I detest repeating myself in letters so much that I can't write
over again to you my plans of travel up to the beginning of
winter; these I have just told Kroll in full, and you already
know them from Hanover.
Teleky, Bethlen (Friends of Liszt's), and Corracioni are here,
and form a kind of colony which I call the Tribe of the Huns!
Probably Teleky will come and pick me up at Weymar towards the
middle of February, and we shall go together to Vienna and Pest -
not forgetting Temesvar, Debreczin, and Klausenburg!
I hope then to find you in Vienna, and shall perhaps be able to
give you a good lift.
Meanwhile acknowledge the receipt of these lines: enjoy yourself,
and remain to me always friend Freund. [A play on his name
Freund, which means friend.]
Yours most sincerely and affectionately,
F. Liszt
Port Marly, June 11th, 1844.
40. To Franz Von Schober.
Gibraltar, March 3rd, 1845.
Your letter pleases me like a child, my dear good Schober!
Everything comes to him who can wait. But I scarcely can wait to
congratulate you and to see you again in Weymar [as Councillor of
Legation there]. Unhappily it is not probable that I can get
there before the end of next autumn. Keep me in your good books,
therefore, until then, and accept my best thanks in advance for
all you will have done for me and fought for me till then, both
in Weymar and in Hungary!
With regard to Vienna, Lowy writes me almost exactly the same as
you. To tell the truth I am extremely thankful to the Vienna
public, for it was they who, in a critically apathetic moment,
roused and raised me [When he came from Venice to Vienna in the
spring of 1838, to give a concert for the benefit of his
Hungarian compatriots after the inundations, on which occasion,
although Thalberg, Clara Wieck, and Henselt had been there before
him, he aroused the utmost enthusiasm.]; but still I don't feel
the slightest obligation to return there a year sooner or later.
My Vienna journey will pretty much mark the end of my virtuoso
career. I hope to go thence (in the month of August, 1846) to
Constantinople, and on my return to Italy to pass my dramatic
Rubicon or Fiasco.
So much for my settled plans.
What precisely is going to become of me this coming spring and
summer I do not exactly know. In any case to Paris I will not go.
You know why. My incredibly wretched connection with _____ has
perhaps indirectly contributed more than anything to my Spanish-
Portuguese tour. I have no reason to regret having come, although
my best friends tried to dissuade me from it. Sometimes it seems
to me that my thoughts ripen and that my troubles grow
prematurely old under the bright and penetrating sun of Spain...
Many kind messages to Eckermann and Wolff. [Professor Wolff,
editor of "Der poetische Hausschatz."] I will write to the latter
from the Rhine, where I shall at any rate spend a month this
summer (perhaps with my mother and Cosima). If he is still
inclined to return to his and your countries (Denmark and
Sweden), we can make a nice little trip there as a holiday treat.
Good-bye, my dear excellent friend. Allow me to give you as true
a love as I feel is a necessity of my heart! Ever yours,
F. Liszt
What is Villers doing? If you see him tell him to write me a line
to Marseilles, care of M. Boisselot, Pianoforte Maker.
41. To Franz Kroll at Glogau
Weymar, March 26th, 1845
My very dear Kroll,
The arrival of your letter and the packet which accompanied it
decided a matter of warm contest between our friend Lupus
[Presumably Liszt's friend, Professor Wolff (1791-1851).] and
Farfa-Magne-quint-quatorze! [For whom this name was intended is
not clear.] It consisted in making the latter see the difference
between the two German verbs "verwundern" (to amaze) and
"bewundern" (to admire), and to translate clearly, according to
her wits, which are sometimes so ingeniously refractory, what
progress there is from Verwundern (amazement) to Erstaunen
(astonishment). Imagine, now, with what a wonderful solution of
the difficulty your packet and letter furnished us, and how
pleased I was at the following demonstration: -
"We must admire (bewundern) Kroll's fine feeling of friendship;
we may be amazed (verwundern) at the proof he has given of his
industry in copying out the Mass; should this industry continue
we shall first of all be astonished (erstaunen), and by degrees,
through the results he will bring about, we again attain to
admiration (Bewunderung)."
I don't know how you will judge, critically, of this example, but
what is certain is that it appeared to be quite conclusive to our
auditory.
Ernst [The celebrated violinist (1814-65)] has just been spending
a week here, during which he has played some hundred rubbers of
whist at the "Erbprinz." His is a noble, sweet, and delicate
nature, and more than once during his stay I have caught myself
regretting you for him, and regretting him for you. Last Monday
he was good enough to play, in his usual and admirable manner, at
the concert for the Orchestral Pension Fund. The pieces he had
selected were his new "Concerto pathetique" (in F~ minor) and an
extremely piquant and brilliant "Caprice on Hungarian Melodies."
(This latter piece is dedicated to me.) The public was in a good
humor, even really warm, which is usually one of its least
faults.
