THE MAN OF LOVE

Evening Star, Issue 19533, 14 April 1927, Page 4

THE MAN OF LOVE

FRANZ LISZT, MUSICIAN AND LOVER The sub-title of Guy de Pourtale’s new study of Liszt, ‘ Franz Liszt, the Man of Love,’ is justified (says ‘ John. o’ London’s Weekly’). Liszt was a man of love—or, rather, of many loves; from Caroline do Saint-Cricq, his beautiful young pupil, to the Countess Janina, who fell madly in love with him at Rome after ho had become the Abbe Liszt, and who went to the extreme ot dressing as a man to gain access to him in his garden; from Marie d’Agoult, his greatest love,. to the Princess Carolyn© of Sayn-Wittgen-stein, tho impassioned Amazon. M. Pourtales has made an attempt to relate the music of this passionate, pious genius to the man. It is a valuable study, with all the facts of his life: his loves, which never were inspired, his deep religious sense, which finally mastered all else in him, before us, we bo,gin to understand and account for his music. “I DREAD WOMEN.” As Adam Liszt lay dying he said to his son Franz, “ 1 dread women on your account; they will trouble and dominate your life ” —a prophecy which was to come so unhappily true. For Liszt’s love affairs always had a bitter element in them. It was at a Bohemian supper party given in honor of Chopin in Paris that Franz met tho Countess Marie d’Agoult. Tall, slender, and fair, Marie “seemed like some Rhenish princess, save for the French precision of her eyebrows and her nose and the mocking curve of her mouth. She was especially vain of her coloring.” is it to be wondered that Franz loved her at sight, or that tho countess should hesitate before the simplicity and intensity of the young pianist? All the barriers went down—even the terrible threat of social ostracism which it meant—before it.

On tho evening of August; 21, 1835, a postchaiso stopped before tho HotclIcrie des Balances at Geneva. Two travellers'" stepped down—“ a young woman fair and beautiful, whose dress was the last word in Parisian elegance, and a tall, awkward youth whose long, straight hair fell about a girlish face.” They had run away, leaving all Paris in an uproar, THE JOURNEY TOWARDS TRUTH. in a little while Blandine, their first child, was born, in tho spring they invited the eccentric George Sand, who had' been the friend of both in Paris, and counseller of their love, to come to stay with them. She delayed her coming until, when she arrived in Geneva, she found they had left for Chamonix. In the guest book of the Hotel de I’Union she discovered traces of them, where Liszt had registered as a musician-philosopher, born on Parnassus, coming from the Land of Doubt, journeying towards Truth. There followed, flirtations —neither serious—of Franz with George Sand, and of Marie, by way of revenge, with the poet Ronchaud. ‘‘ When you write the story of two happy lovers place, them on tho shores of Lake Como,” wrote Liszt to Ronchaud afterwards. Marie and .Franz were established _ at Bellaggio, a pretty village that rises in an amphitheatre beside tho waters of the lake. But there was no malice in his advice. They were again on a voyage of love. They found and adored each other again.

They lost themselves in each other, then outside themselves, conceiving the “supernatural harmony of the world.” It was ecstasy. It was hero that, in 1837, was born their second child, tho girl, Cosima, named in memory of the lake, who was destined to become tho wife of Bulow and to break his heart and end a twenty-years’ friendship by running off with that mighty genius, Wagner. Cosima in that was truly her father’s daughter. LISZT GROWS COLD.

The end of the romance of Franz and Marie was tragic in its commonplaceness. Liszt simply grew tired of the woman who had sacriliced so much for him—husband, children, fortune, position, reputation. _ “ Marie would scrutinise the knitted jfftrohcad that was darkly hostile; and, as she was always clear-sighted, she calmly analysed what i-ranz was afraid to confess to himself. The lover’s senses no longer thrilled to love, but love had settled like a disease in the brain of the mistress. An immense pride kept it repressed. But its power for grief' or reproach escaped sometimes in spite of 'herself in a glance or a jealous word.” , , , , They were separated then by a great enterprise which the musician had undertaken. Hearing that the total contribution of France to a monument to Beethoven was 424 francs 90 centimes, Liszt was furious with indignation, and himself resolved to pay for defaulting France. He embarked on a, concert tour in Vienna, Pans, and London to raise money. LISZT AND WAGNER. The tour was to last a few weeks; in fact, it lasted nearly twenty years, during which period Franz and Mane rarely met. One evening when Liszt was in Dresden he was most anxious to hear ‘ Rienzi ’ by the new conductor of the orchestra at _ the opera-house. Ho was overcome with emotion, and when Wagner came up to his box Liszt was still shaken by this musical thunderbolt. Thus began the great friendship of the two musicians. But the same evening saw the end of Liszt s romance. Wagner did not stay long, for in the box was a woman Lola Montez, tho pianist’s latest adorer. News of this half-Irish, half-Anda-lusian beauty came to Mane s ears, and she took tho opportunity to break with Franz. , We have not space to refer to the other affairs of Liszt’s life—none of them equalled this romance which ended so hanally—nor to Liszt s final renunciation of the world. The read will find them treated with frankness and good taste in M Pourtales s book.