Your kind letter has given me very sincere pleasure, dear Monsieur Franz. I hope your health is quite re-established, and that you are plunging into Bach to your heart's content,—that admirable chalybeate spring! I will bear you company, and have given myself, for a Christmas present, the little 8vo edition of Peters of the two "Passions," Masses and Cantatas of Bach, whom one might designate as the St. Thomas Aquinas of music. Kahnt, who sends me these scores, tells me of his earnest desire to get Cornelius settled at Leipzig, in the position of editor-in-chief of the Neue Zeitschrift, founded, as you know, by Schumann, and bravely carried on by Brendel. It is the sole paper which has, for thirty years past, sustained with steadfastness, knowledge and consistency the works and the men of musical progress. If, as I wish, Cornelius undertakes Brendel's task, I think you would do well to follow out your project of staying again in Leipzig.—In any case I hope to see you again this spring at Weimar; I shall arrive there towards the middle of April, and shall stay till the end of June. During the winter I shall abstain from all travelling, and shall not leave my retreat at the Villa d'Este except to stay a few days in Rome. Many people have very kindly invited me to go to Paris; I have excused myself from doing so for reasons of expediency which you know. Henceforth it is not myself that I have to bring forward, but simply to continue to write in perfect tranquillity and with a free mind. To do this obliges me to seclude myself, to avoid the salons, the half- opened pianos and the society drudgery imposed by the large towns, where I very easily feel myself out of place.
Thank you cordially for your propaganda of the "Missa Choralis;" I shall be much obliged if you will write me a couple of words after the performance. Will you also please tell M. Brassin that I thank him much for not having been afraid of compromising his success as a virtuoso by choosing my Concerto? Up to the present time all the best-known French pianists—with the exception of Saint-Saens—have not ventured to play anything of mine except transcriptions, my own compositions being necessarily considered absurd and insupportable. People know pretty well what to think by what they hear said, without any need of hearing the works.
How did the orchestra go with the piano in the Concerto? Had they taken care to have enough rehearsals? There are several passages that require minute care; the modulations are abrupt, and the variety of the movements is somewhat disconcerting for the conductor. And, in addition to this, the traitor triangle (proh pudor!) [Oh shame!], however excited he may be to strike strong with his cunning little rhythm, marked pianissimo, provokes the most scandalous catastrophe…
Notwithstanding all the regrettable parleying, for in such a matter all sensible people ought to be of the same opinion, I presume that Mr. Godebski's bust of Chopin will shortly be placed in the lobby of the theater at Warsaw. Certainly Chopin well merits this mark of honor, which moreover need in no wise prevent people from busying themselves about a larger monument to Lemberg, and from collecting a sufficient sum for that purpose.
At Weimar we will talk of Hal and the pleasure it will be to me to pay you a visit there. Pray present my respectful thanks to your mother, and my affectionate remembrances to Madame Godebski,—and believe me, dear Monsieur Franz, your sincere friend,
F. Liszt
Villa d'este, December 20th, 1869
(Address always Rome.)
97. To Dr. Franz Witt in Ratisbon
[Like all the subsequent letters to Dr. Witt, this letter is without date or ending, as printed in Walter's biography of Witt (Ratisbon, Pustet, 1889).—Dr. Witt (1834-80) was a distinguished musical scholar, also a composer, the founder and first general president of the Cacilien-Verein [St. Cecilia Society], and died as a clergyman in Landshut.]