CHAPTER 1

Heine had treated him somewhat roughly, reproaching him for his "unsteady
character," Liszt addressed this open letter to him to justifY himself. During the
same month (April), he asked his mother, in Paris, whether Schlesinger's magazine had printed it. 10
In the above passage, Haraszti implies that since Liszt had already left for Vienna before the date of the Heine letter, he could not have had any involvement its
writing, and the date of Countess d' Agoult's letter to Ronchaud seems to coincide with his assertion. However, Haraszti omitted some very important evidence, which would have been at his disposal when he wrote his articles. La
Mara's edition of Liszt's letters to his mother, Anna Liszt, was published in
1913. In this collection, there are two letters from Liszt to his mother, which
were written during Liszt's stay in Vienna. 11 Haraszti mentions one of those
letters, but not the earlier one. Liszt left Venice on Saturday, 7 April 1838 and
arrived in Vienna on Tuesday, 10 April 1838.'2 In the frrst letter to his mother,
Liszt mentions he performed for the Queen on Saturday. At the earliest, the date
of this performance would have been on 14 April, which is the closest Saturday
after his arrival in Vienna. Liszt writes "On Saturday, I played for the Queen." 13
Since he did not use the word "yesterday" in this passage, the earliest date of
this letter would be Monday, 16 April1838. Assuming that he sent out this letter
on the same day it was written, and considering a ten-day turnaround in mail
delivery by stagecoach for him to receive his mother's letter, and to immediately
respond with another letter, the earliest date of the second letter mentioned by
Haraszti would be 26 April1838, the same date of Countess d'Agoult's letter to
Ronchaud. As written by Haraszti, Liszt inquires in the second letter to his
mother about the publication of the Heine letter. It is apparent from Liszt's inquiry that he had not yet received the Countess's package. So how is it that he
already knew of the existence of the Heine letter? It is because Liszt must have
written at least a portion of the letter before he left for Vienna. This is evidence
that the Countess did not write the entire letter to Heine on her own, as Haraszti
implies.
What is apparent from the above list of events and the current discussion is
that there are many ways to interpret the evidence presented. As Serge Gut has
mentioned in his 1975 study, Franz Liszt: Les elements du langage musical,
there are four ways in which to view Liszt's literary activities: none of the articles were written by him, some of them were written by him, many of them
were written by him, or all of them were written by him. 14 Studies in the last
three decades have revealed that it is no longer valid to maintain Haraszti's position that Liszt wrote nothing other than his correspondence, 15 and according to
Liszt's own admission, it would not be correct to state that he wrote all of them.
This leaves the bulk of writings to be judged individually before deciding defmitively that some or many of the writings were written by him. The pendulum
will sway one way and then the other, depending on how the evidence is interpreted in each case. 16
One reason Haraszti's argument was readily accepted for so long was that
the holographs of these writings were nowhere to be found. Over the last few
8

Introduction

decades, however, ten holographs have emerged: 17 a holograph of De lafondation-Goethe Weimar (in Volume V of this series) in Liszt's hand with emendations in Princess Carolyne's hand, consisting of 143 pages; 18 a sketch of the
above document in Liszt' s hand, consisting of 28 pages; 19 a signed introduction
to Liszt's symphonic poems, consisting of 3 pages; 20 a draft of On the Situation
of Artists (in Volume 2 of this series), consisting of 12 pages; 21 a holograph of
Paganini: A Eulogy (in Volume 2 ofthis series), consisting of3 pages; 22 a holograph of the second chapter of Liszt's F. Chopin in Liszt's hand with emendations in Carolyne's hand, consisting of 23 pages; 23 one page from Criticism of
Criticism (Volume 5 of this series);24 a manuscript titled "Publications pour le
piano (Kroll, Reinecke)" (in Volume 7, part 2 of this series) in Princess Carolyne's hand with corrections by Liszt and signed by him, consisting of7 pages; 25
a holograph of Liszt's preface to his piano transcriptions of Beethoven's symphonies, consisting of 2 pages;26 and a holograph of Liszt's writing A Letter on
Conducting: A Defense (in Volume 4 of this series), consisting of 8 pages. 27 The
existence of this large body of evidence makes it difficult to deny Liszt the literary heritage due him. Alan Walker's words ring true: "It is no longer up to Liszt
to prove he was an author; it is up to his critics to prove that he was not."28 Additionally, this collection is larger than the small number of incidences of similarities between Liszt's Letters and Countess Marie's Memoires, which Haraszti
relied upon in an attempt to discredit Liszt as author of his prose?9
Another damaging component to the question ofLiszt's authorship was that
the two women involved in the writing process were not forthcoming with helpful information about the subject. According to Claire de Chamace, the Countess's first daughter, Marie d' Agoult told her family that the articles in the Revue
et gazette musicale signed by Liszt were written by her. 30 When questioned
about the real author of this current volume, F. Chopin, Princess Carolyne
stated: "When two beings become completely merged, can it ever be said where
the work of one begins or the other ends?" 31
Perhaps the best person to describe what it means to collaborate with Liszt
in his literary works, for example, what was involved, who did what, etc., would
be someone who witnessed firsthand the literary workshop in process, rather
than relying solely upon hearsay. Such a person actually did exist, and in an
attempt to rectify previous erroneous assumptions, she published her personal
letter to Count Geza Zichy in 1932, where she described Liszt's atelier. This
witness is Princess Marie Hohenlohe nee von Sayn-Wittgenstein, Princess Carolyne's daughter, who lived at the Altenburg with Liszt and her mother for ten
years. On a daily basis, she observed their literary collaboration. The first portion of this letter, dated 25 September 1911, is provided below in English translation.32 The latter half of the letter concerns Liszt's book on the Gypsies, so the
next portion of the correspondence will be reserved for presentation in Volume 6
of this series, The Gypsies and Their Music in Hungary.

About Liszt's work at the Altenburg, I can report precisely my own recollections, since I had free access to the sanctuary of the Blue Room, my mother and
his communal working room. While he jotted down notes at a desk, she wrote
9