If Joachim
Had Already Been In Berlin, Or If His Stay There Could Take Place
At The Same Time With
Some other pecuniary advantage, I feel sure
that he would take a pleasure in offering you his co-operation
for
Nothing; but in the position he is in now, not intending at
present to give concerts in Berlin, and not having as yet any
direct relations with you, I think you will appreciate the
motives which lead me to fix this sum with you...
If, as I hope, you do not consider it out of proportion, please
simply to be so good as to write a few lines to Joachim direct,
to tell him what day he ought to be in Berlin for the rehearsal
of your concert, so that he may ask a little beforehand for his
holiday from here.
Will you also please give my best regards to Th. Kullak? I have
had the opportunity of talking rather fully about him these last
days with two of his pupils, Princesses Anne and Louise (of
Prussia), and also with their mother, Princess Charles. Mr. Marx
(to whom I beg you to remember me kindly, until I write more
fully to him about the performance of his "Moses") will shortly
receive a letter from Mr. Montag, whom I have begged to bring
with him the arrangements relating to the song parts, which Mr.
Marx will be so kind as to lend us. Probably this oratorio can be
given here towards the end of next January or the middle of next
February, and as soon as the rehearsals are sufficiently advanced
I shall write to Marx to give him positive tidings and to invite
him to pay us a short visit at Weymar.
A thousand frank and cordial regards from
Yours ever,
F. Liszt
You probably already know that Joachim is leaving Weymar to
settle in Hanover at the beginning of next year.
91. To Wilhelm von Lenz in St. Petersburg
[A well-known writer on music and especially on Beethoven;
Imperial Russian Councillor of State (1809-83).]
I am doubly in your debt, my dear Lenz (you will allow me, will
you not, to follow your example by dropping the Mr.?), firstly
for your book, ["Beethoven and his Three Styles" (St. Petersburg,
1852).] so thoroughly imbued with that sincere and earnest
passion for the Beautiful without which one can never penetrate
to the heart of works of genius; and, secondly, for your friendly
letter, which reached me shortly after I had got your book, the
notice of which had very much excited my curiosity. That I have
put off replying to you till now is not merely on account of my
numerous occupations, which usually preclude my having the
pleasure of correspondence, but chiefly on account of you and
your remarkable work, which I wanted to read at leisure, in order
to get from it the whole substance of its contents. You cannot
find it amiss that it has given me much to reflect upon, and you
will easily understand that I shall have much to say to you on
this subject - so much that, to explain all my thoughts, I should
have to make another book to match yours - or, better still,
resume our lessons of twenty years ago, when the master learned
so much from the pupil, - discuss pieces in hand, the meaning,
value, import, of a large number of ideas, phrases, episodes,
rhythms, harmonic progressions, developments, artifices; - I
should have to have a good long talk with you, in fact, about
minims and crotchets, quavers and semi-quavers, - not forgetting
the rests which, if you please, are by no means a trifling
chapter when one professes to go in seriously for music, and for
Beethoven in particular.
The friendly remembrance that you have kept of our talks, under
the name of lessons, of the Rue Montholon, is very dear to me,
and the flattering testimony your book gives to those past hours
encourages me to invite you to continue them at Weymar, where it
would be at once so pleasant and so interesting to see you for
some weeks or months, ad libitum, so that we might mutually edify
ourselves with Beethoven. Just as we did twenty years ago, we
shall agree all at once, I am certain, in the generality of
cases; and, more than we were then, shall we each of us be in a
position to make further steps forward in the exoteric region of
Art. - For the present allow me, at the risk of often repeating
myself hereafter, to compliment you most sincerely on your
volume, which will be a chosen book and a work of predilection
for people of taste, and particularly for those who feel and
understand music. Artists and amateurs, professors and pupils,
critics and virtuosi; composers and theorists - all will have
something to gain from it, and a part to take in this feast of
attractive instruction that you have prepared for them. What
ingenious traits, what living touches, what well-dealt blows,
what new and judiciously adapted imagery should I not have to
quote, were I to enter in detail into your pages, so different
from what one usually reads on similar subjects! In your
arguments, and in the intrinsic and extrinsic proofs you adduce,
what weight - without heaviness, what solidity - without stiffness,
of strong and wholesome criticism - without pedantry! Ideas are
plentiful in this by turns incisive, brilliant, reflected, and
spontaneous style, in which learning comes in to enhance and
steady the flow of a lively and luxuriant imagination. To all the
refinement and subtle divination common to Slavic genius, you
ally the patient research and learned scruples which characterize
the German explorer. You assume alternately the gait of the mole
and of the eagle - and everything you do succeeds wonderfully,
because amid your subterranean maneuvers and your airy flights
you constantly preserve, as your own inalienable property, so
much wit and knowledge, good sense and free fancy.
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