254 To Peter Cornelius in Vienna
Your letters, dearest friend, are ever a joy to my heart, as also this time on the 2nd April [Liszt’s name-day]. Although on that day I felt the absence of the Princess the most keenly, and the Altenburg was for me equally perturbed, yet the loving attachment of a few friends touched and filled me with comfort. Remain ever to me, as I remain to you, faithful and steadfast, trusting in God!—
Unfortunately I have been able to do but very little work this winter. Revisions and proof-correcting took up almost my whole time. The two last Symphonic Poems, “Hamlet” and the “Hunnenschlacht,” will come out directly. I will send them to you, together with a dozen Quartets for men’s voices which Kahnt is publishing. By the end of July the choruses to “Prometheus” and the “Faust” Symphony will also be out. If we should not see each other sooner, I count on you, for certain, to be here for the Tonkunstler-Versammlung (5th, 6th, 7th August), to which I give you, dearest Cornelius, a special invitation. I hope that Eduard, [Liszt’s cousin] Tausig, Porges, Laurencin, [Count Laurencin, a writer on music in Vienna] Kulke, Doppler, [Franz Doppler (1821-83), a flute virtuoso; music-conductor at the Royal Opera in Vienna. He arranged with Liszt some of the latter’s “Hungarian Rhapsodies” for orchestra.] are coming—and I beg you to give them a preliminary intimation of my invitation. The next number of Brendel’s paper will give the programme—with the exception of the third day, which cannot be fixed until later. Perhaps you will give us a fragment of your “Cid.” In any case I wish your name not to be wanting; and, if you should not have anything else ready, a couple of numbers from the “Barber Abul Hassan Ali Eber” shall be given. The charming canon at the beginning of the second act would be the best.
I am delighted to think that you have been entirely absorbed for a time in “Tristan.” In that work and the “Ring des Nibelungen” Wagner has decidedly attained his zenith! I hope you have received the pianoforte arrangement of “Rheingold” which Schott has published. If not I will send it you. You might render a great service by a discussion of this wonderful work. Allow me to stir you up to do this. The summer days allow you now more working hours; realize some of these with “Rheingold.” The task for you is neither a. difficult nor a thankless one; as soon as you have seized upon the principal subjects representing the various personages, and their application and restatement, the greater part of the work is done. Let us then sing with Peter Cornelius,—
“O Lust am Rheine, Am heimischen Strande! In sonnigem Scheine Ergluhen die Lande; Es lachen die Haine, Die Felsengesteine Im Strahlengewande Am heimischen Strande, Am wogenden Rheine!”
[Free translation,—
“O joy of the Rhine And its homelike shore! Where the bright sunshine Gilds the landscape o’er; Where the woods are greenest, The skies serenest, In that home of mine By the friendly shore Of the billowy Rhine!”]
On the 30th of this month I am going to Paris for a couple of weeks—and towards the end of May I shall meet my daughter Cosima in Reichenhall, where she has to go through the whey-cure. Thank God, she is again on the road to recovery! You can imagine what grief took possession of me when I saw Cosima last winter suffering from a similar complaint to Daniel!—
I have satisfactory tidings from the Princess from Rome. The climate is having a very beneficial effect on her nerves, and she feels herself, in that respect, far more at home than in Germany…
She writes wonders to me about the last cartoons of Cornelius, [The celebrated painter was the uncle of the addressee.] and her personal relations with the great master have proved most friendly.
What will become of me in the latter part of the summer does not yet appear. But let us hold fast to our meeting again here at the beginning of August.
Yours from my heart,
F. Liszt
April l8th, 1861
A thousand hearty greetings to Tausig.