INDEX OF THE VOLUME
MARCO BEGHELLI, Nuove lettere per Madame Helbig
ROSSANA DALMONTE, Liszt a Venezia negli anni Ottanta: nuovi documenti
FLAVIO PONZI, Caratteri tipologici del pianoforte Steinway tardo-romantico
NUNZIO SALEMI, Liszt a Bologna
CARLO VITALI, “Zur Erinnerung an Liszt”: un percorso mitografico viennese in due stadi
ABSTRACTS
MARCO BEGHELLI, Nuove lettere per Madame Helbig
A new collection of Liszt materials has been recently discovered: it is the legacy of Liszt’s Roman pupil Nadine Helbig (1847-1922), formerly a pupil of Clara Schumann. A Russian princess, Madame Helbig moved to Rome in 1865, where she married the eminent German archaeologist Wolfgang Helbig and made friends with Liszt’s mistress Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein. Liszt himself enjoied her well-educated company during hi numerous Roman stays, and offered her his precious teaching as well as the dedication of his transcription of Dargomyzskij’s Tarantelle (R148).
Many documents of Lisztian interest survive in her heirs’ hands: among them, seven unknown letters and a telegram send by Liszt to Nadine Helbig, more than 50 letteres written to her by Carolyne von Sayn Wittgenstein, a letter from Cosima Wagner, the autograph of Liszt’s Weihnachtslied “O heilige nacht” (R535) for tenor, women’s chorus and organ, dated Rome, December 25, 1881, many printed scores of Liszt’s piano music with handwritten annotations by the composer, memoirs by Nadine Helbig, that served as the starting point for her Lisztian reminiscences published in the Deutsche Revue in 1907.
In this article only the letters sent by Liszt to Nadine Helbig are published, the other documents and a biographical sketch of the Russian princess being assigned to the next items of these Quaderni. In order to complete the Liszt-Helbig correspondence, two additional letters that were already known are printed here. Every document is annotated and supplied with a large number of quotations from other letters or memoirs to illuminate names and events that are mentioned. Especially interesting is the letter dated Bayreuth, April 12, 1878, about the genesis of the two “threnodies” Aux cyprès de la Villa d’Este and the first private hearing of Parsifal.
ROSSANA DALMONTE, Liszt a Venezia negli anni Ottanta: nuovi documenti
Who was the Venetian music professor Ugo Bassani, to whom Liszt wrote two very nice letters published in La Mara’s Liszts Briefe (vol. II) of Liszt’s correspondence? This question triggered some research in the libraries and archives in Venice following the hypothesis that Liszt would hardly have addressed such flattering expressions to a mediocre man. The hypothesis proved correct. In fact, the library of the Conservatorio di musica “Benedetto Marcello” holds a remarkable amount of documents referring to the relationship between Bassani and Liszt. The existence of Liszt’s letters to Bassani, of Liszt’s manuscripts and portraits was known to a small circle of local musicologists, but their content is discussed here for the first time. The letters not published by La Mara confirm Liszt’s friendly attitude towards Bassani, his interest in the composition of some musicians active in Venice (in Giuseppe Contin and Ugo Erera in addition to Bassani) and in Milan (in Antonio Bazzini and Carlo Andreoli). They throw new light on some episodes of Liszt’s biography from 1880 to 1886.
The press reports of Liszt’s visits to Venice offer a lively picture of musical life in the music school and especially in the salons of the aristocracy in the late 19th century Venice.
FLAVIO PONZI, Caratteri tipologici del pianoforte Steinway tardo-romantico
In this study we analyse two instruments of the 19th century, the Steinway piano owned by the Liszt Institute of Bologna (1860) and the one donated to Liszt in 1883. This comparison allows us to retrace the steps of the late-romantic Steinway research on the changes of the pianistic technique and the modifications of the concept type. We highlight previously unknown organological aspects as regards the passage between the double repetition Erard mechanic and the Steinway mechanic, by illustrating also quantitatively the typologically constructive modifications to the tone-colour. The acoustic analysis has allowed initial verifications of the modalities of the phonic functioning of the Steinway patentes of 1872 (Duplex Scale) and 1875 (Capo d’Astro Bar).
NUNZIO SALEMI, Liszt a Bologna
Liszt went to Bologna twice in 1838. The first visit is here located on October, 8 and the second from 23 to 30 December. During his first stay he was accompanied by Marie d’Agoult, and they went to the Accademia di Belle Arti to see the Santa Cecilia by Raffaello for the first time in their life. In his longer sojourn in Bologna he was a guest of Marchese Francesco Giovanni Sampieri in his Palazzo, Strada Maggiore 24, near Rossini’s city house. New documents were found concerning two public concerts: the first one played by the Società del Casino (December 25) and the second by the Sala Sampieri (29 December).
CARLO VITALI, “Zur Erinnerung an Liszt”: un percorso mitografico viennese in due stadi
A short novel published in 1869 by the popular Viennese writer Moritz Bermann (1823-1895) is translated into Italian and commented. Bermann purports to reveal the ‘backstage secrets’ of Liszt’s artistic salon in Paris during the late 1830s, as portrayed by the Viennese artist Joseph Danhauser (1805-1845) in a painting on wood which features the musician improvising on his piano, surrounded by such eminent listeners as Dumas père, Hugo, George Sand, Paganini, Rossini and Marie d’Agoult. However, Bermann’s witty and well-documented text, written in a mixture of dialogue and narrative report, betrays its mainly fictional nature by a few factual and chronological inconsistencies.
Further evidence and hypotheses concerning the painting’s creation, as well as its possible iconographic sources, destination and later history, are also collected and discussed. It is concluded that the myth of Liszt – originally celebrated by Danhauser as the heir of Beethoven, in connection with both the image of a ‘guild of geniuses’ portrayed after the 17th century Flemish manner and the business interests of the Viennese piano-maker Conrad Graf – was revived by Bermann three decades later as a stylistic exercise and a masterly display of his knowledge of the French literary scene of the previous generation. In fact, music seems to have been of minor concern to Bermann; although he, too, seems inclined to emphasize the spiritual lineage Beethoven-Liszt.