By no
means could that be the case, and I think I even said to you in
the course of conversation that, so long as my set of articles on
various operas, which provisionally closes with the "Flying
Dutchman", is going on in the Neue Zeitschrift, it seems to me
more becoming not to bespeak any other musical productions of
mine. None the less do I consider it desirable and quite in the
interest of our cause that, for the future, the more important
productions, especially the works of R. Schumann, Hiller, Gade,
etc., should be brought into consideration more fully and oftener
than has been the case of late years. The bookseller's views, as
regards the sending or non-sending of works, appear to me
unimportant and even injurious for the higher position which your
paper maintains. -
I send you herewith Cornelius's article on the Prize Symphony and
the "Girondistes" Overture. It is very nicely written, and will
probably suit you. If possible put it into your next number.
I cannot now undertake the discussion about the Schumann
collective writings, as I am prevented by musical work for a long
time. Still, if I write later on a couple of articles on the
work, that need not prevent you from bringing out very soon one
or more articles discussing the same work. There is much to take
in and to bring out in it, which one critic alone is scarcely
capable of conceiving. The best plan of all would be if you
yourself will undertake the discussion of the Schumann writings.
Should you, however, not have time for it, then Pohl would be the
best man for this work. His predilection for Schumann, and his
familiarity with Schumann's views, qualify him thoroughly for
this.
My articles on the "Flying Dutchman" must not wait so long as you
propose to me in your letter. I wish explicity that the two
articles on the "Weisse Dame" and "Alfonso and Estrella" should
appear as soon as possible, and immediately afterwards the
"Flying Dutchman", so that by the end of September this series of
twelve opera discussions may have all appeared in the Neue
Zeitschrift.
At the same time with the proofs of the article on the "Weisse
Dame" you will receive the "Alfonso and Estrella" article, and,
as soon as these are out, the "Flying Dutchman", which must be
published in September - for various reasons, which cannot well be
explained in a letter.
Raff's book "Die Wagnerfrage" [The Wagner Question] has arrived
here today, and I have already read it. The author is so pleased
with himself that it would be a miracle if his readers were
joined to him in the same proportion, and Raff is specially at
variance with miracles! -
This book makes on me the effect of a pedagogic exuberance. Even
the occasional good views (on harmony, for example) that it
contains are obscured by a self-sufficiency in the tone and
manner of them, of which one may well complain as insupportable.
What Raff wishes to appear spoils four-fifths (to quote the time
which he adapts so ridiculously to "Lohengrin" of what he might
be. He is perpetually getting on scientific stilts, which are by
no means of a very solid wood. Philosophic formulas are sometimes
the envelope, the outside shell, as it were, of knowledge; but it
may also happen that they only show empty ideas, and contain no
other substance than their own harsh terminology. To demonstrate
the rose by the ferule may seem a very scientific proceeding to
vulgar pedants; for my part it is not to my taste; and without
being unjust to the rare qualities of Raff's talent, which I have
long truly appreciated, his book seems to me to belong too much
to the domain of moral and artistic pathology for it to help in
placing questions of Art in their right light.
I beg you, dear friend, not to repeat this to anybody, for I
could not go against Raff in any but the most extreme case, for
which I hope he will not give me any occasion. Against the many
charges to which he has exposed himself I even intend to shield
him as far as possible, but I am very much grieved that he has
mingled so much that is raw and untenable in his book with much
that is good, true and right.
Farewell, dear friend, and give most friendly greetings to your
wife from
Yours most sincerely,
F. Liszt
August 12th, 1854
In the "Favorita" article a great error has been allowed to
remain. "No lover, no knight behaves thus" - and not "A lover
behaves thus," etc. Send me at once the proofs of the "Weisse
Dame", and in September bring the "Fliegende Hollander", which
must not wait any longer.
I am now working at my Faust Symphony. The three-keyboard
instrument arrived yesterday from Paris. It might be well to take
the opportunity of my Catalogue appearing at Hartel's to see
about a special article on it in your paper.
119. To Anton Rubinstein
[August, 1854]
My dear Van II.,
Whatever scruple I may have in making the shadow of an attempt on
the liberty of your determinations and movements, - a scruple of
which I gave you a pertinent proof by not insisting any further
on your choosing Weymar instead of Bieberich as your villegiatura
during this last month, - yet duty (and a theatrical duty!)
obliges me to snatch you from your Rhine-side leisure, to set
yourself to work afresh at your business on the banks of the
Ilm, -
"Non piu andrai, farfalone," etc. [Aria from Mozart's "Figaro"]
We have to hunt the Siberian bear; ["The Hunters of Siberia", an
opera of Rubinstein's.] and whether it is the season or not, I
don't trouble myself about that.
