Liszt and the Mozart Connection

Author(s): William Wright

Source: Studia Musicologica, Vol. 48, No. 3/4 (Sep., 2007), pp. 299-318
Published by: Akadmiai Kiad
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Liszt and theMozart

Connection*

William Wright
24 Ayr Road, Giffnock

Glasgow G46 6 RY, Scotland

E-mail: williamgcwright@hotmail.com

(Recieved: February2007; accepted:May 2007)

Abstract:

life and works

The

as pianist,

development
in scholarly
attention

of Mozart

composer,
studies.

and

Liszt

are central
conductor.

readily

to a due

understanding
this fact receives

Yet,

acknowledged

that he

'owed

of Liszt's
inadequate
the greater

part ofwhat he was as a musician toMozart' and found identityand goal as he sought,
as

pianist

Mozart,

and
he was

of expression.'

composer,
a 'pioneer

to emulate

the endeavors

of

master.

the Viennese

Like

who
of progress'
refused
'to be bound by accepted
modes
to
utmost
Like Mozart,
limits.'
he
'he pushed
Like
Mozart,
virtuosity

was seen bymany as an iconic figure ofGerman nationalism. In later life,Liszt took
comfort

from

the fact

that Mozart,

his

illustrious

was

not

spared bitter
in order
every great genius,'
'pain
suffering'
areas of musical
their task. In so many
Liszt
activity and experience,
master.
to
mirrored
his great Viennese
Liszt's
devoted
life, he remained
Throughout
an
the scrupulous
of
and
execution
Mozart's
and
music
study
played
important part in
experiences.
to accomplish

'As with

both

role-model,

endured

and

a better
via podium
of both man and music
and press before,
promoting
understanding
in January
Celebrations
in Vienna
1856.
Centenary
during, and after the Mozart

Keywords: Liszt, Modulation du Requiem de Mozart

the significance of Beethoven's music for Liszt's development as pianist,

composer, and conductor, continues to be widely recognized,1 considerably less

While

*
A preliminary version of this essay was presented at theGreat Romantics Festival inHamilton, Ontario,
on 6 October 2006.
1. See for example Axel Schroter, "Der Name Beethoven ist heilig in der Kunst": Studien zu Liszts Beetho
=
im 19. Jahrhundert. Studien und Quellen 6 (Sinzig: Stu
ven-Rezeption, 2 Bde. Musik undMusikanschauung

dio, 1999). For furtherpublications relating to theBeethoven /Liszt connection see Michael
A Guide to Research Second Edition (New York-London:
Routledge, 2004), 298-299.

Saffle, Franz Liszt:

StudiaMusicologica 48/3-4, 2007, pp. 299-318

DOI: 10.1556/SMus.48.2007.3-4.3
1788-6244/$ 20.00 ? 2007 Akademiai Kiado, Budapest

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300 William Wright

attention is given in scholarly studies to the signal effect the life and works of
had on similar Lisztian activities.2 Although Liszt owed the greater part
to theViennese master.3 The present article seeks
of what he was as a musician
to redress the balance a little. Included in this study will be an assessment of the

Mozart

and
significant part Liszt played in promoting a better understanding ofMozart
his music, via podium and press, before, during, and after theMozart Centenary
in January 1856,4 and when advocating, by correspond
inVienna
Celebrations
ence, the publication of a complete edition of the composer's works.5
But first, consider the profound effect the life and works ofMozart

had on the

as pianist.
early development
in the spring of 1822 to commence his musical
When Liszt arrived inVienna
studies with Carl Czerny and Antonio Salieri,6 he had, already, uncommon know
ledge ofMozart's keyboard works, taught to him by his father,Adam. Many key
of Liszt

of Bach, early Beethoven, Clementi, Hummel,

and Cramer, were
in his head and fingers.7
There can be little doubt that during Liszt's fourteen-month stay in the city,
while under Czerny and Salieri's tutelage or at Viennese
society gatherings, he
board works
also

and extended his understanding ofMozart and his music.8 All,

he rapidly grew in stature as an important musical
figure following rave
two
Itwas
and
public engagements.
reports of prestigious private performances
on
1December
1822 at the capital's Univer
the latter events, Liszt's public debut
further deepened

while

sityHall,

and his engagement

at theVienna Redoutensaal

on 13April

1823, par

2. Past studies, relative to the Liszt/Mozart connection, while majoring on Liszt's Reminiscenses de Don
60/1 45), fail to
1912 adaptation of theMozart/Liszt Weimar material (D-WRgs
Juan or Ferruccio Busoni's
stress the relevance and importance of the life and works of Mozart for Liszt's identity and development. See
Saffle, Franz Liszt: A Guide toResearch, 96, 300 and 474-475.
3. 'What musician does not wholeheartedly endorse the triumph of this genius towhom we owe the greater
thismaster who was gifted above all others with the greatest abundance, the
part of what we are as musicians
most astonishing richness, themost wonderful flexibility, themost marvelous blend of very diverse, often mutu
ally exclusive qualities, with the loveliest harmony of nobility and grace, of invention and combination, of pas
sion and control, of majesty and tenderness?' An excerpt from part one of Liszt's two-part article: "Bei
Gelegenheit der hundertjahrigen Mozart-Feier," Blatter fur Musik, Theater und Kunst (18. Januar 1856), 21.
on 27 and 28 January 1856.
4. The Centenary Celebrations took place at theVienna Redoutensaal
5. See Liszt letter,dated 9 February 1856, to his cousin, Eduard, in Liszts Briefe, hrsg. von La Mara, Bd.
1 (Leipzig: Breitkopf and Hartel, 1893), 216.
6. Adam Liszt put into effect his bold plan; he gained a year's leave of absence from Prince Nicholas
Esterhazy and early inMay 1822 Adam set out with his son on the journey toVienna. Klara Hamburger, Liszt

(Budapest: Corvina, 1980), 12.

7. 'The fact thatwithin twenty-two months he [Liszt] has easily overcome any difficulty in theworks of
Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Clementi, Hummel, Cramer, etc., and can play the hardest piano pieces at sight, in
strict tempo, correctly and without any mistakes, represents inmy opinion giant progress.' Letter fromAdam
Liszt to Prince Nicholas Esterhazy, dated 13April 1820. See Stephan [Istvan] von Csekey, "Franz Liszts Vater:
Nach bisher unverdffentlichten Dokumenten dargestellt," Die Musik 29/9 (Juni 1937), 631-635. See also Alan
Faber & Faber, 1989), 66.
Walker, Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years 1811-1847
(London-Boston:
8. Liszt probably listened toMozart's compositions, conducted by Hieronymus Payer at the Theater an der
Wien, in 1822 or '23, or at the Paris Opera in late 1831 or early '32. See notes 35, 37, and 39.
StudiaMusicologica

48, 2007

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Liszt and theMozart Connection

301

ticularly the latter, that convinced his father,Adam, an important decision had to
be made concerning his son's future career.9
Alan Walker records in volume one of his tripartite Franz Liszt biography:
After Liszt's appearance in theRedoutensaal Adam could look back on their
stay in Vienna
been achieved.

with
His

considerable

satisfaction.

son was

the center

now

Every one of his objections

in the capital. He
of attention

had
had

played before themost critical audiences and had brought honor to his family,
in artistic stature and
teachers, and his country... Above
all, he had grown
now let his ambition
stood on the threshold of a shining career. Adam
grow. He
to take Franzi on a European
and
had long nurtured a dream
tour, with France
his

perhaps England as theirultimate destination.What could be done in theRe

could

doutensaal

be done

Stuttgart, Augsburg

now

He

elsewhere...

looked

westwards

toMunich,

and Paris...10

In planning Liszt's firstworld tour,Adam had very few precedents to guide

him. Uppermost in his mind was thephenomenal success of theMozart chil
and Nannerl,

dren, Wolfgang

who,

sixty years

earlier,

had

taken on

been

tour

by theirfatherand had set Europe by the ears. The fact thatAdam followed a
similar

route

us. People

were

should not surprise

Stuttgart
Augsburg,
Strasbourg,
to compare
the young Liszt with Mozart
and itwas
beginning

Munich,

typical ofAdam to symbolize thatfactpublicly.11

It is important to emphasise that Liszt's creative abilities as executant-virtuoso

were being compared with Mozart's
similar gifts. Both refused to be bound by
the limitations of accepted modes
of expression as they pushed virtuosity to
utmost limits. The following excerpt from Liszt's 1856 article, 'Bei Gelegenheit
der hundertjahrigen Mozart-Feier'
of theMozart Centenary
(On the Occasion
in Leopold
sheds more

that appeared
Celebration),
Musik, Theater, und Kunst,12
[Mozart's]

versatile

genius

Zellner's Vienna
journal, Blatter fur
light on thematter:

every

spanned

of music,

aspect

not excluding

the

virtuositywhich he raised to the utmost limits in relation to the techniques of

an achievement
his day
is
celebrated,
because,
ory
tuosity, it is nonetheless
over his
contemporaries

that must
even

the source
and

over when his mem

silently passed
can no longer directly
his vir
appreciate
of part of the power
that Mozart
exercised

not be

ifwe
over

his

successors.

For

Beethoven,

Weber,

9. From the Summer of 1823 increasing interest in the extraordinary abilities of young Liszt began to
command the attention of themusically informed in London. See The Quarterly Musical Magazine
and Review
5 (1823), 416, and The Harmonicon
(1823), 88.
10.Walker, Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years, 85-86.
11.Walker, Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years, 89.
12. Leopold Alexander Zellner( 1823-1894), editor of Blatter fur Musik, Theater und Kunst from 1859 to
1866. Secretary of the Gesellschaft
servatory.

der Musikfreunde

in Vienna

from 1868 and Professor

at Vienna

StudiaMusicologica

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Con

48, 2007

302 William Wright

Mendelssohn,
Meyerbeer,
Bach
and Handel.13

Spohr,

etc.,

it served

as a kind

of model

Clearly, Liszt was well aware of the huge influence Mozart

his own development as traveling keyboardist.
Nowhere was thisMozartian
influence more wonderfully

he found

in

had exercised

over

demonstrated

than

on what already existed yet seeking to ad

when Liszt, 'building, [like Mozart]
vance into regions as yet unexplored,'14 performed a free fantasia on the aria,
'Non piu andrai' from the composer's opera, Le Nozze di Figaro, at the Italian
Theatre

in Paris on 7March
when

1824,15 or again on 27 August that year atWindsor

1 of
improvised on the minuet from Finale Act
Giovanni:16 events that bestowed on Liszt themantle of
he

Castle, England,
Mozart's Opera, II Don
international recognition as performing artist of genius and introduced him to the
most desirable clientele, the highest echelon of society in European
cities.17
Wonderful demonstrations of digital dexterity foreshadowing his advance
into
further realms of transcendental pianism in Paris in 1832, when he was engaged
in lengthy and frenetic practice sessions and an equally intense scrutiny of works
of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Hummel, and Weber, all bearing unmistakable fam
ily likeness, all, in part, vehicles

of virtuosity.18

13. Liszt, "Bei Gelegenheit der hundertjahrigen Mozart-Feier," Blatter fiir Musik, Theater und Kunst (18.
Januar 1856), 21. The second part of the article appeared three days later. Zellner almost certainly 'came [to
Liszt ]with the proofs of the article' on 17 January 1856. In a letter to Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein,
written two days later,Liszt comments: T thought itbetter not to put him off any longer.You will have seen that
he [Zellner] has split it into 2 issues, which suited him better. Since no essential harm was done to it, Imade
no categorical objections. Besides, I am quite pleased with Zellner...' Liszt made no mention of the proofs in
his note to Carolyne, dated 16 January 1856. Liszts Briefe, hrsg. von La Mara (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel,
1900), Bd. 4, 300.
14. '...andere Gebiete als die schon sattsam ausgebeuteten betreten,' "Bei der hundertjahrigen Mozart-Feier,"
[Part II] (21. Januar 1856), 26.
15. Two themes fromMozart's Opera, Le Nozze di Figaro, 'Non piu andrai' and 'Voi che sapete,' included
60/1 45), also feature in
and freely arranged by Liszt in his fifty-page untitled Weimar autograph (D-WRgs
Ferruccio Busoni's 1912 adaptation of the same Weimar Liszt keyboard material, Busoni's Franz Liszt Fantasie

iiber zwei Motive aus W.A. Mozart's Die Hochzeit des Figaro.
16. Sixteen measures of paraphrased material from thisDonna Anna /Don Ottavio minuet, that Liszt in
1912 adaptation.
corporated into the above Weimar manuscript, fail to appear inBusoni's
17. In the following letter to young Liszt, dated 2 July 1824, the celebrated English tenor, John Braham,
'My dear Master Liszt, /Many
recognizes in him one who would continue to find identity and goal inMozart:
thanks for your exertions. /The talent you displayed on the evening of my Benefit [at Drury Lane Theatre on
29 June '24] can never be forgotten by the British Public. The delight theymanifested was a tribute paid to your
wonderful genius, as ardent as itwas just. May you proceed in your career as prosperously as you have com
- and that
menced,
you will emulate the glory of Mozart and master-spirit of music is not doubted by /Yours
Record (1 April
much obliged, / John Braham.' Francesco Berger, "Retrospects (IV)," The Monthly Musical
1930), 107.
18. Briefe, Bd. 1, 6-8. A question remains. Liszt played his improvisations on Mozart's
compositions in
the 1820's, and during the 1830's and 1840's gave public performances of his own piano transcriptions of some
of theViennese master's works. Yet, why did Mozart concertos, sonatas, or his other keyboard works, fail to
feature on Liszt concert programs? Charles Rosen gives an excellent reply: '...almost all of the solo keyboard
repertoire for two hands without pedal keyboard [written] before 1800 was never intended for public per
formance, certainly not for an audience of more than a dozen or two...' Rosen, Piano Notes: The Hidden
StudiaMusicologica

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Liszt and theMozart Connection

303

is central to a due understanding of Liszt's early composition

Requiem
al development, particularly as one considers Lisztian sketchbook material, rela
tive to motif and chromatic material from theMozart Dies Irae sequence that

Mozart's

et reli
into his 1833 / '34 masterpiece, Harmonies poetiques
one
des
and
its
later
Pensee
Morts
When
revision,
(S. 173/4).19
gieuses (S. 154),
recalls that Liszt was in Paris during the city's cholera epidemic in the spring of
1832 and witnessed the seemingly endless procession of vehicles bearing dead to
Liszt

incorporated

Notre Dame,
it is little wonder that the experience
musical expression. Walker records in Liszt 1:
Liszt's

provoked

was
the dead,
the dying, and the damned
a musical
a
There
is
whole
branch
response.

with

obsession

and often provoked

in him profound

real enough
of his music

dealing with death and symbolized by such titlesas Totentanz (S. 126),Fune
railles (S. 173/7),La Lugubre Gondola (S. 134), and Pensee desMorts.20
The following excerpt from theMemoires
account of similar Lisztian expression:

of Countess

Dash

contains a vivid

In thebuilding above me, lived one of thekings of celebrity,Litz [sic]. He was

no longer called littleLitz but he was stillvery young ... Imet him often and
see before me his long pale thin face, full of originality,and thatwas con

He came down the stairs as upright as a ghost and very

very handsome.
... Liszt was
most disturbing
the
He never played
noisily
neighbor
possible...
either a piece or an improvisation.
He gave a few lessons to favored people,
and
sidered

a double
for hours on end he played
with both hands on the
cadence
himself,
... One
same note!
was
it
the
of the Dies
Irae and he never
night,
beginning
to drive one mad,
so the whole
left it. It was enough
I assure you. And
build

ing joined togetherto ask forhis eviction.We would have got it,but he did not
put us to that trouble;he left instead.21

World of thePianist (London: Penguin Books, 2002), 179. Nevertheless,

it is important to note thatwhenever
Liszt gave public performances of Hummel's works, he was embracing theMozartian
style of playing that
Hummel had 'brought to such exquisite perfection.' See Reginald R. Gerig, Famous Pianists and Their
Technique (Bridgeport CT: Robert B. Luce, 1874), 116.
19. See Liszt's so-called 'Lichnowsky' sketchbook (D-WRgs 60/N 8) and pages 60-65 and notes 27-30
of present article. Liszt's letter,dated 30 October 1833, toMarie d'Agoult, confirms that this
'petite harmonie
Lamartienne sans ton ni mesure,' that is, the first version of Liszt's Harmonies Poetiques et
set to
Religeuses
a poem byAlphonse de Lamartine, was in draft-form at that date. See Franz Liszt Marie d
'Agoult: Correspon
dance, ed. Serge Gut and Jacqueline Bellas (Paris: Fayard, 2001), 93-94. While
it is not known when Liszt
had first sight of Mozart's Requiem,
itmay well have been months or even years before 1833. Liszt heard
at theAcademie
on 12April 1824. See Geraldine Keeling,
de Musique
'Fragmens du Requiem de Mozart'
"Liszt's Appearances
in Parisian Concerts,
1824-1844 Part 1: 1824-1833,"
The Liszt Society Journal
11
(1986), 23-24.
20. Walker, The Virtuoso Years, 151.
21. Comtesse Dash, Memoires des autres (Paris: Calmann
Levy, 1898), vol. 4, 149. Comtesse Dash, the
pseudonym of Ga brie lie Anne de Cisternes de Courtires, viscomtesse de Saint-Marc, French writer (1804
1872).

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48, 2007

304 William Wright

Was Liszt performing a keyboard arrangement of Mozart Dies Irae material
on this occasion? The following facts, considered collectively, tend to suggest
this to be so:
1.On 24 January 1832 Liszt told favored pupil, Valerie Boissier, that he judged
to be the foremost of composers, and performed for her some of the com

Mozart
poser's

works.22

the same year, Liszt

informed Pierre Wolff, another of his pupils:

Bach, Hummel, Mozart, Weber, are all around me. I study
them, meditate on them, devour them with fury...'23
3. Sometime during late 1833 Liszt incorporated Mozartian Dies Irae mater
2. On 2 May

'works of Beethoven,

et religieuses. More of this later.

ial into his piano piece, Harmonies
poetiques
Saffle records in 'Liszt and the Traditions of the Keyboard Fantasy,' an
Michael
that even before 1833 Liszt was
insightful essay featured inLiszt theProgressive,
in
his
devices
and
melodic
harmonic
keyboard works closely linked
employing
to those used by Mozart and Beethoven.24
4. In September 1836, Liszt, still preoccupied with Mozart's Dies Irae sequence,
on the Saint Nicholas
improvised on motivic material from the latter sequence
Cathedral organ in Fribourg, Switzerland: variations on Quantus tremor estfutu
rus. George

Sand,

shortly after witnessing

the event, wrote:

itwas onlywhen Franz ran his hands freelyover the keyboard and gave us a
fragmentfrom theDies Irae byMozart, thatwe understood the superiorityof
Floren
that we knew of this type. Franz's
organ over everything
a darker
itself so purely and palely
had never delineated
against
sorrows. There was an harmonic
terrors and religious
of mystical
group

the Fribourg
tine profile
cloud

thatrepeated itselfcontinually under his fingers,each note ofwhich translated

inmy imaginationby theharshwords of the funeralhymn:Quantus tremorest
futurus

judex

Quando

est venturus...25

in the figure that repeats it

is certainly a strong feeling of lateMozart
et religi
Harmonies
1833
Liszt's
in
self continually
poetiques
masterpiece,
There

euses.26

a Mademoiselle
Valerie
22. Caroline
[Madame Auguste] Boissier, Lecons de piano donnees par Liszt
a Paris en 1832 (Geneva: Slatkine, 1976), 132, i.e. from a reprint of the 1923 Paris edition.
23. Liszt, Briefe, Bd. 1,6.
24. Saffle writes: 'Between 1822 and 1828 Liszt employed in his earliest compositions an harmonic gram
mar, a melodic syntax, and a set of formal paradigms closely related to those employed by Mozart and Beet
hoven.' Michael Saffle, "Liszt and the Traditions of theKeyboard Fantasy," in Liszt The Progressive, ed. Hans
Boissier

Mellon Press, 2001), 152.

Lagerfelt (Lampeter-Ceredigion-Wales:
Kagebeck-Johan
25. Letter from Fribourg, dated 5 September 1836, written by George Sand toCharles Didier. George Sand,
"Lettres d'un voyageur. No. 10 a Herbert (Charles Didier)," La Revue des Deux Mondes
(November 1836, re
188.
edited / republished, Paris: Gamier
Flammarion),
26. Hereafter Harmonies.
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Liszt and theMozart Connection

305

in The Music ofFranz Liszt that a strong feel

in this 'extremely remarkable' Liszt work.27
links can be identified: for example,
Nevertheless,
equally apparent Mozartian
between the three-note ascending and descending figure found in the opening
Humphrey Searle acknowledges
is evident
ing of late Beethoven

bars of Confutatis Maledictis

from theDies Irae sequence inMozart's Requiem
and a similar recurrent patterned figure in the opening measure
of the Liszt

piece.
Michael

in The Liszt Companion

that 'virtually every meas
is derived from a consecutive-three-note
ascending and des
of the left
cending figure, first heard several times in the opening measures
hand.'28 Liszt almost certainly adapted this three-note figure from music played
Saffle comments

ure of Harmonies

by the lower strings in the opening bars ofMozart's Confutatis Maledictis.

1 of Confutatis with Ex. 2, the
the circled notes in Ex. 1,measure
Compare
1 and 2 ofHarmonies.
circled notes of measures
Note the similarity of patterned
movement.

Example

1Mozart,

Requiem,

'Confutatis

maledictis,'

m.

AndanteJ= 76

Con

Con
Andante

= 76

- fij - ta

tis

tis

- fa

1
J.Trb

) Con
f

(^j?*444

fu - ta

<flUiji'j (j?^ jTfl4k,<jTp

27. Humphrey Searle, The Music of Liszt (New York: Dover Publications,
1954), 11-12.
28. Michael
Saffle, "The Early Works," in The Liszt Companion, ed. Ben Arnold (Westport CT-London:
Greenwood Press, 2002), 66-67.
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48, 2007

306 WilliamWright
Example 2 Liszt, Harmonies poetiques et religieuses (1835), mm. 1-2
Senza tempo
cxtrtrocment
lentj***"

(14
1 %/
/

rr*** Pfl

\\ hj rt

svecunprofbnd
(feimutconduolo
sentiment
pesantelanguendo(tres accentuc)

*ltf

=?

fj ^

-= dim

Jd

in Liszt's own hand, a two-bar

only so. Extant documentary evidence
du Requiem de Mozart,
featured in the Liszt 'Lich
fragment, titledModulation
Not

nowsky' Sketchbook, a pocket-sized document used by Liszt during years 1842

60/N
to 1845, now held in theGoethe and Schiller archives inWeimar
(D-WRgs
Mozart
material
the
from
that
Liszt
confirms
other
Confutatis
8),
incorporated

movement

from the composer's

(see Plate 1).
masterpiece

Dies

Irae

sequence

when writing

the 1833/34

Plate 1 Facsimile of the sketchbook entry (EMVRgs 60/N 8, p. 34;

Weimar). Reproduced with kind permission of
photo: Klassik Stiftung
Weimar
theGoethe- und Schiller-Archiv,

Compare Ex. 3, measure 26-27 ofMozart's Confutatis

Liszt's sketchbook material, with Ex. 2, bar 2.
StudiaMusicologica

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1,

Liszt and theMozart Connection

307

Example 3Mozart, Requiem, 'Confutatismaledictis,' m. 26

'\

if

$'
-

O-

?
!?

i Mi
1-nrA

_
%

_h
?%

* -

'

_h
a:

ii1

ro

sup

rosup

fr

ro

n i

sup

sup-

_h

W-

_
ly

|__h
__g

"W

plex

plex

i'i

-ro

_
%

'

'

plex

plex

_
%

_h
___3

-J

_
f

_-___=

^^

Example 4Modulation du Requiem deMozart

Prelude

l|:rij
Notice

^^

ict

that all three excerpts are based

on notes of the same diminished

sev

enthchord:E|>, F#,A and C inEx. 3 and 4, F#,A, C andE|> inEx. 2, thepiano

piece by Liszt.29

29.

'Mozart was

tate rapid modulation.

fond of that essentially chromatic harmony, the diminished

Liszt made frequent use of the chord throughoutHarmonies

Frederick Niecks, "The Development

The Musical Times (1903), 95.

of Musical

Styles from Mozart

seventh' and used it to facili

to suspend tonality. See also

to the End of theNineteenth Century,"

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48, 2007

308 William Wright

Third, observe the repeated Ek-s that appear in the three examples, as har
monic bass in Ex. 3 and 4, and as right hand recitative in Liszt excerpt 2.
A further important point: notice the use Liszt makes of the harmonic turn or
'cry motiv' of Ex. 5, that is, the bracketed turn at the end of bass entry 'quantus
tremor est futurus' from Mozart's
Dies
Irae movement
represented in Liszt
excerpts 2, 4, and 6. Indeed the entire bass entry of Ex. 5 appears to be adapted
in Ex. 6.
5 Mozart,

Example

Requiem,

'Confutatis

Tr

if

mm.

maledictis,'

44-46

i
i

^^^
W

'?

\
i

ii
quan

In

tus

?^
i[i 11 ir il

i J IJ IJ 111 I

ii 111
be

Il,J

mor_

est_

fu

tu - rus,

Example 6 Liszt, Harmonies poetiques et religieuses (1835), mm. 50-52

/HP
\\V

msV
Y

StudiaMusicologica

<

adagio

k #h h

t&k

semphceespr.
-- -

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Liszt and theMozart Connection

309

states in her essay, 'Liszt's Marie,

Hungarian scholar, Adrienne Kaczmarczyk
Poeme (A Planned Piano Cycle),' a 1997 American Liszt Society publication, that
the two bars at the top of the page in the cited Lichnowsky sketchbook, 'inscribed
on the other, ... are
du Requiem de Mozart
Prelude on one side and Modulation
identical with the cry motif of the 1835 piano piece Harmonies
(i.e., the future
Pensee des Morts and De Profundis
Psaume
instrumental [S. 691] of 1834-35).
Liszt quoted the harmonic turn in question from the Dies
Irae movement
of
Requiem which agrees with the harmonic progression of thewords
supplex" of the section Confutatis (bars 26-27).'30
While Kaczmarczyk
gives no precise information relative to her Dies

Mozart's

"oro
Irae

source, the bracketed notes in Ex. 5 suggest her point of reference.

When one recalls that Liszt began to write Pensee des Morts, a revised and
enlarged version of Harmonies,
after jotting down theModulation

during or sometime after 1846, that is shortly

du Requiem de Mozart measures
in his 'Lich

the notebook
sketchbook, it becomes apparent that Liszt considered
to
to
be
seminal
his
the
revision
of
fragment
early keyboard piece. Clearly, Liszt
of Harmonies
adopted this 'cry' motif when composing the opening measures
where it features as repeated treble clef recitative. The same motif is transferred
nowsky'

to the bass clef in the 'Lichnowsky'

As

sketchbook.31

one considers

the profound influence themusic of Mozart, particularly the

Die
opera,
composer's
Zauberflote, had on Liszt's early development as a con
ductor of German opera, it is important to remember thatwhen Liszt conducted
this two-act opera inBreslau, on 1 February 1843, itwas the first and only time
he directed an entire opera between 11 January 1840, the occasion of his con
ducting debut, and his move

toWeimar

in 1848.32 Liszt

conducted

the Overture

30. Adrienne Kaczmarczyk,

"Liszt: Marie Poeme (A Planned Cycle)," The Journal of theAmerican Liszt
Society 41 (1997), 91 and 93.
31. In light of Kaczmarczyk
and the present author's findings, Anna Celenza's
suggestion that the 'second
theme' from Liszt's Totentanz (S. 126) is based on the opening vocal line ofMozart's Requiem takes on added
significance. See Anna Celenza, "Death Transfigured: theOrigins and Evolution of Franz Liszt's Totentanz,"
Selected Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference, ed. Jim Samson and
Nineteenth-Century Music:
Bennet Zon (Aldershot; Burlington Vt: Ashgate, 2002), 147-148, and 154. Liszt modeled several of his major
compositions on works ofMozart and Beethoven. Walker writes: 'we should instead take as our models [when
considering Liszt's Sonata in B minor] the sonatas of Beethoven, Mozart, and Schubert. By calling his work
"sonata" Liszt was inviting comparison not with himself but with them.' See Walker, "Liszt's Sonata in B
Minor," Reflections on Liszt (New York: Cornell University Press, 2005), 138, n.17.
32. Liszt acknowledged his ongoing identification with Mozart
inApril 1843. Under the pseudonym, J.
to whom he [Liszt] was pre
Duverger, Marie d'Agoult and Liszt wrote: 'The famous phrenologist Deville,
sented as an ungifted child [in 1824 inLondon]...
cried out: "Why do they not make him a musician? You will
see that he will be a second Mozart"!'
"Notice biographique et litteraire sur Franz Liszt," Le Biographe uni
versel, Revue generate biographique et litteraire (Paris: Pascallet, 3e annee, avril 1843); Amyot, juin 1843. See
also Pierre-Antoine Hure et Claude Knepper, Liszt en son temps (Paris: Hachette,
1987), 99, no. 9 and 111,
n.23. Clearly, Liszt sanctioned the inclusion of theDeville claim in the 1843 article. It does not appear in
Joseph
d'Ortigue, "Frantz Listz [sic]," Gazette musicale de Paris 2/24 (14 juin 1835), 197-204.

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48, 2007

310 William Wright

toDie Zauberflote at his 1840 debut.33 The facts speak for themselves. The in
valuable experience Liszt gained inBreslau in 1843 equipped him in some meas
ure to direct opera productions inWeimar five years later.34
But where, when, or from whom might Liszt have gained the necessary

in 1843? Probably from two German opera con

and
Louis Spohr.36
ductors, Hieronymus Payer35
Liszt had known Payer from teenage years. They made contact for the first
expertise

to conduct

the work

time in 1823 inVienna when Payer, baton conductor at the Theater an der Wien,
and established organist and composer in the capital, collaborated with Liszt in
of a few Waltz arrangements.37 He continued towork with Liszt
to Paris at the close of 1825, and particularly during the years
to
1828
1831, when they gave public performances, with a few others, of Payer's

the compilation
after he moved

arrangements of the same opera overture.38 Given this formative rela

endeavors shortly before Payer's
in
the life of Liszt and theirMozartian
tionship
advance to the podium of German opera in Paris in 1831, it is not difficult to

keyboard

understand why Liszt, like the latter, exhibited particular interest as composer
and conductor in themusic ofDie Zauberflote, a fusion of old and 'new elements'
of Liszt's own keyboard ar
in opera.39 Unfortunately, the present whereabouts
rangement of theMozart

opera overture is unknown.40

33. 'On January 11 Liszt began his conductor's career with Mozart's overture to The Magic Flute...' Dezso
inAnalecta Lisztiana 1: Liszt and His World, ed. Michael Saffle (New
Legany, "Liszt inHungary, 1820-1846,"
York: Pendragon Press, 1997), 9. See also Walker, The Weimar Years, 285.
34. Liszt directed thirteenMozart Opera performances while inWeimar. Performances ofDie Zauberfldte
were given on 6 January and 9 May
1851, 29 March
1849, 22 April, 21 June, 26 October and 29 December
1856. Liszt conducted Le Nozze
1853, 7 January, 23 September, 11 October 1854, 3 February and 7 December
di Figaro on 11October 1857. See
35. Hieronymus Jerome Payer
teacher in Paris (from 1825-1830)
returned to Vienna the following

Walker, The Weimar Years, 285-292.

and music
(1787-1845) was conductor at Theater an der Wien (1822-1824)
before accepting the role of Director of German Opera there in 1831. He
at Theater an der Josephstadt. See
year and became Director of Music
universelle des musicians et bibliographic generale de la musique, Tome 6

Francois-Joseph Fetis, Biographie

(Paris: Firmin-Didot Freres et Cie., 1864), 472.
36. Louis Spohr (1784-1859).
'Spohr's lifetime covered thewhole of the period which saw the beginning
and the first development of orchestral conducting; itbridged thewide gap between themethods ofMozart and
ofWagner, between the old type of Kapellmeister who sat at the piano and themodern conductor who ruled
with the baton.'Adam Carse, The Orchestra from Beethoven toBerlioz (Cambridge: Heffer, 1948), 341.
furVioline und Pianoforte von
37. On 26 August
1825, theWiener Zeitung noticed 'Sieben Walzer
Artaria of Vienna. Included
List
Matthias
und
Pamer,
by
[sic]'
published
H[ieronymus]
F[ranz]
Payer
M[ichael]
and for guitar and piano. See
in the compilation were Liszt's Zwei Walzer for violin and piano (LW DI),
Verzeichnis der Musikalten
Alexander Weinmann, "Beitrage zur Geschichte des Alt-Wiener Musikverlages,"

11/14 (Vienna: Universal, 1970), 46.

des Verlages Maisch-Sprenger-Artaria
inParisian Concerts, 1824-1844 Part 1: 1824-1833," 25,26 and 29.
38. See Keeling, "Liszt's Appearances
39. See "Scribe's und Meyerbeer's Robert der Teufel," Franz Liszt: Sdmtliche Schriften, Bd. 5: Dramaturgi
sche Blatter, hrsg. von Detlef Altenburg (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1989), 32. During the early spring of
1832 while Liszt cultivated, honed, and developed his art on a daily basis in a thousand different ways, he
observed and interactedwith eminent musicians and notable literary figures at numerous venues. He almost cer
a
tainly did so at Parisian theatres. Liszt may well have found time to observe fellow executant Payer conduct
Mozart Opera in Paris in late 1831 or early '32. See Caroline Barbey-Boissier, La Comtesse Agenor de Gasparin
et Souvenirs 1813-1894, vol. 1 (Paris: Plon-Nourrit et Cie., 1902), 199.
et safamille: Correspondance
40. Liszt's Ouvertiire zur Zauberfldte for piano is cited inProgramme general des morceaux executes par
59/Z 141, 1), and
E Liszt a ses concerts de 1838-1848
(D-WRgs 59/Z 15), Verzeichnis der Fiirstin (D-WRgs
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Liszt and theMozart Connection

311

that Liszt spent close on a week inNovember

1841
in the company of Spohr, the eminent Mozart conductor, just two days
after Liszt informed Adelaide Kemble, his 'symbiotic' associate, that he had for
mally accepted the conductorship of German Opera in London for the following
season.41 Clearly, as Liszt sought to embark on this comparatively new avenue of
It cannot be coincidental

inKassel

endeavor for him, he sought and acquired many valuable

discipline from an expert in the field.

musical

insights into the

Doubtless, Liszt gleaned insights into choral direction and valuable source ma
terial while sojourning in Frankfurt with composer, male-voice
choral conductor,
autograph collector, Wilhelm Speyer. Speyer, a lifelong Masonic friend of Spohr,
had recently founded the FrankfurtMozart Foundation, and itwas for this founda
tion thatLiszt premiered his Reminiscenses de Don Juan (S. 418) on 21 September
'41 and for this noble and charitable cause he donated the concert proceeds.42
The following correspondence between Liszt and Speyer - four letters dated

10 September '41,16 October

'41, 21 November
'42, and 1March
'43, first pub
lished in a 1925 Speyer biography, written by Speyer's son, Edward
reveals
other important matters relative to the Liszt/Speyer relationship during the '41 to

'43 period: Liszt's induction to the Frankfurt Masonic

Lodge and the publication
of his Vierstimmige Mannergesange
for
the
benefit of the Frankfurt
(S. 72)
Mozart Foundation.43
First, the brief note from Liszt
tember 1841.

toWilhelm

Speyer, Frankfurt, dated

10 Sep

Liszt writes:
I ask you tobe kind enough toproceed with my admission into the respectable
Orient Union Lodge here,
Franz Liszt
Yours,
p.s. Franz Liszt, son of Adam

Liszt,

born

in Raiding

(county

of Oedenburg)

on

22 October 1811, of catholic religion and residing inParis.44

Friedrich Schnapp, "Verschollene Kompositionen

Franz Liszts," in Von deutscher Tonkunst: Festschrift fur
Peter Raabes 70. Geburtstag, hrsg. von Alfred Morgenroth (Leipzig: CF. Peters, 1942), 47.
41. Liszt stayed inKassel from the evening of 16November 1841 until themorning of 23 November
1841.
See Michael Saffle, Liszt inGermany 1840-1845. A Study in Sources, Documents, and the
History of Reception
(New York: Pendragon Press, 1994), 124-126 and 241-242. See also Pauline Pocknell, "A Temporary Associ
ation: Franz Liszts and Adelaide Kemble's Symbiotic Relations, Socio-Critical Aspects and Aftermath of Their
Concerts inLondon, Liege and the Rhineland in 1841," The Liszt Society Journal 25 (2000), 73-74.
42. The Frankfurter Journal, issue 24. September 1841, noticed this premiere. The piece was described as
'Phantasie nach Motiven aus Don Juan, componirt und vortragen von Herrn Franz Liszt (Manuscript und zum
ersten Male offentlich gespielt).' See Keeling, "Concert Announcements,
Programs and Reviews as Evidence
for First or Early Performances by Liszt of His Keyboard Works to 1847," Studia
34 (1992), 397.
Musicologica
Two letterswritten by Liszt toMarie d'Agoult, one dated between January and April 1834, and the other, dated
9 November
111 and 405.
1839, suggest an earlier version of the above piece. See Gut-Bellas, Correspondance,
43. Kristin Wendland,
"Secular Choral Music,"
in The Liszt Companion
Green
(Westport CT-London:
wood Press, 2002), 370-376.
44. Edward Speyer, Wilhelm Speyer der Liederkomponist (Munchen: Drei Masken,
1925), 229-230.
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48, 2007

312 William Wright

Thread in Liszt,' a 1987
Philippe Autexier records in his essay, 'The Masonic
Journal of the American Liszt Society publication,
that Johann Anton Andre,
owner and cataloguer of the 'Mozart Nachlass',
was probably present at this 18
de Don
September '41 event and the premier of theMozart/Liszt Reminiscenses

Juan

in Frankfurt a week

later.Autexier writes:

Andre, theWorshipful Master of theOffenbach Lodge when it stoppedwork

ing,often attended ceremonies at the FrankfurtUnion Lodge. In 1829 he had
already
published
Andre made
Liszt
and
ning, middle
in Viennese
grees

to Die
overture
edition
of Mozart's
Zaaberflote...
of the symbolic meaning
of the rhythms at the begin
... the
end of the overture.
symbolic
rhythms of the three de
inMozart's
time. Because
Liszt had seen the
Freemasonry
literal

aware

manuscript and studied it scrupulously,we may assume thathe had a philolo

gical

attitude

towards Mozart's

work,

as well

as an esoteric

one.45

Certainly, Liszt exhibited thorough knowledge of earliest source material, rela

tive to this and other Mozart works, when on podium at the 1856 Vienna Centen
ary Celebrations. More of this later.
Liszt's second letter to Speyer, dated 16 October
1841, written during a short
stay inNonnenwerth,
furt visit, reads:

Liszt's Rhineland

retreat, and three weeks

after his Frank

To my great regret, dear excellent

friend, I shall not be passing
through Frank
I shall make my way to Berlin via Dusseldorf,
furt again.
Cassel
and
Elberfeld,
From
to arrive in Berlin
the 15 and 18 November.
and expect
between
Weimar,

there I shallwrite to you at greater lengthabout thepeople and things thatare

worth discussing with you.
with the job of pass
I am entrusting my secretary, Mr. Belloni,
Meanwhile,
or other,
it up somewhere
sorry face. Hang
lithographed
ing on to you my
I
not
it!
do
deserve
although
Please
and be

toMadame
Speyer and your lovely family
give my fond remembrances
sure of my most
devoted
sincere and warmly
feelings, dear good friend.

F. Liszt.46

This brief period of relative calm for Liszt may well have been when he com
(S. 72) and Studentenlied
(S. 72), male
posed early drafts of the Rheinweinlied
in Jena
former
voice settings of patriotic fervor and merriment. Liszt premiered the

'41 and gave the first performance of the latter at the Leipzig
a fortnight later,works he later included in his Vierstimmige Man
nergesdnge.41 Contrary to Liszt's comment that he would 'not be passing through
on 30 November

Gewandhaus

45. Philippe Autexier, "The Masonic Thread inLiszt," The Journal of theAmerican Liszt Society 22 (1987),
9-10.
46. Speyer, Wilhelm Speyer der Liederkomponist, 231.
47. Saffle, Liszt in Germany, 243.
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Liszt and theMozart Connection

Frankfurt again' he did make
place six days before Liszt's

313

several visits. The first, on 15November

1842, took
third note to Speyer.48 Here is themain part of it:

Your lettergave me a great deal of pleasure, dear friend,although -1 used the

wrong word when I wrote printed instead of copy I am no less delighted
that you

are kind

and

that you

also

enough
do not

to accept
of the 'Ratt im Kellermest,'
the dedication
too unworthy
think my poor devils of Quartets
much

to be published by the 'Mozart Foundation.' That is somethingupon which we

have

and about which

agreed
final opinion
about

you my

I am completely
that from Berlin.

comfortable
When

the 'Reiterlied,'
and a third one [probably
the proofs of the 'Ratt' printed and send them to me
in Berlin,
before
the end of December.
address
Schlesinger's

weinlied'
have

-, only

let me

sending you the

S. 72]. Meanwhile

give
'Rhein

please
to
for corrections
Since

Schott

is

scheduled to publishmy French songs, I am really glad thathe is also thepub

lisherofmy Quartets. Perhaps I shall defer theirpublication until next spring,
but thatdoes not bother you, does it?.
Many

very

cordial

friendly

greetings,

Yours,
F. Liszt.49

Liszt arrived inBerlin shortly before Christmas '42 where he met and became
better acquainted with Richard Wagner,50 and, as the year drew to a close, gave
the first known performance of his Mozart Figaro Fantasy at the home of noted
poet and critic, Ludwig Rellstab. Twelve days later Liszt gave the first public per

in the city.51On 1 February '43 Liszt con

formance of the same Figaro Fantasy
Die
in Breslau. Fifteen days later, back in
Opera,
Zauberflote
he
conducted
of
his
Studentenlied and Reiterlied given by
Berlin,
performances
theBerlin Mannergesang.52 All, while giving more and more performances of his
ducted Mozart's

de Don Juan towide-spread

and growing acclaim. Clear evidence
German
involvement
with
opera and patriotic secular choral
increasing

Reminiscenses
of Liszt's
music.

The Mozart/Liszt

Figaro Fantasy remained unpublished until 1912, when

Ferruccio Busoni's
issued
Breitkopf
adaptation of theWeimar Liszt
the
at
Busoni
Bechstein
Hall inLondon in February
material,
arrangement
played
1913.53
But to return briefly to the Liszt/Speyer correspondence and the secular choral
and Hartel

pieces relative to it.Liszt's penned a fourth note to Speyer on 1March

cludes:

'43. It con

48. Saffle, Liszt in Germany, 147 and 256.

49. Speyer, Wilhelm Speyer der Liederkomponist, 231.
50. Saffle, Liszt inGermany, 148, n.189.
51. Saffle, Liszt inGermany, 257.
52. Saffle, Liszt in Germany, 261.
53. The Times (7 February 1913), 9. Hungarian emigre, Franz Orosz, gave the firstBritish performance of
Liszt's Reminiscences de Don Juan at theHopetoun Rooms in Edinburgh on 25 February 1852.
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48, 2007

314 William Wright

Dear

Speyer,

Iwould have verymuch liked to have had one single dedication for these 4
quartets,
and has

but

the Rheinweinlied

also

been

written

has
into his

to Lefebvre
for some time
promised
to have a
album.
The Reiterlied
seemed

been

Polish feel to itand I felt it suited a very charming young Pole with whom I
lived for 14 days and became very close to.
So I'm stilldue you something else (hopefullybetter) in the future.
as carefully as pos
you be so kind as to correct these 3 new quartets
meets
take care of the tedious task of ensuring
that the publication
all
as far as possible.
the requirements
to your wife
I remain your devoted
friend
Please
pass on my best wishes
Would

sible and

F. Liszt54

Unfortunately, Liszt appears to have lost touch with Speyer, following Liszt's
move toWeimar in February 1848. Liszt nevertheless continued to remain devoted
to the scrupulous study and authentic interpretation of the music of the great
Viennese composer. Like Speyer, he continued to gather autograph source mater

of the great classical composers.55 Indeed, a priceless relic,

five-octave clavichord, that
untraced since the end of World War 2, Mozart's
identified in 1940 as held in the Histori
German musicologist,
Georg Kinsky
ial and memorabilia

der Stadt Wien, adorned theAltenburg from 1852 until the end of
at
the
Weimar residence: A potent symbol of Lisztian devotion.56
stay
'the
In 1856 a singular opportunity came for Liszt to pay homage toMozart,
man, to whom Germany's Valhalla proudly opened its gates';57 he accepted an
to direct the
invitation from Dr. Johann Ritter von Seiler, themayor of Vienna,
sches Museum

Liszt's

Centenary Festival.58 The program, selected by themayor provided Liszt

with ample scope for authoritative orchestral direction:

Mozart

Overture fromDie Zauberfldte

Aria 'O Isis und Isiris' and following chorus fromDie Zauberfldte
Piano Concerto inC minor59

a Rome," Studia Musicologica

21 (1979), 322-344. This letter,
54. Klara Hamburger, "Documents-Liszt
written inGerman gothic script by Speyer from Posen, is held inBiblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma at shelf
no. 158.41.
The Weimar Years, 78.
12/1-4 (1940), 17. Liszt was far from error
56. Georg Kinsky, "Mozart-Instrumente," Acta Musicologica
und
when describing the instrument as a 'sp inert.' See Carl Friedrich Weitzmann, Geschichte des Clavierspiels
der Clavierliteratur (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1879), 294. See also Walker, The Weimar Years, 11, n.8. For a thorough
ed.
and Musicians,
ofMusic
explanation of the various usages of 'spinett' see The New Grove Dictionary
55. Walker,

2001), vol. 24, 183-187.

Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan,
national identity as German. See "Bei Gelegenheit der hundertjahrigen
57. Liszt recognized Mozart's
- Feier"
Mozart
(18. Januar 1856), 21. As early as 1842, 'Liszt, had begun to be perceived as a "native son",'
of Germany, 'even a patriot, whose musical settings of verses like "Was ist des deutschen Vaterland" [by Ernst
Moritz Arndt] were inappropriate subjects for "German ridicule".' See Saffle, Liszt in Germany, 84. Liszt's use
of Arndt's patriotic poetism, at line 2, page 21, of the 1856 article suggests that Liszt was affirming his own
German cultural identity,while claiming a 'family likeness' toMozart.
58. Walker, The Weimar Years, 397.
59. K. 491.

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Liszt and theMozart Connection

315

Dies Irae from theRequiem

Symphony inG minor60
Aria and Finale (Act 1) fromDon Giovanni61
Yet, Liszt was well aware that as he journeyed to the city a few days prior to
the event to fulfill this prestigious assignment, he was approaching a bastion of
conservatism where severe press criticism would be duly meted out to him from
refused to accept either his suitability or his interpretive insights.62
in Liszt 2:

those who
Walker

writes

[Eduard] Hanslick remained hostile to the idea of Liszt conductingMozart in

launched
in the columns
of the Vienna
sharper attack was
'Some
group of people
by a pseudonymous
signing themselves
on 23 January, less than a week
Friends of Music'.
Their protest was published
an attempt to
before Liszt conducted
the festival, and itwas
the atmo
poison

Vienna.

Fremder

even

An

Blatt

sphere before he walked onto the stage.

More than five hundred players and singerswere massed on theplatform of
thenewly decorated great hall of theRedoute, which was specially illuminated

for the occasion.

The

entire

Emperor
which

concert,

were
Franz Joseph and Empress
Elizabeth
more
contained
than three hours of music,

present.
was
re

peated the following evening, and Liszt evidently acquitted himselfwith hon
ors. Afterwards

the mayor

and

the festival

committee

him with

presented

an

inscribedbaton which read, 'From theCity ofVienna to the conductor of the

Mozart
again.

Festival.'

Liszt,

On
30 January
they said, understood

however,
nothing

the
about

'Friends

of Music'

conducting,

and

were

back

they added

that the public had received him coldly,which was untrue. Itwas the sort of

rebuff that Liszt was

the circumstances
his let
by now used to receiving. Under
to Seiler,
in which
he expressed
his gratitude
'for the very great
to me during my stay in Vienna,
kindness
shown
the remembrance
of which
a
will not fade from my grateful
was
of
thoughts',
piece
worthy of
diplomacy
ter of thanks

a Metternich.63

Liszt considered itprudent to refrain from answering his adversaries directly

in view of violent reaction.64 Rather, he endeavored to educate them by calling for
60. K. 550.
61. Walker, The Weimar Years, 297-298.
62. Nevertheless, shortly after arriving inVienna on 16 January, Liszt informed Carolyne that his cousin,
Eduard, had just published two supportive articles in the Wanderer and that a copy of each would be coming
her way. Liszt, Briefe, Bd. 4, 219. Liszt was soon to feel the pressure of events. In a note to
Carolyne, written six
days later,he remarked: 'My heart is full of worries and blankness at present. I simply try to put on a good face
outside, which, unless I am mistaken, isworking quite well. On Monday, Zellner and [Joseph] Hellmesberger
are arranging a festive dinner forme for a small group - at 10 Florins per head. On
Tuesday I shall dine with
Prince Metternich... Forgive me forwriting to you so little, and so dismally. But all that I can manage is to lead
the life I am leading as well as I can and to get tomidnight without falling asleep on my feet. As for
writing
about itwould be an intolerable weariness forme at themoment and do no good.' Liszt, Briefe, Bd. 4, 217.
63. Walker, The Weimar Years, 397-398.
64. Liszt, while foreign to 'thewrong implicit in a fanatical cult of past' and any 'irrational
idolatry' of the
old masters, remained aware that 'violent [partisan] opposition' would 'harm [Mozart's]
authority more than
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48, 2007

316 William Wright

a critical edition of Mozart's
volume Bach

edition

works similar in format to the then ongoing multi

issued annually from 1850.65 Liszt envisaged one volume
appearing on each anniversary of the composer's birth over

of works by Mozart
a twelve year period. Liszt

outlined details of this plan to his cousin, Eduard,

concerts
after
the
Vienna
but, unfortunately, the project never materi
shortly
alized.66 As in so many areas of his musical
life, Liszt was ahead of his time. It
fell to Ludwig von Kochel
and publishers, Breitkopf and Hartel to realize the

Lisztian

vision

twenty years later, that is, by issuing in 1877 the first of forty crit
ically edited volumes ofMozart compositions.67
like himself, a 'pioneer
Surely Liszt took comfort from the fact thatMozart,
of progress,' was not spared bitter experiences. The following excerpt from

article certainly suggests this to be the case. The passage

resonance. It reads:
distinct autobiographical

Liszt's

1856 Mozart

has

of all noble and brave men

[Mozart] was also not spared the bitter experiences
as
most
of
the
and difficult positions
hold
who,
progress,
dangerous
pioneers
to the extent that one even wonders
whether
these did not perhaps
contribute
to shortening
Sometimes
tore up his quar
such a precious
musicians
life.68

tets,describing themas unplayable; at other times theytoldhim therewere 'too

too many
was
Once
the score of his Don
notes'!
Giovanni
difficulties,
many
correct
that
he
should
returned with
the impertinent
the
'harmonic
request
of a certain [Emanuel]
Schika
errors', once he was forced to obey the demands

neder in composing hisDie Zauberflote.69As with every great genius, he also

had to endure pain and sufferingin order to accomplish his task,but without
of the deferred but inevitable
prospect
just
seeing before him the comforting
sooner or later grants the genuine
ice that posterity
convictions,
steadfastness,
... must ex
work of artists...
efforts and conscientious
Every great composer
been
than
those
that
have
other
and
already
regions
thoroughly
exploited,
plore

the boldest attempts at innovation.' Liszt, "Bei Gelegenheit der hundertjahrigen Mozart-Feier," Blatter fiir
Musik, Theater und Kunst 6 (18 Januar 1856), 22.
65. Bach Gesellschaft Ausgabe,
Breitkopf and Hartel,
hrsg. von der Bach-Gesellschaft
(Leipzig:
1851-1899).
Franz Liszts," Acta
See also Erich Valentin, "Eine Mozart-Initiative
66. Liszt, Briefe, Bd. 1, 213-216.
Mozartiana
(Augsburg) 5/33 (1986), 17-19.
67. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts Werke: Kritisch durchgeschene Gesamtausgabe
(Leipzig: Breitkopf und

Hartel, 1877-1905), Bd. 1.

68. At this point, Ramann includes a sentence absent from Liszt's 1856 newspaper article: 'Man mufi die
- kennen
und erfahren haben, um zu begreifen, was
Schmerzen und Wonnen des schaffenden Kunstler-Misere
auch er, dieser jetzt von alien bewunderte groBe Meister, zu leiden hatte.' [One has to know and to have experi
to understand what Mozart, now themost admired
enced the sorrows and joys of the creative artist his plight
of all the great masters, had to suffer.] By incorporating into the original text this sentence from her own hand,
tribu
Ramann is encouraging her readers to perceive how much Liszt empathized and identified with Mozart's
lations. Still, it is important to stress that throughout her 1881 edition of the 1856 Zellner's two 1856 newspaper
issues, Ramann adheres closely to the text, albeit occasionally moving words around, or adding a word, for
example, 'Allerdings,' at the beginning
Schriften, hrsg. von Lina Ramann, Bd.
69. Johann Emanuel Schikaneder
forDie Zauberfldte, the two-act opera
StudiaMusicologica

of paragraph four of the 18 January issue. See Franz Liszt: Gesammelte

3/1 (Berlin: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1881), 152.
Vienna theatremanager, persuaded Mozart towrite music
(1751-1812):
premiered at the Theater an der Wieden on 30 September 1791.

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Liszt and theMozart Connection

317

method than thatwhich exists as a definitivemodel only for the

find a different
predictable

ignorant
the true worth

judge
ready

of the great mass

and arrogant

dilettantes

thetes,
ally

admiration

leads

them

established

and

to invoke
and

significance
the names

incontrovertibly

of mediocre

of the different

sterile

musicians,

art connoisseurs

aes

to
inability
in the arts natur

whose

trends

are al
of composers
whose
reputations
solid. In addition
the great composer
has

to do constantbattlewith thejealousy and skepticism that lurks in every shade

and to everydegree behind all kinds ofmasks and hypocrisy; a stubbornskepti
cism

and arduous
life
and unforgiving
envy that has no respect for a miserable
to and at the same time destroyed
and can
by the noblest occupation,

dedicated

not be held

in check

by the composer's

exalted

position

or the general

acknow

ledgement of his wonderful gifts and great talent.How could he hope to be

fully recognized inhis lifetimewithout a bitter struggle!70
Two more

expression, drafted amid mounting

examples of 'autobiographical'
difficulty and strain, saw light of day during the latter part of 1862: Liszt's
a la Chapelle
Evocation
Sixtine (S. 461) and a further piano transcription, a
linked pair of movements
from the Dies Irae sequence of Mozart's
Requiem,

and Lacrymosa
(S. 550), 'special favorites' of Liszt's in
Confutatis maledictis
was
in the
later years.71 Evocation
composed after a visit to the Sistine Chapel
second half of 1862. Following his arrival in Rome, Liszt often found himself

drawn to the place where, in 1770, the fourteen-year-old Mozart

committed to
an
memory Gregorio Allegri's Miserere,
unpublished nine-part choral piece,
at
whose performance
that time continued to be limited to the Sistine Choir
In a letter, dated 1November
'62, to Grand Duke Carl
during Holy Week.72
was
Liszt
he
recalled
the
occasion
when
Alexander,
inspired to pen the keyboard
transcription:

70. "Bei Gelegenheit

der hundertjahrigen Mozart-Feier," Blatter fiir Musik, Theater und Kunst 7 (21.
tutte, though it is likely
January 1856), 26. '"Too many notes" was Joseph's ll's verdict on Mozart's Cosifan
that he referredmore to the thickness of the orchestration than to the profusion of ornamental detail. This simple
charge is themantra of critical commentaries on virtuosity, not excluding Liszt.' Jim Samson, Virtuosity and
theMusical Work: The Transcendental Studies of Liszt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 85, n.66.
71. August Gollerich records the occasion on New Year's Eve 1885 when Liszt gave a transfigured per
formance ofMozart's Ave verum corpus from his A la Chapelle Sixtine to a selectWeimar gathering: 'Together
with his [Liszt's] keyboard transcription of theDies Irae and Lacrymosa from theRequiem, this heavenly soar
ing work was among his special favorites...' Gollerich adds the following Liszt comment: 'The sequences of

theAve verum are among themost beautiful things thatMozart wrote...

I do not think he would have objected
tomy development of them.'August Gollerich, Franz Liszt (Berlin: Marquardt,
1908), 121-122. Liszt may well
have 'developed' and adapted Czerny's four-hand keyboard arrangement of Mozart's Requiem in 1840. Liszt
and Princess Cristina Belgiojoso
gave a duo piano performance of theMozart choral work at her Parisian home
on 18April that year. See Gut-Bellas, Correspondance,
568. While Czerny's four-hand piano transcription of
is extant, the present author has been unable to trace any early nineteenth-century two piano
the Requiem
arrangement of theMozart work.
72. Walker, The Final Years, 42. Liszt visited the Sistine Chapel for the first time in the spring of 1839, 'a
sojourn, specially timed to coincide with Holy Week... The Sistine repertoire and performance practice exerted
a profound influence on Liszt...'
See Zsuzsanna Domokos, "Liszt's Roman Experience of Palestrina," Flores
= Journal
Musicals, A Festschrift inHonor of Fernando Laires upon his 80th Birthday
of theAmerican Liszt
54/55/56
47.
(2003-2005),
Society
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48, 2007

318 William Wright

itseemed tome, he wrote, as if I saw [Mozart], and as ifhe looked back atme
with gentle encouragement.Allegri was standing by his side, basking in the
fame which
together,

his Miserere

but, as

itwere,

now

bound

I have not only brought

enjoyed...
them together. Man's
wretchedness

them closer
and anguish

moan plaintively in theMiserere; God's infinitemercy and the fulfillmentof

prayer answer itand sing in [Mozart's] Ave VerumCorpus. This concerns the
sublimest

of mysteries,

the one which

reveals

to us Love

triumphant

over Evil

and Death.73

Walker
suggests in Liszt 3 that itwas the death of Liszt's
in the summer of 1862 that acted as a catalyst here.74

daughter Blandine

the illus
Today, as aspiring performers strive to pay due homage toMozart,
anew
the Hungarian's
trious role-model of Liszt, let all ponder
life-long identifi
cation with the great Viennese master and his music, and heed the summons Liszt

gave to his cousin, Eduard,

shortly after Blandine's

passing:

'Ignite flames for the

living.'75
73. Briefwechsel zwischen Franz Liszt und Carl Alexander, Grossherzog von Sachsen, hrsg. von La Mara
(Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1909), 116. See also Walker, The Virtuoso Years, 84-85, and Walker, The Final
Years, 43-44.
74. Walker, The Final Years, 44.
75. Liszt, Briefe, hrsg. von La Mara (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1893), Bd. 2, 32-33.

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