Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt Volume II Part 17

208.

TELEGRAM

TO R. WAGNER, ZELTWEG, ZURICH.

Yesterday "Tannhauser." Excellent performance. Marvellous mise- en-scene. Much applause. Good luck.

F. LISZT.

BERLIN, January 8th, 1856.

2O9.

DEAREST RICHARD,

From Berlin I brought home so dreadful a cold that I had to go to bed for a few days, and to delay my journey till this evening. I have to supplement my Berlin telegram by the following notes:--

Johanna was beautiful to see and touching to hear as Elizabeth.

In the duet with Tannhauser she had some splendid moments of representation, and her great scene in the finale she sang and realised in an incomparable manner. Formes's intonation was firm, pure, and correct, and there was no sign of fatigue in the narration, where his sonorous, powerful voice told admirably.

Altogether Formes is not only adequate but highly satisfactory, in spite of his small stature, which, especially by the side of Johanna, somewhat interferes with the illusion. Herr Radwaner as Wolfram, although not equal to our Milde, deserves much praise for the neatness, elegance, and agreeable style of singing with which he executed his part; and Madame Tuczek proved herself to be an excellent musician and a well-trained actress, who may be confidently intrusted with the most difficult part. Dorn and the band took every pains to carry out your intentions, and the orchestral performance was throughout successful, with the exception of two wrong tempi, in the first chorus

[Here, Wagner ill.u.s.trates with a 2-bar musical example.]

where you have forgotten to mark the tempo as piu moderato, that is almost twice as slow as before, and in the G major pa.s.sage (before the ensemble in B major), which, in my opinion, was also taken too fast, the rhythmical climax of the second part of the finale being considerably impaired thereby.

The chorus had studied its part well, but it is much too weak for Berlin, and in proportion to the vastness of the opera house, scarcely more efficient than ours, which always gives me great dissatisfaction. The stringed instruments, also, are not sufficiently numerous, and should, like the chorus, be increased by a good third. For a large place like this eight to ten double ba.s.ses, and fifteen to twenty first violins, etc., would certainly not be too many at important performances. On the other hand, the scenery and mounting of "Tannhauser" left nothing to be desired, and I can a.s.sure you that never and nowhere have I seen anything so splendid and admirable. Gropius and Herr von Hulsen have really done something extraordinary and most tasteful. You have heard, no doubt, that his Majesty the King had ordered the decorations of the second act to be faithfully reproduced after the designs for the restoration of the Wartburg, and that he had sent Gropius to Eisenach for the purpose. The aspect of the hall with all the historic banners, and the costumes taken from old pictures, as well as the court ceremonial during the reception of the guests by the Landgrave, gave me incredible pleasure, as did also the arrangement of the huntsmen with their horns on the hill, the gradual filling up of the valley by the gathering of the hunt (four horses and a falcon bringing up the rear) in the finale of the first act; and, finally, the fifteen trumpets in the march of the second act

[Musical notation]

which blew their flourish from the gallery of the hall in a bold and defiant manner.

I only hope, dearest Richard, that you will hear and see all this before very long, and when I pay you a visit in the course of the summer, we shall have some more talk about it.

Your last letter was very sad and bitter. Your illness must have put you out still more, and, unfortunately, your friends can do little to relieve you. If the consciousness of the most sincere and cordial comprehension of, and sympathy with, your sufferings can be of any comfort to you, you may rely upon me in fullest measure, for I do not believe that there are many people in this universe who have inspired another being with such real and continual sympathy as you have me.

As soon as you are well again go to work and finish your "Valkyrie." The first two acts I returned to you. You must sing them to me at Zurich.

I have to ask you yet another favour today. Schlesinger, of Berlin, is bringing out a new edition of the scores of Gluck's overtures, which is dedicated to me, and he wishes to print your close of the overture of "Iphigenia in Aulis" in addition to that by Mozart. For that purpose he wants your special permission, and has asked me to get it from you. If you have no objection to this close--which has already been published in Brendel's paper-- appearing in this edition, be kind enough to give me your consent in a few lines, and address your letter, "Hotel Zur Kaiserin von Oestreich," Vienna, for which I start to-night.

I shall conduct the two concerts for the Mozart centenary celebration on the 27th and 28th instant, and shall be back in Weymar on February 4th.

Your speedy recovery and patience is the wish with all his heart, dearest Richard, of

Your faithful

F. LISZT.

WEYMAR, January 14th, 1856.

210.

ZURICH, January 18th, 1856.

My letter, dear Franz, you will have received at Vienna through Gloggl. I once more put the question contained therein, and ask you: Can you GIVE me the thousand francs, which would be still better, and can you settle the same sum on me annually for two years more? If you CAN, I know that you will willingly join with those who keep me alive by their pecuniary a.s.sistance. My own income is insufficient for the very expensive style of living here, and every new year I am troubled by a deficit, so that I am really no better off now than I was before. If it were not for my wife you would see something curious, and I should be proud to go about the world as a beggar; but the continual uncertainty, and the miserly condition in which we live, affects my poor wife more and more, and I can keep her mind at rest only by a certain economical security. More of this when I see you. That I ask you this question at the present moment when I am sick of life, and would see the end of it today rather than tomorrow, you will probably understand, when you realise that from the deepest mental grief I am incessantly aroused to nothing but the mean troubles of existence, this being my only change. I have no doubt of your WILL, and believe even that it would give you pleasure to belong to those from whom I receive a regular pension. It remains to be asked only: Can you? I know that some time ago you were not able, although even at that time you occasionally made real sacrifices to a.s.sist me. Perhaps a change has taken place since then, and on the chance of this "perhaps" I venture to trouble you with my question.

One other matter I have to place before you. You remember that I wrote to you some time ago that I had at last discovered here an excellent and intelligent copyist for my musical ma.n.u.scripts. To him I gave, in the first instance, Klindworth's pianoforte score of the "Valkyrie," and he brought me the first act beautifully written; but his charge for the time employed, moderate enough though I found it, appeared to me so high, that I could not possibly afford the expense from my yearly income. I considered what might be done, and found that, if I really went on with my composition, I should have exactly three years' occupation for a copyist This would include the copying of the full scores, the pianoforte scores, and all the vocal and orchestral parts. If the enterprise of the performance should in any way be accomplished, three years' salary for a copyist might well be added to the estimate of the costs, and the question would be whether one could find, at this moment, a small number of shareholders who would advance the necessary funds. I should have to engage my amanuensis for exactly three years, and pay him an annual salary of eight hundred francs. The only awkward part would be that I should have to bind myself to furnish the compositions in this given time. I might, however, as soon as I found myself unable to continue, give notice to both shareholders and copyist. For one year I have more than sufficient work for the copyist, and whatever he had written might, in such a case, be handed over to the shareholders as a security. I think that would be fair enough. Kindly see, dearest Franz, whether you can manage this for me. In the meantime I let him go on with the pianoforte arrangement, but as soon as you are bound to give me a negative answer I shall stop him, for, as I said before, I cannot bear this expense from my housekeeping money.

It was an evil, evil fate that we did not see each other last year. You must come soon, if POSSIBLE this SPRING. I feel that on our meeting this time everything, everything depends. I am continually at war with my health, and fear a relapse at every moment. But let us leave this for today. We shall soon meet.

Many thanks for your letter from Berlin, received today. Alwine Frommann writes to me every day, always in a great state of anxiety about the positive and permanent success of "Tannhauser."

It appears that in over-witty and wholly unproductive Berlin everything has to be born anew. "Kladderadatsch" was quite right in taunting me with the fact that I had surrendered "Tannhauser"

to Berlin, solely for the sake of the royalties. That is so. It is my fault, and I have to suffer for it as vulgarly as possible.

Very well, I suffer, but unfortunately I do not even get anything by it.

Could I only bring back the state of things of four years ago!

Enough. It is my own fault, and it serves me right.

Try to be as little annoyed as possible at Vienna. I am anxious to learn whether you will be at all satisfied.

Your letter has once more done me a great deal of good. Yes, dear Franz, I trust in you, and I know that there is some higher meaning in our friends.h.i.+p. If I could live together with you I might do many fine things yet. Farewell, and be cordially thanked for your glorious friends.h.i.+p.

Your

R. W.

I have no objection to my close of Gluck's "Iphigenia" overture being used, seeing that I have already published it. It would be advisable, however, that the overture should appear with the correct tempi and some necessary marks of expression. Apart from this, Herr Schlesinger, in his musical paper, might adopt a pleasanter tone towards me in case Herr M. will permit him to do so.

R. W.

211.

DEAR FRANZ,

My letters to Vienna seem to have put you in a very awkward position. Forgive me, and do not punish me any longer by your silence!

Before anything else in the world I ask you to pay me as soon as possible the visit, which was so unfortunately postponed. My desire to consult with you definitely about my future life has reached a painful pitch, and my longing for you is unspeakable. I am very unhappy.

Your

R. W.

March 21st, 1856.