Letters Of Franz Liszt, Volume 1,
Letters Of Franz Liszt, Volume 1, "From Paris To Rome: Years Of Travel As A Virtuoso" By Franz Liszt - Page 158 of 244 - First - Home

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As A Contribution To Your Biographical Studies, Dear Wasielewski, I Should Like To Tell You Truly With What Sincere, Heartfelt, And Complete Reverence I Have Followed Schumann's Genius During Twenty Years And Faithfully Adhered To It.

Although I am sure that you, and all who know me more intimately, have no doubt about this, yet

At this moment the feeling comes over me - a feeling which I cannot resist - to tell you more fully about my relations with R. Schumann, which date from the year 1836, and to give them you here plainly in extenso. Have a little patience, therefore, in reading this letter, which I have not time to make shorter.

After the buzz and hubbub called forth by my article in the Paris Gazette Musicale on Thalberg (the meaning of which, be it said in passing, has been quite distorted), which was re-echoed in German papers and salons, Maurice Schlesinger, the then proprietor of the Gazette Musicale, took the opportunity of asking me to insert in his paper a very eulogistic article on anything new that came out in the world of Art. For months Schlesinger sent me with this object all sorts of novelties, among which, however, I could not find anything that seemed to me deserving of praise, until at last, when I was at the Lake of Como, Schumann's "Impromptu" in C major (properly variations), the "Etudes symphoniques," and the "Concert sans orchestre" [Concerto without orchestra] (published later, in the second edition, under the more suitable title Sonata in F minor) came into my hands. In playing these pieces through, I felt at once what musical mettle was in them; and, without having previously heard anything of Schumann, without knowing how or where he lived (for I had not at that time been to Germany, and he had no name in France and Italy), I wrote the critique which was published in the Gazette Musicale towards the end of 1837, and which became known to Schumann.

Soon afterwards, when I was giving my first concerts in Vienna (April to May 1838), he wrote to me and sent me a manuscript entitled "Gruss an Franz Liszt in Deutschland" ["Greeting to Franz Liszt in Germany"]. I forget at this moment under what title it was afterwards published; the opening bars are as follows: -

[Here, Liszt hand-writes the score for the opening bars. It is the beginning of the second Novelette Op. 21, but not quite correctly quoted by Liszt]

At about the same time followed the publishing of the great "Fantasia" (C major) in three movements, which he dedicated to me; my dedication to him in return for this glorious and noble work was only made three years ago in my "Sonata" in B minor.

At the beginning of the winter of 1840 I traveled from Vienna back to Paris by way of Prague, Dresden, and Leipzig. Schumann paid me the friendly attention of welcoming me immediately on my arrival in Dresden, and we then travelled together to Leipzig. Wieck, afterwards Schumann's father-in-law, had at that time a lawsuit against him to prevent his marriage with Clara.

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