As Regards Visits Of Artists Last Month Which Were A Pleasure To
Me Personally, I Must Mention Clara Schumann And Litolff.
In
Brendel's paper (Neue Zeitschrift) you will find an article
signed with my name on Madame Schumann, whom I have again heard
with that sympathy and thoroughly admiring esteem which her
talent commands.
As for Litolff, I confess that he made a great
impression on me. His Fourth Symphonic Concerto (in manuscript)
is a very remarkable composition, and he played it in such a
masterly manner, with so much verve, such boldness and certainty,
that it gave me very great pleasure. If there is something of the
quadruped in Dreyschock's marvelous execution (and this
comparison should by no means vex him: is not a lion as much a
quadruped as a poodle?), there is certainly something winged in
Litolff's execution, which has, moreover, all the superiority
over Dreyschock's which a biped with ideas, imagination, and
sensibility has over another biped who fancies that he possesses
a surfeit of them all - often very embarrassing!
Do you still continue your intimate relations with old Cognac in
the New World, my dear Mason? - Allow me again to recommend you
measure, which is an essential quality for musicians. In truth, I
am not very much qualified to preach to you the quantity of this
quantity; for, if I remember rightly, I employed a good deal of
Tempo rubato in the times when I was giving my concerts (a
business that I would not begin again for anything in the world),
and again, quite lately, I have written a long Symphony in three
parts entitled "Faust" (without text or vocal parts), in which
the horrible measures of 7/8, 7/4, 5/4, alternate with C and
3/4.
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