It is to be hoped that this tremendous work may
succeed in being performed in the year 1859, and I, on my side,
will not neglect anything to forward this performance as soon as
possible - a performance which certainly implies many difficulties
and exertions. Wagner requires for the purpose a special theater
built for himself, and a not ordinary acting and orchestral
staff. It goes without saying that the work can only appear
before the world under his own conducting; and if, as is much to
be wished, this should take place in Germany, his pardon must be
obtained before everything. - I comfort myself with the saying,
"What must be will be!" And thus I expect to be also standing on
my legs again soon, and to be back in Weymar in the early days of
December. It will be very kind of you if you will not let too
long a time elapse without coming to see me. For today accept
once more my heartfelt thanks, and the assurance of sincere
friendship of your
F. Liszt
Zurich, November 14th, 1856
166. To Louis Kohler
Enclosed, dear friend, is a rough copy of the Prelude to
"Rheingold," which Wagner has handed me for you, and which will
be sure to give you great pleasure.
After having been obliged to keep my bed for a couple of weeks,
which has lengthened out my stay here, I am now making ready to
go with Wagner the day after tomorrow to St. Gall, there to
conduct a couple of my Symphonic Poems with a very respectable
orchestra (twenty violins, six double basses, etc.). Toward the
middle of December I shall be back in Weymar, and shall continue
to write my stuff! -
A thousand friendly greetings.
F. Liszt
Zurich, November 21st, 1856
167. To Eduard Liszt
St. Gall, November 24th, 1856
. - . A really significant concert took place yesterday at St.
Gall. Wagner conducted the Eroica Symphony, and I conducted in
his honor two of my Symphonic Poems. The latter were excellently
given - and received. The St. Gall paper has several articles on
the subject, which I am sending you.
By Christmas I will send you the new copies of my Mass (which I
think I have considerably improved in the last revision,
especially by the concluding Fugue of the Gloria and a
heavenward-soaring climax of the subject.
[Here, Liszt illustrates with a vocal score excerpt at the point
where the singer sings: "et u-nam sanctam catho-li-camet a-po -
sto - - - - li-cam"]
Probably the work will be ready to appear by Easter. If you write
by return of post, you can send the ministerial answer to my
letter to Bach to me here. The contents, of which you have told
me, please me much, and I reckon with confidence that the
publishing of the score will fix the sense and meaning of my work
in public opinion. The work is truly "of pure musical water (not
in the sense of the ordinary diluted Church style, but like
diamond water) and living Catholic wine."
. - . Farewell, dearest Eduard, and remain true to me in heart and
spirit, as is also to you your
F. Liszt
168. To Alexander Ritter, Music Director in Stettin
Munich, December 4th, 1856
Dear Friend,
I received your letter on a day when I again greatly missed your
presence. We were together with Wagner at St. Gall, and the
Musical Society there had distinguished itself by the production
of an orchestra of ten first, ten second violins, eight violas,
six celli and double basses. Wagner conducted the Eroica, and I
two of my Symphonic Poems - "Orpheus" and "Les Preludes." The
performance and reception of my works were quite to my
satisfaction, and the "Preludes" had to be repeated (as they were
in Pest). Whether such a production would be possible in Stettin
I much doubt, in spite of your friendly advances. The open,
straightforward sense of the public is everywhere kept so much in
check by the oft-repeated rubbish of the men of the "But" and
"Yet," who batten on criticism, and appear to set themselves the
task of crushing to death every living endeavour, in order
thereby to increase their own reputation and importance, that I
must regard the rapid spread of my works almost as an imprudence.
You desire "Orpheus," "Tasso," and "Festklange" from me, dear
friend! But have you considered that "Orpheus" has no proper
working out section, and hovers quite simply between bliss and
woe, breathing out reconciliation in Art? Pray do not forget that
"Tasso" celebrates no psychic triumph, which an ingenious critic
has already denounced (probably mindful of the "inner camel,"
which Heine designates as an indispensable necessity of German
aestheticism!), and the "Festklange" sounded too confusedly noisy
even to our friend Pohl! And then what has all this canaille to
do with instruments of percussion, cymbals, triangle, and drum in
the sacred domain of Symphony? It is, believe me, not only
confusion and derangement of ideas, but also a prostitution of
the species itself!
Should you be of another opinion, allow me at least to keep you
from too greatly compromising yourself, so near to the doors of
the immaculate Berlin critics, and not to drag you with myself
into the corruption of my own juggling tone-poems. Your dear wife
(to whom I beg you to remember me most kindly) might be angry
with me for it, and I would not on any account be put into her
bad books. Instead of conducting my Symphonic Poems, rather give
lectures at home of the safe passport of Riehl's "Haus-Musik,"
and take well to heart the warning,
