New-York tribune., 1911-11-25
Literary .Nese,s dnc Criticism

him as fascinating, dazzling. eniematic
artist, comedian, abbi. rhapscdist. but
ever the great souled Franz Liszt''-and
in the same breath We add. but not the
great creative genius"
Mr. Huneker Knows II in spite Of him
self, and the form his book has taken is
a half-humOrous. half-pathetic testimony
To that fact, He would like to talk about
the music, and he does so to a consider
back 10 LISTS personality and especially
10 his love affairs. The fifth chapter
devoted To List AS Composer" long
and sympathetic as il IS, nevertheless
has something perfunctory about 1t,
wearing the air of a buslnessllke sum
mary inserted because, as these things
go. it could not very well be spared.
After all. how many readers, really hon
est with themselves, would have missed
II? OF course II supplies some food for
thought. One has heard the "Tasso' or
the Battle of the Huns or what not,
and 1t is amusing To see what Mr.. Hume
ker thinks about them, to have their
merits put in the foreground. But hav-
ing paid ones duty TO the composer one
turns little shamefacedy perhaps, bat
at least with sincerity. to the adventures
of the virtuoso and the lover. to the
traits OF wit and kindness, TO the anec-
dotes that are as diyerting as any in
the history of music Long before Mr..
Huneker has got through with his task
he has cheerfully resigned himself TO the
inevitable. He shows us Liszt Mir
rored by His Contemporaries" i'm a vo-
luminous chapter packed with quota
tions; he rambes from place to place in
the composers footsteps. collecting mis-
cellaneous memories, and then in chap
ter on the masters pupils he gives us
more quotations and winds up with an
essay on modern pianoforte virtuosi.
The biography turns out TO be a pretty
loosely framed affair. But to say this is
not by any means to criticise Mr.. Hume
ker. On the contrary, It is just to char
acterize Liszt. One does not want Il
monumental book about him. One wants
exactly what Mr.. Huneker has prepared
a volume Of gossip, tempered by criti-
cism and the seriousness of writer
who knows the essentials and always
distinguishes between scandal and art.
AS regards the compositions there IS
quoted here an aphorism Of Nietzsche's
which is suggestive: List, first repre-
sentative Of all musicians, but no musi-
8 ha
man. The conglomerate of a hundred
musicians souls, but not enough of a
personality to cast his own shadow upon
them Mr. Hunekers criticism. play
ing about the subject in epigrammati,
Iashlon, has, on the whole, much the
same significance. A few of his sayings
VIII illustrate his general drift.
Looking backward in an impartial man.
ner, H. cannot be said that Liszts compost
% %uoLS nave unduly suffered from the pro-
verbal neglect Of genius. Liszt orches-
trai number, If not imperative, is a matter
OF course at most symphony concerts The
piano music is done 10 death especially
lhe hungarian rEapsodies List has been
ranged the Indebtedness of modern music
10 his pioneer efforts has been duly cred
lted. We know that the Faust and Dante
symphonies (Which might have been called
OF much Of Wagner, but Of the later group
from Saint-SaenS TO Richard StrauS
me true LisZt is beginning to emerge
from the clouds of legend. and Liszt the |
composer VIII be definitely placed. A little |
disappointment will result in both camps: |
the camp Of the ultra List worshippers,
which sets him in line with Beethoven and |
above wagner and the camp of the anti
LiSzuan, which refuses him even the credit
of having bar of original music. How
wagner would have rapI cd the knuckles
of these latter LsZ. preceded Wac-
ner. Otherwise how explain that yawnng
chaSm between "Lohengrin" and Iris !
tam? List, an original stylist and a pro-
founder musical nature than BerliOz, |
had intervened. List was as su-
preme I'm his domain as Wagner in his;
only the German had the more popular
domain List tn path-breaker.
There is the gist Of the matter All
through the book we are stimulated to
brief impulses of grateful appreciation
for music written and things done with
out which the history of the art would
have been lamentably different and all
through the book we remain unvisited
by the feeling that precious memories
have been stirred and that presently. to
be happy we must hear some of Liszt's
music.
Where the man and the anecdotes
about him are concerned we are entirely
content, and, in fact. both charmed and
entertained beyond measure. Mr.. Hume
kor has humor and a light touch For
over a quarter of a century he has been
collecting Lisztiana. and has had in
Vulnerable talks with friends and pupils
Of the composer Sitting the great mass
Of material thus accumulated. he has re-
tained enough of ii to put a personality
or a good story on nearly every page Of
his book What is more with his wonted
skill he has so arranged and fused all
this stuff that he gives us, if not an or
derly and scientifically exhaustive biog-
raphy, at all events a full, vivid portrait
1t is wonderfully animated and ro-
mantle. Whatever he may fail to do in
his music as a character List ever ex-
erts a powerful spell, is ever. as this
kindling Interpreter of him says, fasci-
mating, dazzling, great-souled.
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