Volume I Part 3 (1/2)
14
DEAREST FRIEND,
So enius, to the fiery and es of your ”Tannhauser,” that I feel quite aard in accepting the gratitude you are good enough to express with regard to the two performances I had the honour and happiness to conduct However that iven me the liveliest pleasure of friendshi+p I thank you with all my heart for the thanks you proffer st your most zealous and devoted admirers; far or near, count on esar, Genast, and Biedenfeld have described to you in detail the impression which your e you will find a few lines I have sent to Brockhaus by his demand Biedenfeld has put the little article into shape I shall send you by post the article that appeared in our Geue of Schober, who had the sense to turn ”Tannhauser”
to good account Talking of people with good sense, do you knohat I mean to do? No more nor less than to appropriate for the piano, after my fashi+on, the overture of ”Tannhauser and” the whole scene ”O du mein holder Abendstern” of the third act As to the former, I believe that it willits technical difficulties, but the scene of the ”Abendstern” should be within easy reach of second-class pianists
If you will propose to Meser to have it engraved, or if you will allow me to dispose of it for the benefit of H or Sch, I should like to have it published soon Perhaps, if you have no objection, I should dispose of it in favour of an album for which my assistance has been asked for the last two months--the album published by the ”Ladies' Society for the Gerht of both manuscripts and ideas; they would not leave me alone; and I have just received another letter froives it me nicely
Write to me as to the destination you prefer for your ”Abendstern;” and e meet, I shall have the impertinence to play you with my two hands your overture, such as I have prepared it for my particular use
Remember me very affectionately to Tichatschek; he has been an ad comrade and friend It will be a true pleasure toto his promise If you could on the same occasion dispose of a few days, we should be only too happy to see you In the meantime, dearest friend, believe me from my heart and soul your devoted admirer and friend,
FR LISZT
February 26th, 1849
PS--A very beautiful and accomplished hand wishes to add a few lines to this letter; if you have found if tedious to read me, you could have no better compensation
15
Allow me, dear sir, to add another voice to the chorus of ads ”Gloria” to the author of the double poeht than I to speak to you of the subliiven to such deep emotions, I yet venture to tell you how souls lost in the croho chant to the” are penetrated by your harmonies, which contain all the fine and delicate shades of idea, sentiment, and passion
We had hoped to see you for ato that hope all the more as I wanted to express to youmy stay at Dresden Let me add to these the other thanks which I owe you for the wonderfulwhich I listened to yourcharination, and of those piercing cries wrung from us by the extinction of the perfuhts which elevate us in their huainst swords, when the soul is pierced by a very different sword of grief,” those elegies which one whispers only to the evening star, those prayers which bear away the soul on their wings
Grant, sir, that the thoughts which so e secrets lie hidden in passion, and adoring splendour and beauty, may reach you and tell you how deep is the admiration which this master ill excite at all times and everywhere in those who have once visited these resplendent and dolorous regions of the soul
Believe, above all, in the adiven to you here, and which we should be so happy to express to you personally I a you, sir, and of repeating fro and devoted sentiments of which I ask you to be a thousand times assured
CAROLYNE WITTGENSTEIN
February 25th, 1849
16
DEAREST FRIEND,
A thousand thanks for your letter! We are going on nicely together If the world belonged to us, I believe we should do so therein I hope o at least shall agree with each other; let those ill not go with us remain behind,--and thus be our alliance sealed!
What shall I do with the beautiful letter I received together with your own? Have I really so pleased your esteeht it worth while to give reat and unexpected joy in return? She indeed has fully effected her purpose, but I can scarcely credit that my work alone should have produced a similar iht in sur that here also my friend Liszt has wooed for me with his wondrous fire However that may be, I feel too silly today to thank your esteeh your mouth, and therefore I pray you with all ratitude to her as fervently, as joyfully, as you are able Will you grantabout your intention, several years ago, when I riting the overture, I wondered whether I should ever hear it played by you I should never have mentioned it to you, for in such matters one must not be too forward, but now that I hear you are e this piece your own, after your own fashi+on, I must tell you that I feel as if a wonderful dream were realized Is it possible? Why not? All is possible to you