Part 6 (2/2)

This vocal part, however, adds nothing to the value of the work And it is of no great consequence who the author of the arrangement for the quartet was At the tied instru inis arranged for piano duets Soed in this forreat pity, for the quartet is the purest form of instrumental music It is the first form--the fountain of Hippocrene Now instrumental music drinks from every cup and the result is that many times it seems drunk

To return to the _Seven Words_ Their sy They are eloquent enough without the aid of voices, for their charm penetrates Unlike the _Creation_ and the _Seasons_ they do not de is easier than to give them

The opera houses are closed on Good Friday, and it used to be the custouely terraood custoive the public such delightful works as the _Seven Words_, and so s which harmonize with the character of the day

At one of these Sacred Concerts, Pasdeloup presented on the sa the _Credo_ from Liszt's _Missa Solemnis_ and the one from Cherubini's _Messe du Sacre_ Liszt's _Credo_ was received with a storm of hisses, while Cherubini's was praised to the skies I could not help thinking--I was somewhat unjust, for Cherubini's work has merit--of the people of Jerusalem who acclaimed Barrabas and demanded the crucifixion of Jesus

To-day Liszt's _Credo_ is received ild applause--Victor Hugo did his part-while Cherubini's is never revived

CHAPTER XII

THE LISZT CENTENARY AT HEIDELBERG (1912)

The Liszt centenary was celebrated everywhere with elaborate festivities, perhapsin the great cathedral--that alone would have been sufficient glory for the co his lifetiave a perforende von der Heiligen Elisabeth_ The festival at Heidelberg was of special interest as it was organized by the General association of German Musicians which Liszt had founded fifty years before Each year this society gives in a different city a festival which lasts several days It adn members and I was once a reements separated us, and I had had no relation with the society for a number of years when they asked me to take part in this festival A refusal would have been h the idea of perforside such _virtuosi_ as Risler, Busoni, and Friedhei

The festival lasted four days and there were six concerts--four with the orchestra and a chorus They gave the oratorio _Christus_, an enormous hich takes up all the time allowed for one concert; the Dante and Faust symphonies, and the syne_ and _Tasso_, to mention only the most important works

The oratorio _Christus_ lacks the fine unity of the _Saint Elisabeth_

But the torks are alike in being divided into a series of separate episodes While the different episodes in _Saint Elisabeth_ solve the difficult proble unity, the parts of _Christus_ are so for every taste

Certain parts are unqualifiedly admirable; others border on the theatrical; still others are nearly or entirely liturgical, while, finally, so

Like Gounod, Liszt was sometimes deceived and attributed to ordinary and sinificance which escaped the great es of this sort in _Christus_

But there are beautiful and wonderful things in this vast work If we regret that the author lingered too long in his ina, on the other hand, we are delighted by the syers a la Creche_ It is very simple, but in an inireat artists alone It is surprising that this interlude does not appear in the repertoire of all concerts

The Dante symphony has not established itself in the repertoires as has the Faust symphony It was perforanized andwith the Dante symphony we had the Andante (Gretchen) froe_, a char hich is never played now, and still other works It would be hard to i that concert

There was the hostility of the public, the ill-will of the Theatre-Italien which rented me its famous hall but which sullenly opposed a proper announcement of the concert, the insubordination of the orchestra, the deined that Liszt would pay the expenses--and, finally, complete--and expected failure My only object was to lay a foundation for the future, nothing et a creditable perfor it for the first time

The first part (the Inferno) is wonderfully impressive with its _Francesca da Rimini_ interlude, in which burn all the fires of Italian passion The second part (Purgatory and Paradise) coue episode of unsurpassed beauty

_Ce qu'on entend sur la ne_ is, perhaps, the best of the fao's poetry and reproduced its spirit admirably When will this typical work appear in the concert repertoires? When will orchestra conductors get tired of presenting the three or four Wagnerian works they repeat _ad nauseum_, when they can be heard at the Opera under better conditions, and Schubert's insignificant _Unfinished Syiven at the first concert of the festival at Heidelberg It lasted three hours and a half and is so long that I would not dare to advise concert ers to try such an adventure The perforiven in a newly constructed square hall Cavaille-Coll, who knew acoustics, used to advise the square hall for concerts but nobody would listen to hiers, many froe, but, in ainst this mass of voices Furthere, as in a theatre, while the voices sounded freely above Two harps, one on the east side of the stage and one on the west, saw each other fro to the ear as pleasing to the eye The chorus and the four soloists--their task was exceedingly arduous--triumphed completely over the difficulties of this immense work and all the varied and delicate nuances were rendered to perfection

Liszt was far fro the disdain for the liner and Berlioz did On the contrary he treated it as if it were a queen or a Goddess, and it is to be regretted that his tastes did not lead hie Parts of _Saint Elisabeth_ show that he would have succeeded and the fashi+on of having operas for the orchestra, accoht have been avoided He discovered achoruses His enious and has ers have to take care of details and shadings which is too often the least of their worries The Ger for pleasure, and not for a salary, are careful to excess, if there can be excess in such ood fortune to be the interpreters of choruses written in this ive an analysis of this vast work here We have already spoken of the charers a la Creche_

This pastoral is followed by _Marche des Rois Mages_, a pretty piece, but a little overdeveloped for its intrinsic worth The vocal parts, _Beatitudes_ and _Le Pater Noster_, would be more suitable in a church than in a concert hall Then coes, _La Tempete sur le lac de Thiberiade_, and _Le Mont des Oliviers_, with its baritone solo, and finally, the _Stabat Mater_, where great beauties are co in the whole work impressed me more than Christ's entrance to Jerusaleives no idea of it Here the author reached the heights That also describes the delightful effect of the children's chorus singing in the distance _O Filii et Filiae_, harmonised with perfect taste