F. Liszt
353. To Madame Malwine Tardieu
Budapest, December 7th, 1884
Dear Kind Friend,
Really and truly when it sometimes happens that I obtain success
I rejoice less over that than over the success of my friends.
Thank you for the pleasant tidings of the brilliant success of
Ossiana [Madame Marie Jaell, the well-known artiste, a friend of
Liszt's.] at Godard's concert. .—.
You do not tell me where the little notice appeared (with my name at the heading) which you were so good as to send me. [In the Gaulois, from the pen of Fourcaud, and, later, in the Album of the Gaulois, to which the most celebrated tone-poets had contributed a piece of music as yet unpublished.] One of my works is mentioned in it with the greatest eulogy—the Gran Mass—which was so unhappily performed at Paris in '66, and more unhappily criticised then…The mistake I made was not to have forbidden a performance given under such deplorable conditions. A philanthropic reason, which is valueless in matters of Art, kept me from doing so. I did not wish to deprive the fund for the poor of the assured receipts of more than 40,000 francs. Pardon me for recalling this vexatious affair, which makes me all the more sensible of the flattering attention which the same work is receiving.
To my great regret the performances of Henry VIII. by our very valiant friend St. Saens, which were to have taken place at Weimar and Budapest, are put off. Mediocrity, as Balzac said, governs even theaters. Anyhow its power must sometimes be intermittent. Please say many cordial things to your husband from your much attached
F. Liszt
On Wednesday I shall be in Rome, and back here towards the middle of January.
354. To Freiherr Hans Von Wolzogen