Part 7 (2/2)
Schumann called the collection ”Sturm und Graus Etuden” (Studies of Storm and Dread), and expressed the opinion that there were only ten or twelve pianists living who could play them. In the etude called ”Waldesrauschen” will be found some ingenious double counterpoint. The theme is divided into two portions, a descending and ascending one, which later on appear together, with first one and then the other uppermost. Other t.i.tles among the etudes are ”Paysage,” ”Mazeppa” (a tremendous test of endurance), ”Vision,” ”Cha.s.se-neige,” ”Harmonies de Soir” and ”Gnomentanz.” Through Liszt's transcriptions of some of the Paganini pieces in the form of etudes, which include the famous ”Bell Rondo” from one of the Paganini concertos, this piece, for example, now is far better known as a pianoforte composition than in its original form for violin.
Sonata, Concertos and Rhapsodies.
The ”Sonata in B Minor” dedicated to Schumann is one of the few sonatas in which there is psychological unity throughout. This is due to the fact that it is one movement; although by employing various themes both in rapid and in slow time, Liszt has given it a certain aspect of division into movements. It might well serve as a model to younger composers who think they have to write sonatas.
Dannreuther, it is true, says of it that it is ”a curious compound of true genius and empty rhetoric,” but admits that it contains enough of genuine impulse and originality in the themes of the opening section, and of suave calm in the melody of the section that stands for the slow movement, to secure the hearer's attention. Mr.
Hanchett's characterization of it as one of the most masterly compositions ever put into this form--a gigantic, wholly admirable and original work--is more just.
The two pianoforte concertos (in E flat and A major) are superb works.
Not only are they written with all the skill which Liszt knew so well how to apply when composing for the instrument, but with this technical perfection they also unite thought and feeling. Like the sonata, they show throughout their development the psychological unity which is so essentially modern. What the pianoforte owes to Chopin and Liszt can be summed up by saying that they were poets and thinkers who took the trouble to thoroughly understand the instrument. Because their music sounds so well on it, at least one of them, Liszt, frequently is stigmatized as a trickster of virtuosity and a charlatan, as if there were some wonderful mark of genius in writing something for one instrument that sounds better on another or may not sound as well as it ought to on any. If Liszt's pianoforte music is grateful to the player and equally grateful to the listener, it is not only because he knew how to write for the pianoforte, but because, with deep thoughts and poetic feelings, he also understood how to express them clearly and pianistically.
The ”Rhapsodies Hongroises” are of such dazzling brilliancy and show off a pianist's technique to such good purpose and so brilliantly, that their real musical worth has been under-estimated. They are full of splendid fire, vitality and pa.s.sion, and their rhythmic throb is simply irresistible. Like the etudes, their history is curious.
At first they were merely short transcriptions of Hungarian tunes.
These were elaborated and republished and canceled, and then rewritten and published again. In all there are fifteen pieces in the set, ending with the ”Rakoczy March.” As ”Ungarische Melodien”
they began to appear in 1838; as ”Melodies Hongroises” in 1846; as ”Rhapsodies Hongroises” in 1854. Consider that they are over fifty years old, yet remain the greatest pieces for the display of brilliant technique and the most grateful works for which a pianist can ask, and that at the same time they are full of admirable musical content! Because they happen to be brilliant and effective they are called trashy, whereas they owe their brilliancy and effectiveness to Liszt's own transcendent virtuosity, to his knowledge of the pianoforte. In order to be great must music be ”cla.s.sic,” heavy and dull, and badly written for the instrument on which it is to be played?
How Liszt Played.
In those charming reminiscences from which I already have had occasion to quote several times, William Mason's ”Memories of a Musical Life,”
Mr. Mason says that time and again at Weimar he heard Liszt play, and that there is absolutely no doubt in his mind that Liszt was the greatest pianist of the nineteenth century, what the Germans call an _Erscheinung_, an epoch-making genius. Tausig said of him: ”Liszt dwells alone upon a solitary mountain-top and none of us can approach him.” Rubinstein said to Mr. William Steinway, in the year 1873 (I quote from Mason): ”Put all the rest of us together and we would not make one Liszt.” While Mr. Mason willingly acknowledges that there have been other great pianists, some of them now living, he adds: ”But I must dissent from those writers who affirm that any of these can be placed upon a level with Liszt. Those who make this a.s.sertion are too young to have heard Liszt other than in his declining years, and it is unjust to compare the playing of one who has long since pa.s.sed his prime with that of one who is still in it.”
Edward Dannreuther, who heard Liszt play from 1863 onward, says that there was about his playing an air of improvisation and the expression of a grand and fine personality, perfect self-possession, grace, dignity and never-failing fire; that his tone was large and penetrating, but not hard, every effect being produced naturally and easily. Dannreuther adds that he has heard performances, it may be of the same pieces, by younger men, such as Rubinstein and Tausig, but that they left an impression as of Liszt at second-hand or of Liszt past his prime. ”None of his contemporaries or pupils were so spontaneous, individual and convincing in their playing; and none except Tausig so infallible with their fingers and wrists.”
Liszt himself paid this superb tribute to the pianoforte as an instrument: ”To me my pianoforte is what to the seaman is his boat, to the Arab his horse; nay, more, it has been till now my eye, my speech, my life. Its strings have vibrated under my pa.s.sions and its yielding keys have obeyed my every caprice. It may be that the secret tie which binds me to it so closely is a delusion, but I hold the pianoforte very high. In my view, it takes the first place in the hierarchy of instruments. It is the oftenest used and the widest spread. In the circ.u.mference of its seven octaves it embraces the whole range of an orchestra, and a man's ten fingers are enough to render the harmonies which in an orchestra are brought out only by the combination of hundreds of musicians. The pianoforte has on the one side the capacity of a.s.similation, the capacity of taking unto itself the life of all instruments; on the other hand it has its own life, its own growth, its own individual development. My highest ambition is to leave to the piano players to come after me, some useful instructions, the footprints of advanced attainment, something which may some day provide a worthy witness of the labor and study of my youth.”
Bear in mind that Liszt played for Beethoven, that he was a contemporary of Chopin and Schumann, that he was one of the first to throw himself heart and soul into the Wagner movement, and that death came to him while he was attending the festival performances at Bayreuth; bear in mind, I repeat, that he played for Beethoven and died at ”Parsifal”; strive to appreciate the extremes of musical history and development implied by this; then remember that he remains a potent force in music--and you may be able to form some idea of his greatness.
VIII
WITH PADEREWSKI--A MODERN PIANIST ON TOUR
Liszt never was in this country, but we can gain some idea of the success that would have been his from the triumphs of Ignace Paderewski. Other famous pianists have come to this country--Thalberg in 1856; Rubinstein in 1872; Von Bulow, Joseffy, who took up his residence here; Rosenthal, Josef Hofmann. But Paderewski's success has been greater than any of these. Americans are said to be fickle; but although Paderewski no longer is a novelty, his name still is the one with which to fill a concert hall from floor to roof.
Why this is so is no secret. Hear him and you will understand the reason. To a technique which does not hesitate at anything and an industry that flinches at nothing--no one practices more a.s.siduously than he--he adds the soul of a poet and the strength of an athlete. He looks slender and poetical enough as he sits at the piano on the concert stage; but if you watch him from near by you will be able to note the great physical power which he can bring into play when necessary--_and which he never brings into play unless it is necessary_. Therefore he combines poetry with force; and back of both is thought--intellectual capacity.
In a frame on the wall of a New York trust company is a check for $171,981.89. It represents the net receipts of one virtuoso for one concert tour, and is believed to be the largest actual amount ever earned in this country by an artist, whether singer or player, in a single season. This check is drawn to the order of Ignace J.
Paderewski.
An opinion regarding the piano by a man who by playing it can earn so large a sum, and earn it because he is the greatest living exponent of pianoforte playing, would seem worth having. Paderewski believes that, save in one respect, the pianoforte has reached perfection and is incapable of further improvement. He does not think that anything more should be done to add to its volume of tone. If anything, he considers this too great and the instrument too loud already. Instead of more power, rather less would be satisfactory. Wherein, however, he considers the instrument still lacking, notwithstanding its wonderful development during the last century, is in its capacity for sustained tone--for holding a long-drawn-out tone with the facility of the violin, for example. He is convinced, however, that the means of imparting this capacity for sustaining tone to the pianoforte will be discovered in due time and that the invention probably will be made in this country. That increased tone-sustaining power for the instrument is a great desideratum doubtless is the opinion of many experts; but that the greatest master of the pianoforte considers it perfect in other respects is highly interesting and significant. After all, it remains the greatest of all solo instruments, because, within the smallest compa.s.s and with the simplest means of control, it has the range of an orchestra. For this reason it is the most popular of instruments and, in its manufacture, extends from the polished dry-goods box with internal organs of iron, wire and felt and with a glistening row of celluloid teeth ready to bite as soon as ever the lid is raised, to the highest-cla.s.s concert grand.
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