LA VIE DE FRANZ LISZT

FRANZ LISZT LHomme d Amour by GUY DE POURTALES Translated from the French by ELEANOR STIMSON BROOKS Great music it the handwriting the complete w.-PAUL VAL Y NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY BY JBtOLX AND C O M JP A. N THE XJNIXED STATES OF THE LIFE OF LISZT I cannot conceive of the spirit of music as residing anywhere but in love.-WAGNER. ADAM LISZT and his young wife, Anna Lager, had no sooner finished moving into their new house at Raiding than they began to find time heavy on their hands. The new superintendent, who was the sole townsman among the peasant huts of this remote village, found nothing that appealed to him in the ugly building that was to serve as his quarters on Prince Esterhazys estate. The memory of Eisenstadt, where he had spent so many delightful years, filled him with home sickness. Eisenstadt lay several hours distant from Raiding, and although both were situated in the district of QEdenburg, the little town, across the Hungarian plains, seemed as far away as happiness. It was not that Adam Liszt was naturally gloomy, but he loved the life of society and music. Nothing delighted him more than his masters beautiful assemblies when that magnates court Was glorified by the presence of the illustrious Haydn and the famous Hummel, Mozarts favorite pupil. He almost regretted that he had shown himself so reliable an agent, since these very qualities had brought him the present detested promotion. But 1 2 FRANZ LISZT like the good Christian and faithful employee that he was, Adam Liszt resigned himself to his duties. His young wife accepted this new solitude with a better grace. In the evening she obliged him to sit down at the piano or play on the guitar and did her bestto console him for a life which he often referred to as a failure, for he believed himself born for the career of a virtuoso. Haydn himself agreed with him in this. But it was now too late to go back and, aban doning the keyboard with some bitterness, Adam Liszt set himself to the study of his masters rents. One day, in the early spring of 1811, while the young couple were strolling about the garden, Anna confided to her husband that she believed she was going to have a child. They decided that it was to be a boy and that he should travel the glorious but difficult road of which his father continued to dream so vainly. As the day of her confinement approached, Mme. Liszt seldom left her room, and in the evening the superintendent would read the newspapers aloud to her. Towards the middle of October they were much interested in the comet that was visible every night in the sky. It seemed a good omen. If only the child might be born while it still shone During the night of the 21-22, in the very nick of time, the ex pected son made his entry into the world. He received the name of Franz. He was so puny that at first he was not expected to live, and during his first years his parents had to wage an unremitting battle for his life. Fever and a nervous ailment alter nately ravaged his feeble body and brought on faint ing fits. Once, returning from a tour of inspection, FRANZ LISZT 3 the father found his wife crushed with grief by the bedside of the dead child. The village carpenter took his measurements and prepared the coffin. But little Franz came back to life in spite of the doctor. These troubles lasted until his sixth year when his health be came established. Meanwhile, life in Raidinghad lost none of its severity, and, except in vacations when they flew to Eisenstadt, the Liszts lived like pariahs on their spot of earth. A few rare visits from friends, the books from a library chosen by chance, which the prince had placed at the disposal of his superintendent, the piano and the guitar were the only distractions. One Sunday, when the elder Liszt had sat down at the piano to play Ries Concerto in C-sharp-minor, little Franz, who at the time was six years old, stole in beside him...