prometheus." This dies away to make room for the grumbling of +All-Mother Erda and her dryads, who bring charge against the fire giver. +An answer comes from the bucolic chorus of reapers and their brothers +the vintagers, who chant the praise of "Monsieur" Bacchus. + +From the under world comes the sound of strife, and Hercules arises as +victor. Prometheus recognises him as the liberator, and the Sandow of +mythology breaks the Titan's fetters and slays the hovering eagle of +Zeus. The freed Prometheus turns to the rocks on which he has sat +prisoner so long and asks that in gratitude for his liberty a paradise +arise there. Pallas Athene respects the wish, and out of the naked rock +sprouts an olive tree. + +A chorus of the Invisible Ones invites Prometheus to attend before the +throne of Themis. She intercedes in his behalf against his accusers, and +the Chorus of Humanity celebrates her judgment in the hymn which closes +"Heil Prometheus! Der Menschheit Heil!" Some of the thematic material +for these choruses and orchestral interludes is borrowed from the +symphonic poem Prometheus. + +Liszt wrote a preface to Heroide Funebre, his eighth poem (1849-1850; +1856.) Among other things he declares that "Everything may change in +human societies--manners and cult, laws and ideas; sorrow remains always +one and the same, it remains what it has been from the beginning of +time. It is for art to throw its transfiguring veil over the tomb of the +brave--to encircle with its golden halo the dead and the dying, in order +that they may be envied by the living." Liszt incorporated with this +poem a fragment from his Revolutionary Symphony outlined in 1830. +Hungaria (1854; 1857) and Hamlet (1858; 1861) the ninth and tenth poems +are not of marked interest or novel character--that is when compared to +their predecessors. There is a so-called poem, From the Cradle to the +Grave, the thirteenth in the series, one which did not take seriously. +It is quite brief. But let us consider the eleventh and twelfth of the +series. + + +THE BATTLE OF THE HUNS + +Liszt's Hunnenschlacht was suggested by Wilhelm von Kaulbach's mural +painting in the staircase-hall of the New Museum in Berlin. It was +conceived in Munich in November, 1856, and written in 1857. When +completed, it was put into rehearsal at Weimar in October, 1857, and +performed in April, 1858. Its first performance in Boston, was under Mr. +Theodore Thomas in 1872. + +The picture which suggested this composition to Liszt shows the city of +Rome in the background; before it is a battle-field, strewn with corpses +which are seen to be gradually reviving, rising up, and rallying, while +among them wander wailing and lamenting women. At the heads of two +ghostly armies are respectively Attila--borne aloft on a shield by Huns, +and wielding a scourge--and Theodoric with his two sons, behind whom is +raised the banner of the cross. + +The composition is perfectly free in form; one noteworthy feature being +the interweaving of the choral Crux Fidelis with themes of the +composer's own invention. The score bears no dedication. + + +DIE IDEALE + +Die Ideale was projected in the summer of 1856, but it was composed in +1857. The first performance was at Weimar, September 5, 1857, on the +occasion of unveiling the Goethe-Schiller monument. The first +performance in Boston was by Theodore Thomas's orchestra, October 6, +1870. The symphonic poem was played here at a Symphony Concert on +January 26, 1889. + +The argument of Schiller's poem, Die Ideale, first published in the +_Musenalmanach_ of 1796, has thus been presented: "The sweet belief in +the dream-created beings of youth passes away; what once was divine and +beautiful, after which we strove ardently, and which we embraced +lovingly with heart and mind, becomes the prey of hard reality; already +midway the boon companions--love, fortune, fame, and truth--leave us one +after another, and only friendship and activity remain with us as loving +comforters." Lord Lytton characterised the poem as an "elegy on departed +youth." + +Yet Liszt departed from the spirit of the elegy, for in a note to the +concluding section of the work, the Apotheosis, he says: "The holding +fast and at the same time the continual realising of the ideal is the +highest aim of our life. In this sense I ventured to supplement +Schiller's poem by a jubilantly emphasising resumption of the motives of +the first section in the closing Apotheosis." Mr. Niecks, in his +comments on this symphonic poem, adds: "To support his view and justify +the alteration, Liszt might have referred to Jean Paul Richter's +judgment, that the conclusion of the poem, pointing as it does for +consolation to friendship and activity, comforts but scantily and +unpoetically. Indeed, Schiller himself called the conclusion of the poem +tame, but explained that it was a faithful picture of human life, +adding: 'I wished to dismiss the reader with this feeling of tranquil +contentment.' That, apart from poetical considerations, Liszt acted +wisely as a musician in making the alteration will be easily understood +and readily admitted. Among the verses quoted by the composer, there are +eight which were omitted by Schiller in the ultimate amended form of Die +Ideale. The order of succession, however, is not the same as in the +poem; what is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 with Liszt is 1, 4, 3, 2, 5 with Schiller. +The musician seized the emotional possibilities of the original, but +disregarded the logical sequence. And there are many things which the +tone poet who works after the word poet not only may but must disregard. +As the two arts differ in their nature, the one can be only an imperfect +translator of the other; but they can be more than translators--namely, +commentators. Liszt accordingly does not follow the poem word for word, +but interprets the feelings which it suggests, 'feelings which almost +all of us have felt in the progress of life.' Indeed, programme and +music can never quite coincide; they are like two disks that partly +cover each other, partly overlap and fall short. Liszt's Die Ideale is +no exception. Therefore it may not be out of place to warn the hearer, +although this is less necessary in the present case than in others, +against forming 'a grossly material conception of the programme,' +against 'an abstractly logical interpretation which allows itself to be +deceived by the outside, by what presents itself to the first glance, +disdains the mediation of the imagination.'" + +Mr. Hale gives some interesting facts about the composition. + +Liszt and Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein were both ill in the +spring of 1857, and the letters written by Liszt to her during this +period are of singular interest. Yet Liszt went about and conducted +performances until he suffered from an abscess in a leg and was obliged +to lie in bed. On the 30th of January Liszt had written to a woman, the +anonymous "Friend": "For Easter I shall have finished Die Ideale +(symphony in three movements)"; and in March he wrote the princess that +he was dreaming of Die Ideale. In May he went to Aix-la-Chapelle to +conduct at a music festival, and in July he returned to that town for +medical treatment. He wrote the princess (July 23) that he had completed +the indications, the "nuances," of the score that morning, and +he wished her to see that the copyist should prepare the parts +immediately--six first violins, six second violins, four violas, and +five double basses. + +The performance at Weimar excited neither fierce opposition nor warm +appreciation. Liszt conducted the work at Prague, March 11, 1858, and it +appears from a letter to the Princess that he made cuts and alterations +in the score after the performance. Hans von Buelow produced Die Ideale +at Berlin in 1859, and the performance stirred up strife. Buelow thought +the work too long for the opening piece, and preferred to put it in the +second part. Then he changed his mind; he remembered that Liszt's +Festklaenge was at the end of a concert the year before in Berlin, and +that many of the audience found it convenient to leave the hall for the +cloak-room during the performance. A few days later he wrote that he +would put it at the end of the first part: "My first rehearsal lasted +four hours. The parts of Die Ideale are very badly copied. It is a +magnificent work, and the form is splendid. In this respect I prefer it +to Tasso, to The Preludes, and to other symphonic poems. It has given me +an enormous pleasure--I was happier than I have been for a long time. +Apropos--a passage, where the basses and the trombones give the theme of +the Allegro, a passage that is found several times in the parts +is cut out in the printed score." Ramagn names 1859 as the date of +publication, while others say the score was published in 1858. "I have +left this passage as it is in the arts; for I find it excellent, and the +additional length of time in performance will be hardly appreciable. It +will go, I swear it!" The concert was on January 14, 1859, and when some +hissed after the performance of Die Ideale, Buelow asked them to leave +the hall. A sensation was made by this "maiden speech," as it was +called. (See the pamphlet, Hans v. Buelow und die Berliner Kritik, +Berlin, 1859, and Buelow's Briefe, vol. iii. pp. 202, 203, 205, 206, +Leipsic, 1898.) Buelow was cool as a cucumber, and directed the next +piece, Introduction to Lohengrin, as though nothing had happened. The +Princess of Prussia left her box, for it was nine o'clock, the hour of +tea; but there was no explosion till after the concert, when Buelow was +abused roundly by newspaper article and word of mouth. He had promised +to play two piano pieces at a Domchoir concert the 22d, and it was +understood that he would then be hissed and hooted. The report sold all +the seats and standing places. Never had he played so well, and instead +of a scandalous exhibition of disapproval there was the heartiest +applause. Liszt conducted Die Ideale at Buelow's concert in Berlin on +February 27 of that year, and there was then not a suspicion of +opposition to work or composer. + +Buelow after the first performance at Berlin advised Liszt to cut out the +very last measures. "I love especially the thirds in the kettle-drums, +as a new and bold invention--but I find them a little too ear-boxing +for cowardly ears.... I know positively that these eight last drumbeats +have especially determined or rather emboldened the opposition to +manifestation. And so, if you do not find positive cowardice in my +request--put these two measures on my back--do as though I had had the +impertinence to add them as my own. I almost implore this of you!" + +In 1863 Buelow sent Louis Koehler his latest photograph, "Souvenir du 14 +janvier, 1859." It represents him standing, baton in hand; on a +conductor's desk is the score of Die Ideale, and there is this +inscription to Liszt: "'_Sub hoc signo vici, nec vincere desistam._' to +his Master, his artistic Ideal, with thanks and veneration out of a full +heart. Hans v. Buelow, Berlin, October 22, 1863." Liszt wrote Buelow from +Budapest (January 3, 1873): "You know I profess not to collect +photographs, and in my house portraits do not serve as ornaments. At +Rome I had only two in my chamber; yours--that of Die Ideale, '_Sub hoc +signo vici, nec vincere desistam_'--was one of them." + +It appears that others wished to tinker the score of this symphonic +poem. Buelow wrote the Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein (February 10, +1859) that he had anticipated the permission of Liszt, and had sent Die +Ideale to Leopold Damrosch, who would have the parts copied and produce +the work in the course of the month at Breslau. Carl Tausig produced Die +Ideale at Vienna for the first time, February 24, 1861, and in a letter +written before the performance to Liszt he said: "I shall conduct Die +Ideale wholly according to your wish, yet I am not at all pleased with +Damrosch's variante; my own are more plausible, ... and Cornelius has +strengthened me in my belief." When Die Ideale was performed again at +Vienna, in 1880, at a concert of the Society of Music Friends, led by +the composer, Eduard Hanslick based his criticism on the "witty answer" +made by Berthold Auerbach to a noble dame who asked him what he thought +of Liszt's compositions. He answered by putting another question: "What +would you think if Ludwig Devrient, after he had played Shakespeare, +Schiller, and Goethe with the complete mastery of genius, had said to +himself in his fiftieth year: 'Why should I not be able also to write +what I play so admirably? I'll be no longer a play actor; henceforth +I'll be a tragic poet'?" + +Die Ideale was performed for the first time in England at a concert at +the Crystal Palace, April 16, 1881, with August Manns conductor. + +This is C. A. Barry's answer to the question, Why was Liszt obliged to +invent the term symphonic poem? + +It may be explained that finding the symphonic form, as by rule +established, inadequate for the purposes of _poetic_ music, which has +for its aim the reproduction and re-enforcement of the emotional essence +of dramatic scenes, as they are embodied in poems or pictures, he felt +himself constrained to adopt certain divergences from the prescribed +symphonic form, and, for the new art-form thus created, was consequently +obliged to invent a more appropriate title than that of "symphony," the +formal conditions of which this would not fulfil. The inadequateness of +the old symphonic form for translating into music imaginative +conceptions arising from poems or pictures, and which necessarily must +be presented in a fixed order, lies in its "recapitulation" section. +This Liszt has dropped; and the necessity of so doing is apparent. Hence +he has been charged with formlessness. In justification, therefore, of +his mode of procedure, it may be pointed out to those of his critics who +regard every divergence from the established form as tending to +formlessness, that the form which he has devised for his symphonic poems +in the main differs less from the established form than at first sight +appears. A comparison of the established form of the so-called classical +period with that devised by Liszt will make this apparent. + +The former may be described as consisting of (1) the exposition of the +principal subjects; (2) their development; and (3) their recapitulation. +For this Liszt has substituted (1) exposition, (2) development, and (3) +further development; or, as Wagner has tersely expressed it, "nothing +else but that which is demanded by the subject and its expressible +development." Thus, though from sheer necessity, rigid formality has +been sacrificed to truthfulness, unity and consistency are as fully +maintained as upon the old system, but by a different method, the +reasonableness of which cannot be disputed. + + +A FAUST SYMPHONY + +Franz Liszt as a composer was born too soon. Others plucked from his +amiable grasp the fruits of his originality. When Stendhal declared in +1830 that it would take the world fifty years to comprehend his analytic +genius he was a prophet, indeed, for about 1880, his work was felt by +writers of that period, Paul Bourget and the rest, and lived again in +their pages. But poor, wonderful Liszt, Liszt whose piano playing set +his contemporaries to dancing the same mad measure we recognise in these +days, Liszt the composer had to knock unanswered at many critical doors +for a bare recognition of his extraordinary merits. + +One man, a poor, struggling devil, a genius of the footlights, wrote +him encouraging words, not failing to ask for a dollar by way of +compensating postscript. Richard Wagner discerned the great musician +behind the virtuoso in Liszt, discerned it so well that, fearing others +would not, he appropriated in a purely fraternal manner any of Liszt's +harmonic, melodic, and orchestral ideas that happened to suit him. So +heavily indebted was he to the big-hearted Hungarian that he married his +daughter Cosima, thus keeping in the family a "Sacred Fount"--as Henry +James would say--of inspiration. Wagner not only borrowed Liszt's +purse, but also his themes. + +Nothing interests the world less than artistic plagiarism. If the +filching be but cleverly done, the setting of the stolen gems +individual, who cares for the real creator! He may go hang, or else +visit Bayreuth and enjoy the large dramatic style in which his themes +are presented. Liszt preferred the latter way; besides, Wagner was his +son-in-law. A story is told that Wagner, appreciating the humour of his +_Alberich_-like explorations in the Liszt scores, sat with his +father-in-law at the first Ring rehearsals in 1876, and when Sieglinde's +dream words "Kehrte der Vater nun heim" began, Wagner nudged Liszt, +exclaiming: "Now, papa, comes a theme which I got from you." "All +right," was the ironic answer, "then one will at least hear it." + +This theme, which may be found on page 179 of Kleinmichael's piano +score, appears at the beginning of Liszt's Faust Symphony. Wagner had +heard it at a festival of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Musik Verein in +1861. He liked it so well that he cried aloud: "Music furnishes us with +much that is beautiful, but this music is divinely beautiful!" + +Liszt was already a revolutionist when Wagner published his sonata Op. +1, with its echoes of Haydn and Mozart. The Revolutionary Symphony still +survives in part in Liszt's eighth symphonic poem. These two early works +when compared show who was the real path breaker. Compare Orpheus and +Tristan and Isolde; the Faust Symphony and Tristan; Benediction de Dieu +and Isolde's Liebestod; Die Ideale and Der Ring--Das Rheingold in +particular; Invocation and Parsifal; Battle of the Huns and Kundry-Ritt; +The Legend of Saint Elizabeth and Parsifal, Excelsior and Parsifal. + +The principal theme of the Faust Symphony may be heard in Die Walkuere, +and one of its most characteristic themes appears, note for note, as the +"glance" motive in Tristan. The Gretchen motive in Wagner's Eine Faust +Ouverture is derived from Liszt, and the opening theme of the Parsifal +prelude follows closely the earlier written Excelsior of Liszt. + +All this to reassure timid souls who suspect Liszt of pilfering. In +William Mason's Memories of a Musical Life is a letter sent to the +American pianist, bearing date of December 14, 1854, in which the +writer, Liszt, says, "Quite recently I have written a long symphony in +three parts, called Faust [without text or vocal parts] in which the +_horrible_ measures 7-8, 7-4, 5-4 alternate with common time and 3-4." +And Liszt had already finished his Dante Symphony. Wagner finished the +full score of Rheingold in 1854, that of Die Walkuere in 1856; the last +act of Tristan was ended in 1859. The published correspondence of +the two men prove that Wagner studied the manuscripts of Liszt's +symphonic poems carefully, and, as we must acknowledge, with wonderful +assimilative discrimination. Liszt was the loser, the world of dramatic +music the gainer thereby. + +Knowing these details we need not be surprised at the Wagnerian--alas, +it may be the first in the field who wins!--colour, themes, traits of +instrumentation, individual treatment of harmonic progressions that +abound in the symphony which Mr. Paur read for us so sympathetically. +For example, one astounding transposition--let us give the theft a +polite musical name--occurs in the second, the Gretchen, movement where +Siegfried, disguised as Hagen, appears in the Liszt orchestra near the +close. + +You rub your eyes as you hear the fateful chords, enveloped in the +peculiar green and sinister light we so admire in Gotterdaemmerung. Even +the atmosphere is abducted by Wagner. It is all magnificent, this +Nietzsche-like seizure of the weaker by the stronger man. + +To search further for these parallelisms might prove disquieting. +Suffice to say that the beginnings of Wagner from Rienzi to Parsifal may +be found deposited nugget-wise in this Lisztian Golconda. The true +history of Liszt as composer has yet to be written; his marvellous +versatility--he overflowed in every department of his art--his industry +are memorable. Richard Wagner's dozen music-dramas, ten volumes of prose +polemics and occasional orchestral pieces make no better showing when +compared to the labours of his brain-and-money-banker, Franz Liszt. + +Nor was Wagner the only one of the Forty Thieves who visited this Ali +Baba cavern. If Liszt learned much from Chopin, Meyerbeer--the duo from +the fourth act of Huguenots is in the Gretchen section--and Berlioz, the +younger men, Tschaikowsky, Rubinstein, and Richard Strauss, have simply +polished white and bare the ribs of the grand old mastodon of Weimar. + +Faust is not a symphony. (Query: What is the symphonic archetype?) +Rather is it a congeries of symphonic moods, structurally united by +emotional intimacy and occasional thematic concourse. The movements are +respectively labelled Faust, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles, the task, an +impossibly tremendous one, being the embodiment in tones of the general +characteristics of Goethe's poetic-philosophic master-work. + +Therefore, discarding critical crutches, it is best to hear the +composition primarily as absolute music. We know that it is in C minor; +that the four leading motives may typify intellectual doubt, striving, +longing, and pride--the last in a triumphant E major; that the Gretchen +music--too lengthy--is replete with maidenly sweetness overshadowed by +the masculine passion of Faust (and also his theme); that in the +Mephistopheles Liszt appears in his most characteristic pose--Abbe's +robe tucked up, Pan's hoofs showing, and the air charged with cynical +mockeries and travesties of sacred love and ideals (themes are +topsy-turvied a la Berlioz); and that at the close this devil's dance is +transformed by the great comedian-composer into a mystic chant with +music celestial in its white-robed purities; Goethe's words, "Alles +Vergaengliche," ending with the consoling "Das Ewig weiblich zieht uns +hinan." + +But the genius of it all! The indescribable blending of the sensuous, +the mystic, the diabolic; the master grasp on the psychologic +development--and the imaginative musical handling of themes in which +every form, fugal, lyric, symphonic, latter-day poetic-symphonic, is +juggled with in Liszt's transcendental manner. The Richard Strauss +scores are structurally more complex, while, as painters, Wagner, +Tschaikowski, and Strauss outpoint Liszt at times. But he is Heervater +Wotan the Wise, or, to use a still more expressive German term, he is +the Urquell of young music, of musical anarchy--an anarchy that traces a +spiritual air-route above certain social tendencies of this century. + +Nevertheless it must be confessed that there are some dreary moments in +the Faust. + + +SYMPHONY AFTER DANTE'S DIVINA COMMEDIA + +The first sketches of this symphony were made during Liszt's stay at the +country house of the Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein at Woronice, +October, 1847--February, 1848. The symphony was finished in 1855, and +the score was published in 1858. The first performance was at Dresden on +November 7, 1857, under the direction of Wilhelm Fischer. The first +part, Inferno, was produced in Boston at a Philharmonic Concert, Mr. +Listemann conductor, November 19, 1880. The whole symphony was performed +at Boston at a Symphony Concert, Mr. Gericke conductor, February 27, +1886. + +The work is scored for 3 flutes (one interchangeable with piccolo), 2 +oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 +trumpets, 3 trombones, bass tuba, 2 sets of kettle-drums, cymbals, bass +drum, gong, 2 harps, harmonium, strings, and chorus of female voices. +The score is dedicated to Wagner: "As Virgil led Dante, so hast thou led +me through the mysterious regions of tone-worlds drunk with life. From +the depths of my heart I cry to thee: 'Tu se lo mio maestro, e 'l mio +autore!' and dedicate in unalterable love this work. Weimar, Easter, +'59." + +_I. Inferno: Lento, 4-4._ + + Per me si va nella citta dolente: + Per me si va nell' eterno dolore: + Per me si va tra la perduta gente! + + Through me the way is to the city dolent; + Through me the way is to eternal dole; + Through me the way among the people lost. + + --_Longfellow._ + +These words, read by Dante as he looked at the gate of hell, are +thundered out by trombones, tuba, double basses, etc.; and immediately +after trumpets and horn make the dreadful proclamation (C-sharp minor): +"Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate" ("All hope abandon, ye who +enter in.") Liszt has written the Italian lines under the theme in the +score. The two "Hell motives" follow, the first a descending chromatic +passage in the lower strings against roll of drums, the second given to +bassoons and violas. There is illustration of Dante's lines that +describe the "sighs, complaints, and ululations loud":-- + + Languages diverse, horrible dialects, + Accents of anger, words of agony, + And voices high and hoarse, with sound of hands, + Made up a tumult that goes whirling on + Forever in that air forever black, + Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind breathes. + + --_Longfellow._ + +The Allegro frenetico, 2-2, in the development paints the madness of +despair, the rage of the damned. Again there is the cry, "All hope +abandon" (trumpets, horns, trombones, tuba). There is a lull in the +orchestral storm. Quasi Andante, 5-4. Harps, flutes, violins, a +recitative of bass clarinet and two clarinets lead to the episode of +Francesca da Rimini and Paolo. The cor anglais sings the lamentation:-- + + There is no greater sorrow + Than to be mindful of the happy time + In misery. + +Before the 'cello takes up the melody sung by the clarinet, the Lasciate +theme is heard (muted horn, solo,) and then in three tempo, Andante +amoroso, 7-4, comes the love duet, which ends with the Lasciate motive. +A harp cadenza brings the return to the first allegro tempo, in which +the Lasciate theme in combination with the two Hell motives is developed +with grotesque and infernal orchestration. There is this remark in the +score: "This whole passage should be understood as sardonic, blasphemous +laughter and most sharply defined as such." After the repetition of +nearly the whole of the opening section of the allegro the Lasciate +theme is heard _fff_. + +_II. Purgatorio and Magnificat._ The section movement begins Andante con +moto, D major, 4-4. According to the composer there is the suggestion of +a vessel that sails slowly over an unruffled sea. The stars begin to +glitter, there is a cloudless sky, there is a mystic stillness. Over a +rolling figuration is a melody first for horn, then oboe, the Meditation +motive. This period is repeated a half-tone higher. The Prayer theme is +sung by 'cello, then by first violin. There is illustration of Dante's +tenth canto, and especially of the passage where the sinners call to +remembrance the good that they did not accomplish. This remorseful and +penitent looking-back and the hope in the future inspired Liszt, +according to his commentator, Richard Pohl, to a fugue based on a most +complicated theme. After this fugue the gentle Prayer and Repentance +melodies are heard. Harp chords established the rhythm of the Magnificat +(three flutes ascending in chords of E-flat). This motive goes through +sundry modulations. And now an unseen chorus of women, accompanied by +harmonium, sings, "Magnificat anima mea Dominum et exultavit spiritus +meus, in Deo salutari meo" (My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit +hath rejoiced in God my Saviour). A solo voice, that of the Mater +Gloriosa, repeats the song. A short choral passage leads to "Hosanna +Halleluja." The final harmonies are supposed to illustrate the passage +in the twenty-first canto of the Paradiso:-- + + I saw rear'd up, + In colour like to sun-illumined gold, + A ladder, which my ken pursued in vain, + So lofty was the summit; down whose steps + I saw the splendours in such multitude + Descending, every light in heaven, methought, + Was shed thence. + + --_H. F. Cary._ + +The "Hosanna" is again heard, and the symphony ends in soft harmonies (B +major) with the first Magnificat theme. + +Liszt wrote to Wagner, June 2, 1855: "Then you are reading Dante? He is +excellent company for you. I, on my part, shall furnish a kind of +commentary to his work. For a long time I had in my head a Dante +symphony, and in the course of this year it is to be finished. There are +to be three movements, 'Hell,' 'Purgatory,' and 'Paradise,' the two +first purely instrumental, the last with chorus." + +Wagner wrote in reply a long letter from London: "That 'Hell' and +'Purgatory' will succeed I do not call into question for a moment, but +as to 'Paradise' I have some doubts, which you confirm by saying that +your plan includes choruses. In the Ninth Symphony the last choral +movement is decidedly the weakest part, although it is historically +important, because it discloses to us in a very naive manner the +difficulties of a real musician who does not know how (after hell and +purgatory) he is to describe paradise. About this paradise, dearest +Franz, there is in reality a considerable difficulty, and he who +confirms this opinion is, curiously enough, Dante himself, the singer of +Paradise, which in his 'Divine Comedy' also is decidedly the weakest +part." And then Wagner wrote at length concerning Dante, Christianity, +Buddhism, and other matters. "But, perhaps, you will succeed better, and +as you are going to paint a _tone_ picture, I might almost predict your +success, for music is essentially the artistic, original image of the +world. For the initiated no error is here possible. Only about the +'Paradise,' and especially about the choruses, I feel some friendly +anxiety." + +The next performance of the symphony in Boston was May 1, 1903, again +under the direction of Mr. Gericke. Mr. Philip Hale furnished the notes +for the analytical programme. Richard Pohl, whose critical annotations +were prompted and approved by Liszt, points out that a composer worthy +of a theme like Faust must be something more than a tone-composer: his +concern ought to be with something that neither the word with its +concrete definiteness can express, nor form and colour can actually +realise, and this something is the world of the profoundest and most +intimate feelings that unveil themselves to man's mind only in tones. +None but the tone poet can render the fundamental moods. But in order to +seize them in their totality, he must abstract from the material moments +of Dante's epic, and can at most allude to few of them. On the other +hand, he must also abstract from the dramatic and philosophical +elements. These were Liszt's views on the treatment of the subject. + +The Dante idea had obsessed Liszt for years. In 1847 he had planned +musical illustrations of certain scenes from the epic with the aid of +the newly-invented Diorama. This plan was never carried out. The +Fantasia quasi-sonata for pianoforte (Annees de Pelerinage), suggested +by a poem of Victor Hugo, "Apres une lecture de Dante," is presumably a +sketch; it is full of fuliginous grandeur and whirling rhythms. Composed +of imagination and impulse, his mind saturated with contemporary +literature, Liszt's genius, as Dannreuther declares, was one that could +hardly express itself save through some other imaginative medium. He +devoted his extraordinary mastery of instrumental technique to the +purposes of illustrative expression; and, adds the authority cited, he +was now and then inclined to do so in a manner that tends to reduce his +music to the level of decorative scene painting or _affresco_ work. But +the unenthusiastic critic admits that there are episodes of sublimity +and great beauty in the Dante Symphony. The influence of Berlioz is not +marked in this work. + + +WEINGARTNER'S AND RUBINSTEIN'S CRITICISMS + +In his The Symphony Since Beethoven, Felix Weingartner, renowned as a +conductor and composer, has said some pertinent things of the Liszt +symphonic works. It must not be forgotten that he was a pupil of the +Hungarian composer. He has been discussing Beethoven's first Leonora +overture and continues thus: + +"The same defects that mark the Ideale mark Liszt's Bergsymphonie, and, +in spite of some beauties, his Tasso. Some other of his orchestral +works, as Hamlet, Prometheus, Heroide Funebre, are inferior through +weakness of invention. An improvisatore style, often passing into +dismemberment, is peculiar to most of Liszt's compositions. I might say +that while Brahms is characterised by a musing reflective element, in +Liszt a rhapsodical element has the upper hand, and can be felt as a +disturbing element in his weaker works. Masterpieces, besides those +already mentioned, are the Hungaria, Festklaenge the Hunnenschlacht, a +fanciful piece of elementary weird power; Les Preludes, and, above all, +the two great symphonies to Faust and Dante's Divine Comedy. The Faust +Symphony intends not at all to embody musically Goethe's poem, but +gives, as its title indicates, three character figures, Faust, Gretchen +and Mephistopheles. The art and fancy with which Liszt here makes and +develops psychologic, dramatic variation of a theme are shown in the +third movement. Mephistopheles, the 'spirit that denies,' 'for all that +does arise deserves to perish,' is the principle of the piece. + +"Hence, Liszt could not give it a theme of its own, but built up the +whole movement out of caricatures of previous themes referring specially +to Faust; and it is only stupid lack of comprehension that brought +against Liszt, in a still higher degree than against Berlioz, the +reproach of poverty of invention. I ask if our old masters made great +movements by the manifold variation of themes of a few bars, ought the +like to be forbidden to a composer when a recognisably poetic thought is +the moving spring? Does not invention belong to such characteristic +variation? And just this movement reveals to us most clearly Liszt's +profound knowledge of the real nature of music. When the hellish Devil's +brood has grown to the most appalling power, then, hovering in the +clouds of glory, the main theme of the Gretchen movement appears in its +original, untouched beauty. Against it the might of the devil is +shattered, and sinks back into nothing. The poet might let Gretchen +sink, nay, become a criminal; the musician, in obedience to the ideal, +noble character of his art, preserves for her a form of light. Powerful +trombone calls resound through the dying hell-music, a male chorus +begins softly Goethe's sublime words of the chorus mysticus, 'All that +is transient is emblem alone,' and in the clearly recognised notes of +the Gretchen theme a tenor voice continues, 'The ever-womanly draweth us +up!' This tenor voice may be identified with Goethe's Doctor Marianus; +we may imagine Gretchen glorified into the Mater Gloriosa, and recall +Faust's words when he beholds Gretchen's image in the vanishing clouds: + + 'Like some fair soul, the lovely form ascends, + And, not dissolving, rises to the skies + And draws away the best within me with it.' + +"So, in great compositions, golden threads spun from sunshine move +between the music and the inspiring poetry, light and swaying, adorning +both arts, fettering neither. + +"Perhaps with still more unity and power than the Faust Symphony is the +tone poem to Dante's Divine Comedy, with its thrilling representations +of the torments of hell and the 'purgatorio,' gradually rising in higher +and higher spheres of feeling. In these works Liszt gave us the best he +could give. They mark the summit of his creative power, and the ripest +fruit of that style of programme music that is artistically justified, +since Berlioz. + +"Outside of these two symphonies Liszt's orchestral works consist of +only one movement and, as you know, are entitled Symphonic Poems. The +title is extremely happy, and seems to lay down the law, perhaps +the only law that a composition must follow if it has any raison +d'etre. Let it be a 'poem,' that is, let it grow out of a poetic +idea, an inspiration of the soul, which remains either unspoken or +communicated to the public by the title and programme; but let it also +be 'symphonic,' which here is synonymous with 'musical.' Let it have a +form, either one derived from the classic masters, or a new one that +grows out of the contents and is adapted to them. Formlessness in art is +always censurable and in music can never win pardon by a programme or by +'what the composer was thinking.' Liszt's symphonic works show a great +first step on a new path. Whoever wishes to follow it must, before all +things, be careful not to imitate Liszt's weakness, a frequently +remarkable disjointed conception, nor to make it a law, but to write +compositions which are more than musical illustrations to programmes." + +Rubinstein, though he had been intimate with Liszt at Weimar, and +profiting by his advice, made no concealment of his aversion to the +compositions. In his "Conversation on Music" he said: "Liszt's career as +a composer from 1853 is, according to my idea, a very disappointing one. +In every one of his compositions 'one marks design and is displeased.' +We find programme music carried to the extreme, also continual +posing--in his church music before God, in his orchestral music works +before the public, in his transcriptions of songs before the composers, +in his Hungarian rhapsodies before the gipsies--in short, always and +everywhere posing. + +"'Dans les arts il faut faire grand' was his usual dictum, therefore the +affectation in his work. His fashion for creating something new--a +tout prix--caused him to form entire compositions out of a simple +theme.... So: the sonata form--to set this aside means to extemporise +a fantasia that is however not a symphony, not a sonata, not a +concerto. Architecture is nearest allied to music in its fundamental +principles--can a formless house or church or any other building be +imagined? Or a structure, where the facade is a church, another part of +the structure a railway station, another part a floral pavilion, and +still another part a manufactory, and so on? Hence lack of form in music +is improvisation, yes, borders almost on digression. Symphonic poems (so +he calls his orchestral works) are supposed to be another new form of +art--whether a necessity and vital enough to live, time, as in the case +of Wagner's Music-Drama, must teach us. His orchestral instrumentation +exhibits the same mastery as that of Berlioz and Wagner, even bears +their stamp; with that, however, it is to be remembered that his +pianoforte is the _Orchestra-Pianoforte_ and his orchestra the +_Pianoforte-Orchestra_, for the orchestral composition sounds like an +instrumented pianoforte composition. All in all I see in Berlioz, +Wagner, and Liszt, the Virtuoso-Composer, and I would be glad to believe +that their 'breaking all bounds' may be an advantage to the coming +genius. In the sense, however, of specifically musical creation I can +recognise neither one of them as a composer--and, in addition to this, I +have noticed so far that all three of them are wanting in the chief +charm of creation--the naive--that stamp of geniality and, at the same +time, that proof that genius after all is a child of humanity. Their +influence on the composers of the day is great, but as I believe +unhealthy." + + +THE RHAPSODIES + +Liszt wrote fifteen compositions for the pianoforte, to which he gave +the name of Rhapsodies Hongroises; they are based on national Magyar +melodies. Of these he, assisted by Franz Doppler, scored six for +orchestra. There is considerable confusion between the pianoforte set +and the orchestral transcriptions, in the matter of numbering. Some of +the orchestral transcriptions, too, are transposed to different keys +from the originals. Here are the lists of both sets. + +ORIGINAL SET, FOR PIANOFORTE. + + I. In E-flat major, dedicated to E. Zerdahely. + + II. In C-sharp minor and F-sharp major, dedicated to Count + Ladislas Teleki. + + III. In B-flat major, dedicated to Count Leo Festetics. + + IV. In E-flat major, dedicated to Count Casimir Eszterhazy. + + V. _Heroide elegiaque_, in E minor, dedicated to Countess + Sidonie Reviczky. + + VI. In D-flat major, dedicated to Count Antoine d'Apponyi. + + VII. In D minor, dedicated to Baron Fery Orczy. + + VIII. In F-sharp minor, dedicated to M. A. d'Augusz. + + IX. _Le Carnaval de Pesth_, in E-flat major, dedicated to H. W. + Ernst. + + X. _Preludio_, in E major, dedicated to Egressy Beny. + + XI. In A minor, dedicated to Baron Fery Orczy. + + XII. In C-sharp minor, dedicated to Joseph Joachim. + + XIII. In A minor, dedicated to Count Leo Festetics. + + XIV. In F minor, dedicated to Hans von Buelow. + + XV. _Rakoczy Marsch_, in A minor. + +ORCHESTRAL SET. + + I. In F minor (No. 14 of the original set). + + II. Transposed to D minor (No. 12 " " " "). + + III. Transposed to D major (No. 6 " " " "). + + IV. Transposed to D minor and G major (No. 2 " " " "). + + V. In E minor (No. 5 " " " "). + + VI. _~Pesther~ Carneval_, transposed to D major (No. 9 " " " "). + +The dedications remain the same as in the original set. + + +AUGUST SPANUTH'S ANALYSIS + +August Spanuth, now the editor of the _Signale_ in Berlin, wrote _inter +alia_ of the Rhapsodies in his edition prepared for the Ditsons: + +"After Liszt's memorable visit to his native country in 1840 he freely +submitted to the influence of the gipsy music. The catholicity of his +musical taste, due to his very sensitive and receptive nature as well as +his cosmopolitan life, would have enabled him to usurp the musical +characteristics of any nation, no matter how uncouth, and work wonders +with them. His versatility and resourcefulness in regard to form seemed +to be inexhaustible, and he would certainly have been able to write some +interesting fantasias on Hungarian themes had his affection for that +country been only acquired instead of inborn. Fortunately his heart was +in the task, and Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies not only rank among his +most powerful and convincing works, but must also be counted as superior +specimens of national music in general. It does not involve an injustice +toward Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert, who occasionally affected +Hungarian peculiarities in their compositions, to state that it was +Liszt who with his rhapsodies and kindred compositions started a new era +of Hungarian music. 'Tunes' which heretofore served to amuse a +motley crowd at the czardas on the 'Puszta' have through Liszt been +successfully introduced into legitimate music. And most wonderful of +all, he has not hesitated to preserve all the drastic and coarse effects +of the gipsy band without ever leaning toward vulgarity. Who, before +Franz Liszt, would have dreamed of employing cymbal-effects in +legitimate piano playing? Liszt, such is the power of artistic +transfiguration, imitates the cymbal to perfection and yet does not mar +the illusion of refinement; while, on the other hand, the cymbal as a +solo instrument must still impress us as primitive and rude. Liszt did +not conceive the Hungarian music with his outer ear alone, as most of +his numerous imitators did. They caught but the outline, some rhythmical +features and some stereotyped ornaments; but Liszt was able to penetrate +to the very source of it, he carried the key to its secret in his +Hungarian temperament. + +"To speak of Hungarian folk-songs is hardly permissible since a song +includes the words as well as the music. Hungary is a polyglot country, +and a song belonging through its words, as well as its notes, to the +vast majority of the inhabitants is therefore an impossibility. The +Magyars, of course, claim to be the only genuine Hungarians, and +since they settled there almost a thousand years ago and are still +indisputably the dominating race of the country, their claim may remain +uncontested. Even the fact that the Magyars are but half of the total of +a strange mixture, made up of heterogeneous elements, would not +necessarily render invalid any pretension that their songs are the +genuine Hungarian songs. But the proud Magyar will admit that Hungarian +music is first and foremost gipsy music, Hungarian gipsy music. How much +the Magyars have originally contributed to this music does not appear to +be clear. Perhaps more research may lead to other results, but the now +generally accepted conjecture gives the rhythmic features to the Magyars +and the characteristic ornaments to the gipsies. It will probably not be +denied that this presumption looks more like a compromise than the fruit +of thorough scientific investigation. Furthermore, rhythm and ornaments +are in Hungarian music so closely knit that it seems incomprehensible +that they should have originated as characteristic features of two races +so widely divergent. If this is so, however, we may hope that out of our +own negro melodies and the songs of other elements of our population +real American folk-music will yet after centuries develop, though it is +to be feared that neither the negroes nor other inhabitants of the +United States will be in a position to preserve sufficient naivete, +indispensable for the production of real folk-music. Otherwise the +analogon is promising, the despised gipsy taking socially about the same +position in Hungary as our own negro here. + +"The Hungarian music as known to-day will impress everybody as a unit; +so much so that its restrictions are obvious, and likely to produce a +monotonous effect if too much of it is offered. Above all, this music is +purely instrumental and therefore different from all other folk-music. +It is based, though not exclusively, on a peculiar scale, the harmonic +minor scale with an augmented fourth. Some commentators read this scale +differently by starting at the dominant. Thus it appears as a major +scale with a diminished second and a minor sixth, a sort of major-minor +mode. The latter scale can be found on the last page of Liszt's +Fifteenth Rhapsody, where it runs from _a_ to _a_, thus: _a_, _b_-flat, +_c_-sharp, _d_, _e_, _f_, _g_-sharp and _a_. But for every scale of this +construction a dozen of the former may be gathered in the Rhapsodies. +While the notes are identical in both, the effect upon the ear is +different, according to the starting note, just as the descending +melodic minor scale is _de facto_ the same as the relative major scale, +but not in its effect. The austerity and acidity of the altered harmonic +minor scale is the chief characteristic of the melodious and harmonic +elements of Hungarian music. Imbued with a plaintive and melancholy +flavour this mode will always be recognised as the gipsy kind. To revel +in sombre melodies seems to be one half of the purpose of Hungarian +music, and in logical opposition a frolicsome gaiety the other half. In +the regular czardas, a rustic dance at the wayside inn on the Puszta, +the melancholy _lassan_ alternates in well-proportioned intervals with +the extravagant and boisterous _friska_. The rhythm may be said to be a +sort of spite-rhythm, very decisive in most cases, but most of the time +in syncopation. This rhythm proves conclusively that the origin of +Hungarian music is instrumental, for even in cantabile periods, where +the melody follows a more dreamy vein, the syncopations are seldom +missing in the accompaniment. At every point one is reminded that the +dance was father to this music, a dance of unconventional movements +where the dancer seems to avoid the step which one expected him to take, +and instead substitutes a queer but graceful jerk. Where actual jerks in +the melody would be inopportune, the ornaments are at hand and help to +prevent every semblance of conventionality. + +"Liszt, of course, has widened the scope of these ornamental features +considerably. His fertility in applying such ornaments to each and every +musical thought he is spinning is stupendous. In all his nineteen +rhapsodies--the Twentieth Rhapsody is still in manuscript--the style, +form, constructive idea, and application of these ornaments are +different, but every one is characteristic not only of Hungarian music +in general, but of the rhapsody in particular. + +"Both the syncopated rhythm and the rich ornamentation which naturally +necessitate a frequent tempo rubato help to avoid the monotony which +might result from the fact that Hungarian music moves in even rhythm +only. Four-quarter and two-quarter time prevail throughout, while +three-quarter and six-eight do not seem to fit in the rhythmic design of +Hungarian music. Attempts have been made to introduce uneven rhythm, +but they were not successful. Where three-quarter and similar rhythm +appears, the Hungarian spirit evaporates. Much more variety is available +regarding the tempo, the original _lassan_ and _friska_ not being +indispensable. A moderate and graceful _allegretto_ is frequently used +by Liszt, and he also graduates the speed of the brilliant finales as +well as the languor of the introductions of his Rhapsodies." + + +AS SONG WRITER + +"It is not known exactly when Liszt began to compose songs," writes +Henry T. Finck in his volume on Songs and Song Writers. "The best of +them belong to the Weimar period, when he was in the full maturity of +his creative power. There are stories of songs inspired by love while he +lived in Paris; and he certainly did write six settings of French songs, +chiefly by Victor Hugo. These he prepared for the press in 1842. While +less original in melody and modulation than the best of his German +songs, they have a distinct French esprit and elegance which attest his +power of assimilation and his cosmopolitanism. These French songs, +fortunately for his German admirers, were translated by Cornelius. +Italian leanings are betrayed by his choice of poems by Petrarca and +Bocella; but, as already intimated his favourite poets are Germans: +Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Uhland, Rueckert and +others. Goethe--who could not even understand Schubert, and to whom +Liszt's music would have been pure Chinese--is favoured by settings of +Mignon's Lied (Kennst du das Land), Es war ein Koenig in Thule, Der du +von dem Himmel bist, Ueber allen Gipfeln ist Ruh, Wer nie sein Brod mit +Thraenen aess, Freudvoll und Leidvoll (two versions). + +"Mignon was the second of his German songs, and it is the most deeply +emotional of all the settings of that famous poem. Longing is its +keynote; longing for blue-skyed Italy, with its orange groves, marble +treasures and other delights. One of the things which Wagner admired in +Liszt's music was 'the inspired definiteness of musical conception' +which enabled him to concentrate his thought and feeling in so pregnant +a way that one felt inclined to exclaim after a few bars: 'Enough, I +have it all.' The opening bar of Mignon's Lied thus seems to condense +the longing of the whole song; yet, as the music proceeds, we find it is +only a prelude to a wealth of musical detail which colours and +intensifies every word and wish of the poem. + +"All of the six settings of Goethe poems are gems, and Dr. Hueffer quite +properly gave each of them a place in his collection of Twenty Liszt +Songs. Concerning the Wanderer's Night Song (Ueber allen Gipfeln ist +Ruh), Dr. Hueffer has well said that Liszt has rendered the heavenly +calm of the poem by his wonderful harmonies in a manner which alone +would secure him a place among the great masters of German song. +'Particularly the modulation from G major back into the original E major +at the close of the piece is of surprising beauty.' + +"For composers of musical lyrics Schiller wrote much fewer available +poems than Goethe. But Schubert owed to him one of his finest songs, The +Maiden's Lament, and next to him as an illustrator of Schiller I feel +inclined to place Liszt, who is at his best in his settings of three +poems from William Tell, The Fisher Boy, The Shepherd and The Alpine +Hunter. Liszt, like Schubert, favours poems which bring a scene or a +story vividly before the mind's eye, and he loves to write music which +mirrors these pictorial features. Schubert's Mullerlieder seemed to have +exhausted the possible ways of depicting in music the movements of the +waters--but listen to the rippling arpeggios in Liszt's Fisher Boy, +embodying the acquisitions of modern pianistic technic. The shepherd's +song brings before our eyes and ears the flower meadows and the brooks +of the peaceful Alpine world in summer, while the song of the hunter +gives us dissolving views of destructive avalanches and appalling +precipices, with sudden glimpses, through cloud rifts, of meadows and +hamlets at dizzy depths below. Wagner himself, in the grandest mountain +and cloud scenes of the Walkuere and Siegfried, has not written more +superbly dissonant and appropriate dramatic music than has Liszt in this +exciting song." + +The King of Thule and Lorely are masterpieces and contain in essence all +the dramatic lyricism of modern writers, Strauss included. + + +PIANO AND ORCHESTRA + +CONCERTO FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA, No. 1, IN E FLAT + +This, the better known of Liszt's two pianoforte concertos, is +constructed along the general lines of the symphonic poem--a species of +free orchestral composition which Liszt himself gave to the world. The +score embraces four sections arranged like the four movements of a +symphony, although their internal development is of so free a nature, +and they are merged one into another in such away as to give to the work +as a whole the character of one long movement developed from several +fundamental themes and sundry subsidiaries derived therefrom. The first +of these themes [this is the theme to which Liszt used to sing, "Das +versteht ihr alle nicht!" but, according to Von Buelow and Ramann, "Ihr +koennt alle nichts!"] appears at the outset, being given out by the +strings with interrupting chords of wood-wind and brass allegro maestoso +leading at once to an elaborate cadenza for the pianoforte. The second +theme, which marks the beginning of the second section--in B major, +Quasi adagio and 12-8 (4-4) time--is announced by the deeper strings +(muted) to be taken up by the solo instrument over flowing left-hand +arpeggios. A long trill for the pianoforte, embellished by expressive +melodies from sundry instruments of the orchestra, leads to the third +section--in F-flat minor, allegretto vivace and 3-4 time--whereupon the +strings give out a sparkling scherzo theme which the solo instrument +proceeds to develop capriciously. This section closes with a pianissimo +cadenza for the pianoforte following which a rhapsodical passage +(Allegro animato) leads to the finale--in E-flat major, Allegro marziale +animato and 4-4 time--in which the second theme reappears transformed +into a spirited march. + +The concerto was composed in 1848, revised in 1853, and published in +1857. It was performed for the first time at Weimar during the Berlioz +week, February 16, 1855, when Liszt was the pianist and Berlioz +conducted the orchestra. It is dedicated to Henri Litolff. + +Liszt wrote at some length concerning this concerto in a letter to +Eduard Liszt, dated Weimar, March 26, 1857: + +"The fourth movement of the concerto from the Allegro marziale +corresponds with the second movement, Adagio. It is only an urgent +recapitulation of the earlier subject-matter with quickened, livelier +rhythm, and contains no new motive, as will be clear to you by a glance +through the score. This kind of _binding together_ and rounding off a +whole piece at its close is somewhat my own, but it is quite maintained +and justified from the stand-point of musical form. The trombones and +basses take up the second part of the motive of the Adagio (B major). +The pianoforte figure which follows is no other than the reproduction of +the motive which was given in the Adagio by flute and clarinet, just as +the concluding passage is a Variante and working up in the major of the +motive of the Scherzo, until finally the first motive on the dominant +pedal B-flat, with a shake-accompaniment, comes in and concludes the +whole. + +"The Scherzo in E-flat minor, from the point where the triangle begins, +I employed for the effect of contrast. + +"As regards the triangle I do not deny that it may give offence, +especially if struck too strong and not precisely. A preconceived +disinclination and objection to instruments of percussion prevails, +somewhat justified by the frequent misuse of them. And few conductors +are circumspect enough to bring out the rhythmic element in them, +without the raw addition of a coarse noisiness, in works in which they +are deliberately employed according to the intention of the composer. +The dynamic and rhythmic spicing and enhancement, which are effected by +the instruments of percussion, would in more cases be much more +effectually produced by the careful trying and proportioning of +insertions and additions of that kind. But musicians who wish to appear +serious and solid prefer to treat the instruments of percussion _en +canaille_, which must not make their appearance in the seemly company +of the symphony. They also bitterly deplore inwardly that Beethoven +allowed himself to be seduced into using the big drum and triangle in +the Finale of the Ninth Symphony. Of Berlioz, Wagner, and my humble +self, it is no wonder that 'like draws to like,' and, as we are treated +as impotent _canaille_ amongst musicians, it is quite natural that we +should be on good terms with the _canaille_ among the instruments. +Certainly here, as in all else, it is the right thing to seize upon and +hold fast [the] mass of harmony. In face of the most wise proscription +of the learned critics I shall, however, continue to employ instruments +of percussion, and think I shall yet win for them some effects little +known." + +"This eulogy of the triangle," Mr. Philip Hale says, "was inspired by +the opposition in Vienna when Pruckner played the concerto in that city +(season of 1856-57). Hanslick cursed the work by characterising it as a +'Triangle Concerto,' and for some years the concerto was therefore held +to be impossible. It was not played again in Vienna until 1869, when +Sophie Menter paid no attention to the advice of the learned and her +well-wishers. Lina Ramann tells the story. Rubinstein, who happened to +be there, said to her: 'You are not going to be so crazy as to play this +concerto? No one has yet had any luck with it in Vienna.' Boesendorfer, +who represented the Philharmonic Society, warned her against it. To +which Sofie replied coolly in her Munich German: 'Wenn i does nit +spielen kann, speil i goar nit--i muss ja nit in Wien spielen' ('if I +can't play it, I don't play at all--I must not play in Vienna'). She did +play it, and with great success. + +"Yet the triangle is an old and esteemed instrument. In the eighteenth +century it was still furnished with metal rings, as was its forbear, the +sistrum. The triangle is pictured honourably in the second part of +Michael Praetorius' 'Syntagma musicum' (Part II., plate xxii., +Wolffenbuettel, 1618). Haydn used it in his military symphony, Schumann +in the first movement of his B-flat symphony; and how well Auber +understood its charm!" + + +CONCERTO FOR PIANO, NO. 2, IN A MAJOR + +This concerto, as well as the one in E-flat, was probably composed in +1848. It was revised in 1856 and in 1861, and published in 1863. It is +dedicated to Hans von Bronsart, by whom it was played for the first time +January 7, 1857, at Weimar. + +The autograph manuscript of this concerto bore the title, "Concert +Symphonique," and, as Mr. Apthorp once remarked, "The work might be +called a symphonic poem for pianoforte and orchestra, with the title, +'The Life and Adventures of a Melody.'" + +The concerto is in one movement. The first and chief theme binds the +various episodes into an organic whole. Adagio sostenuto assai, A +major, 3-4. The first theme is announced at once by wood-wind +instruments. It is a moaning and wailing theme, accompanied by harmonies +shifting in tonality. The pianoforte gives in arpeggios the first +transformation of this musical thought and in massive chords the second +transformation. The horn begins a new and dreamy song. After a short +cadenza of the solo instrument a more brilliant theme in D minor is +introduced and developed by both pianoforte and orchestra. A powerful +crescendo (pianoforte alternating with string and wood-wind instruments) +leads to a scherzo-like section of the concerto, Allegro agitato assai, +B-flat minor, 6-8. A side motive fortissimo (pianoforte) leads to a +quiet middle section. Allegro moderato, which is built substantially on +the chief theme (solo 'cello). A subsidiary theme, introduced by the +pianoforte, is continued by flute and oboe, and there is a return to the +first motive. A pianoforte cadenza leads to a new tempo. Allegro deciso, +in which rhythms of already noted themes are combined, and a new theme +appears (violas and 'cellos), which at last leads back to the tempo of +the quasi-scherzo. But let us use the words of Mr. Apthorp rather than a +dry analytical sketch: 'From this point onward the concerto is one +unbroken series of kaleidoscopic effects of the most brilliant and +ever-changing description; of musical form, of musical coherence even, +there is less and less. It is as if some magician in some huge cave, +the walls of which were covered with glistening stalactites and flashing +jewels, were revealing his fill of all the wonders of colour, +brilliancy, and dazzling light his wand could command. Never has even +Liszt rioted more unreservedly in fitful orgies of flashing colour. It +is monstrous, formless, whimsical, and fantastic, if you will; but it is +also magical and gorgeous as anything in the Arabian Nights. It is its +very daring and audacity that save it. And ever and anon the first +wailing melody, with its unearthly chromatic harmony, returns in one +shape or another, as if it were the dazzled neophyte to whom the +magician Liszt were showing all these splendours, while initiating it +into the mysteries of the world of magic, until it, too, becomes +magical, and possessed of the power of working wonders by black art.' + + +THE DANCE OF DEATH + +Liszt's Todtentanz is a tremendous work. This set of daring variations +had not been heard in New York since Franz Rummel played them years ago, +under the baton of the late Leopold Damrosch, although d'Albert, Siloti +and Alexander Lambert have had them on their programmes--in each case +some circumstance prevented our hearing them here. Harold Bauer played +them with the Boston Symphony, both in Boston and Brooklyn, and Philip +Hale, in his admirable notes on these concerts, has written in part: +"Liszt was thrilled by a fresco in the Campo Santo of Pisa, when he +sojourned there in 1838 and 1839. This fresco, The Triumph of Death, was +for many years attributed to a Florentine, Andrea Orcagna, but some +insist that it was painted by Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti." + +The right of this fantastical fresco portrays a group of men and women, +who, with dogs and falcons, appear to be back from the chase, or they +may be sitting as in Boccaccio's garden. They are sumptuously dressed. A +minstrel and a damsel sing to them, while cupids flutter about and wave +torches. But Death flies swiftly toward them, a fearsome woman, with +hair streaming wildly, with clawed hands. She is bat-winged, and her +clothing is stiff with mire. She swings a scythe, eager to end the joy +and delight of the world. Corpses lie in a heap at her feet--corpses of +kings, queens, cardinals, warriors, the great ones of the earth, whose +souls, in the shape of new born babes, rise out of them. "Angels like +gay butterflies" are ready to receive the righteous, who fold their +hands in prayer; demons welcome the damned, who shrink back with horror. +The devils, who are as beasts of prey or loathsome reptiles, fight for +souls; the angels rise to heaven with the saved; the demons drag their +victims to a burning mountain and throw them into the flames. And next +this heap of corpses is a crowd of beggars, cripples, miserable ones, +who beg Death to end their woe; but they do not interest her. A rock +separates this scene from another, the chase. Gallant lords and noble +dames are on horseback, and hunters with dogs and falcons follow in +their train. They come upon three open graves, in which lie three +princes in different stages of decay. An aged monk on crutches, possibly +the Saint Macarius, points to this _memento mori_. They talk gaily, +although one of them holds his nose. Only one of the party, a woman, +rests her head on her hand and shows a sorrowful face. On mountain +heights above are hermits, who have reached through abstinence and +meditation the highest state of human existence. One milks a doe while +squirrels play about him; another sits and reads; a third looks into a +valley that is rank with death. And, according to tradition, the faces +in this fresco are portraits of the painter's contemporaries. + +How such a scene must have appealed to Liszt is easily comprehensible, +and he put it into musical form by taking a dour Dies Irae theme and +putting it through the several variations of the emotions akin to the +sardonic. The composer himself referred to the work as "a monstrosity," +and he must have realised full well that it would stick in the crop of +the philistines. And it has. But Von Buelow stood godfather to the work +and dared criticism by playing it. + +As a work it is absolutely unconventional and follows no distinct +programme, as does the Saint-Saens "clever cemetery farce." Its opening +is gloomily impressive and the orchestration fearfully bold. The piano +in it is put to various uses, with a fill of _glissandi_ matching the +diabolic mood. The cadenzas might be dispensed with, but, after all, the +piece was written by Liszt, and cadenzas were a part of his nature. But +to take this work lightly is to jest with values. The theme itself is +far too great to be depreciated and the treatments of it are marvellous. +Our ears rebel a bit that the several variations were not joined--which +they might easily have been--and then the work would sound more _en +bloc_. But, notwithstanding, it is one of the most striking of Liszt's +piano compositions. + + +BURMEISTER ARRANGEMENTS + +Richard Burmeister made an arrangement of Liszt's Concerto Pathetique in +E minor by changing its original form for two pianos into a concerto for +piano solo with orchestral accompaniment. Until now the original has +remained almost an unknown composition; partly for the reason that it +needed for a performance two first rank piano virtuosi to master the +extreme technical difficulties and partly that Liszt had chosen for it +such a rhapsodical and whimsical form as to make it an absolutely +ineffective concert piece. Even Hans von Buelow tried in a new edition to +improve some passages by making them more consistent, but without +success. + +However, as the concerto contains pathetic musical ideas, among the best +Liszt conceived and is of too much value to be lost, Mr. Burmeister +ventured to give it a form by which he hopes to make it as popular as +the famous E-flat major concerto by the same composer. The task was a +rather risky one, as some radical changes had to be made and the +character of the composition preserved. + +To employ a comparison, Mr. Burmeister cut the concerto like a beautiful +but badly tuned bell into pieces and melted and moulded it again into a +new form. Some passages had to change places, some others to be omitted, +others again repeated and enlarged. Mr. Burmeister went even so far as +to add some of his own passages--for instance, a cadence at the +beginning of the piano part, the end of the slow movement and a +short fugato introducing the finale. As to the new form, the result +now comes very near to a restoration of the old classical form: +Allegro--Andante--Allegro. + +Mr. Burmeister has also made a very effective welding of Liszt's diabolic +Mephisto Waltz for piano and orchestra which he has successfully played +in Germany. He also arranged the Fifth Hungarian Rhapsody for piano and +orchestra (Heroide--Elegiaque). To Mr. Burmeister I am indebted for +valuable information regarding his beloved master Liszt, with whom he +studied in Weimar, Rome and Budapest. + + +THE OPERATIC PARAPHRASES + +"It is commonly assumed that the first musician who made a concert +speech of the kind now so much in vogue was Hans von Buelow," says Mr. +Finck. "Probably he was the first who made such speeches frequently, and +he doubtless made the longest on record, when, on March 28, 1892, he +harangued a Philharmonic audience in Berlin on Beethoven and Bismarck; +this address covers three pages of Buelow's invaluable Briefe und +Schriften. The first concert speech, however, was made by that +many-sided innovator, Franz Liszt, who tells about it in an amusing +letter he wrote from Milan to the Paris _Gazette Musicale_, in 1837. It +was about this time that he originated the custom of giving 'piano +recitals,' as he called them; that is, monologues by the solo pianist, +without assisting artist or orchestra. In Italy, where he first took to +this habit, it was particularly risky, because the Italians cared for +little besides operatic pomp, vocal display, and strongly spiced musical +effect. For pianists, in particular, they had little or no use. In those +days (and times have not changed), a pianist travelling in Italy was +wise if, in the words of Liszt, he 'pined for the sun rather than for +fame, and sought repose rather than gold.' + +"He succeeded, nevertheless, in making the Italians interested in piano +playing, but he had to stoop to conquer. When he played one of his own +etudes, a gentleman in the pit called out that he had come to the +theatre to be entertained and not to hear a 'studio.' Liszt thereupon +improvised fantasias on Italian operatic melodies, which aroused +tumultuous enthusiasm. He also asked the audiences, after the fashion of +the time, to suggest themes for him to improvise on or topics for him to +illustrate in tones. One auditor suggested the Milan Cathedral, another +the railway, while a third sent up a paper asking Liszt to discuss on +the piano the question: 'Is it better to marry or remain a bachelor?' +This was a little too much even for the pianist, who was destined to +become the supreme master of programme music, so he made a speech. To +cite his own words: 'As I could only have answered this question after a +long pause, I preferred to recall to the audience the words of a wise +man: "Whatever you do, marry or remain single, you will be sure to +regret it." You see, my friend, that I have found a splendid means of +rendering a concert cheerful when ennui makes it rather a cool duty +than a pleasure. Was I wrong to say my _Anch'io_ in this land of +improvisation?' + +"The operatic fantasias which Liszt first improvised for the Italians +found great favour in other countries; so much so that eager publishers +used to follow him from city to city, begging him to put them on paper, +and allow them to print them. There are thirty-six of these fantasias in +all, ranging from Sonnambula and Lucia to the operas of Meyerbeer, +Verdi, and Wagner. It has been the fashion among critics to sneer at +them, but, as Saint-Saens has said, there is much pedantry and prejudice +in these sneers. In structure they are as artistic as the overtures to +such operas as Zampa, Euryanthe, and Tannhaeuser, which likewise are +'practically nothing but fantasias on the operas which they introduce.' +Berlioz was the first to point out how, in these pieces, Liszt actually +improves on the originals; in the Robert the Devil fantasia, for +instance, his ingenious way of combining the Bertram aria of the third +act with the aria of the ballet of nuns produced an 'indescribable +dramatic effect.' What is more, these fantasias contain much of Liszt's +own genius, not to speak of his wonderful pianistic idiom. He scattered +his own pearls and diamonds among them lavishly." + + +THE ETUDES + +The late Edward Dannreuther, who changed his opinion of Liszt, wrote a +short introduction to his edition of the Transcendental Studies (Augener +& Co.) which is of interest. + +"The Etudes, which head the thematic catalogue of Liszt's works, show, +better than anything else, the transformation his style has undergone; +and for this reason it may be well to trace the growth of some of them. +Etudes en douze exercices, par Francois Liszt, Op. 1, were published at +Marseilles in 1827. They were written during the previous year, Liszt +being then under sixteen. The second set of Etudes, dediees a Monsieur +Charles Czerny, appeared in 1839, but were cancelled; and the Etudes +d'execution transcendante, again dedicated to Czerny, "en temoignage de +reconnaissance et de respectueuse amitie de son eleve," appeared in +1852. The now cancelled copy of the Etudes which Schumann had before him +in 1839, when he wrote his brilliant article, shows these studies to be +more extravagant and, in some instances, technically more difficult than +even the final version. The germs of both the new versions are to be +seen in the Op. 1 of 1827. Schumann transcribed a couple of bars from +the beginning of Nos. 1, 5, 9, and 11, from both the new and old copies, +and offered a few of his swift and apt comments. The various changes in +these Etudes may be taken to represent the history of the pianoforte +during the last half of the nineteenth century, from the 'Viennese +Square' to the concert grand, from Czerny's Schule der Gelaeufigkeit to +Liszt's Danse macabre. Czerny might have written the original exercise +No. 1, but it would not have been so shapely a thing as Liszt's final +version. The difference between the two versions of No. 1 is, however, +considerably less than that which separates Nos. 2, 3, and 4 from their +predecessors. If the earlier and the later versions of No. 3 in F and +No. 4 in D minor were signed by different composers, the resemblance +between them would hardly attract notice. Of No. 2 little remains as it +stood at first. Instead of a reduction there is an increase (38 to 102) +in the number of bars. Some harmonic commonplaces which disfigure the +original, as, for instance, the detour to C (bars 9-16), have been +removed. The remainder is enlarged, so as to allow of more extensive +modulation, and thus to avoid redundancy. A short introduction and a +coda are added, and the diction throughout is thrown into high relief. +Paysage, No. 3 in F, has been subjected to further alteration since +Schumann wrote about it. In his article he commends the second version +as being more interesting than the first, and points to a change of +movement from square to triple time, and to the melody which is +superadded, as improvements. On the other hand he calls an episode in A +major 'comparatively trivial,' and this, it may be noticed, is omitted +in the final version. As it now stands, the piece is a test study for +pianists who aim at refinement of style, tone, and touch. The Etude +entitled Mazeppa is particularly characteristic of Liszt's power of +endurance at the instrument, and it exhibits the gradual growth of his +manner, from pianoforte exercises to symphonic poems in the manner of +Berlioz. It was this Etude, together perhaps with Nos. 7 (Vision), 8 +(Wilde Jagd), and 12 (Chasse-neige), that induced Schumann to speak of +the entire set as Wahre Sturm- und Graus-Etuden (Studies of storm and +dread), studies for, at the most, ten or twelve players in the world. +The original of No. 5, in B flat, is a mere trifle, in the manner of J. +B. Cramer--the final version entitled Feux follets is one of the most +remarkable transformations extant, and perhaps the best study of the +entire series, consistent in point of musical design and full of +delicate technical contrivances. Ricordanza, No. 9, and Harmonies du +soir, No. 11, may be grouped together as showing how a musical +Stimmungsbild (a picture of a mood or an expression of sentiment) can be +evoked from rather trite beginnings. Schumann speaks of the melody in E +major, which occurs in the middle of the latter piece, as "the most +sincerely felt"; and in the last version it is much improved. Both +pieces, Ricordanza and Harmonies du soir, show to perfection the +sonority of the instrument in its various aspects. The latter piece, +Harmonies du soir in the first, as well as in the final version, appears +as a kind of Nocturne. No. 10, again, begins as though it were Czerny's +(_a_) and in the cancelled edition is developed into an Etude of almost +insuperable difficulty (_b_). As finally rewritten, this study is +possible to play and well worth playing (_c_). + +"No. 12 also has been recast and much manipulated, but there is no +mending of weak timber. We must also mention Ab-Irato, an Etude in E +minor cancelled and entirely rewritten; three Etudes de concert (the +second of which has already been mentioned as Chopinesque); and two fine +Etudes, much later in date and of moderate difficulty, Waldesrauschen +and Gnomentanz. The Paganini Studies, _i.e._, transcriptions in rivalry +with Schumann of certain Caprices for the violin by Paganini, and far +superior to Schumann's, do not call for detailed comment. They were +several times rewritten (final edition, 1852) as Liszt, the virtuoso, +came to distinguish between proper pianoforte effects and mere haphazard +bravura." + +The first version of the Ab-Irato was a contribution to Fetis' and +Moscheles' Methode des Methodes, Paris, 1842, where it is designated +Morceau de Salon--Etude de Perfectionnement. The second version, Berlin, +1852, was presented as "entierement revue et corrigee par l'Auteur" and +called Ab-Irato (_i.e._ in a rage, or in a fit of temper). It exceeds +the first version by 28 bars and is a striking improvement, showing the +growth of Liszt's technic and his constant effort to be emphatic and to +avoid commonplace. + +No pianist can afford to ignore Liszt's Etudes--he may disparage them if +he chooses, but he ought to be able to play them properly. We play the +three B's, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, each from a somewhat different point +of view. But these great men have this in common, that in each case, yet +in a different degree, when we play their music we address the hearer's +intellect rather than his nervous sensibility--though the latter is +never excluded. With Liszt and his pupils the appeal is, often and +without disguise, rather an appeal to the hearer's nerves; but the +methods employed are, in the master's case at least, so very clever, and +altogether _hors ligne_, that a musician's intelligence, too, may be +delighted and stimulated. + +Of the B-minor sonata Dannreuther has written: + +"The work is a curious compound of true genius and empty rhetoric, which +contains enough of genuine impulse and originality in the themes of the +opening section, and of suave charm in the melody of the section that +stands for the slow movement, to secure the hearer's attention. Signs of +weakness occur only in the centre, where, according to his wont, Liszt +seems unable to resist the temptation to tear passion to tatters and +strain oratory to bombast. None the less the Sonata is an interesting +study, eminently successful in parts, and well worthy the attention of +pianists. + +"Two Ballades, a Berceuse, a Valse-impromptu, a Mazurka, and two +Polonaises sink irretrievably if compared with Chopin's pieces similarly +entitled. The Scherzo und Marsch in D minor, an inordinately difficult +and somewhat dry piece, falls short of its aim. Two legends, St. Francis +of Assisi preaching to the birds, a clever and delicate piece, and St. +Francis of Paula stepping on the waves, a kind of Etude, are examples of +picturesque and decorous programme music. + +"Liszt was also a master in the notation of pianoforte music--a very +difficult matter indeed, and one in which even Chopin frequently erred. +His method of notation coincides in the main with that of Beethoven, +Berlioz, Wagner, and Brahms. Let the player accurately play what is set +down and the result will be satisfactory. The perspicuity of certain +pages of Liszt's mature pianoforte pieces, such as the first two sets of +Annees de pelerinage, Consolations, Sonata in B minor, the Concertos, +the Danse macabre, and the Rhapsodies hongroises, cannot be surpassed. +His notation often represents a condensed score, and every rest not +absolutely necessary is avoided; again, no attempt is made to get a +semblance of an agreement between the rhythmic division of the bar and +the freedom of certain rapid ornamental passages, but, on the other +hand, everything essential to the rendering of accent or melody, to the +position of the hands on the keyboard, to the details of special +fingering and special pedalling, is faithfully recorded. Thus the most +complex difficulties, as in the Fantaisies Dramatiques, and even +apparently uncontrollable effects of _tempo rubato_, as in the first +fifteen Rhapsodies or the Etude Ricordanza, or the Tre Sonetti di +Petrarca, are so closely indicated that the particular effect intended +cannot be mistaken." + + +THE MASSES AND THE PSALMS + +In his studies of Liszt's religious music, contributed to the Oxford +History of Music, Edward Dannreuther, then no longer a partisan of +Liszt, said of his mass: + +"Among Liszt's many contributions to the repertoire of Catholic church +music the Missa solemnis, known as the Graner Festmesse, is the most +conspicuous. Written to order in 1855, performed at the Consecration of +the Basilica at Gran, in Hungary, in 1856, it was Liszt's first serious +effort in the way of church music proper, and shows him at his best in +so far as personal energy and high aim are concerned. 'More prayed than +composed,' he said, in 1856, when he wanted to smooth the way for it in +Wagner's estimation--'more criticised than heard,' when it failed to +please in the Church of St. Eustache, in Paris, in 1866. It certainly is +an interesting and, in many ways, a remarkable work. + +"Liszt's instincts led him to perceive that the Catholic service, which +makes a strong appeal to the senses, as well as to the emotions, was +eminently suited to musical illustration. He thought his chance lay in +the fact that the function assigned to music in the ceremonial is mainly +decorative, and that it would be possible to develop still further its +emotional side. The Church employs music to enforce and embellish the +Word. But the expansion of music is always controlled and in some sense +limited by the Word--for the prescribed words are not subject to change. +Liszt, however, came to interpret the Catholic ritual in a histrionic +spirit, and tried to make his music reproduce the words not only +as _ancilla theologica et ecclesiastica_, but also as _ancilla +dramaturgica_. The influence of Wagner's operatic method, as it appears +in Tannhaeuser, Lohengrin, and Das Rheingold, is abundantly evident; but +the result of this influence is more curious than convincing. By the +application of Wagner's system of Leitmotive to the text of the mass, +Liszt succeeded in establishing some similarity between different +movements, and so approached uniformity of diction. It will be seen, for +example, that his way of identifying the motive of the Gloria with that +of the Resurrexit and that of the Hosanna, or the motive of the Sanctus +and the Christie Eleison with that of the Benedictus, and also his way +of repeating the principal preceding motives in the 'Dona nobis pacem,' +especially the restatement, at its close, of the powerful motive of the +Credo, has given to the work a musical unity which is not always in very +clear accordance with the text. + +"In the Hungarian Coronation Mass (Ungarische Kroenungsmesse, 1866-7) +Liszt aimed at characteristic national colour, and tried to attain it by +persistently putting forward some of the melodic formulae common to music +of the Hungarian type which occurs in the national Rakoczy March and in +numberless popular tunes--or an emphatic melisma known to everybody +through the famous Rhapsodies. From beginning to end the popular +Hungarian element is represented by devices of this kind in a manner +which is always ingenious and well suited to the requirements of a +national audience. + +"But the style of the entire Mass is as incongruous as a gipsy musician +in a church vestment--doubly strange to students of the present day, +who in Liszt's Rhapsodies and Brahms' Ungarische Taenze have become +familiar with the rhythmical and melodic phrases of the Hungarian gipsy +idiom, and who all along have known them in their most mundane aspect. +Apart, however, from its incongruities of style, the Offertorium is a +shapely composition with a distinct stamp of its own. + +"Liszt's manner of writing for solo and choral voices is generally +practical and effective. The voice-parts are carefully written so as to +lessen the difficulties of intonation which the many far-fetched +modulations involve, and are skilfully disposed in point of sonority. +The orchestration, always efficient, is frequently rich and beautiful." + +The opinion on this work, expressed in the _Tageblatt_ by Dr. Leopold +Schmidt (who used to be an uncompromising opponent of Liszt), is +illuminative of the present status of the Liszt cult: + +"The Graner Messe is the older of Liszt's two Hungarian festival masses, +and was composed in 1855. The dispute as to its significance has lost +its point in these days of emancipation from the embarrassments and +prejudices of a former generation. In church music, as in everything +else, we now allow every writer to express his personality, and a +personality with the poetic qualities of Liszt wins our sympathies at +the outset.... The dramatic insistence on diverse details diminishes the +grandeur of the style; this method is out of place here, and is no +adequate substitute for the might of the older form-language. All the +other peculiar traits of Liszt we find here: the pictorial element, the +unconsciously theatrical (Wagner's influence is strongly felt), and the +preponderating of the instrumental over the vocal. Nevertheless, the +Graner Messe is probably Liszt's most important and most personal +creation. The touching entreaty of the Kyrie, the beginning of the +Gloria with its fabulously pictorial effect, the F-sharp major part of +the Credo are beauties of a high order. The final portions are less +inspired, the impression is weakened; but we learn to love this work for +many tender lyric passages, for the original treatment of the text, and +the genuine piety which pervades and ennobles it." This mass was sung at +the Worcester festival in 1909 under the conductorship of Arthur Mees. + +In St. Elisabeth, which is published as a concert oratorio, Dannreuther +thinks that Liszt has produced something like an opera sacra. Lina +Ramann said that when the work was performed with scenic accessories it +came as a surprise to the composer. He took his cue from the order of +Moritz v. Schwindt's frescoes, which illustrate the history of Elisabeth +of Hungary in the restored hall of the Wartburg at Eisenach and planned +six scenes for which Otto Roquette furnished the verse. The scenes are: +the arrival of the child from Hungary--a bright sunny picture; the rose +miracle--a forest and garden scene; the Crusaders--a picture of Medaeival +pageantry; Elisabeth's expulsion from the Wartburg--a stormy nocturne; +Elisabeth's death, solemn burial, and canonisation. Five sections belong +to the dramatic presentation of the story. The sixth and last, the +burial and canonisation, is an instrumental movement which serves as a +prologue. The leitmotive, five in number, consist of melodies of a +popular type. + +William J. Henderson, who can hardly be accused of being a Lisztianer, +wrote of the St. Elisabeth--after a performance some years ago in +Brooklyn at the Academy of Music, under the conductorship of Walter +Hall--as follows: + +"To the great majority of the hearers, and to most of the performers, +the work must have been a novelty, and had the attraction of curiosity. +It is an early attempt at that dramatic narration, with an illusive +'atmosphere' supplied by the orchestra, which has been so extensively +practised since its composition. If Liszt had had the advantage of his +own experiment, and of the subsequent failures and successes of other +composers in the same attempt, no doubt his work would have been more +uniformly successful. As it is, no work which is heard in New York but +once in twenty years can be called a popular success. It is true that it +is worth a hearing oftener than that. True, also, that in Prague, with +the advantage of costumes and scenery, it had a 'run' of some sixty +nights. There is a strongly patriotic Magyar strain both in the book and +in the music, which would account for popular success in Hungary, if not +in Bohemia. But it must be owned that the orchestral introduction is +tedious, and much of the music of the first part a very dry recitative. +In this respect, however, the work acquires strength by going. The +Crusaders' March, which ends the first part, is so effective an +orchestral number that it is odd it should never be done in the concert +room. In the second part, much of the music allotted to Elisabeth is +melodious and pathetic, the funeral scene and the funeral march are +effective ensemble writing, and the last series of choruses, largely of +churchly 'plain song' for the voices with elaborate orchestral +embroidery, are impressive and even majestic." + +In 1834 Liszt wrote to the _Gazette Musicale_ and described his own and +Berlioz's ideal of romantic religious music thus: "For want of a better +term we may well call the new music Humanitarian. It must be devotional, +strong, and drastic, uniting--on a colossal scale--the theatre and the +church, dramatic and sacred, superb and simple, fiery and free, stormy +and calm, translucent and emotional." Berlioz played up to this romantic +programme even better than Liszt. Need we adduce the tremendous Requiem! +Liszt's Graner-messe follows a close second. + +Even if Liszt's bias was essentially histrionic his oratorio Christus +(1863-1873) is his largest and most sustained effort and the magnum opus +of his later years; you may quite agree with Dannreuther that its +conception is Roman Catholic, devotional, and contemplative in a Roman +Catholic sense both in style and intended effect. It contains nothing +that is not in some way connected with the Catholic ritual or the +Catholic spirit; and, more than any other work of its composer, +continues our critic, recognises and obeys the restrictions imposed by +the surroundings of the Church service. The March of the Three Kings was +inspired by a picture in the Cologne Cathedral. The Beatitudes and the +Stabat Mater Dolorosa contain pathetic and poignant writing. + +"Liszt's Thirteenth Psalm is of especial importance, because the +epoch-making ecclesiastical music of the great composer is as yet so +little known in America," declares Mr. Finck. "This is the real music +of the future for the church, and it is inspired as few things are +in the whole range of music. Liszt himself considered it one of his +master-works. In one of his letters to Brendel, he says that it 'is one +of those I have worked out most fully, and contains two fugue movements +and a couple of passages which were written with tears of blood.' He had +reason to write with tears of blood; he had given to the world a new +orchestral form, had found new paths for sacred music, had done +more as a missionary for his art than any other three masters, yet +contemporaneous criticism was as bitter against him as if he had been an +invading Hun. To him the Psalmist's words, 'How long shall they that +hate me, be exalted against me?' had a meaning which could indeed be +recorded only in 'tears of blood.' There is a pathos in this psalm that +one would seek for in vain in any other sacred work since Bach's St. +Matthew's Passion. Liszt himself has well described it in the letter +referred to (vol. II, p. 72): 'Were any one of my more recent works +likely to be performed at a concert with orchestra and chorus, I would +recommend this psalm. Its poetic subject welled up plenteously out of my +soul; and besides I feel as if the musical form did not roam about +beyond the given tradition. It requires a lyrical tenor; in his song he +must be able to pray, to sigh, and lament, to become exalted, pacified, +and biblically inspired. Orchestra and chorus, too, have great demands +made upon them. Superficial or ordinarily careful study would not +suffice.'" + +This superb psalm, performed at the recent Birmingham Musical Festival, +recalls to an English critic an interesting comment of the composer's in +regard to that particular work. When Sir Alexander Mackenzie met Liszt +in Florence several years ago, Sir Alexander said he was glad to tell +him (Liszt) that a performance of his Thirteenth Psalm had been +announced in England. A grim smile passed over the face of the great +composer as he replied: "O Herr, wie lang?" ("O Lord, how long?"), the +opening words of the psalm. + +Mr. Richard Aldrich writes of the Angelus as follows: + +"The little Angelus of Liszt is one of the very few pieces of +chamber music that he composed--his genius was more at home upon the +pianoforte, in the orchestra and in the massive effects of choral +singing. This piece has the character suggested in its subtitle: 'Prayer +to the Guardian Angels,' and is an expression of the deeply religious, +mystical side of his nature that led him to take holy orders in the +Church of Rome. It was originally written for a string quartet, but the +master added a fifth part for contrabass for a performance of it given +in London in 1884 by a large string orchestra under the direction of his +pupil, Walter Bache. It is given this afternoon in this form. The sense +of yearning, of aspiration and of spiritual elevation toward celestial +things is what the composer has aimed to embody in the music. After +brief preluding on the muted strings (without the contrabass) the first +violins take up a sustained cantabile that soon rises to a fervent +climax, fortissimo, and breaking into triplets reaches the highest +positions on the first violin, accompanied by full and vibrant harmony +on the other instruments, as though publishing feelings of the utmost +exaltation. There is a pause and the piece ends with the quiet feeling +in which it began." + +"A most welcome novelty is the Chorus of Angels, composed by Liszt in +1849 for the celebration of the hundredth birthday of Goethe," said Mr. +Finck. "It is a setting of some of the most mystical lines in Faust, +originally written for mixed voices and pianoforte, and subsequently +arranged for women's voices and harp. Mr. Damrosch used Zoellner's +arrangement for choir and orchestra, and in this version it proved to +be one of the most ethereal and fascinating of Liszt's creations. + +"Now that Mr. Damrosch has begun to explore the stores of Liszt's choral +music he will doubtless bring to light many more of these hidden +treasures. In doing so he will simply follow in the footsteps of his +father, who was one of Liszt's dearest friends, and who steadily +preached his gospel in New York. Of this good work an interesting +illustration is given in the eighth volume of Liszt's letters, issued a +few weeks ago by Breitkopf & Haertel. On December 27, 1876, Liszt wrote +to Leopold Damrosch: + + "'ESTEEMED FRIEND: A few days ago I sent you the score of my + Triomphe funebre du Tasse. This funeral ode came into my mind on + the street of Tasso's Lament and Triumph, in which I often walk on + the way to my residence on the Monte Mario. The enclosed commentary + on it--based on the Tasso biography of Pier Antonio Serassi--I beg + you to print on your concert programme in a good English + translation. + + "'I trust that this work may be received in New York with the same + favor that has been accorded to some of my other compositions. Amid + the incessant European fault-finding, the American kindness gives + me some consolation. Once more, I thank my esteemed friend Damrosch + for his admirable interpretations of my works, and remain his + cordially devoted + + "'FRANZ LISZT.'" + + +THE RAKOCZY MARCH + +When Prince Franz Rakoczy II (1676-1735), with his young wife, the +Princess Amalie Caroline of Hesse, made his state entry into his capital +of Eperjes, his favourite musician, the court violinist Michael Barna, +composed a march in honour of the illustrious pair and performed it with +his orchestra. This march had originally a festive character, but was +revised by Barna. He had heard that his noble patron, after having made +peace with the Emperor Leopold I in 1711, was, in spite of the general +amnesty, again planning a national rising against the Austrian house. +Barna flung himself at the prince's feet and with tears in his eyes, +cried "O gracious Prince, you abandon happiness to chase nothing!" To +touch his master's heart he took his violin and played the revised +melody with which he had welcomed the prince, then happy and in the +zenith of his power. Rakoczy died in Turkey, where he, with some +faithful followers, among them the gipsy chief Barna, lived in exile. + +This Rakoczy March, full of passion, temperament, sorrow, and pain, soon +became popular among the music loving gipsies as well as among the +Hungarian people. The first copy of the Rakoczy March came from Carl +Vaczek, of Jaszo, in Hungary, who died in 1828, aged ninety-three. +Vaczek was a prominent dilettante in music, who had often appeared as +flautist before the Vienna Court, and enjoyed the reputation of a great +musical scholar. Vaczek heard the Rakoczy March from a granddaughter of +Michael Barna, a gipsy girl of the name of Panna Czinka, who was famous +in her time for her beauty and her noble violin playing throughout all +Hungary. Vaczek wrote down the composition and handed the manuscript to +the violinist Ruzsitska. He used the Rakoczy Lied as the basis of a +greater work by extending the original melody by a march and a "battle +music." All three parts formed a united whole. + +The original melody composed by Michael Barna remained, however, the one +preferred by the Hungarian people. In the Berlioz transcription the +composition of Ruzsitska was partially employed. Berlioz worked together +the original melody; that is, the Rakoczy Lied proper, and the battle +music of Ruzsitska and placed them in his Damnation de Faust. + +The Rakoczy March owes its greatest publicity to the above named Panna +Czinka. The gipsy girl's great talent as a violinist was recognised by +her patron, Joann von Lanyi, who had her educated in the Upper Hungarian +city of Rozsnyo, where as a pupil of a German kapellmeister she received +adequate musical instruction. When she was fifteen she married a gipsy, +who was favourably known as the player of the viola de gamba in Hungary. +With her husband and his two brothers, who also were good musicians, she +travelled through all Hungary and attracted great attention, especially +by the Rakoczy March. Later her orchestra, over which she presided till +her death, consisted only of her sons. Her favourite instrument, a noble +Amati, which had been presented to her by the Archbishop of Czaky, was, +in compliance with her wishes expressed in life, buried with her. + +The Rakoczy March has meanwhile undergone countless revisions, of which +the most important is beyond doubt that of Berlioz. + +Berlioz composed this march while in Hungary, and had it performed +there. Its first performance at Pesth led to a scene of excitement which +is one of the best-remembered incidents in Berlioz's life. In +consequence of its success, Berlioz was asked to leave the original +score in Pesth, which he did; requesting, however, to be furnished with +a copy without the Coda, as he intended to rewrite that section. +The new Coda is the one always played now, the old one having indeed +disappeared. + +Liszt's arrangement of the same march, it may be remembered, led to a +debate in the Hungarian Diet, in which M. Tisza spoke of the march as +the work of Franz Rakoczy II. He was wrong; and so was Berlioz mistaken +in saying that it is by an unknown composer. Its real author, according +to a statement quoted by Liszt's biographer, Miss Ramann, was a military +band master named Scholl. Liszt had really made his transcription in +1840, but refrained, out of respect for Berlioz, from publishing it till +1870. + + + + +VI + +MIRRORED BY HIS CONTEMPORARIES + + +VON LENZ + +The Russian councillor and the author of the well-known work, Beethoven +et Ses Trois Styles, has contributed quite a small library of articles +on Liszt, but as it is impossible to quote all of them, we select the +following, which refers more particularly to his own intimacy and first +acquaintance with the great musician: + +"In 1828 I had come to Paris, at the age of nineteen, to continue my +studies there, and, moreover, as before, to take lessons on the piano; +now, however, with Kalkbrenner. Kalkbrenner was a man of Hebrew +extraction, born in Berlin; and in Paris under Charles X he was the +Joconde of the drawing-room piano. Kalkbrenner was a Knight of the +Legion of Honour, and the fair Camille Mock, afterward Madame Pleyel, +who was not indifferent to Chopin or Liszt, was the favourite pupil of +the irresistible Kalkbrenner. I heard her, between Kalkbrenner and +Onslow, play in the sextuor of the last named composer at the house of +Baron Tremont, a tame musical Maecenas of that day in Paris. She played +the piano as a pretty Parisian wears an elegant shoe. Nevertheless I was +in danger of becoming Kalkbrenner's pupil, but my stars and Liszt willed +it otherwise. Already on the way to Kalkbrenner (who plays a note of his +now?), I came to the boulevards, and read on the theatre bills of the +day, which had much attraction for me, the announcement of an extra +concert to be given by Liszt at the Conservatoire (it was in November), +with the piano concerto of Beethoven, in E flat, at the head. At that +time Beethoven was, and not in Paris only, a Paracelsus in the concert +room. I only knew this much of him, that I had been very much afraid of +the very black-looking notes in his D-major trio and choral fantasia, +which I had once and again looked over in a music shop of my native +town, Riga, in which there was much more done in business than in music. + +"If any one had told me as I stood there innocently, and learned from +the factotum that there were such things as piano concertos by +Beethoven, that I should ever write six volumes in German and two in +French on Beethoven! I had heard of a septet, but the musician who wrote +that was called J. N. Hummel. + +"From the bill on the boulevards I concluded, however, that anyone who +could play a concerto of Beethoven in public must be a very wonderful +fellow, and of quite a different breed from Kalkbrenner, the composer of +the fantasia, Effusio Musica. That this Effusio was mere rubbish I +already understood, young and heedless though I was. + +"In this way, on the then faithful boulevards of Paris, I met for the +first time in my life the name of Liszt, which was to fill the +world. This bill of the concert was destined to exert an important +influence on my life. I can still see, after so many years, the +colours of the important paper--thick monster letters on a yellow +ground--the fashionable colour at the time in Paris. I went straight to +Schlesinger's, then the musical exchange of Paris, Rue Richelieu. + +"'Where does Mr. Liszt live?' I asked, and pronounced it Litz, for the +Parisians have never got any further with the name of Liszt than Litz. + +"The address of Liszt was Rue Montholon; they gave it me at +Schlesinger's without hesitation. But when I asked the price of _Litz_, +and expressed my wish to take lessons from him, they all laughed at me, +and the shopmen behind the counters tittered, and all said at once, 'He +never gives a lesson; he is no professor of the piano!' + +"I felt that I must have asked something very foolish. But the answer, +no professor of the piano, pleased me nevertheless, and I went +straightway to the Rue Montholon. + +"Liszt was at home. That was a great rarity, said his mother, an +excellent woman with a true German heart, who pleased me very much; her +Franz was almost always in church, and no longer occupied himself with +music at all. Those were the days when Liszt wished to become a +Saint-Simonist. It was a great time, and Paris the centre of the world. +There lived Rossini and Cherubini, also Auber, Halevy, Berlioz and the +great violinist, Baillot; the poet, Victor Hugo, had lately published +his Orientales, and Lamartine was recovering from the exertion of his +Meditations Poetiques. Georges Sand was not yet fairly discovered; +Chopin not yet in Paris. Marie Taglioni danced tragedies at the Grand +Opera; Habeneck, a German conductor, directed the picked orchestra of +the Conservatoire, where the Parisians, a year after Beethoven's death, +for the first time heard something of him. Malibran and Sontag sang at +the Italian Opera the Tournament duet in Tancredi. It was in the winter +of 1828-9 Baillot played quartets; Rossini gave his Guillaume Tell in +the spring. + +"In Liszt I found a thin, pale-looking young man, with infinitively +attractive features. He was lounging, deep in thought, lost in himself +on a broad sofa, and smoking a long Turkish pipe, with three pianos +standing around him. He made not the slightest movement on my entrance, +but rather appeared not to notice me at all. When I explained to him +that my family had directed me to Kalkbrenner, but I came to him because +he wished to play a concerto by Beethoven in public, he seemed to smile. +But it was only as the glitter of a dagger in the sun. + +"'Play me something,' he said, with indescribable satire, which, +however, had nothing to wound in it, just as no harm is done by summer +lightning. + +"'I play the sonata for the left hand (pour la main gauche principale), +by Kalkbrenner,' I said, and thought I had said something correct. + +"'That I will not hear; I don't know it, and don't wish to,' he +answered, with increased satire and suppressed scorn. + +"I felt that I was playing a pitiful part--doing penance, perhaps, for +others, for Parisians; but I said to myself, the more I looked at this +young man, that this Parisian (for such he seemed to be by his whole +appearance) must be a genius, and I would not without further skirmishes +be beaten off the field. I went with modest but firm step to the piano +standing nearest to me. + +"'Not that one,' cried Liszt, without in the least changing his half +reclining position on the sofa; 'there, to that other one.' + +"I stepped to the second piano. At that time I was absorbed in the +'Aufforderung zum Tanz'; I had married it for love two years before, and +we were still in our honeymoon. I came from Riga, where, after the +unexampled success of the 'Freischuetz,' we had reached the piano +compositions of Weber, which did not happen till long after in Paris, +where the Freischuetz was called Robin des Bois(!). I learnt from +good masters. When I tried to play the first three A-flats of the +Aufforderung, the instrument gave no sound. What was the matter? I +played forcibly, and the notes sounded quite piano. I seemed to myself +quite laughable, but without taking any notice I went bravely on to the +first entry of the chords; then Liszt rose, stepped up to me, took my +right hand without more ado off the instrument, and asked: + +"'What is that? That begins well!' + +"'I should think so,' I said; 'that is by Weber.' + +"'Has he written for the piano, too?' he asked with astonishment. 'We +only know here the Robin des Bois.' + +"'Certainly he has written for the piano, and more finely than any one!' +was my equally astonished answer. 'I have in my trunk,' I added, 'two +polonaises, two rondos, four sets of variations, four solo sonatas, one +which I learned with Wehrstaedt, in Geneva, which contains the whole of +Switzerland, and is incredibly beautiful; there all the fair women smile +at once. It is in A flat. You can have no idea how beautiful it is! +Nobody has written so for the piano, you may believe me.' + +"I spoke from my heart, and with such conviction that I made a visible +impression on Liszt. He answered in a winning tone: 'Now, pray bring me +all that out of your trunk and I will give you lessons for the first +time in my life, because you have introduced me to Weber on the piano, +and also were not frightened at this heavy instrument. I ordered it on +purpose, so as to have played ten scales when I had played one. It is an +altogether impracticable piano. It was a sorry joke of mine. But why did +you talk about Kalkbrenner, and a sonata by him for the left hand? But +now play me that thing of yours that begins so seriously. There, that is +one of the finest instruments in Paris--there, where you were going to +sit down first.' + +"Now I played with all my heart the 'Aufforderung,' but only the melody +marked wiegend, in two parts. Liszt was charmed with the composition. +'Now bring that,' he said; 'I must have a turn at that!' + +"At our first lesson Liszt could not tear himself away from the piece. +He repeated single parts again and again, sought increased effects, gave +the second part of the minor in octaves and was inexhaustible in praise +of Weber. With Weber's sonata in A flat Liszt was perfectly delighted. I +had studied it in much love with Wehrstaedt at Geneva, and gave it +throughout in the spirit of the thing. This Liszt testified by the way +in which he listened, by lively gestures and movements, by exclamations +about the beauty of the composition, so that we worked at it with both +our heads! This great romantic poem for the piano begins, as is well +known, with a tremolo of the bass on A flat. Never had a sonata opened +in such a manner! It is as sunshine over the enchanted grove in which +the action takes place. The restlessness of my master became so great +over the first part of this allegro that even before its close he pushed +me aside with the words, 'Wait! wait! What is that? I must go at that +myself!' Such an experience one had never met with. Imagine a genius +like Liszt, twenty years old, for the first time in the presence of such +a master composition of Weber, before the apparition of this knight in +golden armour! + +"He tried his first part over and over again with the most various +intentions. At the passage in the dominant (E flat) at the close of the +first part (a passage, properly speaking, the sonata has not; one might +call it a charming clarinet phrase interwoven with the idea) Liszt said, +'It is marked legato. Now, would not one do it better _pp._ and +staccato? Yet there is a leggieramente as well." He experimented in all +directions. In this way it was given me to observe how one genius looks +upon another and appreciates him for himself. + +"'Now what is the second part of the first allegro like?' asked Liszt, +and looked at it. It seemed to me simply impossible that any one could +read at sight this thematic development, with octaves piled one on +another for whole pages. + +"'This is very difficult,' said Liszt, 'yet harder still is the coda,' +and the combining of the whole in this close, here at this centrifugal +figure (thirteenth bar before the end). The passage (in the second part, +naturally in the original key of A flat), moreover, we must not play +staccato; that would be somewhat affected; but we must also not play it +legato; it is too thin for that. We'll do it spiccato; let us swim +between the two waters.' + +"If I had wondered at the fire and life, the pervading passion in the +delivery of the first part by Liszt, I was absolutely astonished in the +second part at his triumphant repose and certainty, and the self-control +with which he reserved all his force for the last attack. 'So young, and +so wise!' I said to myself, and was bewildered, absorbed, discouraged. + +"In the andante of the sonata I learned in the first four bars more from +Liszt than in years from my former good teachers. 'You must give out +this opening just as Baillot plays a quartet; the accompanying parts +consist of the detached semiquavers, but Baillot's parts are very good, +and yours must not be worse. You have a good hand, and can learn it. Try +it, it is not easy; one might move stones with it. I can just imagine +how the hussars of the piano tear it to pieces! I shall never forget +that it is through you I have learned to know the sonata. Now you shall +learn something from me; I will tell you all I know about our +instrument.' + +"The demi-semiquaver figure in the bass (at the thirty-fifth bar of this +andante) is heard only too often given out as a 'passage' for the left +hand; the figure should be delivered caressingly--it should be an +amorous violoncello solo. In this manner Liszt played it, but gave out +in fearful majesty the outbursts of octaves on the second subject in C +major, that Henselt calls the 'Ten Commandments'--an excellent +designation. And now, as for menuetto capriccioso and rondo of the +sonata. How shall I describe what Liszt made of these genial movements +on a first acquaintance? How he treated the clarinet solo in the trio of +the menuetto, and the winding of the rondo? How Liszt glorified Weber on +the piano; how like an Alexander he marched in triumphant procession +with Weber (especially in the 'Concertstueck') through Europe, the world +knows, and future times will speak of it." + + +BERLIOZ + +In the preface to Berlioz's published Correspondence, is the following +account of Liszt's evenings with the great French composer and his first +wife: + +"The first years of their married life were full of both hardship and +charm. The new establishment, the revenues of which amounted, to begin +with, to a lump sum of 300 francs, was migratory--at one time in the Rue +Neuve Saint-Marc, at another at Montmartre, and then in a certain Rue +Saint-Denis of which it is impossible now to find trace. Liszt lived in +the Rue de Province, and paid frequent visits to the young couple; they +spent many evenings together, when the great pianist would play +Beethoven's sonatas in the dark, in order to produce a greater +impression. In his turn, Berlioz took up the cudgels for his friend +in the newspapers to which he was accustomed to contribute--the +_Correspondent_, the _Revue Europeenne_ and, lastly, the _Debats_. How +angry he became when the volatile Parisians attempted to espouse the +cause of Thalberg against his rival! A lion showing his teeth could not +have appeared more formidable. Death to him who dared to say Liszt was +not the first pianist of all time, past, present, and to come! And when +the critic enunciated any musical axiom as being beyond discussion, he +really thought it so, for he never went against his own convictions, and +bore himself in regard to mediocrities with a contempt savouring +of rudeness. Liszt after all gave him back measure for measure, +transcribing the Symphonie Fantastique, and playing at the numerous +concerts which the young maestro gave during the winter with ever +increasing success." + +In 1830, after many repeated failures Berlioz won the much coveted "Prix +de Rome" at the Paris Conservatoire, which entitled him to reside three +years in Italy at the expense of the French Government. Before he +started for the musical land of promise, Berlioz gave two concerts, and +relates in his Memoirs the circumstances under which he first became +acquainted with Liszt: + +"On the day before the concert I received a visit from Liszt, whom I had +never yet seen. I spoke to him of Goethe's Faust, which he was obliged +to confess he had not read, but about which he soon became as +enthusiastic as myself. We were strongly attracted to one another, and +our friendship has increased in warmth and depth ever since. He was +present at the concert, and excited general attention by his applause +and enthusiasm." + +When Berlioz gave his first concert in Paris, after his return from +Italy, he wrote: + +"Weber's Concertstueck, played by Liszt with the overpowering vehemence +which he always puts into it, obtained a splendid success. Indeed I so +far forgot myself, in my enthusiasm for Liszt, as publicly to embrace +him on the stage--a stupid impropriety which might have covered us both +with ridicule had the spectators been disposed to laugh." + +Liszt's and Berlioz's intimacy was renewed at Prague, as will be seen +from the composer's account: + +"I gave six concerts at Prague, either in the theatre or in Sophie's +concert room. At the latter I remember to have had the delight of +performing my symphony of Romeo and Juliet for Liszt for the first time. +Several movements of the work were already known in Prague.... + +"That day, having already encored several pieces, the public called for +another, which the band implored me not to repeat; but as the shouts +continued Mr. Mildner took out his watch, and held it up to show that +the hour was too far advanced to allow of the orchestra remaining till +the end of the concert if the piece was played a second time, since +there was an opera at 7 o'clock. This clever pantomime saved us. At the +end of the seance, just as I was begging Liszt to serve as my +interpreter, and thank the excellent singers, who had been devoting +themselves to the careful study of my choruses for the last three weeks +and had sung them so bravely, he was interrupted by them with an inverse +proposal. Having exchanged a few words with them in German, he turned to +me and said: 'My commission is changed; these gentlemen rather desire me +to thank you for the pleasure you have given them in allowing them to +perform your work, and to express their delight at your evident +satisfaction.'" + +At a banquet in honour of Berlioz the composer says: + +"Liszt was unanimously chosen to make the presentation speech instead of +the chairman, who had not sufficient acquaintance with the French +language. At the first toast he made me, in the name of the assembly, an +address at least a quarter of an hour long, with a warmth of spirit, an +abundance of ideas and a choice of expressions, which excited the envy +of the orators present, and by which I was profoundly touched. +Unhappily, if he spoke well, he also drank well--the treacherous cup +inaugurated by the convives held such floods of champagne that all +Liszt's eloquence made shipwreck in it. Belloni and I were still in the +streets of Prague at 2 o'clock in the morning persuading him to wait for +daylight before exchanging shots at two paces with a Bohemian who had +drunk better than himself. When day came we were not without anxiety +about Liszt, whose concert was to take place at noon. At half-past +eleven he was still sleeping; at last some one awoke him; he jumped into +a cab, reached the hall, was received with three rounds of applause and +played as I believe he has never played in his life before." + +Berlioz, in his A Travers Chants, relates the following incident: + +"One day Liszt was playing the adagio of Beethoven's sonata in C-sharp +minor before a little circle of friends, of which I formed part, and +followed the manner he had then adopted to gain the applause of the +fashionable world. Instead of those long sustained notes, and instead of +strict uniformity of rhythm, he overlaid it with trills and the tremolo. +I suffered cruelly, I must confess--more than I have ever suffered in +hearing our wretched cantatrices embroider the grand air in the +'Freischuetz'; for to this torture was added my distress at seeing an +artist of his stamp falling into the snare which, as a rule, only besets +mediocrities. But what was to be done? Liszt was then like a child, who +when he stumbles, likes to have no notice taken, but picks himself up +without a word and cries if anybody holds him out a hand. He had picked +himself up splendidly. A few years afterward one of those men of heart +and soul that artists are always happy to come across (Mr. Legouve), had +invited a small party of friends--I was one of them. + +"Liszt came during the evening, and finding the conversation engaged on +the valuable piece by Weber, and why when he played it at a recent +concert he had received a rather sorry reception, he went to the piano +to reply in this manner to Weber's antagonists. The argument was +unanswerable, and we were obliged to acknowledge that a work of genius +was misunderstood. As he was about to finish, the lamp which lighted the +apartment appeared very soon to go out; one of us was going to relight +it: 'Leave it alone,' I said to him; 'if he will play the adagio of +Beethoven's sonata in C-sharp minor this twilight will not spoil it.' + +"'Willingly,' said Liszt; 'but put the lights out altogether; cover the +fire that the obscurity may be more complete.' Then, in the midst of +darkness, after a moment's pause, rose in its sublime simplicity the +noble elegy he had once so strangely disfigured; not a note, not an +accent was added to the notes and the accents of the author. It was the +shade of Beethoven, conjured up by the virtuoso to whose voice we were +listening. We all trembled in silence, and when the last chord had +sounded no one spoke--we were in tears." + +Berlioz in a letter to Liszt wrote as follows to the pianist on his +playing: + +"On my return from Heckingen I stayed some days longer at Stuttgart, a +prey to new perplexities. You, my dear Liszt, know nothing of these +uncertainties; it matters little to you whether the town to which you go +has a good orchestra, whether the theatre be open or the manager place +it at your disposal, etc. Of what use indeed would such information be +to you? With a slight modification of the famous mot of Louis XIV you +may say with confidence, I myself am orchestra, chorus, and conductor. I +make my piano dream or sing at pleasure, re-echo with exulting harmonies +and rival the most skilful bow in swiftness. Neither theatre, nor long +rehearsals, for I want neither musicians nor music. + +"Give me a large room and a grand piano, and I am at once master of a +great audience. I have but to appear before it to be overwhelmed with +applause. My memory awakens, my fingers give birth to dazzling +fantasias, which call forth enthusiastic acclamations. I have but to +play Schubert's Ave Maria or Beethoven's Adelaide to draw every heart to +myself, and make each one hold his breath. The silence speaks; +admiration is intense and profound. Then come the fiery shells, a +veritable bouquet of grand fireworks, the acclamations of the public, +flowers and wreaths showered upon the priest of harmony as he sits +quivering on his tripod, beautiful young women kissing the hem of his +garment with tears of sacred frenzy; the sincere homage of the serious, +the feverish applause forced from the envious, the intent faces, the +narrow hearts amazed at their own expansiveness. And perhaps next day +the inspired young genius departs, leaving behind him a trail of +dazzling glory and enthusiasm. It is a dream! It is one of those golden +dreams inspired by the name of Liszt or Paganini. But the composer who, +like myself, must travel to make his work known, has, on the contrary, +to nerve himself to a task which is never ending, still beginning, and +always unpleasant." + +The well-known dramatist, Scribe, once wrote a libretto for Berlioz, but +in consequence of some difficulty with the director of the Paris Grand +Opera he demanded the return of the work, and handed it over to Gounod, +who subsequently wrote the music. Berlioz devotes some space to these +proceedings in his Memoirs, and in the course of his remarks says: + +"When I saw Scribe, on my return to Paris, he seemed slightly confused +at having accepted my offer, and taken back my poem. 'But, as you know,' +said he, 'Il faut que le pretre vive de l'autel.' Poor fellow! he could +not, in fact, have waited; he has only some 200,000 or 300,000 per +annum, a house in town, three country houses etc. Liszt made a capital +pun when I repeated Scribe's speech to him. 'Yes,' said he, 'by his +hotel'--comparing Scribe to an innkeeper." + + +D'ORTIGUE + +D'Ortigue, who is better known as a theorist than a composer and musical +critic, was a great admirer of Liszt, as may be seen by the following +extract from his writings: + +"Beethoven is for Liszt a god, before whom he bows his head. He +considered him as a deliverer whose arrival in the musical realm has +been illustrated through the liberty of poetical thought, and through +the abolishing of old dominating habits. Oh, one must be present when he +begins with one of those melodies, one of those posies which have long +been called symphonies! One must see his eyes when he opens them as if +receiving an inspiration from above, and when he fixes them gloomily on +the ground. One must see him, hear him, and be silent. + +"We feel here only too well how weak is the expression of our +imagination. He conquers everything but his nerves; his head, hands and +whole body are in violent motion; in one word, you see a dreadfully +nervous man agitatedly playing his piano!" + + +BLAZE DE BURY + +Baron Blaze de Bury, in a musical feuilleton contributed to the _Revue +des Deux Mondes_, no doubt more in fun than ill feeling, wrote as +follows on Liszt and his Hungarian sword: + +"We must have dancers, songstresses, and pianists. We have enthusiasm +and gold for their tour de force. We abandon Petrarch in the streets to +bring Essler to the Capitol; we suffer Beethoven and Weber to die of +hunger, to give a sword of honor to Mr. Liszt." + +Liszt was furious when this met his eye, and wrote immediately a long +letter to the editor of the _Revue_, of which the following is the +essential passage: + +"The sword which has been given to me at Pesth is a reward awarded by a +nation under a national form. In Hungary--in this country of ancient and +chivalrous manners--the sword has a patriotic significance. It is the +sign of manhood par excellence; it is the arm of all men who have the +right to carry arms. While six out of the most remarkable men of my +country presented it to me, with the unanimous acclamations of my +compatriots, it was to acknowledge me again as a Hungarian after an +absence of fifteen years." + + +OSCAR COMMETTANT + +Oscar Commettant, in one of his works, gives the following satirical +sketch of Liszt in the height of his popularity in the Parisian concert +rooms: + +"A certain great pianist, who is as clever a manager as he is an +admirable executant, pays women at a rate of 25 frs. per concert to +pretend to faint away with pleasure in the middle of a fantasia taken at +such a rapid pace that it would have been humanly impossible to finish +it. The pianist abruptly left his instrument to rush to the assistance +of the poor fainting lady, while everybody in the room believed that, +but for that accident, the prodigious pianist would have completed the +greatest of miracles. It happened one night that a woman paid to faint +forgot her cue and fell fast asleep. The pianist was performing Weber's +Concertstueck. Reckoning on the fainting of this female to interrupt the +finale of the piece, he took it in an impossible time. What could he do +in such a perplexing cause? Stumble and trip like a vulgar pianist, or +pretend to be stopped by a defective memory? No; he simply played the +part which the faintress (excuse the word) ought to have acted, and +fainted away himself. People crowded around the pianist, who had become +doubly phenomenal through his electric execution, and his frail and +susceptible organization. They carried him out into the greenroom. The +men applauded as if they meant to bring down the ceiling; the women +waved their handkerchiefs to manifest their enthusiasm, and the +faintress, on waking, fainted, perhaps really, with despair of not +having pretended to faint." + + +LEON ESCUDIER + +The once celebrated musical publisher and director of the Parisian +Italian Opera season gives the following description of Danton's +statuette of Liszt, which was exhibited in the Paris salon half a +century ago: + +"The pianist is seated before a piano, which he is about to destroy +under him. His fingers multiply at the ends of his hands; I should think +so--Danton made him ten at each hand. His hair like a willow floats over +his shoulders. One would say that he is whistling. Now for the account. +Liszt saw the statue, and made a grimace. He found that the sculptor had +exaggerated the length of his hair. It was a criticism really pulled by +the hair. Danton knew it. + +"But after Liszt had gone he went again to work and made immediately a +second statuette. In this, one only sees a head of hair (the pianist is +seen from the back) always seated before the piano. The head of hair, +which makes one think of a man hidden behind, plays the piano absolutely +like the first model. All the rest is the same." + +Leon Escudier also relates an incident at one of Henri Herz's concerts: + +"A piece for four pianos was to be played. Herz knew how to choose his +competitors. The three other pianists were Thalberg, Liszt, and +Moscheles. The room was crowded, as may be imagined. The audience was +calm at first; but not without slight manifestations of impatience quite +natural under the circumstances. They did not consider the regrettable +habit that Liszt had, at this epoch, to make people wait for him. +Punctuality, however, is the politeness of kings, and Liszt was a king +of the piano. Briefly, the pianists gave up waiting for Liszt; but this +resolution was not taken without a little confusion in the artists' +room. The musical parts were changed at the piano, and they were going +to play a trio instead of a quatour, when Liszt appeared. It was time! +They were about to commence without him. While the four virtuosi seated +themselves they perceived that the musical parts were not the same which +belonged to them. In the confusion which preceded their installation +the parts got mixed, and No. 1 had before his eyes the part of No. 3; +the No. 2 had No. 1, and so on. What was to be done?--rise and rearrange +the parts! The public was already disappointed by the prolonged waiting +that they had experienced. They murmured. The four virtuosi looked at +each other sternly, not daring to rise, when Herz took a heroic +resolution, exclaiming: 'Courage! Allons toujours!' And he gave the +signal in passing his fingers over the keyboard. The others played, and +the four great pianists improvised each the part of the other. The +public did not notice the change, and finished by applauding loudly." + + +MOSENTHAL + +Anton Rubinstein's librettist, in some reminiscences of his +collaborateur says: + +"It must have been in 1840 that I saw Rubinstein for the first time, +when scarcely ten years old; he had travelled in Paris with his teacher, +and plucked his first laurels with his childish hands. It was then that +Franz Liszt, hearing the boy play, and becoming acquainted with his +first compositions, with noble enthusiasm proclaimed him the sole +inheritor of his fame. The prediction has been fulfilled; already in the +fulness of his activity, Liszt recognised in Rubinstein a rival on equal +footing with himself, and since he has ceased to appear before the +public he has greeted Rubinstein as the sole ruler in the realm of +pianists. When Rubinstein was director of the Musical Society in Vienna, +1876, and the elite of the friends of art gathered every week in his +hospitable house, I once had the rare pleasure of hearing him and Liszt +play, not only successively during the same evening, but also together +on the piano. The question, which of the two surpassed the other, +recalled the old problem whether Goethe or Schiller is the greatest +German poet. But when they both sat down to play a new concerto by +Rubinstein, which Liszt, with incredible intuition, read at sight, it +was really as good as a play to watch the gray-haired master, as, +smiling good-naturedly, he followed his young artist, and allowed +himself, as if on purpose, to be surpassed in fervor and enthusiastic +powers." + + +MOSCHELES + +There are several allusions to Liszt in Moscheles' Diary. Liszt visited +London in 1840, and Moscheles records: + +"At one of the Philharmonic Concerts he played three of my studies quite +admirably. Faultless in the way of execution, by his talent he has +completely metamorphosed these pieces; they have become more his studies +than mine. With all that they please me, and I shouldn't like to hear +them played in any other way by him. The Paganini studies too were +uncommonly interesting to me. He does anything he chooses, and does it +admirably; and those hands raised aloft in the air come down but seldom, +wonderfully seldom, upon a wrong note. 'His conversation is always +brilliant,' adds Mrs. Moscheles. 'It is occasionally dashed with satire +or spiced with humour. The other day he brought me his portrait, with +his hommages respectueux written underneath; and what was the best +"hommage" of all he sat down to the piano, and played me the Erl King, +the Ave Maria and a charming Hungarian piece.'" + +Liszt was again in London in 1841, and Moscheles records that at the +Philharmonic Society's concert, on July 14: + +"The attention of the audience was entirely centred upon Liszt. When he +came forward to play in Hummel's septet one was prepared to be +staggered, but only heard the well-known piece which he plays with the +most perfect execution, storming occasionally like a Titan, but still in +the main free from extravagance; for the distinguishing mark of Liszt's +mind and genius is that he knows perfectly the capability of the +audience and the style of music he brings before them, and uses his +powers, which are equal to everything, merely as a means of eliciting +the most varied kinds of effects." + +Mrs. Moscheles, in some supplementary notes to her husband's Diary, +says: + +"Liszt and Moscheles were heard several times together in the Preciosa +variations, on which Moscheles remarks: 'It seemed to me that we were +sitting together on Pegasus.' When Moscheles showed him his F-sharp and +D-minor studies, which he had written for Michetti's Beethoven Album, +Liszt, in spite of their intricacies and difficulties, played them +admirably at sight. He was a constant visitor at Moscheles' house, often +dropping in unexpectedly; and many an evening was spent under the double +fascination of his splendid playing and brilliant conversation. The +other day he told us: 'I have played a duet with Cramer; I was the +poisoned mushroom, and I had at my side my antidote of milk.'" + +Moscheles attended the Beethoven Festival at Bonn, in 1845, and on +August 10 recorded in his Diary: + +"I am at the Hotel de l'Etoile d'Or, where are to be found all the +crowned heads of music--brown, gray or bald. This is a rendezvous for +all ladies, old and young, fanatics for music, all art judges, German +and French reviewers and English reporters; lastly, the abode of Liszt, +the absolute monarch, by virtue of his princely gifts, outshining all +else.... I have already seen and spoken to colleagues from all the four +quarters of the globe; I was also with Liszt, who had his hands full of +business, and was surrounded with secretaries and masters of ceremonies, +while Chorley sat quietly ensconced in the corner of a sofa. Liszt too +kissed me; then a few hurried and confused words passed between us, and +I did not see him again until I met him afterwards in the concert +room." + +On August 12, Moscheles records: + +"I was deeply moved when I saw the statue of Beethoven unveiled, the +more so because Haehnel has obtained an admirable likeness of the +immortal composer. Another tumult and uproar at the table d'hote in the +'Stern' Hotel. I sat near Bachez, Fischof and Vesque, Liszt in all his +glory, a suite of ladies and gentlemen in attendance on him, Lola Montez +among the former." + +At the banquet after the unveiling of Beethoven's statue at Bonn, +Moscheles records: + +"Immediately after the king's health had been proposed, Wolff, the +improvisatore, gave a toast which he called the 'Trefoil.' It was to +represent the perfect chord--Spohr the key-note, Liszt the connecting +link between all parties, the third, Professor Breidenstein, the +dominant leading all things to a happy solution. (Universal applause.) +Spohr proposes the health of the Queen of England, Dr. Wolff that of +Professor Haehnel, the sculptor of the monument, and also that of the +brass founder. Liszt proposes Prince Albert; a professor with a +stentorian voice is laughed and coughed down--people will not listen to +him; and then ensued a series of most disgraceful scenes which +originated thus: Liszt spoke rather abstrusely upon the subject of the +festival. 'Here all nations are met to pay honour to the master. May +they live and prosper--the Dutch, the English, the Viennese--who have +made a pilgrimage hither!' Upon this Chelard gets up in a passion, and +screams out to Liszt, 'Vous avez oublie les Francais.' + +"Many voices break in, a regular tumult ensues, some for, some against +the speaker. At last Liszt makes himself heard, but in trying to +exculpate himself seems to get entangled deeper and deeper in a +labyrinth of words, seeking to convince his hearers that he had lived +fifteen years among Frenchmen, and would certainly not intentionally +speak slightingly of them. The contending parties, however, become more +uproarious, many leave their seats, the din becomes deafening and the +ladies pale with fright. The fete is interrupted for a full hour, Dr. +Wolff, mounting a table, tries to speak, but is hooted down three or +four times, and at last quits the room, glad to escape the babel of +tongues. Knots of people are seen disputing in every part of the great +salon, and, the confusion increasing, the cause of dispute is lost sight +of. The French and English journalists mingle in this fray, by +complaining of omissions of all sorts on the part of the festival +committee. When the tumult threatens to become serious the landlord hits +upon the bright idea of making the band play its loudest, and this +drowns the noise of the brawlers, who adjourned to the open air. + +"The waiters once more resumed their services, although many of the +guests, especially ladies, had vanished. The contending groups outside +showed their bad taste and ridiculous selfishness, for Vivier and some +Frenchmen got Liszt among them, and reproached him in a most shameful +way. G. ran from party to party, adding fuel to the fire; Chorley was +attacked by a French journalist; M. J. J. (Jules Janin) would have it +that the English gentleman, Wentworth Dilke, was a German who had +slighted him; I stepped in between the two, so as at least to put an end +to this unfair controversy. I tried as well as I could to soothe these +overwrought minds, and pronounced funeral orations over those who had +perished in this tempest of words. I alone remained shot proof and +neutral, so also did my Viennese friends. By 6 o'clock in the evening I +became almost deaf from the noise, and was glad to escape." + + +DWIGHT + +John S. Dwight, the Boston musical critic, in an article on Dr. von +Buelow, written while travelling in Germany with a friend, relates the +following interview with Liszt: + +"It was in Berlin, in the winter of 1861, that we had the privilege of +meeting and hearing Buelow. We were enjoying our first and only interview +with Liszt, who had come for a day or two to the old Hotel de +Brandebourg, where we were living that winter. On the sofa sat his +daughter, Mrs. von Buelow, bearing his unmistakable impress upon her +features; the welcome was cordial, and the conversation on the part of +both of them was lively and most interesting; chiefly of course it was +about music, artists, etc., and nothing delighted us more than the +hearty appreciation which Liszt expressed of Robert Franz, then, strange +as it may seem, but very little recognised in Germany. Of some other +composers he seemed inclined to speak ironically and even bitterly, as +if smarting under some disappointment--perhaps at the unreceptive mood +of the Berliners toward his own symphonic poems, to whose glories Buelow +had been labouring to convert them. + +"Before we had a chance to hint of one hope long deferred, that of +hearing Liszt play, he asked, 'Have you heard Buelow?' alluding to him +more than once as the pianist to be heard--his representative and heir, +on whom his mantle had verily fallen. Thinking it possible that there +was some new grand composition by some one of his young disciples to be +brought out, and that he had come to Berlin to stand godfather, as it +were, to that, we modestly ventured to inquire. He smilingly replied, +'No; I am here literally as godfather, having come to the christening of +my grandchild.' Presently the conversation was interrupted by a rap at +the door, and in came with lively step a little man, who threw open the +furs in which he was buried, Berlin fashion, and approached the +presence, bowed his head to the paternal laying on of hands, and we were +introduced to Von Buelow." + + +HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN + +The author of the charming fairy tales, which are still admired by young +as well as old people, in his usual graceful style, gives a description +of a Liszt concert in 1840: + +"In Hamburg, at the City of London Hotel, Liszt gave a concert. In a few +minutes the hall was crowded. I came too late, but I got the best +place--close upon the orchestra, where the piano stood--for I was +brought up by a back staircase. Liszt is one of the kings in the realm +of music. My guide brought me to him, as I have said, up a back stair, +and I am not ashamed to acknowledge this. The hall--even the side +rooms--beamed with lights, gold chains and diamonds. Near me, on a sofa, +reclined a young Jewess, stout and overdressed. She looked like a walrus +with a fan. Grave Hamburg merchants stood crowded together, as if they +had important business 'on 'Change' to transact. A smile rested on their +lips, as though they had just sold 'paper' and won enormously. The +Orpheus of mythology could move stones and trees by his playing. The new +Liszt-Orpheus had actually electrified them before he played. Celebrity, +with its mighty prestige, had opened the eyes and ears of the people. It +seemed as if they recognised and felt already what was to follow. I +myself felt in the beaming of those many flashing eyes, and that +expectant throbbing of the heart, the approach of the great genius who +with bold hands had fixed the limits of his art in our time. London, +that great capital of machinery, or Hamburg, the trade emporium of +Europe, is where one should hear Liszt for the first time; there time +and place harmonise; and in Hamburg I was to hear him. An electric shock +seemed to thrill the hall as Liszt entered. Most of the ladies rose. A +sunbeam flashed across each face, as though every eye were seeing a +dear, beloved friend. I stood quite close to the artist. He is a slight +young man. Long, dark hair surrounded the pale face. He bowed and seated +himself at the instrument. Liszt's whole appearance and his mobility +immediately indicate one of those personalities toward which one is +attracted solely by their individuality. As he sat at the piano the +first impression of his individuality and the trace of strong passions +upon his pale countenance made me imagine that he might be a demon +banished into the instrument from which the tones streamed forth. They +came from his blood; from his thoughts; he was a demon who had to free +his soul by playing; he was under the torture; his blood flowed, and his +nerves quivered. But as he played the demonia disappeared. I saw +the pale countenance assume a nobler, more beautiful expression. +The divine soul flashed from his eyes, from every feature; he grew +handsome--handsome as life and inspiration can make one. His Valse +Infernale is more than a daguerreotype from Meyerbeer's Robert. We do +not stand before and gaze upon the well-known picture. No, we transport +ourselves into the midst of it. We gaze deep into the very abyss, and +discover new, whirling forms. It did not seem to be the strings of a +piano that were sounding. No, every tone was like an echoing drop of +water. Any one who admires the technic of art must bow before Liszt; he +that is charmed with the genial, the divine gift, bows still lower. The +Orpheus of our day has made tones sound through the great capital of +machinery and a Copenhagener has said that 'his fingers are simply +railroads and steam engines.' His genius is more powerful to bring +together the great minds of the world than all the railroads on earth. +The Orpheus of our day has preached music in the trade emporium of +Europe, and (at least for a moment) the people believed the gospel. The +spirit's gold has a truer ring than that of the world. People often use +the expression 'a sea of sound' without being conscious of its +significance, and such it is that streams from the piano at which Liszt +sits. The instrument appears to be changed into a whole orchestra. This +is accomplished by ten fingers, which possess a power of execution that +might be termed superhuman. They are guided by a mighty genius. It is a +sea of sound, which in its very agitation is a mirror for the life task +of each burning heart. I have met politicians who, at Liszt's playing, +conceived that peaceful citizens at the sound of the Marseillaise might +be so carried away that they might seize their guns and rush forth from +hearths and homes to fight for an idea! I have seen quiet Copenhageners, +with Danish autumnal coolness in their veins, become political +bacchantes at his playing. The mathematician has grown giddy at the +echoing fingers and the reckoning of the sounds. Young disciples +of Hegel (and among those the really gifted and not merely the +light-headed, who at the mere galvanic stream of philosophy make a +mental grimace) perceived in this sea of music the wave-like advances of +knowledge toward the shore of perfection. The poet found the rein of his +heart's whole lyric, or the rich garment of his boldest delineation. The +traveller (yes, I conclude with myself) receives musical pictures of +what he sees or will see. I heard his playing as it were an overture to +my journey. I heard how my heart throbbed and bled on my leaving home. I +heard the farewell of the waves--the waves that I should only hear again +on the cliffs of Terracina. Organ tones seemed to sound from Germany's +old cathedrals. The glaciers rolled from the Alpine hills, and Italy +danced in carnival dresses, and struck with her wooden sword while she +thought in her heart of Caesar, Horace and Raphael. Vesuvius and AEtna +burned. The trumpet of judgment resounded from the hills of Greece, +where the old gods are dead. Tones that I knew not--tones for which I +have no words--pointed to the East, the home of fancy, the poet's second +fatherland. When Liszt had done playing the flowers rained down on him. +Young, pretty girls, old ladies, who had once been pretty girls, too, +threw their bouquets. He had indeed thrown a thousand bouquets into +their hearts and brain. + +"From Hamburg Liszt was to fly to London, there to strew new +tone-bouquets, there to breathe poetry over material working day life. +Happy man! who can thus travel throughout his whole life, always to see +people in their spiritual Sunday dress--yea, even in the wedding garment +of inspiration. Shall I often meet him? That was my last thought, and +chance willed it that we meet on a journey at a spot where I and my +readers would least expect it--met, became friends, and again separated. +But that belongs to the last chapter of this journey. He now went to the +city of Victoria--I to that of Gregory the Sixteenth." + + +HEINE + +There are several reminiscences of Liszt to be found in the collected +works of the great German author. Heine, writing in 1844 at Paris, says: + +"When I some time ago heard of the marvellous excitement which broke out +in Germany, and more particularly in Berlin, when Liszt showed himself +there, I shrugged my shoulders and thought quiet, Sabbath-like Germany +does not want to lose the opportunity of indulging in a little +'permitted' commotion; it longs to stretch its sleep-stiffened limbs, +and my Philistines on the banks of the Spree are fond of tickling +themselves into enthusiasm, while one declaims after the other, 'Love, +ruler of gods and men!' It does not matter to them, thought I, what the +row is about, so long as it is a row, whether it is called George +Herwegh (the "Iron Lark"), Fanny Essler or Franz Liszt. If Herwegh be +forbidden we turn to the politically 'safe' and uncompromising Liszt. So +thought I, so I explained to myself the Liszt mania; and I accepted it +as a sign of the want of political freedom on the other side of the +Rhine. But I was in error, which I recognised for the first time at the +Italian Opera House where Liszt gave his first concert, and before an +assembly which is best described as the elite of society here. They +were, anyhow, wide-awake Parisians: people familiar with the greatest +celebrities of modern times, totally blase and preoccupied men, who had +'done to death' all things in the world, art included; women equally +'done up' by having danced the polka the whole winter through. Truly it +was no German sentimental, Berlin-emotional audience before which Liszt +played--quite alone, or rather accompanied only by his genius. And yet, +what an electrically powerful effect his mere appearance produced! What +a storm of applause greeted him! How many bouquets were flung at his +feet! It was an impressive sight to see with what imperturbable +self-possession the great conqueror allowed the flowers to rain upon him +and then, at last, graciously smiling, selected a red camellia and stuck +it in his buttonhole. And this he did in the presence of several young +soldiers just arrived from Africa, where it did not rain flowers but +leaden bullets, and they were decorated with the red camellias of their +own heroes' blood, without receiving any particular notice either here +for it. Strange, thought I, these Parisians have seen Napoleon, who was +obliged to supply them with one battle after another to retain their +attention--these receive our Franz Liszt with acclamation! And what +acclamation!--a positive frenzy, never before known in the annals of +furore." + +Heine relates the following curious conversation he had with a medical +man about Liszt: + +"A physician whose specialty is woman, whom I questioned as to the +fascination which Liszt exercises on his public, smiled very strangely, +and at the same time spoke of magnetism, galvanism, and electricity, of +contagion in a sultry hall, filled with innumerable wax-lights, and some +hundred perfumed and perspiring people, of histrionic epilepsy, of the +phenomenon of tickling, of musical cantharides, and other unmentionable +matters, which, I think, have to do with the mysteries of the bona dea; +the solution of the question, however, does not lie perhaps so strangely +deep, but on a very prosaic surface. I am sometimes inclined to think +that the whole witchery might be explained thus--namely, that nobody in +this world knows so well how to organise his successes, or rather +their mise en scene, as Franz Liszt. In this art he is a genius, +a Philadelphia, a Bosco, a Houdin--yea, a Meyerbeer. The most +distinguished persons serve him gratis as comperes, and his hired +enthusiasts are drilled in an exemplary way." + +This amusing anecdote about Liszt and the once famous tenor, Rubini, is +also told by Heine: + +"The celebrated singer had undertaken a tour with Franz Liszt, sharing +expenses and profits. The great pianist took Signor Belloni about with +him everywhere (the entrepreneur in general of his reputation), and to +him was left the whole of the business management. When, however, all +accounts had been settled up, and Signor Belloni presented his little +bill, what was Rubini's horror to find that among the mutual expenses +there appeared sundry considerable items for 'laurel wreaths,' +'bouquets,' 'laudatory poems,' and suchlike 'ovation expenses.' + +"The naive singer had, in his innocence, imagined that he had been +granted these tokens of public favour solely on account of his lovely +voice. He flew into a great rage, and swore he would not pay for the +bouquets which probably contained the most expensive camellias." + +That Heine could appreciate Liszt seriously, these extracts testify +sufficiently: + +"He (Liszt) is indisputably the artist in Paris who finds the most +unlimited enthusiasm as well as the most zealous opponents. It is a +characteristic sign that no one speaks of him with indifference. Without +power no one in this world can excite either favourable or hostile +passions. One must possess fire to excite men to hatred as well as to +love. That which testifies especially for Liszt is the complete esteem +with which even his enemies speak of his personal worth. He is a man of +whimsical but noble character, unselfish and without deceit. Especially +remarkable are his spiritual proclivities; he has great taste for +speculative ideas, and he takes even more interest in the essays of the +various schools which occupy themselves with the solution of the +problems of heaven and earth than in his art itself. It is, however, +praiseworthy, this indefatigable yearning after light and divinity; it +is a proof of his taste for the holy, for the religious.... + +"Yes, Franz Liszt, the pianist of genius, whose playing often appears to +me as the melodious agony of a spectral world, is again here, and giving +concerts which exercise a charm which borders on the fabulous. By his +side all piano players, with the exception of Chopin, the Raphael of the +piano, are as nothing. In fact, with the exception of this last named +artist alone, all the other piano players whom we hear in countless +concerts are only piano players; their only merit is the dexterity with +which they handle the machine of wood and wire. With Liszt, on the +contrary, the people think no more about the 'difficulty overcome'; the +piano disappears, the music is revealed. In this respect has Liszt, +since I last heard him, made the most astonishing progress. With this +advantage he combines now a reposed manner, which I failed to perceive +in him formerly. If, for example, he played a storm on the piano we saw +the lightning flicker about his features; his limbs fluttered as with +the blast of a storm, and his long locks of hair dripped as with real +showers of rain. Now when he plays the most violent storm he seems +exalted above it, like the traveller who stands on the summit of an Alp +while the tempest rages in the valley; the clouds lie deep below him, +the lightning curls like snakes at his feet, but his head is uplifted +smilingly into the pure ether." + +The following remarks on Liszt, to be found in Heine's letters to his +friends, are also interesting: + +"That such a restless head, driven and perplexed by all the needs and +doctrines of his time, feeling compelled to trouble himself about all +the necessities of humanity, and eagerly sticking his nose into all the +pots in which the good God brews the future--that Franz Liszt can be no +quiet piano player for tranquil townfolks and good-natured night-caps is +self-evident. When he sits down at the piano, and has stroked his hair +back over his forehead several times, and begins to improvise, he often +storms away right madly over the ivory keys, and there rings out a +wilderness of heaven-height thought, amid which here and there the +sweetest flowers diffuse their fragrance, so that one is at once +troubled and beatified, but troubled most." + +To another he writes: + +"I confess to you, much as I love Liszt, his music does not operate +agreeably upon my mind; the more so that I am a Sunday child, and also +see the spectres which others only hear; since, as you know, at every +tone which the hand strikes upon the keyboard the corresponding tone +figure rises in my mind; in short, since music becomes visible to my +inward eye. My brain still reels at the recollection of the concert in +which I last heard Liszt play. It was in a concert for the unfortunate +Italians, in the hotel of that beautiful, noble, and suffering princess, +who so beautifully represents her material and her spiritual fatherland, +to wit, Italy and Heaven. (You surely have seen her in Paris, that ideal +form, which yet is but the prison in which the holiest angel-soul has +been imprisoned; but this prison is so beautiful that every one lingers +before it as if enchanted, and gazes at it with astonishment.) It was at +a concert for the benefit of the unhappy Italians where I last heard +Liszt, during the past winter, play, I know not what, but I could swear +he varied upon themes from the Apocalypse. At first I could not quite +distinctly see them, the four mystical beasts; I only heard their +voices, especially the roaring of the lion and the screaming of the +eagle. The ox with the book in his hand I saw clearly enough. Best of +all, he played the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There were lists as at a +tournament, and for spectators the risen people, pale as the grave and +trembling, crowded round the immense space. First galloped Satan into +the lists, in black harness, on a milk-white steed. Slowly rode behind +him Death on his pale horse. At last Christ appeared, in golden armour, +on a black horse, and with His holy lance He first thrust Satan to the +ground, and then Death, and the spectators shouted. Tumultuous applause +followed the playing of the valiant Liszt, who left his seat exhausted +and bowed before the ladies. About the lips of the fairest played that +melancholy smile." + +Heine also relates: + +"On one occasion two Hungarian countesses, to get his snuff-box, threw +each other down upon the ground and fought till they were exhausted!" + + +CAROLINE BAUER + +The lady whose revelations in her Memoires about various royal and +princely personages furnished the contributors of "Society" papers with +a large amount of "copy" at the time of its publication, writes as +follows concerning Liszt's intimacy with Prince Lichnowsky in 1844: + +"I had heard a great deal in Ratibor of mad Prince Felix Lichnowsky, who +lived at his neighbouring country seat, and who furnished an abundant +daily supply for the scandal-mongers of the town. Six years before that +time the prince had quitted the Prussian service, owing to his debts and +other irregularities, and had gone to Spain to evade his unhappy +creditors, and to offer his ward to the Pretender, Don Carlos. Three +years afterward he had returned from Spain with the rank of Carlist +brigadier-general, and now he lived in his hermitage, near Ratibor, by +no means a pious hermit. And then, one evening, shortly before the +commencement of the 'Letzter Waffengang,' when I was already dressed in +my costume, the prince stood before me behind the scanty wings of the +Ratibor stage, to renew his acquaintance with me. He had aged, his +checkered life not having passed over him without leaving traces; but he +was still the same elegant, arrogant libertine he was at Prague, of whom +a journalist wrote: 'Prince Felix Lichnowsky, like Prince Pueckler, +belongs to those dandies, roues, lions who attract the attention of the +multitude at any cost by their contempt of men, their triviality, +impudence, liaisons, horses, and duels; a kind of modern Alcibiades, +every dog cutting the tail of another dog.' Within the first five +minutes I learned from the prince's lips: 'My friend Liszt has lately +been living with me at my hermitage for several weeks, and we have led a +very agreeable life together.' Yes, indeed, in Ratibor, the people +related the wildest stories of this pasha life! The following forenoon +the prince invited us to a dejeuner a la fourchette at his 'hermitage,' +as he liked to call it. We inspected the park, which contained many fine +trees; I tried the glorious 'grand' which Liszt had consecrated. But I +was not to rise from the table without having had a new skirmish with my +prince from Prague--preux chevalier. The conversation turned about +Director Nachtigall, and suddenly Lichnowsky said roughly: + +"'Just fancy, this Nachtigall had the impudence to call here and invite +my friend Liszt to play upon his miserable Ratibor stage. A Liszt, and +my guest, to play in Ratibor, and with a Nachtigall--unheard of! You may +imagine that I gave this Nachtigall a becoming answer.' + +"The bit stuck in my mouth, and, trembling with indignation, I said +sharply: + +"'My prince, am I not your guest, too? And do not I play in Ratibor, and +with a Nachtigall? If your friend Liszt had done nothing worse here than +play the piano in Ratibor he would not have degraded himself in any +way.' + +"'Ah! the town gossip of Ratibor has your ear, too, I see!' Lichnowsky +said, with a scornful smile. 'But of course we are not going to +quarrel.'" + +Caroline Bauer also relates in her Memoires the following anecdote about +Liszt and the haughty Princess Metternich: + +"Liszt had been introduced to the princess and paid her a visit in +Vienna. He was received and ushered into the drawing-room, in which the +princess was holding a lively conversation with another lady. A +condescending nod of the head was responded to the bow of the +world-renowned artist; a gracious movement of the head invited him to be +seated. In vain the proud and spoiled man waited to be introduced to the +visitor, and to have an opportunity of joining in the conversation. The +princess quietly continued to converse with the lady as if Franz Liszt +were not in existence at all, at least not in her salon. At last she +asked him in a cool and off-hand manner: + +"'Did you do a good stroke of business at the concert you gave in +Italy?' + +"'Princess,' he replied coldly, 'I am a musician, and not a man of +business.' + +"The artist bowed stiffly and instantly left. + +"Soon after this Prince Metternich proved himself to be as perfect a +gentleman as he was a diplomatist. At Liszt's first concert in Vienna he +went to him and, entering the artist's room, cordially pressed his hands +before everybody, and, with a gracious smile, said softly: + +"'I trust you will pardon my wife for a slip of the tongue the other +day; you know what women are!'" + + +FANNY KEMBLE + +Mrs. Kemble, in her chatty book, Records of Later Life, relates a +pleasant incident in September, 1842: + +"Our temporary fellowship with Liszt procured for us a delightful +participation in a tribute of admiration from the citizen workmen of +Coblentz, that was what the French call saisissant. We were sitting all +in our hotel drawing-room together, the maestro, as usual, smoking his +long pipe, when a sudden burst of music made us throw open the window +and go out on the balcony, when Liszt was greeted by a magnificent +chorus of nearly two hundred men's voices. They sang to perfection, +each with his small sheet of music and his sheltered light in his hand; +and the performance, which was the only one of the sort I ever heard, +gave a wonderful impression of the musical capacity of the only really +musical nation in the world." + +Mrs. Kemble also gives her impression of Liszt at Munich in 1870: + +"I had gone to the theatre at Munich, where I was staying, to hear +Wagner's opera of the Rheingold, with my daughter and her husband. We +had already taken our places, when S. exclaimed to me, 'There is Liszt.' +The increased age, the clerical dress had effected but little change in +the striking general appearance, which my daughter (who had never seen +him since 1842, when she was quite a child) recognised immediately. I +went round to his box, and, recalling myself to his memory, begged him +to come to ours, and let me present my daughter to him. He very +good-naturedly did so, and the next day called upon us at our hotel and +sat with us a long time. His conversation on matters of art (Wagner's +music which he and we had listened to the evening before) and literature +was curiously cautious and guarded, and every expression of opinion +given with extreme reserve, instead of the uncompromising fearlessness +of his earlier years; and the Abbe was indeed quite another from the +Liszt of our summer on the Rhine of 1842." + + +LOLA MONTEZ + +The once notorious actress, who, after a series of adventures caused +some uproar at Munich, met Liszt during his travels in Germany, and her +biographer relates how they divided honours at Dresden in 1842. + +"Through the management of influential friends an opening was made for +her at the Royal Theatre at Dresden, where she met the celebrated +pianist, Franz Liszt, who was then creating such a furore that when he +dropped his pocket handkerchief it was seized by the ladies and torn +into rags, which they divided among themselves--each being but too happy +to get so much as a scrap which had belonged to the great artist. The +furore created by Lola Montez' appearance at the theatre in Dresden was +quite as great among the gentlemen as was Liszt's among the ladies." + +Lola Montez, during the last few years of her life, devoted herself to +lecturing in various European cities, and the following is extracted +from a published one entitled, "The Wits and Women of Paris": + +"There was a gifted and fashionable lady (the Countess of Agoult), +herself an accomplished authoress, concerning whom and George Sand a +curious tale is told. They were great friends, and the celebrated +pianist Liszt was the admirer of both. Things went on smoothly for some +time, all couleur de rose, when one fine day Liszt and George Sand +disappeared suddenly from Paris, having taken it into their heads to +make the tour of Switzerland for the summer together. Great was the +indignation of the fair countess at this double desertion; and when they +returned to Paris Madame d'Agoult went to George Sand and immediately +challenged the great writer to a duel, the weapons to be finger-nails, +etc. Poor Liszt ran out of the room and locked himself up in a dark +closet till the deadly affray was ended, and then made his body over in +charge to a friend, to be preserved, as he said, for the remaining +assailant. Madame d'Agoult was married to a bookworm, who cared for +naught else but his library; he did not know even the number of children +he possessed, and so little the old philosopher cared about the matter +that when a stranger came to the house he invariably, at the appearance +of the family, said: 'Allow me to present to you my wife's children'; +all this with the blandest smile and most contented air." + +Lola Montez also says in her lecture: + +"I once asked George Sand which she thought the greatest pianist, Liszt +or Thalberg. She replied, 'Liszt is the greatest, but there is only one +Thalberg. If I were to attempt to give an idea of the difference between +Liszt and Thalberg, I should say that Thalberg is like the clear, placid +flow of a deep, grand river; while Liszt is the same tide foaming and +bubbling and dashing on like a cataract.'" + + +MRS. ELLET + +This lady, in an account of an autumn holiday on the Rhine, relates: + +"Liszt, with his wonted kindness, had offered to give a concert in +Cologne, the proceeds of which were to be appropriated to the completion +of the Cathedral; the Rhenish Liedertafel resolved to bring him with due +pomp from the island of Nonnenwerth, near Bonn, where he had been for +some days. A steamboat was hired expressly for this purpose, and +conveyed a numerous company to Nonnenwerth at 11 in the morning. The +Liedertafel then greeted the artist, who stood on the shore, by singing +a morning salute, accompanied by the firing of cannons and loud hurrahs. +They then marched with wind-instruments in advance to the now empty +chapel of the cloister of Nonnenwerth, where they sang, and thence to +Rolandseck, where an elegant dinner was prepared for the company. All +eyes were fixed on Liszt; all hearts were turned to him. He proposed a +toast in honour of his entertainers; and at the conclusion of his speech +observed with justice that nowhere in the world could any club be found +like the Liedertafel in Germany. When the banquet was over they returned +to Nonnenwerth, where a crowd of people from the surrounding country was +assembled. The universal wish to hear Liszt was so evident that he was +induced to send for a piano to be brought into the chapel, and to +gratify the assembly--listening and rapt with delight--by a display of +his transcendent powers. The desolate halls of the chapel once more +resounded with the stir and voices of life. Not even the nuns, we will +venture to say, who in former times used here to offer up prayers to +heaven, were impressed with a deeper sense of the heavenly than was this +somewhat worldly assembly by the magnificent music of Liszt, that seemed +indeed to disclose things beyond this earth. At 7 o'clock the +Liedertafel, with Liszt at their head, marched on their return, and went +on board the steamboat, which was decorated with coloured flags, amid +peals of cannon. It was 9, and quite dark, when they approached their +landing. Rockets were sent up from the boat, and a continued stream of +coloured fireworks, so that as the city rose before them from the bosom +of the Rhine the boat seemed enveloped in a circle of brilliant flame +which threw its reflection far over the waters. Music and hurrahs +greeted our artist on shore; all Cologne was assembled to give him the +splendid welcome which in other times only monarchs received. Slowly the +procession of the Liedertafel moved through the multitude to the hotel, +where again and again shouts and cheers testified the joy of the people +at the arrival of their distinguished guest." + + +MINASI + +Minasi, the once popular painter, who sketched a portrait of Thalberg +during his first sojourn in London, also wrote an account of an +interesting conversation about Liszt: + +"The purpose of my requesting an introduction to M. Thalberg was, first, +to be acquainted with a man of his genius; and next, to request the +favour of his sitting for his portrait, executed in a new style with pen +and ink. His total freedom from all ceremony and affectation perfectly +charmed me. He appointed the next morning at 9 for his first sitting; +and in my eagerness to commence my task, and make one of my best +studies, I was in his breakfast room a quarter of an hour before my +time. While he was taking his breakfast I addressed him in my own +language; and when he answered me with a most beautiful accent I was +delighted beyond measure. I felt doubly at home with him. Since then I +find that he is a perfect scholar, possessing, with his finished +pronunciation, a great propriety of conception. + +"While I was putting on paper the outlines of his profile (a striking +feature of his face), I inquired whether he was acquainted with my +friend Liszt in Paris. He remarked that Liszt had disgraced himself with +all impartial persons by writing against him with violent acrimony in +the public prints; and which act he himself acknowledged was the result +of professional jealousy. I was the more grieved to hear this, because I +had entertained the highest respect for Liszt, who, as I told Thalberg, +would never have demeaned himself had his father been living; whose last +words to his son were: 'My son, you have always conducted yourself well; +but I fear, after my death, some designing knave will lay hold of and +make a dupe of you. Take care, my dear son, with whom you associate.' In +one instance, Liszt met Thalberg, and proposed that they should play a +duet in public, and that he (Liszt) should appoint the time. Thalberg's +answer was: 'Je n'aime pas d'etre accompagne,' which greatly amused the +Parisians. Upon another occasion, Liszt made free to tell Thalberg that +he did not admire his compositions. Thalberg replied: 'Since you do not +like my compositions, Liszt, I do not like yours.' + +"To the honour of Liszt, however, it should be stated that, having +called upon Thalberg, he acknowledged his errors, making him a solemn +promise never to offend in the same manner, adding that the cause of his +attack upon him arose from jealousy of his rival's high talents, which +made him the idol of the Parisians, and by whom he was received with the +greatest enthusiasm. Thalberg dismissed the subject with me, by doing +justice to himself as a public performer; at the same time declaring +that Liszt is one of the greatest pianists in Europe, and he concluded +with the following generous admission: 'Nevertheless, after all that +has passed between us, I think Liszt would do anything to oblige me.'" + + +MACREADY + +The once popular novelist, the Countess of Blessington, on May 31, 1840, +invited many distinguished personages to her London house to meet Liszt, +and among those who came were Lord Normanby, Lord Canterbury, Lord +Houghton (then Mr. Monckton Milnes), Chorley, Rubini, Stuart Wortley, +Palgrave Simpson, and Macready, the famous tragedian. Liszt played +several times during the evening, and created an impression on all those +present, especially on Macready, who notes in his diary: + +"Liszt, the most marvellous pianist I ever heard; I do not know when I +have been so excited." + + +AN ANONYMOUS GERMAN ADMIRER + +The following recollections of Liszt's first visit to Stuttgart were +published in a periodical many years ago. Though they appeared without +any signature, the author seems to have been on intimate terms with the +great musician: + +"Liszt played several times at court, for which he received all possible +distinctions which the King of Wurtemberg could confer upon an artist. +The list of honours was exhausted when the royal princesses wished to +hear once more this magician of the piano keys quite privately in their +own apartments. Liszt, our truly chivalric artist, accepted with delight +such an invitation, expecting less to show himself as an artist than to +express his thanks for the many honours received. It must have been rare +enjoyment for a royal family which recognised in art only a graceful +pastime and a delightful intoxication of the sense, with an agreeable +excitement of the sentiments; for no artist in the world understands +better than Liszt how to survey at a glance the character and the most +hidden recesses in the hearts of his audience. This very fact is the +cause of his wonderful effects, and will secure them to him always. He +played on that occasion Weber's Invitation a la Valse, with his own +effectual, free, final cadenza, his Chromatic Galop (which causes all +nerves to vibrate), and a few of his transcriptions of Schubert's +songs--those genuine pearls, the richness and colouring of which none +can show so well as himself, being a unique and most perfect master of +the art of touch. And, finally, in order to show something at least of +his immense bravura, he played a little concert piece. The most gracious +words of acknowledgment were showered upon him. Liszt, enraptured by the +truly heavenly eyes of one of the princesses, which, rendered still more +beautiful by a singular moisture, were fixed upon him, declared his +happiness in thus being able to express his thanks for the many honours +conferred upon him. + +"Among all the princes of Europe, however, there is none so little +inclined to accept of services without remuneration as the King of +Wurtemberg. This is one of the many chivalric traits in the character of +that monarch; no other rewards artists in such royal style. On the next +morning I was with Liszt, each of us smoking a real Havana comfortably +on one end of the sofa. Liszt was telling me of his last visit to court, +when one of its servants entered. He placed a roll of 150 ducats in gold +upon the table, and presenting Liszt with an open receipt, asked him to +sign it. Liszt read: 'Received for playing,' etc. Aloud, and in a tone +of astonishment, Liszt repeated the words, 'Received for my playing?' +and, rising with that peculiar aristocratic grace, he says in a mild, +condescending tone: 'For my playing--am I to sign this document? My +friend, I imagine some clerk of the court treasury has written this +scrawl.' Upon which the servant, interrupting, said that it had been +written by Herr Tagel, Counsellor of Court and Director of the Court +Treasury. 'Well,' said Liszt, 'take back the receipt and money, and +tell' (raising his voice) 'the counsellor from me, that neither king nor +emperor can pay an artist for his playing--only, perchance, for his lost +time, and' (with haughty indignation) 'that the counsellor is a +blockhead if he does not comprehend that. For your trouble, my friend,' +(giving him 5 ducats) 'take this trifle.'" + +The writer goes on to say: + +"The servant, in utter astonishment, knew not what to answer, and looked +at me. But Liszt's slight figure was erect, his finely cut lips were +compressed, his head was boldly thrown back, so that his thick hair fell +far down on his shoulders; his nostrils were expanding, the lightning of +his keen and brilliant eye was gleaming, his arms were folded, and he +showed all his usual indications of inward commotion. Knowing, +therefore, that Liszt had by that document been touched in his most +sensitive point, and that this was nothing more nor less than a small +battle in his great contest for the social position and rights of +artists--a contest which, when a boy of fifteen years, he had already +taken up--I was well aware of the impossibility of changing his mind for +the present, and therefore remained silent, while the discomfited lackey +retired with many low bows, taking money and scroll with him. Whether he +really delivered the message I know not; but I was still with Liszt when +he reappeared and, laying the money upon the table, gave Liszt a large +sealed letter, which read as follows: 'The undersigned officer of the +Treasury of Court, commanded by His Majesty the King, begs Dr. Liszt to +accept, as a small compensation for his lost time with the princesses, +the sum of 150 ducats.' Liszt handed me the paper, and with a silent +glance I interrogated him in return. It is an old fact that the soul is +always most clearly reflected in homely features, and I distinctly read +in his face reconciliation and the kindest feeling again. He sat down +and wrote on a scrap of paper with pencil: 'Received from the Royal +Treasury 150 ducats--Franz Liszt,' and gave it to the servant very +politely, accompanied by another rich gift. There was never afterward +any further allusion to the affair. + +"The price of admission to Liszt's concerts was unusually high, so that +they could only be frequented by the wealthier classes. At a party the +conversation fell upon the subject, and it was regretted that for such a +reason many teachers and scholars, in spite of their great anxiety to +hear the great master, were prevented from doing so. I told Liszt this, +and he answered: 'Well, arrange a concert for them, only charge as much +or as little as you think proper, and let me know when and what I shall +play. Immediately a committee was formed, and a concert for teachers and +scholars only arranged, to which the price of admission amounted to only +18 kreutzers (about sixpence). Quantities of tickets were sold, and +immense galleries had to be erected in the large hall. Liszt viewed with +delight the juvenile multitude, whose enthusiasm knew no bounds, and I +never heard him play more beautifully. With a delighted heart he stood +amid a shower of flowers which thousands of little hands were strewing +for him, and when at last six veritable little angels approached in +order to thank him, he embraced them with tears in his eyes--not heeding +the fact that the grown-up people were appropriating his gloves, +handkerchief, and all they could get hold of, tearing them up into a +thousand bits to keep in remembrance of him. On the next morning we +brought him the proceeds of the concert (nearly 1,000 florins). He +declared that he had felt happier at that concert than ever before, and +that nothing could induce him to accept the money, with which the +committee might do as they pleased, and if, after so much delight, they +did not wish really to hurt his feelings he would beg of them never to +mention that money to him again. It was appropriated to a Liszt Fund, +which will continue to exist forever, and a poor teacher's son, on going +to college, is destined to receive the first interest. + +"Liszt was once at my house, when a woman was announced to whom I was in +the habit of giving quarterly a certain sum for her support. It being a +few days before the usual time, she gave as an excuse (it was November) +the hard times. While providing for her I told Liszt in an under-tone +that she was an honest but very indigent widow of a painter, deceased in +his prime, to whom an number of brother artists were giving regular +contributions in order to enable her to get along with her two small +children. I confess, while telling him this, I hoped that Liszt, whose +liberality and willingness to do good had almost become proverbial, +would ask me to add something in his name, and was, therefore, surprised +to see him apparently indifferent, for he answered nothing and continued +looking down in silence. After a few days, however, the widow +reappeared, her heart overflowing with thankfulness and her eyes filled +with tears of joy, for she and her children had at the expense of a man +whose name she was not permitted to know, received beautiful and new +winter clothing, while kitchen and cellar had been stored with every +necessary for the coming winter. Now all this had been arranged by the +landlady of a certain hotel, at which Liszt was then stopping. A piano +maker, who had not the means to erect a factory, needed but to convince +Liszt of his rare ability, and immediately he had at his command over +80,000 frs. This man is now dead, and Liszt never had received a +farthing of that money back." + + +GEORGE ELIOT + +The English novelist visited Liszt at Weimar in 1854 and records some +pleasing recollections: + +"About the middle of September the theatre opened. We went to hear +Ernani. Liszt looked splendid as he conducted the opera. The grand +outline of his face and floating hair was seen to advantage, as +they were thrown into the dark relief by the stage lamps. Liszt's +conversation is charming. I never met a person whose manner of telling a +story was so piquant. The last evening but one that he called on us, +wishing to express his pleasure in G----'s article about him, he very +ingeniously conveyed that expression in a story about Spontini and +Berlioz. Spontini visited Paris while Liszt was living there and +haunted the opera--a stiff, self-important personage, with high shirt +collars--the least attractive individual imaginable. Liszt turned up his +own collars and swelled out his person, so as to give us a vivid idea of +the man. Every one would have been glad to get out of Spontini's way; +indeed, elsewhere 'on feignait de le croire mort'; but at Paris, as he +was a member of the Institute, it was necessary to recognise his +existence. + +"Liszt met him at Erard's more than once. On one of these occasions +Liszt observed to him that Berlioz was a great admirer of his +(Spontini), whereupon Spontini burst into a terrible invective against +Berlioz as a man who, with the like of him, was ruining art, etc. +Shortly after the Vestale was performed and forthwith appeared an +enthusiastic article by Berlioz on Spontini's music. The next time Liszt +met him of the high collars he said: 'You see I was not wrong in what I +said about Berlioz's admiration of you.' Spontini swelled in his collars +and replied, 'Monsieur, Berlioz a du talent comme critique.' Liszt's +replies were always felicitous and characteristic. Talking of Madame +d'Agoult he told us that when her novel, Nelida, appeared in which Liszt +himself is pilloried as a delinquent, he asked her, 'Mais pourquoi +avez-vous tellement maltraite ce pauvre Lehmann?' The first time we were +asked to breakfast at his house, the Altenburg, we were shown into the +garden, where in a salon formed by the overarching trees dejeuner +was sent out. We found Hoffmann von Fallersleben, the lyric poet, +Dr. Schade, a Gelehrter, and Cornelius. Presently came a Herr or +Doctor Raff, a musician, who had recently published a volume called +Wagnerfrage. Soon after we were joined by Liszt and the Princess +Marie, an elegant, gentle-looking girl of seventeen, and at last by +the Princess Wittgenstein, with her nephew, Prince Eugene, and a young +French artist, a pupil of Scheffer. + +"The princess was tastefully dressed in a morning robe of some +semi-transparent white material, lined with orange colour, which formed +the bordering and ornament of the sleeves, a black lace jacket and a +piquant cap on the summit of her comb, and trimmed with violet colour. +When the cigars came, Hoffmann was requested to read some of his poetry, +and he gave us a bacchanalian poem with great spirit. I sat next to +Liszt, and my great delight was in watching him and in observing the +sweetness of his expression. Genius, benevolence, and tenderness beam +from his whole countenance, and his manners are in perfect harmony with +it. Then came the thing I had longed for--his playing. I sat near him so +that I could see both his hands and face. For the first time in my life +I beheld real inspiration--for the first time I heard the true tones of +the piano. He played one of his own compositions, one of a series of +religious fantasies. There was nothing strange or excessive about his +manner. His manipulation of the instrument was quiet and easy, and his +face was simply grand--the lips compressed and the head thrown a little +backward. When the music expressed quiet rapture or devotion a smile +flitted over his features; when it was triumphant the nostrils dilated. +There was nothing petty or egotistic to mar the picture. Why did not +Scheffer paint him thus, instead of representing him as one of the three +Magi? But it just occurs to me that Scheffer's idea was a sublime one. +There are the two aged men who have spent their lives in trying to +unravel the destinies of the world, and who are looking for the +Deliverer--for the light from on high. Their young fellow seeker, having +the fresh inspiration of early life, is the first to discern the herald +star, and his ecstasy reveals it to his companions. In this young Magi +Scheffer has given a portrait of Liszt; but even here, where he might be +expected to idealise unrestrainedly, he falls short of the original. It +is curious that Liszt's face is the type that one sees in all Scheffer's +pictures--at least in all I have seen. + +"In a little room which terminates the suite at the Altenburg there is a +portrait of Liszt, also by Scheffer--the same of which the engraving is +familiar to every one. This little room is filled with memorials of +Liszt's triumphs and the worship his divine talent has won. It was +arranged for him by the princess, in conjunction with the Arnims, in +honour of his birthday. There is a medallion of him by Schwanthaler, a +bust by an Italian artist, also a medallion by Rietschl--very fine--and +cabinets full of jewels and precious things--the gifts of the great. In +the music salon stand Beethoven's and Mozart's pianos. Beethoven's was a +present from Broadwood, and has a Latin inscription intimating that it +was presented as a tribute to his illustrious genius. One evening Liszt +came to dine with us at the Erbprinz, and introduced M. Rubinstein, a +young Russian, who is about to have an opera of his performed at +Weimar." + + +AN ANONYMOUS LADY ADMIRER + +This lady relates a touching incident about Liszt and a young music +mistress: + +"Liszt was still at Weimar, and no one could venture to encroach upon +his scant leisure by a letter of introduction. I saw him constantly at +the mid-day table d'hote. His strange, impressive figure as he sat at +the head of the table was a sight to remember; the brilliant eyes that +flashed like diamonds, the long hair, in those days only iron gray, +the sensitive mouth, the extraordinary play of expression, once +seen, could never fade from memory. Everything, indeed, about him was +phenomenal--physiognomy, appearance, mental gifts; last, but not least, +amiability of character and an almost morbid terror of inflicting pain. +This characteristic, of course, led him into many embarrassments, at the +same time into the committal of thousands of kind actions; often at the +sacrifice of time, peace of mind, and, without doubt, intellectual +achievements. + +"As I proposed to spend some months at Weimar, I engaged a music +mistress, one of Liszt's former pupils, whom I will call Fraeulein Marie. +'I will myself introduce you to the Herr Doctor,' she said. 'To his +pupils he refuses nothing.' I must add that Fraeulein Marie was in better +circumstances than most German teachers of music. She had, I believe, +some small means of her own, and belonged to a very well-to-do family. +The poor girl, who was, as I soon found out, desperately in love with +her master, got up a charming little fete champetre in his honour and my +own. A carriage was ordered, picnic baskets packed, and one brilliant +summer afternoon hostess and guests started for Tieffurt. The party +consisted of Liszt, Fraeulein Marie, a violinist of the other sex, a +young lady pianist from a neighbouring town, and myself. Liszt's +geniality and readiness to enter into the spirit of the occasion were +delightful to witness. The places of honour were assigned to the English +stranger and the violinist, Liszt insisting on seating a pupil on +each side, on the opposite seat of the carriage, not in the least +disconcerted by such narrow accommodation. Thus, chatting and laughing, +all of us in holiday mood, we reached the pretty park and chateau of +Tieffurt. + +"As the evening was cool, we supped inside the little restaurant, and +here a grievous disappointment awaited our hostess. Tieffurt is +celebrated for its trout; indeed this delicacy is as much an attraction +to many visitors as its literary and artistic associations. But +although trout had been ordered by letter beforehand none was +forthcoming wherewith to fete the Maestro. Fraeulein Marie was in tears. +Liszt's gaiety and affection, however, put everything right. He cut +brown bread and butter for the two girls, and made them little +sandwiches with the excellent cold wurst. 'Ah, das schmeckt so gut,' +they cried, as they thanked him adoringly. He told stories; he made the +rest do the same. 'Erzaehlen von Erfurt' (tell us Erfurt news), he said +to the young lady guest. The moments passed all too rapidly. Then in the +clear delicious twilight we drove back to Weimar, his pupils kissing his +hands reverentially as he quitted us. So far all had been bright, +joyous, transparent; but I soon discovered that this charming girl, who +possessed the vivacity of a French woman, combined with the schwaermerei +or sentimentality of a Teutonic maiden, was rendered deeply unhappy by +her love for Liszt. + +"He was at that time enmeshed in the toils of another and far less +guileless passion. Whilst to his gentle and innocent pupil he could +accord only the affection of a loving and sympathetic friend and master, +there were other women about him. Fraeulein Marie's hapless sentiment +could never discredit either herself or its object, but it occasioned a +good deal of embarrassment and wretchedness, as we shall see. A few days +after this gay al fresco tea she came to me in great distress, begging +me forthwith to deliver a little note into the master's hand. I was +reluctantly obliged to delegate the delicate mission to a hired +messenger. Ill would it have become a stranger to interfere in these +imbroglios. Moreover, at that very time Liszt had, as I have hinted, a +love affair on his hands--had, in fact, momentarily succumbed to the +influence of one of those women who were his evil genius. Just ten years +later I revisited Weimar, and my first inquiry of common friends was +after my sweet young music mistress. 'Fraeulein Marie! Alas!' replied my +informant, 'the poor girl has long been in a maison de sante.' Her love +for Liszt ended in loss of reason." + + +LADY BLANCHE MURPHY + +Lady Blanche gives an interesting account of Liszt's sojourn at the +Monastery on Monte Mario in 1862, shortly after he became an abbe of the +Roman Catholic Church. After describing the scenery of the place she +says: "Here Liszt had taken up his abode, renting two bare white-walled +rooms for the summer, where he looked far more at home than among the +splendours of the prelate's reception room or the feminine elegancies of +the princess' boudoir. He seemed happier, too--more cheerful, and +light-hearted. He said he meant to be a hermit this summer, and the good +Dominican lay brother attended to all his creature comforts, while he +could solace himself by hearing the daily mass said in the early +morning in the little chapel, into which he could step at any moment. +His piano stood in one corner of his little cell, his writing table was +piled with books and music, and besides these there was nothing of +interest in the room. The window looked out upon one of the most +glorious views of the world. Here Liszt seemed quite another being. He +talked gaily, and suddenly started up, volunteering to play for us--a +thing, many of his best friends said, they had not known him do for +years. + +"It was all his own, yet, though peculiar, the sound did not resemble +the sobbing music, the weird chords, his fingers had drawn forth from +the keys as he played among conventional people in conventional evening +gatherings. There was a freshness, a springiness, in to-day's +performance which suited the place and hour, and that visit to the +hermit-artist was indeed a fitting leave-taking for us who were so +entranced with his pure, strong genius. Still, the artist had not +forgotten to initiate us into one of the secrets of his simple retreat. +The Dominicans of some remote mountain convent had kindly sent him a +present of some wonderful liqueur--one of those impossible beverages +associated in one's mind with Hebe's golden cups of flowing nectar, +rather than with any commonplace drink. Liszt insisted upon our tasting +this: green Chartreuse was nothing to it and we scarcely did more than +taste. And this was the last time we saw him, this king-artist. It was a +great privilege, and perhaps he, of all living artists we had come +across, is the only one who could not disappoint one's ideal of him." + + +KARL KIRKENBUHL + +This author, in his Federzeichnungen aus Rom, describes a visit to Liszt +in 1867: + +"The building in which Liszt resides in Rome is of unpretending +appearance; it is, and fancy may have pictured such a place as Liszt's +'Sans Souci,' a melancholy, plain little monastery. But by its position +this quiet abode is so favoured that probably few homes in the wide +world can be compared to it. Situated upon the old Via Sacra, it is the +nearest neighbour of the Forum Romanum, while its windows look toward +the Capitol, the ruins of the Palatine Palace and the Colosseum. In such +a situation a life of contemplation is forced upon one. I mounted a few +steps leading to the open door of the monastery, and all at once grew +uncertain what to do, for I saw before me a handsome staircase adorned +with pillars, such as I should not have expected from the poor exterior +of the building. Had not a notice in the form of a visiting-card over +the large door at the top of the stairs met my eye, I should have +considered it necessary to make further inquiries. As it was, however, I +was able to gain from the card itself the information I needed. I +approached and read: 'L'Abbe Franz Liszt.' So, really an Abbe! A +visiting-card half supplies the place of an autopsy. After I arranged +my necktie and pulled on my gloves more tightly, I courageously grasped +the green cord that summoned the porter. Two servants, not in tail coat, +it is true, but clad in irreproachable black, received me; one hastened +to carry in my card, while the other helped me off with my topcoat. + +"My ideas of a genuine monkish life suffered a rude shock. Wherefore two +servants before the cell of a monk; or if attendant spirits, why were +they not, according to monastic rules, simply lay brothers? + +"But I had not long to puzzle my brains with these obtrusive questions, +for I was presently plunged into still greater mental confusion. The +messenger who had gone to announce me returned and ushered me in with a +notification that Signor Abbate requested me to await a moment in--the +drawing-room! Yes, actually a drawing-room, in the most elegant +acceptation of the word. It wanted nothing either of the requisites for +northern comfort or of the contrivances demanded by the climate of Rome, +though glaring luxury appeared scrupulously avoided. + +"I stood then in the saloon of the Commendatore Liszt! Abbe and +Commander! The correct employment of the domestic titles rendered the +first interview much more easy than it otherwise would have been. I was +by no means so inquisitorial in my survey as to be able to give a Walter +Scott-like description of Liszt's salon. Darkness, moreover, prevailed +in the large apartment, as, according to Italian usage and necessity, +the window shutters were closed against the rays of the morning sun. I +was attracted by the album table in the middle of the apartment more +than aught else. Upon it lay chiefly Italian works of a religious nature +in votive bindings. That Liszt here, too, as Abbate, lives in the midst +of creative spirits is proved by these dedicatory offerings. + +"The door was opened and the well-known artistic figure advanced in a +friendly manner toward me. That the skilful fingers of the great pianist +pressed the hand of me, a simple writer, is a fact, which, for the +completeness of my narrative, must not remain unmentioned. The first and +most immediate impression produced on me by Liszt's appearance was that +of surprising youthfulness. Even the unmistakably grizzling, though +still thick, long, flowing hair, which the scissors of the tonsure have +not dared to touch, detracts but little from the heart entrancing charm +of his unusual individuality. Of fretfulness, satiety, monkish +abnegation, and so on, there is not a trace to be detected in the +feature of Liszt's interesting and characteristic head. And just as +little as we find Liszt in a monk's cell do we find him in a monk's +cowl. The black soutane sits no less elegantly on him than, in its time, +the dress coat. Those who look upon Liszt as a riddle will most +decidedly not find the solution of it in his outward appearance. + +"After interchanging a few words of greeting, we proceeded to the +workroom. After compelling me to take an arm-chair, Liszt seated himself +at the large writing-table, apologising to me by stating that he had a +letter to despatch in a hurry. Upon this, too, lay a great many things, +nearly all pertaining more to the Abbe than the artist. But neatly +written sheets of music showed that musical production formed part of +the master's daily occupations. The comfortable room bore generally the +unmistakable stamp of a room for study, of an artist's workshop. The +letter and the address were quickly finished, and handed to the +attendant to seal and transmit. I mentioned the report connecting his +approaching journey with the grand festival of joy and peace, the +Coronation in Hungary. The popular maestro took this opportunity of +giving me a detailed history of his Coronation Mass. He said that in the +Prince-Primate Scitovsky he had possessed a most kind patron. In course +of a joyous repast, as on many other occasions, the Prelate had given +lively and hopeful utterance to the wish of his heart that he might yet +be able to place the crown upon the head of his beloved king, and at the +same time he called upon Liszt, in an unusually flattering and cordial +manner, to compose the Coronation Mass, but it must be short, very +short, as the entire ceremony would take about six hours. + +"Liszt was unable to resist this amiable request, he said, and, drinking +a glass of fiery Tokay, gave a promise that he would endeavour to +produce some 'Essence of Tokay.' After his return to Rome he immediately +set about the sketch. But the prospect of the desired agreement between +the Emperor and the Hungarians had, meanwhile, become overcast, and his +work remained a mere sketch. Some months ago, however, he was pressed by +his Hungarian friends to proceed, and so he finished the mass. It was a +question whether it would be performed on the day of the Coronation, +since there was a condition that the monarch should bring his own +orchestra with him. Liszt said he was perfectly neutral, and in no way +wished to run counter to the just ambition of others; for, however the +Abbe might be decried as ambitious, he added, with a smile, he was not +so after all." + + * * * * * + +In course of this open-hearted statement Liszt touched upon his +relations to the present Prince-Primate of Hungary, and let fall a +remark which is the more interesting because it throws a light upon his +position in and toward Rome. The Abbe-Maestro said then that he had +entered on a correspondence regarding his retirement from the diocese of +the Prince of the Church, who had in the interim been raised to the +dignity of Primate, and had every reason to believe that he enjoyed the +Prelate's favour. He needed, however, a special letter of dismissal in +order to be received into the personal lists of the Roman clergy; to +this Liszt remarked, parenthetically, were limited all his clerical +qualities. + + * * * * * + +"I do not know more exactly what rights and duties are connected with +the insertion of his name in the catalogue of the Roman clergy, though +it appears that the nexus into which Liszt has entered toward the +clerical world is rather an outward than a deep and inward one. + +"The cigar, which did not look, between the lips of the great musician, +as if it had been treated with particular gentleness or care, had gone +out. Liszt got up to reach the matches. While he was again lighting the +narcotic weed he directed my attention to the pretty statuette of St. +Elisabeth, which had attracted my gaze when I entered the room. It +represents the kind-hearted Landgravine at the moment the miracle of +roses is taking place. It required no great power of combination to +connect this graceful form, as an ovational gift, with Liszt's oratorio +of St. Elisabeth. The popular master named the German hand which had +fashioned the marble and offered it to him. He was thus led to speak of +his oratorio, and of the Wartburg Festival, for which it was originally +intended, and at which it was given, but not until after Hungary had +enjoyed the first performance. He spoke also of what he had done at the +Grand Ducal Court. I was peculiarly touched by his reminiscences, how he +had entered the service of a German prince, how he had 'knocked about' +for several years at Weimar, 'without doing anything worth naming.' how +his Prince had respected and distinguished him, and had probably never +suspected that a permanent sojourn could result from Liszt's trip to +Rome. + +"Here, where he moved in only a small circle--said Liszt, with marked +emphasis, and again referring to the importance Rome possessed for +him--here he found the long desired leisure for work. His Elisabeth, he +said, had here sprung into existence, and also his oratorio of Petrus. +He had, moreover, he remarked, notions which it would take him three +years of thorough hard work to carry out. + +"He certainly knew, the Abbe-Maestro continued, referring to his +art-gospel, that here and there things which in other places had met +with some response had been hissed, but he had no more hope for applause +than he feared censure. He followed, he said, the path he considered the +right one, and could say that he had consistently pursued the direction +he had once taken. The only rule he adopted in the production of his +works, as far as he had full power, was that of not compromising his +friends or of exposing them to the disfavour of the public. Solely for +this reason he had thought it incumbent on him, for instance, to refuse +to send a highly esteemed colleague the score of his Elisabeth, in spite +of two applications. + +"I expressed to my friendly host my delight at his good health and +vigour, prognosticating a long continuance of fruitful activity. 'Oh! +yes, I am quite satisfied with my state of health,' answered the master, +'though my legs will no longer render me their old service.' At the same +time, in an access of boisterous merriment, he gave the upper part of +his right thigh so hard a slap that I could not consider his regret +particularly sincere. + +"Another of my remarks was directed to the incomparable site of his +abode, which alone might make a middling poet produce great epic or +elegiac poetry. 'I live quietly and agreeably,' was the reply, 'both +here and at Monte Mario, where there are a few rooms at my service, with +a splendid view over the city, the Tiber and the hills.' And not to +remain my debtor for the ocular proof of what he said, at least as far +as regarded his town residence, he opened a window and gazed silently +with me on the overpowering seriousness of the ruined site. + +"The amiable maestro then conducted me rapidly through two smaller +rooms, one of which was his simple bed-chamber, to a wooden outhouse +with a small window, through which were to be seen the Colosseum, in all +its gigantic proportions, and the triumphal arch of Constantine close +by, overtowered by Mount Coelius, now silent. + +"'A splendid balcony might be erected here,' observed Liszt, 'but the +poor Franciscan monk has no money for such a purpose!' + +"Having returned to his study, I thought the time had arrived for +bringing my first visit to a termination. The thanks conveyed in my +words on taking leave were warm and sincere. I carried with me out of +that quiet dwelling the conviction that in Liszt the true artist far +outweighs the virtuoso and the monk, and that only such persons as +formerly snobbishly shook their heads because Winkelmann took service +and found an asylum with a cardinal, can scoff and make small jokes on +Liszt's cell and monkish cowl." + + +B. W. H. + +An American lady who signs herself "B. W. H.," and wrote some +reminiscences of the great musician at Weimar in 1877, calls her +contribution An Hour Passed with Liszt: + +"How much more some of us get than we deserve! A pleasure has come to us +unsought. It came knocking at our door seeking entrance and we simply +did not turn it away. It happened in this fashion: A friend had been +visiting Liszt in Weimar and happened to mention us to the great master, +who promised us a gracious reception should we ever appear there. To +Weimar then we came, and the gracious reception we certainly had, to our +satisfaction and lasting remembrance. + +"After sending our cards, and receiving permission to present ourselves +at an appointed and early hour, we drove to the small, cosy house +occupied by Liszt when here, on the outskirts of the garden of +the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and were ushered by his Italian valet into a +comfortable, cosy, home-like apartment, where we sat awaiting the great +man's appearance. Wide casements opened upon a stretch of lawn and noble +old trees; easy-chairs and writing-tables; MS. music, with the pen lying +carelessly beside it; masses of music piled up on the floor, a row of +books there, too; a grand piano and an upright one; a low dish of roses +on the table; a carpet, which is not taken for granted here as with +us--altogether the easy, friendly look of a cottage drawing-room at +home, where people have a happy use of pleasant things. + +"He entered the room after a few minutes and greeted us with a charming +amiability, for which we inwardly blessed the absent friend. Of course +everybody knows how he looks--tall, thin, with long white hair; a long, +black, robe-like coat, being an abbe; long, slight, sensitive hands; a +manner used to courts, and a smile and grace rare in a man approaching +seventy. He spoke of Anna Mehlig, and of several young artists just +beginning their career, whom we personally know. Very graciously he +mentioned Miss Cecilia Gaul, of Baltimore; spoke kindly of Miss Anna +Bock, one of the youngest and most diligent of artists, and most +forcibly perhaps of Carl Hermann, like Anna Mehlig, a pupil in the +Stuttgart Conservatory, 'There is something in the young man,' he said +with emphasis. So he chatted in the most genial way of things great and +small, as if he were not one of the world's geniuses, and we two little +insignificant nobodies sitting before him, overcome with a consciousness +of his greatness and our nothingness, yet quite happy and at ease, as +every one must be who comes within the sphere of his gracious +kindliness. + +"Suddenly he rose and went to his writing-table, and, with one of his +long, sweet smiles, so attractive in a man of his age--but why shouldn't +a man know how to smile long, sweet smiles who has had innumerable +thrilling romantic experiences with the sex that has always adored +him?--he took a bunch of roses from a glass on his table and brought it +to us. Whether to kiss his hand or fall on our knees we did not quite +know; but, America being less given than many lands to emotional +demonstration, we smiled back with composure, and appeared, no doubt, as +if we were accustomed from earliest youth to distinguished marks of +favour from the world's great ones. + +"But the truth is we were not. And these roses which stood on Liszt's +writing-table by his MS. music, presented by the hand that has made him +famous, are already pressing and will be kept among our penates, except +one, perhaps, that will be distributed leaf by leaf to hero-worshipping +friends, with date and appropriate inscriptions on the sheet where it +rests. How amiable he was, indeed! The roses were much, but something +was to come. The Meister played to us. For this we had not even dared to +hope during our first visit. No one, of course, ever asks him to play, +and whether he does or not depends wholly on his mood. It was beautiful +to sit there close by him, the soft lawns and trees, framed by the open +casement, making a background for the tall figure, the long, peculiar +hands wandering over the keys, the face full of intellect and power. And +how he smiles as he plays! We fancied at first in our own simplicity +that he was smiling at us, but later it seemed merely the music in his +soul illuminating his countenance. His whole face changes and gleams, +and grows majestic, revealing the master-spirit as his hands caress +while they master the keys. With harrowing experiences of the difficulty +of Liszt's compositions, we anticipated, as he began, something that +would thunder and crash and teach us what pigmies we were; but as an +exquisitely soft melody filled the room, and tones came like whispers to +our hearts, and a theme drawn with a tender, magical touch brought +pictures and dreams of the past before us, we actually forgot where we +were, forgot that the white-haired man was the famous Liszt, forgot to +speak as the last faint chord died away, and sat in utter silence, quite +lost to our surroundings, with unseeing eyes gazing out through the +casement. + +"At last he rose, took our hands kindly, and said, 'That is how I play +when I am suffering from a cold as at present.' We asked if he had been +improvising, or if what he played was already printed. 'It was only a +little nocturne,' he said. 'It sounded like a sweet remembrance.' 'And +was that,' he replied cordially. Then fearing to disturb him too long, +and feeling we had been crowned with favours, we made our adieux, +receiving a kind invitation to come the following day and hear the young +artists who cluster around him here, some of whom he informed us played +'famos.' And after we had left him he followed us out to the stairway to +repeat his invitation and say another gracious word or two. And we went +off to drive through Weimar, and only half observed its pleasant homely +streets, its flat, uninteresting, yet friendly aspect, its really +charming park--so Lisztified we were, as a friend calls our state of +mind. The place has, indeed, little to charm the stranger now, except +the memories of Goethe and Schiller and all the famous literary stars +who once made it glorious, and the presence of Liszt." + +The lives of musicians are, in general, so devoid of extraordinary +incident, that the relation of them is calculated more to instruct than +amuse. + +That of Liszt, however, was an exception to the rule. His adventures +seemed to have been so many and so various as almost to encourage a +belief that in describing them his literary admirers often used the pen +of romance. + +The last letter that Liszt indited with his own pen is addressed to Frau +Sofie Menter, and is dated Bayreuth, July 3, 1886. What proved to be +almost a death-bed epistle runs as follows: + +"To-morrow, after the religious marriage of my granddaughter Daniela von +Buelow to Professor Henry Thode (art-historian), I betake myself to my +excellent friends the Munkacsys, Chateau Colpach, Grand Duchy of +Luxemburg. On the 20th July I shall be back here again for the first 7-8 +performances of the Festspiel; then alas! I must put myself under the, +to me, very disagreeable cure at Kissingen, and in September an +operation for the eyes is impending for me with Graefe at Halle. For a +month past I have been quite unable to read, and almost unable to write, +with much labour, a couple of lines. Two secretaries kindly help me by +reading to me and writing letters at my dictation. How delightful it +would be to me, dear friend, to visit you at your fairy castle at Itter! +But I do not see any opportunity of doing so at present. Perhaps you +will come to Bayreuth, where, from July 20th to the 7th August, will be +staying your sincere friend F. Liszt." + +The master was spared the infliction of the cure he dreaded at +Kissingen, and Frau Menter did not meet him at Bayreuth, for on July +31st Liszt died, what to him must have been a pleasant death, after +witnessing the greatest work of the poet-composer whom he had done so +much to befriend--Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. + + +ERNEST LEGOUVE + +"I am about to make a very bold profession of faith--I adore the piano! +All the jests at its expense, all the anathemas that are heaped upon it, +are as revolting to me as so many acts of ingratitude, I might say as so +many absurdities. + +"To me the piano is one of the domestic lares, one of our household +gods. It is, thanks to it, and it alone, that we have for ourselves and +in our homes the most poetic and the most personal of all the +arts--music. What is it that brings into our dwellings an echo of the +Conservatory concerts? What is it that gives us the opera at our own +firesides? What is it that unites four, five or six harmonious voices in +the interpretation of a masterpiece of vocal music, as the trio of Don +Juan, the quartet of Moses, or the finale of the Barber of Seville? The +piano, and the piano alone. Were the piano to be abolished how could you +have the exquisite joy of hearing Faure in your own chamber? I say +Faure, but I might say Taffanel, Gillet, all the instrumentalists, for +all instruments are its tributaries. They all have need of it; it alone +needs none. + +"Auber said to me one day: 'What I admire, perhaps, most in Beethoven +are some of his sonatas, because in them his thought shows clearly in +all its pure beauty, unencumbered by the ornaments of orchestral +riches.' But for what instrument were the sonatas of Beethoven +composed? For the piano. I cannot forget that the entire work of Chopin +was written for the piano. Besides, it is the confidant of the man of +genius, of all that he does not write. Ah! if the piano of Weber might +repeat what the author of Der Freischuetz has spoken to it alone! And, +greatest superiority of all, the piano is of all the instruments the +only one that is progressive. + +"A Stradivarius and an Amati remain superior to all the violins of +to-day, and it is not certain that the horn, the flute and the hautbois +have not lost as much as they have gained with all the present +superabundance of keys and pistons. The piano only has always gained in +its transformations, and every one of its enlargements, adding something +to its power of expression, has enabled it to improve even the +interpretation of the old masters. + +"One day when Thalberg was playing at my home a sonata of Mozart on a +Pleyel piano, Berlioz said to me: 'Ah! if Mozart were with us, he would +hear his admirable andante as he sung it to himself in his breast!' + +"One of my most precious musical memories is, then, to have not only +known but to have associated with and to have enjoyed in intimacy the +three great triumvirs of the piano--Liszt, Thalberg, and Chopin. The +arrival of Thalberg in Paris was a revelation, I could willingly say a +revolution. I know only Paganini, whose appearance produced the same +melange of enthusiasm and astonishment. Both excited the same feeling +that one experiences in the presence of the unknown, the mysterious, the +unexplainable. I attended Paganini's first concert (it was at the Opera) +in company with De Beriot. De Beriot held in his hand a copy of the +piece that Paganini was to play. 'This man is a charlatan,' he said to +me, 'he cannot execute what is printed here, because it is not +executable.' Paganini began. I listened to the music and watched De +Beriot attentively. All at once he exclaimed to himself, 'Ah! the +rascal, I understand! He has modified the tuning of his instrument.' + +"There was a like surprise at Thalberg's first concert. It was at the +Theatre des Italiens, in the daytime, in the public foyer. I attended in +company with Julius Benedict, who was, it was said, Weber's only piano +pupil. I shall never forget his stupefaction, his amazement. Leaning +feverishly toward the instrument, to which we were very near, his eyes +fastened upon those fingers that seemed to him like so many magicians, +he could hardly believe his eyes or his ears. For him, as De Beriot, +there had been in the printed works of Thalberg something which he could +not explain. Only the secret this time was not in the instrument, but in +the performer. It was not this time the strings that were changed, it +was the fingers. + +"A new method of fingering enabled Thalberg to cause the piano to +express what it had never expressed before. Benedict's emotion was all +the more intense that the poor fellow chanced to be in a very unique +frame of mind and heart. His young wife, whom he worshipped, had +departed that morning to join her parents at Naples. The separation was +to last only for less than six months, but he was profoundly sad, and it +was to distract his mind that I had taken him to the concert. But once +there, there took place in him the strangest amalgamation of the husband +and the pianist. At once despairing and enchanted, he reminded me of the +man in Rabelais who, hearing the church bells ring out, at almost the +same moment, the baptism of his son and the funeral service of his wife, +wept with one eye and laughed with the other. Benedict would break forth +into exclamations both comical and touching. He went from his wife to +Thalberg and from Thalberg to his wife. 'Ah! dear Adele, this is +frightful!' he would exclaim in one breath, and with the next, 'Ah! dear +Thalberg, that is delightful!' I have still ringing in my ears the +original duo that he sang that day to himself. + +"Thalberg's triumph irritated Liszt profoundly. It was not envy. He was +incapable of any low sentiment. His was the rage of a dethroned king. He +called Thalberg's school disdainfully the Thumb school. But he was not a +man to yield his place without defending himself, and there ensued +between them a strife that was all the more striking that the antithesis +between the two men was as great as the difference in their talents. + +"Liszt's attitude at the piano, like that of a pythoness, has been +remarked again and again. Constantly tossing back his long hair, his +lips quivering, his nostrils palpitating, he swept the auditorium with +the glance of a smiling master. He had some little trick of the comedian +in his manner, but he was not that. He was a Hungarian; a Hungarian in +two aspects, at once Magyar and Tzigane. True son of the race that +dances to the clanking of its spurs. His countrymen understood him well +when they sent him as a testimonial of honour an enormous sabre. + +"There was nothing of the kind about Thalberg. He was the gentleman +artist, a perfect union of talent and propriety. He seemed to have taken +it for his rule to be the exact opposite of his rival. He entered +noiselessly; I might almost say without displacing the air. After a +dignified greeting that seemed a trifle cold in manner, he seated +himself at the piano as though upon an ordinary chair. The piece began, +not a gesture, not a change of countenance! not a glance toward the +audience! If the applause was enthusiastic, a respectful inclination of +the head was his only response. His emotion, which was very profound, as +I have had more than one proof, betrayed itself only by a violent rush +of blood to the head, colouring his ears, his face and his neck. Liszt +seemed seized with inspiration from the beginning; with the first note +he gave himself up to his talent without reserve, as prodigals throw +their money from the window without counting it, and however long was +the piece his inspired fervour never flagged. + +"Thalberg began slowly, quietly, calmly, but with a calm that thrilled. +Under those notes so seemingly tranquil one felt the coming storm. +Little by little the movement quickened, the expression became more +accentuated, and by a series of gradual crescendos he held one +breathless until a final explosion swept the audience with an emotion +indescribable. + +"I had the rare good fortune to hear these two great artists on the same +day, in the same salon, at an interval of a quarter of an hour, at a +concert given by the Princess Belgiojoso for the Poles. There was then +revealed to me palpably, clearly, the characteristic difference in their +talent. Liszt was incontestably the more artistic, the more vibrant, the +more electric. He had tones of a delicacy that made one think of the +almost inaudible tinkling of tiny spangles or the faint explosion of +sparks of fire. Never have fingers bounded so lightly over the piano. +But at the same time his nervosity caused him to produce sometimes +effects a trifle hard, a trifle harsh. I shall never forget that, after +a piece in which Liszt, carried away by his fury, had come down very +hard upon the keys, the sweet and charming Pleyel approached the +instrument and gazed with an expression of pity upon the strings. 'What +are you doing, my dear friend?' I asked, laughing. 'I am looking at the +field of battle,' he responded in a melancholy tone; 'I am counting the +wounded and the dead.' + +"Thalberg never pounded. What constituted his superiority, what made the +pleasure of hearing him play a luxury to the ear, was pure _tone_. I +have never heard such another, so full, so round, so soft, so velvety, +so sweet, and still so strong! How shall I say it? The voice of Alboni. + +"At this concert in hearing Liszt I felt myself in an atmosphere charged +with electricity and quivering with lightning. In hearing Thalberg I +seemed to be floating in a sea of purest light. The contrast between +their characters was not less than between their talent. I had a +striking proof of it with regard to Chopin. + +"It is not possible to compare any one with Chopin, because he resembled +no one. Everything about him pertained only to himself. He had his own +tone, his own touch. All the great artists have executed and still +execute the works of Chopin with great ability, but in reality only +Chopin has played Chopin. But he never appeared in public concerts nor +in large halls. He liked only select audiences and limited gatherings, +just as he would use no other piano than a Pleyel, nor have any other +tuner than Frederic. We, fanatics that we were, were indignant at his +reserve; we demanded that the public should hear him; and one day in one +of those fine flights of enthusiasm that have caused me to make more +than one blunder I wrote in Schlesinger's _Gazette Musicale_: 'Let +Chopin plunge boldly into the stream, let him announce a grand soiree +musicale and the next day when the eternal question shall arise, "Who is +the greater pianist to-day, Liszt or Thalberg?" the public will answer +with us, "It is Chopin."' + +"To be frank, I had done better not to have written that article. I +should have recalled my friendly relations with the two others. Liszt +would have nothing to do with me for more than two months. But the day +after the one on which my article appeared Thalberg was at my door at +ten in the morning. He stretched out his hand as he entered, saying, +'Bravo! your article is only just.' + +"At last their rivalry, which in reality had never been more than +emulation, assumed a more accentuated, a more striking form. Until then +no pianist had ventured to play in the hall of a large theatre with an +auditorium of 1,200 or 1,500. Thalberg, impelled by his successes, +announced a concert in the Theatre des Italiens, not in the foyer, but +in the main auditorium. He played for the first time his Moses, and his +success was a triumph. + +"Liszt, somewhat piqued, saw in Thalberg's triumph a defiance, and he +announced a concert at the Opera. For his battle horse he took Weber's +Concertstueck. I was at the concert. He placed a box at my disposal, +requesting that I should give an account of the evening in the _Gazette +Musicale_. I arrived full of hope and joy. A first glance over the hall +checked my ardour a trifle. There were many, very many, present, but +here and there were empty spaces that disquieted me. My fears were not +without reason. It was a half success. Between numbers I encountered +Berlioz, with whom I exchanged my painful impressions, and I returned +home quite tormented over the article I was to write. The next day I had +hardly seated myself at my table when I received a letter from Liszt. I +am happy to reproduce here the principal part of that letter, for it +discloses an unknown Liszt, a modest Liszt. Yes, modest! It only half +astonished me, for a certain circumstance had revealed this Liszt to me +once before. It was at Scheffer's, who was painting his portrait. When +posing Liszt assumed an air of inspiration. Scheffer, with his +surpassing brusqueness, said to him: 'The devil, Liszt! Don't put on the +airs of a man of genius with me. You know well enough that I am not +fooled by it.' + +"What response did Liszt make to these rude words? He was silent a +moment, then going up to Scheffer he said: 'You are right, my dear +friend. But pardon me; you do not know how it spoils one to have been an +infant prodigy.' This response seemed to me absolutely delicious in its +sweet simplicity--I might say in its humility. The letter that I give +below has the same character: + +"'You have shown me of late an affection so comprehensive that I ask +your permission to speak as a friend to a friend. Yes, my dear Legouve, +it is as to a friend that I am about to confess to you a weakness. I am +very glad that it is you who are to write of my concert yesterday, and I +venture to ask you to remain silent for this time, and for this time +only, concerning the defective side of my talent.' + +"Is it possible, I ask, to make a more difficult avowal with more +delicacy or greater frankness? Do we know many of the great artists +capable of writing 'the defective side of my talent'? + +"I sent him immediately the following response: + +"'No, my dear friend, I will not do what you ask! No, I will not +maintain silence concerning the defective side of your talent, for the +very simple reason that you never displayed greater talent than +yesterday. Heaven defend me from denying the coldness of the public, or +from proclaiming your triumph when you have not triumphed! That would be +unworthy of you, and, permit me to add, of me. But what was it that +happened? and why this half failure? Ah! blunderer that you were, what a +strategic error you committed! Instead of placing the orchestra back of +you, as at the Conservatory, so as to bring you directly in contact with +your audience, and to establish between you and them an electric +current, you cut the wire; you left this terrible orchestra in its usual +place. You played across I know not how many violins, violoncellos, +horns, and trombones, and the voice of your instrument, to reach us, had +to pass through all that warring orchestra! And you are astonished at +the result! But, my dear friend, how was it two months ago at the +Conservatory that with the same piece you produced such a wonderful +effect? It was because that, in front alone, with the orchestra behind +you, you appeared like a cavalry colonel at the head of his regiment, +his horse in full gallop, his sabre in hand, leading on his soldiers, +whose enthusiasm was only the accompaniment of his own. At the Opera the +colonel abandoned his place at the head of his regiment, and placed +himself at its rear. Fine cause for surprise that your tones did not +reach us resounding and vibrant! This is what happened, my dear friend, +and this is what I shall say, and I shall add that there was no one but +Liszt in the world who could have produced under such conditions the +effect that you produced. For in reality your failure would have been a +great success for any other than you. + +"'With this, wretched strategist, I send you a cordial pressure of the +hand, and begin my article.' + +"The following Sunday my article appeared, and I had the great pleasure +to have satisfied him." + + +ROBERT SCHUMANN ON LISZT'S PLAYING + +"Liszt is now [1840] probably about thirty years old. Every one knows +well that he was a child phenomenon; how he was early transplanted to +foreign lands; that his name afterward appeared here and there among +the most distinguished; that then the rumour of it occasionally died +away, until Paganini appeared, inciting the youth to new endeavours; and +that he suddenly appeared in Vienna two years ago, rousing the imperial +city to enthusiasm. Thus he appeared among us of late, already honoured, +with the highest honours that can be bestowed on an artist, and his fame +already established. + +"The first concert, on the 17th, was a remarkable one. The multitudinous +audience was so crowded together that even the hall looked altered. The +orchestra was also filled with listeners, and among them--Liszt. + +"He began with the Scherzo and Finale of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. +The selection was capricious enough, and on many accounts not happy. At +home, in a _tete-a-tete_, a highly careful transcription may lead one +almost to forget the orchestra; but in a large hall, in the same place +where we have been accustomed to hear the symphony played frequently and +perfectly by the orchestra, the weakness of the pianoforte is striking, +and the more so the more an attempt is made to represent masses in their +strength. Let it be understood, with all this, we had heard the master +of the instrument; people were satisfied; they at least, had seen him +shake his mane. To hold to the same illustration, the lion presently +began to show himself more powerful. This was in a fantasia on themes by +Pacini, which he played in a most remarkable manner. But I would +sacrifice all the astonishing, the audacious bravura that he displayed +here for the sake of the magical tenderness that he expressed in the +following etude. With the sole exception of Chopin, as I have already +said, I know not one who equals him in this quality. He closed with the +well-known Chromatic Gallop; and as the applause this elicited was +endless, he also played his equally well-known bravura waltz. + +"Fatigue and indisposition prevented the artist from giving the concert +promised for the next day. In the meantime a musical festival was +prepared for him, that will never be forgotten by Liszt himself or the +others present. The giver of the festival (Felix Mendelssohn) had +selected for performance some compositions unknown to his guest: Franz +Schubert's symphony (in C); his own psalm, As the Hart Pants; the +overture, A Calm Sea and a Prosperous Voyage; three choruses from St. +Paul; and, to close with, the D-minor concerto for three pianos by +Sebastian Bach. This was played by Liszt, Mendelssohn, and Hiller. It +seemed as though nothing had been prepared, but all improvised +instantaneously. Those were three such happy musical hours as years do +not always bring. At the end Liszt played alone, and wonderfully. + +"Liszt's most genial performance was yet to come--Weber's Concertstueck, +which he played at his second concert. Virtuoso and public seemed to be +in the freshest mood possible on that evening, and the enthusiasm before +and after his playing exceeded anything hitherto known here. Although +Liszt grasped the piece, from the beginning, with such force and +grandeur of expression that an attack on a battle-field would seem to be +in question, yet he carried this on with continually increasing power, +until the passage where the player seemed to stand at the summit of the +orchestra, leading it forward in triumph. Here, indeed, he resembled +that great commander to whom he has been compared, and the tempestuous +applause that greeted him was not unlike an adoring "Vive l'Empereur!" +He then played a fantasia on themes from the Huguenots, the Ave Maria +and Serenade, and, at the request of the public, the Erl-King of +Schubert. But the Concertstueck was the crown of his performances on this +evening." + + +LISZT IN RUSSIA + +"Liszt visited Russia for the first time in 1842," writes Rose Newmarch. +"I do not know whether this journey was part of the original scheme of +his great two years' tour on the continent (1840-1842), or if he only +yielded to the pressing invitations of several influential Russian +friends. Early in 1839, among the many concerts which he gave in Rome, +none was more brilliant than the recital organised by the famous +Russian amateur, Count Bielgorsky, at the house of Prince Galitsin, +Governor-General of Moscow, who was wintering in the Italian capital. +During the following year, Liszt spent three days at Ems, where he was +presented to the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, to whom he played every +evening during his brief visit. The Empress was fascinated by his +genius, and enjoined him to visit Russia without delay. + +"The phenomenal success of the twenty-two concerts which Liszt gave in +Berlin during the winter of 1841-1842, soon became a subject of gossip +in Petersburg, and his arrival was awaited with unprecedented +excitement. He reached the capital early in April, and was almost +immediately presented to Nicholas I. On entering the audience chamber, +the Emperor, ignoring the presence of numerous generals and high +officials who were awaiting an audience, went straight to Liszt saying, +"Monsieur Liszt, I am delighted to see you in Petersburg," and +immediately engaged him in conversation. A day or two later, on the 8th +of April, Liszt gave his first concert in the Salle de la Noblesse, +before an audience of three thousand people. This concert was both a +novel and an important event in Russia. Not only was it the first +recital ever heard there--for before Liszt's day, no single artist had +attempted to hold the public attention by the spell of his own unaided +gifts--but it was also the first tie in a close and lasting bond between +the great virtuoso and the Russian people. In after years, no one was +quicker to discern the attractive qualities of Russian music, nor more +assiduous in its propagation than Franz Liszt. + +"In the memoirs of contemporary Russian writers there are many +interesting references to Liszt's first appearance in Petersburg. Not +only do these reminiscences show the extraordinary glamour and interest +which invested the personality of the master; they throw some light upon +social life in Russia during the first half of the century. + +"The brilliant audience which flocked to the Salle de la Noblesse to +hear Liszt, numbered no greater enthusiasts than the two young students +of the School of Jurisprudence, Stassov and Serov. Both were destined to +attain celebrity in after-life; the former as a great critic, and the +chief upholder of national art; the latter, as the composer of at least +one popular opera, and the leading exponent of the Wagnerian doctrines +in Russia. Stassov's reminiscences are highly picturesque. We seem +actually to see the familiar figure of the pianist as he entered the +magnificent Hall of the Nobility, leaning on the arm of Count +Bielgorsky, an "elderly Adonis" and typical dandy of the forties. +Bielgorsky was somewhat inclined to obesity, moved slowly, and stared at +the elegant assemblage with prominent, short-sighted eyes. His hair was +brushed back and curled, after the model of the Apollo Belvedere, while +he wore an enormous white cravat. Liszt also wore a white cravat, and +over it the Order of the Golden Spur, bestowed upon him a short time +previously by the Pope. He was further adorned with various other orders +suspended by chains from the lapels of his dress coat. But that which +struck the Russians most was the great mane of fair hair reaching almost +to his shoulders. Outside the priesthood, no Russian would have ventured +on such a style of hair-dressing. Such dishevelment had been sternly +discountenanced since the time of Peter the Great. Stassov, afterward +one of the warmest admirers of Liszt, both as man and musician, was not +altogether favourably impressed by this first sight of the virtuoso. "He +was very thin, stooped a great deal, and though I had read much about +his famous 'Florentine profile' and his likeness to Dante, I did not +find his face beautiful. I was not pleased with his mania for decking +himself with orders, and afterwards I was as little prepossessed by his +somewhat affected demeanour to those who came in contact with him." + +"After the first hush of intense curiosity, the entire assembly began to +discuss Liszt in a subdued murmur. Stassov, who sat close to Glinka and +a well-known pianist--Madame Palibin--caught the following conversation. +Madame Palibin inquired if Glinka had already heard Liszt. He replied +that he had met him the night before at Count Bielgorsky's reception. +'Well, what did you think of him?' Glinka answered, without a moment's +hesitation, that sometimes Liszt played divinely--like no one else in +the world; at other times atrociously, with exaggerated emphasis, +dragging the 'tempi,' and adding--even to the music of Chopin, +Beethoven, and Bach--tasteless embellishments of his own. 'I was +horribly scandalised,' says Stassov. 'What! Did our "mediocre" Russian +musician' (this was Stassov's first sight of Glinka, and a short time +before the appearance of Russlane and Lioudmilla) 'venture thus to +criticise the great genius Liszt, who had turned the heads of all +Europe!' Madame Palibin, too, seemed to disapprove of Glinka's +criticism, and said laughingly, 'Allons donc, tout cela, ce n'est que +rivalite de metier!' Glinka smiled urbanely, shrugged his shoulders, and +replied, 'As you please.' + +"At this moment Liszt mounted the platform, and, pulling his dog-skin +gloves from his shapely white hands, tossed them carelessly on the +floor. Then, after acknowledging the thunderous applause--such as had +not been heard in Russia for over a century--he seated himself at the +piano. There was a silence as though the whole audience had been turned +to stone, and Liszt, without any prelude, began the opening bars of the +overture to William Tell. Criticism, curiosity, speculation, all were +forgotten in the wonderful enchantment of the performance. Among other +things, he played his fantasia on Don Juan, his arrangements of +Adelaide, and The Erl King, and wound up the recital with his showy +Galop Chromatique. + +"'After the concert,' says Stassov, 'Serov and I were like madmen. We +scarcely exchanged a word, but hurried home, each to write down his +impressions, dreams, and raptures. But we both vowed to keep the +anniversary of this day sacred for ever, and never, while life lasted, +to forget a single incident of it. We were like men in love, or +bewitched. What wonder? Never before had we come face to face with such +a gifted, impassioned, almost demoniacal personality as that of Liszt, +who seemed alternately to let loose the forces of the whirlwind, or to +carry us away on a flood of tenderness, grace, and beauty.' + +"Serov felt even more strongly the fascination of Liszt's genius. The +same evening he sent to Stassov the following record of his impressions: +'First, let me congratulate you on your initiation into the great +mysteries of art, and then--let me think a little. It is two hours since +I left the Hall, and I am still beside myself. Where am I? Am I +dreaming, or under a spell? Have I indeed heard Liszt? I expected great +things from all the accounts I had heard, and still more from a kind of +inward conviction--but how far the reality surpassed my expectations! +Happy, indeed, are we to be living in 1842, at the same time as such an +artist! Fortunate, indeed, that we have been privileged to hear him! I +am gushing a great deal--too much for me, but I cannot contain myself. +Bear with me in this lyrical crisis until I can express myself +calmly.... What a festival it has been! How different everything looks +in God's world to-day! And all this is the work of one man and his +playing! What a power is music! I cannot collect my thoughts--my whole +being seems in a state of abnormal tension, of confused rapture!' + +"Do we experience this exaltation nowadays? I think not. Rarely do we +partake of the insane root. Are there no more enchanters like Liszt? Or +has the capacity of such enthusiasm and expansion passed away for ever +with the white stocks, the 'coiffure a l'Apollon Belvedere' and the +frank emotionalism of the early Victorian period?" + + +LISZT IN ENGLAND + +"The visits of great musicians to our shores have furnished much +interesting material to the musical historian," wrote the _Musical +Times_. "Those of Mozart and Haydn, for instance, have been fully and +ably treated by the late Carl Ferdinand Pohl, in two volumes which have +never been translated, as they deserve to be, into the English language. +No less interesting are the sojournings in London and the provinces of +Spohr, Weber, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Berlioz, Verdi, and Wagner. 'The King +of Pianists' has not hitherto received the attention due to him in this +respect, and the following chit-chat upon his English experiences is +offered as a small contribution to the existing biographical information +concerning a great man. + +"Franz was a boy of twelve years of age, when he made his first +appearance in London in the year 1824. At that time Rossini shone as the +bright particular star in the London musical firmament. The composer of +Il Barbiere actually gave concerts. 'Persons desirous of obtaining +tickets are requested to send their names to Signor Rossini, 90, +Quadrant [Regent Street], 'so the advertisements stated. It was +therefore thought desirable to postpone the appearance of the little +Hungarian pianist until after Rossini had finished his music-makings. + +"The first appearance of Liszt in England was of a semi-private nature. +On June 5, 1824, the Annual Festival of the Royal Society of Musicians +took place. The account of the dinner given in the _Morning Post_ +contains the following information: + +"'Master Liszt (a youth from Hungary) performed on a Grand Pianoforte +with an improved action, invented by Sebastian Erard, the celebrated +Harp-maker, of very great power and brilliancy of tone. + +"'To do justice to the performance of Master Liszt is totally out of our +power; his execution, taste, expression, genius, and wonderful +extemporary playing, defy any written description. He must be heard to +be duly appreciated.' + +"Among those who heard Master Liszt was a certain Master Wesley (Samuel +Sebastian of that ilk), who, as a Chapel Royal Chorister, took part in +the glees sung at that festive board. The _Quarterly Musical Magazine +and Review_ of 1824 (p. 241) thus referred to the young pianist's +performance: + +"'We heard this youth first at the dinner of the Royal Society of +Musicians, where he extemporised for about twenty minutes before that +judgmatical audience of professors and their friends.' + +"The announcement of Liszt's concert appeared in the _Morning Post_ in +these terms: + +"'NEW ARGYLL ROOMS + +"'Master Liszt, aged twelve years, a native of Hungary ... respectfully +informs the Nobility, Gentry, and the Public in general, that his +Benefit Concert will take place this evening, June 21, 1824, to commence +at half-past 8 precisely, when he will perform on Sebastian Erard's new +patent Grand Pianoforte, a Concerto by Hummel, New variations by +Winkhler, and play extempore on a written Thema, which Master Liszt will +request any person of the company to give him.... + +"'Leader, Mr. Mori. Conductor, Sir George Smart. Tickets, half-a-guinea +each, to be had of Master Liszt, 18, Great Marlborough Street.' + +"In an account of the concert the _Morning Post_ said: 'Notwithstanding +the _contrary motions_ which occurred on Monday night of Pasta's benefit +and a Grand Rout given by Prince Leopold, there was a numerous +attendance.' The musicians present included Clementi, J. B. Cramer, +Ries, Neate, Kalkbrenner, and Cipriani Potter, all of whom 'rewarded +Master Liszt with repeated _bravos_.' The programme included an air with +variations by Czerny, played by Liszt, who also took part in Di Tanti +Palpiti, performed 'as a concertante with Signor Vimercati on his little +mandolin with uncommon spirit.' The remainder of the _Morning Post_ +notice may be quoted in full: + +"'Sir G. Smart (who conducted the Concert) invited any person in the +company to oblige Master Liszt with a Thema, on which he would work (as +the phrase is) extemporaneously. Here an interesting pause took place; +at length a lady named Zitti, Zitti. The little fellow, though not very +well acquainted with the air, sat down and roved about the instrument, +occasionally touching a few bars of the melody, then taking it as a +subject for a transient fugue; but the best part of this performance was +that wherein he introduced the air with his right hand, while the left +swept the keys chromatically; then he crossed over his right hand, +played the subject with the left, while the right hand descended by +semi-tones to the bottom of the instrument! It is needless to add, that +his efforts were crowned with the most brilliant success.' + +"Liszt took part in two grand miscellaneous concerts given at the +Theatre Royal, Manchester, on the 2d and 4th of August, the other chief +attraction being The Infant Lyra, a prodigy harpist '_not_ four years +old,' and nine years younger than the juvenile Hungarian pianist. The +programme included 'an extempore fantasia on Erard's new patent grand +pianoforte of seven octaves by Master Liszt, who will respectfully +request a written thema from any person present.' The advertisement of +the second concert included the following: + +"'Master Liszt being about to return to the Continent where he is +eagerly expected in consequence of his astonishing talents, and the +Infant Lyra being on his way to London, the only opportunity which can +occur for the inhabitants of Manchester to hear them has been seized by +Mr. Ward; and to afford every possible advantage to the Voices and +Instruments, he has so constructed the Orchestra, that the Harp, and +Piano-Forte will be satisfactorily heard in every part of the house.' + +"The young gentleman was honoured with a 'command' to perform before +King George the Fourth at Windsor Castle. In the words of the _Windsor +Express_ of July 31, 1824: + +"'On Thursday evening, young Lizt (_sic_), the celebrated juvenile +performer on the pianoforte, was introduced to the King at Windsor by +Prince Esterhazy. In the course of the evening he played several pieces +of Handel's and Mozart's upon the piano, which he executed in a style to +draw forth the plaudits of His Majesty and the company present.' + +"In the following year (1825), Master Liszt paid his second visit to +England and again appeared in Manchester. + +"At his third visit (in 1827), he made the acquaintance of the late +Charles Salaman, two years his senior, who heard Liszt play Hummel's +Concerto. In his pleasantly-written recollections of pianists of the +past (_Blackwood's Magazine_, September, 1901), Mr. Salaman says: + +"'Very shortly afterwards--just before Liszt's morning concert, for +which my father had purchased tickets from his father--we became +acquainted. I visited him and his father at their lodgings in Frith +Street, Soho, and young Liszt came to early family dinner at my home. He +was a very charmingly natural and unaffected boy, and I have never +forgotten his joyful exclamation, 'Oh, gooseberry pie!' when his +favourite dish was put upon the table. We had a good deal of music +together on that memorable afternoon, reading several duets. Liszt +played some of his recently published Etudes, Op. 6, a copy of which he +gave me, and in which he wrote specially for me an amended version of +the sixth study, Molto agitato.' + +"Here is the programme of the morning concert above referred to: + + + NEW ARGYLL ROOMS + + MASTER LISZT + + Has the honour to inform the Nobility, Gentry, and his + Friends, that his + MORNING CONCERT + will take place at the above rooms on + SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1827 + + + PART I + + Overture to _Les Deux Journees_, arranged by + _Mr. Moscheles_ for four performers on + two Grand Piano Fortes, Mr. BEALE, + Master LISZT, Mr. MARTIN, and Mr. + WIGLEY _Cherubini_ + + Aria, Mr. BEGREZ _Beethoven_ + + Fantasia, Harp, on Irish Airs, Mr. LABARRE _Labarre_ + + Duetto, Miss GRANT (_Pupil of Mr. CRIVELLI + at the Royal Academy of Music_) + and Signor TORRI _Rossini_ + + Concerto (MS.), Piano Forte, with Orchestral + Accompaniments, Master LISZT _Master Liszt_ + + Song, Miss STEPHENS. + + Solo, French Horn, Mr. G. SCHUNKE _G. Schuncke_ + + Aria, Miss BETTS _Rossini_ + + Duetto, Miss FANNY AYTON and Mr. BEGREZ, + "Amor! possente nome" _Rossini_ + + Fantasia, Violin, Mr. MORI + + Scena, Mr. BRAHAM _Zingarelli_ + + Extempore Fantasia on a given subject, Master LISZT. + + + PART II + + Quartet for Voice, Harp, Piano Forte, and + Violin, Miss STEPHENS, Mr. LABARRE, + Master LISZT, and Mr. MORI _Moscheles and Mayseder_ + + Aria, Miss FANNY AYTON, "Una voce poco + fa" _Rossini_ + + Solo, Guitar, Mr. HUERTA _Huerta_ + + Duet, Miss Stephens and Mr. BRAHAM. + + Song, Miss LOVE, "Had I a heart." + + Fantasia, Flute, Master MINASI _Master Minasi_ + + Song, Miss GRANT, "The Nightingale" _Crivelli_ + + Brilliant Variations on "Rule Britannia," + Master LISZT _Master Liszt_ + + + Leader, MR. MORI Conductor, Mr. Schuncke + + + THE CONCERT WILL COMMENCE AT HALF-PAST ONE O'CLOCK + PRECISELY + + + Tickets, Half-a-Guinea each, to be had of Mr. LISZT, 46, + Great Marlborough Street, and at all the principal + Music Shops. + +"Thirteen years elapsed before Liszt again favoured us with his +presence. He had in the meantime passed from boyhood to manhood, from +having been a prodigy to becoming a mature artist. The year was 1840--an +important one, as we shall presently see. He appeared, for the +first time, at the Philharmonic Concert of May 11, 1840, which was +conducted by Sir Henry Bishop. Liszt played his own version of Weber's +Concertstueck in which, according to a contemporary account, 'passages +were doubled, tripled, inverted, and _transmogrified_ in all sorts of +ways.' Be this as it may, the Philharmonic Directors showed their +appreciation of his performance by a presentation, an account of which +appeared in a snappy and short-lived paper called the _Musical Journal_. +Here is the extract: + +"'Liszt has been presented by the Philharmonic Society with an elegant +silver breakfast service, for doing that which would cause every young +student to receive a severe reprimand--viz., thumping and partially +destroying two very fine pianofortes. The Society has given this to Mr. +Liszt as a _compliment_ for performing at two of its concerts +_gratuitously_! Whenever did they present an Englishman with a _silver +breakfast service_ for gratuitous performances?' + +"The foregoing is written in the strain which characterised the attitude +of a section of the musical press towards the great pianist. His use of +the word 'Recitals' appears to have been as a red rag to those roaring +bulls. The familiar term owes its origin to Liszt's performances. The +late Willert Beale records that his father, Frederick Beale, invented +the designation, and that it was much discussed before being finally +adopted. The advertisement reads thus: + +"'LISZT'S PIANOFORTE RECITALS + +"'M. Liszt will give at Two o'clock on Tuesday morning, June 9, 1840, +RECITALS on the PIANOFORTE of the following works:--No. 1. Scherzo and +Finale from Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony. No. 2. Serenade, by +Schubert. No. 3. Ave Maria, by Schubert. No. 4. Hexameron. No. 5. +Neapolitan Tarentelles. No. 6. Grand Galop Chromatique. Tickets 10s. 6d. +each; reserved seats, near the Pianoforte, 21s.' + +"The 'Recitals'--the plural form of the term will be noticed--took place +at the Hanover Square Rooms, and the piece entitled Hexameron (a set of +variations on the grand march in I Puritani) was the composition of the +following sextet of pianists: Thalberg, Chopin, Herz, Czerny, Pixis, and +Liszt, not exactly 'a _singular_ production,' as the _Musical World_ +remarked, but 'an uncommon one.' In connection with the 'Recitals,' Mr. +Salaman may be quoted: + +"'I did not hear Liszt again until his visit to London in 1840, when he +puzzled the musical public by announcing "Pianoforte Recitals." This now +commonly accepted term had never previously been used, and people asked, +"What does he mean? How can any one _recite_ upon the pianoforte?" At +these recitals, Liszt, after performing a piece set down in his +programme, would leave the platform, and, descending into the body of +the room, where the benches were so arranged as to allow free +locomotion, would move about among his auditors and converse with his +friends, with the gracious condescension of a prince, until he felt +disposed to return to the piano.' + +"The _Musical World_ referred to the 'Recitals' as 'this curious +exhibition'; that the performance was 'little short of a miracle'; and +that the Hexameron contained 'some difficulties of inconceivable +outrageousness.' Another specimen of critical insight may be quoted--it +refers to Liszt's participation in a concert given by John Parry: + +"'On being unanimously recalled, he tore the National Anthem to ribbons, +and thereby fogged the glory he had just achieved. Let him eschew such +hyper-erudite monstrosities--let him stick to the 'recital' of sane and +sanative music, and he will attain a reputation above all contemporary +musical _mono_-facturers--and what is more, deserve it.' + +"In the autumn of the same year (1840), Liszt formed one of a +concert-party, organised by Lavenu, in a tour in the south of England. +The party included John Parry, the composer of Wanted, a Governess, and +the comic man of the Lavenu troup. Like Mendelssohn, Liszt seems to have +taken to the jocose Parry, and he quite entered into the fun of the +fair. For instance, at Bath, 'in addition to the pieces announced in the +bills, Liszt played an accompaniment to John Parry's Inchape Bell, sung +by the author, in which he introduced an extemporaneous storm, which had +a most terrific effect.' We can well believe it. This storm was not 'a +local disturbance,' as meteorologists would say, but it followed the +party wherever they went, and it was doubtless received with thunderous +applause. + +"In November, a second and more extended tour, also under Lavenu's +auspices, was undertaken, and the journey embraced the great provincial +towns of England, Ireland, and Scotland. The preliminary announcement +was couched in terms more or less pungent: + +"'Mr. Lavenu with his corps musicale will enter the _lists_ again on the +23d instant, when it is to be hoped the _list_less provinces will +_list_en with more attention than on his last experiment, or he will +have en_list_ed his talented _list_ to very little purpose.' + +"Liszt again appeared in London in 1841, and took the town by storm. +Musical critics of the present day may be glad to enlarge their +vocabulary from the following notice, which appeared in the columns of +the _Musical World_ of sixty years ago: + +"'M. Liszt's Recitals.--We walk through this world in the midst of so +many wonders, that our senses become indifferent to the most amazing +things: light and life, the ocean, the forest, the voice and flight of +the pigmy lark, are unheeded commonplaces; and it is only when some +comet, some giant, some tiger-tamer, some new Niagara, some winged being +(mental or bodily, and unclassed in the science of ornithology) appears, +that our obdurate faculties are roused into the consciousness that +miracles do exist. Of the miracle genus is M. Liszt, the Polyphemus of +the pianoforte--the Aurora Borealis of musical effulgence--the Niagara +of thundering harmonies! His rapidity of execution, his power, his +delicacy, his Briareus-handed chords, and the extraordinary volume of +sound he wrests from the instrument, are each and all philosophies in +their way that might well puzzle all but a philosopher to unriddle and +explain.' + +"Shortly before the 'recitals' above referred to, Liszt was thrown out +of a carriage, and the accident resulted in a sprained wrist. At the +performance, he apologised in French to the audience 'for his inability +to play all the pieces advertised.' + +"It is strange, but true, that no less than _forty-five_ years had come +and gone before Liszt again set foot on Albion's shores. In the year +1886, aged seventy-five, he came again, and charmed everybody with the +geniality of his presence. + +"It was at the invitation of the late Mr. Henry Littleton (then head of +the firm of Novello & Co.) that Liszt paid his last visit to England in +1886. The great pianist arrived on May 3, and remained under Mr. +Littleton's hospitable roof at Westwood House, Sydenham, during the +whole of his sojourn in this country. The events of those seventeen days +were a series of triumphs to the grand old man of pianists. A command +visit to Windsor Castle, when he played to Queen Victoria; dining with +the Prince and Princess of Wales at Marlborough House; a visit to the +Baroness Burdett Coutts; attending performances of his oratorio St. +Elisabeth (conducted by Sir, then Mr. A. C. Mackenzie) at St. James's +Hall and the Crystal Palace; concerts of Chev. Leonard E. Bach; the +Royal Amateur Orchestral Society (when he was seated next to the king, +then Prince of Wales); Monday Popular; pianoforte recitals by Mr. +Frederic Lamond and Herr Stavenhagen; a visit to the Royal Academy of +Music; in addition to receptions given by his devoted pupil and attached +friend, the late Walter Bache at the Grosvenor Gallery, and the 'at +homes' of his host and hostess at Westwood House. + +"As an indication of the general interest aroused by the coming of +Liszt, _Punch_ burst forth in the following strain: + +"'A Brilliant Variation.--Mr. and Mrs. Littleton's reception of the Abbe +Franz Liszt, at Westwood House, Saturday night last, was an event never +to be forgotten. But it was not until all the Great 'uns had left the +Littletons that the Greatest of them all sat at the piano in the midst +of a cosy and select circle, and then, when _Mr. P-nch_ had put on his +Liszt slippers ... but to say more were a breach of hospitality. +Suffice it that on taking up his sharp-and-flat candlestick in a +perfectly natural manner the Abbe, embracing _Mr. P-nch_, sobbed out, +"This is the Abbe'ist evening I've ever had. Au plaisir!"--(_Extract +from a Distinguished Guest's Diary. Privately communicated._)' + +"Although he was in his seventy-sixth year at the time of this, his last +sojourn in England, his pianoforte technic astonished those who were +capable to form an opinion, and who were amazed that he did not 'smash +the pianoforte, like his pupils!' He was immensely gratified at his +visit, and in parting with Mr. Alfred and Mr. Augustus Littleton, at +Calais, he said: 'If I should live two years longer I will certainly +visit England again!' But alas! a little more than three months after he +had said 'Good-bye' to these friends, Franz Liszt closed his long, +eventful, and truly artistic career at Bayreuth on July 31, 1886. +Professor Niecks said, 'Liszt has lived a noble life. Let us honour his +memory.'" + + +EDVARD GRIEG + +Grieg himself played his piano concerto at a Leipsic Gewandhaus concert +in 1879, but it had already been heard in the same hall as early as +February 22, 1872, when Miss Erika Lie played it, and the work was +announced as new and "in manuscript." Before this time Grieg had shown +the concerto to Liszt. The story is told in a letter of Grieg quoted in +Henry T. Finck's biography of the composer: + +"I had fortunately just received the manuscript of my pianoforte +concerto from Leipsic, and took it with me. Besides myself there were +present Winding, Sgambati, and a German Liszt-ite whose name I do not +know, but who goes so far in the aping of his idol that he even wears +the gown of an abbe; add to these a Chevalier de Concilium and some +young ladies of the kind that would like to eat Liszt, skin, hair, and +all, their adulation is simply comical.... Winding and I were very +anxious to see if he would really play my concerto at sight. I, for my +part, considered it impossible; not so Liszt. 'Will you play?' he asked, +and I made haste to reply: 'No, I cannot' (you know I have never +practised it). Then Liszt took the manuscript, went to the piano, and +said to the assembled guests, with his characteristic smile, 'Very well, +then, I will show you that I also cannot.' With that he began. I admit +that he took the first part of the concerto too fast, and the beginning +consequently sounded helter-skelter; but later on, when I had a chance +to indicate the tempo, he played as only he can play. It is significant +that he played the cadenza, the most difficult part, best of all. His +demeanour is worth any price to see. Not content with playing, he at the +same time converses and makes comments, addressing a bright remark now +to one, now to another of the assembled guests, nodding significantly +to the right or left, particularly when something pleases him. In the +adagio, and still more in the finale, he reached a climax both as to his +playing and the praise he had to bestow. + +"A really divine episode I must not forget. Toward the end of the finale +the second theme is, as you may remember, repeated in a mighty +fortissimo. In the very last measures, when in the first triplets the +first tone is changed in the orchestra from G sharp to G, while the +pianoforte, in a mighty scale passage, rushes wildly through the whole +reach of the keyboard, he suddenly stopped, rose up to his full height, +left the piano, and, with big theatric strides and arms uplifted, walked +across the large cloister hall, at the same time literally roaring the +theme. When he got to the G in question, he stretched out his arms +imperiously and exclaimed: 'G, G, not G sharp! Splendid! That is the +real Swedish Banko!' to which he added very softly, as in a parenthesis: +'Smetana sent me a sample the other day.' He went back to the piano, +repeated the whole strophe, and finished. In conclusion, he handed me +the manuscript and said, in a peculiarly cordial tone: 'Fahren Sie fort; +ich sage Ihnen, Sie haben das Zeug dazu, und--lassen Sie sich nicht +abschrecken!' ('Keep steadily on; I tell you, you have the capability, +and--do not let them intimidate you!') + +"This final admonition was of tremendous importance to me; there was +something in it that seemed to give it an air of sanctification. At +times when disappointment and bitterness are in store for me, I shall +recall his words, and the remembrance of that hour will have a wonderful +power to uphold me in days of adversity." + + +RICHARD HOFFMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS + +"I think it was in 1840 or 1841, in Manchester, that I first heard +Liszt, then a young man of twenty-eight," wrote the late Richard Hoffman +in _Scribner's Magazine_. "At that time he played only bravura piano +compositions, such as the Hexameron and Hungarian March of Schubert, in +C minor, arranged by himself. I recollect his curious appearance, his +tall, lank figure, buttoned up in a frock coat, very much embroidered +with braid, and his long, light hair brushed straight down below his +collar. He was not at that time a general favourite in England, and I +remember that on this occasion there was rather a poor house. A +criticism of this concert which I have preserved from the _Manchester +Morning Post_ will give an idea of his wonderful playing. After some +introduction it goes on to say: 'He played with velocity and impetuosity +indescribable, and yet with a facile grace and pliancy that made his +efforts seem rather like the flight of thought than the result of +mechanical exertion, thus investing his execution with a character more +mental than physical, and making genius give elevation to art. One of +the most electrifying points of his performance was the introduction of +a sequence of thirds in scales, descending with unexampled rapidity; and +another, the volume of tone which he rolled forth in the execution of a +double shake. The rapture of the audience knew no bounds,' etc. I +fancied I saw the piano shake and tremble under the force of his blows +in the Hungarian March. I regret that I never had an opportunity of +hearing him later in life, when I am sure I should have had more +pleasure both in his playing and his programmes. He had appeared some +sixteen years before in Manchester, in 1824, as a youthful phenomenon, +in an engagement made for him by Mr. Andrew Ward, my father's partner. +He stayed at his house while there, as the following letter specifies; +both letters form part of a correspondence between Mr. Ward and the +elder Liszt on this matter. + + + "'LONDON, _July 29, 1824_. + + "'DEAR SIR: In answer to your letter of the 27th inst. I beg to + inform you that I wish my Son to play as follows: viz:--At the + first concert, a grand Concerto for the Piano Forte with orchestral + accompaniment composed by Hummel, and the Fall of Paris also with + grand orchestral accompaniment composed by Moscheles. + + "'At the 2d Concert--Variations with orchestral accompaniments + composed by Charles Czerni, and afterwards an Extempore Fantasia on + a written Thema which Master Liszt will respectfully request any + person of the Company to give him. + + "'We intend to start to-morrow afternoon at three o'clock by the + Telegraph Coach from the White Horse Fetter lane, and as we are + entire strangers to Manchester it will be very agreeable to us if + you will send some one to meet us. + + "'M. Erard's pianoforte will be in your town on Sunday morning as I + shall be glad for my son to play upon that instrument. + + "'I remain, Dear Sir, + + "'Yr. very humble Servant, + + "'LISZT.' + + + "'15 GT. MARLBOROUGH STREET, + + "'_July 22, 1824._ + + "'Mr. Liszt presents his compliments to Mr. Roe and begs to say, + that the terms upon which he will take his son to Manchester to + play at the concerts of the second and fourth of August next will + be as follows: + + "'Mr. Liszt is to receive one hundred pounds and be provided with + board and lodgings in Mr. Ward's house during his stay in + Manchester for his son and himself, and Mr. Liszt will pay the + travelling expenses to and from Manchester.'" + + +HENRY REEVES + +In Henry Reeves's biography I found this about Liszt: + +"Liszt had already played a great fantasia of his own, and Beethoven's +Twenty-seventh Sonata in the former part of the concert. After this +latter piece he gasped with emotion as I took his hand and thanked him +for the divine energy he had shed forth. At last I managed to pierce the +crowd, and I sat in the orchestra before the Duchesse de Rauzan's box, +talking to her Grace and Madame de Circourt, who was there. My chair was +on the same board as Liszt's piano when the final piece began. It was a +duet for two instruments, beginning with Mendelssohn's Chants sans +Paroles and proceeding to a work of Liszt's. We had already passed that +delicious chime of the Song Written in a Gondola, and the gay tendrils +of sound in another lighter piece, which always reminded me of an +Italian vine, when Mrs. Handley played it to us. As the closing strains +began I saw Liszt's countenance assume that agony of expression, mingled +with radiant smiles of joy, which I never saw in any other human face +except in the paintings of our Saviour by some of the early masters; his +hands rushed over the keys, the floor on which I sat shook like a wire, +and the whole audience were wrapped in sound, when the hand and frame of +the artist gave way. He fainted in the arms of the friend who was +turning over for him, and we bore him out in a strong fit of hysterics. +The effect of this scene was really dreadful. The whole room sat +breathless with fear, till Hiller came forward and announced that Liszt +was already restored to consciousness and was comparatively well again. +As I handed Madame de Circourt to her carriage we both trembled like +poplar leaves, and I tremble scarcely less as I write." + + +LISZT'S CONVERSION + +"Have you read the story of Liszt's conversion as told by Emile Bergerat +in Le Livre de Caliban?" asks Philip Hale. "I do not remember to have +seen it in English, and in the dearth of musical news the story may +amuse. I shall not attempt to translate it literally, or even English it +with a watchful eye on Bergerat's individuality. This is a paraphrase, +not even a pale, literal translation of a brilliant original. + + THE CONVERSION + OF + THE ABBE LISZT + +"And so he will not play any more. + +"Well, a pianist cannot keep on playing forever, and if Liszt had not +promised to stop, the Pope would never have pardoned him--no, never. For +the pianist turned priest because he was remorseful, horror-stricken at +the thought of his abuse of the piano. His conversion is a matter of +history. When one takes Orders, he swears to renounce Satan, his gauds +and his works--that is to say, the piano. + +"If he should play he'd be a renegade. Of course he longs to touch the +keys. His daddy-long-legs-fingers itch, and he doesn't know what to do +with them. But an apostate? Perish the thought! And apostasy grins at +him; lurks in the metronome with its flicflac. Here's what I call a +dramatic situation. + +"Wretched Abbe! Never more will you smash white or black keys; never +more will you dance on the angry pedals; O never, never more! Do you not +hear the croaking of Poe's raven? Never again, O Father, will you tire +the rosewood! Good-bye to tumbling scales and pyrotechnical arpeggios! +Thus must you do penance. The president of the Immortals does not love +piano playing. He scowls on pianists. He condemns them to thump +throughout eternity. In Dante's hell there is a dumb piano, and Lucifer +sees to it that they practice without ceasing. + +"I am naturally tender-hearted, but I approve of this eternal +punishment. + +"Yes, Father Liszt, because the piano is not in the scheme of Nature. +Even in Society the fewer the pianos the greater the merriment. If the +piano were really a thing in Nature the good Lord would have taken at +least ten minutes of the seven days and designed a model. But the piano +never occurred to Him. Now, as everything, existing or to exist, was +foreseen by him, and a part of Him (that is, according to the dogma), I +am inclined to think He was afraid of the piano. He recoiled at the +responsibility of creating it. And yet the machine exists! + +"A syllogism leads us to declare that the piano is an after-thought. Of +whom? Why, Satan of course. A grim joke of Satan. The piano is the enemy +of man. Liszt finally discovered this, though he was just a little late. +So he will only go to Purgatory, and in Purgatory there are no dumb +pianos. But there are organs without pipes, without bellows, and many +have pulled the stops in vain for centuries. I earnestly beseech you, my +Father, to accumulate indulgences. + +"They tell many stories about the conversions of Abbe Liszt, and how he +found out that the piano is the enemy of humanity. Lo, here is the +truth. He once gave a concert in a town where there were many dogs. He +was then exceedingly absent-minded; he mistook the date and appeared the +night before. Extraordinary to relate, there was no one in the hall, +although the concert was announced for the next day! Liszt sat down +nevertheless, and played for his own amusement. The effect was +prodigious, as George Sand told us in her Lettres d'un Voyageur. The +dogs ran to the noise--curs, water spaniels, poodles, greyhounds--all +the dogs, including the yellow outcast. They all howled fearfully, and +they would fain have fleshed their teeth in the pianist. + +"Then Liszt reasoned--in his fashion: 'Since the dog is the friend of +man, if he abominates the piano it is because his instinct tells him, +"the piano is my friend's enemy!"' Professor Jevons might not have +approved the conclusion, but Liszt saw no flaw. + +"And then a sculptor wished to make a statue of Liszt. He hewed him as +he sat before a piano, and he included the instrument. It was naturally +a grand piano, one lent by Madame Erard expressly for the occasion. +Liszt went to the studio, saw the clay, and turned green. + +"'Where did you get such a ghastly idea?' he asked, and his voice +trembled. 'You represent me as playing a music coffin.' + +"'What's that? I have copied nature. Is not the shape exact?' + +"'Horribly,' said Liszt. 'And thus, thus shall I appear to posterity! I +shall be seen hanging by my nails to this funereal box, a virtuoso, +ferocious, with dishevelled hair, raising the dead and digging a grave +at the same time! The idea puts me in a cold sweat!' + +"The sculptor smiled. 'I can substitute an upright.' + +"'Then I should seem to be scratching a mummy case. They would take me +for an Egyptologist at his sacrilegious work.' + +"Homeward he fled. In his own room he arranged the mirrors so that he +could see himself in all positions while he was plying his hellish +trade. And then salvation came to him. He saw that the machine was +demoniacal, that it recalled nothing in the fauna or the flora of the +good Lord, that the sculptor was right, that the piano had the +appearance of the sure box, in which occurs vague metempsychosis, that +is if the box only had a jaw. He was horror-stricken at his past life. +Frightened, his soul tormented by doubt, it seemed to him that from +under the eighty-five molars, which he snatched hurriedly from the +shrieking piano, Astaroth darted his tongue. He ran to Rome and threw +himself at the Pope's feet, imploring exorcism. + +"The confession lasted three days and three nights. The possessed could +not get to an end. There were crimes which the Pope himself knew nothing +about, which he had never heard mentioned, professional crimes, crimes +peculiar to pianists, horrid crimes in keys natural and unnatural! This +confession is still celebrated. + +"'Holy Father,' cried the wretch, 'you do not, you cannot know +everything! There are pianists and pianists. You believe that the piano, +as diabolical as it is, whether it be a Pleyel or an Erard, cannot give +out more noise than it holds. You believe that he who makes it exhibit +in full its terrible proportions is the strongest, and that piano +playing has human limitations. Alas, alas! You say to yourself when in +an apartment house of seven stories the seven tenants give notice +simultaneously to the trembling landlord, it makes no difference whether +the cause of the desperate flight is named Saint-Saens, Pugno or +Chabrier. The tenants run because the piano gives forth all that is +inside of it, and the inanimate is acutely animate. How Your Holiness is +deceived. There's a still lower depth!' + +"Liszt smote his breast thrice, and continued: 'I know a man (or is it +indeed a human being?) who never quitted the sonorous coffin until the +entire street in which he raged had emigrated. And yet he had only ten +fingers on his hands, as you and I, and never did he use his toes. This +monster, Holy Father, is at your feet!' + +"Pius IX shivered with fright. 'Go on, my son, the mercy of God is +unbounded.' + +"Then Liszt accused himself: + +"Of having by Sabbatic concerts driven the half of civilised Europe mad, +while the other half returned to Chopin and Thalberg. + +"('There's Rubinstein,' said Pius, and he smiled.) Liszt pretended not +to hear him, and he continued: + +"'My Father, I have encouraged the trade in shrill mahogany, noisy +rosewood and shrieking ebony in the five parts of the acoustic world, so +that at this very moment there is not a single ajoupa or a single +thatched hut among savages that is without a piano. Even wild men are +beginning to manufacture pianos, and they give them as wedding gifts to +their daughters.' + +"('Just as it is in Europe,' said the Pope.) + +"'And also,' added Liszt, 'with instructions how to use them. Mea +culpa!' + +"Then he confessed that apes unable to scramble through a scale were +rare in virgin forests; that travellers told of elephants who played +with their trunks the Carnival of Venice variations; and it was he, +Franz Liszt, that had served them as a model. The plague of universal +"pianisme" had spread from pole to pole. Mea culpa! Mea culpa! + +"Overcome with shame, he wished to finish his confession at the piano. +But Pius IX had anticipated him. There was no piano in the Vatican. In +all Christendom, the Pope was the only one without a boxed harp. + +"'Ah! you are indeed the Pope!' cried Liszt as he knelt before him. + +"A little after this Liszt took Orders. They that speak without +intelligence started the rumour that it was at La Trappe. But at La +Trappe there is a piano, and Liszt swore to the Holy Father that he +would never touch one. + +"To-day the world breathes freely. The monster has been disarmed and +exorcised. + +"Now when Liszt sees a piano he approaches it with curiosity and asks +the use of that singular article of furniture. + +"It is true there's one in his room, but he keeps his cassocks in it." + + + + +VII + +IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF LISZT + + +I + +WEIMAR + +After rambling over Weimar and burrowing in the Liszt museum, one feels +tempted to pronounce Liszt the happiest of composers, as Yeats calls +William Morris the happiest poet. A career without parallel, a +victorious general at the head of his ivory army; a lodestone for men +and women; a poet, diplomat, ecclesiastic, man of the world, with the +sunny nature of a child, loved by all, envious of no one--surely the +fates forgot to spin evil threads at the cradle of Franz Liszt. And he +was not a happy man for all that. He, too, like Friedrich Nietzsche had +daemonic fantasy; but for him it was a gift, for the other a curse. Music +is a liberation, and Nietzsche of all men would have benefited by its +healing powers. + +In Weimar Liszt walked and talked, smoked strong cigars, played, +prayed--for he never missed early mass--and composed. His old +housekeeper, Frau Pauline Apel, still a hale woman, shows, with loving +care, the memorials in the little museum on the first floor of the +Wohnhaus, which stands in the gardens of the beautiful ducal park. + +[Illustration: Pauline Apel + +Liszt's housekeeper at Weimar] + +Here Goethe and Schiller once promenaded in a company that has become +historic. And cannot Weimar lay claim to a Tannhaeuser performance as +early as 1849, the Lohengrin production in 1850, and the Flying Dutchman +in 1853? What a collection of musical manuscripts, trophies, jewels, +pictures, orders, letters--I saw one from Charles Baudelaire to +Liszt--and testimonials from all over the globe, which accumulated +during the career of this extraordinary man! + +The Steinway grand pianoforte, once so dearly prized by the master, has +been taken away to make room for the many cases containing precious +gifts from sovereigns, the scores of the Christus, Faust Symphony, +Orpheus, Hungaria, Berg Symphony, Totentanz, and Festklaenge. But the old +instrument upon which he played years ago still stands in one of the +rooms. Marble casts of Liszt's, Beethoven's, and Chopin's hands are on +view; also Liszt's hand firmly clasping the slender fingers of the +Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein. Like Chopin, Liszt attracted princesses as +sugar buzzing flies. + + * * * * * + +There is a new Weimar--not so wonderful as the two old Weimars--the +Weimar of Anna Amalia and Karl August, of Goethe, Wieland, Herder, and +Schiller, Johanna Schopenhauer and her sullen son Arthur, the +pessimistic philosopher--and not the old Weimar of Franz Liszt and +his brilliant cohort of disciples; nevertheless, a new Weimar, its +intellectual rallying-point the home of Elisabeth Foerster-Nietzsche, +the tiny and lovable sister of the great dead poet-philosopher, +Friedrich Nietzsche. + +To drift into this delightful Thuringian town; to stop at some curious +old inn with an eighteenth century name like the Hotel Zum Elephant; to +walk slowly under the trees of the ducal park, catching on one side a +glimpse of Goethe's garden house, on the other Liszt's summer home, +where gathered the most renowned musicians of the globe--these and +many other sights and reminiscences will interest the passionate +pilgrim--interest and thrill. If he be bent upon exploring the past +glories of the Goethe regime there are bountiful opportunities; the +Goethe residence, the superb Goethe and Schiller archives, the ducal +library, the garden house, the Belvidere--here we may retrace all the +steps of that noble, calm Greek existence from robust young manhood to +the very chamber wherein the octogenarian uttered his last cry of "More +light!" a cry that not only symbolised his entire career, but has served +since as a watchword for poetry, science, and philosophy. + +If you are musical, is there not the venerable opera-house wherein more +than a half century ago Lohengrin, thanks to the incredible friendship +and labour of Franz Liszt, was first given a hearing? And this same +opera-house--now no more--is a theatre that fairly exhales memories of +historic performances and unique dramatic artists. Once Goethe resigned +because against his earnest protest a performing dog was allowed to +appear upon the classic boards which first saw the masterpieces of +Goethe and Schiller. + +But the new Weimar! During the last decade whether the spot has a +renewed fascination for the artistic Germans or because of its increased +commercial activities, Weimar has worn another and a brighter face. The +young Grand Duke Ernst, while never displaying a marked preference for +intellectual pursuits, is a liberal ruler, as befits his blood. + +Great impetus has been given to manufacturing interests, and the city is +near enough to Berlin to benefit by both its distance and proximity. +Naturally, the older and conservative inhabitants are horrified by the +swift invasion of unsightly chimneys, of country disappearing before the +steady encroachment of railroads, mills, foundries, and other +unpicturesque but very useful buildings. And the country about Weimar is +famed for its picturesque quality--Jena, Tiefurt, Upper Weimar, Erfurt, +museums, castles, monuments, belvideres, wayside inns, wonderful roads +overhung by great aged trees. But other days, other ways. + +Weimar has awakened and is no longer proud to figure merely as a museum +of antiquities. With this material growth there has arisen a fresh +movement in the stagnant waters of poetic and artistic memories--new +ideas, new faces, new paths, new names. It is a useless, though not +altogether an unpleasant theme, to speculate upon the different Weimar +we would behold if Richard Wagner's original plan had been put into +execution as to the location of his theatre. Most certainly Bayreuth +would be a much duller town than it is to-day--and that is saying much. +But emburgessed prejudices were too much for Wagner, and a stuffy +Bavarian village won his preference, thereby becoming historical. + +However, Weimar is not abashed or cast down. A cluster of history-making +names are hers, and who knows, fifty years hence she may be proud to +recall the days when one Richard Strauss was her local Kapellmeister and +that within her municipal precincts died a great poetic soul, the +optimistic philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. + +Now, Weimar is the residence and the resort of a brilliant group of +poets, dramatists, novelists, musicians, painters, sculptors, and +actors. Professor Hans Olde, who presides over the imposing art +galleries and art school, has gathered about him an enthusiastic host of +young painters and art students. + +There have been recently two notable exhibitions, respectively devoted +to the works of the sculptor-painter, Max Klinger, and the French +sculptor, Auguste Rodin. Nor is the new artistic leaven confined to the +plastic arts. Ernst von Wildenbruch, a world-known novelist and +dramatist (since dead); Baron Detlev von Liliencron, one of Germany's +most gifted lyric poets; Richard Dehmel, a poet of the revolutionary +order, whose work favourably compares with the productions of the +Parisian symbolists; Paul Ernst, poet; Johannes Schlaf, who a few years +ago with Arno Holz blazoned the way in Berlin for Gerhart Hauptmann and +the young realists--Schlaf is the author of several powerful novels and +plays; Count Kessler, a cultured and ardent patron of the fine arts and +literature, and Professor van de Velde, whose influence on architecture +and the industrial arts has been great, and the American painter Gari +Melchers, are all in the Weimar circle. + +In the summer Conrad Ansorge, a man not unknown to the New York musical +public, gathers around him in pious imitation of his former master, +Liszt, a class of ambitious pianists. A former resident of New York, Max +Vogrich, pianist and composer, has taken up his residence at Weimar. In +its opera-house, which boasts an excellent company of singers, actors, +and a good orchestra, the premiere of Vogrich's opera Buddha occurred in +1903. Gordon Craig, the son of Ellen Terry, often visits the city, where +his scheme for the technical reform of the stage--lighting, scenery, +costumes, and colours--was eagerly appreciated, as it was in Berlin, by +Otto Brahm, director of the Lessing Theatre. Mr. Craig is looked upon as +an advanced spirit in Germany. I wish I could praise without critical +reservation the two new statues of Shakespeare and Liszt which stand in +the park; but neither one is of consummate workmanship or conception. + +When I received the amiable "command" of Elisabeth Foerster-Nietzsche, +bidding me call at a fixed hour on a certain day, I was quite conscious +of the honour; only the true believers set foot within that artistic and +altogether charming Mecca at the top of the Luisenstrasse. + +The lofty and richly decorated room where repose the precious mementos +of the dead thinker is a singularly attractive one--it is a true abode +of culture. Here Nietzsche died in 1900; here he was wheeled out upon +the adjacent balcony, from which he had a surprising view of the hilly +and delectable countryside. + +His sister and devoted biographer is a comely little lady, vivacious, +intellectual, bright of cheek and eye, a creature of fire and +enthusiasm, more Gallic than German. I could well believe in the legend +of the Polish Nietzskys, from whom the philosopher claimed descent, +after listening to her spirited discussion of matters that pertained to +her dead brother. His memory with her is an abidingly beautiful one. She +says "my poor brother" with the accents of one speaking of the vanished +gods. + +His sister showed me all her treasures--many manuscripts of early and +still unpublished studies; his original music, for he composed much +during his intimacy with Richard Wagner; the grand pianoforte with which +he soothed his tortured nerves; the stately bust executed by Max +Klinger; the painful portrait etched by Hans Olde, and many other +souvenirs. + +Mrs. Foerster-Nietzsche, who once lived in South America--she speaks +English, French, and Italian fluently--assured me that she sincerely +regretted the premature publication in English of The Case of the +Wagner. This book, so terribly personal, is a record of the +disenchanting experiences of a shattered friendship. + +Madame Foerster spoke most feelingly of Cosima Wagner and deplored the +rupture of their intimate relations. "A marvellous woman! a fascinating +woman!" she said several times. What with her correspondence in every +land, the publication of the bulky biography and the constant editing of +unpublished essays, letters and memorabilia, this rare sister of a great +man is, so it seems to me, overtaxing her energies. The Nietzsche +bibliography has assumed formidable proportions, yet she is conversant +with all of it. A second Henrietta Renan, I thought, as I took a +regretful leave of this very remarkable woman, not daring to ask her +when Nietzsche's unpublished autobiography, Ecce Homo, would be given to +the world. (This was written in 1904; Ecce Homo has appeared in the +meantime.) + +Later, down in the low-ceilinged cafe of the Hotel zum Elephant, +I overheard a group of citizens, officers, merchants--all +cronies--discussing Weimar. Nietzsche's name was mentioned, and +one knight of this round table--a gigantic officer with a button +head--contemptuously exclaimed:--"Nietzsche Rauch!" (smoke). Yes, but +what a world-compelling vapour is his that now winds in fantastic +spirals over the romantic hills and valleys of the new Weimar and +thence about the entire civilised globe! Friedrich Nietzsche, because +of his fiery poetic spirit and ecstatic pantheism, might be called the +Percy Bysshe Shelley of philosophers. + + +II + +BUDAPEST + +My first evening in Budapest was a cascade of surprises. The ride down +from Vienna is not cheery until the cathedral and palace of the primate +is reached, at Gran, a superb edifice, challenging the valley of the +Danube. Interminable prairies, recalling the traits of our Western +country, swam around the busy little train until this residence of the +spiritual lord of Hungary was passed. After that the scenery as far as +Orsova, Belgrade, and the Iron Gates is legendary in its beauty. + +To hear the real Hungarian gipsy on his own heath has been long my +ambition. In New York he is often a domesticated fowl, with aliens in +his company. But in Budapest! My hopes were high. The combination of +that peppery food, paprika gulyas, was also an item not to be +overlooked. I soon found an establishment where the music is the best +in Hungary, the cooking of the hottest. After the usual distracting +tuning the band splashed into a fierce prelude. + +Fancy coming thousands of miles to hear the original of all the +cakewalks and eat a preparation that might have been turned out from a +Mexican restaurant! It was too much. It took exactly four Czardas and +the Rakoczy march to convince me that I was not dreaming of Manhattan +Beach. + +But this particular band was excellent. Finding that some of the +listeners only wished for gipsy music, the leader played the most +frantically bacchanalian in his repertory. Not more than eight men made +up the ensemble! And such an ensemble. It seemed to be the ideal +definition of anarchy--unity in variety. Not even a Richard Strauss +score gives the idea of vertical and horizontal music--heard at every +point of the compass, issuing from the bowels of the earth, pouring down +upon one's head like a Tyrolean thunderstorm. Every voice was +independent, and syncopated as were the rhythms. There was no raggedness +in attack or cessation. + +Like a streak of jagged, blistering lightning, a tone would dart from +the double bass to the very scroll of the fiddles. In mad pursuit, over +a country black as Servian politics went the cymbalom, closely followed +by two clarinets--in B and E flat. The treble pipe was played by a +jeweller in disguise--he must have been a jeweller, so fond was he of +ornamentation and cataracts of pearly tones. He made a trelliswork +behind which he attacked his foes, the string players. In the midst of +all this melodic chaos the leader, cradling his fiddle like something +alive, swayed as sways a tall tree in the gale. Then he left the +podium and hat in hand collected white pieces and _kronen_. It was +disenchanting. + +The tone of the band was more resilient, more brilliant than the bands +we hear in America. And there were more heart, fire, swing and dash in +their playing. The sapping melancholy of the Lassan and the diabolic +vigour of the Friska are things that I shall never forget. These gipsies +have an instinctive sense of tempo. Their allegretto is a genuine +allegretto. They play rag-time music with true rhythmic appreciation for +the reason that its metrical structure is grateful to them. + +In Paris the cakewalk is a thing of misunderstood, misapplied accents. +The Budapest version of the Rakoczy march is a revelation. No wonder +Berlioz borrowed it. The tempo is a wild quickstep; there is no majestic +breadth, so suggestive of military pomp or the grandeur of a warlike +race. Instead, the music defiled by in crazy squads, men breathlessly +clinging to the saddles of their maddened steeds; above them hung the +haze of battle, and the hoarse shouting of the warriors was heard. Five +minutes more of this excitement and heart disease might have supervened. +Five minutes later I saw the band grinning over their tips, drinking and +looking absolutely incapable of ever playing such stirring and +hyperbolical music. + +After these winged enchantments I was glad enough to wander next morning +in the Hungarian Museum, following the history of this proud and +glorious nation, in its armour, its weapons, its trophies of war and its +banners captured from the Saracen. Such mementos re-create a race. In +the picture gallery, a modest one, there are some interesting Munkaczys +and several Makarts; also many specimens of Hungarian art by Kovacs, +Zichy (a member of a noble and talented family), Szekely, and Michael +Zichy's cartoon illustrations to Madach's The Tragedy of Mankind. + +Munkaczy's portrait of Franz Liszt is muddy and bituminous. Two original +aquarelles by Dore were presented by Liszt. I was surprised to find in +the modern Saal the Sphynx of Franz Stuck, a sensational and gruesome +canvas, which made a stir at the time of first hanging in the Munich +Secession exhibition. Budapest purchased it; also a very characteristic +Segantini, an excellent Otto Sinding, and Hans Makart's Dejanira. A +beautiful marble of Rodin's marks the progressive taste of this artistic +capital. + +It would seem that even for a municipality of New York's magnitude the +erection of such a Hall of Justice and such a Parliament building would +be a tax beyond its purse. Budapest is not a rich city, but these two +public buildings, veritable palaces, gorgeously decorated, proclaim her +as a highly civilised centre. The opera-house, which seats only 1,100, +is the most perfectly appointed in the world; its stage apparatus is +better than Bayreuth's. And the natural position of the place is unique. +From the ramparts of the royal palace in Buda--old Ofen--your eye, +promise-crammed, sweeps a series of fascinating facades, churches, +palaces, generous embankments, while between its walls the Danube flows +torrentially down to the mysterious lands where murder is admired and +thrones are playthings. + +In the Liszt museum is the old, bucolic pianino upon which his childish +hands first rested at Raiding (Dobrjan), his birthplace. His baton; the +cast of his hand and of Chopin's and the famous piano of Beethoven, at +which most of the immortal sonatas were composed, and upon which Liszt +Ferencz played for the great composer shortly before his death in 1827. +The little piano has no string, but the Beethoven--a Broadwood & Sons, +Golden Square, London, so the fall-board reads--is full of jangling +wires, the keys black with age. Liszt presented it to his countrymen--he +greatly loved Budapest and taught several months every winter at the +Academy of Music in the spacious Andrassy strasse. + +A harp, said to have been the instrument most affected by Marie +Antoinette, did not give me the thrill historic which all right-minded +Yankees should experience in strange lands. I would rather see a real +live tornado in Kansas than shake hands with the ghost of Napoleon. + + +III + +ROME + +The pianoforte virtuoso, Richard Burmeister, and one of Liszt's genuine +"pet" pupils, advised me to look at Liszt's hotel in the Vicolo Alibert, +Rome. It is still there, an old-fashioned place, Hotel Alibert, up an +alley-like street off the Via Babuino, near the Piazza del Popolo. But +it is shorn of its interest for melomaniacs, as the view commanding the +Pincio no longer exists. One night sufficed me, though the manager +smilingly assured me that he could show the room wherein Liszt slept and +studied. A big warehouse blocks the outlook on the Pincio; indeed the +part of the hotel Liszt inhabited no longer stands. But at Tivoli, at +the Villa d'Este, with its glorious vistas of the Campagna and Rome, +there surely would be memories of the master. The Sunday I took the +steam-tramway was a threatening one; before Bagni was reached a solid +sheet of water poured from an implacable leaden sky. It was not a +cheerful prospect for a Liszt-hunter. Arrived at Tivoli, I waited in the +Caffe d'Italia hoping for better weather. An old grand pianoforte, the +veriest rattletrap stood in the eating salle; but upon its keys had +rested many times the magic-breeding fingers of Liszt. Often, with a +band of students or with guests he would walk down from the villa and +while waiting for their carriages he would jestingly sweep the +keyboard. At the Villa d'Este itself the cypresses, cascades, terraces, +and mysterious avenues of green were enveloped in a hopeless fog. It was +the mistiest spot I ever visited. Heaven and earth, seemingly, met in +fluid embrace to give me a watery welcome. Where was Liszt's abode is a +Marianite convent. I was not permitted to visit his old room which is +now the superior's. It was at the top of the old building, for wherever +Liszt lived he enjoyed a vast landscape. I could discover but one person +who remembered the Abbate; the concierge. And his memories were scanty. +I wandered disconsolately through the rain, my mood splenetic. So much +for fame. I bitterly reflected in the melancholy, weedy, moss-infested +walks of the garden. + +As I attempted to point out to our little party the particular window +from which Liszt saw the miraculous Italian world, I stepped on a slimy +green rock and stretched my length in the humid mud. There was a deep, a +respectful silence as I was helped to my feet--the gravity of the +surroundings, the solemnity of our recollections choked all levity; +though I saw signs of impending apoplexy on several faces. To relieve +the strain I sternly bade our guide retire to an adjacent bosky retreat +and there roar to his heart's content. He did. So did we all. The spell +broken we returned to the "Sirene" opposite the entrance to the famous +Tivoli water-falls and there with Chianti and spaghetti tried to forget +the morning's disappointments. But even there sadness was invoked by the +sight of a plaster bust of Liszt lying forlorn in the wet grass. The +head waiter tried to sell it for twenty liri; but it was too big to +carry; besides its nose was missing. He said that the original was +somewhere in Tivoli. + +Sgambati in Rome keeps green the memory of the master in his annual +recitals; but of the churchly compositions no one I encountered had ever +heard. At Santa Francesca Romana, adjoining the Forum, Liszt once took +up his abode; there I saw in the cloister an aged grand pianoforte upon +which he had played in a concert given at the Church of Santa Maria +Maggiore many years ago. About an hour from Rome is the Oratory of the +Madonna del Rosario on Monte Mario. There Liszt lived and composed in +1863. But his sacred music is never sung in any of the churches; the +noble Graner Mass is still unheard in Rome. Even the Holy Father refers +to the dead Hungarian genius as, "il compositore Tedesco!" It was +different in the days of Pius IX, when Liszt's music was favoured at the +Vatican. Is it not related that Pio Nono bestowed upon the great pianist +the honour of hearing his confession at the time he became an abbe? And +did he not after four or five hours of worldly reminiscences, cry out +despairingly to his celebrated penitent: + +"Basta, Caro Liszt! Your memory is marvellous. Now go play the remainder +of your sins upon the pianoforte." They say that Liszt's playing on +that occasion was simply enchanting--and he did not cease until far into +the night. + +Liszt's various stopping-places in and around Rome were: Vicolo de Greci +(No. 43), Hotel Alibert, Vicolo Alibert, opposite Via del Babuino; Villa +d'Este with Cardinal Hohenlohe, also at the Vatican; in 1866 at Monte +Mario, Kloster Madonna del Rosario, Kloster Santa Francesca Romana, the +Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein first resided in the Via del Babuino, later +(1881) at the Hotel Malaro. Monsignor Kennedy of the American College +shows the grand piano upon which Liszt once played there. + +Perhaps Rome, at a superficial glance, still affects the American as it +did Taine a half century ago, as a provincial city, sprawled to +unnecessary lengths over its seven hills, and, despite the smartness of +its new quarters, far from suggesting a Weltstadt, as does, for example, +bustling, shining Berlin or mundane Paris. But not for her superb and +imperial indifference are the seductive spells of operatic Venice or the +romantic glamour of Florence. She can proudly say "La ville c'est moi!" +She is not a city, but the city of cities, and it needs but twenty-four +hours' submergence in her atmosphere to make one a slave at her eternal +chariot wheels. The New York cockney, devoted to his cult of the +modern--hotels, baths, cafes and luxurious theatres--soon wearies of +Rome. He prefers Paris or Naples. Hasn't some one said, "See Naples and +die--of its smells?" As an inexperienced traveller I know of no city on +the globe where you formulate an expression of like or dislike so +quickly. You are Rome's foe or friend within five minutes after you +leave its dingy railway station. And it is hardly necessary to add that +its newer quarters, pretentious, cold, hard and showy, are quite +negligible. One does not go to Rome to seek the glazed comforts of +Brooklyn. + +The usual manner of approaching the Holy Father is to go around to the +American Embassy and harry the good-tempered secretary into a promise of +an invitation card, that is, if you are not acquainted in clerical +circles. I was not long in Rome before I discovered that both Mgr. +Kennedy and Mgr. Merry del Val were at Frascati enjoying a hard-earned +vacation. So I dismissed the ghost of the idea and pursued my pagan +worship at the Museo Vaticano. Then the heavy hoofs of three hundred +pilgrims invaded the peace of the quiet Hotel Fischer up in the Via +Sallustiana. They had come from Cologne and the vicinity of the Upper +Rhine, bearing Peter's pence, wearing queer clothes and good-natured +smiles. They tramped the streets and churches of Rome, did these +commonplace, pious folk. They burrowed in the Catacombs and ate their +meals, men and women alike, with such a hearty gnashing of teeth, such a +rude appetite, that one envied their vitality, their faith, their +wholesale air of having accomplished the conquest of Rome. + +Their schedule, evidently prepared with great forethought and one that +went absolutely to pieces when put to the test of practical operation, +was wrangled over at each meal, where the Teutonic clans foregathered in +full force. The third day I heard of a projected audience at the +Vatican. These people had come to Rome to see the Pope. Big-boned and +giantlike Monsignor Pick visited the hotel daily, and once after I +saw him in conference with Signor Fischer I asked him if it were +possible---- + +"Of course," responded the wily Fischer, "anything is possible in Rome." +Wear evening dress? Nonsense! That was in the more exacting days of Leo +XIII. The present Pope is a democrat. He hates vain show. Perhaps he has +absorbed some of the Anglo-Saxon antipathy to seeing evening dress on a +male during daylight. But the ladies wear veils. All the morning of +October 5 the hotel was full of eager Italians selling veils to the +German ladies. + +Carriages blocked the streets and almost stretched four square around +the Palazzo Margherita. There was noise. There were explosive sounds +when bargains were driven. Then, after the vendors of saints' pictures, +crosses, rosary beads--chiefly gentlemen of Oriental persuasion, comical +as it may seem--we drove off in high feather nearly four hundred strong. +I had secured from Monsignor Pick through the offices of my amiable host +a parti-hued badge with a cross and the motto, "Coeln--Rom., 1905," +which, interpreted, meant "Cologne--Rome." I felt like singing "Nach +Rom," after the fashion of the Wagnerians in act II of Tannhaeuser, but +contented myself with abusing my coachman for his slow driving. It was +all as exciting as a first night at the opera. + +The rendezvous was the Campo Santo dei Tedeschi, which, with its +adjoining church of Santa Maria della Pieta, was donated to the Germans +by Pius VI as a burying-ground. There I met my companions of the +dining-room, and after a stern-looking German priest with the bearing of +an officer interrogated me I was permitted to join the pilgrims. What at +first had been a thing of no value was now become a matter of life and +death. + +After standing above the dust and buried bones of illustrious and +forgotten Germans we went into the church and were cooled by an address +in German from a worthy cleric whose name I cannot recall. I remember +that he told us that we were to meet the Vicar of Christ, a man like +ourselves. He emphasised strangely, so it appeared to me, the humanity +of the great prelate before whom we were bidden that gloomy autumnal +afternoon. And then, after intoning a Te Deum, we filed out in pairs, +first the women, then the men, along the naked stones until we reached +the end of the Via delle Fundamenta. The pilgrims wore their everyday +clothes. One even saw the short cloak and the green jaegerhut. We left +our umbrellas at a garderobe; its business that day was a thriving one. +We mounted innumerable staircases. We entered the Sala Regia, our +destination--I had hoped for the more noble and spacious Sala Ducale. + +Three o'clock was the hour set for the audience; but His Holiness was +closeted with a French ecclesiastical eminence and there was a delay of +nearly an hour. We spent it in staring at the sacred and profane +frescoes of Daniele da Volterra, Vasari, Salviati and Zucchari staring +at each other. The women, despite their Italian veils, looked hopelessly +Teutonic, the men clumsy and ill at ease. There were uncouth and +guttural noises. Conversation proceeded amain. Some boasted of being +heavily laden with rosaries and crucifixes, for all desired the blessing +of the Holy Father. One man, a young German-American priest from the +Middle West, almost staggered beneath a load of pious emblems. The +guilty feelings which had assailed me as I passed the watchful gaze of +the Swiss Guards began to wear off. The Sala Regia bore an unfamiliar +aspect, though I had been haunting it and the adjacent Sistine Chapel +daily for the previous month. An aura, coming I knew not whence, +surrounded us. The awkward pilgrims, with their daily manners, almost +faded away, and when at last a murmur went up, "The Holy Father! the +Holy Father! He approaches!" a vast sigh of relief was exhaled. The +tension had become unpleasant. + +We were ranged on either side, the women to the right, the men to the +left of the throne, which was an ordinary looking tribune. It must be +confessed that later the fair sex were vigorously elbowed to the rear. +In America the women would have been well to the front, but the dear old +Fatherland indulges in no such new fangled ideas of sex equality. So the +polite male pilgrims by superior strength usurped all the good places. A +tall, handsome man in evening clothes--solitary in this respect, +with the exception of the Pope's body suite--patrolled the floor, +obsequiously followed by the Suiss in their hideous garb--a murrain on +Michelangelo's taste if he designed such hideous uniforms! I fancied +that he was no less than a prince of the royal blood, so masterly was +his bearing. When I discovered that he was the Roman correspondent of a +well-known North German gazette my respect for the newspaper man abroad +was vastly increased. The power of the press----! + +"His Holiness comes!" was announced, and this time it was not a false +alarm. From a gallery facing the Sistine Chapel entered the inevitable +Swiss Guards; followed the officers of the Papal household, grave and +reverend seigniors; a knot of ecclesiastics, all wearing purple; +Monsignor Pick, the Papal prothonotary and a man of might in business +affairs; then a few stragglers--anonymous persons, stout, bald, +officials--and finally Pope Pius X. + +He was attired in pure white, even to the sash that compassed his plump +little figure. A cross depended from his neck. He immediately and in +the most matter of fact fashion held out his hand to be kissed. I noted +the whiteness of the nervous hand tendered me, bearing the ring of +Peter, a large, square emerald surrounded by diamonds. Though seventy, +the Pope looks ten years younger. He is slightly under medium height. +His hair is white, his complexion dark red, veined, and not very +healthy. He seems to need fresh air and exercise; the great gardens of +the Vatican are no compensation for this man of sorrows, homesick for +the sultry lagoons and stretches of gleaming waters in his old diocese +of Venice. If the human in him could call out it would voice Venice, +not the Vatican. The flesh of his face is what the painters call +"ecclesiastical flesh," large in grain. His nose broad, unaristocratic, +his brows strong and harmonious. His eyes may be brown, but they seemed +black and brilliant and piercing. He moved with silent alertness. An +active, well-preserved man, though he achieved the Biblical three-score +and ten in June, 1905. I noted, too, with satisfaction, the shapely +ears, artistic ears, musical ears, their lobes freely detached. A +certain resemblance to Pius IX there is; he is not so amiable as was +that good-tempered Pope who was nicknamed by his intimate friend, the +Abbe Liszt, _Pia Nina_, because of his musical proclivities. Altogether, +I found another than the Pope I had expected. This, then, was that +exile--an exile, yet in his native land; a prisoner in sight of the city +of which he is the spiritual ruler; a prince over all principalities +and dominions, yet withal a feeble old man, whose life might be +imperilled if he ventured into the streets of Rome. + +The Pope had now finished his circle of pilgrims and stood at the other +end of the Sala. With him stood his chamberlains and ecclesiastics. +Suddenly a voice from the balcony, which I saw for the first time, bade +us come nearer. I was thunder-struck. This was back to the prose of life +with a vengeance. We obeyed instructions. A narrow aisle was made, with +the Pope in the middle perspective. Then the voice, which I discovered +by this time issued from the mouth of a bearded person behind a huge, +glittering camera, cried out in peremptory and true photographer +style:---- + +"One, two, three! Thank your Holiness." + +And so we were photographed. In the Vatican and photographed! Old Rome +has her surprises for the patronising visitors from the New World. It +was too business-like for me, and I would have gone away, but I +couldn't, as the audience had only begun. The Pope went to his throne +and received the heads of the pilgrims. A certain presumptuous American +told him that the church musical revolution was not much appreciated in +America. He also asked, rash person that he was, why an example was not +set at St. Peter's itself, where the previous Sunday he had heard, and +to his horror, a florid mass by Milozzi, as florid and operatic as any +he had been forced to endure in New York before the new order of +things. A discreet poke in the ribs enlightened him to the fact that at +a general audience such questions are not in good taste. + +The Pope spoke a few words in a ringing barytone voice. He said that he +loved Germany, loved its Emperor; that every morning his second prayer +was for Germany--his first, was it for the hundredth wandering sheep of +the flock, France? That he did not explain. He blessed us, and his +singing voice proved singularly rich, resonant and pure in intonation +for an old man. Decidedly Pius X is musical; he plays the pianoforte it +is said, with taste. The pilgrims thundered the Te Deum a second time, +with such pious fervour that the venerable walls of the Sala Regia shook +with their lung vibrations. Then the Papal suite followed the sacred +figure out of the chamber and the buzzing began. The women wanted to +know--and indignant were their inflections--why a certain lady attired +in scarlet, hat and all, was permitted within the sacred precincts. The +men hurried, jostling each other, for their precious umbrellas. The +umbrella in Germany is the symbol of the mediaeval sword. We broke ranks +and tumbled into the now sunny daylight, many going on the wings of +thirst to the Piazza Santi Apostoli, which, notwithstanding its +venerable name, has amber medicine for parched German gullets. + +Pius X is a democratic man. He may be seen by the faithful at any time. +He has organised a number of athletic clubs for young Romans, taking a +keen interest in their doings. He is an impulsive man and has many +enemies in his own household. He has expressed his intention of ridding +Rome of its superfluous monks, those unattached ones who make life a +burden by their importunings and beggaries in Rome. + +His personal energy was expressed while I was in Rome by his very +spirited rebuke to some members of the athletic clubs at an audience in +the Vatican. There was some disorder while the Pontiff spoke. He fixed a +noisy group with an angry glance:--"Those who do not wish to hear +me--well, there is the open door!" + +Another incident, and one I neglected to relate in its proper place;--As +Pius proceeded along the line of kneeling figures during the German +audience he encountered a little, jolly-looking priest, evidently known +to him. A smile, benign, witty, delicately humourous, appeared on his +lips. For a moment he seemed more Celt than Latin. There was no hint of +the sardonic smile which is said to have crossed the faces of Roman +augurs. It was merely a friendly recognition tempered by humility, as if +he meant to ask:--"Why do you need my blessing, friend?" And it was the +most human smile that I would imagine worn by a Pope. It told me more of +his character than even did his meek and resigned pose when the official +photographer of the Vatican called out his sonorous "Una, due, tre!" + + + + +VIII + +LISZT PUPILS AND LISZTIANA + + +Here is a list of the pupils who studied with Liszt. There are doubtless +a thousand more who claim to have been under his tutelage but as he is +dead he can't call them liars. All who played in Weimar were not genuine +pupils. This collection of names has been gleaned from various sources. +It is by no means infallible. Many of them are dead. No attempt is made +to denote their nationalities, only sex and alphabetical order is +employed. _Place aux dames._ + +Vilma Barga Abranyi, Anderwood, Baronne Angwez, Julia Banholzer, Bartlett, +Stefanie Busch, Alice Bechtel, Berger, Robertine Bersen-Gothenberg, +Ida Bloch, Charlotte Blume-Ahrens, Anna Bock, Boedinghausen, Valerie +Boissier-Gasparin, Marianne Brandt, Antonie Bregenzer, Marie +Breidenstein, Elisabeth Brendel-Trautmann, Ingeborg Bronsart-Stark, Emma +Brueckmann, Burmester, Louisa Cognetti, Descy, Wilhelmine Doering, +Victoria Drewing, Pauline Endry, Pauline Fichtner Erdmannsdoerfer, +Hermine Esinger, Anna Mehlig-Falk, Amy Fay, Anna Fiebinger, Fischer, +Margarethe Fokke, Stefanie Forster, Hermine Frank, H. von Friedlaender, +Vilma von Friedenlieb, Stephanie von Fryderyey, Hirschfeld-Gaertner, Anna +Gall, Cecilia Gaul, Kathi Gaul, Ida Seelmuyden, Geyser, Gilbreth, +Goodwin, Gower, Amalie Greipel-Golz, Margit Groschmied, Emma Grossfurth, +Ilona Grunn, Emma Guttmann von Hadeln, Adele Hastings, Piroska Hary, +Howard, Heidenreich, Nadine von Helbig (nee Princesse Schakovskoy), +Gertrud Herzer, Hippins, Hodoly, Hoeltze, Aline Hundt, Marie Trautmann +Jaell, Olga Janina (Marquise Cezano), Jeapp, Jeppe, Julia Jerusalem, +Clothilde Jeschke, Helene Kaehler, Anna Kastner, Clemence Kautz-Kreutzer, +Kettwitz, Johanna Klinkerfuss-Schulz, Emma Koch, Roza Koderle, Manda Von +Kontsky, Kovnatzka, Emestine Kramer, Klara Krause, Julia Rive King, +Louise Krausz, Josefine Krautwald, Isabella Kulissay, Natalie Kupisch, +Marie La Mara (Lipsius), Adele Laprunarede (Duchesse de Fleury), +Vicomtesse de La Rochefoucauld, Julie Laurier, Leu Ouscher, Elsa +Levinson, Ottilie Lichterfeld, Hedwig von Liszt, Hermine Lueders, Ella +Maday, Sarah Magnus-Heinze, Marie von Majewska-Sokal, Martini, Sofie +Menter, Emilie Merian Genast, Emma Mettler, Olga de Meyendorff (nee +Princesse Gortschakoff), Miekleser, Von Milde-Agthe, Henrietta Mildner, +Comtesse de Miramont, Ella Modritzky, Marie Moesner, De Montgolfier, +Eugenie Mueller-Katalin, Herminie de Musset, Ida Nagy, Gizella +Neumann, Iren Nobel, Adele Aus der Ohe, Sophie Olsen, Paramanoff, +Gizella Paszthony-Voigt de Leitersberg, Dory Petersen, Sophie +Pflughaupt-Stehepin, Jessie Pinney-Baldwin, Marie Pleyel-Mock, +Pohl-Eyth, Toni Raab, Lina Ramann, Kaetchen von Ranuschewitsch, Laura +Rappoldi-Kahrer, Duchesse de Rauzan, Ilonka von Ravacz, Gertrud Remmert, +Martha Remmert, Auguste Rennenbaum, Klara Riess, Anna Rigo, Anna Rilke, +Rosenstock, M. von Sabinin, Comtesse Carolyne Saint-Criq d'Artignan +(Liszt's first love), Graefin Sauerma, Louise Schaernack, Lina Scheuer, +Lina Schmalhausen, Marie Schnobel, Agnes Schoeler, Adelheid von Schorn, +Anna Schuck, Elly Schulze, Irma Schwarz, Arma Senkrah (Harkness), +Caroline Montigny-Remaury (Serres), Siegenfeld, Paula Soeckeland, Ella +Solomonson, Sothman, Elsa Sonntag, Spater, Anna Spiering, H. Staerk, Anna +Stahr, Helene Stahr, Margarethe Stern-Herr, Neally Stevens, Von +Stvicowich, Hilda Tegernstroem, Vera von Timanoff, Iwanka Valeska, Vial, +Pauline Viardot-Garcia, Hortense Voigt, Pauline von Voros, Ida Volkmann, +Josephine Ware, Rosa Wappenhaus, Ella Wassemer, Olga Wein-Vaszilievitz, +Weishemer, Margarethe Wild, Etelka Willheim-Illoffsky, Winslow, Janka +Wohl, Johanna Wenzel-Zarembska. + +Among the men were: Cornel Abranyi, Leo d'Ageni, Eugen d'Albert, Isaac +Albeniz, C. B. Alkan, Nikolaus Almasy, F. Altschul, Conrad Ansorge, Emil +Bach, Walter Bache, Carl Baermann, Albert Morris Bagby, Josef Bahnert, +Johann Butka, Antonio Bazzini, J. von Beliczay, Franz Bendel, Rudolf +Bensey, Theodore Ritter, Wilhelm Berger, Arthur Bird, Adolf Blassmann, +Bernhard Boekelmann, Alexander Borodin, Louis Brassin, Frederick +Boscovitz, Franz Brendel, Emil Brodhag, Hans von Bronsart, Hans von +Buelow, Buonamici, Burgmein (Ricordi), Richard Burmeister, Louis Coenen, +Herman Cohen ("Puzzi"), Chop, Peter Cornelius, Bernhard Cossmann, +Leopold Damrosch, William Dayas, Ludwig Dingeldey, D' Ma Sudda-Bey, +Felix Draeseke, Von Dunkirky, Paul Eckhoff, Theodore Eisenhauer, Imre +Elbert, Max Erdsmannsdoerfer, Henri Falcke, August Fischer, C. Fischer, +L. A. Fischer, Sandor Forray, Freymond, Arthur Friedheim, W. Fritze, +Ferencz Gaal, Paul Geisler, Josef Gierl, Henri von Gobbi, August +Goellerich, Karl Goepfurt, Edward Goetze, Karl Goetze, Adalbert von +Goldschmidt, Bela Gosztonyi, A. W. Gottschlag, L. Gruenberger, Guglielmi, +Luigi Gulli, Guricks, Arthur Hahn, Ludwig Hartmann, Rudolf Hackert, +Harry Hatch, J. Hatton, Hermann, Carl Hermann, Josef Huber, Augustus +Hyllested, S. Jadassohn, Alfred Jaell, Josef Joachim, Rafael Joseffy, +Ivanow-Ippolitoff, Aladar Jukasz, Louis Jungmann, Emerich Kastner, +Keler, Berthold Kellermann, Baron Von Keudell, Wilhelm Kienzl, Edwin +Klahre, Karl Klindworth, Julius Kniese, Louis Koehler, Martin Krause, +Gustav Krausz, Bela Kristinkovics, Franz Kroll, Karl Von Lachmund, +Alexander Lambert, Frederick Lamond, Siegfried Langaard, Eduard Lassen, +W. Waugh Lauder, Georg Leitert, Graf de Leutze, Wilhelm Von Lenz, Otto +Lessmann, Emil Liebling, Georg Liebling, Saul Liebling, Karlo Lippi, +Louis Loenen, Joseph Lomba, Heinrich Lutter, Louis Mass, Gyula Major, +Hugo Mansfeldt, L. Marek, William Mason, Edward MacDowell, Richard +Metzdortf, Baron Meyendorff, Max Meyer, Meyer-Olbersleben, E. Von +Michalowich, Mihlberg, F. Von Milde, Michael Moszonyi, Moriz Moszkowski, +J. Vianna da Motta, Felix Mottl, Franz Mueller, Mueller-Hartung, Johann +Mueller, Paul Mueller, Nikol Nelisoff, Otto Neitzel, Arthur Nikisch, +Ludwig Nohl, John Orth, F. Pezzini, Robert Pflughaupt, Max Pinner, +William Piutti, Richard Pohl, Karl Pohlig, Pollack, Heinrich Porges, +Wilhem Posse, Silas G. Pratt, Dionys Prueckner, Graf Pueckler, Joachim +Raff, S. Ratzenberger, Karoly Rausch, Alfred Reisenauer, Edward Remenyi, +Alfonso Rendano, Julius Reulke, Edward Reuss, Hermann Richter, Julius +Richter, Karl Riedel, F. W. Riesberg, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Karl Ritter, +Hermann Ritter, Moriz Rosenthal, Bertrand Roth, Louis Rothfeld, Joseph +Rubinstein, Nikolaus Rubinstein, Camille Saint-Saens, Max van de Sandt, +Emil Sauer, Xaver Scharwenka, Hermann Scholtz, Bruno Schrader, F. +Schreiber, Karl Schroeder, Max Schuler, H. Schwarz, Max Seifriz, +Alexander Seroff, Franz Servais, Giovanni Sgambati, William H. Sherwood, +Rudolf Sieber, Alexander Siloti, Edmund Singer, Otto Singer, Antol +Sipos, Friederich Smetana, Goswin Soeckeland, Wilhelm Speidel, F. Spiro, +F. Stade, L. Stark, Ludwig Stasny, Adolph Stange, Bernhard Stavenhagen, +Eduard Stein, August Stradal, Frank Van der Stucken, Arpad Szendy, +Ladislas Tarnowski, Karl Tausig, E. Telbicz, Otto Tiersch, Anton +Urspruch, Baron Vegh, Rudolf Viole, Vital, Jean Voigt, Voss, Henry +Waller, Felix Weingartner, Weissheimer, Westphalen, Joseph Wieniawsky, +Alexander Winterberger, Theador de Witt, Peter Wolf, Jules Zarembsky, +Van Zeyl, Geza Zichy (famous one-armed Hungarian pianist), Hermann +Zopff, Johannes Zschocher, Stephen Thoman, Louis Messemaekers, Robert +Freund. And how many more? + +All the names above mentioned were not pianists. Some were composers, +later celebrated, conductors, violinists--Joachim and Remenyi, and Van +Der Stucken, for example--harpists, even musical critics who went to +Liszt for musical advice, advice that he gave with a royal prodigality. +He never received money for his lessons. "Am I a piano teacher?" he +would thunder if a pupil came to him with faulty technic. + +[Illustration: + + Frl. Paraninoff Frau Friedheim Mannsfeldt + Rosenthal Frl. Drewing Liszt + Liebling Silotti Friedheim Sauer Reisenauer Gottschalg + +Liszt and His Scholars, 1884] + +What became of Part Third of the Liszt Piano Method? It was spirited +away and has never been heard of since. In his Franz Liszt in Weimar, +the late A. W. Gottschalg discusses the mystery. A pupil, a woman, is +said to have been the delinquent. The Method, as far as it goes is not a +work of supreme importance. Liszt was not a pedagogue, and abhorred +technical drudgery. + +As to the legend of his numerous children, we can only repeat Mark +Twain's witticism concerning a false report of his death--the report has +been much exaggerated. At one time or another Alexander Winterberger, a +pupil (since dead), the late Anton Seidl, Servais, Arthur Friedheim, +and many others have been called "sons of Liszt." And I have heard +of several ladies who--possibly thinking it might improve their +technic--made the claim of paternity. At one time in Weimar, Friedheim +smilingly assured me, there was a craze to be suspected an offspring of +the Grand Old Man--who like Wotan had his Valkyrie brood. When Eugen +d'Albert first played for Liszt he was saluted by him as the "Second +Tausig." That settled his paternity. Immediately it was hinted that he +greatly resembled Karl Tausig, and although his real father was a French +dance composer--do you remember the Peri Valse?--everyone stuck to the +Tausig legend. I wonder what the mothers of these young Lisztians +thought of their sons' tact and delicacy? + +Liszt denied that Thalberg was the natural son of Prince Dietrichstein +of Vienna, as was commonly believed. To Goellerich he said that his early +rival was the son of an Englishman. Richard Burmeister told me when +Servais visited Weimar the Lisztian circle was agitated because of the +remarkable resemblance the Belgian bore to the venerable Abbe. At the +whist-table--the game was a favourite one with the Master--some +tactless person bluntly put the question to Liszt as to the supposed +relationship. He fell into a rage and growlingly answered: "Ich kenne +seine Mutter nur durch Correspondenz, und so was kann man nicht durch +Correspondenz abmachen." Then the game was resumed. + +Liszt admired the brilliant talents of the young Nietzsche, but he +distrusted his future. Nietzsche disliked the pianist and said of him in +one of his aphorisms: "Liszt the first representative of all musicians, +but no musician. He was the prince, not the statesman. The conglomerate +of a hundred musicians' souls, but not enough of a personality to cast +his own shadow upon them." In his Roving Expeditions of an Inopportune +Philosopher, Nietzsche even condescends to a pun on Liszt as a piano +teacher: "Liszt, or the school of running--after women" (Schule der +Gelaeufigkeit). + + +TAUSIG + +Over a quarter of a century has passed since the death of Karl Tausig, a +time long enough to dim the glory of the mere virtuoso. Many are still +living who have heard him play, and can recall the deep impressions +which his performances made on his hearers. Whoever not only knew Karl +Tausig at the piano, but had studied his genuinely artistic nature, +still retains a living image of him. He stands before us in all his +youth, for he died early, before he had reached the middle point of +life; he counted thirty years at the time of his death, when his great +heart, inspired with a love for all beauty, ceased to beat; when those +hands, _Tes mains de bronze et des diamants_, as Liszt named them in a +letter to his pupil and friend, grew stiff in death. + +It was through many wanderings and perplexities that Karl Tausig rose to +the height which he reached in the last years of his life. A friendless +childhood was followed by a period of _Sturm und Drang_, till the dross +had been purged away and the pure gold of his being displayed. The +essence of his playing was warm objectivity; he let every masterpiece +come before us in its own individuality; the most perfect virtuosity, +his incomparable surmounting of all technical means of expression, was +to him only the means, never the end. Paradoxical as it may appear, +there never was, before or since, so great a virtuoso who was less a +virtuoso. Hence the career of a virtuoso did not satisfy him; he strove +for higher ends, and apart from his ceaseless culture of the intellect, +his profound studies in all fields of science and the devotion which he +gave to philosophy, mathematics, and the natural sciences, what he +achieved in the field of music possesses a special interest, as he +regarded it as merely a preparation for comprehensive creative activity. +Some of these compositions are still found in the programmes of all +celebrated pianists, while the arrangements that he made for pedagogic +purposes occupy a prominent place in the courses of all conservatories. + +Karl Tausig came to Berlin in the beginning of the sixties. Alois +Tausig, his father, a distinguished piano teacher at Warsaw, who had +directed the early education of the son, whom he survived by more than a +decade, had already presented him to Liszt at Weimar. Liszt at once took +the liveliest interest in the astonishing talents of the boy and made +him a member of his household at Altenburg, at Weimar, where this prince +in the realm of art kept his court with the Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein, +surrounded by a train of young artists, to which Hans von Buelow, Karl +Klindworth, Peter Cornelius (to name only a few) belonged. With all +these Karl Tausig formed intimate friendships, especially with +Cornelius, who was nearest to him in age. An active correspondence was +carried on between them, even when their paths of life separated them. +Tausig next went to Wagner at Zuerich, and the meeting confirmed +him in his enthusiasm for the master's creations and developed that +combativeness for the works and artistic struggles of Wagner which +resulted in the arrangement of orchestral concerts in Vienna exclusively +for Wagner's compositions, a very hazardous venture at that period. He +directed them in person, and gave all his savings and all his youthful +power to them without gaining the success that was hoped for. The master +himself, when he came to Vienna for the rehearsals of the first +performances of Tristan und Isolde, had sad experiences; his young +friend stood gallantly by his side, but the performance did not take +place. Vienna was then a sterile soil for Wagner's works and designs. +Tausig returned in anger to Berlin, where he quickly became an important +figure and a life-giving centre of a circle of interesting men. He +founded a conservatory that was sought by pupils from all over the +world, and where teachers like Louis Ehlert and Adolf Jensen gave +instruction. When Richard Wagner came to Berlin in 1870 with a project +for erecting a theatre of his own for the performance of the Nibelungen +Ring it was Tausig who took it up with ardent zeal, to which the master +bore honourable testimony in his account of the performance. + +In July, 1871, Tausig visited Liszt at Weimar and accompanied him to +Leipsic, where Liszt's grand mass was performed in St. Thomas' Church by +the Riedle Society. After the performance he fell sick. A cold, it was +said, prostrated him. In truth he had the seeds of death in him, which +Wagner, in his inscription for the tomb of his young friend, expressed +by the words, "Ripe for death!" The Countess Krockow and Frau von +Moukanoff, who on the report of his being attacked by typhus hastened to +discharge the duties of a Samaritan by his sick-bed in the hospital, did +all that careful nursing and devoted love could do, but in vain, and on +July 17 Karl Tausig breathed his last. + +His remains were carried from Leipsic to Berlin, and were interred in +the new cemetery in the Belle Alliance Strasse. During the funeral +ceremony a great storm burst forth, and the roll of the thunder mingled +with the strains of the Funeral March from the Eroica which the Symphony +Orchestra performed at his grave. Friends erected a simple memorial. An +obelisk of rough-hewn syenite bears his portrait, modelled in relief by +Gustav Blaesar. Unfortunately wind and weather in the course of years +injured the marble of the relief, so that its destruction at an early +period was probable, and the same friends substituted a bronze casting +for the marble, which on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death was +adorned with flowers by loving hands. + +Karl Tausig represents the very opposite pole in "pianism" to Thalberg; +he was fire and flame incarnate, he united all the digital excellencies +of the aristocratic Thalberg, including his supreme and classic calm to +a temperament that, like a comet, traversed artistic Europe and fired it +with enthusiastic ideals. If Karl Tausig had only possessed the creative +gift in any proportion to his genius for reproduction he would have been +a giant composer. As a pianist he has never had his equal. With Liszt's +fire and Buelow's intellectuality he nevertheless transcended them both +in the possession of a subtle something that defied analysis. We see it +in his fugitive compositions that revel on technical heights hitherto +unscaled. Tausig had a force, a virility combined with a mental +insight, that made him peer of all pianists. It is acknowledged by all +who heard him that his technic outshone all others; he had the +whispering and crystalline pianissimo of Joseffy, the liquidity of +Thalberg's touch, with the resistless power of a Rubinstein. + +He literally killed himself playing the piano; his vivid nature felt so +keenly in reproducing the beautiful and glorious thoughts of Bach, +Beethoven and Chopin, and, like a sabre that was too keen for its own +scabbard, he wore himself out from nervous exhaustion. Tausig was +many-sided, and the philosophical bent of his mind may be seen in the +few fragments of original music he has vouchsafed us. Take a Thalberg +operatic fantaisie and a paraphrase of Tausig's, say of Tristan and +Isolde, and compare them; then one can readily gauge the vast strides +piano music has taken. Touch pure and singing was the Thalbergian ideal. +Touch dramatic, full of variety, is the Tausig ideal. One is vocal, the +other instrumental, and both seem to fulfill their ideals. Tausig had a +hundred touches; from a feathery murmur to an explosive crash he +commanded the entire orchestra of contrasts. Thalberg was the cultivated +gentleman of the drawing-room, elegiac, but one who never felt +profoundly (glance at his etude on repeated notes). Elegant always, +jocose never. Tausig was a child of the nineteenth century, full of its +ideals, its aimless strivings, its restlessness, its unfaith and +desperately sceptical tone. If he had only lived he would have left an +imprint on our modern musical life as deep as Franz Liszt, whose pupil +he was. Richard Wagner was his god and he strove much for him and his +mighty creations. + + +ROSENTHAL + +"You, I presume, do not wish for biographical details--of my appearances +as a boy in Vienna and later in St. Petersburg, of my early studies with +Joseffy and later with Liszt," asked the great virtuoso. "You would like +to hear something about Liszt? As a man or as an artist? You know I was +with him ten years, and can flatter myself that I have known him +intimately. As a man, I can well say I have never met any one so good +and noble as he. Every one knows of his ever-ready helpfulness toward +struggling artists, of his constant willingness to further the cause of +charity. And when was there ever such a friend? I need only refer you to +the correspondence between him and Wagner, published a year ago, for +proof of his claims to highest distinction in that oft-abused capacity. +One is not only compelled to admire the untiring efforts to assist +Wagner in every way that are evidenced in nearly each one of his +letters, but one is also obliged to appreciate such acts for which no +other documents exist than the history of music in our day. The fact +alone that Liszt, who had every stage of Germany open to him if he had +so wished, never composed an opera, but used his influence rather in +behalf of Wagner's works, speaks fully as eloquently as the many letters +that attest his active friendship. For Liszt the artist, my love and +admiration are equally great. Even in his inferior works can be +discovered the stamp of his genius. Do you know the Polonaise, by +Tschaikowsky, transcribed by him? Is it not a remarkable effort for an +old gentleman of seventy-two? And the third Mephisto Waltz for piano? +Certain compositions of his, such as Les Preludes, Die Ideale, Tasso, +the Hungarian Rhapsodies, and some of the songs and transcriptions for +piano, will unquestionably continue to be performed and enjoyed for +many, many years to come. + +"You ask how he played? As no one before him, and as no one probably +will ever again. I remember when I first went to him as a boy--he was in +Rome at the time--he used to play for me in the evening by the +hour--nocturnes by Chopin, etudes of his own--all of a soft, dreamy +nature that caused me to open my eyes in wonder at the marvellous +delicacy and finish of his touch. The embellishments were like a +cobweb--so fine--or like the texture of costliest lace. I thought, after +what I had heard in Vienna, that nothing further would astonish me in +the direction of digital dexterity, having studied with Joseffy, the +greatest master of that art. But Liszt was more wonderful than anybody I +had ever known, and he had further surprises in store for me. I had +never heard him play anything requiring force, and, in view of his +advanced age, took for granted that he had fallen off from what he once +had been." + + +ARTHUR FRIEDHEIM + +Arthur Friedheim was born of German parentage in St. Petersburg, October +26, 1859. He lost his father in early youth, but was carefully reared by +an excellent mother. His musical studies were begun in his eighth year, +and his progress was so rapid that he was enabled to make his artistic +debut before the St. Petersburg public in the following year by playing +Field's A-flat major concerto. He created a still greater sensation, +however, after another twelve months had elapsed, with his performance +of Weber's difficult piano concerto, reaping general admiration for his +work. Despite these successes, the youth was then submitted to a +thorough university education, and in 1877 passed his academical +examination with great honours. But now the musical promptings of his +warm artist soul, no longer able to endure this restraint, having +revived, Friedheim with all his energy again devoted himself to his +musical advancement, including the study of composition, and it proved a +severe blow, indeed, to him when his family soon afterward met with +reverses, in losing their estates, thus robbing the young artist of his +cheery home surroundings. + +From this time Friedheim's artistic wanderings began, and fulfilling a +long cherished desire, he, with his mother, first paid a visit to that +master of masters, Franz Liszt. Then he went to Dresden, continuing in +the composition of an opera begun at St. Petersburg, entitled The Last +Days of Pompeii. In order to acquire the necessary routine he accepted a +position as conductor of operas for several years, when an irresistible +force once more led his steps toward Weimar, where, after he had +produced the most favourable impression by the performance of his own +piano concerto, with Liszt at a second piano, he took up his permanent +abode with the master, accompanying him to Rome and Naples. Meantime +Friedheim concertised in Cairo, Alexandria, and Paris, also visiting +London in 1882. At the request of Camille Saint-Saens fragments of his +works were produced during his stay in Paris. + +Friedheim next went to Vienna, where his concerts met with brilliant +success, and later on to Northern Germany, where his renown as a great +pianist became firmly established. He enjoyed positive triumphs in +Berlin, Leipsic and Carlsruhe. Friedheim's technic, his tone, touch, +marvellous certainty, unequalled force and endurance, his broad +expression and that rare gift--a style in the grand manner--are the +qualities that have universally received enthusiastic praise. In later +years he travelled extensively, and more particularly in 1884 to 1886, +in Germany. In 1887 he conducted a series of concerts in Leipsic, in +1888 he revisited London, in 1889 he made a tour through Russia and +Poland; a second tour through Russia was made in 1890, including +Bohemia, Austria, and Galicia, while in 1891 he played numerous +engagements in Germany and also in London, whence he came to this +country to fulfil a very short engagement. + +Albert Morris Bagby wrote as follows in his article, "Some Pupils of +Liszt," in the _Century_ about twenty years ago: + +"Friedheim! What delightful musical memories and happy recollections are +the rare days spent together in Weimar that name excites! D'Albert left +there before my time, and though I met him on his flying visits to +Weimar, I generally think of him as I first saw him, seated at a piano +on the concert platform. + +"One late afternoon in August, 1885, Liszt stood before a wide-open +window of his salon on the second floor of the court gardener's +residence in Weimar, and his thoughtful gaze wandered out beyond the +long row of hothouses and narrow beds of rare shrubs to the rich leafy +growth which shaded the glorious park inclosing this modest home. He was +in a serene state of mind after an hour at whist in which he had won the +rubber, and now, while his young companions were putting the card-tables +and chairs back into their accustomed places about the room, he stood +silent and alone. Any one of us would have given more than 'a penny for +his thoughts,' a fact which he probably divined, for, without turning +his head, he said; 'Friedheim did indeed play beautifully!' referring +to the young pianist's performance of his A major concerto that +afternoon in the class lesson. + +"'And the accompaniment was magnificently done, too!' added one of the +small party. + +"'Ah!' exclaimed the master, with an animated look and gesture which +implied, 'that goes without saying.' 'Friedheim,' said he, and lifted +his hand with a proud sweep to indicate his estimation of his favourite +pupil, who had supplied the orchestral part on a second piano. After +Friedheim's triumphal debut at Leipsic in the spring of 1884, Liszt was +so much gratified that he expressed with unwonted warmth his belief that +the young man would yet become the greatest piano virtuoso of the age. +He was then just twenty-four years old, and his career since that event +points toward the fulfilment of the prophecy. + +"Arthur Friedheim is the most individual performer I have ever heard. A +very few executants equal him in mere finger dexterity, but he surpasses +them all in his gigantic strength at the instrument and in marvellous +clearness and brilliancy. At times he plays with the unbridled +impetuosity of a cyclone; and even while apparently dealing the piano +mighty blows, which from other hands would sound forced and discordant, +they never cease to be melodious. This musical, penetrating quality of +touch is the chief charm of Friedheim's playing. He makes the piano +sing, but its voice is full and sonorous. If he plays a pianissimo +passage the effect is as clear and sweet as a perfectly attuned silver +bell, and his graduated increase or diminution of tone is the acme of +artistic finish. No living pianist performs Liszt's compositions so well +as Friedheim. This fact was unanimously mentioned by the critics upon +his first appearance in Berlin in a 'Liszt concert,' in conjunction with +the fear that he would not succeed as an interpreter of Beethoven and +Chopin; which, however, the new virtuoso has since proved groundless. +Friedheim is one of the most enjoyable and inspiriting of the great +pianists. His playing of Liszt's second rhapsody produces an electric +shock; and once heard from him La Campanella remains in the memory an +ineffaceable tone poem. To me he has made likewise indelible Chopin's +lovely D-flat major prelude. + +"Friedheim is of medium height and weight; has regular, clear-cut +features, dark brown eyes, and hair pushed straight back from a high, +broad forehead and falling over his coat collar, artist fashion. In his +street dress, with a bronze velvet jacket, great soft felt hat and a +gold medallion portrait of Liszt worn as a scarf pin, he is the typical +musician. His resemblance to the early pictures of Liszt is as marked as +that of D'Albert to Tausig. He was born and bred in St. Petersburg, +though his parents are German. I know nothing of his early instructors, +but it is sufficient to say that he was at least nine years with Liszt. +Fortune favoured him with a relative of unusual mental power who has +made his advancement her life work. To these zealous mothers of +musicians the world is indebted for some of the greatest artistic +achievements of every time and period. There are many celebrated +instances where application is almost entirely lacking or fluctuating in +the child of genius, and the mother supplied the deficiency of character +until the artist was fully developed, and steadiness of purpose had +become routine with him. One evening I was sitting with Friedheim and +his mother in one of those charming restaurant gardens which abound in +Weimar when we were joined by two of the Lisztianer, convivial spirits +who led a happy-go-lucky existence. 'Come, Arthur,' said one, 'we will +go to the "Armbrust" for a few minutes--music there to-night. Will be +right back, Mrs. Friedheim.' 'No,' replied the mother, pleasantly, +'Arthur remains with me this evening.' 'But, mother, we will be gone +only a few minutes, and I have already practiced seven hours to-day,' +entreated the son. 'Yes, dear child, and you must practice seven more +to-morrow. I think you had better remain with me,' responded his parent. +Friedheim good-naturedly assented to his mother's speech, for the +nocturnal merry-makings of a certain clique of divers artists at the +'Hotel zum Elephanten' were too well-known to risk denial." + + +JOSEFFY + +Descent counts for much in matters artistic as well as in the breeding +of racehorses. "Tell me who the master is and I will describe for you +the pupil," cry some theorists who might be called extremists. How many +to-day know the name of Anton Rubinstein's master? Yet the pedagogue +Villoing laid the foundation of the great Russian pianist's musical +education, an education completed by the genial Franz Liszt. In the +case, however, of Rafael Joseffy he was a famous pupil of a famous +master. There are some critics who claim that Karl Tausig represents the +highest development of piano playing in this century of piano-playing +heroes. His musical temperament so finely fibred, his muscular system +like steel thrice tempered is duplicated in his pupil, who, at an age +when boys are gazing at the world across the threshold of Toy-land, was +an accredited artist, a virtuoso in knee-breeches! + +Rafael Joseffy stands to-day for all that is exquisite and poetic in the +domain of the piano. His touch is original, his manipulation of the +mechanism of the instrument unapproachable, a virtuoso among virtuosi, +and the beauty of his tone, its velvety, aristocratic quality, so free +from any suspicion of harshness or brutality, gives him a unique +position in the music-loving world. There is magic in his attack, magic +and moonlight in his playing of a Chopin nocturne, and brilliancy--a +meteor-like brilliancy--in his performance of a Liszt concerto. + +This rare combination of the virtuoso and the poet places Joseffy +outside the pale of popular "pianism." From Tausig he inherited his keen +and severe sense of rhythm; from his native country, Hungary, he +absorbed brilliancy and colour sense. When Joseffy was young he +delighted in the exhibition of his fabulous technic, but he has +mellowed, he has matured, and superimposed upon the brilliancies of his +ardent youth are the thoughtful interpretations of the intellectual +artist. He is a classical pianist par excellence, and his readings of +Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, and Brahms are authoritative and final. To +the sensitive finish he now unites a breadth of tone and feeling, and +you may gauge the catholicity of the man by his love for both Chopin and +Brahms. + +There you have Joseffy, an interpreter of Brahms and Chopin! No need to +expatiate further on his versatility! His style has undergone during the +past five years a thorough purification. He has successfully combated +the temptation of excess in colour, of the too lusty exuberance in the +use of his material, of abuse of the purely decorative side of his art. +Touching the finer rim of the issues of his day Joseffy emulates the +French poet, Paul Verlaine, in his devotion to the nuance, to the shade +within shade that may be expressed on the keyboard of the piano. Yet +his play never lacks the robust ring, the virile accent. He is no mere +pianissimist, striving for effects of the miniaturist; rather in his +grasp of the musical content of a composition does he reveal his acuity +and fine spiritual temper. + + +OSCAR BERINGER + +"To Franz Liszt, who towers high above all his predecessors, must be +given pride of place. + +"In 1870 I had the good fortune to go with Tausig to the Beethoven +Festival held at Weimar by the Allgemeiner Musik Verein, and there I met +Liszt for the first time. I had the opportunity of learning to know him +from every point of view, as pianist, conductor, composer, and, in his +private capacity, as a man--and every aspect seemed to me equally +magnificent. + +"His remarkable personality had an indescribable fascination, which made +itself felt at once by all who came into contact with him. This +wonderful magnetism and power to charm all sorts and conditions of men +was illustrated in a delightful way. He was walking down Regent Street +one day, on his way to his concert at the St. James' Hall. As he passed +the cab-rank, he was recognised, and the cabbies as one man took off +their hats and gave three rousing cheers for 'The Habby Liszt.' The man +who can evoke the enthusiasm of a London cabby, except by paying him +treble his fare, is indeed unique and inimitable! + +"As a Conductor, the musical world owes him an undying debt of gratitude +for having been the first to produce Wagner's Lohengrin, and to revive +Tannhaeuser in the face of the opprobrium heaped upon this work by the +whole of the European press. It was he, too, who first produced +Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini and many other works, which, though +neglected and improperly understood at that time, have since come into +their kingdom and received due recognition. + +"As a Composer, I do not think that Liszt has hitherto been esteemed as +highly as he deserves. If only for having invented the symphonic poem, +which was an absolutely new form of orchestral composition, he has +merited the highest honours; while his pre-eminence is still undisputed +in the bravura style of pianoforte works, without one or more of which +no pianoforte recital seems complete. The same compliment is not paid +his orchestral works, which are performed far too rarely. + +"Words cannot describe him as a Pianist--he was incomparable and +unapproachable." + + +CLARA NOVELLO + +There are interesting anecdotes of great musicians. Rossini was her +intimate friend and adviser for years. In Paris she knew Chopin, who +came to the house often and would only play for them if "la petite Clara +would recite Peter Piper Picked." She remembered waltzing to his and +Thalberg's playing. Later, when she was studying in Milan and knew +Liszt, she sang at one of his concerts when no one else would do so, +because he had offended the Milanese by a pungent newspaper article. He +gave her courage to have a tooth out by playing Weber's Concertstueck. +She remembered hearing Paganini play when that arch-trickster took out a +pair of scissors and cut three of the strings of his violin so that they +hung down loose, and on the fourth performed his Witches' Dance, so that +"the lights seemed to turn blue." + + +BIZET + +We are not accustomed to thinking of the composer of Carmen as a +pianist, but the following anecdote from the _London Musical Standard_ +throws new light upon the subject: + +"It may not be generally known that the French composer, Bizet, +possessed to a very high degree two artistic qualities: a brilliant +technique and an extraordinary skill in score reading. On various +occasions he gave proof of this great ability. One of the most +interesting is the following: + +"Bizet's fellow-countryman, the composer Halevy, who filled the position +of secretary to the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris, had gathered a few of +his friends at his house for a little supper. In the circle were Liszt +and Bizet. After they had finished their repast, the company went to the +host's music room. Gathered around the fireplace, which increased the +charm or comfort, and with cigars and coffee, the guests gave themselves +up to an animated conversation; finally Liszt seated himself at the +piano. The famous master played one of his compositions which was +unknown to those present. He overcame its tremendous difficulties with +the customary audacity and strength. A storm of applause followed the +brilliant execution. Liszt ended with a brilliant passage which seemed +absolutely impossible to mortal fingers. Every one pressed around the +great pianist, shaking his hands enthusiastically and admiring not only +his unequalled playing, but praising also the clever composition, which +could have been written only by so masterful a composer. + +"'Yes,' replied Liszt, 'the piece is difficult, terribly difficult, and +in all Europe I know only two pianists who are able to play it with the +interpretation which belongs to it, and in the tempo which I have used, +Von Buelow and myself!' + +"Halevy, with whom Bizet had studied, had also joined the circle around +the piano and complimented the master. Suddenly turning to the young +Bizet, whose fine memory and ability he well knew, he said: + +"'Did you notice that passage?' He accompanied the question with a few +chords which sketched the passage in question, which had aroused his +attention. Accepting the implied invitation, Bizet took his place at the +piano, and, without the slightest hesitation, repeated the passage +which had drawn out the admiration of his teacher. + +"Liszt observed the clever youngster with astonishment, while Halevy, +smiling slyly, could scarcely suppress his joy over Liszt's surprise. + +"'Just wait a moment, young man, just wait!' said Liszt, interrupting. +'I have the manuscript with me. It will help your memory.' + +"The manuscript was quickly brought, and placed upon the piano rack. +Bizet, to the general astonishment, immediately took up the difficult +piece, and played it through to the final chord with a verve and +rapidity which no one had expected from him. Not once was there a sign +of weakness or hesitation. An enthusiastic and long clapping of hands +followed the playing. Halevy continued to smile, enjoying to the full +the triumph of his favourite pupil. + +"But Liszt, who always rose to an occasion and was never chary of praise +for others, stepped to the young man's side after the wave of applause +had subsided, pressed his hand in a friendly manner, and said with +irresistible kindness, 'My young friend, up to the present time I +believed that there were only two men capable of overcoming the +tremendous difficulties which I wrote in that piece, but I deceived +myself--there are three of us; and I must add, in order to be just, that +the youngest of us is perhaps the cleverest and the most brilliant.'" + + +SGAMBATI + +"One of the pioneers of classical music in Italy, and one of its most +talented composers of chamber music and in symphonic forms, is Giovanni +Sgambati, born in Rome, May 18, 1843," writes Edward Burlingame Hill, in +the _Etude_. "His father was a lawyer; his mother, an Englishwoman, was +the daughter of Joseph Gott, the English sculptor. There had been some +idea of making a lawyer of young Sgambati, but the intensity of his +interest in music and his obvious talent precluded the idea of any other +career. When he was but six years old, his father died, and he went with +his mother to live in Trevii, in Umbria, where she soon married again. +Even at this early age he played in public, sang contralto solos in +church, and also conducted small orchestras. When a little older he +studied the piano, harmony and composition with Natalucci, a pupil of +Zingarelli, a famous teacher at the Naples conservatory. He returned in +1860 to Rome, where he became at once popular as a pianist, in spite of +the severity of his programmes, for he played the works of Beethoven, +Chopin and Schumann, and the fugues of Bach and Handel. Many of these +works were entirely unknown to Italian audiences; he thus became an +ardent propagandist of the best literature of the piano. His next +teacher was Professor Aldega, master of the Capella Liberiana of Santa +Maria Maggiore. He was on the point of leaving for Germany for further +study when Liszt came to Rome, became interested in Sgambati and took +him in charge for special instruction in the mysteries of higher piano +playing. He soon became the leading exponent of the Liszt school of +technic and interpretation. Sgambati was the soloist in a famous series +of classical chamber music concerts inaugurated in Rome by Ramaciotti; +he was (as mentioned before) the first interpreter of the works of +Schumann, who in the years 1862-63 was virtually unknown in Italy. Later +he began to give orchestral concerts at which the symphonies and +concertos of the German masters were given for the first time. In 1866, +when the Dante Gallery was inaugurated, Liszt chose Sgambati to conduct +his Dante symphony. On this occasion Beethoven's Eroica symphony was +given for the first time in Rome. + +"In 1869, he travelled in Germany with Liszt, meeting many musicians of +note, among them Wagner, Rubinstein, and Saint-Saens, hearing The +Rhinegold at Munich. Wagner, in particular, became so much interested in +Sgambati's compositions that he secured a publisher for them by his +emphatic recommendations. On returning to Rome, Sgambati founded a free +piano class at the Academy of St. Cecilia, since adopted as a part of +its regular course of instruction. In 1878, he became professor of the +piano at the Academy, and at present is its director. In 1896, he +founded the Nuova Societa Musicale Romana (the Roman New Musical +Society) for increasing interest in Wagnerian opera. Sgambati has been +an occasional visitor to foreign cities, notably London and Paris, both +in the capacity of pianist and as conductor; he has led performances of +his symphonies in various Italian cities, and at concerts where the +presence of royalty lent distinction to the audience. + +"Miss Bettina Walker, a pupil of Sgambati in 1879, gives a most +delightful picture of Sgambati in her book, My Musical Experiences. A +few extracts may assist in forming an idea of his personality. 'He then +played three or four pieces of Liszt's, winding up the whole with a +splendid reading of Bach's Chromatic Fantasy. In everything that he +played, Sgambati far exceeded all that I could have anticipated. His +lovely, elastic touch, the weight and yet the softness of his wrist +staccato, the swing and go of his rhythmic beat, the colouring +rich and warm, and yet most exquisitely delicate, and over all the +atmosphere of grace, the charm and the repose which perfect mastery +alone can give'--'But to return to the relation of my studies +with Sgambati. He gave me the scales to practice in thirds, and +arpeggios in the diminished sevenths, for raising the fingers from the +keyboard--recommending these as the best possible daily drills for the +fingers. He also gave me some guidance in the first book of Kullak's +octave-studies and he tried to initiate me into the elastic swing and +movement of the wrist, so important in the octave-playing of modern +compositions. Sgambati's playing of Liszt was, now that I compare him +with many others whom I have since heard, more poetical than any. In the +sudden fortissimi so characteristic of the school his tone was always +rich and full, never wooden or shrill; while his pianissimi were so +subtle and delicate, and the nuances, the touches of beauty, were +fraught with a sighing, lingering, quite inimitable sweetness, which one +could compare to nothing more material than the many hues where sky and +ocean seem to melt and blend, in a dream of tender ecstasy, along the +coast-line between Baia and Naples.'" + + +BACHE + +Walter Bache died April, 1888, and the London _Figaro_ gives the +following sketch of this artist: + +"The awfully sudden death of poor Walter Bache on Monday night sent a +shock through the whole of the London world of music. Some of his most +intimate friends were present at the final popular concert on that +evening, but none of them knew anything at all of the death. We have it +on the authority of a member of his family that not even those whom he +held most dear were in the slightest degree aware that he was in any +danger. Only a few days ago he was present at a concert in St. James' +Hall. But it seems he caught a chill. Next day he became worse, the +cold doubtless settled upon his lungs, and the third day he died. +Notification of the death did not reach even the daily papers until +midnight. The obituary writers were then certainly not assisted by Sir +George Grove, who, in the thousands of pages which form the four +gigantic volumes of his so-called Dictionary of Musicians, could not +spare a paragraph to narrate the story of the life of one who for a +quarter of a century has been a central figure of English musical life, +and who from his gentleness, his gifts and his son-like affection for +his master Liszt will shine as a bright picture in the pages of English +musical history. + +"We need not go very deeply into the history of Walter Bache's life. He +was born in June, 1842, at Birmingham, and was the son of an Unitarian +minister. From his birth till his death two special points stand out +boldly in his career. Until his 'prodigy' brother Edward died in 1858 he +was taught only by Stimpson, of Birmingham. The death of his brother was +the first great incident of his life. His own education was then more +thoroughly cared for than before, and he was sent to Leipsic, where, +under Plaidy, Moscheles, Richter (not the conductor) and Hauptman, he +was a fellow student of Sullivan, Carl Rosa, J. F. Barnett and Franklin +Taylor. All five boys have since become eminent, but each one in a +totally different line, and, indeed, it may fairly be said that to a +great extent the Leipsic class of that period held the fortunes of +modern musical England. When the class broke up in 1861 Bache travelled +in Italy, and in 1862 at his meeting with Liszt occurred the second +great incident in his career. From that time Liszt and Bache were fast +friends. But Bache to the day of his death never aspired to be more than +the pupil of his master. + +"Teach he must do for daily bread, but compose he would not, as he knew +he could not surpass Liszt, although all his savings were devoted to the +Liszt propaganda. It is not for us, standing as we do on the brink of +the grave of a good man, to determine whether he was right or wrong. It +will suffice that Walter Bache's devotion to Liszt was one of the most +beautiful and the most sentimental things of a musically material age. +Liszt rewarded him on his last visit to London by attending a reception +which Bache, at great expense, gave in his honour at the Grosvenor +Gallery. Bache is now dead; a blameless and a useful life cut short in +its very prime." + + +RUBINSTEIN + +"Antoine Rubinstein, of whom no one in Paris had ever heard before, for +this great artist had the coquettish temerity to disdain the assistance +of the press, and no advance notice, none at all, you understand, had +announced his apparition," has written Saint-Saens, "made his appearance +in his concerto in G major, with orchestra, in the lovely Herz concert +room, so novel in construction and so elegant in aspect, of which one +can no more avail himself to-day. Useless to say, there was not a +single paying hearer in the room, but next morning, nevertheless, the +artist was celebrated, and at the second concert there was a prodigious +jam. I was there at the second concert, and at the first notes I was +overthrown and chained to the car of the conqueror. + +"Concerts followed one another, and I did not miss a single one. Some +one proposed to present me to the great artist, but in spite of his +youth (he was then twenty-eight), and in spite of his reputation for +urbanity, he awakened in me a horrible timidity; the idea of being near +him, of addressing a word to him, terrified me profoundly. It was only +at his second coming to Paris, a year later, that I dared to brave his +presence. The ice between us two was quickly broken. I acquired his +friendship in deciphering upon his own piano the orchestral score of his +Ocean Symphony. I read very well then, and his symphonic music, written +large and black, was not very difficult to read. + +"From this day a lively sympathy united us; the simplicity and evident +sincerity of my admiration touched him. We were together assiduously, +often played together for four hands, subjected to rude tests the piano +which served as our field of battle, without regard to the ears of our +hearers. It was a good time! We made music with passion simply for the +sake of making it, and we never had enough. I was so happy to have +encountered an artist who was wholly an artist, exempt from the +littleness which sometimes makes so bad a barrier around great talent. +He came back every winter, and always enlarged his success and +consolidated our friendship." + + +VIARDOT-GARCIA + +With the exception of the Bachs, who were noted musicians for six +generations, and the Viennese branch of the Strauss dynasty, there is +perhaps no musical family that affords a more interesting illustration +of heredity in a special talent than the Garcias. The elder Garcia, who +was born in 1775, was not only a great tenor and teacher, but a prolific +composer of operas. His two famous daughters also became composers, as +well as singers. Madame Viardot (who died in 1910) was so lucky as to be +able to base her operettas on librettos written by Turgenev. Liszt said +of her that "in all that concerns method and execution, feeling and +expression, it would be hard to find a name worthy to be mentioned with +that of Malibran's sister," and Wagner was amazed and delighted when she +sang the Isolde music in a whole act of his Tristan at sight. She +studied the piano with Liszt and played brilliantly. + + +LISZT AS A FREEMASON + +Memorial tablets have been placed on each of the two houses at Weimar in +which Liszt used to reside. He first lived at the Altenburg and later on +at the Hofgaertnerei. The act of piety was undertaken by the Allgemeiner +Deutscher Musikverein, of which organisation Liszt was the president up +to the time of his death. + +It has been asserted that Liszt was a Freemason after his consecration +as a priest. This has been contradicted, but the following from the +_Freemason's Journal_ appears to settle the question: + +"On the 31st of July last one of the greatest artists and men departed +at Bayreuth for the eternal east, who had proved himself a worthy member +of our brotherhood by his deeds through his whole eventful life. It is +Brother Franz Liszt, on whose grave we deposit an acacia branch. +Millions of florins Franz Liszt had earned on his triumphal career--for +others. His art, his time, his life, were given to those who claimed it. +Thus he journeyed, a living embodiment of the St. Simonism to which he +once belonged, through his earthly pilgrimage. Brother Franz Liszt was +admitted into the brotherhood in the year 1844, at the lodge 'Unity' +('Zur Einigkeit'), in Frankfort-on-the-Main, by George Kloss, with the +composer, W. Ch. Speyer as witness, and in the presence of Felix von +Lichnowsky. He was promoted to the second degree in a lodge at Berlin, +and elected master in 1870, as member of the lodge 'Zur Einigkeit,' in +Budapest. Since 1845 he was also honorary member of the L. Modestia cum +Libertate at Zurich. If there ever was a Freemason in favour with Pope +Pius IX it was Franz Liszt, created abbe in 1865 in Rome." + + +A LISZT SON? + +A letter from Paris to the Vienna _Monday Review_ says that in the salon +of the Champ de Mars a picture is on exhibition, called Italian +Bagpiper. While its artistic points are hardly worthy of special mention +the striking resemblance of this work by Michael Vallet to the facial +traits of Franz Liszt puzzled the jury not a little, and will doubtless +create much interest among the visitors of the gallery. The model for +the subject was a boat-hand of Genoa named Angelo Giocati-Buonaventi, +fifty-six years of age. It was while strolling about the Genoese wharves +that Vallet noticed the sparse form of Angelo, whose beardless face +recalled to him at once Franz Liszt's. + +Angelo consented willingly to pose for the piper, but all questions as +to his family extraction were answered with a laconic Chi lo sa? Vallet, +by making inquiries in other directions, learned that Angelo came +originally from Albano. He took a trip to that place, and after the +lapse of a few days wrote a friend in Paris: "Found! Found! The surmise +regarding my Angelo is correct. This boathand is without any doubt a +son of Countess d'Agoult, whose relations with Franz Liszt are known +throughout the world, and was born here in the year 1834. I found a +picture of the countess in the home of a sister-in-law of a lately +deceased peasant woman, Giocati-Buonaventi. This latter was the nurse +and later the woman who had the motherly care of my Angelo...." + +It happened that at the same time, as if to corroborate Vallet's +statement, the _Review de Paris_ published an interesting correspondence +between Georges Sand and Countess d'Agoult. The latter writes from +Albano under date of June 9, 1839: "It was our intention to present our +respects to the Sultan this summer, but our trip to Constantinople came +to naught. A little fellow that I had the caprice to bring here into the +world prevented the carrying out of the plan. The boy promises to be a +beauty. One of the handsomest women of Palestrina furnishes the milk for +his nourishment. It is to be regretted that Franz has again one of his +fits of melancholy. [She speaks of Liszt repeatedly in this letter, +giving him the pet name _cretin_.] The thought of being father to +_three_ little children seems to depress his mind...." + +The three children being accounted for, the story of Vallet regarding +Angelo has no foundation in fact, and we would not even mention it if it +was not making the rounds of the Continental press. + + +LISZT ON VIRTUOSITY + +In these days of virtuosity let us hear what Liszt, the master of all +virtuosi, says: + +"What, then, makes the virtuoso on an instrument?" asks the master, and +we gain on this occasion the most comprehensive and the most decisive +information on the point ourselves. Is he really a mere spiritless +machine? Do his hands only attend to the office of a double winch on a +street organ? Has he to dispense with his brain and with his feelings in +his mechanical execution of the prescribed performance? Has he to supply +the ear only with a photograph of the object before him? Such +representations bring him to the somewhat proud remark: "We know too +well how many amongst those who enjoy great praise, unable to translate +even to the letter the original that is on the desk before them, degrade +its sense, carrying on the art as a trade, and not understanding even +the trade itself. However victorious a counterfeit may be, it does not +destroy the power of the real authors and poet virtuosi; they are for +those who are 'called' to an extent of which a degraded public, under an +illegitimate and ignorant 'dominion,' has no idea. You hear the rolling +of the thunder, the roaring of the lion, the far-spreading sound of +man's strength. For the words virtuosity and virtus are derived from the +Latin 'vir'; the execution of both is an act of manly power," says he, +and characterises now his 'artist' as follows: "The virtuoso is not a +mason, who, with the chisel in his hand, faithfully and conscientiously +cuts his stone after the design of the architect. He is not a passive +tool that reproduces feeling and thought without adding himself. He is +not the more or less experienced reader of works that have no margin for +his notes, and which make no paragraph necessary between the lines. +These spiritedly written musical works are in reality for the virtuoso +only the tragic and touching putting-in-scene of feelings; he is called +upon to let these speak, weep, sing, sigh--to render these to his own +consciousness. He creates in this way like the composer himself, for he +must embrace in himself those passions which he, in their complete +brilliancy, has to bring to light. He breathes life into the lethargic +body, infuses it with fire, and enlivens it with the pulse of +gracefulness and charm. He changes the clayey form into a living being, +penetrating it with the spark which Prometheus snatched from the flash +of Jupiter. He must make this form wander in transparent ether; he must +arm it with a thousand winged arms; he must unfold scent and blossom and +breathe into it the breath of life. Of all artists the virtuoso reveals +perhaps most immediately the overpowering forces of the god who, in +glowing embraces of the proud muse, allures every hidden secret." + + +LISZT'S FAVOURITE PIANO + +LETTER FROM DR. FRANZ LISZT + + "WEIMAR, _November, 1883_. + + "MR. STEINWAY: + +"_Most Esteemed Sir_: Again I owe you many and special thanks. The new +Steinway Grand is a glorious masterpiece in power, sonority, singing +quality, and perfect harmonic effects, affording delight even to my old +piano-weary fingers. Ever continuing success remains a beautiful +attribute of the world-renowned firm of Steinway & Sons. In your letter, +highly esteemed sir, you mention some new features in the Grand Piano, +_viz._, the vibrating body being bent into form out of one continuous +piece, and that portion of the strings heretofore lying dormant being +now a part of and thus incorporated as partial tones into the foundation +tones. Their utility is emphatically guaranteed by the name of the +inventor. Owing to my ignorance of the mechanism of piano construction I +can but praise the magnificent _result_ in the 'volume and quality of +sound.' In relation to the use of your welcome tone-sustaining pedal I +inclose two examples: Danse des Sylphes, by Berlioz, and No. 3 of my +Consolations. I have to-day noted down only the introductory bars of +both pieces, with this proviso, that, if you desire it, I shall gladly +complete the whole transcription, with exact adaptation of your +tone-sustaining pedal. + + "Very respectfully and gratefully, + + "F. LISZT." + + +LISZT AS TEACHER + +"While Liszt has been immensely written about as pianist and composer, +sufficient stress has not been laid upon what the world owes him as a +teacher of pianoforte playing," writes Amy Fay. "During his life-time +Liszt despised the name of 'piano-teacher,' and never suffered himself +to be regarded as such. 'I am no Professeur du Piano,' he scornfully +remarked one day in the class at Weimar, and if any one approached him +as a 'teacher' he instantly put the unfortunate offender outside of his +door. + +"I was once a witness of his haughty treatment of a Leipsic pupil of the +fair sex, who came to him one day and asked him 'to give her a few +lessons.' He instantly drew himself up and replied in the most cutting +tone: + +"'I do not give lessons on the piano; and,' he added with a bow, in +which grace and sarcasm were combined, 'you really don't need me as a +teacher.' + +"There was a dead silence for a minute, and then the poor girl, not +knowing what to do or say, backed herself out of the room. Liszt, +turning to the class, said: + +"'That is the way people fly in my face, by dozens! They seem to think I +am there only to give them lessons on the piano. I have to get rid of +them, for I am no Professor of the Piano. This girl did not play badly, +either,' concluded he, half ashamed of himself for his treatment of +her. + +"For my part, I was awfully sorry for the girl, and I was tempted to run +after her and bring her back, and intercede with Liszt to take her; but +I was a new-comer myself, and did not quite dare to brave the lion in +his den. Later, I would have done it, for the girl was really very +talented, and it was a mere want of tact on her part in her manner of +approaching Liszt which precipitated her defeat. She brought him +Chopin's F minor concerto, and played the middle movement of it, Liszt +standing up and thundering out the orchestral accompaniment, tremolo, in +the bass of the piano. I wondered it did not put the girl out, but she +persisted bravely to the end, and did not break down, as I expected she +would. + +"She came at an inopportune moment, for there were only five of us in +the room, and we were having a most entertaining time with Liszt, that +lovely June afternoon, and he did not feel disposed to be interrupted by +a stranger. In spite of himself, he could not help doing justice to her +talent, saying: 'She did not play at all badly.' This, however, the poor +girl never knew. She probably wept briny tears of disappointment when +she returned to her hotel. + +"While Liszt resented being called a 'piano-teacher,' he nevertheless +_was one_, in the higher sense of the term. It was the difference +between the scientific college professor of genius and the ordinary +school-teacher which distinguished him from the rank and file of musical +instructors. + +"Nobody could be more appreciative of talent than Liszt was--even of +talent which was not of the first order--and I was often amazed to see +the trouble he would give himself with some industrious young girl who +had worked hard over big compositions like Schumann's Carnival, or +Chopin's sonatas. At one of the musical gatherings at the Frauleins' +Stahr (music-teachers in Weimar, to whose simple home Liszt liked to +come) I have heard him accompany on a second piano Chopin's E minor +concerto, which was technically well played, by a girl of nineteen from +the Stuttgart Conservatory. + +"It was a contrast to see this young girl, with her rosy cheeks, big +brown eyes, and healthy, everyday sort of talent, at one piano, and +Liszt, the colossal artist, at the other. + +"He was then sixty-three years old, but the fire of youth burned in him +still. Like his successor, Paderewski, Liszt sat erect, and never bent +his proud head over the 'stupid keys,' as he called them, even +deprecating his pupils' doing so. He was very picturesque, with his +lofty and ideal forehead thrown back, and his magnificent iron-gray hair +falling in thick masses upon his neck. The most divine expression came +over his face when he began to play the opening measures of the +accompaniment, and I shall never forget the concentration and intensity +he put into them if I live to be a hundred! The nobility and absolute +'selflessness' of Liszt's playing had to be heard to be understood. +There was something about his tone that made you weep, it was so apart +from earth and so ethereal!" + + +VON BUeLOW CRITICISES + +"I look forward eagerly," Buelow wrote to a friend, "to your Chopin, that +immortal romanticist par excellence, whose mazurkas alone are a monument +more enduring than metal. Never will this great, deep, sincere, and at +the same time tender and passionate poet become antiquated. On the +contrary, as musical culture increases, he will appear in a much +brighter light than to-day, when only the popular Chopin is in vogue, +whereas the more aristocratic, manly Chopin, the poet of the last two +scherzi, the last two ballads, the barcarole, the polonaise-fantaisie, +the nocturnes, Op. 9, No. 3; Op. 48; Op. 55, No. 2, etc., still awaits +the interpreters who have entered into his spirit and among whom, if God +grants me life, I should like to have the pride of counting myself. + +"You know from my introduction to the etudes how highly I esteem Chopin. +In his pieces we find Lenau, Byron, Musset, Lamartine, and at the same +time all sorts of heathen Apollo priests. You shall learn through me to +love him dearly. + +"We must grant Chopin the great distinction of having in his works fixed +the boundaries between piano and orchestral music, which other +romanticists, notably Robert Schumann, confused, to the detriment of +both. + +"There are two Chopins--one an aristocrat, the other democratic." + +Concerning the mazurka, Op. 50, No. 1, he said: "In this mazurka there +is dancing, singing, gesticulating. + +"Chopin's pupils issued in Paris an edition of his works. Chopin's +pupils are, however, as unreliable as the girls who pose as Liszt's +pupils. Use the Klindworth edition. + +"Liszt's ballads and polonaises have proved most strikingly that it was +possible after Chopin to write ballads and polonaises. In the polonaises +in particular Liszt opened many new points of view for the widening +and spiritualising of that form, quite apart from the individual +peculiarities of his productions, which put in place of the national +Polish colour an entirely new element, thus making possible the filling +out of this form with new contents." + +In one of his essays Buelow indignantly attacks the current notion that +Liszt's pieces are all unplayable except by concert pianists: "Some day +I shall make a list of all of Liszt's pieces for piano which most +amateurs will find much easier to master and digest than the chaff of +Thalberg or the wheat of Henselt or Chopin. But it seems that the name +of Liszt as composer for the piano has become associated inseparably +with the words 'inexecutable,' and making 'colossal demands.' It is a +harmless prejudice of the ignorant, like many others, but for all that +none the less objectionable. + +"Liszt does not represent virtuosity as distinguished from music--very +far from it. + +"The Liszt ballade in B minor is equal in poetic content to Chopin's +ballades." + +Concerning Liszt's Irrlichter and Gnomenreigen, he said: "I wish the +inspired master had written more pieces like these, which are as perfect +as any song without words by Mendelssohn." + + +WEINGARTNER AND LISZT + +Weingartner's reminiscences of Liszt throw many interesting lights on +the personality of that great composer and greatest of teachers. The +gathering of famous artists at his house are well described, and his own +mannerisms excellently portrayed. His playing was always marked by the +ripest perfection of touch. He did not incline to the impetuous power of +his youthful days, but sat almost without motion before the keyboard. +His hands glided quietly over the keys, and produced the warm, magnetic +stream of tone almost without effort. + +His criticism of others was short, but always to the point. His praise +would be given heartily, and without reserve, while blame was always +concealed in some kindly circumlocution. Once, when a pretty young lady +played a Chopin ballade in execrable fashion, he could not contain +ejaculations of disgust as he walked excitedly about the room. At the +end, however, he went to her kindly, laid his hand gently on her hair, +kissed her forehead, and murmured, "Marry soon, dear child--adieu." + +Another young lady once turned the tables on the composer. It was the +famous Ingeborg von Bronsart, who came to him when eighteen years +old, in the full bloom of her fair Northern beauty. Liszt asked her +to play,inwardly fearing that this was to be one more of the petted +incompetents. But when she played a Bach fugue for him, with the utmost +brilliancy, he could not contain his admiration. "Wonderful," he cried, +"but you certainly didn't look like it." "I should hope I didn't look +like a Bach fugue," was the swift retort, and the two became lifelong +friends. + + +AS ORGAN COMPOSER + +Liszt's importance in this field is not overlooked. + +"In Germany, the land of seriousness, organ music had acquired a +character so heavy and so uniformly contrapuntal that, by the middle of +last century, almost any decently trained Capellmeister could produce a +sonata dull enough to be considered first-rate. There were, doubtless, +many protests in the shape of unorthodox works which left no mark; but +two great influences, which are the earliest we need notice, came in the +shape of Liszt's Fantasia on the name of Bach and Julius Reubke's Sonata +on the Ninety-fourth Psalm. Without minute analysis we may say that the +former, though not an entirely great work, was at all events something +entirely new. It showed the possibility of freedom of form without +shapelessness, of fairly good counterpoint without dulness, of the +adaptation of piano technic to the organ in a way never before +attempted; and the whole work, brilliant and effective, never outraged +in the smallest degree the natural dignity of the instrument." + + +LISZT'S TECHNIC + +Rudolf Breithaupt thus wrote of the technical elements in Liszt's +playing in _Die Musik_: + +"What we hear of Liszt's technic in his best years, from 1825 to 1850, +resembles a fairy tale. As artists, Liszt and Paganini have almost +become legendary personages. In analysing Liszt's command of the piano +we find that it consists first and foremost in the revelation of a +mighty personality rather than in the achievement of unheard of +technical feats. Though his admirers will not believe it, technic has +advanced since his day. Tausig excelled him in exactness and brilliancy; +Von Buelow was a greater master of interpretation: Rubinstein went beyond +him in power and in richness of tone-colour, through his consummate use +of the pedal. Even contemporary artists, _e.g._, Carreno, d'Albert, +Busoni, and in part, Godowsky, are technically equal to Liszt in his +best days, and in certain details, owing to the improved mechanism of +the piano, even his superior. + +"It is time to do away with the fetich of Liszt's technic. It was mighty +as an expression of his potent personality, mighty in its domination of +all instrumental forms, mighty in its full command of all registers and +positions. But I believe that if the Liszt of former days--not the old +man whose fingers did not always obey his will, but the young, vigorous +Titan of the early nineteenth century--were to play for us now, we +should be as little edified as we should probably be by the singing of +Jenny Lind or by the playing of Paganini. Exaggeration finds no more +fruitful field than the chronicling of the feats of noted artists. + +"We hear, for instance, much of Liszt's hand, of its vampire-like +clutch, of its uncanny, spidery power of extension--as a child I firmly +believed that he could reach two octaves without difficulty. These +stories are all fables. His fingers were long and regular, the thumb +abnormally long; a more than usual flexibility of muscles and sinews +gave him the power of spanning a twelfth. Klindworth tells us that he +did some things with his left thumb that one was led to believe it twice +the length of an ordinary thumb. + +[Illustration: Liszt's Hand] + +"What chiefly distinguished Liszt's technic was the absolute freedom of +his arms. The secret lay in the unconstrained swinging movement of the +arm from the raised shoulder, the bringing out of the tone through the +impact of the full elastic mass on the keys, a thorough command and use +of the freely rolling forearm. He had the gift for which all strove, the +rhythmic dance of the members concerned--the springing arm, the +springing hand, the springing finger. He played by weight--by a swinging +and a hurling of weight from a loosened shoulder that had nothing in +common with what is known as finger manipulation. It was by a direct +transfer of strength from back and shoulders to fingers, which explains +the high position of hands and fingers. + +"At the time of his most brilliant period as virtuoso he paid no +attention to technic and its means; his temperament was the reverse of +analytical--what he wished to do he did without concerning himself as to +the how or why. Later in life he did attempt to give some practical +suggestions in technic, but these were of but doubtful worth. A genius +is not always to be trusted when it comes to theoretical explanation of +what he does more by instinct than by calculation. + +"His power over an audience was such that he had only to place his hands +on the keyboard to awaken storms of applause. Even his pauses had life +and movement, for his hands spoke in animated gesture, while his +Jupiter-like head, with its mane of flowing hair, exercised an almost +hypnotic effect on his entranced listeners. + +"From a professional stand-point his execution was not always flawless. +His great rival, Thalberg, had greater equality of touch in scales and +runs; in what was then known as the jeu perle (literally, pearly +playing) his art was also finer. Liszt frequently struck false +notes--but ears were closed to such faults; his hearers appeared not to +notice them. These spots on the sun are mentioned only to put an end +once for all to the foolish stories that are still current about Liszt's +wonderful technic. This greatest of all reproductive artists was but +a man, and often erred, though in a large and characteristic fashion. + +"Liszt's technic is the typical technic of the modern grand piano +(Hammerklavier). He knew well the nature of the instrument, its +old-fashioned single-tone effects on the one hand, its full harmonic +power and polyphonic capabilities on the other. While to his predecessors +it was simply a medium for musical purposes, under his hands it was a +means of expression for himself, a revelation of his ardent temperament. +In comparison with the contracted five-finger positions of the classical +technic, its broken chords and arpeggios, Liszt's technic had the +advantage of a fuller, freer flow, of greater fulness of tone and +increased brilliancy. Chopin has discovered more original forms; his +style of writing is far more delicate and graceful; his individual note +is certainly more musical, but his technic is special in its character; +it lacks the broad sweep that gives Liszt's technic its peculiar freedom +and adaptability to the instrument. + +"Take Schumann and Brahms also, and compare their manner of writing for +the piano with Liszt's. Both have written much that is noble and +beautiful considered as music, but so clumsily put on the instrument +that it is unduly difficult for the player. With Liszt, however, no +matter what the difficulty of the means may be, they are always +precisely adapted to the end in view, and everything he writes sounds +well. It is no merely theoretical combination, but meant to be played +on the piano, and is in strict accordance with the nature of the +instrument. The player finds nothing laboriously put together and +requiring study for its disentanglement. Liszt considers the structure +of the hand, and assigns it tasks suited to its capabilities. + +"Among the distinctively original features of Liszt's technic are the +bold outline, the large form, the imitative effects of organ and +clavier, the orchestral timbre it imparts to the piano. We thank him +also for the use of the thumb in the declamation of pathetic cantilena, +for a breadth of melodic characterisation which resembles that of the +horn and violoncello, for the imitation of brass instruments, for the +great advance in all sorts of tremolos, trills and vibratos, which serve +to give colour and intensity to moments of climax. His finger passages +are not merely empty runs, but are like high lights in a picture; his +cadenzas fairly sparkle like comet trains and are never introduced for +display alone. They are preparatory, transitional or conclusive in +character; they point contrasts, they heighten dramatic climaxes. His +scales and arpeggios have nothing in common with the stiff monotony of +the Czerny school of playing; they express feeling, they give emotional +variety, they embellish a melody with ineffable grace. He often supplies +them with thirds and sixths, which fill out their meagre outlines and +furnish support to hands and fingers. + +"In his octave technic Liszt has embodied all the elementary power and +wildness of his nature. His octaves rage in chromatic and diatonic +scales, in broken chords and arpeggios, up and down, hither and thither, +like zigzag flashes of lightning. Here he is seen at his boldest, +_e.g._, in his Orage, Totentanz, Mazeppa, Don Juan fantasia, VI +Rhapsody, etc. In the trill, too, he has given us such novel forms as +the simple trill with single fingers of each hand, the trill in double +thirds in both hands, the octave trill--all serving to intensify the +introduction or close of the salient divisions of a composition. + +"From Liszt dates the placing of a melody in the fullest and most +ringing register of the piano--that corresponding to the tenor or +baritone compass of voice; also the division of the accompaniment +between the two hands and the extension of hand-crossing technic. To him +we owe exactness in the fixing of tempo, the careful designation of +signs for dynamics and expression, the use of three staves instead of +two for the sake of greater clearness of notation, as well as the modern +installation of the pedal. + +"In short, Liszt is not only the creator of the art of piano playing as +we have it to-day, but his is the strongest musical influence in modern +musical culture. But granting this, those thinkers who declare this +influence not unmixed with harm are not altogether wrong. It is not the +fault of genius, however, that undesirable consequences follow in its +wake. It is also my opinion that it will do no harm to retrace our steps +and revive the more simple times when there was less piano playing and +more music." + + +BUSONI + +Busoni is preparing a complete edition of Liszt's compositions, to be +published by Breitkopf & Haertel. Concerning the studies, which are to +appear in three volumes, he says: + +"These etudes, a work which occupied Franz Liszt from childhood on up to +manhood, we believe should be put at the head of his piano compositions. +There are three reasons for this: the first is the fact that the etudes +were the first of his works to be published; the second is that in +Liszt's own catalogue of his works (Themat. Verz. Br. H. 1855), he puts +the etudes at the very beginning; and the third and most patent is that +these works in their entirety reflect as do no others Liszt's pianistic +personality in the bud, shoot, and flower. + +"These fifty-eight piano pieces alone would serve to place Liszt in the +ranks of the greatest piano composers since Beethoven--Chopin, Schumann, +Alkan, and Brahms; but proof of his superiority over these is found in +his complete works, of which the etudes are only a small part. + +"They afford a picture of him in manifold lights and poses, giving us an +opportunity to know and observe him in the different phases of his +character: the diabolic as well as the religious--those who acknowledge +God do not make light of the devil--the refined and the animated; now as +an illustrative interpreter of every style and again as a marvellous +transformation artist who can with convincing mimicry don the costume +of any country. This collection consists of a work for piano which +contains within its circumference every phase, nation, and epoch of +musical expression from Palestrina to Parsifal, whereby Liszt shows +himself as a creator of twofold character--both subjective and +objective." + + +LISZT AS A PIANOFORTE WRITER + +"Nothing is easier than to estimate Liszt the pianist, nothing more +difficult than to estimate Liszt the composer. As to Liszt the pianist, +old and young, conservatives and progressives, not excepting the +keyboard specialists, are perfectly agreed that he was unique, +unsurpassed, and unsurpassable," says Professor Niecks. "As to +Liszt the composer, on the other hand, opinions differ widely and +multifariously--from the attribution of superlative genius to the +denial of the least talent. This diversity arises from partisanship, +individuality of taste, and the various conceptions formed of the +nature of creative power. Those, however, who call Liszt a composer +without talent confess themselves either ignorant of his achievements, +or incapable of distinguishing good from bad and of duly apportioning +praise and blame. Those, on the other hand, who call Liszt a creative +genius should not omit to observe and state that his genius was +qualitatively unlike the genius of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, +and Schumann. With him the creative impulse was, in the main, and, as +a rule, an intellectual impulse. With the great masters mentioned, the +impulse was of a general origin, all the faculties co-operating. While +with them the composition was always spontaneous, being, however +great the travail, a birth, not a making; with Liszt it was often +reflective, the solution of a problem, an experiment, a caprice, +a defiance of conventional respectability, or a device for the +dumfounding and electrification of the gaping multitude. In short, +Liszt was to a larger extent inventive than creative. The foregoing +remarks do not pretend to be more than a suggestive attempt at +explaining the inexplicable differences of creative power. That Liszt +could be spontaneous and in the best sense creative, he has proved by +whole compositions, and more frequently by parts of compositions. That +has to be noted; as well as that his love of experimenting and scorn +for the familiar, not to mention the commonplace, led him often to +turn his back on the beautiful and to embrace the ugly. + +"As a composer of pianoforte music, Liszt's merits are more generally +acknowledged than as a composer of any other kind. Here indeed his +position is a commanding one. We should be obliged to regard him with +respect, admiration, and gratitude, even if his compositions were +aesthetically altogether a failure. For they incorporate an original +pianoforte style, a style that won new resources from the instrument, +and opened new possibilities to the composer for it, and the player on +it. The French Revolution of 1830 aroused Liszt from a state of +lethargy. A year after this political revolution, there occurred an +event that brought about in him an artistic revolution. This event was +the appearance of Paganini in Paris. The wonderful performances of the +unique violin virtuoso revealed to him new ideas. He now began to form +that pianoforte style which combined, as it were, the excellences of all +the other instruments, individually and collectively. Liszt himself +called the process "the orchestration of the pianoforte." But before the +transformation could be consummated, other influences had to be brought +to bear on the architect. The influence of Chopin, who appeared in Paris +soon after Paganini, must have been great, but was too subtle and +partial to be easily gauged. It is different with Berlioz, whose +influence on Liszt was palpable and general, affecting every branch of +his art-practice. Thalberg has at least the merit of having by his +enormous success in 1836 stimulated Liszt to put forth his whole +strength. + +"The vast mass of Liszt's pianoforte compositions is divisible first +into two classes--the entirely original compositions, and the +compositions based to a more or less extent on foreign matter. The +latter class consist of transcriptions of songs (Schubert, Beethoven, +Mendelssohn, Franz, etc.), symphonies and overtures (Berlioz, Beethoven, +Rossini, Wagner, etc.), and operatic themes (from Rossini and Bellini +to Wagner and Verdi), and of fifteen Hungarian rhapsodies; the former +consists of studies, brilliant virtuosic pieces, musical poems, secular +and sacred, picturesque, lyrical, etc. (such as Annees de Pelerinage, +Harmonies, poetiques et religieuses, Consolations, the legends, St. +Francois d'Assise: La Predication aux oiseaux, and St. Francois de Paule +marchant sur les flots, etc.), and one work in sonata form, but not the +conventional sonata form. Although not unfrequently leaving something to +be desired in the matter of discretion, his transcriptions of songs are +justly famous masterpieces. Marvellous in the reproduction of orchestral +effects are the transcriptions of symphonies and overtures. The operatic +transcriptions (Illustrations, Fantasies), into which the _geistreiche_ +Liszt put a great deal of his own, do not now enjoy the popularity they +once enjoyed; the present age has lost some of its love for musical +fireworks and the tricking-out and transmogrification by an artist of +other artists' ideas. The Hungarian Rhapsodies, on the other hand, which +are still more fantasias on the adopted matter than the operatic +transcriptions, continue to be favourites of the _virtuosi_ and the +public. + +"As to the original compositions, they are very unequal in artistic +value. Many of them, however, are undoubtedly of the greatest beauty, +and stand whatever test may be applied to them. No one would think of +numbering with these exquisite perfect things the imposing sonata. It +cannot be placed by the side of the sonatas of Beethoven, whose ideal +and formative power Liszt lacked. Nevertheless it is impossible for the +unprejudiced not to recognise in it a noble effort of a highly-gifted +and ardently-striving mind. Technically, instead of three or four +self-contained separate movements, we have there a long uninterrupted +series of continuous movements, in which, however, we can distinguish +three complexes corresponding to the three movements of the orthodox +sonata. The Andante Sostenuto and Quasi Adagio form the simpler middle +complex. Although some of the features of the orthodox sonata structure +are discernible in Liszt's works, most of them are absent from it or +irrecognisably veiled. The most novel and characteristic features +are the unity and the evolution by metamorphosis of the thematic +material--that is to say, the motives of the first complex reappear in +the following ones, and are metamorphosed not only in the later but also +in the first. Nothing could characterise the inequality of Liszt's +compositions better than the fact that it is possible to draw up a +programme of them wholly irreproachable, admirable, and delightful, and +equally possible to draw up one wholly objectionable, abhorrent, and +distressful. All in all, Liszt is a most remarkable and interesting and, +at the same time, an epoch-making personality, one that will remain for +long yet a living force in music, and for ever a striking figure in the +history of the art." + + +SMETANA + +Frederick Smetana, the greatest of Bohemian composers, founded in the +year 1848 the institute which he conducted for the teaching of the piano +in Prague. In this year it was that the composition for piano named +Morceaux Caracteristiques, he dedicated to Liszt (which dedication Liszt +accepted with the greatest cordiality, writing him a most complimentary +letter), was the means of his becoming personally acquainted with Liszt, +whom he until this time only knew by report. He obtained for the young +composer an introduction to the publisher Kistner, in Leipsic, who +brought out his six piano pieces called Stammbuchblaetter. + + +RIMSKY-KORSAKOFF + +"Of all the Slav composers Rimsky-Korsakoff is perhaps the most charming, +and as a musician the most remarkable," writes the music-critic of +the _Mercure de France_. "He has not been equalled by any of his +compatriots in the art of handling timbres, and in this art the +Russian school has been long distinguished. In this respect he is +descended directly from Liszt, whose orchestra he adopted and from +whom he borrowed many an old effect. His inspiration is sometimes +exquisite; the inexhaustible transformation of his themes is always +most intelligent or interesting. As all the other Russians, he sins +in the development of ideas through the lack of cohesion, of sustained +enchainment, and especially through the lack of true polyphony. The +influence of Berlioz and of Liszt is not less striking in his manner +of composition. Sadko comes from Liszt's Ce qu'on entend sur la +montagne, Antar and Scheherazade at the same time from Harold and the +Faust symphony. The Oriental monody seems to throw a spell over +Rimsky-Korsakoff which spreads over all his works a sort of 'local +colour,' underlined here by the chosen subjects. In Scheherazade, it +must be said, the benzoin of Arabia sends forth here and there the +sickening empyreuma of the pastilles of the harem. In the second and +the third movements of Antar the composer has approached nearest true +musical superiority. The descriptive, almost dramatic, intention is +realised there with an unusual sureness, and, if the brand of Liszt +remains ineffaceable, the ease of construction, the breadth and the +co-ordinated progressions of combinations mark a mastery and an +originality that are rarely found among the composers of the far +North, and that no one has ever possessed among the 'five.' + + * * * * * + +"Chopin's well-known saying in regard to Liszt, when he heard that the +latter was going to write a notice of his concert, tells more," says +Professor Niecks, "than whole volumes. These are the words: 'Il me +donnera un petit royaume dans son empire,' which were said to Ernest +Legouve by Chopin. Now here is another side-light on Chopin and his +opinion of the great virtuoso. He is referring to Liszt's notice of some +concert, apparently at Cologne. He is amused at the 'fifteen hundred men +counted, at the president of the Phil [harmonic] and his carriage, +etc.,' and he feels sure that Liszt will 'some day be a deputy, or king +of Abyssinia, or of the Congo; his melodies (themes), however, will rest +alongside the two volumes of German poetry'--two volumes which did not +seem destined, apparently, to achieve immortality." + + +HIS PORTRAITS + +[Illustration: Last Picture of Liszt, 1886, Aged Seventy-five Years] + +Many artists have immortalised "that profile of ivory." They are, Ingres +who was a friend of Liszt, and of whom he always had a tender +recollection; in his best days it was Kaulbach and Lenbach. William +Kaulbach's portrait is celebrated for the grand look; the chivalrous and +fine-gentleman character of the artist is expressed in it in a masterly +way. Not less remarkable is a marble bust by the famous Bartolini, +souvenir of the master's visit to Florence in 1838. The painter Leyraud +shows us Liszt at the time when he took orders. He depicts him as a +thin, thoughtful man, leaning against a piano, his arms crossed, and +looking at the world from the height of his wisdom. David d'Angers has +made a very fine medallion of him. "We have several portraits by +Kriehuber, one, among others--Liszt in a travelling cloak--drawn +hurriedly while Liszt, surrounded by friends seeing him off, was shaking +hands all round. Tilgner sculptured a bust of him two years ago at +Vienna; and Baron Joukovsky painted his portrait. Our great Munkacsy, +who beautified the last moments of the master's life, painted him seated +at the piano. Boehm, the celebrated Hungarian sculptor, has just made +his bust in London. Then we have at Budapest, at the entrance to the +opera house, a splendid statue, chiselled by our young artist Strobl. It +wants finish, but on the other hand admirably renders Liszt's features +and expression. And lastly, we have one by Wolkof, on the stove of a +friend of Liszt's," adds Janka Wohl. There are so many more that they +defy classification. The Munkacsy is not attractive, but the sketch made +by Ingres at Rome in 1839 is a very happy interpretation of the still +youthful virtuoso. The Kriehuber lithograph is a famous study of +perennial interest. Then there are the portraits by the American Healey +and the Italian Stella, excellent though not master-works. In the +Lenbach portrait the eyes look like incandescent grapes. + + + + +IX + +MODERN PIANOFORTE VIRTUOSI + + +Artistic pianoforte playing is no longer rare. The once jealously guarded +secrets of the masters have become the property of conservatories. +Self-playing instruments perform technical miracles, and are valuable +inasmuch as they interest a number of persons who would otherwise +avoid music as an ineluctable mystery. Furthermore, the unerring ease +with which these machines despatch the most appalling difficulties +has turned the current toward what is significant in a musical +performance: touch, phrasing, interpretation. While a child's hand may +set spinning the Don Juan Fantasie of Liszt, no mechanical appliance +yet contrived can play a Chopin ballade or the Schumann concerto as +they should be played. + +I mention purposely these cunning inventions because I do not think that +they have harmed the public interest in pianoforte recitals; rather have +they stimulated it. Never before has the standard of execution and +interpretation been so high. The giant wave of virtuosity that broke +over Europe in the middle of the nineteenth century has not yet receded. +A new artist on the keyboard is eagerly heard and discussed. If he be a +Paderewski or a Joseffy, he is the centre of a huge admiration. The +days of Liszt were renewed when Paderewski made his tours in America. +Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that not until now has good +playing been so little of a rarity. + +But a hundred years ago matters were different. It was in 1839 that +Franz Liszt gave the first genuine pianoforte recital, and, possessing a +striking profile, he boldly presented it to his audiences; before that +pianists either faced or sat with their backs to the public. No matter +what avenue of music the student travels, he will be sure to encounter +the figure of Liszt. Yet neither Liszt nor Chopin was without artistic +ancestors. That they stemmed from the great central tree of European +music; that they at first were swept down the main current, later +controlled it, are facts that to-day are the commonplaces of the +schools; though a few decades ago those who could see no salvation +outside of German music-making, be it never so conventional, failed to +recognise the real significance of either Liszt or Chopin. Both men gave +Europe new forms, a new harmonic system, and in Liszt's case his +originality was so marked that from Wagner to Tschaikowsky and the +Russians, from Cornelius to Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg and the +still newer men, all helped themselves at his royal banquet; some, like +Wagner, a great genius, taking away all they needed, others glad to +catch the very crumbs that fell. But the innovators in form have not +always proved supreme creators. In the case of Wagner the plumed and +serried phrases of Liszt recall the role played by Marlowe in regard to +Shakespeare. + +Liszt's very power, muscular, compelling, set pianoforte manufacturers +to experimenting. A new instrument was literally made for him, an +instrument that could thunder like an orchestra, sing like a voice, or +whisper like a harp. Liszt could proudly boast, "le piano--c'est moi!" +With it he needed no orchestra, no singers, no scenery. It was his +stage, and upon its wires he told the stories of the operas, sang the +beautiful, and then novel, lieder of Schubert and Schumann, revealed the +mastery of Beethoven, the poetry of Chopin, and Bach's magical +mathematics. He, too, set Europe ablaze; even Paganini was forgotten, +and the gentlemanly Thalberg with his gentlemanly playing suddenly +became insipid to true music lovers. Liszt was called a charlatan, and +doubtless partially deserved the appellation, in the sense that +he very often played for effect's sake, for the sake of dazzling the +groundlings. His tone was massive, his touch coloured by a thousand +shades of feeling, his technic impeccable, his fire and fury +bewildering. + +And if Liszt affected his contemporaries, he also trained his +successors, Tausig, Von Buelow, and Rubinstein--the latter was never an +actual pupil, though he profited by Liszt's advice and regarded him as a +model. Karl Tausig, the greatest virtuoso after Liszt and his equal at +many points, died prematurely. Never had the world heard such +controlled, plastic, and objective interpretations. His iron will had +drilled his Slavic temperament so that his playing was, as Joseffy says, +"a series of perfectly painted pictures." His technic, according to +those who heard him, was perfection. He was the one pianist sans peur et +sans reproche. All schools were at his call. Chopin was revived when he +played; and he was the first to hail the rising star of Brahms--not +critically, as did Schumann, but practically, by putting his name on his +eclectic programmes. Mr. Albert Ross Parsons, the well-known New York +pianist, critic, and pedagogue, once told the present writer that +Tausig's playing evoked the image of some magnificent mountain. "And +Joseffy?" was asked--for Joseffy was Tausig's favourite pupil. "The +lovely mist that enveloped the mountain at dusk," was Mr. Parsons's +happy answer. Since then Joseffy has condensed this mist into something +more solid, while remaining quite as beautiful. + +Rubinstein I heard play his series of historical recitals, seven in all; +better still, I heard him perform the feat twice. I regret that it was +not thrice. If ever there was a heaven-storming genius, it was Anton +Rubinstein. Nicolas Rubinstein was a wonderful artist; but the fire that +flickered and flamed in the playing of Anton was not in evidence in the +work of his brother. You felt in listening to Anton that the piece he +happened to be playing was heard by you for the first time--the creative +element in his nature was so strong. It seemed no longer reproductive +art. The same thing has been said of Liszt. Often arbitrary in his very +subjective readings, Rubinstein never failed to interest. He had an +overpowering sort of magnetism that crossed the stage and enveloped his +audience with a gripping power. His touch, to again quote Joseffy, was +like that of a French horn. It sang with a mellow thunder. An +impressionist in the best sense of that misunderstood expression, he was +the reverse of his rival and colleague, Hans von Buelow. + +The brother-in-law, a la main gauche, of that Brother of Dragons, +Richard Wagner, Von Buelow was hardly appreciated during his first visit +to America in 1876-77. Rubinstein had preceded him by three seasons and +we were loath to believe that the rather dry, angular touch and +clear-cut phrasing of the little, irritable Hans were revelations from +on high. Nevertheless, Von Buelow, the mighty scholar, opened new views +for us by his Beethoven and Bach playing. The analyst in him ruled. Not +a colourist, but a master of black and white, he exposed the minutest +meanings of the composer that he presented. He was the first to +introduce Tschaikowsky's brilliant and clangorous B-flat minor concerto. +Of his Chopin performances, I retain only the memory of the D-flat +Nocturne. That was exquisite, and all the more surprising coming from a +man of Von Buelow's pedantic nature. His last visit to this country, +several decades ago, was better appreciated, but I found his playing +almost insupportable. He had withered in tone and style, a mummy of his +former alert self. + +The latter-day generation of virtuosi owe as much to Liszt as did the +famous trinity, Tausig, Rubinstein, Von Buelow. Many of them studied with +the old wizard at Rome, Budapest, and Weimar; some with his pupils; all +have absorbed his traditions. It would be as impossible to keep Liszt +out of your playing--out of your fingers, forearms, biceps, and +triceps,--as it would be to return to the naive manner of an Emmanuel +Bach or a Scarlatti. Modern pianoforte-playing spells Liszt. + +After Von Buelow a much more naturally gifted pianist visited the United +States, Rafael Joseffy. It was in 1879 that old Chickering Hall +witnessed his triumph, a triumph many times repeated later in Steinway +Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House, and throughout +America. At first Joseffy was called the Patti of the Pianoforte, one of +those facile, alliterative, meaningless titles he never merited. He had +the coloratura, if you will, of a Patti, but he had something +besides--brains and a poetic temperament. Poetic is a vague term that +usually covers a weakness in technic. There are different sorts of +poetry. There is the rich poetry of Paderewski, the antic grace and +delicious poetry of De Pachmann. The Joseffian poetry is something else. +Its quality is more subtle, more recondite than the poetry of the Polish +or the Russian pianist. Such miraculous finish, such crystalline tone +had never before been heard until Joseffy appeared. At first his playing +was the purest pantheism--a transfigured materialism, tone, and technic +raised to heights undreamed of. Years later a new Joseffy was born. +Stern self-discipline, as was the case with Tausig, had won a victory +over his temperament as well as his fingers. More restrained, less lush, +his play is now ruled by the keenest of intellects, while the old +silvery and sensuous charm has not vanished. Some refused to accept the +change. They did not realise that for an artist to remain stationary is +decadence. They longed for graceful trifling, for rose-coloured +patterns, for swallow-like flights across the keyboard, by a pair of the +most beautiful piano hands since Tausig's. In a word, these people did +not care for Brahms and they did care very much for the Chopin Valse in +double notes. But the automatic piano has outpointed every virtuoso +except Rosenthal in the matter of mere technic. So we enjoy our Brahms +from Joseffy, and when he plays Liszt or Chopin, which he does in an +ideal style, far removed from the tumultuous thumpings of the average +virtuoso, we turn out in numbers to enjoy and applaud him. His music has +that indefinable quality which vibrates from a Stradivarius violin. His +touch is like no other in the world, and his readings of the classics +are marked by reverence and authority. In certain Chopin numbers, such +as the Berceuse, the F-minor ballade, the barcarolle, and the E-minor +concerto, he has no peer. Equally lucid and lovely are his performances +of the B-flat major Brahms concerto and the A-major concerto of Liszt. +Joseffy is unique. + +There was an interregnum in the pianoforte arena for a few years. +Joseffy was reported as having been discovered in the wilds above +Tarrytown playing two-voiced inventions of Bach, and writing a new piano +school. Arthur Friedheim appeared and dazzled us with the B-minor Sonata +of Liszt. It was a wonder-breeding, thrilling performance. Alfred +Gruenfeld, of Vienna, caracoled across the keys in an amiably dashing +style. Rummel played earnestly. Ansorge also played earnestly. Edmund +Neupert delivered Grieg's Concerto as no one before or since has done. +Pugno came from Paris, Rosenthal thundered; Sauer, Stavenhagen, Siloti, +Slivinski, Mark Hambourg, Burmeister, Hyllested, Faelten, Sherwood, +Godowsky, Gabrilowitsch, Vogrich, Von Sternberg, Jarvis, Richard +Hoffmann, Boscovitz--to go back some years; Alexander Lambert, August +Spanuth, Klahre, Lamond, Dohnanyi, Busoni, Baerman, Saint-Saens, +Stojowski, Lhevinne, Rudolph Ganz, MacDowell, Otto Hegner, Josef +Hofmann, Reisenauer--none of these artists ever aroused such excitement +as Paderewski, though a more captivating and brilliant Liszt player than +Alfred Reisenauer has been seldom heard. + +It was about 1891 that I attended a rehearsal at Carnegie Hall in +which participated Ignace Jan Paderewski. The C-minor concerto of +Saint-Saens, an effective though musically empty work, was played. There +is nothing in the composition that will test a good pianist; but +Paderewski made much of the music. His tone was noble, his technic +adequate, his single-finger touch singing. Above all, there was a +romantic temperament exposed; not morbid but robust. His strange +appearance, the golden aureoled head, the shy attitude, were rather +puzzling to public and critic at his debut. Not too much enthusiasm was +exhibited during the concert or next morning in the newspapers. But the +second performance settled the question. A great artist was revealed. +His diffidence melted in the heat of frantic applause. He played the +Schumann concerto, the F-minor concerto of Chopin, many other concertos, +all of Chopin's music, much of Schumann, Beethoven, and Liszt. His +recitals, first given in the concert hall of Madison Square Garden, so +expanded in attendance that he moved to Carnegie Hall. There, with only +his piano, Paderewski repeated the Liszt miracle. And year after year. +Never in America has a public proved so insatiable in its desire to hear +a virtuoso. It is the same from New Orleans to Seattle. Everywhere +crowded halls, immense enthusiasms. Now to set all this down to an +exotic personality, to occult magnetism, to sensationalism, would be +unfair to Paderewski and to the critical discrimination of his +audiences. Many have gone to gaze upon him, but they remained to +listen. His solid attainments as a musician, his clear, elevated style, +his voluptuous, caressing touch, his sometimes exaggerated sentiment, +his brilliancy, endurance, and dreamy poetry--these qualities are real, +not imaginary. + +No more luscious touch has been heard since Rubinstein's. Paderewski +often lets his singing fingers linger on a phrase; but as few pianists +alive, he can spin his tone, and so his yielding to the temptation is a +natural one. He is intellectual and his readings of the classics are +sane. Of poetic temperament, he is at his best in Chopin, not Beethoven. +Eclectic is the best word to apply to his interpretations. He plays +programmes from Bach to Liszt with commendable fidelity and versatility. +He has the power of rousing his audience from a state of calm +indifference to wildest frenzy. How does he accomplish this? He has not +the technic of Rosenthal, nor that pianist's brilliancy and power; he is +not as subtle as Joseffy, nor yet as plastic in his play; the morbid +witchery of De Pachmann is not his; yet no one since Rubinstein--in +America at least--can create such climaxes of enthusiasm. Deny this or +that quality to Paderewski; go and with your own ears and eyes hear and +witness what we all have heard and witnessed. + +I once wrote a story in which a pianist figured as a mesmeriser. He sat +at his instrument in a crowded, silent hall and worked his magic upon +the multitude. The scene modulates into madness. People are transported. +And in all the rumour and storm, the master sits at the keyboard but +does _not_ play. I assure you I have been at Paderewski recitals where +my judgments were in abeyance, where my individuality was merged in that +of the mob, where I sat and wondered if I really _heard_; or was +Paderewski only going through the motions and not actually touching the +keys? His is a static as well as a dramatic art. The tone wells up from +the instrument, is not struck. It floats languorously in the air, it +seems to pause, transfixed in the air. The Sarmatian melancholy of +Paderewski, his deep sensibility, his noble nature, are translated into +the music. Then with a smashing chord he sets us, the prisoners of his +tonal circle, free. Is this the art of a hypnotiser? No one has so +mastered the trick, if trick it be. + +But he is not all moonshine. The truth is, Paderewski has a tone not as +large as mellow. His fortissimo chords have hitherto lacked the +foundational power and splendour of d'Albert's, Busoni's, and +Rosenthal's. His transition from piano to forte is his best range, not +the extremes at either end of the dynamic scale. A healthy, sunny tone +it is at its best, very warm in colour. In certain things of Chopin he +is unapproachable. He plays the F-minor concerto and the E-flat minor +scherzo--from the second Sonata--beautifully, and if he is not so +convincing in the Beethoven sonatas, his interpretation of the E-flat +Emperor concerto is surprisingly free from morbidezza; it is direct, +manly, and musical. His technic has gained since his advent in New +York. This he proved by the way he juggled with the Brahms-Paganini +variations; though they are still the property of Moritz Rosenthal. He +is more interesting than most pianists because he is more musical; he +has more personal charm; there is the feeling when you hear him that he +is a complete man, a harmonious artist, and this feeling is very +compelling. + +The tricky elf that rocked the cradle of Vladimir de Pachmann--a Russian +virtuoso, born in Odessa (1848), of a Jewish father and a Turkish mother +(he once said to me, "My father is a Cantor, my mother a Turkey")--must +have enjoyed--not without a certain malicious peep at the future--the +idea of how much worriment and sorrow it would cause the plump little +black-haired baby when he grew up and played the pianoforte like the imp +of genius he is. It is nearly seventeen years since he paid his first +visit to us. His success, as in London, was achieved after one recital. +Such an exquisite touch, subtlety of phrasing, and a technic that failed +only in broad, dynamic effects, had never before been noted. Yet De +Pachmann is in reality the product of an old-fashioned school. He +belongs to the Hummel-Cramer group, which developed a pure finger +technic and a charming euphony, but neglected the dramatic side of +delivery. Tone for tone's sake; absolute finesse in every figure; scales +that are as hot pearls on velvet; a perfect trill; a cantilena like the +voice; these, and repose of style, are the shibboleth of a tradition +that was best embodied in Thalberg--plus more tonal power in Thalberg's +case. Subjectivity enters largely in this combination, for De Pachmann +is "modern," neurotic. His presentation of some Chopin is positively +morbid. He is, despite his marked restrictions of physique and +mentality, a Chopin player par excellence. His fingers strike the keys +like tiny sweet mallets. His scale passages are liquid, his octave +playing marvellous, but en miniature--like everything he attempts. To +hear him in a Chopin polonaise is to realise his limitations. But in the +larghetto of the F-minor concerto, in the nocturnes and preludes--not of +course the big one in D minor--etudes, valses, ah! there is then but one +De Pachmann. He can be poetic and capricious and elfish in the mazurkas; +indeed, it has been conceded that he is the master-interpreter of these +soul-dances. The volume of tone that he draws from his instrument is not +large, but it is of a distinguished quality and very musical. He has +paws of velvet, and no matter what the difficulty, he overcomes it +without an effort. I once called him the _pianissimist_ because of his +special gift for filing tones to a whisper. His pianissimo begins where +other pianists end theirs. Enchanting is the effect when he murmurs in +such studies as the F minor of Chopin and the Concert study of Liszt of +the same tonality; or in mounting unisons as he breathlessly weaves the +wind through the last movement of Chopin's B-flat minor sonata. Less +edifying are De Pachmann's mannerisms. They are only tolerated because +of his exotic, lovely, and disquieting music. + +Of a different and a gigantic mould is the playing of Moritz Rosenthal. +He is a native of Lemberg, in Galician Poland, a city that has held +among other artists, Marcella Sembrich and Carl Mikuli, a pupil of +Chopin and editor of an edition of his works. When a mere child, twelve +years or so, Moritz walked from Lemberg to Vienna to study with Joseffy. +Even at that age he had the iron will of a superman. He played for +Joseffy the E-minor concerto of Chopin, the same work with which the +youthful Joseffy years before had won the heart of Tausig. Setting aside +Tausig--and this is only hearsay--the world of "pianism" has never +matched Rosenthal for speed, power, endurance; nor is this all. He is +both musical and intellectual. He is a doctor of philosophy, a bachelor +of arts. He has read everything, is a linguist, has travelled the globe +over, and in conversation his unerring memory and brilliant wit set him +as a man apart. To top all these gifts, he plays his instrument +magnificently, overwhelmingly. He is the Napoleon, the conqueror among +virtuosi. His tone is very sonorous, his touch singing, and he commands +the entire range of nuance from the rippling fioritura of the Chopin +barcarolle to the cannon-like thunderings of the A-flat polonaise. His +octaves and chords baffle all critical experience and appraisement. As +others play presto in single notes, so he dashes off double notes, +thirds, sixths, and octaves. His Don Juan fantaisie, part Liszt, part +Mozart, is entirely Rosenthalian in performance. He has composed at his +polyphonic forge a Humoreske. Its interweaving of voices, their +independence, the caprice and audacity of it all are astounding. Tausig +had such a technic; yet surely Tausig had not the brazen, thunderous +climaxes of this broad-shouldered young man! He is the epitome of the +orchestra and in a tonal duel with the orchestra he has never been +worsted. His interpretations of the classics, of the romantics, are of a +superior order. He played the last sonatas of Beethoven or the Schumann +Carneval with equal discrimination. His touch is crystal-like in its +clearness, therefore his tone lacks the sensuousness of Paderewski and +De Pachmann. But it is a mistake to set him down as a mere unemotional +mechanician. He is in reality a Superman among pianists. + +Eugen d'Albert has played in America several times, the first time in +company with Sarasate, the Spanish violin virtuoso. Liszt called +d'Albert, of whom he was very fond, the "second Tausig." The Weimar +master declared that the little Eugen looked like, played like, his +former favourite, Karl Tausig. In his youth d'Albert was as impetuous as +a thunderbolt; now he is more reflective than fiery, and he is often +careless in his technical work. Another pianist who has followed the +lure of composition; but a great virtuoso, a great interpreter of the +classics. His music suggests a close study of Brahms, and in his piano +concertos he is both Brahmsian and Lisztian. + +The first time I heard Saint-Saens was in Paris the year 1878. He played +at the Trocadero palace--it was the Exposition year--his clever +variations on a Beethoven theme for two pianos, Madame Montigny-Remaury +being his colleague. In 1896 I attended the fiftieth anniversary of his +first public appearance. The affair took place at a piano hall in Paris. +And several years ago I heard the veteran, full of years and honours, in +New York. He had changed but little. The same supple style, siccant +touch, and technical mastery were present. Not so polished as Plante, so +fiery--or so noisy--as Pugno, Saint-Saens is a greater musician than +either at the keyboard. His playing is Gallic--which means it is never +sultry, emotional, and seldom poetic. The French pianists make for +clearness, delicacy, symmetry; France never produced a Rubinstein, nor +does she cordially admire such volcanic artists. + +Ossip Gabrilowitsch has been for me always a sympathetic pianist. He has +improved measurably since his previous visits here. The poet and the +student still preponderate in his work; he is more reflective than +dramatic, though the fiery Slav in him often peeps out, and if he does +not "drive the horses of Rubinstein," as Oscar Bie once wrote, he is a +virtuoso of high rank. The Bie phrase could be better applied to Mark +Hambourg, who sometimes is like a full-blooded runaway horse with the +bit between its teeth. Hambourg has Slavic blood in his veins and it +courses hotly. He is an attractive player, a younger Tausig--before +Tausig taught himself the value of repose and restraint. Recklessly +Hambourg attacks the instrument in a sort of Rubinsteinian fury. Of late +he has, it is said, learned the lesson of self-control. His polyphony +is clearer, his tone, always big, is more sonorous and individual. +It was the veteran Dr. William Mason who predicted Hambourg's +future. Exuberance and excess of power may be diverted into musical +channels--and these Mark Hambourg has. It is not so easy to reverse the +process and build up a temperament where little naturally exists. + +Josef Hofmann, from a wonder child who influenced two continents, has +developed into an artist who has attained perfection--a somewhat cool +perfection, it may be admitted. But what a well-balanced touch, what a +broad, euphonious tone, what care in building climaxes or shading his +tone to mellifluous whisper! Musically he is impregnable. His readings +are free from extravagances, his bearing dignified, and if we miss the +dramatic element in his play we are consoled by the easy sweep, the +intellectual grasp, and the positively pleasure-giving quality of his +touch. Eclectic in style, Hofmann is the "young-old" master of the +pianoforte. And he is Polish in everything but Chopin. But well-bred! +Perhaps Rubinstein was right when he said, so is the report--at Dresden, +"Jozio will never have to change his shirt at a recital as I did." + +Harold Bauer is a great favourite in America as well as in Paris. He has +a quiet magnetism, a mastery of technical resources, backed by sound +musicianship. He was a violinist before he became a pianist; this fact +may account for his rich tone-quality--Bauer could even make an +old-fashioned "square" pianoforte discourse eloquently. He, too, is an +eclectic; all schools appeal to him and his range is from Bach to Caesar +Franck, both of whom he interprets with reverence and authority. Bauer +played Liszt's Dance of Death in this country, creating thereby a +reputation for brilliant "pianism." The new men, Lhevinne, Ganz, +Scriabine, Stojowski, are forging ahead, especially the first two, who +are virtuoso artists. The young Swiss, Ganz, is a very attractive +artist, apart from his technical attainments; he is musical, and that is +two-thirds of the battle. Two men who once resided in America, Ferrucio +Busoni and Leopold Godowsky, went abroad and conquered Europe. Busoni is +called the master-interpreter of Bach and Liszt; the master-miniaturist +is the title bestowed upon the miracle-working Godowsky, whose velvety +touch and sensitive style have been better appreciated in Europe than +America. + +The fair unfair sex has not lacked in representative piano artists. +Apart from the million girls busily engaged in manipulating pedals, +slaying music and sleep at one fell moment, there is a band of keyboard +devotees that has earned fame and fortune, and an honourable place in +the Walhalla of pianoforte playing. The modern female pianist does not +greatly vary from her male rival except in muscular power, and even in +that Sofie Menter and Teresa Carreno have vied with their ruder +brethren. Pianists in petticoats go back as far as Nanette Streicher and +come down to Paula Szalit, a girl who, it is said, improvises fugues. +Marie Pleyel, Madame de Szymanowska--Goethe's friend at Marienbad, in +1822--Clara Schumann, Arabella Goddard, Sofie Menter, Annette +Essipoff--once Paderewski's adviser, and a former wife of Leschetitzky; +Marie Krebs, Ingeborg Bronsart, Aline Hundt, Fannie Davies, Madeliene +Schiller, Julia Rive-King, Helen Hopekirk, Nathalie Janotha, Adele +Margulies, the Douste Sisters, Amy Fay, Dory Petersen, Cecilia Gaul, +Madame Paur, Madame Lhevinne, Antoinette Szumowska, Adele Aus der Ohe, +Cecile Chaminade, Madame Montigny-Remaury, Madame Roger-Miclos, Marie +Torhilon-Buell, Augusta Cottlow, Mrs. Arthur Friedheim, Laura Danzinger +Rosebault, Olga Samaroff, Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler--these are a few +well-known names before the public during the past and in the present. + +[Illustration: + + Walter Bache Solati Reisenauer Carl V. Lachmund + Mrs. Scott-Siddons Harry Waller + +The Final Liszt Circle at Weimar + +(Liszt at the upper window)] + +It may be assumed that the sex which can boast among its members such +names as Jane Austen, George Sand, George Eliot, novelists; Vigee +Lebrun, Mary Cassatt, Cecilia Beaux, and Berthe Morisot, painters; +Sonia Kovalevsky, mathematician; Madame Curie, science; Elizabeth +Barrett Browning and Christina Rossetti, poetry, would not fail in the +reproductive art of pianoforte playing. Clara Schumann was an unexcelled +interpreter of her husband's music; Sofie Menter the most masculine of +Liszt's feminine choir; Essipoff unparalleled as a Chopin player; +Carreno has a man's head, man's fingers, and woman's heart; Fannie +Bloomfield Zeisler, an artist of singular intensity and strong +personality--these women have admirably contributed to the history of +their art and need not fear comparisons on the score of sex. + +How far will the pursuit of technic go, and what will be the effect upon +the mechanical future of the instrument? It is both a thankless and a +dangerous task to prophesy; but it seems that technic _qua_ technic has +ventured as far as it dare. Witness the astounding arrangements made by +the ingenious Godowsky, the grafting of two Chopin studies, both hands +autonomous, racing at full speed! The thing is monstrous--yet effective; +but that way musical madness lies. The Janko keyboard, a sort of ivory +toboggan-slide, permitted the performance of incredible difficulties; +glissandi in chromatic tenths! But who in the name of Apollo cares to +hear chromatic tenths sliding pell-mell down-hill! Music is music, and a +man or woman must make it, not alone an instrument. The tendency now is +toward the fabrication of a more sensitive, vibrating sounding-board. +Quality, not brutal quantity, is the desideratum. This, with the more +responsive and elastic keyboard action of the day, which permits all +manner of finger nuance, will tell upon the future of the pianoforte. +Machine music has usurped our virtuosity; but it can never reign in the +stead of the human artist. And therefore we now demand more of the +spiritual and less of the technical from our pianists. Music is the +gainer thereby, and the old-time cacophonous concerto for pianoforte and +orchestra will, we hope, be relegated to the limbo of things inutile. +The pianoforte was originally an _intimate_ instrument, and it will +surely go back, though glorified by experience, to its first, dignified +estate. + +I have written more fully of the pianists that I have had the good +fortune to hear with my own ears. This is what is called impressionistic +criticism. Academic criticism may be loosely defined as the expression +of another's opinion. It has decided historic interest. In a word, the +former tells how much _you_ enjoyed a work of art, whether creative or +interpretive; the latter what some other fellow liked. So, accept +these sketches as a mingling of the two methods, with perhaps a +disproportionate stress laid upon the personal element--the most +important factor, after all, in criticism. + + + + +INSTEAD OF A PREFACE + + +This book, projected in 1902, was at that time announced as a biography +of Liszt. However, a few tentative attacks upon the vast amount of raw +material soon convinced me that to write the ideal life of the Hungarian +a man must be plentifully endowed with time and patience. I preferred, +therefore, to study certain aspects of Liszt's art and character; and as +I never heard him play I have summoned here many competent witnesses to +my aid. Hence the numerous contradictions and repetitions, arguments for +and against Liszt in the foregoing volume, frankly sought for, rather +than avoided. The personality, or, strictly speaking, the various +personalities of Liszt are so mystifying that they would require the +professional services of a half-dozen psychologists to untangle their +complex web. As to his art, I have quoted from many conflicting +authorities, hoping that the reader will evolve from the perhaps +confusing pattern an authentic image of the man and his music. And all +the biographies I have seen--Lina Ramann's, despite its violent parti +pris, is the most complete (an urquell for its successors)--read like +glorified time-tables. Now, no man is a hero to his biographer, but the +practice of jotting down unimportant happenings makes your hero very +small potatoes indeed. An appalling number of pages are devoted to the +arrival and departure of the master at or from Weimar, Rome, or +Budapest. "Liszt left Rome for Budapest at 8.30 A. M., accompanied by +his favourite pupil Herr Fingers," etc.; or, "Liszt returned to Weimar +at 9 P. M., and was met at the station by the Baroness W. and Professor +Handgelenk." A more condensed method is better, though it may lack +interest for the passionate Liszt admirers. As for the chronicling of +small-beer, I hope I have provided sufficient anecdotes to satisfy the +most inveterate of scandal-mongers. I may add that for over a quarter of +a century I have been collecting Lisztiana; not to mention the almost +innumerable conversations and interviews I have enjoyed with friends and +pupils of Liszt. + +I wish to acknowledge the help and sympathy of: Camille Saint-Saens, +Frederick Niecks, Rafael Joseffy, the late Anton Seidl, Felix +Weingartner, Arthur Friedheim, Richard Burmeister, Henry T. Finck, +Philip Hale, W. F. Apthorp, the late Edward Dannreuther, Frank Van der +Stucken, August Spanuth, Emil Sauer, Moritz Rosenthal, Eugen d'Albert, +Amy Fay, Rosa Newmarch, Jaroslaw de Zielinski, the late Edward A. +MacDowell, John Kautz, of Albany (who first suggested to me the +magnitude of Liszt's contribution to the art of rhythms), Charles A. +Ellis, of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Edward E. Ziegler. I am +also particularly indebted to the following publications for their +courtesy in the matter of reproduction of various articles: _Scribner's +Magazine_, _New York Sun_, _Evening Post_, _Herald_, _Times_, _The +Etude_, _Everybody's Magazine_, and _The Musical Courier_. + +An exhaustive list of the compositions has yet to be made, though +Goellerich in his Franz Liszt consumes fifty-five pages in enumerating +the works--compiled from Lina Ramann, Breitkopf and Haertel, and +Busoni--some of which never saw the light of publication; such as the +opera Don Sancho, the Revolutionary Symphony, _etcetera_; when Breitkopf +and Haertel finish their cataloguing no doubt the result will be more +satisfactory. The fact is that out of the known 1,300 compositions, only +400 are original and of these latter how many are worth remembering? +Liszt wrote too much and too often for money. His best efforts will +survive, of course; but I do not see the use of making a record of +ephemeral pot-boilers. It is the same with the bibliography. I give the +sources whenever I can of my information; impossible, however, is it to +credit the authorship of all the flotsam and jetsam. Kapp in his +ponderous biography actually devotes twenty-seven pages to the books, +magazines, and newspapers which have dealt with the theme, though even +his Teutonic industry has not rendered flawless his drag-net. + +Liszt was the most caricatured man in Europe save Wagner and Louis +Napoleon, and he was painted, sculptured, and photographed oftener than +any operatic or circus celebrity who ever sang or swung in the +break-neck trapeze. Naturally the choice of illustrations for this study +was narrowed down to a few types, with here and there a novelty (dug up +from some ancient album); yet sufficient to reveal Liszt as boy, youth, +man; fascinating, dazzling, enigmatic artist, comedian, abbe, +rhapsodist, but ever the great-souled Franz Liszt. + + J. H. + + + + +INDEX + + + Acton, Lord, 14. + + Adam, Madame Edmond. (See Juliette Lamber.) + + Adelaide (Beethoven's), 216. + + Albano, 79. + + Aldega, Professor, 381. + + Aldrich, Richard, 195. + + Alkan, 63, 408. + + Allegri, 84. + + Allmers, W., 79. + + Altenburg, The (Liszt's house at Weimar), 21, 24, 47, 48, 53, 261, + 362, 389. + + Amalia, Anna, 328. + + Amalie Caroline, Princess of Hesse, 198. + + Amiel, 64. + + Andersen, Hans Christian, account of a Liszt concert, 230-234. + + Anfossi, 80. + + Ansorge, Conrad (pupil), 98, 332, 425. + + Antonelli, Cardinal, 22, 49, 50. + + Apel, Frau Pauline (Liszt's housekeeper), 327. + + "Apres une lecture de Dante" (Hugo), 152. + + Apthorp, W. F., 172, 173; + analysis of the Concerto in A major, 173, 174. + + Arnim, Countess Bettina von, 42, 43, 261; + Graf von, 89, 261. + + Auber, 172, 204, 281. + + Auerbach, Berthold, 139. + + Aufforderung zum Tanz (Weber), 93, 205, 207, 253. + + Augener & Company, 181. + + August, Karl, 328. + + "Aus der Glanzzeit der Weimaren Altenburg" (La Mara), 44. + + Aus der Ohe, Adele (pupil), 24, 436. + + Austen, Jane, 436. + + Ave Maria (Schubert's), 216. + + + Bach, 32, 62, 185, 375, 381, 425, 435; + Chevalier Leonard E., 312. + + Bache, Walter (pupil), 196, 312, 384-386. + + Bachez, 226. + + Baerman, 425. + + Bagby, Albert Morris (pupil), 370. + + Baillot, 204, 209. + + Bakounine, 38. + + Ballads (Chopin), 186, 399, 424. + + Ballanche, 78. + + Balzac, 26, 39. + + Barber of Bagdad (Cornelius), 48. + + Barcarolle (Chopin), 424, 431. + + Barna, Michael, 198, 199. + + Barnett, J. F., 385. + + Barry, C. A., 127, 139. + + Bartolini, 416. + + Baudelaire, 19. + + Bauer, Caroline, Reminiscences of, 241-244; + Harold, 174, 435. + + Beale, Frederick, 308; + Willert, 308. + + "Beatrix" (Balzac), 39. + + Beato, Fra, 84. + + Beethoven, 4, 5, 6, 10, 13, 30, 31, 32, 52, 54, 55, 62, 67, 84, + 105, 115, 120, 160, 171, 179, 185, 186, 202, 204, 210, 217, + 281, 375, 381, 408, 409, 411, 413, 420, 432; + festival at Bonn, 225, 376; + his piano, 262, 339; + statue of, unveiled, 226. + + "Beethoven et Ses Trois Styles" (von Lenz), 201. + + Belgiojoso, Princess Cristina, 8, 14, 16, 42, 82, 286. + + Belloni, 213, 237. + + Bendix, Max, 66. + + Benedict, Julius, 283, 284. + + Berceuse (Chopin), 186, 424. + + Bergerat, Emile, 320. + + Beringer, Oscar, 376, 377. + + Berlioz, 5, 6, 8, 10, 17, 19, 20, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 36, 47, 53, 55, + 64, 67, 82, 85, 105, 145, 155, 157, 158, 169, 171, 183, 186, + 193, 200, 204, 258, 259, 282, 300, 337, 411, 415; + account of his friendship with Liszt, 210-217; + letter to Liszt, 215-217. + + Berne, 81. + + Berta, 91. + + Bethmann, Simon Maritz, 15. + + Bie, Oscar, 433. + + Bielgorsky, Count, 294, 296, 297. + + Birmingham Musical Festival, 195. + + Bishop, Sir Henry, 307. + + Bismarck, 179. + + Bizet, 378-380. + + _Blackwood's Magazine_, 304. + + Blaze de Bury, Baron, article on Liszt, 218, 219. + + Blessington, Countess of, 252. + + Bocella, 165. + + Bock, Anna, 276. + + Borodin, 24, 27. + + Boscovitz, 425. + + Boesendorfer, 171. + + Bossuet, 26. + + Bourget, Paul, 141. + + Bovary, Emma, 16. + + Brahm, Otto, 332. + + Brahms, 9, 19, 53, 57, 153, 185, 187, 375, 405, 408, 421, 424, 425, + 433. + Brandes, Georg, 5. + + Breidenstein, Professor, 226. + + Breithaupt, Rudolf, 402. + + Breitkopf and Haertel, 94, 197, 408. + + Brendel, Franz (pupil), 194. + + Breughel, 28. + + "Briefe und Schriften" (von Buelow), 179. + + Bright, John, 11. + + Broadwood piano, 339. + + Bronsart, Hans von (pupil), 172; + Ingeborg von, 401, 436. + + Bulgarin, 124. + + Buelow, Daniela von, 279; + Hans von (Liszt's favorite pupil), 15, 19, 21, 45, 93, 96, 101, + 136-138, 168, 176, 177, 179, 228, 229, 362, 402, 420, 422, 423; + Appreciation of Die Ideale, 136; + Criticism of, 398, 400. + + Bunsen, Von, 83. + + Burmeister, Richard (pupil), 24, 52, 177, 178, 340, 359, 425. + + Burne-Jones, 18. + + Busoni, Ferrucio, 402, 408, 425, 428, 435. + + Byron, 11, 16, 34, 115, 124, 398. + + + Cabaner, 29. + + Callot, 28. + + Calvocoressi, 56. + + Campo Santo of Pisa, 175. + + Canterbury, Lord, 252. + + Carolsfield, J. Schnorr von, 79. + + Carreno, Teresa, 402, 436, 437. + + Casanova, 34. + + Catarani, Cardinal, 49. + + Catel, 89. + + Cezano, Marquise. (See Olga Janina.) + + Chamber music, 195. + + Chaminade, Cecile, 436. + + Chantavoine, Jean, 56. + + Charpentier, 10. + + Chateaubriand, 11, 26, 29, 43, 64. + + Chelard, 226. + + Cherubini, 204. + + Chopin, Frederic Francois, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 26, 29, + 38, 39, 40, 43, 59, 60, 63, 73-77, 145, 186, 201, 204, 238, 282, + 287, 288, 300, 308, 328, 367, 372, 375, 381, 405, 408, 415, 416, + 418, 419. + + Chorley, 225, 228, 252. + + Christophe, Jean; description of Liszt, 2. + + Church music, 187, 188, 190, 193, 194. + + Cimarosa, 80. + + Circourt, Madame de, 319, 320. + + Clementi, 62, 302. + + Coblentz, Tribute from citizens of, 244. + + Cognetti, Mademoiselle, 98. + + Collin, Von, 115. + + Cologne, cathedral at, 248. + + Colpach (Munkaczy's castle in Luxemburg), 25, 44, 280. + + Commettant, Oscar, satirical sketch of, 219, 220. + + Concerto (Bach), 293. + + Concerto (Beethoven), 202. + + Concerto (Chopin), 396, 424, 426, 428, 430. + + Concerto (Tschaikowsky), 422. + + Concertstueck (Weber's), 212, 219, 288, 293. + + Consalvi, Cardinal, 79. + + Constant, Benjamin, 11. + + "Conversation on Music" (Rubinstein), 156. + + Coriolanus (Beethoven's), 115. + + Cornelius, Peter (pupil), 19, 22, 27, 28, 83, 89, 139, 165, 260, 362, + 419. + + Correggio, 28. + + _Correspondent, The_, 210. + + Cosima von Buelow Wagner, 15, 20, 23, 25, 44, 49, 58, 93, 96, 101, 141, + 228. + + Cottlow, Augusta, 436. + + Coutts, Baroness Burdett, 312. + + Craig, Gordon, 332. + + Cramer, J. B., 62, 184, 225, 302. + + Crux Fidelis (choral), 133. + + Crystal Palace, London, 139. + + Cymbal effects in piano-playing, 161. + + Czaky, Archbishop of, 200. + + Czerny, Carl, 13, 72, 73, 182, 184, 302, 308, 317, 406. + + Czinka, Pauna, a gypsy girl, 199. + + + D'Agoult, Comte Charles, 15; + Countess (Marie Sophie de Flarigny), 3, 14, 15, 25, 37, 39-41, 43, + 80, 85, 86, 87, 246, 247, 259, 391. + + D'Albert, Eugen (pupil), 24, 174, 359, 370, 372, 402, 428, 432. + + Damnation de Faust (Berlioz), 199. + + Damrosch, Leopold (pupil), 118, 138, 139, 174, 197. + + D'Angers, David, 416. + + Dannreuther, 20, 152, 181, 191, 193. + + Dante, 8, 147-152, 155; + gallery (Rome), 382. + + Danton, 220, 221. + + Danube flood, 81. + + Danzinger-Rosebault, Laura, 436. + + Davies, Fannie, 436. + + Da Vinci, 28. + + _Debats, The_, 211. + + De Beriot, 283. + + Debussy, 10, 31. + + Dehmel, Richard, 332. + + Delacroix, 5. + + Delaroche, 16, 28. + + De Musset, 39. + + De Pachmann, Vladimir, 24, 61, 423, 427, 429-431, 432. + + De Quincy, 27. + + Devrient, Ludwig, 139. + + Dictionary of Musicians, 385. + + Dietrichstein, Prince, 359. + + Dilke, Wentworth, 228. + + Dinglested, 48. + + Diorama, The, 152. + + Dobrjan (Liszt's birthplace). (See Raiding.) + + Doehler, 17. + + Dohnanyi, 425. + + Don Carlos, 241. + + Donizetti, 63, 86. + + Doppler, Franz, 158. + + Dore, Gustave, 28. + + D'Ortigue on Liszt, 217, 218. + + Douste sisters, 436. + + Draeseke, 21. + + Dukas, 10. + + Du Plessis, Marie, 19. + + Dupre, Jules, 11. + + Dwight, John S. (Boston musical critic), interview with Liszt, 228, + 229. + + Eckermann, 64. + + Edict of Louis XII, 80. + + "L'Education Sentimentale" (Flaubert), 26. + + Ehlert, Louis, 17, 363. + + El Greco, 28. + + Eliot, George, 43, 47, 53, 436; + Weimar recollections of, 258. + + Ellet, Mrs., account of a Liszt concert in Cologne, 248, 249. + + Ellis, Havelock, 12 + + Enfantin, Pere Prosper, 14. + + Eperjes, 198. + + Erard piano, 59, 301, 318, 323. + + Ernani, 258. + + Ernst, Paul, 332. + + Escudier, Leon, description of Danton's statuette of Liszt, 220, 221; + incident at one of Henri Herz's concerts, 221, 222. + + Essipoff, Annette, 436, 437. + + Essler, Fanny, 235. + + Esterhazy, Prince, 304; + estates, 12. + + Etruscan Museum, 83. + + _Etude, The_, 381. + + Etudes (Chopin), 75. + + Euryanthe, Overture to, 181. + + + Faelten, 425. + + Fallersleben, Hoffmann von (lyric poet), 165, 260. + + Fantasia (Bach), 383. + + Fantasia (Schumann), 57. + + Faure, 281. + + Faust (Lenau's), 71. + + Faust Ouverture, Eine (Wagner's), 143. + + Fay, Amy, 38, 436. + + Feodorovna, Empress Alexandra, 295. + + Fetis and Moscheles, 185. + + Feuerbach, 89. + + Fichtner, Pauline, 24. + + Field, 368. + + _Figaro, The_ (London), 384. + + Finck, Henry T., 165, 179, 194, 196, 314. + + Fischer, Signor, 345; + Wilhelm, 147. + + Fischof, 226. + + Flaubert, Gustave, 16, 26. + + Flavigny, Vicomte de, 15. + + Foyatier, 18. + + Francia, 84. + + Francis Joseph, king of Hungary, 96. + + Franck, Caesar, 435. + + Franz, Robert, 19, 66, 229, 411. + + Frederic (piano tuner), 287. + + "Frederick Chopin" (Niecks), 74. + + _Freemason's Journal, The_, 389. + + Freischuetz (Weber's), 205, 214. + + Friedheim, Arthur (pupil), 24, 70, 359, 368-373, 425. + Mrs. Arthur, 436. + + + Gabrilowitsch, Ossip, 425, 433. + + Galitsin, Prince (governor-general of Moscow), 294. + + Galleria Dantesca, 102. + + Garcia, Viardot, 388. + + Garibaldi, 89. + + Gaul, Cecilia, 276, 436. + + Gautier, Judith, 17; + Marguerite, 40; + Theophile, 5, 11. + + Gauz, Rudolph, 425, 435. + + _Gazette Musicale_ (Paris), 77, 179, 193, 287, 288. + + Geneva, 15, 81. + + Genoa, 81. + + George IV, 304. + + Gericke (conductor), 147, 151. + + Gervais, 359. + + Gille, 21. + + Gillet, 281. + + Giocati-Buonaventi, A., 390. + + Giorgione, 28. + + Glinka, 297, 298. + + Gluck, 30, 84. + + Goddard, Arabella, 436. + + Godowsky, Leopold, 402, 425, 435, 437. + + Goethe, 9, 11, 15, 19, 22, 34, 43, 47, 64, 78, 84, 85, 88, 89, 113, + 145, 146, 155, 165, 167, 196, 211, 223, 279, 328, 329, 330, 436; + foundation, 48. + + Goethe-Schiller monument, unveiling of, 133. + + Goellerich, August (pupil and biographer), 44, 49, 55, 57, 58, 98, + 118, 359. + + Goncourt, 26. + + Gott, Joseph, 381. + + Gottschalg, A. W. (pupil), 21, 56; + "Franz Liszt in Weimar," 358. + + Gounod, 217. + + Gradus (Clementi), 59. + + Graefe, 280. + + Gran (Hungary), Basilica at, 188. + + Gregorovius, 78, 79, 88, 89, 91, 93, 98, 102. + + Gregory VII, 56; + XIV, 83. + + Grieg, Eduard, 24, 425; + piano concerto, 313-316. + + Grove, Sir George, 385. + + Gruenfeld, Alfred, 425. + + Gruenwald, Matthew, 28. + + Guido of Arezzo, 73. + + Gumprecht, 29. + + + Habeneck (conductor), 204. + + Hackett, Francis, 14. + + Hagn, Charlotte von, 42. + + Hahn, Arthur, 112. + + Haehnel, Professor, 226. + + Hale, Philip, 5, 66, 127, 135, 151, 171, 174, 320. + + Halevy, 204, 378. + + Hall, Walter (conductor), 192. + + Hambourg, Mark, 425, 434. + + Handel, 31, 120, 304, 381. + + Handley, Mrs., 319. + + Hanslick, Eduard, 53, 139, 171. + + Harold, 106. + + Harmonic system, 419. + + Hauptmann, 385. + + Hayden, 10. + + Haydn, Joseph, 12, 31, 84, 105, 142, 160, 172, 409. + + Healey, 417. + + Hegel, 233. + + Hegner, Otto, 425. + + Heine, 9, 11, 17, 124, 165; + reminiscences of Liszt, 234-241. + + Helbig, Madame Nadine (Princess Nadine Schakovskoy) (pupil), 42, 102. + + Henderson, W. J., 192; + on the St. Elisabeth Legend, 192, 193. + + Henselt, 209. + + Herder, Jonathan Gottfried, 130, 328. + + Hermann, Carl (pupil), 276. + + Herwegh, George, 235. + + Herz, Henry, 17, 65, 221, 222, 308. + + Herz-Parisian school, 59. + + Hill, Edward Burlingame, 381. + + Hiller, Ferdinand, 3, 35, 53, 293, 320. + + History of Charles XII (Voltaire), 124; + of the French Revolution (Francois Mignet), 14. + + Hoffman, Richard, 425; + recollections of Liszt, 316-318. + + Hofgaertnerei, The (Liszt's residence in Weimar), 23, 58, 389. + + Hofmann, Josef, 425, 434. + + Hohenlohe, Cardinal Prince, 22, 93, 94, 97. + + Hohenlohe-Schillingsfuerst, Prince, 48. + + Hopekirk, Helen, 436. + + Hotel d'Alibert (Liszt's residence in Rome), 98, 340. + + "Hour Passed with Liszt, An" (By B. W. H.), 275-279. + + Hueffer, Dr., 166. + + Hugo, Victor, 5, 108, 124, 152, 165, 204. + + Huguenots (Meyerbeer's), 145. + + Humboldt, 48, 78. + + Hummel, J. N., 12, 13, 73, 202, 224; + concerto, 304, 317. + + Hundt, Aline, 436. + + Hungarian Diet, debate in, 200; + Museum (Budapest), 338. + + Hyllested, 425. + + + Ideale, Die (Schiller), 133, 134. + + Idealism, 59. + + Ibsen, 71. + + "Inchape Bell" (Parry), 310. + + Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique, 83, 84, 416, 417. + + Irving, Henry, 32. + + Ivanowski, Peter von (father of the Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein), 45. + + + James, Henry, 27, 141. + + Janin, Jules, 40, 228. + + Janina, Olga (pupil), 41. + + Janko keyboard, 437. + + Janotha, Nathalie, 436. + + Jarvis, 425. + + Jensen, Adolf, 363. + + Joachim, Joseph (pupil), 3, 19, 53, 57, 358. + + Joseffy, Rafael (pupil), 24, 57, 63, 66, 374-376, 418, 421, 425, + 427, 431. + + Jonkovsky, Baron, 417. + + + Kahrer, Laura, 24. + + Kalkbrenner, 17, 65, 201, 202, 204, 205-207, 302. + + Kapellmeister, 21. + + Kapp, Julius, 55, 56, 57. + + Karlsruhe (music festival at), 93. + + Kaulbach, Wilhelm von, 9, 28, 84, 132, 416. + + Kemble, Fanny, 244; + impression of Liszt, 245. + + Kennedy, Mgr., 343, 344. + + Kessler, Count, 332. + + Kieff, 45. + + Kindworth, Karl (pupil), 362, 403. + + Kirkenbuhl, Karl, extracts from his "Federzeichnungen aus Rom," + 267-275. + Kissingen, 280. + + Kistner (Leipsic publisher), 414. + + Klahre, Edwin (pupil), 425. + + Kleinmichael's piano score, 142. + + Klindworth, Agnes Street, 42. + + Klinger, Max, 331, 334. + + Klinkerfuss, Johanna, 24. + + Kloss, George, 389. + + Kohler, Louis (pupil), 138. + + Kovacs, 338. + + Kovalensky, Sonia, 437. + + Kraftmayr (Von Wolzogen), 57. + + Krebs, Marie, 436. + + Krehbiel, H. E., 10. + + Kremlin, 29. + + Kriehuber, 417. + + Krockow, Countess, 363. + + Kullak, 383. + + + La Mara (Marie Lipsius) (pupil), 35, 39, 41, 44, 49. + + Lamartine, 9, 204, 398. + + Lamb, Charles, 30. + + Lamber, Juliette, criticism of George Sand, 39. + + Lambert, Alexander (pupil), 174, 425. + + Lamenais, 14, 79. + + Lamond, Frederick, 312, 425. + + Landes Musikakademie, 97. + + Lanyi, Joann von, 199. + + Laprunarede, Adele (Duchesse de Fleury) (pupil), 37. + + Lassen, 19. + + Laussot, Jessie Hillebrand, 42. + + Lavenu, 309, 310. + + Legouve, Ernest, 214; + comparison of Liszt and Thalberg's playing, 281-291, 416. + + Lehmann, 259. + + Leipsic school, 52. + + Lenau, 71, 398. + + Lenbach, 416, 417. + + Lenz, Von (pupil), account of his acquaintance with Liszt, 201-210. + + Leonora Overture (Beethoven's), 153. + + Leo XII, 80; + XIII, 345, 390. + + Leopold I, Emperor, 198. + + Leschetitzky, 436. + + "Lettres d'un Voyageur" (George Sand), 322. + + Leyrand, 416. + + Lewald, Fanny, 79. + + Lewes, George Henry 43, 48. + + Lhevinne, 425, 435; + Madame, 436. + + Lichnowsky, Prince Felix, 241-243. + + Liedertafel, Rhenish, 248, 249. + + Lie, Erika, 313. + + Liliencron, Baron Detlev von, 331. + + Lind, Jenny, 403. + + Lindemann-Frommel, 89. + + Liondmilla, 298. + + Lipsius, Marie. (See La Mara.) + + Listemann (conductor), 147. + + Liszt, Adam, 12, 317; + Anna Lager, 12; + Blandine, 15, 90, 97; + Cosima (see Cosima von Buelow Wagner); + Daniel, 15, 16, 97; + Edward, 169. + + Liszt, Franz, abuse of, in Germany, 3; + affectation in his work, 157; + alters harmonic minor scale, 163; + amiability of, 21; + amusing story of conversion, 320-326; + anecdotes, 57, 58, 101, 142, 180, 221, 237, 243, 254, 255, 378; + appreciation of Saint-Saens, 104, 105; + as a teacher, 14, 23; + as Abbe, 18, 50, 97, 267, 275; + biographers of, 51, 55, 56, 101; + birth of, 11, 12; + birthplace of, 13; + boyhood of, 13, 14, 300-305; + in Budapest, 97; + character of his music, 29, 30, 78; + children of, 15, 16, 86, 359; + chivalry of, 11, 34, 56; + Chopin's obligation to, 6, 73-77; + comment on his 13th Psalm, 194, 195; + comparison of established symphonic form with that devised by Liszt, + 140; + compared with Wagner, 108, 143, 144; + as composer, 1, 2, 13, 14, 20, 31, 35, 43, 52-56, 86, 90, 103, 144, + 327, 377, 409-413; + concerts of, 34, 212, 221, 223, 224, 230, 235, 248, 288, 292, 293, + 302, 305, 319; + as conductor, 2, 87, 135, 258, 377; + conducts at Aix-la-Chapelle, 135; + conducts in Berlin, 137; + conducts at Prague, 136; + conducts at Pesth, 94, 96; + conducts in Rome, 94; + conducts in Weimar, 88; + conversation of, 258, 259, 276; + court musical director (Weimar), 22, 46, 47; + creator of the symphonic poem, 26, 27, 106, 139, 140; + criticisms regarding, 2, 8, 14, 17, 21, 64, 153-158, 194, 360, 399; + and the Countess d'Agoult, 14-16, 80, 81, 85, 391; + daily mode of life, 99, 100; + death of, 1, 2, 25, 280; + dedications, 57, 100, 169, 172; + description of his ideal of romantic religious music, 193; + in England, 300-313; + fascinating personality of, 45, 235, 236, 241, 246, 256, 257; + feminine friendships of, 34-43; + fingering, 74, 187; + Freemason, 389; + friendship with Berlioz, 212; + friendship with Cardinal Prince Hohenlohe, 22; + friendship with Chopin, 14, 40; + friendship with Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 83, 84; + and Marguerite Gautier, 40; + generosity of, 24, 101, 257, 258; + gifts from sovereigns, 328; + greatest contribution to art, 4; + hand of, 328, 339; + illness of, 44, 135; + impressionability of, 8, 10, 11; + improvisations of, 82, 180, 181; + indebtedness to Chopin, 76; + influence of Berlioz, 17, 55, 411; + influence of Chopin, 17, 145, 411; + influence of gipsy music, 160; + influence of Meyerbeer, 145; + influence of Paganini, 17; + influence of Wagner, 191; + ingratitude of Schumann, 57; + on instruments of percussion, 170, 171; + interest in German art, 90; + interest in Tausig, 362; + interpretation, 87; + interview with, 228, 229; + intimacy with Prince Lichnowsky, 241-243; + intrigues against, 22; + introduces interlocking octaves, 77; + introduces the piano recital, 71, 419; + and Olga Janina, 41; + lack of appreciation of, 31, 141, 229; + and the Countess Adele Laprunarede, 37; + letters of, 9, 35, 37, 44, 46, 92, 135, 136, 138, 143, 150, 169, 170, + 171, 179, 194, 195, 197, 219, 279, 280, 289, 290, 394, 414; + literary work of, 19, 20; + in London, 300-313; + loss of Piano Method, Part III, 358; + love affairs of, 2, 3, 19-23, 36-41, 88; + and Lola Montez, 40, 41; + musical style of, 4, 181; + musical imagination, 8, 146; + notation, 187; + number of compositions, 56; + orchestral form, 194; + orchestral instrumentation, 157; + orchestral music of, 32, 123, 190; + as organ composer, 401, 402; + original compositions of, 412, 413; + on origin of his Tasso, 115; + on origin of his Orpheus, 121; + parents of, 12, 14, 251; + in Paris, 13, 24; + patience of, 27; + pedalling, 62, 99, 187; + pen picture of, 57; + personal appearance, 18, 82, 98, 204, 231, 255, 262, 269, 276, 296, + 297; + personal characteristics, 2, 3, 17, 66, 71, 327; + pianoforte virtuoso, 1, 2, 8, 14, 16, 18, 43, 56, 73, 94, 106, 247, + 251, 252, 420; + piano music of, 10, 11, 53, 66, 123, 168, 187, 409-413; + piano recitals, 82, 83, 179, 308-311, 419; + piano reform, 91; + piano of, 328, 340, 342, 343, 394; + and the Countess Louis Plater, 37; + playing of, 17, 60-64, 87, 99, 141, 161, 208, 214, 223, 224, 232, + 233, 238-240, 253, 266, 277, 278, 285, 292, 314, 316, 421; + plays Weber's Sonatas, 207, 208; + plays at Berlioz's, 210; + at Bizet's, 379; + at court of Wurtemburg, 252; + at Karlsruhe, 93; + at Legouve's, 215; + at Munkaczy's, 25; + at Tolstoy's, 102; + at Windsor Castle, 304; + portraits of, 16, 18, 42, 261, 289, 338, 416, 417; + prediction at birth of, 12; + predominating artistic influences, 17; + prophecy of, 100; + public speaking of, 179, 213, 226, 227; + pupils of, 24, 36, 42, 51, 52, 57, 91, 98, 185, 263, 353-388; + alphabetical list of pupils, 353-358; + reading of, 14; + realism of, 67; + reformer of church music, 2; + religious fervor of, 89-92, 97, 98, 196; + residences in and around Rome, 343; + revolutionist, 142; + romanticism of, 11, 14, 28; + in Rome, 78-85, 89-97, 102; + in Russia, 294-300; + and Caroline de Saint-Criq, 36, 37; + and George Sand, 39, 40, 247; + and the Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein, 19-24, 43-51; + Schumann's indebtedness to, 56; + as song writer, 165-168; + started new era in Hungarian music, 160; + statues of, 13, 18, 220, 221, 332; + success of, 13, 52; + as teacher, 14, 97, 100, 209, 339, 358, 395-397; + technique of, 34, 62, 70, 72, 152, 313, 402, 407, 421, 437; + temperament of, 28, 29; + tempo, 164, 165, 187; + testimonials, 328; + theological studies of, 95; + theory of gipsy music, 20; + thought his career a failure, 26; + tirelessness of, 17; + tomb of, 25, 58; + the triangle, 170-172; + tribute by Wagner, 23; + variety of rhythms of, 31; + versatility of, 51, 88, 144; + on virtuosity, 392, 393; + Wagner's indebtedness to, 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 31, 55, 141-144; + Wagner's praise, 9, 103, 142; + wanderings of, 34, 70, 81, 85, 87, 93, 94-96, 97; + in Weimar, 19, 23, 46, 47, 87, 88, 96, 169, 329; + writing for solo and choral voices, 190. + + Liszt, Franz--Works: + Alleluja, 92. + Angelus, 195, 196. + Apparitions, The, 66. + Ave Maria, 92, 224, 294. + Ballad in B minor, 399. + Ballades, 66, 186. + Benediction de Dieu, 143. + Berceuse, 186. + Choere zu Herder's Entfesselte Prometheus, 130, 131. + Chorus of Angels, 196, 197. + Concert Study, 430. + Concertos, 168-174, 187; + Concerto Pathetique in E minor, 66, 177, 178; + Concerto for piano and orchestra, No. 1, in E flat, 67, 168-172; + Concerto for piano, No. 2, in A major (Concert Symphonique), 66, + 172-174. + Consolations, 187, 412. + Don Sancho, 14. + Elegier, The, 66. + Etudes, 66, 72, 181-185, 305, 408; + Etude in D flat, 99; + Etude in F minor, No. 10, 72; + Etudes de Concert (three), 72, 184; + Etudes d'execution transcendante (twelve), 72, 86, 181, 182; + Etudes en douze exercices, Op. 1, 181; + Etudes, second set of, 182; + Ab-Irato, 66, 72, 184, 185; + Au Bord d'une Source, 70, 72; + Au Lac de Wallenstadt, 72; + Danse Macabre, 84, 182, 187; + Feux-follets, 72, 184; + Gnomenreigen, 72, 92, 184, 400; + Harmonies du Soir, 72, 183, 184; + Irrlichter, 400; + Ricordanza, 72, 184, 187; + Studies of Storm and Dread, 183; + Vision, 183; + Wilde Jagd, 183; + Waldesrauschen, 72, 92, 184; + Excelsior, 143. + Evocatio in der Sixtinischen Kapelle, 90, 143. + Fantasias, 179-181, 401; + Annees de Pelerinage, 11, 66, 70, 86, 152, 187, 412; + Fantasia on Don Juan, 298, 407, 418, 432; + Fantasia Dramatique, 187; + Fantasia on Reminiscences of Puritani, 82; + Fantasia on Themes by Pacini, 292; + Fantaisie quasi sonata apres une lecture de Dante, 86; + Il Penseroso, 84, 86; + operatic fantasias, 180, 181; + Lucia, 63, 180; + Sonnambula, 180; + Sposalizio, 84, 86; + Tre Sonetti di Petrarca, 86, 187. + Funeral March on occasion of Maximilian of Mexico's death, 96. + Galop Chromatique, 293, 298. + Glanes de Woronice, 25. + Harmonies, 412; + Harmonies Pestiques et Religieuses, 66. + Heilige Caecelia, Die (essay), 84. + Hungarian gipsy music, book on, 19. + Hungarian March, 317. + Legends, 66, 412; + Legend of St. Elisabeth, 88, 90, 143, 191-193, 272, 273, 312; + St. Francis of Assisi's Hymn to the Sun, 88; + St. Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birds, 92, 186, 412; + St. Francis de Paula Stepping on the Waves, 92, 186, 412. + Masses, 4, 54, 187-194; + Graner Festmesse, 29, 30, 53, 92, 95, 188, 190, 191, 193, 342; + Hungarian Coronation Mass, 95, 96, 189, 190, 270, 271. + Mazurkas, 66, 186. + Mephisto, Waltz, 71, 178, 231. + Nocturnes, 66. + Oratorios, 4, 54; + Oratorio of Christus, 54, 90, 95, 101, 104, 193, 194, 328; + Oratorio of Petrus, 273. + Organ variations on Bach themes, 92, 93; + organ and trombone composition, 88. + Piano arrangements, 86; + Adelaide, 294, 298; + Beethoven symphonies, 87, 90; + Beethoven quartets, 93, 95; + Erlkoenig, 93, 224, 294, 298. + Polonaises, 25, 70, 186. + Psalms, 13, 18, 23, 90, 92, 137, 194, 195; + Thirteenth Psalm, 92, 194, 195. + Rakoczy March, 94, 189, 198-200, 337. + Requiem, 97. + Rhapsodies Hongroises, 53, 65, 100, 157, 158-165, 178, 187, 189, 367, + 407, 412; + list of, 158, 159. + Scherzo und Marsch in D minor, 186. + Serenade, 294. + Soirees de Vienne, 25. + Sonata in B minor, 29, 57, 59-70, 186, 187, 425. + Songs, 165-168. + Sonnets after Petrarch, 66. + Studies and fragments, 82. + Study of Chopin, 19. + Symphonic poems, 4, 9, 10, 26, 27, 52, 53, 54, 72, 103, 104, 106-158, + 168, 172, 377; + La bataille des Huns, after Kaulbach (Hunnenschlacht), 84, 107, + 132, 133, 143, 153; + Ce qu'on Entend sur la montagne (Berg Symphony), 107, 108-112, 153, + 328, 415; + Fest-klaenge, 107, 126-129, 136, 153, 328; + From the Cradle to the Grave, 132; + Hamlet, 107, 132, 153; + Heroide funebre, 107, 131, 153, 178; + Hungaria, 132, 153, 328; + L'Ideal, after Schiller, 107, 133-139, 143, 153, 367; + Mazeppa, 72, 103, 107, 123-126, 183, 407; + Orphee, 103, 107, 121, 122, 143, 328; + Les Preludes, after Lamartine, 107, 119-121, 136, 153, 367; + Promethee, 107,122, 123, 130, 131; + Tasso, Lamento and Trionfo, 107, 113-118, 136, 153, 367; + Le Triomphe funebre du Tasse (epilogue), 97, 118, 197. + Symphonies: + Dante Symphony, 11, 19, 38, 53, 94, 102, 104, 143, 146-155; + Faust Symphony, 22, 38, 53, 58, 141-146, 154, 155, 328, 415; + Revolutionary Symphony, 14, 38, 132, 142. + Todtentanz, 174-177, 238, 407, 435. + Transcriptions, 65, 66, 86, 90, 93, 95, 96, 97, 211, 253, 412; + Isolde's Liebestod, 96; + Paganini studies, 184, 185, 223; + Symphonie Fantastique, 211. + Valse-impromptu, 186; + Valse Oubliee, 66. + + Liszt fund, 257. + + "Liszt und die Frauen" (La Mara), 35, 42. + + Litolff, Henri, 19, 169. + + Littleton, Alfred, 311; + Augustus, 313; + Henry, 311, 312. + + "Le Livre de Caliban" (Bergerat), 320. + + Lohengrin (Wagner), 19, 47, 54, 137, 188, 329, 377. + + Lorenzetti, Pietro and Ambrogio, 175. + + Lotto, Lorenzo, 18. + + Louis I, of Bavaria, 89. + + Louis, Rudolf (Liszt biographer), 101. + + Lytton, Lord, 133. + + + MacColl, D. S., tribute to music, 32, 33. + + MacDowell, Edward (pupil), 24, 425. + + Mackenzie, Sir A. C., 195, 312. + + Macready (tragedian), notes from diary of, 252. + + Madach, "The Tragedy of Mankind," 338. + + Madonna del Rosario (cloister), 90. + + Maeterlinck, 71. + + Mahler, Gustav, 65. + + Mai, Cardinal, 83. + + Maiden's Lament, The (Schubert's), 167. + + Makart, Hans, 338. + + Malibran, 82, 204. + + Manet, Edouard, 32. + + Manns, August, 139. + + Marcello, 84. + + Margulies, Adele, 436. + + Marschner, 6. + + Mason, Dr. William (pupil), 19, 143, 434. + + Massocia, 79. + + Matisse, 28. + + Maupassant, Guy de, 26. + + Maximilian of Mexico, 96. + + Mazurka (Chopin), 65, 186. + + Meditations Poetiques (Lamartine's), 119, 204. + + Mees, Arthur (conductor), 191. + + Mehlig, Anna, 276. + + Meistersinger, Die (Wagner), 7. + + Melchers, Gari, 332. + + Melena, Elpis, 42. + + "Memories of a Musical Life" (William Mason), 143. + + Mendelssohn, Felix, 3, 31, 53, 66, 73, 85, 105, 293, 300, 309, 400, + 409, 411; + Psalm, As the Hart Pants, 293; + Songs without Words, 319. + + Menter, Sofie (pupil), 24, 42, 171, 279, 280, 436, 437. + + Mercadante, 86. + + Merian-Genast, Emilie, 42. + + Merry del Val, Mgr., 344. + + Mertens-Schaaffhausen, Frau Sibylle, 89. + + Methode des Methodes, 185. + + Metternich, Prince, 244. + + Metternich Princess, 243, 244. + + Meyendorff, Baroness Olga de (pupil), 42. + + Meyerbeer, 129, 145, 180, 236. + + Mezzofanti, Cardinal, 83. + + Michelangelo, 9, 28, 84. + + Michetti's Beethoven Album, 225. + + Mignet, Francois, 14. + + Mildner, 212. + + Milnes, Monckton (Lord Houghton), 252. + + Milozzi, 350. + + Minasi, account of conversation with Liszt, 250-252. + + Minghetti, Princess, 100. + + Mischka (Liszt's servant), 101. + + Mock, Camille. (See Madame Pleyel.) + + _Monday Review, The_ (Vienna), 390. + + Montauban, 84. + + Monte Mario, Dominican cloister of, 50, 90, 91, 93, 94, 100, 197, + 265, 274, 342. + + Montez, Lola, 19, 40, 226; + extracts from "Wits and Women of Paris," 246, 247. + + Montigny-Remaury, Madame, 433, 436. + + Moore, George, 26, 29. + + Mori, 302. + + _Morning Post_ (Manchester), 301-303, 316. + + Morris, William, 327. + + Moscheles, 185, 221, 317, 385; + extracts from diary of, 223-228. + + Mosenthal, comments on Liszt, 222. + + Mouchanoff-Kalergis, Marie von, 42, 363. + + Mozart, 10, 31, 32, 62, 84, 105, 142, 282, 304, 409, 432; + his piano, 262. + + Muellerlieder (Schubert's), 167. + + Munch, Edward, 28. + + Munkaczy, 25, 44, 280, 417; + portrait of Liszt, 338. + + Murphy, Lady Blanche, account of Liszt's sojourn at Monte Mario in + 1862, 265-267. + + _Musenalmanach, The_, 133. + + _Musical Journal_ (London), 307; + _Standard, The_, 378; + _Times_ (London), 300; + _World_ (London), 308-310. + + Musset, Alfred de, 5, 398. + + "My Literary Life" (Madame Edmond Adam), 39. + + + Nachtigall (director), 242. + + Natalucci, 381. + + Neate, 302. + + "Nelida" (by Countess d'Agoult), 41, 259. + + Neo-German school, 53. + + Nerenz, 89. + + _Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik_, 92. + + Neupert, Edmund, 425. + + Newmarch, Rose, on Liszt in Russia, 293-300. + + New museum, Berlin, 132. + + Newman, Ernest, 7, 10. + + Nicholas I, Emperor, 295. + + Niecks, Dr. Frederick, 40, 73, 74, 77, 134, 313, 409, 414. + + Nietzsche, Friedrich, 21, 38, 144, 327, 329, 331, 333-335, 360; + Elisabeth Foerster, 329, 333, 334. + + Nohant, 81. + + Norma (Thalberg's), 63 + + Normanby, Lord, 252. + + Novello, Clara, 377, 378. + + + Obermann, 9. + + Odescalchi, Princess, 49. + + Olde, Professor Hans, 331. + + Ollivier, Emile, 15; + Madame Emile. (See Blandine Liszt.) + + Onslow, 201. + + Orcagna, Andrea, 28, 84, 175. + + Order of the Golden Spur, 296. + + Orpheus (Gluck's), 121. + + Overbeck, 80, 83. + + "Oxford History of Music," 187. + + + Pacini, 292. + + Paderewski, 16, 17, 418, 419, 423, 425-428, 432, 436. + + Paer, 80. + + Paganini, 2, 17, 73, 76, 282-284, 292, 378, 402, 403, 411; + caprices, 185. + + Paganini Studies (Schumann's), 73. + + Paisiello, 80. + + Palestrina, 84. + + Palibin, Madame, 297, 298. + + Paroles d'un Croyant (Lamenais), 14. + + Parry, John, 309, 310. + + Parsons, Albert Ross, 421. + + Passini, 89. + + Paur, 144; + Madame, 436. + + Pavlovna, Grand Duchess Maria, 3, 42, 46, 47, 128. + + Pavlovna, Princess Maria, 22. + + Petersen, Dory, 436. + + Petrarca, 165. + + Philharmonic Society, London, 171, 223, 224, 307. + + Pianoforte music, notation of, 186, 187. + + Piano-playing, 60-66, 423. + + Picasso, 28. + + Piccini, 80. + + Pick, Mgr., 345. + + Pietagrua, Angela, 36. + + Pisa, Giovanni da, 84. + + Pius IX, 45, 48, 50, 91, 92, 101, 342, 349, 390; + Pius X, 50; + an audience with, 345-352. + + Pixis, 82, 308. + + Pixis-Goehringer, Francilla, 82. + + Plaidy, 385. + + Planche, Gustave, 39. + + Plante, 433. + + Plater, Countess Louis (Graefin Brzostowska), witticism of, 35, 37. + + Pleyel, 286; + piano, 282; + Marie Camille, 17, 42, 201, 436. + + Podoska, M. Calm, 49; + Pauline (mother of the Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein), 45. + + Pohl, Carl Ferdinand, 300; + Richard (pupil), 126, 127, 130, 149, 151. + + Polonaise (Chopin), 70, 75, 186, 430. + + Porges, Heinrich (pupil), 92. + + Potter, Cipriani, 302. + + Praetorius, Michael, 172. + + Preludes (Chopin), 75. + + Programme music, 106, 115, 156, 186. + + Prueckner, Dionys (pupil), 19, 171. + + Pueckler, Prince (pupil), 242. + + Pugna, 425, 433. + + _Punch_ (London), 312. + + + _Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review_ (London), 301. + + + Raab, Toni, 24. + + Raff Joachim (pupil), 19, 27, 67, 260. + + Raiding (or Reiding), Liszt's birthplace, 13, 60, 66, 339. + + Rakoczy, Prince Franz, 198, 200. + + Ramaciotti, 382. + + Ramann, Lina (pupil and biographer), 49, 50, 74-76, 128, 168, 171, + 191, 200. + + Raphael, 9, 28, 80, 84, 233. + + Rauzan, Duchesse de, 319. + + Ravel, 10. + + Realism, 61, 62. + + Recamier, Madame de, 43. + + "Records of Later Life" (Kemble), 244. + + Reeves, Henry, extract from his biography, 319, 320. + + Reger, 10, 30. + + Reichstadt, Duc de, 11. + + Reisenauer, Alfred (pupil), 24, 425. + + Rembrandt, 28. + + Remenyi, Edward (pupil), 19, 358. + + Reminiscences of Liszt: + Andersen, Hans Christian, 230-234. + Anonymous German Admirer, 252-258. + Anonymous Lady Admirer, 262-265. + B. W. H., 275-280. + Bauer, Caroline, 241-244. + Beringer, Oscar, 376, 377. + Berlioz, 210-217. + Commettant, Oscar, 219, 220. + De Bury, Blaze, 218, 219. + D'Ortigue, 217, 218. + Dwight, 228, 229. + Eliot, George, 258-262. + Ellet, Mrs., 248, 249. + Escudier, Leon, 220-222. + Grieg, Eduard, 313-316. + Heine, 234-241. + Hoffman, Richard, 316-318. + Kemble, Fanny, 244, 245. + Kirkenbuhl, Karl, 267-275. + Legouve, Ernest, 281-291. + Macready, 252. + Minasi, 250-252. + Montez, Lola, 246, 247. + Moscheles, 223-228. + Mosenthal, 222, 223. + Murphy, Lady Blanche, 265-267. + Novello, Clara, 377, 378. + Reeves, Henry, 319-320. + Rosenthal, 366-368. + Schumann, Robert, 291-294. + Von Lenz, 201-210. + Weingartner, 400, 401. + + Renan, Henrietta, 334. + + Requiem (Berlioz), 193. + + Reulke, Julius (pupil), 401. + + Reviczy, Countess, 100. + + Revolutionary Study (Chopin's), 6. + + _Revue des Deux Mondes_, 218; + _Europeenne_, 211; + _du Monde Catholique_, 88; + _de Paris_, 391. + + Richter, 385; + Jean Paul, 134. + + Riedel, Karl (pupil), 89. + + Riedle Society, The, 363. + + Ries, 302. + + Rietschl, 261. + + Righini, 80. + + Rimsky-Korsakoff (pupil), 27, 414-416. + + Ring, Nibelungen (Wagner), 7, 142-144, 188, 245, 363. + + Rive-King, Julia, 436. + + Robert (Meyerbeer's), 231 + + Rodin, Auguste, 331, 338. + + Roger-Miclos, Madame, 436. + + Roman New Musical Society, 382. + + Romantic school, 5, 28, 63. + + Romeo and Juliet (Berlioz), 212. + + "Roemischen Tagebuechern" (Gregorovius), 88. + + Roquette, Otto, 191. + + Rosa, Carl, 385; Salvator, 28. + + Rosenthal, Moriz (pupil), 24, 57, 366, 367, 424, 425, 427-429, 431. + + Rospigliosi, Fanny, Princess, 42. + + Rossetti, Christina, 437. + + Rossini, 63, 80, 84, 86, 101, 204, 300, 377, 411, 412. + + Rougon-Macquart series, 26. + + Rousseau, J. J., 11. + + Royal Amateur Orchestral Society (London), 312; + Society of Musicians (London), 301. + + Rubini, 237, 252. + + Rubinstein, 17, 19, 24, 63, 145, 156, 171, 222, 223, 262, 374, 382, + 386-388, 402, 420-423, 427, 433, 435; + Nicolas (pupil), 421. + + Rueckert, 165. + + Rummel, Franz, 174, 425. + + Runciman, John F., 21. + + Russlane, 298. + + Ruzsitska, 199. + + + Sacchini, 80. + + Sainte-Beuve, 9, 11. + + Saint-Criq, Comtesse Caroline de (pupil), 36, 37. + + St. Matthew's Passion (Bach), 195. + + Saint-Saens, Camille (pupil), 24, 27, 54, 64, 65, 67, 104, 176, 177, + 181, 369, 382, 386, 425, 426, 433. + + Saint-Simon, 14. + + Salaman, Charles, 304, 308. + + Salieri, 13. + + Salviati, 347. + + Samaroff, Olga, 436. + + Sand, George, 15, 16, 19, 39, 40, 43, 81, 204, 246, 247, 391, 436. + + Santa Francesca Romana, cloister, 95. + + Sarasate, 432. + + Sarti, 80. + + Sauer, Emil (pupil), 24, 57, 425. + + Sauerma, Countess, Rosalie (pupil), 42. + + Sayn-Wittgenstein, Princess, 8, 19, 20, 22-24, 39, 42-45, 47-50, 53, + 56, 99, 100, 127, 128, 135-138, 146, 260, 328, 362. + + Scarlatti, 423. + + Schade, Dr., 260. + + Schadow, 28. + + Schakovskoy, Princess Nadine. (See Helbig.) + + Scheffer, Ary, 16, 28, 260, 261, 289. + + Scherzo (Chopin), 75, 76, 428. + + Schiller, 47, 165, 167, 223, 279, 328-330; + Madeleine, 436. + + Schindler, 13. + + Schlaf, Johannes, 332. + + _Schlesinger's Gazette Musicale_, 203, 287. + + Schloezer, Kurt von, 89, 94. + + Schmidt, Dr. Leopold, 190. + + Schoenberg, Arnold, 419. + + Scholl (band master), 200. + + Schopenhauer, Arthur, 328; + Madame Johanna, 89, 328. + + Schorn, Adelheid von (pupil), 44. + + Schubert, 66, 105, 160, 166, 167, 293, 411, 420. + + Schule der Gelaeufigkeit, (Czerny), 182. + + Schumann, Robert, 5, 19, 53, 56, 57, 60, 62, 66, 73, 105, 172, 182, + 183, 185, 375, 381, 397, 398, 405, 408, 409, 418, 420, 421, 432; + on Liszt's playing, 201-294; + Clara, 53, 56, 57, 436, 437. + + Schwanthaler, 261. + + Schwarz, Frau von, 89. + + Schweinfurt, 89. + + Schwindt, Moritz v., 191. + + Scriabine, 435. + + Scribe, 217. + + Scudo, 17. + + Segantini, 338. + + Segnitz, Eugene, 49, 79, 84, 85, 89, 92. + + Seidl, Anton, 359. + + Sembrich, Marcella, 431. + + Serassi, Pier Antonio, 197. + + Serov, 296, 298, 299. + + Servais, Franz (pupil), 359. + + Sgambati, Giovanni (pupil), 91, 314, 342, 381-384. + + Sherwood, William H. (pupil), 425. + + Siloti, Alexander (pupil), 24, 174, 415. + + Simpson, Palgrave, 252. + + Sinding, Otto, 338. + + Slivinski, 425. + + Smart, Sir G., 302, 303. + + Smetana, Frederick (pupil), 414. + + Society of Music Friends, 139. + + Solfanelli, Abbe, 96. + + Sonata (Beethoven), 6, 38, 59, 214, 215, 319, 428. + + Sonata (Wagner), 142. + + Sonata (Weber), 207-210. + + "Songs and Song Writers" (H. T. Finck), 165. + + Sonntag, 82, 204. + + Sophie, Princess, of Holland, 46. + + "Souvenirs d'une Cosaque" (Olga Janina), 41. + + Sowinski, 75. + + Spanuth, August (analysis of the Hungarian Rhapsodies), 160-165, 425. + + Speyeras, W. C., 389. + + Spohr, 42, 226, 300. + + Spontini, 258, 259. + + Stahr, Ad., 79. + + Stahr, Fraeuleins, 397. + + Stassor (Russian critic), 296-298. + + Stavenhagen, Bernhard (pupil), 24, 98, 312, 425. + + Steinway & Sons, 394. + + Stella, 417. + + Stendhal, 4, 5, 11, 34, 35, 64, 141. + + Stern, Daniel (pen name of the Countess d'Agoult), 16. + + Sternberg, von, 425. + + Stimson, 385. + + Stojowski, 425, 435. + + Stradal, August (pupil), 98-100. + + Strauss, Richard, 8, 27, 29, 31, 52, 54, 145, 146, 168, 331, 419. + + Streicher, Nanette, 436. + + Strobl, 417. + + Studies (Chopin), 75, 437. + + Sullivan, 385. + + Symphony (Beethoven), 105, 171, 292, 382. + + Symphony (Berlioz), 106. + + Symphony (Haydn), 172. + + Symphony (Herold), 106. + + Symphony (Schubert), 293. + + Symphony (Schumann), 172. + + "Symphony Since Beethoven" (Weingartner), 153. + + Szalit, Paula, 436. + + Szekely, 338. + + Szumowska, Antoinette, 436. + + Szymanowska, Madame de, 436. + + + Tadema, Alma, 100. + + Taffanel, 281. + + _Tageblatt, The_, 190. + + Tagel (Wurtemburg counsellor of court), 254, 255. + + Taglioni, Marie, 204. + + Taine, 343. + + Taj Mahal, 29. + + Tancredi, Tournament duet in, 204. + + Tannhaeuser (Wagner), 181, 188, 377. + + Tasso, 100. + + "Tasso" (Byron's), 115. + + "Tasso" (Goethe's), 113, 115. + + Tausig, Alois, 362; + Karl (pupil), 17, 19, 58, 62, 63, 73, 95, 138, 359-366, 374, 376, + 402, 420, 421, 423, 424, 431, 432, 434. + + Taylor, Franklin, 385. + + Thackeray, W. M., 11, 28, 47. + + Thalberg, 16, 17, 60, 63, 81, 211, 221, 247, 250, 251, 282-285, 287, + 288, 308, 359, 378, 399, 411, 420, 430. + + Theatre des Italiens (Paris), 104, 223, 285, 288. + + Theatre Royal (Manchester), 303. + + Theiner, Pater, 91. + + Thiers, 104. + + Thode, Professor Henry, 280. + + Thomas, Theodore, 132, 133. + + Thorwaldsen, 78, 80. + + Tilgner, 417. + + Tintoretto, 28. + + Tisza, 200. + + Titian, 28, 84. + + Tolstoy, Countess, 98. + + Torhilon-Buell, Marie, 436. + + Tremont, Baron, 201. + + Tristan and Isolde (Wagner), 6, 7, 25, 55, 143, 280, 363. + + Triumph of Death (fresco), 175. + + Tschaikowsky, 27, 145, 146, 367, 419, 422. + + Turgenev, 388. + + + Uhland, 165. + + Ungarische Taenze (Brahms'), 190. + + Unger-Sabatier, Caroline, 42. + + Urspruch, Anton (pupil), 24. + + + Vaczek, Carl, 198, 199. + + Valle dell' Inferno, 100. + + Vallet, Michael, 390, 391. + + Valse-impromptu (Chopin), 186. + + Van der Stucken (pupil), 24, 358. + + Vasari, 347. + + Vatican, The, 49, 79, 83, 92, 93, 94, 342, 352. + + Veit, 83. + + Velde, Professor van de, 332. + + Verdi, 96, 180, 300, 412. + + Verlaine, Paul, 10, 62, 63, 375. + + Vernet, Horace, 124. + + Veronese, 28. + + Vesque, 226. + + Viardot-Garcia, Pauline, 42. + + Victoria, Queen, 24, 312. + + Viennese pianos, 62, 182. + + Villa d'Este, 9, 96, 341. + + Villa Medici, 83. + + Vimercati, 302. + + Vivier, 227. + + Vogrich, Max, 332, 425; + Opera Buddha, 332. + + Voltaire, 124. + + Volterra, Daniele da, 347. + + Wagner, Richard, 1, 2, 5-10, 18-21, 23, 27, 29-32, 38, 43, 45, 47, + 53-55, 57, 58, 63, 65, 67, 96, 101, 103, 108, 119, 140-144, + 146, 147, 150, 151, 157, 158, 167, 171, 180, 186, 188, 189, + 191, 280, 300, 333, 362, 363, 382, 411, 412, 419, 420, 422; + Madame Richard (see Cosima von Buelow Wagner); + Siegfried, 26. + + "Wagnerfrage" (Raff), 260. + + Wales, Prince and Princess of, 312. + + Walker, Bettina, 383; + "My Musical Experiences," 383. + + Ward, Andrew, 304, 317, 319. + + Wartburg festival, 96, 272. + + Watteau, 120. + + Weber, 6, 105, 205-207, 215, 282, 283, 300, 368. + + Wehrstaedt, 206, 207. + + Weimar, Duchess of, (see Pavlovna); + Ernst, Grand Duke, 330; + Grand Duke Carl Alexander of, 3, 42, 44, 46. + + Weingartner, Felix (pupil), 153, 400, 401; + on Liszt's symphonic works, 153-156. + + Wesendonck, Mathilde, 20, 43. + + Wesley, Samuel Sebastian, 301. + + Wieland, 328. + + Wiertz, 28. + + Wild, Jonathan, 79. + + Wildenbruch, Ernst von, 331. + + William Tell, Overture to, 82, 298. + + Winckelmann, 78, 275. + + Winding, 314. + + _Windsor Express_ (London), 304. + + Winterberger, Alex. (pupil), 359. + + Wiseman, Cardinal, 79. + + Wittgenstein, Princess, (see Sayn-Wittgenstein); + Prince Nikolaus, 46, 47, 50. + + Wohl, Janka, (pupil), 56, 417. + + Wolff, Dr., 226, 227. + + Wolffenbuettel, 172. + + Wolkenstein, Countess, 42. + + Wolkof, 417. + + Wolzogen, Von, 57. + + Worcester festival, 191. + + Woronice (estate of Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein), 45-47. + + Wortley, Stuart, 252. + + Wurtemburg, King of, 252, 254, 255. + + + Yeats, 327. + + + Zampa, Overture to, 181. + + Zeisler, Fannie Bloomfield, 431, 436, 437. + + Zichy, Geza (pupil), 24; + Michael, 338. + + Zingarelli, 381. + + Zoellner, 196. + + Zucchari, 347. + + + + +BOOKS BY JAMES HUNEKER + +PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + + + =Franz Liszt.= Illustrated. 12mo. (_Postage extra_) _net_, $2.00 + + =Promenades of an Impressionist.= 12mo. _net_, $1.50 + + =Egoists: A Book of Supermen.= 12mo, _net_, $1.50 + + =Iconoclasts: A Book of Dramatists.= 12mo, _net_, $1.50 + + =Overtones: A Book of Temperaments.= 12mo, _net_, $1.50 + + =Mezzotints in Modern Music.= 12mo, $1.50 + + =Chopin: The Man and His Music.= With Portrait. 12mo, $2.00 + + =Visionaries.= 12mo, $1.50 + + =Melomaniacs.= 12mo, $1.50 + + +PROMENADES + +_of an_ + +IMPRESSIONIST + +$1.50 net + + CONTENTS: Paul Cezanne--Rops the Etcher--Monticelli--Rodin--Eugene + Carriere--Degas--Botticelli--Six Spaniards--Chardin--Black and + White--Impressionism--A New Study of Watteau--Gauguin and + Toulouse-Lautrec--Literature and Art--Museum Promenades. + +"The vivacity of Mr. Huneker's style sometimes tends to conceal the +judiciousness of his matter. His justly great reputation as a journalist +critic most people would attribute to his salient phrase. To the present +writer, the phrase goes for what it is worth--generally it is eloquent +and interpretative, again merely decorative--what really counts is an +experienced and unbiassed mind at ease with its material. The criticism +that can pass from Goya, the tempestuous, that endless fount of facile +enthusiasms, and do justice to the serene talent of Fortuny is certainly +catholic. In fact, Mr. Huneker is an impressionist only in his aversion +to the literary approach, and in a somewhat wilful lack of system. This, +too, often seems less temperamental than a result of journalistic +conditions, and of the dire need of being entertaining. + +"We like best such sober essays as those which analyze for us the +technical contributions of Cezanne and Rodin. Here, Mr. Huneker is a +real interpreter, and here his long experience of men and ways in art +counts for much. Charming, in the slighter vein, are such appreciations +as the Monticelli, and Chardin. Seasoned readers of Mr. Huneker's +earlier essays in musical and dramatic criticism will naturally turn to +the fantastic titles in this book. Such border-line geniuses as Greco, +Rops, Meryon, Gustave Moreau, John Martin, are treated with especial +gusto. We should like to have an appreciation of Blake from this ardent +searcher of fine eccentricities. In the main the book is devoted to +artists who have come into prominence since 1870, the French naturally +predominating, but such precursors of modern tendencies or influential +spirits as Botticelli, Watteau, Piranesi are included. Eleven 'Museum +promenades,' chiefly in the Low Countries and in Spain, are on the whole +less interesting than the individual appreciations--necessarily so, but +this category embraces a capital sketch of Franz Hals at Haarlem, while +the three Spanish studies on the Prado Museum, Velasquez, and Greco at +Toledo, are quite of the best. From the Velasquez, we transcribe one of +many fine passages: + + "'His art is not correlated to the other arts. One does not dream + of music or poetry or sculpture or drama in front of his pictures. + One thinks of life and then of the beauty of the paint. Velasquez + is never rhetorical, nor does he paint for the sake of making + beautiful surfaces as often does Titian. His practice is not art + for art as much as art for life. As a portraitist, Titian's is the + only name to be coupled with that of Velasquez. He neither + flattered his sitters, as did Van Dyck, nor mocked them like Goya. + And consider the mediocrities, the dull, ugly, royal persons he was + forced to paint! He has wrung the neck of banal eloquence, and his + prose, sober, rich, noble, sonorous, rhythmic, is, to my taste, + preferable to the exalted, versatile volubility and lofty poetic + tumblings in the azure of any school of painting.' + +"Here we see how winning Mr. Huneker's manner is and how insidious. +Unless you immediately react against that apparently innocent word +'tumblings,' your faith in the grand style will begin to disintegrate. +It is this very sense of walking among pitfalls that will make the book +fascinating to a veteran reader. The young are advised to temper it with +an infusion of Sir Joshua Reynolds's 'Discourses,' _quantum +sufficit_."--FRANK JEWETT MATHER, JR., in _New York Nation_ and _Evening +Post_. + + +EGOISTS + +_A BOOK OF SUPERMEN_ + +_With Portrait and Fac-simile Reproductions_ + +12mo. $1.50 net; _Postpaid_ $1.65 + + CONTENTS: Stendhal--Baudelaire--Flaubert--Anatole + France--Huysmans--Barres--Hello--Blake--Nietzsche--Ibsen--Max + Stirner. + +"The work of a man who knows his subject thoroughly and who writes +frankly and unconventionally."--_The Outlook._ + +"Stimulating, provocative of thought."--_The Forum._ + + +ICONOCLASTS: + +A Book of Dramatists + +12mo. $1.50 net + + CONTENTS: Henrik Ibsen--August Strindberg--Henry Becque--Gerhart + Hauptmann--Paul Hervieu--The Quintessence of Shaw--Maxim Gorky's + Nachtasyl--Hermann Sudermann--Princess Mathilde's Play--Duse and + D'Annunzio--Villiers de l'Isle Adam--Maurice Maeterlinck. + +"His style is a little jerky, but it is one of those rare styles in +which we are led to expect some significance, if not wit, in every +sentence."--G. K. CHESTERTON, in _London Daily News_. + +"No other book in English has surveyed the whole field so +comprehensively."--_The Outlook._ + +"A capital book, lively, informing, suggestive."--_London Times Saturday +Review._ + +"Eye-opening and mind-clarifying is Mr. Huneker's criticism; ... no one +having read that opening essay in this volume will lay it down until the +final judgment upon Maurice Maeterlinck is reached."--_Boston +Transcript._ + + +OVERTONES: + +A Book of Temperaments + +_WITH FRONTISPIECE PORTRAIT OF RICHARD STRAUSS_ + +12mo. $1.25 net + + CONTENTS: Richard Strauss--Parsifal: A Mystical Melodrama--Literary + Men who loved Music (Balzac, Turgenieff, Daudet, etc.)--The Eternal + Feminine--The Beethoven of French Prose--Nietzsche the + Rhapsodist--Anarchs of Art--After Wagner, What?--Verdi and Boito. + +"The whole book is highly refreshing with its breadth of knowledge, its +catholicity of taste, and its inexhaustible energy."--_Saturday Review, +London._ + +"In some respects Mr. Huneker must be reckoned the most brilliant of all +living writers on matters musical."--_Academy, London._ + +"No modern musical critic has shown greater ingenuity in the attempt to +correlate the literary and musical tendencies of the nineteenth +century."--_Spectator, London._ + + +MEZZOTINTS IN MODERN MUSIC + +BRAHMS, TSCHAIKOWSKY, CHOPIN, RICHARD STRAUSS, LISZT AND WAGNER + +12mo. $1.50 + +"Mr. Huneker is, in the best sense, a critic; he listens to the music +and gives you his impressions as rapidly and in as few words as +possible; or he sketches the composers in fine, broad, sweeping strokes +with a magnificent disregard for unimportant details. And as Mr. Huneker +is, as I have said, a powerful personality, a man of quick brain and an +energetic imagination, a man of moods and temperament--a string that +vibrates and sings in response to music--we get in these essays of his a +distinctly original and very valuable contribution to the world's tiny +musical literature."--J. F. RUNCIMAN, in _London Saturday Review_. + + +MELOMANIACS + +12mo. $1.50. + + CONTENTS: The Lord's Prayer in B--A Son of Liszt--A Chopin of the + Gutter--The Piper of Dreams--An Emotional Acrobat--Isolde's + Mother--The Rim of Finer Issues--An Ibsen Girl--Tannhaeuser's + Choice--The Red-Headed Piano Player--Brynhild's Immolation--The + Quest of the Elusive--An Involuntary Insurgent--Hunding's Wife--The + Corridor of Time--Avatar--The Wegstaffes give a Musicale--The Iron + Virgin--Dusk of the Gods--Siegfried's Death--Intermezzo--A Spinner + of Silence--The Disenchanted Symphony--Music the Conqueror. + +"It would be difficult to sum up 'Melomaniacs' in a phrase. Never did a +book, in my opinion at any rate, exhibit greater contrasts, not, +perhaps, of strength and weakness, but of clearness and obscurity. It is +inexplicably uneven, as if the writer were perpetually playing on the +boundary line that divides sanity of thought from intellectual chaos. +There is method in the madness, but it is a method of intangible ideas. +Nevertheless, there is genius written over a large portion of it, and to +a musician the wealth of musical imagination is a living spring of +thought."--HAROLD E. GORST, in _London Saturday Review_ (Dec. 8, 1906). + + +VISIONARIES + +12mo. $1.50 net + + CONTENTS: A Master of Cobwebs--The Eighth Deadly Sin--The Purse of + Aholibah--Rebels of the Moon--The Spiral Road--A Mock + Sun--Antichrist--The Eternal Duel--The Enchanted Yodler--The Third + Kingdom--The Haunted Harpsichord--The Tragic Wall--A Sentimental + Rebellion--Hall of the Missing Footsteps--The Cursory Light--An + Iron Fan--The Woman Who Loved Chopin--The Tune of Time--Nada--Pan. + +"The author's style is sometimes grotesque in its desire both to startle +and to find true expression. He has not followed those great novelists +who write French a child may read and understand. He calls the moon 'a +spiritual gray wafer'; it faints in 'a red wind'; 'truth beats at the +bars of a man's bosom'; the sun is 'a sulphur-colored cymbal'; a man +moves with 'the jaunty grace of a young elephant.' But even these +oddities are significant and to be placed high above the slipshod +sequences of words that have done duty till they are as meaningless as +the imprint on a worn-out coin. + +"Besides, in nearly every story the reader is arrested by the idea, and +only a little troubled now and then by an over-elaborate style. If most +of us are sane, the ideas cherished by these visionaries are insane; but +the imagination of the author so illuminates them that we follow +wondering and spellbound. In 'The Spiral Road' and in some of the other +stories both fantasy and narrative may be compared with Hawthorne in his +most unearthly moods. The younger man has read his Nietzsche and has +cast off his heritage of simple morals. Hawthorne's Puritanism finds no +echo in these modern souls, all sceptical, wavering and unblessed. But +Hawthorne's splendor of vision and his power of sympathy with a +tormented mind do live again in the best of Mr. Huneker's +stories."--_London Academy_ (Feb. 3, 1906). + + +CHOPIN: + +The Man and His Music + +_WITH ETCHED PORTRAIT_ + +12mo. $2.00 + +"No pianist, amateur or professional, can rise from the perusal of his +pages without a deeper appreciation of the new forms of beauty which +Chopin has added, like so many species of orchids, to the musical flora +of the nineteenth century."--_The Nation._ + +"I think it not too much to predict that Mr. Huneker's estimate of +Chopin and his works is destined to be the permanent one. He gives the +reader the cream of the cream of all noteworthy previous commentators, +besides much that is wholly his own. He speaks at once with modesty and +authority, always with personal charm."--_Boston Transcript._ + + +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, NEW YORK + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Notes + +The illustrations (and captions in the text version) have been moved +so that they do not break up paragraphs and so that they are next to +the text they illustrate. Thus the page number of an illustration might +not match the page number in the List of Illustrations, and the order +of illustrations may not be the same in the List of Illustrations and +in the book. + +An advertisement listing books available from the author has been +moved from the front of the book to the end, where it precedes full +advertisements for the books; a heading thus duplicated ("BOOKS BY +JAMES HUNEKER") has been removed. + + +The text contains many inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation, +which have been left unchanged. In particular, Liszt's works are +referred to inconsistently by their titles in various languages, and +names of keys are inconsistently hyphenated (e.g. "A-flat" and "A +flat"). + +Words in other languages were sometimes printed without their +diacritics, e.g. "Fraulein" for "Fraeulein", and "czardas" for "czardas". +On page 13, "Dobrjan" appears to have been printed with a diaeresis on +the "j"; this has been omitted, while the two other spellings used +("Dobrjan" and "Dobrjan") have been retained. + + +Other inconsistencies include: + + Suiss and Swiss + Medaeival and mediaeval + Graner Messe and Graner-messe + Preludes and Preludes + Tschaikowski and Tschaikowsky + Belvedere and Belvedere + Berceuse and Berceuse + d'execution and d'execution + Debats and Debats + Fraeuleins and Frauleins + Koehler and Kohler + Meditations and Meditations + Muellerlieder and Mullerlieder + leitmotive and Leitmotive + Prueckner and Pruckner + Rakoczy and Rakoczy + Zuerich and Zurich + Mickelangelo and Michelangelo + Nadine Hellbig and Nadine Helbig + Munkacsy is spelled as Munkacsy, Munkaczy, Munkaczy, Munkacszy, + and Munkacsy + any one and anyone + benefit concerts and benefit-concerts + boat-hand and boathand + Czerny and Czerni + concert room and concert-room + d' Este and d'Este + Danziger Rosebault and Danziger-Rosebault + e 'l and e'l + Erl King and Erl-King + ever ready and ever-ready + every one and everyone + Fest-klaenge and Festklaenge + Feux-follets and Feux follets + for ever and forever + half dozen and half-dozen + iron gray and iron-gray + key-note and keynote + Maria-Pawlowna, Maria Pawlowna, and Maria Paulowna + Merian-Genast and Merian Genast + music loving and music-loving + octave playing and octave-playing + opera house and opera-house + piano concerto and piano-concerto + Piano-Forte, Piano Forte, and pianoforte + piano player and piano-player + piano playing and piano-playing + piano recital and piano-recital + piano teacher and piano-teacher + pianoforte playing and pianoforte-playing + programme music and programme-music + puzta and putzta + quasi-sonata and quasi sonata + Ramann and Ramagn + rewritten and re-written + Rive-King and Rive King + three quarters and three-quarters + well known and well-known + what ever and whatever + wood-wind and woodwind + writing table and writing-table + + +Inconsistent punctuation in the sentence beginning "Masterpieces, +besides those already" on p. 153 has been retained. + +Some apparent errors have been retained: + + p. 17 extra comma ("Paganini, had set") + p. 34 extra comma ("a man who, accomplished") + p. 58 mis-spelling ("Hoffgartnerei") + p. 83 extra comma ("Gregory XIV, had opened") + p. 111 mis-spelling ("Bestandig") + p. 123 extra comma ("the god, believing in his own") + p. 144 mis-spelling ("Gotterdaemmerung") + p. 204 mis-spelling ("infinitively") + p. 309 mis-spelling ("troup") + p. 341 full stop instead of comma ("much for fame. I bitterly") + + +Obvious errors in spelling and punctuation have been corrected as follows: + + p. 27, comma changed to full stop (winds and murmurs.") + p. 74 "though" changed to "through" ("through his pupils continued") + p. 74 comma added to text ("whose fiery passions, indomitable energy") + p. 89, quotation mark added to text (outside of Italy":) + p. 98, "Madamoiselle" changed to "Mademoiselle" (Mademoiselle Cognetti) + p. 108, quotation mark removed from text ("same school.") + p. 149, "pentinent" changed to "penitent" + p. 152, "philsophical" changed to "philosophical" + p. 169, quotation mark removed from text ("a spirited march.") + p. 174, quotation mark removed from text ("wonders by black art.'") + p. 177, full stop changed to comma ("dispensed with,") + p. 199, "talent as a violonist" changed to "talent as a violinist" + p. 205, single quotation mark added to text ("'Freischuetz,'") + p. 209, "Bailot's" changed to "Baillot's" + p. 212, "Liszt's and Berlioz intimacy" changed to "Liszt's and + Berlioz's intimacy" + p. 214, "Listz was playing" changed to "Liszt was playing" + p. 219, "ooms:" changed to "rooms:" + p. 236, "genuis" changed to "genius" + p. 299, double quotation mark changed to single quotation mark + ("grace, and beauty.'") + p. 299, "genuis" changed to "genius" + p. 302, double quotation mark changed to single quotation mark + ("'as a concertante wit") + p. 351, full stop changed to comma ("he loved Germany,") + p. 356, comma added to text ("Adolf Blassmann,") + p. 358, full stop changed to comma ("Johannes Zschocher,") + p. 359, comma changed to full stop (""Second Tausig."") + p. 372, quotation mark added to text (""Friedheim is of medium height") + p. 422, "a la main gouche" changed to "a la main gauche" + p. 424, full stop changed to comma ("no other in the world,") + p. 441, "When" changed to "when" (when Breitkopf and Haertel finish) + p. 447, closing brackets added to text ("(Princess Nadine Schakovskoy)" + p. 447, "Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst" changed to + "Hohenlohe-Schillingsfuerst" + p. 447, semi-colon changed to full stop ("Museum (Budapest), 338.") + p. 451, full stop changed to semi-colon ("Piano arrangements, 86;") + p. 451, comma added to text ("to the Grave, 132;") + p. 452, comma added to text ("Sofie (pupil), 24, 42,") + p. 453, comma added to text ("Paderewski, 16, 17, 418, 419,") + p. 455, "Niebelungen" changed to "Nibelungen" + p. 455, comma added to text ("Rosenthal, Moriz (pupil)") + p. 457, "Veldi" changed to "Velde" + p. 457, comma added to text ("Tristan and Isolde (Wagner),") + (Unnumbered advertisement) quotation mark added to text (""Here we see + how winning") + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Franz Liszt, by James Huneker + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRANZ LISZT *** + +***** This file should be named 39754.txt or 39754.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/7/5/39754/ + +Produced by Albert Laszlo, Henry Flower and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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