For the most part you have left here the impression which you
will leave in every country - that of a man of heart, talent,
tact, and intellect. One of these qualities alone is enough to
distinguish a man from the vulgar herd; but when one is so well
born as to possess a quartet of them it is absolutely necessary
that the will, and an active will, should be added to them in
order to make them bring out their best fruits, - and this I am
sure you will not be slow to do.
Your brother came through here the day before yesterday, thinking
he should still find you here. I have given him your address, and
told him to inquire about you at Schlesinger's in Berlin, where
he expects to be on the 8th of April; so do not fail to let
Schlesinger know, in one way or another, when you get to Berlin.
As M. de Zigesar [The Intendant at Weimar.] I was obliged to
start in a great hurry for The Hague, in the suite of the
Hereditary Grand Duchess, I will wait till his return to send you
the letters for Mr. de Witzleben. I will address them to
Schlesinger early in April.
We are studying hard at the Duke of Coburg's opera "Toni, oder
die Vergellung," ["Toni, or the Requital"] which we shall give
next Saturday. The score really contains some pretty things and
which make a pleasing effect; unluckily I cannot say as much for
the libretto.
Your castle in the air for May we will build up on a solid basis
in Weymar; for I am quite calculating on seeing you then,
together with our charming, good, worthy friend Conradi. Will you
please, dear Kroll, tell Mr. Germershausen and his family how
gratified I am with their kind remembrance? When I go to Sagan I
shall certainly give myself the pleasure of calling on him.
Believe me ever your very sincere and affectionate friend,
F. Liszt
42. To Abbe de Lamennais
[Autograph in the possession of M. Alfred Bovet at Valentigney.]
Permit me, illustrious and venerable friend, to recall myself to
your remembrance through M. Ciabatta, who has already had the
honor of being introduced to you last year at my house. He has
just been making a tour in Spain and Portugal with me, and can
give you all particulars about it. I should have been glad also
to get him to take back to you the score, now completed, of the
chorus which you were so good as to entrust to me ("The iron is
hard, let us strike!"), but unfortunately it is not with music as
with painting and poetry: body and soul alone are not enough to
make it comprehensible; it has to be performed, and very well
performed too, to be understood and felt. Now the performance of
a chorus of the size of that is not an easy matter in Paris, and
I would not even risk it without myself conducting the
preliminary rehearsals. While waiting till a favorable
opportunity offers, allow me to tell you that I have been happy
to do this work, and that I trust I have not altogether failed in
it. Were it not for the fear of appearing to you very indiscreet,
I should perhaps venture to trespass on your kindness for the
complete series of these simple, and at the same time sublime,
compositions, of which you alone know the secret. Three other
choruses of the same kind as that of the Blacksmiths, which
should sum up the most poetical methods of human activity, and
which should be called (unless you advise otherwise) Labourers,
Sailors, and Soldiers, would form a lyric epic of which the
genius of Rossini or Meyerbeer would be proud. I know I have no
right to make any such claim, but your kindness to me has always
been so great that I have a faint hope of obtaining this new and
glorious favor. If, however, this work would give you even an
hour's trouble, please consider my request as not having been
made, and pardon me for the regret which I shall feel at this
beautiful idea being unrealized.
As business matters do not necessarily call me to Paris, I prefer
not to return there just now. I expect to go to Bonn in the month
of July, for the inauguration of the Beethoven Monument, and to
have a Cantata performed there which I have written for this
occasion. The text, at any rate, is tolerably new; it is a sort
of Magnificat of human Genius conquered by God in the eternal
revelation through time and space, - a text which might apply
equally well to Goethe or Raphael or Columbus, as to Beethoven.
At the beginning of winter I shall resume my duties at the Court
of Weymar, to which I attach more and more a serious importance.
If you were to be so very good as to write me a few lines, I
should be most happy and grateful. If you would send them either
to my mother's address, Rue Louis le Grand, 20; or to that of my
secretary, Mr. Belloni, Rue Neuve St. George, No. 5, I should
always get them in a very short time.
I have the honor to be, sir, yours very gratefully,
F. Liszt
Marseilles, April 28th, 1845
43. To Frederic Chopin
[Autograph in the possession of M. Alfred Bovet at Valentigney. -
The great Polish tone-poet (1809-49) was most intimate with Liszt
in Paris. The latter, in his work "F. Chopin" 1851, second
edition 1879, Breitkopf and Hartel; German translation by La
Mara, 1880), raised an imperishable monument to him.]
Dear Chopin,
