F. Liszt
Budapest, February, 1879
243. To Marie Lipsius
My dear Friend,
Hearty thanks for your dear lines of sympathy. The loss of my cousin and most intimate friend Eduard von Liszt is a deep grief to me. You wish for the dates of the Budapest and Vienna concerts; for this I was obliged to ask the help of my excellent friend Kornel Abranyi. He knows these and other things far better than I. For ten years he edited the Hungarian musical paper, and now officiates as General Secretary and Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest, the Director being Franz Erkel, and my humble self the President.
Here is the result of Abranyi's researches, by which it is evident that I have neither been idle nor used anything for my own benefit.
At the same time let it be mentioned to the praiseworthy and amiable authoress of "Musikalische Studienkopfe," La Mara, that since the end of '47 I have not earned a farthing by pianoforte playing, teaching or conducting. All this rather cost me time and money.
Since the year '47 I only played in public twice in Rome—'63 and '64—at the gracious command of Pope Pius IX.; often in Budapest later on, twice in Vienna, once in Pressburg and Oedenburg (my native town) as a child of the country. Nowhere else. May my poor pianoforte performing at last come to an end! It has long been a torment to me. Therefore—Amen!—
On the occasion of the celebration of their Majesties' silver wedding I shall have the honor, in accordance with the invitation of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde [Society of friends of music,] of conducting the "Gran Mass" in Vienna on the 8th April (the Tuesday before Good Friday). Performances of this Mass (after the first at Gran in '56) took place in Pest, Prague, Vienna, later in Leipzig and Amsterdam, in '66 in Paris, and again in Amsterdam, as also in '77 in Weimar and Dusseldorf, the latter under the conductorship of Ratzenberger. This Mass has also been heard in America.
In conclusion also the following memoranda for La Mara: Without a written engagement, yet indeed morally bound, since '71 I spend several months of every winter in Budapest, from April to July in Weimar, then the autumn months, and more, chiefly in the Villa d'Este near Rome, where His Eminence Cardinal Hohenlohe affords me the kindest reception. There I wrote the "Christmas-tree," the "Via Crucis," the "Responses to the Seven Sacraments," etc. These three works are quite ready, and indeed beautifully copied, as well as the "Cantico del Sole" of the marvellous St. Francis of Assisi. Their publication troubles me little, for they are not suitable to the usual musical customs and trade…