168. To Alexander Ritter, Music Director in Stettin
Munich, December 4th, 1856
Dear Friend,
I received your letter on a day when I again greatly missed your presence. We were together with Wagner at St. Gall, and the Musical Society there had distinguished itself by the production of an orchestra of ten first, ten second violins, eight violas, six celli and double basses. Wagner conducted the Eroica, and I two of my Symphonic Poems—"Orpheus" and "Les Preludes." The performance and reception of my works were quite to my satisfaction, and the "Preludes" had to be repeated (as they were in Pest). Whether such a production would be possible in Stettin I much doubt, in spite of your friendly advances. The open, straightforward sense of the public is everywhere kept so much in check by the oft-repeated rubbish of the men of the "But" and "Yet," who batten on criticism, and appear to set themselves the task of crushing to death every living endeavour, in order thereby to increase their own reputation and importance, that I must regard the rapid spread of my works almost as an imprudence. You desire "Orpheus," "Tasso," and "Festklange" from me, dear friend! But have you considered that "Orpheus" has no proper working out section, and hovers quite simply between bliss and woe, breathing out reconciliation in Art? Pray do not forget that "Tasso" celebrates no psychic triumph, which an ingenious critic has already denounced (probably mindful of the "inner camel," which Heine designates as an indispensable necessity of German aestheticism!), and the "Festklange" sounded too confusedly noisy even to our friend Pohl! And then what has all this canaille to do with instruments of percussion, cymbals, triangle, and drum in the sacred domain of Symphony? It is, believe me, not only confusion and derangement of ideas, but also a prostitution of the species itself!
Should you be of another opinion, allow me at least to keep you from too greatly compromising yourself, so near to the doors of the immaculate Berlin critics, and not to drag you with myself into the corruption of my own juggling tone-poems. Your dear wife (to whom I beg you to remember me most kindly) might be angry with me for it, and I would not on any account be put into her bad books. Instead of conducting my Symphonic Poems, rather give lectures at home of the safe passport of Riehl's "Haus-Musik," and take well to heart the warning,
"Ruckkehr zum Mass." ["A returning within bounds." A footnote by Liszt follows: "Dabei wird naturlich das Mass der Mittelmassigkeit als einzig massgebend verstanden." ("By this is of course understood the bounds of mediocrity as the one limitation.") A play on the words, "Mass," "Massigkeit," and "Massgebend.">[
On this road alone can you soon attain a conductor's post, and the "esteem" due to you as a music director, both from musicians and people of rank.
For the rest you would entirely misconstrue my good advice if you thought you could see in it only a pretext for not keeping my former promise of coming to see you at Stettin. I shall most certainly come to you on the first opportunity, and shall be delighted to spend a couple of days with such excellent friends. But first of all I must stop in Weymar for a while, in order to finish some works begun, and to forget altogether my lengthy illness in Zurich.
I had some glorious days with Wagner; and "Rheingold" and the
"Walkure" are incredibly wonderful works.
To my great sorrow, I only saw your brother Carl [A musician, a friend of Wagner's.] a couple of times in the early days of my stay in Zurich. I will tell you vaud voce how this happened, so entirely against my wish and expectation, through a provoking over-sensitiveness on the part of your brother. I am sure you don't need any assurance that I did not give occasion in any way to this. But for the future I must quietly wait till Carl thinks better and more justly of it.