250 To Felix Draseke
You have again encouraged and rejoiced me, my excellent friend, by your affectionate comprehension of my meaning and endeavors in the “Dante” Symphony.
Once more my heartfelt thanks for it. Later on, when “Hamlet” and the “Hunnenschlacht” are published, please do not refuse me the special satisfaction of publishing the whole of your articles on the Symphonic Poems in the form of a pamphlet. We will speak further of this by word of mouth, and possibly a few musical examples could be added to the earlier ones.
How far have you got with the “Loreley”?—Only take hold of the witch with tender force.—Geibel has lately brought out his opera-text to the “Loreley,” and several composers are already setting to work on it (or under it). In the present state of things there is not much to be expected from effusions and feeble attempts of that kind. On the other hand I am expecting something great, beautiful, and magical from the Symphonic form into which you will shape this story—a story which just as easily becomes dry and tedious as, on the other hand, it can be melting. Take care that we bring your work to a hearing at the next Tonkunstler-Versammlung (in July-August) here.
O. Singer’s “Entschwandenes Ideal” [“Vanished Ideal”] is full of music; noble in conception and powerfully worked out. I shall write to him shortly about it, and send him my seventh book of songs, as you told me that he rather liked the earlier ones.—
An excellent little work by our friend Weitzmann lies before us again: “The New Science of Harmony at Variance with the Old.” The “Album Leaves for the Emancipation of Fifths” as a supplement are stirring; and the “Anthology of Classical Following Fifths,” with quotations from Hiller and Hauptmann,. is especially instructive. In Harmony, as in other things, it is no longer a question of reforming what has been laid aside, but rather of the fulfilling of the law.———
On any day, my dear friend, you will be heartily welcome to Yours very gratefully,
F. Liszt
December 30th, 1860
Towards the middle of January I am going to Paris or a couple of weeks to see my mother (who is still constantly ill).
251. To Dr. Franz Brendel.
[Beginning of January, 1861]
Dear Friend,
A thousand thanks for your letter, and still more excuses that I have delayed so long with my answer. On New Year’s Day we had a grand Court-concert—on the top of which there was a banquet at the Erbprinz, which lasted till four o’clock in the morning; on the other days perpetual dinners and suppers, at which I was also obliged to be present. Besides all this, the final revision of my second concerto (and a couple of smaller piano pieces) occupied me much. Schott had undertaken the publication of them, and I did not wish to annoy him by letting the somewhat numerous alterations which had to be made in them wait to be corrected until the proofs were printed, etc., etc.
From all the transitions and connection of the movements (which I am now most carefully working out in the Concerto), I pass at once without transition to the answering of your questions.
1. I think Bronsart’s engagement for next year at four hundred thalers is advisable.
2. If Weissheimer has really made himself impossible, Damrosch should be the next one to be thought of, as a colleague of Bronsart. There is no hurry about this affair, and we will talk over it again viva voce.
3. The remaining four hundred thalers for X. I will send you at the end of this month. If you should require them sooner write me a couple of lines.
4. The question of leave of absence is not easy to decide, so long as no definite date is fixed for the concert. Frau Pohl, for instance, had had leave once already—but then the date of the concert was altered, and in consequence of her absence it was of no use. For the rest I don’t doubt that Frau Pohl can get leave of absence once more—I only beg you to let me know definitely the day, so that I may inform Dingelstedt of it.
5. With regard to the co-operation of Messrs. v. Milde and Singer, it has its difficulties. They are both not without scruples in regard to the Euterpe, which, though they do not say so in so many words, might be summed up as follows: “If we co-operate in the Euterpe, we shut the golden doors of the Gewandhaus in our faces, and injure ourselves also in other towns, in which the rule of the Gewandhaus prevails. Ergo, it is more desirable, prudent(!), for us to act…” The rest you can add for yourself. Milde complains of the thanklessness of the part in the “Sangers Fluch,” [“The Singer’s Curse,” by Schumann] the awful cold of the winter season, all the disagreeables in connection with obtaining leave, etc. Singer does not know what piece to choose, and also the E string of his violin is not quite safe, and more of that kind.
6. Fraulein Genast is in a still worse position, for she is not quite independent of the intimidation (on classical grounds) of her father, and is, moreover, engaged for the next Gewandhaus concert (for the part of the Rose in Schumann’s “Rose’s Pilgrimage”). None the less she said to me from the beginning that she was perfectly ready to do whatever I thought advisable. In view of this surmise I must naturally be all the more cautious. She sings on the 22nd in Zwickau, on the 24th (probably) at the Gewandhaus, and on the 31st in Aix-la-Chapelle. I have therefore advised her to come to an understanding with you herself personally in Leipzig on the 23rd, and to co-operate with you by preference as a singer of Lieder (with pianoforte accompaniment) at the soiree of the Euterpe on the 29th. Yesterday evening I marked the following three songs for her, as the most suitable for the purpose:—
A. “The Pilgrimage to Kevlaar” (composed for E. Genast lately by Hiller, and still in manuscript).
B. A song of Rubinstein’s: for instance, “Ah! could it remain so for ever!” (Tender allusion to the Gewandhaus!)
C. The three Zigeuner (by me).
The three songs would make up two numbers of the programme.—
I especially beg of you, dear friend, not to make any protest against the song of Hiller. The plainly fair and just thing, which has nothing in common with the “elevated right” which is bestowed exclusively on Capellmeister Rietz and his associates (as the Leipzig University expressed it), consists simply in not shutting the door to publicity in anybody’s face, or maliciously and slyly casting stones and mud at him. Regardless of the fact that we must not expect that they on their side will deal thus with us, we must consistently and faithfully carry out and fulfill this simple justice and fairness, and thus show the gentlemen how people of a nobler mind and more proper cultivation behave. You perhaps remember the opinion which I have many times given and proved by actions—especially at the Versammlung-Versammlung, when Frau Dr. Reclam sang Hiller’s (somewhat mediocre) Psalm, and…etc. After that I vote especially for the performance of one of Rubinstein’s larger works, such as the proposed Symphony, and beg you to appoint Bronsart for it.—It would lead me too far to explain my views in detail; that I have no concessions or favoritisms in view in this matter goes without saying.
7. The co-operation of the violinist recommended by Schuberth must be considered, and even qualified, according to his talent.
8. “Tasso” can quite well be performed without the harp. A pianino will do quite well, and I beg you most earnestly not to put yourself to any inconvenience for my things. In my orchestral works I have taken the larger measure of instrumentation (Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Dresden—or, if you prefer personal names, Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Berlioz); but in spite of this most of them can be performed in smaller proportions, as has been most strikingly shown, for instance, in Sondershausen. The chief thing before all else is the conductor; if he be a good and reliable musician things may then be well managed in a variety of ways—and in “Tasso” especially the harp is hardly wanted. So don’t bother yourself any more about it, and soothe Bronsart.
If I am not mistaken, I think I have now answered all the principal questions in your letter. As to what concerns personal matters we will talk about that shortly. I shall write one of these next days to Schuberth (as soon as I have finished my revisions for Schott). He has made me a proposal to which I am inclined to agree. [The rest of the letter is missing.]