Letters of Franz Liszt — Volume 1: from Paris to Rome: Years of Travel as a Virtuoso by Franz Liszt;Translator -- La Mara Constance Bache
page 22 of 543 (04%)
page 22 of 543 (04%)
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beheld a chef d'oeuvre...Though insignificant and poor, your
friend cannot leave off repeating those words of the great man ever since Paganini's last performance. Rene, what a man, what a violin, what an artist! Heavens! what sufferings, what misery, what tortures in those four strings! Here are a few of his characteristics:-- [Figure: Liszt here writes down several tiny excerpts from musical scores of Paganini's violin music, such as his famous "Caprices"] As to his expression, his manner of phrasing, his very soul in fact!---- May 8th [1832] My good friend, it was in a paroxysm of madness that I wrote you the above lines; a strain of work, wakefulness, and those violent desires (for which you know me) had set my poor head aflame; I went from right to left, then from left to right (like a sentinel in the winter, freezing), singing, declaiming, gesticulating, crying out; in a word, I was delirious. Today the spiritual and the animal (to use the witty language of M. de Maistre) are a little more evenly balanced; for the volcano of the heart is not extinguished, but is working silently.--Until when?-- Address your letters to Monsieur Reidet, the receiver-general at the port of Rouen. |
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