Letters of Franz Liszt, vol 2, From Rome to the End | Page 4

Hungarian Rhapsodies, his Transcendental Etudes, his Concert Etudes, his Etudes based on variations of Paganinini's Violin Caprices and his Sonata, one of the most important of the nineteenth century. He also wrote thousands of letters, of which 399 are translated into English in this second of a 2-volume set of letters (the first volume contains 260 letters).
Those who knew him were struck by his extremely sophisticated personality. He was surely one of the most civilized people of the nineteeth century, internalizing within himself a complex conception of human civility, and attempting to project it in his music and his communications with people. His life was centered around people; he knew them, worked with them, remembered them, thought about them, and wrote about them using an almost poetic language, while pushing them to reflect the high ideals he believed in. His personality was the embodiment of a refined, idealized form of human civility. He was the consummate musical artist, always looking for ways to communicate a new civilized idea through music, and to work with other musicians in organizing concerts and gatherings to perform the music publicly. He also did as much as he could to promote and compliment those whose music he believed in.
He was also a superlative musical critic, knowing, with few mistakes, what music of his day was "artistic" and what was not. But, although he was clearly a musical genius, he insisted on projecting a tonal, romantic "beauty" in his music, confining his music to a narrow range of moral values and ideals. He would have rejected 20th-century music that entertained cynical notions of any kind, or notions that obviated the concept of beauty in any way. There is little of a Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Cage, Adams, and certainly none of a Schoenberg, in Liszt's music. His music has an ideological "ceiling," and that ceiling is "beauty." It never goes beyond that. And perhaps it was never as "beautiful" as the music of Mozart, Bach or Beethoven, nor quite as rational (Are all the emotions in Liszt's music truly "controlled?"). But it certainly was original and instructive, and it certainly will linger.

FRONTISPIECE TO VOLUME II, HONORING LISZT
I.
We welcome thee, from southern sunnier clime, To England's shore, And stretch glad hands across the lapse of time To the once more.
II.
Full twice two decades swiftly have rolled by Since thou wast here; A meteor flashing through our northern sky Thou didst appear.
III.
Thy coming now we greet with pleasure keen, And loyal heart, Adding tradition of what thou hast been To what thou art.
IV.
No laurel can we weave into the crown Long years entwine, Nor add one honour into the renown Already thine:
V.
Yet might these roses waft to thee a breath Of memory, Recalling thy fair Saint Elizabeth Of Hungary
VI.
We welcome her, from out those days of old, In song divine, But thee we greet a thousand fold, The song is thine!
--C.B.
[Presumably written by Constance Bache, this trite paean would likely not have appealed to Liszt, who repeatedly affirmed his humility.]

TABLE OF LETTER CONTENTS (LETTER NUMBER, FOLLOWED BY ADDRESSEE)

1. Dr. Franz Brendel. December 20th, 1861 2. A. W. Gottschalg in Tieffurt. March 11th, 1862 3. Dr. Franz Brendel. April 12th, 1862 4. Mme. Jessie Laussot in Florence. May 3rd, 1862 5. Dr. Franz Brendel. June 12th, 1862 6. the same. July 12th, 1862 7. the same. August 10th, 1862 8. the same. August 29th, 1862 9. the same. November 8th, 1862 10. A.W. Gottschalg. November 15th, 1862 11. Eduard Liszt. November 19th, 1862 12. Dr. Franz Brendel. December 30th, 1862 13. Breitkopf and Hartel. March 26th, 1863 14. A.W. Gottschalg in Weimar. April 14th, 1863 15. Dr. Franz Brendel. May 8th, 1863 16. Eduard Liszt. May 22nd, 1863 17. Dr. Franz Brendel. June 18th, 1863 18. the same. July 18th, 1863 19. Breitkopf and Hartel. August 28th, 1863 20. Dr. Franz Brendel. September 7th, 1863 21. Dr. Gille in Jena. September 10th, 1863 22. Dr. Franz Brendel. October l0th, 1863 23. Mme. Jessie Laussot. October 15th, 1863 24. Dr. Franz Brendel. November 11th, 1863 25. Breitkopf and Hartel. November 16th, 1863 26. Dr. Franz Brendel. January 22nd, 1864 27. the same. May 28th, 1864 28. Dr. Franz Brendel. June 13th, 1864 29. The Committee of the Society for the Support of Needy Hungarian Musicians in Pest. June 18th, 1864 30. Eduard Liszt. June 22nd, 1864 31. Dr. Franz Brendel. July 1st, 1864 32. Walter Bache in London. July 2nd, 1864 33. ? August 7th, 1864 34. Eduard Liszt. September 7th, 1864 35. Breitkopf and Hartel. September 14th, 1864.93 36. the same. October 1st, 1864 37. Mme. Jessie Laussot. March 6th, 1865 38. Dr. Franz Brendel. April 3rd, 1865 39. Prince Constantine (Hohenzollern-Hechingen). May 11th, 1865 40. Breitkopf and Hartel. May 27th, 1865 41. Dr. Franz Brendel. July 21st, 1865 42.