The performance of new works on the part of so renowned an
orchestra as that of Munich must ever remain a mark of special
attention for the composers. But I must rate it still higher
that, in face of the strong prejudice against my name, one of my
ill-famed Symphonic Poems should have been included in the
programme of the concerts of the Munich Hofcapelle.
It is ill preaching to deaf ears, and it is well known that there
is no worse deafness than that of people who will not hear. Hence
it is that the Festklange, as well as the Mass and everything
that I and others better than my humble self have been able to
compose, is prejudiced. But the more unseemly and malicious
factiousness may show itself against new works, the more am I
laid under a grateful obligation to those who do not accept as
their artistic criterion the injustice inflicted on me.
Time levels all things, and I can quietly wait until people are
more occupied in learning to know and to hear my scores than in
condemning and hissing them. Mean-spirited, blackguard tricks,
even when played in concert-rooms and newspaper reports, are no
arguments worthy of a lasting import.
I beg you, dear sir, to convey to General Music-Director Lachner
my best thanks for his well-meant sentiments towards me, and I
remain, with high esteem, yours very sincerely,
F. Liszt
Weymar, January 15th, 1860.
231. To Johann von Herbeck.
[Received, according to him, on January 26th, 1860]
Dear Friend,
On getting back from Berlin yesterday evening I find your letter,
which has given me especial pleasure by the assurance that the
"Prometheus" choruses and, the instrumentation of the "Schubert
Marches" fulfill your expectations. You shall very shortly
receive two more "Schubert Marches" (the "Funeral March" in E
flat minor, and the "Hungarian March" in C minor out of the
"Hungarian Divertissement". [Op. 40, No. 5, and "Marcia" from Op.
54] They could be played one immediately after the other.
The "Prometheus" choruses, together with the "Symphonic Poem"
which goes before them (and which has been published by Hartel as
No. 5), were composed in July 1850 for the Herder Festival, and
were performed in the theater here on the eve of that festival.
My pulses were then all beating feverishly, and the thrice-
repeated cry of woe of the Oceanides, the Dryads, and the
Infernals echoed in my ears from all the trees and lakes of our
park.
In my work I strove after an ideal of the antique, which should
be represented, not as an ancient skeleton, but as a living and
moving form. A beautiful stanza of Andre Chenier,
"Sur des pensers nouveaux faisons des vers antiques," ["On modern
thoughts let us fashion verses antique."]
served me for precept, and showed me the way to musical plastic
art and symmetry.
The favorable opinion you have formed of the work in reading it
through is a token to me that I have not altogether failed - I
hope that the performance will not spoil your sympathy for it.
