Volume II Part 1 (1/2)

Letters of Franz Liszt

by Constance Bache

VOL 2

BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

The Austrio-Hungarian composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was a pianisticon site and co his key works are his Hungarian Rhapsodies, his Transcendental Etudes, his Concert Etudes, his Etudes based on variations of Paganinini's Violin Caprices and his Sonata, one of the most important of the nineteenth century He also wrote thousands of letters, of which 399 are translated into English in this second of a 2-volume set of letters (the first volume contains 260 letters)

Those who knew him were struck by his extremely sophisticated personality He was surely one of thewithin hi to project it in his music and his communications with people His life was centered around people; he knew theht about thee, while pushi+ng theh ideals he believed in His personality was the embodiment of a refined, idealized form of human civility He was the consu for ways to cohconcerts and gatherings to perform the music publicly

He also did as much as he could to promote and compliment those whose music he believed in

He was also a superlative , with few mistakes, what music of his day was ”artistic” and as not

But, although he was clearly aa tonal, ro his e of moral values and ideals He would have rejected 20th-century music that entertained cynical notions of any kind, or notions that obviated the concept of beauty in any way There is little of a Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Cage, Ada, in Liszt's ,” and that ceiling is ”beauty” It never goes beyond that And perhaps it was never as ”beautiful” as the music of Mozart, Bach or Beethoven, nor quite as rational (Are all the emotions in Liszt's inal and instructive, and it certainly will linger

THE LETTERS OF FRANZ LISZT, VOLUME 2: FROM ROME TO THE END

1 To Dr Franz Brendel

[Rome,] December 20th, 1861

Dear Friend,

For the New Year I bring you nothing new;attachment and friendshi+p reranted to ive youof October I have remained without news from Germany How are my friends Bronsart, Draseke, Das, and let me see some notices of the onward endeavors and experiences of these s of the Redactions-Hohle [Editorial den] and the details of the Euterpe concerts

Please send the numbers of the paper, from October onwards, to me at the address of the library Spithover-Monaldini, Piazza di Spagna, Rome Address your letter ”Herrn Conor Commendatore” is my title here; but don't be afraid that any Don Juan will stab me--still less that on my return to Geruest turned to stone!--

Of h my acquaintance here is tolerably extensive and of an attractive kind (if not exactly musical!), I live on the wholehours are devoted toalso I hope to have entirely finished the Elizabeth in threeelse, as this work completely absorbs me Very soon I will decide whether I coo to Athens in April-- without thereby forgetting the Athens of the elms! --

First send me the paper, that I may not run quite wild in ularly read the papers, there are only the Augsburger Allge], and several French and English papers, which contain as good as nothing of what I care about in the domain of music