That your article has been rudely and spitefully criticized need
not trouble you. You presuppose your reader to have refinement
and educated feeling, artistic acuteness, a fine perception, and
a certain Atticism. These, my dear friend, are indeed rare
things - and only to be found in very homoeopathic doses among our
Aristarchuses. Sheep and d[onkeys] have no taste for truffles.
"Good hay, sweet hay, has not its equal in the world," as the
artist-philosopher Zettel very truly says in the "Midsummer
Night's Dream"! Moreover, dear friend, things didn't and don't go
any better with other better fellows than ourselves. We need not
make any fancies about it, but only go onward quietly,
perseveringly, and consistently.
"Lohengrin" will be given here on the Grand Duchess's next
birthday, April 8th. Gotze is coming this time from Leipzig, and
sings the part of the Knight of the Swan. I hope that in May
Tichatschek will undertake the role; he has already been studying
the complete work for a long time past, and has had a splendid
costume made for it. Perhaps you will be inclined to hear this
glorious work here either in April or May. That would be very
delightful of you, and I need not tell you how pleased I should
be to see you among us again. -
Rafi is working hard at his "Samson," and tells me that he will
have finished it by Christmas. Cornelius, whom I think you do not
know (a most charming, fine-feeling and distinguished nature),
has likewise a dramatic work, poem and music, in readiness for
next season. We gave a good performance of Gluck's "Orpheus"
lately, and for the last performance of this season (end of June
I think we shall still give the Schubert opera "Alfonso und
Estrella," if those same theater influences which already made
themselves prominent by the "Indra" performance when you were at
Weymar do not decide against this work, so interesting and full
of intrinsic natural charm! - Farewell, dear friend, and send
speedy tidings of yourself to
Yours most sincerely,
F. Liszt
Weymar, March 2nd, 1854
110. To Dr. Franz Brendel
Dear Friend,
Herewith an article which I send you for your paper. "Euryanthe,"
which I conduct here tomorrow, is the occasion of it. Still a
more general question is aroused in it, which I am to a certain
extent constrained "to agitate" from Weymar.["Gesammelte
Scriften" vol. iii., I.] I flatter myself that our ideas will
meet and harmonize in it. At first I had prefaced it by a couple
of introductory lines, which I now erase. Will you be so good as
to introduce me yourself in the Neue Zeitschrift by a few words?
You will be the best one to make up this little preface. My name
can be put quite openly with its five letters, as I am perfectly
ready to stand by my opinion.
Tuesday morning I go to Gotha. The Duke's opera is to be given at
the end of this month, or at latest on the 2nd April, and from
the day after tomorrow till the first performance I shall be
quartered at Gotha. In consequence of this I must unfortunately
give up my excursion to Leipzig for the moment, - but I hope that
David will allow another rehearsal in the Gewandhaus in the
course of April, after the "Lohengrin" performance here with Gaze
(on April 7th and 8th), which I must of necessity conduct. The
news, which it appears some papers have published, that I was
thinking of arranging a concert in Leipzig, belongs to the
generation of ducks [geese?] who amuse themselves in swimming
around my humble self. My visit to Leipzig has no other object
than to make some of the musicians acquainted with one or two of
my symphonic works. Should they be pleased with them, they might
perhaps be given there next season. In any case, however, several
of them will appear in score next autumn.
My time is exceedingly limited, and I must see about a great many
things today which do not put one in the mood for correspondence.
Yours in friendship,
F. Liszt
Saturday, March 18th [1854]
111. To Louis Kohler.
[Weimar, April or May, 1854]
My very dear friend,
I am extremely glad that you liked my article on "Euryanthe" and
theater direction, and I thank you most truly for your warm and
very encouraging letter. For many weeks past I have been
imitating you (as you and others always set me a good example),
and am publishing several views on Art-subjects and Art-works in
the Weimar official paper. By degrees these articles will swell
into a volume, which shall then contain the complete set.
For the present I allow myself to send you my Sonata, which has
just been published at Hartel's. You will soon receive another
long piece, "Scherzo and March," and in the course of the summer
my "Annees de Pelerinage, Suite de Compositions pour le Piano"
will appear at Schott's; two years - Switzerland and Italy. With
these pieces I shall have done for the present with the piano, in
order to devote myself exclusively to orchestral compositions,
and to attempt more in that domain which has for a long time
become for me an inner necessity. Seven of the Symphonic Poems
are perfectly ready and written out. I will soon send you the
little prefaces which I am adding to them, in order to render the
perception of them more plain. Meanwhile I merely give you the
titles: -
1. "Ce qu'on entend sur la Montagne" (after V. Hugo's poem in the
"Feuilles d'Automne").
2. Tasso. "Lamento e Trionfo"
3. "Les Preludes" (after Lamartine's Meditation poetique "Les
Preludes").
4. "Orphee."
5. "Promethee."
6.
