Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-07-23
CQurtester DAILY Spg.
From the German of Henry Heine.
THE P1ANISTS, LIST AND BERLIOZ.


who in Paris finds the most unqualified enthu.
slasts, and at the same time the most jealous
adYersarles. 1t is significant fact that no one
speaks of him with Indifference. Without pos
tive force one cannot in this world excite eli
ther favorable or hostile passions 1t takes
fire to kindle men, whether to hatred or to
love. What speaks the best for List, is the
entire respect with which even his opponents
recognize his personal worth He is a man OF
eccentric but of noble character, unselfish, and
with nothing false His intellectual tendencies
are In the highest degree remarkable; he has
great turn for speculation, and even more
than the interests Of his art do the investiga.
tons Of the different schools, which occupy
themselves with the solution of the great heav-
en- ana earth embracing questions interest him.
for long time he felt glowing interest
III the beautiful st. Simonian view of the
wsrld; afterwards the spirituastic, or rather
Faporlsuc, thoughts Of Ballanche beclouded
MN; now he is an enthusiast for the Republi-
can-Catholic doctrines of La Mennais, who
has planted the Jacobin cap upon the cross.
Heaven knows in what mental sta
ole he will lind his next hobby horse But this
unweared thirst TOR light and deity is always
pralseworthy 1t shows his feeling for the holy,
the religious. That such restless head, driy-
en- and perplexed by all the needs and doctrines
OF his time, feeling the necessity of troubling
himself about all the necessities of humanity,
and eagerly sticking his nose into all the
pots IN which the good God brews the future :;
that Franz List can be still no piano forte
player for tranquil townsfolks and good-natur-
ed night caps, is self-evident When he sits
down at the piano, and has stroked his hair
back over his forehead several times. and be-
gins to improyise, he often storms away right
madiy over the ivory keys, and there rings
out wilderness of heaven-high thoughts.
amid which here and there the sweetest flow
ers dltiuse their fragrance, so that one is at
once troubled and beatitied, but troubled most.
confess to you, much as | love Liszt his
music does not operate agreeably upon NV
mind the more so that | am Sunday child
and also see the sceptres, which others only
hear; since, as you know, at every tone,
which he strikes upon the keyboard, the cor
responding tone-figure rises in my mind in
short, since music becomes visible to the in
ward eye. My brain still reels at the recollec-
tl0n OF the concert in which | last heard List
play. 1t was a concert for the unfortunate
Italians, III the hotel of the beautiful. noble.
and suffering princess, who so beautifully rep,
resents her material and her spiritual father
land, to wit, Italy and heaven
You surely have seen her in Paris, that ideal
form, which is yet but the prison, in which
the hottest angel soul has been imprisoned.
But this prison is SO beautiful that
every one fingers before it as if enchanted and
gazes at it with astonishment x X 1t
was in concert for the benefit of the unhap-
py Italians, when last heard List, last win
ter, play, l know not what but could swear
he varied upon themes from the Apocalypse
at first l could not quite distinctly see them,
the four mystical beasts, only heard their
voices, especially in the roaring of the
lion and the screaming of the eagle
The OK with the book in his hand / saw
clearly enough. Best of all he played the
valley of Jehosaphat There were lists as
at tournament, and for spectators the risen
people, pale as the grave and trembling,
crowded round the immense space. First gat-
Hoped Satan into his lists, in black harness, on
a milk-white steed. Slowly rode behind him
Death on his pale horse. AT last Christ APP
peared, in golden armour, on black horse,
and with his holy lance he first thrust Satan to
the ground, and then Death, and the specta-
tators shouted. \ Tumultous APP
plause followed the playing of the valiant
List, who left his seat exhausted, bowed be-
fore the ladies' II About the lips of
the fairest played that melancholy sweet
smile.
1t would be unjust were | not to mention
upon this occasion a pianist, who, next to
Liszt is the most celebrated. 1t Is Chopin,
who not only shines as a virtuoso by his tech
nical perfection, but as composer too achieves
the highest That is a man of the first rank.
Chopin is the favorite with that elite, who seek
the highest spiritual enjoymentin music. His
fame is Of the aristocratic sort, he is pertumed
with the praises of good society, he Is DIS
tingae as he looks.
Chopin comes of French ancestors in Po-
land, and has enjoyed part of his education
in Germany. The influences Of these three
nationaIities make his personally most re-
markable phenomenon; in fact he has appro-
priated to himself the best by which these
three people are distinguished; Poland gave
him her chivalrous sentiment and her historic
grief; France gave him her easy elegance
and grace Germany, her romantic depth OF
feeling But nature gave him an
elegant, slender. somewhat languishing form,
the noblest heart, and genius Yes, to Chopin
one must accord genius, in the full meaning of
the word he is not mere virtuoso, he is also
a poet; he can bring before our consciousness
the poesy that lives in his SOUL he is tone
poet and there is nothing comparable to the
endowment he affords us when he sits at the pi-
ano and improvises. AT such time he is Meth
er Pole, nor Frenchman then he betrays
far higher origin then one perceives
that he is sprung from the land OF
Mozart Raphael, Goethe, that his true
fatherand is the dream realm Of poesy.
When he sits at the piano and improvises, l
feel as if a countryman were visiting me from
my beloved home and were telling me the
most curious things which had come to pass
there in nv absence. Many a time
would like to interrupt him with questions.
And how is it with the beautiful Nike (water
nynph,l who knew how to bind her silvery
viel so coquettishly about her green locks?
Does the white-bearded sea- god still keep per-
scouting her with his foolish and rejected love?
Do our roses bloom in hame-like pride as
everl And do the trees still sing as exquisite
by moonlight?
Ali ii is indeed now long that have lived
in foreign lands, and in my fabulous homesick-
ness | often seem to myself like the Flying
Dutchman and his shipmates, who are tossed
about for ever on the cold waves, and who long
in vain for the still quays, tulips, traws, clay
pipes, and porcelain cups of Holland.
..ss dam; Amsterdam when shall we
come back to Amsterdam they sigh in the
storm, while the bowling winds continually
hurl them back and forth upon the accursed
pillows of their watery hell. Well can I'M
derstand the agony with which the captain of
the doomed ship said once: If ever L get
back to Amsterdam, | will become stone
there at any corner of a street, sooner than
will again leave the dear old city Poor Van
dersec1er!
| hope, dear friend, that these letters will
find you bright and happy, in the rosy light of
life and that it will not be with me as with
the Flying Dutchman, whose letters are di-
rected commonly to persons, who, during his
absence, have long since been dead at home
The DIAMoND.-The present value of da-
monds may be inferred from the price paid
in December, 1855 for stone weighing
81 carats, $165,000 steady increase has
taken place since the last century, and a much