Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 2

F >> Francis Hueffer (translator) >> Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 2

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F. LISTZ.

April 19th, 1857.

At the beginning of next season Dingelstedt will take the place
of Herr von Beaulieu as our theatrical manager. He has been here
for the last fortnight, and his position, although not yet
officially announced, has been secured by the necessary
signatures.

By your recommendation Frau X. will sing Ortrud next Sunday. Herr
A., whom you introduced to me, has also been staying at Weymar
for the last month, but I doubt whether I shall be able to serve
him in any particular way. His vocal talent is said to be very
small as yet. Otherwise he impresses me favourably, and I shall
hear him before long.

Once more, my best, best thanks for today, when I did not want to
write to you about anything else.

239.

Your "Lohengrin" has once more pervaded my whole soul, and in
spite of my absurd indisposition, which compelled me to go to bed
immediately after the performance, I am brimful of the sublime
and tender charm of the incomparable work. I wish I could sing in
F and E major "A wonder!" just as you wrote it.

The performance was the best which we have had so far, and the
artists were most enthusiastic. Next Saturday there will be a
repetition, for which I shall get up again. With Frau Milde you
would be pleased; her singing and acting are full of magnetism.
Caspari also gave some passages beautifully, and Milde is always
noble and artistically efficient, although he does not quite
possess the great volume of voice required for Telramund. Frau X.
did not come up to the mark, and Frau Knopp, our former Ortrud,
was much more equal to the part. Frau X. had studied it
conscientiously, but neither her voice nor her enunciation are
particularly adapted to the style. The middle register decidedly
lacks strength and fulness, and the declamation moves in prosaic
theatrical grooves, without individual and deeper pathos. This is
between ourselves, for I do not want to injure a good woman and
conscientious artist; but I cannot advise her engagement at the
theatre here, and prefer to keep the place open which she would
have to fill. I believe I told you already that Dingelstedt will
assume his office of general intendant at Weymar on October 1st.
Perhaps we shall find, in the course of next season, an Ortrud
whom I should like a little younger than Frau X.

From Hanover I have been asked to get the original score of the
"Flying Dutchman" for Capellmeister Fischer there, who is
recommended to me on good authority as a sincere and energetic
admirer of your works. Fischer has the scores of "Tannhauser" and
"Lohengrin" in HIS library, and is very desirous not to be
without the "Flying Dutchman" any longer. I have been informed by
my correspondent that he is in the habit of conducting from HIS
OWN scores, and has taken much trouble to get that of the "Flying
Dutchman," but so far without success. He would of course prefer
the original to a copy, which he could take at any time. Perhaps
you will be able to find an original copy for him, for which he
would have to send you the price agreed upon. Although I do not
like to meddle with similar matters, I thought that one might
show special attention to Fischer, who has prepared your three
operas at Hanover with every care. Write to me soon what I am to
tell him. I do not know him personally.

After many verbal and written discussions of the "Nibelungen"
question with Hartel (in which I throughout stuck to the chief
point of Hartel's FIRST OFFER, without allowing him to swerve from
it on the vague chance of some other and lower proposal), the
matter has about reached this point, that I may assume that he will
not give a negative answer to a letter from you, in which, making
reference to his conversation with me, you should simply and a
little politely ask him to carry out his former proposal. On this
first proposal, I think, the resumption of the transaction must
necessarily be based, and I must tell you candidly that Hartel did
not appear very ready to act upon it now, because the turn given by
you to the matter in your second letter has almost offended him.

Consider, therefore, whether you will write him to this effect,
which I should advise you to do, for it cannot easily be
anticipated that a better proposal will be made to you from
another quarter, and yet it appears important to me that your
work should be published.

Concerning the performance itself, I am still in hopes that the
Grand Duke will supply the means to me, or rather to you, for in
that case I should only act as your assistant.

Go on with your gigantic work bravely and cheerfully. The rest
will be arranged, and I shall be in it.

F. L.

WEYMAR, April 28th, 1857.

240.

ZURICH, May 8th. 1857.

At last I sit down to write to you, dearest Franz. I have had a
bad time, which now, it is true, appears to give place to a very
pleasant state of things.

Ten days ago we took possession of the little country house next
to W.'s villa, which I owe to the great sympathy of that friendly
family. At first I had to go through various troubles, for the
furnishing of the little house, which has turned out very neat,
and, according to my taste, took much time, and we had to move
out before there was any possibility of moving in. In addition to
this my wife was taken ill, and I had to keep her from all
exertion, so that the whole trouble of moving fell upon me alone.
For ten days we lived at the hotel, and at last we moved in here
in very cold and terrible weather. Only the thought that the
change would be definnite was able to keep me in a good temper.
At last we have got through it all; everything is permanently
housed and arranged according to wish and want; everything is in
the place where it is to remain. My study has been arranged with
the pedantry and elegant comfort known to you. My writing-table
stands at the large window, with a splendid view of the lake and
the Alps; rest and quiet surround me. A pretty and well-stocked
garden offers little walks and resting-places to me, and will
enable my wife to occupy herself pleasantly, and to keep herself
free from troubling thoughts about me; in particular a large
kitchen garden claims her tenderest care. You will see that a
very pretty place for my retirement has been gained, and if I
consider how long I have been wishing for this, and how difficult
it was even to bring it into view, I feel compelled to look upon
the excellent W. as one of my greatest benefactors. At the
beginning of July the W.'s hope to move into their villa, and
their neighbourhood promises many friendly and pleasant things to
me. Well, so much has been achieved.

Very soon I hope to resume my long-interrupted work, and I shall
certainly not leave my charming refuge even for the shortest trip
before Siegfried has settled everything with Brynhild. So far I
have only finished the first act, but then it is quite ready, and
has turned out stronger and more beautiful than anything. I am
astonished myself at having achieved this, for at our last
meeting I again appeared to myself a terribly blundering
musician. Gradually, however, I gained self-confidence. With a
local *prima-donna, whom you heard in "La Juive", I studied the
great final scene of the "Valkyrie." Kirchner accompanied; I hit
the notes famously, and this scene, which gave you so much
trouble, realised all my expectations. We performed it three
times at my house, and now I am quite satisfied. The fact is,
that everything in this scene is so subtle, so deep, so subdued,
that the most intellectual, the most tender, the most perfect
execution in every direction is necessary to make it understood;
if this, however, is achieved, the impression is beyond a doubt.
But of course a thing of this kind is always on the verge of
being quite misunderstood, unless all concerned approach it in
the most perfect, most elevated, most intelligent mood; merely to
play it through as we tried, in a hurried way, is impossible. I,
at least, lose on such occasions instinctively all power and
intelligence; I become perfectly stupid. But now I am quite
satisfied, and if you hear the melting and hammering songs of
"Siegfried" you will have a new experience of me. The abominable
part of it is that I cannot have a thing of this kind played for
my own benefit. Even to our next meeting I attach no real hope; I
always feel as if we were in a hurry, and that is most
detrimental to me. I can be what I am only in a state of perfect
concentration; all disturbance is my death.

I am deeply touched to hear that my letter has given you so much
pleasure; I am sure you have taken the good will for the deed,
for what I wrote cannot mean MUCH to the many, just because it
was so difficult to write MUCH that might have been more useful
and important to the multitude. A description of your single
poems I had to refrain from altogether, for the reason which I
candidly state in the letter itself. I cannot and will not
attempt such insufficient things again. I had, therefore, to
confine myself to showing to INTELLIGENT persons the road which I
had discovered for myself. Those who cannot follow in this road
and afterwards help themselves further along, I cannot help along
either; that is my sincere opinion. Concerning the misprints, I
shall send you one of these days a corrected copy, just for the
sake of the joke. You will then understand that I might well be
annoyed, but the fault seems to lie less with Brendel than with
the copyist of my manuscript, who has performed his task in a
very perfunctory manner. I do not speak of the intentional
omissions, which were your doing, and to which you were fully
entitled, but of simple abominations. However, that has been set
right now, and will not happen again.

Many thanks also for LOHENGRIN. It must remain a shadow to me, I
really have forgotten it; I do not know it. You do all this
amongst yourselves, and seem scarcely to think that I too might
wish to be present. But I honour the mysterious silence which is
so con-* *scientiously preserved on the awkward question of my
return by my high and highest patrons. Joking apart, the Emperor
of Brazil has invited me to come to him at Rio Janeiro, where I
am to have plenty of everything. Therefore if not at Weymar, then
at Rio.

Why do I hear so much about Frau X.? I did not specially
recommend her for Ortrud. In my introduction I only spoke of an
experienced singer of second parts, who, for want of a better,
and, if she were taken in hand properly, might perhaps do for
Ortrud. In saying this I specially had regard to her agreeable,
although perhaps slightly enfeebled, voice, and her well-known
industry. But that this unfortunate person should have been
engaged specially for the part of Ortrud, which she had never
studied, and that she should have been considered as my chosen
representative of that part, was a little hard on her and on me.
Please do not turn me into the "father" of this DEBUTANTE, whose
interest I should have considered better if I had arranged her
first appearance in some piece by Verdi or Donizetti, or indeed
anything but LOHENGRIN. But enough of such stuff, although I am
grieved to see Herr A., the tenor of the future (if well
prepared), dwindle into thin air also. May heaven grant that
Caspari will keep on, or that a decent tenor may come to you from
some other place.

APROPOS, I must ask you to inform the Royal Capellmeister Fischer
in Hanover, that he must make a copy of the DUTCHMAN score do for
the present. The few autographed copies which were made at the
time, not by myself, but by a copyist, have been reduced to so
few that I cannot possibly spare another. The first twenty-* five
copies I scattered about recklessly, before any cock crowed for
this opera, and the very few remaining ones are naturally of
value to me. Excuse me, therefore, and refer him to the time when
the sale of my works will have become so lucrative that the full
scores can be engraved. I am, however, very grateful to him for
his sympathy. Hanover has become a perfect repository of my
scores.

Many thanks also for your hints regarding the Hartel affair.
Candidly speaking, the settlement of it is so important to me,
that I immediately followed your advice, and wrote to the Hartels
in such a manner that they will probably accept my offer,
provided that they have been properly informed of the object by
you. This, of course, I assume, and thank you cordially for it.
Well, we shall see.

I am being continually and painfully interrupted in these
sufficiently frivolous lines by the invasions of workmen,
especially of a Saxon locksmith. So I had better come to a close,
although to my sorrow, for I regret our ill-sustained
correspondence, in which at bottom we never express ourselves
thoroughly, but, barring a few violent lucubrations, touch each
other in a very superficial manner. I do not say anything today
on the important point of your failing health. I wrote very
seriously about it to the Princess some time ago, and am longing
for a conclusive answer. I now hear through you that our
magnanimous friend has herself been ill for a long time, and my
fears are thus sadly confirmed. So I must ask you, after all, to
let me know at least what steps you are going to take for the
thorough recovery of your health. Have you really settled to
persevere in the musical festival of Aix-la-Chapelle, or have you
found a doctor with sufficient courage to prohibit your incessant
efforts and sacrifices absolutely, and to withdraw you for a time
from the world which spoils you more and more, in order to secure
your perfect recovery? Really, dearest Franz, you will cause me
the deepest anxiety unless you satisfy me on this point, and
every rational person will see that this can be done only by a
long and careful cure, together with absolute rest and abstention
from every effort and excitement. To speak plainly, you dear
people cannot long go on as you do now. Others would be ruined
very soon by this kind of thing, which, at last, must become
detrimental to you also. Listen, my Franz, come to me. No one
shall know of your presence; we will live quite by ourselves, and
you must submit to our taking the necessary care of your "cure."
You will think this very stupid, and will perhaps scarcely
believe that it is absolute despair which inspires this advice;
but SOMETHING must be done, and if things appear black to me, the
reality of the news which you send me surely does not justify a
rosier view. For Heaven's sake, calm my fear, and believe me that
no triumphs, not even those gained by yourself for yourself, will
give me the least pleasure as long as I know how dearly you pay
for them. Well, I must wait for your reply, but please let it not
be a superficial, futile one.

Heaven only knows what I have written here; it must be nice
stuff.

Finally, I want to thank you for the last three scores received
by me; they came to me like old friends. I shall take them in
hand thoroughly; they are to conse-* *crate me a musician once
more, and fit me for the beginning of my second act, which I
shall precede by my study of them.

As I said before, I do not thank you for the sacrifice you have
made for me by your last beautiful performance of LOHENGRIN. If
you had written to me instead, "I have put LOHENGRIN, you,
myself, and everything else on the shelf, in order to get
thoroughly well again," I should have thanked you with heartfelt
tears. Let me soon know something of the kind, or else I shall
never write to you again, and burn YOUNG SIEGFRIED with all his
songs of the smithy.

Adieu, you good, wicked Franz. Greet your dear women from the
bottom of my soul; they are to love me, and to get well, the
dear, wicked women.

Adieu, my good dear Franz.*

R. W.

241.

May 19th, 1857.

DEAREST FRIEND,

I received today the enclosed letter from the Hartels. In it they
refer to a letter addressed to you, and in case this latter
contains any indications as to how the business might be settled,
I should like you to send it to me. Otherwise it would be of no
use to me.

It is a sad thing that, in order to have a CERTAIN income for the
next few years, I am compelled to offer my work for sale in this
manner, and in different circumstances I should calmly bide my
time in the firm hope that people would come to me. As it is, I
am compelled to try everything, so as to tempt the Hartels to
this purchase. Above all, I perceive that your time and
occupations will not allow you to acquaint those gentlemen
thoroughly with my music. I have, therefore, invited them to come
here this summer, and to meet Klindworth, who has announced his
visit to me. With his aid I shall give them a piece of my
"Nibelungen," which will give them some notion of it.

Be good enough, therefore, to return to me for some time the
pianoforte score of "Rhinegold," which we shall want for that
purpose.

Delight me soon with satisfactory news of you; you know what I
mean by this.

Farewell, and be greeted a thousand times.

Your

R. W.

(I want Hartels' letter back again.)

242.

[Here, Wagner illustrates with a 4-bar musical score example.]
[Musical score example continued] You wicked friend! Let me know,
at least, by some sign, how you are, and whether you forgive me
for my anxiety about you.

May 3Oth, early in the morning, after a good night.

R. W.

243.

WEYMAR, June 9th, 1857.

DEAREST RICHARD,

I returned from Aix-la-Chapelle yesterday, and (barring a little
pain in both my feet, which requires some care) I feel so well
that I can cheerfully go to my work and various occupations. You
must forgive me for not having satisfied your friendly anxiety
about my health before this; the fact is, I must endure what is
destined to me for your sake and my sake. God be thanked, I do
not lack either strength or a certain tough equanimity.

H. wrote to you about the Aix Musical Festival, which, upon the
whole, was satisfactory, both in arrangement and execution,
although OUR FRIEND Hiller may demonstrate in the COLOGNE GAZETTE
that I have no talent either as a conductor or a composer. The
TANNHAUSER overture went splendidly, and your autogragh "ich lieg
und besitze,--lasst mich schlafen" has given me a happy moment.

Owing to the severe illness of the Princess, my frame of mind has
been sad and anxious for more than nine weeks. At my return I
found her on the way to recovery, but several months may still
pass before she is quite well again. At present she can scarcely
sit up for half an hour every day.

Forgive me for not having written to you sooner, but I had
nothing but sad news to tell you, and the poor Princess caused me
so much anxiety that I scarcely knew how to bear it.

At last you have found a comfortable habitation which has been
prepared for you by tender friendship, and must be all the more
pleasant and beneficial to you on that account. I cordially
participate in this essential improvement of your life at Zurich,
and am glad that you can give yourself up to your genius, and
complete the gigantic mental mountain range of your NIBELUNGEN,
without disturbance from neighbouring smiths and pianists. Have
the W.'s moved into their villa yet? Convey my humble compliments
to the amiable lady, and greet W. most cordially. I hope I shall
be able to visit you in the autumn, after the Jubilee of Grand
Duke Carl August. It will be celebrated here on September 3rd,
4th, and 5th, on which occasion I shall perform my FAUST symphony
and a new symphonic poem THE IDEALS.

In reference to the Hartel affair I enclose his two letters of
March 4th and 5th. At the end of February I had a long
conversation about the matter at Leipzig with Dr. Hartel, and
tried to persuade him to renew his first proposal to you, because
that seemed to me the most advantageous thing for you. After a
few days' consideration he sent me the letter, dated March 4th,
and I replied in the sense of my conversation with him. I tried
to show him as clearly as possible that this matter ought to be
looked upon as a grand ENTERPRISE rather than as a common
COMMERCIAL SPECULATION, and that the firm of Breitkopf and
Hartel, which already possessed LOHENGRIN and the three operatic
poems, would, in my opinion, be the most eligible for that
purpose. I have not kept a copy of my letter, but can assure you
that you need not disavow a single word of it. Hartal's letter of
March 16th is identical with that addressed to you. As matters
stand, I am very doubtful whether the Hartels will make you a new
offer of honorarium unless, of course, the immediate impression
of your rendering of the work on them should be so powerful as to
overcome their commercial timidity. On your part I should not
think it advisable to make them a new offer, and you have, no
doubt, hit upon the best idea in inviting them to Zurich, so that
you may be able to give them at least some previous idea of your
work. This, I think, will be your most favourable chance in the
circumstances. The intention of the Hartels for the present is,
of course, to offer you nothing but an eventual honorarium AFTER
the publication of the work, and after the expenses of that
publication have been covered. You seem to think that I have not
had sufficient time and opportunity for determining the Hartels
to a different and better proposal, BUT THERE YOU ARE VERY MUCH
MISTAKEN; and you may be quite certain that I should willingly
have remained at Leipzig for a month or longer, and should have
played and sung the RHINEGOLD to the Hartels several times if I
had had the slightest hope that our purpose would in that manner
be advanced by a hair's breadth. What I laid particular stress on
with Hartel, apart from the intrinsic importance of the whole
quality and essence of your work, was the possibility and the all
but absolute certainty of its performance, which of course is
denied on all sides.

At last I told him: "This I will guarantee, by word and deed,
that between the completion of the "NIBELUNGEN", which may be
expected by the end of the next year, and its performance,
scarcely a year will elapse, and that the friends of Wagner, and
I foremost amongst them, will do all that is possible to bring
that performance about. In this firm conviction I think it
desirable that the work should appear in print, so that the
necessary standpoint for its judgment may be supplied," etc.,
etc., etc.

I am sorry to bore you with all this stuff, and only ask you NOT
TO GIVE WAY TO IRRITATION, and not to say or to write a single
rash word, because the matter is of decided importance, and a
trustworthy publisher is not easily found. The publication of the
"NIBELUNGEN" in full score and pianoforte arrangement will
require an outlay of at least ten thousand thalers, for which few
firms will be prepared. For the present I should advise you to
keep quite quiet, and to invite the Hartels simply, and if need
be repeatedly, to visit you, leaving all further discussion as to
the terms of publication till you have given them more accurate
insight into the matter; that is, till your meeting at Zurich.

Your

FRANZ.

What is your present address?

Richard Pohl has asked me to inquire of you whether you will be
at Zurich in July, and whether he may pay you a visit there?

244.

ZURICH, May 8th, 1857.

At last, dearest Franz, I am able to give you an answer by
letter.

First of all, receive my heartiest congratulations on the good
state of your health. Your letter has joyfully surprised me, and,
to my greatest delight, has made me feel ashamed of my intrusive
anxiety about you. Your organisation is a perfect riddle to me,
and I hope that you will always solve that riddle in as
satisfactory a manner as this time, when I looked on with real
anxiety. Heaven grant that your profession of good health may not
be that of a Spartan!

All the more sorry do I feel that you have not been able to
dispel my anxiety as to the Princess also. At our last meeting at
Zurich my impression of your (to me) strange and very exciting
mode of life frightened me so much that I am really less
astonished at the Princess being on a sick bed than at your being
up again. My very eager anxiety about both of you is perhaps in
bad taste; for you are accustomed to taking care of yourselves,
and acknowledge probably no special right on my part to trouble
about you. Heaven grant that patience and good advice may restore
our magnanimous friend as soon as possible; when she is once well
again I shall be quite willing to plead guilty to the charge of
impertinence. You say nothing of the health of her daughter, who
was also severely indisposed. May your good star guide you; in
one important point I shall always remain a stranger to you all.

I shall have no further trouble with the Hartels, as I have
determined finally to give up my headstrong design of completing
the "Nibelungen." I have led my young Siegfried to a beautiful
forest solitude, and there have left him under a linden tree, and
taken leave of him with heartfelt tears. He will be better off
there than elsewhere. If I were ever to resume the work some one
would have to make it very easy for me, or else I should have to
be in a position to present it to the world as a GIFT, in the
full sense of the word. These long explanations with the Hartels-
-my first contact with that world which would have to make the
realisation of my enterprise possible--were quite enough to bring
me to my senses, and to make me recognize the chimeric nature of
this undertaking. You were the only person of importance, besides
myself, who believed in its possibility, but probably for the
reason that you also had not sufficiently realised its
difficulties. But the Hartels, who are to advance solid coin,
have looked into the matter more closely, and are, no doubt,
quite right in believing the performance of the work impossible,
as the author did not even see his way to its completion without
their help.

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