Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1890-05-07
LISTS TRIUMPHS.
Musician Who was Almost WOrshiped !
by His Followers.

Musician Who WAS Almost Worshipeo
by His Followers.
From the Philadelphia Times.
The worlds verdict concerning Franz
List has already been given. He was
the most prominent figure in an age OF
marked progress and culture. In any
case, Max Nordau's declaration that
List was psychologicallJ an uninterest-
ing and insignificant character, is unjust
and false. In his Selected Letters
from Paris" recently published IN
Leipsic, n 0rdau has an essay on 'Franz
List and the Ladies of His Little Court,
in which he speaks Of him and them IN
most cOntemptuOus terms.
One who knew the great master
deems it but simple justice to say that
he was man richly endowed intellectu-
ally, with keen wit and a mental hOrl-
ION which stretched TAR beyond his
musical gifts and interests. 1t was not
his fault that affection for his person as
sumed the form of an enthusiastic and
extravagant hero worship. He suffered
the worshipeTs and forbade them not,
and most other mortals would have
done the same.
Nordau is right, however, when he
says that this worship Of master OF the
pianoforte belongs to the past, and that
it would be impossible for an artist to
create such enthusiasm at the present
time.
The picture of LISTS early triumphs
is given by Nordau with biting sarcasm.
He tells of those who We'd with one an
other to do him honor before the revo-
luton of 1S4S; of the kings and rulers
who covered him with orders and
badges; of the women who fought for
the gloves which he threw carelessly
under his beloved instrument; of the
writer's who honored him; of the wor-
shippers who stood entranced before q
plaster cast of that wonderful sound
producing hand displayed in a Paris
shop window as though 1t were sacred
relic on the high altar.
He comments on LISTS countrymen
of Hungary, how they dist nguished him
as they would victorious general re-
turning with the sword of honor in his
hand. Vorosmarty, whom the Magyars
considered their greatest poet, ad-
dressed an ode to him, In which the ia
nous musician was represented as de-
voting, with tragic earnestness, all his
Titanic strength to his country service,
to give it once more freedom and inde-
pendence.
Opposite this glittering picture of
List in the DAYS OF his youth, his critic
draws a sketch Of the impressions which
the old master made in later years, in
April, 1868, for instance, when he led
his "Graner Mass in the Church of
Saint Eustache in Paris. ''The specta-
Gle was not what / had promised myself
it would be-" says Nordau. $50 be
sure List, and all the distinguished
ladies who formed his little court, were
there. 1t was the publicans alone, who
filled the body of the church, who felt
much to be desired, and who destroyed
the unity of the picture. List. both In
repose and motion, was a picture at
which to gaze in his fantastic costume,
which was combination OF priestly
garb with the splendor OF Persian
shah in jewel studded coat-of-mail.
and the legs and feet dressed like those
of dancing master.
1.-THE six and twenty jeweled orders
and crosses which covered the breast of
his cassock glittered and sparkled as
they caught the SUMS rays through the
richly -colored windows. AS List en-
tered the church the musicians received
him with trumpet sound and organ
peal. crowd of gorgeously- alfred la
dies of rank, none lower than a count
ess, crowded around him to kiss the
hands which he extended so gra-
cipus1v -