A thousand apologies. I ought long ere this to have written you and my esteemed friend, Dr. Benfey, a letter of thanks, and to have sent your sheetful of questions back answered. [The answers follow in the letter.] Pray excuse this delay.—
I frankly confess that the title of the pamphlet, "Beethoven and Liszt," [Alludes to a pamphlet contemplated by the late husband of the lady addressed.] at first frightened me. It called to my mind a reminiscence of my childhood. Nearly fifty years ago, at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, I used often to notice a harmless poodle keeping company in the same cage with a majestic lion, who seemed to be kindly disposed towards the little chamberlain. I have exactly the same feeling towards Beethoven as the poodle towards that forest-king.
With sincere thanks and regards,
Yours, F. Liszt
November 11th, 1880 (Villa d'Este, Tivoli)
At the end of September, Breitkopf and Hartel sent my own duet arrangements of my twelve "Poemes Symphoniques" at my request to Gottschalg (Weimar). This copy is intended for Dr. Benfey. Gottschalg will likewise willingly place the scores of the "Dante" and "Faust" Symphonies, as well as the arrangement for two pianos of both these works, at your disposal.
The names of the greatest performers figure in the Court concerts, such as, Joachim, Ernst, Vieuxtemps, Bulow, Rubinstein, Bronsart, Tausig, Madame Viardot-Garcia, etc., etc. A few of these concerts were conducted by Berlioz, and their programmes in every case contained nova et vetera (as prescribed in the gospel).
During my direction of the Opera at Weimar, from '49 to '58, the following works were performed there, together with the standing repertoire of Mozart's, Weber's, Rossini's, Meyerbeer's Operas, etc.
February '49 "Tannhauser;" August 28th, '50, "Lohengrin" (first performance); later on "The Flying Dulchman," and Wagner's splendid edition of Gluck's "Iphigenia in Aulis."—Berlioz's "Benvenuto Cellini;" Schumann's "Manfred" (first performance), Raff's "King Alfred," two of Lassen's Operas, Spohr's "Faust" (with the recitatives), Sobolewski's "Comala," Dorn's "Nibelungen" (first performance), etc., etc.—Finally, Peter Cornelius' "Barber of Bagdad"—the last operatic performance which I directed there.
This short list will suffice for your purpose of the pamphlet; to it we may add that several Oratorios and Symphonic works were performed under my direction, such as Marx' "Moses," Rubinstein's "Paradise Lost," Schumann's "Paradise and the Peri" and his concluding scenes in "Faust," etc.; as for Symphonies, the Great Pyramid—Beethoven's "Ninth" (for Goethe's Jubilee in '49), nearly all Berlioz's Symphonies and Overtures, besides other Symphonies and Overtures by Schumann, Raff, Hiller, Bronsart, Joachim, Bulow, etc., most of which were at that time scarcely known or entirely new.