England is not like any other country; the expenses are enormous.
I really dare not ask you to travel with me here, for it would
almost ruin us. Moreover we should hardly be able to be together,
for I have three or four compulsory companions, from whom it is
impossible for me to separate. I hoped to have done with all that
by the beginning of October, but now I have to begin again in the
middle of November. If I have time to make my journey to Russia
this year it will be the utmost I can do, but it is a journey
that I am in a way obliged to make after the gracious invitation
of Her Majesty the Empress at Ems. On the 15th of next May I
return again to London, probably by the steamer coming direct
from St. Petersburg.
Where shall I find you in a year - fifteen months? It is very
possible that I shall come and look for you in Vienna, but then I
shall assuredly not leave without taking you with me.
I have some thoughts of spending the following winter at
Constantinople. I am tired of the West; I want to breathe
perfumes, to bask in the sun, to exchange the smoke of coal for
the sweet smoke of the narghileh [Turkish pipe]. In short, I am
pining for the East! O my morning land! O my Aborniko! -
My uncle writes that you have been very good and obliging to him.
I thank you warmly. - Do you meet Castelli from time to time? When
you see him beg him from me to translate the article I published
in the Paris "Revue Musicale" (of August 23rd) on Paganini, and
to get it put into the "Theater-Zeitung". I should be very glad
also if it could be translated into Hungarian, for the Hirnok
(excuse me if I make a mess of the word!), but I do not know who
could do it.
A propos of Hungarian! I shall always value highly the work on my
sojourn in Pest. Send it me as soon as you possibly can, and
address it to Madame la Comtesse d'Agoult, 10, Rue Neuve des
Mathurins, Paris. Most affectionate remembrances to Kriehuber.
His two portraits of me have been copied in London. They are
without doubt the best.
Adieu, my dear excellent Schober. In my next letter I shall ask
you about a matter of some consequence. It is about a Cantata for
Beethoven, which I should like to set to music and to have it
given at the great Festival which we expect to organize in 1842
for the inauguration of the Statue at Bonn.
Yours ever most affectionately,
F. Liszt
29. To Buloz
[Published in Ramann's "Franz Liszt," vol. ii., I.]
Editor of the Revue des Deux Mondes.
Sir,
In your Revue Musicale for October last my name was mixed up with
the outrageous pretensions and exaggerated success of some
executant artists; I take the liberty to address a few remarks to
you on this subject. [The enthusiastic demonstrations which had
been made to him in Hungary, his native land, had been put into a
category with the homage paid to singers and dancers, and the
bestowal of the sabre had been turned into special ridicule.
Liszt repelled this with justifiable pride.]
The wreaths thrown at the feet of Mesdemoiselles Elssler and
Pixis by the amateurs of New York and Palermo are striking
manifestations of the enthusiasm of a public; the sabre which was
given to me at Pest is a reward given by a NATION in an entirely
national form. In Hungary, sir, in that country of antique and
chivalrous manners, the sabre has a patriotic signification. It
is the special token of manhood; it is the weapon of every man
who has a right to carry a weapon. When six of the chief men of
note in my country presented me with it among the general
acclamations of my compatriots, whilst at the same moment the
towns of Pest and Oedenburg conferred upon me the freedom of the
city, and the civic authorities of Pest asked His Majesty for
letters of nobility for me, it was an act to acknowledge me
afresh as a Hungarian, after an absence of fifteen years; it was
a reward of some slight services rendered to Art in my country;
it was especially, and so I felt it, to unite me gloriously to
her by imposing on me serious duties, and obligations for life as
man and as artist.
I agree with you, sir, that it was, without doubt, going far
beyond my deserts up to the present time. Therefore I saw in that
solemnity the expression of a hope far more than of a
satisfaction. Hungary hailed in me the man from whom she expects
artistic illustriousness, after all the illustrious soldiers and
politicians she has so plentifully produced. As a child I
received from my country precious tokens of interest, and the
means of going abroad to develop my artistic vocation. When grown
up, and after long years, the young man returns to bring her the
fruits of his work and the future of his will, the enthusiasm of
the hearts which open to receive him and the expression of a
national joy must not be confounded with the frantic
demonstrations of an audience of amateurs.
In placing these two things side by side it seems tome there is
something which must wound a just national pride and sympathies
by which I am honored.
Be so kind as to insert these few lines in your next issue, and
believe me, sir,
Yours obediently,
Franz Liszt
Hamburg, October 26th, 1840
30.
