Dear and Excellent Friend,
Under present circumstances (indicated in your note of this evening) I doubt whether your just and noble efforts will attain their end. [Refers to the as yet unsuccessful candidature of Bazzini for the directorship of the Milan Conservatoire. See the preceding letter.]
Without pretending to Catonism, it is a good thing to attach oneself to good causes, whether favored by the gods or not.
"Victrix causa diis placuit."…So, if you are vanquished on the battle-field between the Cathedral and the Conservatoire of Milan, I shall remain on your side, in spite of my reasonable leaning towards Caesar, and the lawful inheritors of his idea,…not towards the others, please, because that would drag me too low and roll me in the mire.
From my heart your old servant and friend,
F. Liszt
Budapest, February 3rd, 1878
221. To the Music Publisher B. Bessel
Dear Sir,
You have been unusually parsimonious in only sending me a single copy of the Ballade of Count Tolstoy. ["The Blind Bard." Liszt wrote the melodramatic piano accompaniment to it (1874).] Allow me then to make use of this copy to indicate the version which I think should be put into the arrangement for piano (alone without declamation). I add, the necessary notes and alterations, for you to publish or not, as you think best, the version subjoined. I have no claim to the sale of my wares, and am only manufacturing them…for the honor of Castile!—Count Tolstoy understood this sentiment; he only has to make a bargain: that is why I have sung with Tolstoy his Ballade of the "Blind Bard," hoping too for "peace" at last "for all noble boyars." [Slavonic noblemen.] You sent me some other publications of your house: "six morceaux pour piano" by Liadoff; they are pleasantly refined; and the "Russian national songs edited by N. Rimsky-Korsakoff," for whom I feel high esteem and sympathy. To speak frankly, Russian national music could not be more felt or better understood than by Rimsky- Korsakoff. His notation of the "popular songs" is most intelligent and most musical; and the accompaniment and harmonies seem to me admirably adequate. If you publish the version for piano of "Tolstoy's Ballades" I beg you to send me the proofs beforehand.