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Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 1

F >> Francis Hueffer (translator) >> Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 1




If not inconvenient, please arrange that I, with several others,
may meet you after the Carlsruhe festival (about 24th or 25th
September) at Basle. I should like to revive in your company for
a few days, which shall be called "Lohengrin days." By that time
I suppose you will be back from your journey, and a meeting will
do good to both of us.

Live happy in the enjoyment of your power, my great, splendid
Richard.

Remember me very kindly to George, and let me soon hear from you.

Your

FRANZ.

WEYMAR, July 25th, 1853.

Till August 15th address Carlsbad, then again Weymar.



121.

Cordial thanks, dearest friend, for your cheerful letter. I am
half ashamed of the dismal mood which prevented me so long from
writing to you. I lead here an unbearable, solitary life, in
grand but terribly charmless surroundings. At the beginning I
made excursions with George to the glaciers and neighbouring
valleys, but as this did not agree with my cure, I remained
confined to this wretched little place, which, fortunately, I
leave the day after tomorrow. Whether the cure has been of use to
me the future must show, but upon the whole I am not inclined to
repeat it. I am too restless to give up all activity for such a
long time. In brief, I am not a fit subject for a cure; that I
perceive. I am now all ablaze to go to Italy, but do not intend
to start before the end of August, for they say that only in
September Italy becomes comfortable for us. For how long I shall
roam about there, Lord only knows. Perhaps I shall not be able to
bear it long alone, but the thought of returning to Switzerland
so very soon is unpleasant to me. Tell me, dearest Franz, have
you quite given up your idea of going to Paris? Our meeting there
would be much pleasanter than at the commonplace Basle. Are you
so much tied by time and space? Of course the hope of seeing you
once more this year regulates all my plans; and if you offer me
an opportunity for the end of September, I should be a precious
fool not to make use of it. See you again therefore I shall in
any case; but I venture to ask that you should make it possible
to come to Paris, where I should like to divert my thoughts for a
little time before permanently returning to my honest
Switzerland. The distance from Carlsruhe to Paris is not greater
than to Basle. You get there in one day from Strassburg. Pardon
me for pressing this caprice upon you.

The Wiesbaden "Lohengrin snuffbox" has had a great effect upon
me; it was forwarded to me here by my wife. Your humour seems to
have been excellent, so that Schindelmeisser was no doubt unable
to understand it. This snuffbox also shall one day figure in my
collection of rarities.

Have you received an invitation from Leipzig? Wirsing wrote to me
about Lohengrin, but I, on my part, wrote to Raymund Hartel
asking him to take the matter in hand and to communicate to
Wirsing my conditio sine qua non. You perceive that, on the
strength of your friendly promise, I have freely taken to
sinning.

I hear that at Berlin the scheme of "Tannhauser" at Kroll's is to
be taken seriously in hand in September or October. Schaffer also
wrote to me about it.

Young T. wrote to me from Posen that his father had at last
permitted him to devote himself to music entirely, and he now
prays on his bended knees that I should allow him to live near me
at Zurich. This somewhat embarrasses me, for I know that the
young man is mistaken in me and Zurich; so I have written to tell
him that I am starting on a journey, and that, as he wanted to
leave Posen at once, he might first visit you at Weimar, where I
would announce him to you. After that he might go with you to
Carlsruhe and from there proceed to Zurich, where I should be
willing to be of service to him as long as he could stand the
place. Do not be angry with me for having put him too on your
shoulders; you will soon get rid of him.

I always have an anxious feeling that I might have lost something
in your eyes since our meeting, probably because I feel how much
you have gained in mine--gained as if there had been anything
left for you to gain! What a fool I am!

The parts, etc., I shall send next week to Carlsruhe.

St. George is still very lazy, but he shall work. He sends best
regards. Farewell. I must not write more. Tell me soon whether
you have not yet had enough of me.

Give my best respects to the Princess. We shall soon meet again!

Farewell, farewell, best of human beings.

Your

R. W.

ST. MORITZ.

P.S.--The Kroll-Berlin "Tannhauser" has fallen through after all.
Schoneck has just written to me that he has broken with the
director, Wallner, because the latter refused to carry out his
undertaking as to the excellence of the ensemble.



122.

As usual, dearest friend, you have had an excellent idea. It is
settled then that we go to Paris, and there have a meeting at the
end of September, after the Carlsruhe performances. As before
then your chief purpose is to see the Mediterranean, I advise you
to go to Genoa and Marseilles, and thence to Paris. Napoleon
says, "La Mediterranee est un lac francais," so you may go from
your Swiss lakes to the French lake for a few weeks and then come
to me in Paris.

By the middle of October I must be back at Weymar, but a
fortnight of Paris will be quite enough for us.

Therefore this is settled.

T. will be very welcome at Weymar. He wrote to me once or twice
before, and, between ourselves, I have heard several things about
him which make me think that his character is not oversolid. But
that does not matter, and may be left to Meser. A few days ago I
received a letter from Berlioz, in answer to my last, in which I
had said several things about you.

I quote the following lines:--

"Our art, as we understand it, is an art of millionaires; it
requires millions. As soon as these millions are found every
difficulty disappears; every dark intellect is illumined; moles
and foxes are driven back into the earth; the marble block
becomes a god, and the public human: without these millions we
remain clodhoppers after thirty years' exertion.

"And yet there is not a sovereign, not a Rothschild, who will
understand this. Is it not possible that, after all, we, with our
secret pretensions, should simply be stupid and insolent fools?

"I am, like yourself, convinced of the ease with which Wagner and
I should fit each other if only he would grease his wheels a
little. As to the few lines of which you speak, I have never read
them, and therefore feel not the slightest resentment on their
account. I have fired too many pistol-shots at the legs of
passers-by to be astonished at receiving a few pellets myself."

In Paris we shall continue the subject; material and good fun
will not be wanting.

At Leipzig I hope to find a few lines from you, and by the end of
this month I shall write to you from Weymar when and how long I
can be in Paris. If in the meantime I should have to write to
you, I shall address to Zurich, as you must to Weymar.

Farewell, and be cheerful, and do not talk nonsense about what
you might have lost in my eyes. At Leipzig I shall attend to the
"Lohengrin" affair; so far I have heard nothing about it.

Your

FRANZ LISZT.



123.

Let me today, dear Franz, thank you by a few lines for your last
letter. I cannot get on with "writing" to you any longer; nothing
occurs to me but my sorrow at your disappearance and my desire to
have you again soon and for long. All else scarcely moves me, and
"business" relations between us have very little charm for me.
The only thing I can think of is seeing you again in the present
year. Give me a rendezvous in Paris after the Carlsruhe festival.
In any case I shall send my wife to Carlsruhe, so that she may
bring back a taste of you.

Almost my only object in "writing" to you is to ask you to
forward the enclosed letter to L. Kohler. I know neither his
title, nor his address. You might also apologize to him for this
very letter, which, I believe, is written in a terribly bad and
confused style. The foolish man wants to hear something from me
about his book, but as soon as I bend my head a little towards
theory the nerves of my brain begin to ache violently, and I feel
quite ill. I can and will theorize no longer, and he is not my
friend who would lure me back to that cursed ground. Pereant all
X. and X. if they know of nothing better than this eternal
confused speculating about--art!

Here I live in a wild solitude, ice and snow around me. The day
before yesterday we roamed for half a day over glaciers. Herwegh
must put up with it. I shall not release him from my net; he must
work. He swore yesterday that he had the poem for you in his
head. Good luck!

Get me your medallion, you wicked man. I must have it at once. As
to the rest, do with me what you like. About the sending of the
parts and score to Carlsruhe I await your instructions. I assume
that you received my letter from Coire.

I am almost annoyed that you have had intercourse with X.; these
people are not worth looking after. Be sure that nothing
satisfactory will come of it; we must have whole men or none at
all, no half ones; they drag us down: we shall never drag them
up. I should be proud if this "man of talent" would decline to
assist me altogether.

However, in this matter also you must do as you like. Before all,
take care that you continue to love me, and that we see each
other soon.

Farewell, dearest friend.

Your

R. W.

Many greetings from St. George.

ST. MORITZ, CANTON GRISONS, July 26th, 1853.



124.

Truly, writing is a misery, and men of our sort should not write
at all. However, your rosy paper and your luminous letters, which
looked like Spanish grandees, gave me real pleasure. While you
are at Coire, intent upon your water-cure, I sit here in Carlsbad
looking at nothing but puffed-up faces, excepting one which
shines on me like a bright, comforting sun. Till the 16th I must
remain here, and on the 22nd I shall be back at Weymar.

By way of entertainment I enjoy Labitzki and his water-cure
orchestra, Aldridge, the black Roscius, who plays beautifully
Othello, Macbeth, and Fiesco; also spurious Arabs and genuine
Chinese, who howl and tinkle to make one run away.

Passing through Leipzig, I saw B. His new book will appear soon,
in which there is a separate chapter entitled "Criticism of R.
Wagner." We must see whether he has brewed digestible stuff. At
Dresden I visited the R.'s. Frau Kummer and her sister had gained
my affection at Zurich, and C., who was summoned specially from
Pillnitz to meet me, pleased me very well this time. On my
journey back I shall again look up the R.'s, for I like to remain
in communication with people who prove real friends of yours. We
form a little Church of our own, and edify each other by singing
your praises. Take note, dear Richard, and make up your mind to
it, for it cannot be otherwise. You are now, and will be still
more, the concentric focus of every high endeavour, high feeling,
and honest effort in art. This is my true conviction, without
pedantry and charlatanism, both of which I abhor. Do not fail to
use your powerful influence with C., so that he may exert his
faculties with some consistency and regularity. I spoke to him of
B.'s plan of an Art Review. If you set him tasks, he may do good
service to the cause and himself. How about the "leading
programme" which you and H. are to sketch together? This is the
corner-stone of the whole enterprise. Do not be deterred; I think
it necessary that you should submit to some trouble and tedium
for the purpose. Before going to Weymar I shall have some
definite talk with B. about the matter. If you want to
communicate with me on the subject, address Poste restante,
Leipzig, or, better still, to the care of Y., so that the letter
arrive in Leipzig on the 19th inst. Perhaps by that time you will
have been able to settle the chief heads of the programme of
"Blatter fur Gegenwart und Zukunft der Gesammt-Kunst" and to draw
the outline of the whole scheme.

I repeat it once more, without you and your direct and indirect
influence nothing, or something much worse than nothing, will be
done. Therefore be patient and help as and where you can.

Do not forget that E. D. expects the "Tannhauser" and "Lohengrin"
scores and parts for the Carlsruhe festival on August 15th. You
are always so careful and punctual in fulfilling your promises
that I am under no anxiety, and only tell you that they wish to
begin studying your pieces in Carlsruhe as soon as possible.

B. will probably come to Carlsruhe, and will be at Weymar at the
end of this month. I have spoken to Meser at Dresden and warmly
recommended to him H. as the most suitable musician to entrust
with the four-hand pianoforte arrangement of "Tannhauser." If
Meser should write to you about it, be good enough to propose H.
to him for this work in preference to other arrangers and
derangers. Give my best remembrances to G., and abide with me.

Your

F. L.

CARLSBAD, August 7th, 1853.

P.S.--Our friend Kohler has latterly been severely attacked by
several individuals who have the arrogance to think that they
stand in opposition to you, while in reality they move in a low
and bottomless region. As you probably do not read similar
newspapers, I tell you of the fact, and ask you to take account
of it in your intercourse with Kohler, whom you should keep in
kindly remembrance as one of the loyal.

Kohler will visit you next year; you will be satisfied with him.
I forwarded your letter to him at once.

P.S.--Try, if possible, to be back from your intended journeys by
the end of September, so that we may meet after Carlsruhe. I hope
to be quite free on September 24th.



125.

DEAREST FRIEND,

I returned from St. Moritz a little sooner than I had thought; of
my intention to that effect, I believe I wrote to you before.
Your last letter was forwarded to me punctually. What pleased me
most in it was your good humour and the fact that you spent your
day at Dresden with the R.'s, of which they had already informed
me in great triumph. Reading their accounts, I felt as if I had
been there myself, and as if that evening had only been a
continuation of the Zeltweg days. It was splendid and kind of
you. As to K. I must wait; we shall see later on. George promised
me yesterday that he also would write to you today. From what he
says, he is well inclined towards the matter; I shall be glad if
it is taken in hand seriously, for then I shall have hope for a
possible success of the enterprise even without me.

My dear Franz, once for all do not reckon upon me for any
critico-literary enterprise; I cannot go in for that kind of
thing. Just as some time ago it was an absolute necessity to me
to express my revolution in the fields of art and of life in
perfect continuity, even so, and for that very reason, I have at
present no inclination for such manifestations, which are no
longer a necessity to me. Of this you must be aware, for you know
and prove by your own deeds that "quand on agit, on ne s'explique
pas;" and I am at present disposed only for action, no longer for
explanation. You seem to be of opinion, however, that for the
sake of the cause I might conquer my inclination a little and in
my own way exert myself. It is just this point which I have made
clear to myself: my faculties, taken separately, are not great,
and I can only be and do something good when I concentrate all
those faculties on one impulse and recklessly consume them and
myself for its sake. Whatever part that impulse leads me to
adopt, that I am as long as necessary, be it musician, poet,
conductor, author, reciter, or what not. In that manner I at one
time became a speculative art philosopher. But apart from this
main current I can create and do nothing except under extreme
compulsion, and in that case I should do something very bad and
expose the smallness of my special faculties in a deplorable
manner. What you want of me, or rather, as I know very well, what
X. wants of me, there is no longer any need for my doing. I have
spoken about the theme in question so often and at such length
that I am conscious of having done quite enough. X. and his
friends and enemies have not even read my writings as they should
be read in order to be understood. Otherwise it would be quite
impossible that this wretched "separate art" and "universal art"
should be the upshot of all my disquisitions. Honestly speaking,
I am sick of discussing with stupid people things which they can
never take in, because there is in them not a trace of artistic
or really human stuff. If I were to take up the cudgels once
more, it would be rather against these unfortunate enlightened
people than against the intentionally retrograde Jesuits of
literature, with whom one need not trouble one's self unless one
wants to talk for victory as a litterateur, which has never
entered my mind. Certainly, most certainly, I should be very glad
to know that I had been rightly understood by many people, glad
to see and to hear that clever, instructive, and enlightening
things were written and laid down in a journal devoted to such an
object; this, indeed, would be the reward of my sacrifices. But,
good heavens! there is surely no need that I should write, that I
should help, again; these things should come to me from another
quarter. It cannot possibly suit me to write the same thing over
and over again on the chance of being at last understood, besides
which I should probably only puzzle people worse and worse.

Therefore if, in your opinion, the review cannot be started
without me, I simply say, Very well then; leave it alone, for in
that case it has no object and no value. I still have hopes of
G.; he is certainly lazy, but, at any rate, I know that he knows
what is at stake and what should be done. Moreover, his whole
nature at present impels him to discharge his inner being in the
direction necessary for us; if he once is in the proper swing, I
hope he will persevere. It is of course understood that my
advice, my views, and my opinions are always at his disposal, and
in very special cases I may go to work myself; but I must first
see that others commence and initiate the work.

Before all, keep that unfortunate "Universal Art" out of the
title!

Enough of this!

I am in a miserable condition, and have great difficulty in
persuading myself that it must go on like this, and that it would
not really be more moral to put an end to this disgraceful kind
of life. Solitude and disconsolate loneliness from morning till
night--such are the days that follow each other and make up life.
To cure my sick brain the doctor has prevailed upon me to give up
taking snuff altogether; for the last six days I have not taken a
single pinch, which only he can appreciate who is himself as
passionate a snuff-taker as I was. Only now I begin to perceive
that snuff was the solitary real enjoyment that I had
occasionally, and now I give that up too. My torture is
indescribable, but I shall persevere; that is settled. Therefore
no more snuff-boxes; in future I accept only orders of merit.

My journey is settled in this manner: August 24th I start from
here, and arrive in Turin on the 29th at the latest. You can
address Poste restante, unless you write to me here first, from
where all my letters will be forwarded to me. Genoa, Spezzia,
Nice, will detain me till I hear from you for certain when and
where our meeting is to be. In the "Carlsruhe Gazette" it was
announced that the Musical Festival had been postponed till
October; will our meeting have to be postponed too? If you cannot
come to Paris, I will of course come to Basle; that is
understood. As you happen to be in Leipzig, very kindly remember
me to Brendel; I wish he could have visited me, and think that we
should have got further in many ways. (Devrient was here when I
and my wife too were absent!) Frau Steche recently wrote to me;
she shall have an answer before I start. Could you lend her a
copy of the "Nibelungen"? B. is not to read it out. Altogether I
am very sorry that I ever had the poem printed; it is not to be
pulled about like this; it still is mine.

Have you received any communication as to "Lohengrin" at Leipzig?
Hartel has left me without an answer for ever so long. I hope I
shall hear soon how the matter stands.

Farewell; ah, farewell. How I envy you your whole existence.
Greet your esteemed friend from me, and arrange so that you both
come to Switzerland soon; in that case something may still become
of me. Adieu, dear, unique friend.

Your

R. W.

ZURICH, August 16th, 1853.



126.

"Sancte Franzisce! ora pro nobis!"

I write to you today from the very first stage of my Italian
journey, because, as fate would have it, I was unable to answer
your last letter from Carlsbad before this. Everything else is
thrown into the shade by our rendezvous in Paris, to which you
have given your consent in so splendid a manner. But now you must
do all in your power to assist me in making it possible. Listen.

The French minister has refused to give me his vise for my
passport to Paris, and today I called on M. Salignac-Fenelon at
Berne and had a long talk with him about it. Here again you must
help me. Salignac, after having become better acquainted with me,
promised that he would write at once to his Government in Paris,
setting forth that, in his opinion, I have been calumniated, that
personally I have inspired him with confidence, etc. He wishes
that you should talk to the French minister at Weimar about this
matter, so that he too might write to Paris and put in a good
word for me. Salignac thinks it would be of good effect if the
Grand Duke himself would say a few words in my favour to the
minister. As I have told them the true object of my journey to
Paris and mentioned Berlioz as one who is to take part in our
meeting, it would be well if you could let Berlioz know at once,
for it is very possible that inquiries may be made of him as to
the truth of my statements. Do get me this vise for Paris. I am
too delighted to think of our meeting. I was in hopes of getting
a few lines from you from Leipzig before my departure, but shall
probably not receive them till I reach Geneva. From the
"Carlsruhe Gazette" I see that the festival is fixed for October
3rd to 5th; to me this delay does not matter, and I hope it does
not to you either. The Hartels recently forwarded to me some
louis d'or on the part of Wirsing, without informing me that you
had been invited to superintend "Lohengrin" at Leipzig or that
you had accepted the invitation. I hope soon to get particulars
from you. I suppose you received my letter at Leipzig. The lazy
H. informs me that he has not yet written to you. What is one to
do? I am on my way to Turin, dearest Franz, where I shall stay a
little time; and if you answer at once, your next letter will
find me there Poste restante. (In any case address Turin until
further notice.) I am out of sorts, and suffer from
sleeplessness. The French vise worries me very much. I should
like so much to meet you in Paris; it would be splendid.

Greet Berlioz for me; he is a funny customer; he has not yet
arrived at the point where millionaires only could be of use to
him. But he is a noble fellow, and all will be right in the end.

Adieu, you best and dearest of all men; continue to love me.

Your

RICHARD.

BERNE, August 25th, 1853.



127.

DEAREST FRIEND,

I am back again in Zurich, unwell, low-spirited, ready to die. At
Genoa I became ill, and was terror-struck by my solitary
condition, but I was determined to do Italy, and went on to
Spezzia. My indisposition increased; enjoyment was out of the
question; so I turned back to die or to compose, one or the
other; nothing else remains to me.

Here you have the whole story of my journey, my "Italian
journey."

I am anxious because I have had no letter from you for so long.
You received a letter from me at Leipzig; has it annoyed you?
From Berne I wrote to you about the vise of my passport for
France, and you were to send your answer to Turin. If that has
been done, the letter will be forwarded to me. But why is it that
I hear nothing else of you? Has the Carlsruhe festival been
postponed, and will it be too late for you to come to Paris? I
must be content; I want to see you, wherever it may be; if Zurich
is too far for you, I will come to Basle. Paris begins almost to
be unpleasant to me in my imagination; I am afraid of Berlioz.
With my bad French, I am simply lost.

I have found many silly letters here, amongst others the enclosed
from Director Engel, of Kroll's establishment, Berlin. It seems
to me as if I could scarcely accept his proposition. May I leave
the matter to you, and will you kindly take the decision upon
yourself? In order to know what may be useful or detrimental, one
must have a local knowledge, which I cannot possibly acquire
here. Could you through Kroll, SchafFer, and others make
inquiries which would enable you to judge of the effect of such
an undertaking as that projected by Engel? To me this
"Tannhauser" on the concert platform is horrible, in spite of the
six louis d'or for each performance. Of course I cannot tell
whether, apart from the absurdity of the thing, it would not be
well to keep the fire alight in Berlin. It seems certain that in
the higher regions there everything is as dull as possible, and
that no decisive step in my favour will be made in that quarter.
I wish you would simply say "Yes" or "No." How about Leipzig? I
can get no real information from there. It is very long since I
heard anything of you!

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