Pupils of Liszt and Thalberg and their pupils in search of an entertaining diversion may amuse themselves by tracing their musical pedigree back to Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, and thus lay claim to very distinguished ancestry, as shown in the following table:
- Liszt, Franz, born Oct. 22, 1811.
- Czerny, Carl, born Feb. 21, 1791.
- Beethoven, Ludwig van, born Dec. 16, 1770.
- Neefe, Christian G., born Feb. 5, 1748.
- Hiller, Johann A., born Dec. 25, 1728.
- Homilius, G. A., born Feb. 2, 1714.
- Bach, Johann Sebastian, born March 21, 1685.
- Thalberg, Sigismond, born Jan. 7, 1812.
- Hummel, J. N., born Nov. 14, 1778.
- Mozart, Wolfgang A., born Jan. 27, 1756.
If there be any whose pride is not sufficiently nourished by this display, they may go still further and show, by authentic records, a descent through Bach from Josquin Desprez, the most eminent contrapuntist of the Netherlands school, who lived about 1450-1521.
During the winter of 1879-80, which I spent at Wiesbaden on account of ill health, I received a very cordial invitation to visit Liszt at Weimar some time in July, and made plans to do so, which were frustrated, however, through unforeseen circumstances. Bülow, when on his first visit here, in 1875, told me that the old charm had entirely passed away. The "Golden Time" was among the things that were.
The last message I had from Liszt was brought to me by Mr. Louis Geilfuss of Steinway & Sons, who met Liszt in one of the streets of Bayreuth only a few days before his death, which occurred somewhat unexpectedly on July 31, 1886.
AT WORK IN AMERICA
WHEN I returned from Europe in 1854 my parents had moved from Boston, and were living at Orange, New Jersey.
On landing in New York, I hurried to Boston, and went immediately to the house of Mr. Webb. This had been my constant purpose ever since the time I left America in 1849. In due course Miss Webb and I became engaged, and were married on March 12, 1857.
My first enterprise after returning from Germany was a concert tour. This I believe to have been the first exclusively pianoforte recital tour ever undertaken in this country. Gottschalk, who was here at that time, had traveled about giving concerts, but he was never without a singer or associate of some kind.