The next time I pass through Leipzig I will tell
Kistner that you must not fail to have a copy of the "Harmonies
Poetiques et Religieuses." The previously mentioned pieces you
will have without delay. I have sent my Mass and Ave Maria to
Marpurg by Raff. If you approve of these compositions I will
gladly get a couple more copies in your honor. My Catalogue will
not come out till next winter, as I have not yet had any time to
revise it.
Let me hear soon from you, dear friend, and keep ever in friendly
remembrance
Yours sincerely and with many thanks,
F. Liszt
Carlsbad, August 1st, 1853
Address to me always at Weymar.
104. To Richard Pohl in Dresden
[Printed in Pohl's pamphlet "The Carlsruhe Musical Festival in
October, 1853" (by Hoplit). Leipzig, Hinze, 1853. - The addressee,
a writer on music (born 1826), one of the oldest and most
faithful adherents of Liszt and Wagner, lived in Weimar after
1854, his wife Jeanne (nee Eyth) having a post there as a harp
virtuosa: after Liszt's departure he was, as he still is,
occupied as editor in Baden-Baden.]
In various accounts that I have read of the Festival at
Carlsruhe, there is one point on which people seem pretty much
agreed - namely, the insufficiency of my conducting. Without here
examining what degree of foregone judgment there may be in this
opinion, without even seeking to know how much it has been
influenced by the simple fact of the choice of myself as
conductor, apart from the towns of Carlsruhe, Darmstadt, and
Mannheim, it certainly would not be for me to raise pretensions
quite contrary to the assertion which it is sought to establish
if this assertion were based on facts or on justice. But this is
precisely what I cannot help contesting in a very positive
manner.
As a fact one cannot deny that the ensemble of the Carlsruhe
programme was very remarkably performed, that the proportion and
sonority of the instruments, combined with a view to the locale
chosen, were satisfactory and even excellent. This is rather
naively acknowledged in the remark that it is really surprising
that things should have gone so well "in spite of" the
insufficiency of my conducting. I am far from wishing to deck
myself in the peacock's feathers of the Carlsruhe, Mannheim, and
Darmstadt orchestras, and am assuredly more disposed than any one
to render full justice to the talents - some of them very
distinguished - of the members of these three orchestras; but, to
come to the point, whatever may be said to the contrary, it is
acknowledged, even by the testimony of my adversaries, that the
execution was at times astonishing, and altogether better than
there had been reason to expect, considering that I was
conductor.
This fact placed beyond discussion, it remains to be seen whether
I am so completely a stranger there as they try to make out, and
what reasons there can be for thus crying down a conductor when
the execution was satisfactory, especially if, as is just, one
bears in mind the novelty of the works on the programme for
almost the entire audience. For, as every one knew at Carlsruhe,
the Ninth Symphony, as well as the works of Wagner, Berlioz,
Schumann, etc., were not well known by any one but myself, seeing
that they had never been given before in these parts (with the
exception of the Berlioz piece, which a portion only of the
Carlsruhe orchestra had played under the direction of the
composer). -
Now as regards the question of right - to know whether in good
conscience and with knowledge of the matter one can justly accuse
me of being an insufficient conductor, inexperienced, uncertain,
etc.: without endeavoring to exculpate myself (for which I do not
think there is any need amongst those who understand me), may I
be permitted to make an observation bearing on the basis of the
question?
The works for which I openly confess my admiration and
predilection are for the most part amongst those which conductors
more or less renowned (especially the so-called "tuchtigen
Capellmeister" [ Qualified conductors.]) have honored but little,
or not at all, with their personal sympathies, so much so that it
has rarely happened that they have performed them. These works,
reckoning from those which are commonly described nowadays as
belonging to Beethoven's last style (and which were, not long
ago, with lack of reverence, explained by Beethoven's deafness
and mental derangement!) - these works, to my thinking, exact from
executants and orchestras a progress which is being accomplished
at this moment - but which is far from being realized in all
places - in accentuation, in rhythm, in the manner of phrasing and
declaiming certain passages, and, of distributing light and
shade - in a word, progress in the style of the execution itself.
They establish, between the musicians of the desks and the
musician chief who directs them, a link of a nature other than
that which is cemented by an imperturbable beating of the time.
In many cases even the rough, literal maintenance of the time and
of each continuous bar |1,2,3,4,|1,2,3,4,| clashes with the sense
and expression. There, as elsewhere, the letter killeth the
spirit, a thing to which I will never subscribe, however specious
in their hypocritical impartiality may be the attacks to which I
am exposed.
For the works of Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner, etc., I see less
than elsewhere what advantage there could be (which by-the-bye I
shall contest pretty knowingly elsewhere) in a conductor trying
to go through his work like a sort of windmill, and to get into a
great perspiration in order to give warmth to the others.
