Is
any assumption in my proposition to place the Aix-la-Chapelle
programme more in accord with my own collective endeavors.
I am writing a few lines of thanks by the next post to President
Herr Van Houten for the distinction shown to me about the
consideration contained in this letter, which I beg that you will
communicate to him verbally.
Awaiting further communications from the Committee, I remain,
dear Herr Capellmeister, with warm acknowledgements and high
esteem,
Yours very truly,
F. Liszt
171. To J. W. von Wasielewski in Dresden
Dear Friend,
Your letter reached me, after some delay, in Zurich, where I had
to keep my bed for several weeks - and today I write to you still
from my bed, and sulking because the geographical change which I
have made has not brought about any improvement in my
pathological condition (which, by the way, is quite without
danger).
How are you, dear Wasielewski? Have you settled yourself
pleasantly in Dresden? Are you working at music industriously and
methodically? - How far have you got in your biography of R.
Schumann? With regard to this work, the publication of which I am
awaiting with great interest, I am sorry to be unable to follow
the wish you so kindly express. Many letters addressed to me by
Schumann in earlier years are lost, and since my residence in
Weymar (from the year 1848) we certainly wrote to one another
from time to time, but only when theater or concert performances
of his works gave a sort of business occasion for it. Weymar does
not deserve the reproach of having kept itself too much in the
background in this respect. At the Goethe Festival in 1849 I had
the great closing scene to the second part of "Faust" given,
which was, later on, repeated; at the beginning of 1852 the music
to Byron's "Manfred," with a stage performance of the drama such
as he desired, was given several times, and, as far as I know, up
to now no other theater has made this attempt. [Liszt was
actually the first.] The Weymar theater is likewise the only one
which contains in its repertoire Schumann's "Genoveva" (which was
indeed given here for the first time in April 1855). It goes
without saying that, during the years of my work here, most of
his chamber music - Quartets, Trios, Sonatas - as well as his
Symphonies, Overtures, and Songs, have been cherished with
particular preference and love, and have been frequently heard in
various concerts, with the exception of one of the most
important; but the very slight amount of public activity of our
Vocal Union has prevented, as yet, any performance of the "Peri,"
which, however, has already been partly studied, and will ere
long be given at last.
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.
