Gurkhaus has just sent me a copy of your "Persian Songs," on the title-page of which there is a mistake which I beg you to get corrected without delay. The Grand Duchess Sophie is no longer "Hereditary Grand Duchess," but "Grand Duchess" pure and simple, and I think it would not do to send her the dedicatory copy with this extra word. Please write therefore to Gurkhaus to see to it.
In the number of the Blatter fur Musik which has come to me I have read with great pleasure and satisfaction Zellner's article on your first concert in Vienna. It is not only very well written but thoroughly well conceived, and of the right tone and manner to maintain for criticism its right and its raison d'etre. I second it very sincerely for the just eulogy it gives to your works; and, if you have the opportunity, make my compliments to Zellner, to whom I wrote a few lines the other day. This article coincides rather singularly with that which appeared in the Neue Zeitschrift (No. II.) on Robert Schumann, in which I probed rather deeply into the question of criticism. If you believe me, my dear Rubinstein, you will not long delay making yourself of the party; for, for the few artists who have sense, intelligence, and a serious and honest will, it is really their duty to take up the pen in defense of our Art and our conviction—it matters little, moreover, on which side of the opinions represented by the Press you think it well to place yourself. Musical literature is a field far too little cultivated by productive artists, and if they continue to neglect it they will have to bear the consequences and to pay their damages.
With regard to Weymar news, I beg to inform you that this evening Kulhmstedt's oratorio "The Transfiguration of the Lord" will be given at the theater, under the very undirecting direction of the composer. I cannot, unfortunately, return him the compliment he paid you at Wilhelmsthal—"Young man, you have satisfied me"; for, after having heard it at three rehearsals, I found no satisfaction in it either for my ears or my mind: it is the old frippery of counterpoint—the old unsalted, unpeppered sausage, [Figure: Musical example]
etc., rubbish, to the ruin of eye and ear! I will try to leave it out in my Mass, although this style is very usual in composing Church music. In five or six weeks I hope to have finished this work, at which I am working heart and soul (the Kyrie and Gloria are written). Perhaps I shall still find you at Vienna (or in the outskirts, which are charming), when I come to Gran in the month of July.
If not, we shall see each other again at Weymar, for you owe me a compensation for your last fugue, which is no more to my taste than Kuhmstedt's counterpoint. When are you going to send me the complete works of Anton Rubinstein that you promised me, and which I beg you not to forget? Your idea of a retrospective Carnival seems to me excellent, and you know how to write charming and distinguished pieces of that kind.
Farewell, dear friend; I must leave you to go and have a rehearsal of Schumann's "Genoveva," which is to be given next Monday. It is a work in which there is something worthy of consideration, and which bears a strong impress of the composer's style. Among the Operas which have been produced during the last fifty years it is certainly the one I prefer (Wagner excepted— that is understood), notwithstanding its want of dramatic vitality—a want not made up for by some beautiful pieces of music, whatever interest musicians of our kind may nevertheless take in hearing them.
A thousand cordial greetings, and yours ever,
F. Liszt
Weymar, April 3rd, 1855
When you write to me, please add your address. I beg you will also return my best compliments to Lewy. [Pianist in St. Petersburg; a friend of Rubinstein's.]