The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-15 00:00:00

Liszt—the Most Wonderful of Pianists,

To the accomplished Secretary of the Crystal
Palace Company, Mr. George Grove, we are (in
common with all lovers of music and musical criti-
cism) indebted for the publication—in the Reader—
of a recent private letter by a gentleman well known
in musical circles, describing an interview with M.
Liszt, the eminent musician ! From this delightful
letter we are tempted to transfer to our columns
the following exquisitely-suggestive passages :

Piazza di Spagna, Rome, Feb. 19, 1865.
My interview with Liszt really was of surpassing in-
terest. He arrived here early, before I was out of my room,
and I heard him describing himself to our idiotic Italian
slavey as "Un Signor di Monte Mario" (on which eleva-
tion he has established himself, and lives part of the week
at a convent thereon, having a right, I believe—as a mem-
ber of some order or fraternity—to take up his abode at
any convent in Roman Catholic Europe he may choose to
select, and hence the reports as to his becoming a monk).
Having passed the ante-chamber, he found himself in the
presence of F. P., who received him with a kettle in one
hand and a "Euclid" in the other—weapons which were
doubtless taken up- by that ready youth as being at hand,
and emblematical of some of the unrivalled characteristics
of the playing of the illustrious visitor—for instance, of
his power of making the piano sing, and of executing with
mathematical. precision unheard-of difficulties. I heard
fragments of a dialogue, going on in the next room, partly
in German, partly in French, partly in English, something
after this fashion, " Ich habe nicht die Ehre mit dem Herrn
0. zu sprechen?" " Nein, gnitdiger Herr Doktor, ich heisse
P." " Ach, entschuldigen Sie mich." " Aber Herr 0. will
gleich kommen ; kann ich Ihnen cine Tasse The anbieten ?"
" Ich danke ; Monsieur parle Frangais pout-etre ? voulez,
vous avoir la bonte de me donner une allumette, et, avec
votre permission, je fumerai un petit cigare. Monsieur
fume aussi ? Ah pas encore, c'est bien ! Monsieur aims
aussi la musique ? You are a compositeur also ?" "No-
but lam very fond of music." "Ah, very fond? It is
now long years since I speak the English, but I understand
him, and I beg it of you speak your tongue and I answer
in French. Ah, here is a collection of Bach's fugues by a
pupil of mine, Franz Kroll, who is clever ; but I agree not
with him always ; for instance, the fingering here" (at the
end of the first prelude) might have been more facile ; but
this edition of Wohlten?perirte Clavier is the best which has
been made." . . . About this time I appeared, and
after some talk he asked me to show him some of my
music, and to my intense delight, went to the pianoforte
and began to try a song of mine in D Flat, first striking the
common chord thereof with his left hand (the cigar was in
his right) in arpeggios from the bottom of the piano to the
top, and about as quick as any other hand could be passed
over the keyboard without touching it. He played every-
thing to perfection which he got hold of, and a prima vista,
for he had certainly never previously seen what he bad
deigned to take up. Amongst other things, he played some
Church music in a style that convinced me he had played
the organ, which I found out was the case, for an organist
has since told me that he (Liszt) played to him—" with
independent pedals and all "—the A fiat fugue, No. 17 of
Book 11. of the 48—no joke ! Nothing could be more
kind and charming than he was ; and what an intellectual
and accomplished person he is, so full of information and
enthusiasm ! I can quite understand the great powers of
fascination which he is said to possess over young men ;
so that, wherever he is, he is followed, and a kind of colony
is formed of his disciples. This is the case even at Rome,
wherein many musical students have taken up their abode,
solely to be under him, and I believe he receives no kind of
pecuniary remuneration from any of them, although I
heard (from Mr. Odo Russell, who is good authority) that
he is by no means well off. This reminds me to say, in
answer to your query, that I asked one of his pupils if he
had heard anything relative to the concerts to be given by
Liszt at Paris. The answer was, "He may possibly direct
a performance of some of his music, but I do not think it

the least likely that he will play." Before I received your
letter I had already entreated him to come again to Eng-
land, and urged that there were so many who were dying
to hear him ; but he does not seem to fancy England, and
said something about having forgotten how to play the
pianoforte—an assertion which was-rendered of none effect
on Friday last, when I had the rare treat I have so longed
for, of really hearing him—and the pianofore—for the first
time. I believe that this was almost the only instance of
his really giving a performance since he has been in Rome.
Tho seance took place in the house of a Mrs. C. (whose.
clever bust of Liszt was in our Exhibition of 1862) at four
o'clock in the afternoon ; the audience was limited to nine,
the number of the muses. The mystic number was even-
tually swelled to 12, three ladies Rnknown to me (charm-
ing enough to be the three graces) arriving at the last
minute. The great artist came after we were all in our
places, and after tantalising us by "conversing affably"
with each member of his audience, sat down to the piano-
forte. Here all description fails me. I will not waste your
time and small space still left me to attempt it, and will
. _

_ .
only add that, after having heard all the great pianists of
the day, I can say that I had never heard the pianoforte
before. Imagine all conceivable difficulties so mastered as
to become child's play, the most ethereal and perfect touch
ever heard, the greatest fire, poetry, tenderness, and senti-
ment, and most admirable management of the instrument
all the wonders, and a hundred times greater, of Thalberg,
the grasp of Henselt, the reading of Clara Schumann, the
science of Moscheles, the refinement of Italie, and the
mechanism and charm of Madame Davison—all these com-
bined and surpassed, and still a something else beyond all
description, as I just said—which is, I suppose, Liszt. No
wonder that the German musicians always said he is the
first, and unapproachably so, of pianists. He played four
times—three of his own arrangements (one of which was
on Etude, that keeps me awake at night), and one a
Polonaise of Chopin's. Many of his audience were literally
in tears, and I have not got over it yet. He made Mrs. C.
sing " The last (but apparently eternal) rose of summer,"
in Italian, during each verse of which he improvised a new
and gradually developed accompaniment. In the last
verse there was a passage of sixes, pianissimo, in arpeggio,
when the two hands went together as a mower's, and Liszt
all the while looking about him, and laughing good-
naturedly at the alteration and improvement of the melody
in its new and gorgeous dress, or at Mrs. C.'s dismay at
the change of harmony at every recurrence of the first
phrase—which, by-the-by, is no less than six times in
each verse.

EXECUTION OF POLISH PRlSONERS.—Thelnvalide
Russe says :—" The Polish political prisoners Tchi-
barowski, Kaminski, Ostrowski, and Kaspjak, employed
in the tile factory, having been found guilty of assassinat-
ing their guard, the soldier Kourganoff, and of attempting
to escape, were condemned to death, and shot at Kosarkoff
in presence of a large number of the inhabitants. The other
political prisoners, named Pawlowsk, Tischer, Wysochi
(Thomas), and Gutivinski, who took part in this plot, and
escaped from the disciplinary companies,
have been sen-
tenced, the first four to 12 years' hard labour in the mines,
and the fifth to 15 years of the same penalty."
TERRIBLE BOAT ACCIDENT.—THIRTY PERSONS
DROWNED.—The village of Sziget-Monastar, situated on
an island in the Danube, has been the scene of a sad dis-
aster. The vineyards of some of the inhabitants are on
the opposite side of the river, and a ferryboat conveys the
workmen backwards and forwards. On the 6th, 36 or 38
persons were returning across the river in the evening,
and the boat, being heavily laden and deep in the water,
became submerged, and all the passengers, with the excep-
tion of six or eight, who contrived to reach the shore by
swimming, lost their lives.
DYEING.—The new colours extracted from coal,
such as aniline and other phenic compounds, have
effected a revolution in the art of dyeing; this revolution
was, however, so far incomplete, that it entailed a heavy
expense, owing to the necessity of employing alcohol as a
solvent ; for the colours alluded to are not soluble in
water. Moreover the alcoholic dissolution, when diluted
with water as it always is, and left to stand, deposits a large
proportion of the colour, only keeping the red; the neces-
sity of warming the liquid before the immersion of the
stuffs is another cause of inconvenience, since a portion of
the alcohol is driven off by evaporation, and more colour
precipitated in consequence. Hence it often happens that
the stuffs do not take the colour equally all over but in
patches, and moreover they stain the linen when they are
worn. To diminish the cost, many dyers have tried to
substitute spirit of wood, commonly called methylene, for
alcohol; but in most cases, this has had to be abandoned;
the workmen refusing to use it on account of its bad effects
on their constitution. When they are exposed for whole
days to the emanation of this substance, they soon expe-
rience great weakness and other alarming symptoms. In
a paper addressed to the Academy of Sciences, M. Gaultier
de Claubry describes another process of his invention by
which all these defects are obviated. It shows that many
substances impart to water the property of dissolving the
colours which until now could only be dissolved
in alcohol. Such are the gums and mucilages,
soap, especially almond-soap, glucose, dextrine, the
jellies of various feculas, lichens and fuci, especially the
"'Liens Crispus, glycerine, gelatine, and animal jellies; but
those which offer the most satisfactory and practical results
are the decoctions of the bark known in trade under the
name of panama, (Quillaya saponaria) and the root of Egyp-
' tian soap wort (Gysophila strutium), The Saponaria offici-
nalia may also be used, but is less energetic in its action.
All these substances give a certain consistency to water
and make it froth; and their solutions, poured in a state of
ebullition on the colouring matter in powder, will dissolve
them. If, after stirring and decanting, there is an undis-
solved residue, the operation may be repeated. In the solu-
tions thus prepared no precautions are requisite for dye-
ing ; the stuffs take the colour quite uniformly, and are
much more permanent than with the old process.
PETER'S PENCE.—The official journal of Rome
announces that, according to the last report of the receipts
of Peter's pence, a sum of 5,376,000 f. has been paid into
the Pontifical treasury. The total amount received since
the month of September, 1859, up to the present time, is
43,010,400 f. The' same journal adds, that at no time have
so many foreigners been seen in Rome as at present
and says that this immense concourse furnishes a proof of
the constantly increasing veneration of the Catholics for
Papal Rome.