Franz Liszt, Volume 3 by Alan Walker

Author:Alan Walker [Walker, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-83097-5
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2012-11-20T16:00:00+00:00

A proclamation of Liszt’s Jubilee, November 1873: “Our Compatriot Franz Liszt.” (Illustration Credit 14.1)

On the afternoon of November 9 there was a performance of Henrik Gobbi’s Liszt Cantata (a setting of a text by Emil Ábrányi), written in honour of the composer. At the conclusion of the concert Joseph Hellmesberger delivered a eulogy on behalf of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, and Liszt was presented with a golden laurel wreath on behalf of the Hungarian nation. The main celebration came in the evening, when Hans Richter conducted the augmented orchestra and chorus of the Hungarian National Theatre in an uncut performance of Christus in the specially illuminated great hall of the Vigadó. With intermissions the concert lasted for four hours, from five until nine.

On the last day of the Jubilee, the city of Pest gave Liszt a large banquet in the Hotel Hungária. About two hundred guests attended, among them three cabinet ministers (Ágoston Trefort, Tivabar Pauler, and Kálmán Tisza). Other prominent Hungarians also turned out in force, including his old compatriots Reményi, Baron Augusz, Count Albert Apponyi, and Count Guido Karácsonyi. There were also many out-of-towners present, such as Hellmesberger and Ludwig Bösendorfer from Vienna, Karl Pohlig from Dresden, C. E Kahnt from Leipzig, Carl Lewy from St. Petersburg, Olga von Meyendorff, Marie von Mouchanoff, Countess Maria Dönhoff, David Popper, Sophie Menter, and newspaper correspondents from the Moniteur Universel and the London Times.23 Merely to call the roll of such names indicates the significance attached to the celebration. But perhaps the most important deputation was the one from Weimar led by Baron August Loën, the intendant of the Court Theatre, whose attendance at the Jubilee was deemed by Grand Duke Carl Alexander to be so important for his city that he had paid for Loën’s travel expenses himself.24 In the middle of the banquet Loën got to his feet and delivered an eloquent speech in which he reviewed Liszt’s long career. He reminded the audience of the pioneering work that Liszt had done as a conductor, especially of the music of Wagner, Berlioz, and Schumann. Then he brought forward the names of Tausig, Bülow, and Klindworth as examples of Liszt’s teaching. At the conclusion of his address, Loën presented Liszt with an album whose cover was inscribed with the words “Weimars Gruss,” and which contained the signatures of one hundred personalities associated with the Court Theatre.25 Liszt also received many telegrammes and letters from around the world. That evening word also reached him that he had been appointed an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Music at St. Petersburg. Perhaps the best-known legacy of the Jubilee celebration was the series of tableaux by István Halász depicting various episodes from Liszt’s career, including the public “kiss of consecration” from Beethoven in April 1823, an event that never took place, but was already part of the Liszt mythology, and was to sow much confusion in the literature later on.

While Liszt was in Budapest, and still in a state of euphoria induced by the festivities, he visited the National Museum.

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