175. To Dionys Pruckner in Vienna
Weymar, February 11th, 1857
From all sides, dearest Dionysius, I hear the best and most
brilliant accounts of you. Without being surprised at this I am
extremely pleased about it. To make a firm footing in Vienna as a
pianoforte player is no small task, especially under present
circumstances! If one succeeds in this, one can, with the utmost
confidence, make a name throughout Europe. It is very important
for you, dear friend, to appear often in public, so as to make
yourself feel at home with them. In production the public have
far more to care about the artist than he has to care about them,
or indeed to let himself be embarrassed by them. At home, our
whole life through, we have to study and to devise how to mature
our work and to attain as near as possible to our ideal of Art.
But when we enter the concert-room the feeling ought not to leave
us, that, just by our conscientious and persevering striving, we
stand somewhat higher than the public, and that we have to
represent our portion of "Menschheits-Wurde," [Manhood's dignity]
as Schiller says. Let us not err through false modesty, and let
us hold fast to the true, which is much more difficult to
practice and much more rare to find. The artist - in our sense -
should be neither the servant nor the master of the public. He
remains the bearer of the Beautiful in the inexhaustible variety
which is appointed to human thought and perception - and this
inviolable consciousness alone assures his authority.
Through your father I learn that you are thinking of going to
Munich in the course of the spring. I, on my side, had also the
intention of giving you a rendez-vous there. But yesterday I
definitely accepted the conductorship of the Musical Festival of
the Lower-Rhine, which will take place this year in Aix-la-
Chapelle at Whitsuntide, on the 31st May, and could not undertake
a long journey before then, in order not to break in on my work
too much.
At the beginning of September we shall have grand festivities
here in honor of the centenary of Carl August. Rietschel's
Schiller and Goethe group will then be put up, and there will be
a great deal of music on this occasion at the theater, for which
I must prepare. I hope we shall see each other before then.
Bronsart is in Paris. You shall have his Trio very soon. Bulow is
playing in Rostock, Bremen, and Hamburg. The Aix-la-Chapelle
Committee have also invited him to the Musical Festival. Singer
goes next week to Rotterdam, and on the 26th February a couple of
my Symphonic Poems will be given at the Gewandhaus (directed by
myself). I yesterday finished the score of another new one, Die
Hunnenschlacht, [The Battle of the Huns] which I should like to
bring out in Vienna when there is an opportunity.
Yours in all friendship,
F. Liszt
176. To Joachim Raff
[February 1857]
You may rest assured, dear friend, that it was very much against
the grain to me that I could not accept the kind invitation of
the Wiesbaden Concert Committee, for which I have to thank your
intervention; and your letter, in which you explain to me some
other circumstances, increases my sincere regret. But for this
winter it is, frankly, impossible for me to accept any
invitations of that kind, and I think I have told you before now
that I have had to excuse myself in several cities (Vienna,
Rotterdam, etc.). Even for Leipzig, which is so near me (although
I might appear somewhat far-fetched to many a one there!), it was
difficult to find a day that would suit me. On the 26th of this
month the "Preludes" and "Mazeppa" are to be given in the
Gewandhaus under my direction (for the Orchestral Pension Fund
Concert). Perhaps this performance will serve as a definite
warning for other concert-conducting, which might have been
thought of, to question my "incapability as a composer," so often
demonstrated (see the proof number of the "Illustrirte
Monatsheft" of Westermann, Brunswick, the National Zeitung, and
the "thousand and one" competent judges who have long since been
quite clear on the matter!).
How far are you in your Opera? When will one be able to see and
hear something of it? As far as I have heard, you intend to
perform "Samson" first in Darmstadt. If this does not happen at
too awkward a time for me I shall come.
After having twice renounced the honor of conducting the
approaching Musical Festival of the Lower-Rhine (to be held this
year at Aix-la-Chapelle) a deputation of the Committee arrived
here yesterday. In consideration of their courtesy I shall
therefore go to Aix-la-Chapelle at Whitsuntide, and perhaps you
will let yourself be beguiled into visiting me there. By that
time also the Mass [The Gran Festival Mass] will probably have
already come out, and you must have a copy of it at once. By the
many performances, which have been of great use to me in this
work, many additions, enlargements, and details of performance
have occurred to me, which will enhance the effect of the whole,
and will make some things easier in performance. An entirely new
concluding fugue of the "Gloria," with this motive: -
[Here, Liszt illustrates with a vocal score musical excerpt at
the point where the singer sings "Cum sanc-to spi-ri-tu, in
Gloria."]
may not be displeasing to you.
Very shortly I will send you also the three numbers still wanting
(1, 8, and 9) of the Symphonic Poems, so that you may again have
some (for you) light reading as a rest from your work. The "Berg"
Symphony was given, in its present form, a short time ago at
Bronsart's farewell concert.
