The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1874-04-25
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.

" ~ lttle uotiCe WuICh "pPe"cuih VI
:. papers about three weeks ago thre
,s the city into state Of excited expe
l. fancy. The notice was to the effe
}, that Franz Liszt would arrive at Vlenr
= January 10th, and upon the 1lth woul
play In O concert to be given in th
. grand "Music Verein Seal" for som
' benevolent purpose. What that pul
pose was, people cared but little, ,whethe
), worthy or not was of no consequence
the important matter was to hear an
see Liszt-Liszt, the greatest pianis
living, If, indeed, not the greatest tn
world ever produced, and who had no
appeared in Vienna for twenty-fiv
years, and who had not played at all IL
: public for ten years. Prices of ticket
were made very high, three, six, tel
and twenty guilders, but the morning
of the day on which the sale of ticket
began showed that the prices had no
: frightened the people. The few thre
guilder tickets were gone in the twink
ling of an eye, and in couple of hour
the whole number was disposed of, ant
| VloWuS WclC fOi hioiSs Ill
tree tickets were not sold.
The result was house filed with q
select audience from the aristOcratit
and musical world. The happy pos.
SCISSORS of tickets were jubilant and
loud in their enthusiasm. The daily
papers were teeming in sketches and
anecdotes of Liszt, and the one popu.
lar topic of conversation was the great
pianist and approaching concert. There
are in Vienna some opponents of the
"new school" of music, of which List
may be said to be the father, and a
few of these ventured to speak sneer-
ingly of the enthusiasm which his. ap-
preaching advent had awakened; but
many of those who are not personal
friends of the "new school," acknowl-
edge the unapproachable greatness OF
IIiszt as q pianist and the wondrous
magnetism of his person, and not a
few, doubtless, would say, with Men,
delssohn, that "Listz's compositions
stand far below his playing"
Sunday, January 18th, ,dawned bright
ly, and at noon throng Of elegantly
dressed people, OH foot and In carriages,
were directing their course toward the
"Music Verein Seal" There was no
anxious crowd awaiting the opening OF
the doors to rush up the stairs and fill
every available space of standing
room, as on most occasions. All who
came had their tickets and seats, and
there was therefore no disorder, no
crowding, no hurrying. The hall in
which the concert was held is q large
oblong room, surrounded with two gal
leries and one small gallery still higher,
which is called the organ gallery, and
where many of the seats are so arrang-
ed that nothing can be seen. These
We're the seats that sold for three guild
ers. The ceiling is finely frescoed,
the galleries upheld by handsome col
umns and caryatides, and the whole
hall is resplendent in gay colors and
gliding. Upon the occasion there
was an added amount of orna-
mentations. Around the CALLER
les were festoOns of evergreen
looped up with crimson ribbons. The
massive glittering pipes of the organ
were decorated with gigantic laurel
wreath, and within the dark green cir
clet cleaned the initials "F. L.,"
formed of rose-colored, button-like
blossoms. The grand piano was en-
circled with wreaths of rose buds in-
terwoven with myrtle and ivy, and
laurel-wreaths were suspended on all
sides of it. The music desk bloomed
in beauty and the chair upon which
the musical Able was to sit was ell
twined with ivy. The ochestra was in
place. the chorus of men filed the
front part of the large platform; the
ladies and gentlemen of the "Sing
Verein" clustered in the back ground;
the seats of the audience room were
filled, and looking around the familiar
faces of many professional people
could be seen-noted actors and ac-
tresses, musicians, singers and critics.
The aristocracy was well represented.
! Besides the numbers of less important
representatives, there We're present two
archdukes, brothers of the emperor,
and their wives. In the box ben cath
them sat the old blind king of Han
over and his family. The directors
five in number, are the whole force
and strength of Vienna in their pro
fession-H Herbeok, Kremser, Dessoff
Weinwurm and Brahms, the latter o.
whom Is well known rs q pianist anC
composer, and has lately, in company
with Wagner, been created u knigh,
of the "Maximilian order" by the king
of Bavaria.
The concert opened at twelve o'clocl
precisely, with an overture from
Weber's "Aban Hassan" by the orches
ira, directed by Dessoff This orchestr,
, is that of the opera house and thei
. playing is wonderful--precise, delicate
and powerful. Under the direction o
Dessotfthey play as one man and no
where have we heard an orchestr,
. that surpasses this one. But on thi
day, although quietly listened to ant
applauded, their performance was re
ceived much as If it were the ssoul
; which precedes the dinner, and is onl.
intended to whet the appetite and no
to satisfy. 1t is to he tasted and thei
pushed aside to make room for some
thing better. Schumann's Ritornell
for five parts, "The Rose stood in til
Dew," was exquisitely rendered by tn
"Maennerchoir,n but the applause tina
,, followed it was not long continued
Schubert's "Die Allsnacht' followed
;, 1t was sung by the "Maennerchoir,
. accompanied, by the orchestra an
! organ, as arranged by Liszt himself A
!, str0ve to do honor to themselves an
!, Justice to the great musician, whom a
! knew to be within bearing, althoug
out of sight. Whether he fully apprt
ciated tile effort made to honor him @
!, not is questionable, for the great ma
y who has set the world aglow with tn
!, fire of his genius, who had conquere
Z and captivated the whole musica
= world, who had made tours of triumph
!, from oity TO city, astonishing and ell
y chanting everywhere, had now in IN
" sixty-third year been seized with
- "stage fright" He asserted openl
= that during the whole of the previol
= day he had increasingly played exc
= cises and scales, and he seemed to
as nervous and excited as any your
debUtont.
At last the longing eyes of the al
dience were gratified. A tall, grs
haired man, clad i'm the long blac
Abbe's robe, entered and, escorted |
the directors, made his way to u
piano. A storm ofapplause burst fortl
- n H. b .rusl lr.dr