THE KING OF THE PIANOFORTE. BY MARY GRANGER CHASE. 1831, by hearing Paganini, the peerless master of the violin, perform; and he made the resolution that he would become the Paganini of the pianoforte. To Hungary belongs the honor of having given | He was aroused from this dangerous lethargy in birth to the greatest of living pianists; we may add, to the greatest pianist who has ever lived. At Raiding, in that country, Franz Liszt first saw the light on the 22d of October, 1811. His father, who held some office on the estates of Prince Esterhazy, was an intimate friend of the German composer, Haydn, and was himself an amateur performer on the pianoforte and other instruments. He was the first musical instructor of his son, who, like Mozart, betrayed even in infancy that he was endowed with extraordinary gifts. Before Franz was nine years old, he performed in a public concert in Presburg, and to the astonishment and admiration of his audience. Two Hungarian noblemen who heard him on this occasion, immediately offered to assist his father to educate him, and, with their aid, the marvelous boy was sent to Vienna, where, for eighteen months, he studied music under competent masters. The child-artist then gave a concert at Vienna, at which Beethoven was present, and he gave concerts at Munich, and elsewhere-all with great success. When about twelve years of age, his father took him to Paris with the intention of having him pursue his studies at the Conservatory, but he was refused admission because, forsooth, he was a foreigner. His genius, however, was recognized by professional people and in the highest social circles. Little Franz was the pet and favorite of the gay metropolis, and it required no little surveillance, on the part of his proud father, to prevent his being spoilt by early admiration. Meanwhile, Franz studied counterpoint under Reicha, and practiced daily upon the pianoforte the works of some of the best composers. When this course of drilling was completed, the father and son travelled in the provinces, giving successful concerts; and, in the course of three years, Franz made three visits to England, where he was enthusiastically received. At the age of sixteen years, Liszt lost his father, and, overwhelmed by the bereavement, fell into a morbid state of mind and feeling. An unfortunate affaire du cœur also distracted him from his art, and for a long while his splendid genius lay fallow. VOL. IX.-27 After winning no little applause at Paris, Liszt found himself eclipsed there by Thalberg, when he withdrew to Switzerland, spent some time studying in obscurity, and then, suddenly, after eight years' absence, returned to the capital of France to electrify the city. He took it completely by storm. Night after night he played alone, and would have four pianos at his service. His vigorous striking of the keys has been known to break the strings of all four in one night, and, after his performances, the ladies would press forward and beg for the broken strings, to have bracelets made of them for memorials of the Meister. Mendelssohn heard him play at his first concert in Paris, and remarked, as the lithe Hungarian tripped across the stage, "There's a novel apparition—the virtuoso of the nineteenth century." Mendelssohn, however, was moved to extreme admiration of the "virtuoso's" power. When Liszt played Schubert's weird poem, Der Erlkönig, half the people, it is said, stood on their chairs. Since the furore of this appearance in Paris, Liszt's whole career has been one of continuous and dazzling triumph. He went from one European city to another, winning fresh laurels at every step. After the great inundation at Pesth, in 1838, when two thousand two hundred and eighty houses were destroyed, Liszt gave a concert at Vienna in aid of his suffering fellow-countrymen. In gratitude for this benevolence, a deputation of Hungarian noblemen waited upon him, to request him to visit Pesth, and, on his arrival there, he was welcomed with most enthusiastic demonstrations of joy, and presented by the inhabitants with a sword of honor and the citizenship of the city. An effort was made in 1839 to erect a monument to the memory of Beethoven, at Bonn, his birthplace. After six months, the subscriptions. amounted to only six hundred thalers, and about sixty thousand thalers more were needed to com plete the work. Liszt supplied the whole sum, and the monument was dedicated in 1845. Liszt is the fortunate possessor of the piano that Beethoven's own hands played upon, and when, in 1853, the old harpsichord that had belonged to Beethoven was offered for sale in Weimar, Liszt purchased that instrument. In 1847, Liszt, having become satiated with the life of a wandering musician, accepted an offer from the Duke of Weimer to take the post of leader of court concerts and operas in that city, and, taking up his residence there, he has made Weimar one of the great musical centres of Europe. In 1861 Liszt repaired to Rome, wherehe was most cordially received by Pius IX., who is, or at least has been, a great and appreciative lover of music, and Liszt was appointed organist in the Sistine Chapel. At the musician's own request, the Pope made him an abbé of the Roman Catholic Church, an office which does not require ecclesiastical duties of its holder, but enjoins celibacy upon him. As an abbé, Liszt has composed a great deal of church music, and has contributed very generously to charitable and religious objects, giving from out his abundance; for, during Dr. Liszt's brilliant career, fortune, as well as fame, has perpetually smiled upon the votary of art. The abbé Listz had a villa at Rome; but, in 1871 he suddenly sold it, and returned to Hungary. In the month of November, 1873, his musical jubilee was celebrated at Pesth with great splendor; and the succeeding year, which was the fifteenth of his artistic career, he presented the museum of the grateful city of Pesth with his valuable collection of curiosities and works of art. Dr. Liszt has done much to educate and aid other musicians. The gifted young artist, Tausig, was a great favorite with him. He bore and He bore and 'forbore with Tausig's erratic ways, paid his debts for him, and would say, "You'll either turn out a great blockhead, or a great master, my little Carl." He expected, indeed, that Tausig would be the inheritor of his own mastery over the pianoforte, and the younger man's death of a fever, in 1871, at Leipsic, where he had gone to meet Liszt, was a great disappointment and grief to the abbé. Mention is often made of Liszt's pupils. In the ordinary sense of the term he does not teach at all, for he would scorn to receive remuneration from any of his scholars; but he allows artists who evince real musical talents to come to him at regular hours, and does, in his own sovereign way, give them instruction. An American young lady who was one of these favored pupils in 1873, has published parts of her home letters written at the time. She says of the great master: "He is the most interesting and striking-looking man imaginable-tall and slight, with deepset eyes, shaggy eyebrows, and long iron-gray hair, which he wears parted in the middle. His mouth turns up at the corners, which gives him a most crafty and Mephistophelean expression when he smiles, and his whole appearance and manner have a sort of jesuitical elegance and ease. His hands are very narrow, with long and slender fingers that look as if they had twice as many points as other peoples'. They are so flexible and supple that it makes you nervous to look at them. Anything like the polish of his manner I never saw. When he walks out in Weimar he bows to everybody just like a king! The Grand Duke has presented him with a house beautifully situated on the park, and here he lives elegantly, free of expense, whenever he chooses to come to it. . . . I am at that summit of my ambitionto be his pupil! He is so overrun with people that I think it a wonder he is civil to anybody, but he is the most amiable man I ever knew, though he can be dreadful too, when he chooses, and he understands how to put people outside his door in as short a space of time as it can be done. I go to him three times a week. "At home Liszt doesn't wear his long abbé's coat, but a short one, in which he looks much more artistic. It is so delicious in that room of his! It was all furnished and put in order for him by the Grand Duchess herself. The walls are pale-gray, with a gilded border running round the room, or rather, two rooms, which are divided, but not separated, by crimson curtains. The furniture is crimson, and everything is so comfortable; such a contrast to German laziness and stiffness generally. A splendid grand piano stands in one window (he receives a new one every year). The other window is always wide open, and looks out on the park. There is a dovecote just opposite the window, and the doves promenade up and down on the roof of it, and fly about, and sometimes whir down on the sill itself. That pleases Liszt. There is a carpet on the floor, a rarity in Germany, and Liszt generally walks about, and smokes, and mut ters (he can never be said to talk), and calls upon one or other of us to play. From time to time he will sit down and play himself, where a passage does not suit him, and when he is in good spirits he makes little jests all the time. His playing was a complete revelation to me, and has given me an entirely new insight into music. I've begun to study now in an entirely new way, and I feel that every time I go to him it is worth a thousand dollars to me. Then he courteously asked me if I would like to hear him play. Of course I would.' He sat down to the piano and played one of his own sonatas, after which he extemporized, producing some startling effects upon the instrument. "He then insisted upon my playing, and would take no excuse; so I, perforce, sat down in some trepidation; but the first chord I struck produced no tone. I tried again with a not much better result. Then I heard him quietly laughing, and, turning around, I saw the joke. I had been trying to play on the famous Tomascheck piano, which was made for him as a practicing instru ordinary player can scarcely produce a sound from it; yet he plays the most delicate pianissimo passages upon it with apparent ease. "But Liszt is not at all like a master, and cannot be treated like one. He is a monarch, and when he extends his royal sceptre you can sit down and play to him. You never can ask him to play any-ment, and on which the touch is so heavy that an thing for you, no matter how much you're dying to hear it. If he is in the mood he will play; if not, you must content yourself with a few remarks. | You cannot even offer to play yourself. You lay your notes on the table, so that he can see that you want to play, and sit down. He takes a turn up and down the room, looks at the music, and if the piece interests him, he will call upon you. We bring the same piece to him but once, and but once play it through." Another American writes, perhaps somewhat later: "A few days later I reached Weimar. The place has almost become a Mecca to American travellers, for beneath the sod of the cemetery lie the bodies of Göethe and Schiller. On inquiring for Liszt's house I was directed to a point on a hillside high above the city, where a house was perched upon an apparently inaccessible precipice. In a few minutes the door opened, and I stood in the presence of the man who had talked with Beethoven, and was then considered the greatest musical genius of his age. A long, clean-shaven, massive face, with clear-cut features and prominent chin, framed in long, flowing dark hair, his gray eyes full of fire; his dress was a long, closely-buttoned black coat, showing a symmetrical figure or medium height, with small and well-shaped hands and feet. A pleasant smile lit up his face as he advanced, shook hands, and bade me welcome to the Eagle's Nest, as he called his home. We sat and talked on various subjects, on all of which he was possessed of considerable information, show. ing that he had been a close observer of men and things. He asked a great many things about America, and then I inquired why he did not visit us. He shrugged his shoulders, and said he was getting too old to think of visiting a New World. "I will show you my Erard,' said he, 'if you will follow me.' We ascended to the next floor, where there were two large rooms connected by folding-doors. The one was his dining-room, the other an extension parlor, luxuriously furnished, and containing the famous Erard Grand,' presented to him by the makers. It is in this room that the delightful musical reunions take place, in several of which I had the pleasure of sharing. These informal meetings take place frequently, and all who have an earnest love for the art, no matter of what station or nationality, could easily obtain an entrée; but the host has a thorough contempt for curiosity mongers, who come merely to stare at him, to be able to say they have seen Liszt.' "On the third floor of the house, where Liszt does most of his work, and where his musical library is stored, there is in one room a piano and organ combined, so that he can play on both at once. And with these two instruments he produces the most novel and beautiful effects. Another room contains his relics and curiosities, some of which he holds almost in veneration. Chief among them was Beethoven's piano-the instrument upon which the great master had played. Another was Mozart's spinet, in which the tones were produced by the twitching of the wire with a piece of quill, a key-board similar to the present one producing the movement." Apropos to the acknowledged impropriety of any one's asking Liszt to play, we have met with the following story: "One lady of rank, at whose house he was spending the evening, committed the 1859. extreme indiscretion of asking him to play, a vio- | wrote, con amore, the "Life of Chopin," the gifted lation of all rules of etiquette among great musical Polish composer; and, also, "The Gypsies and artists. He had been enchanting the guests with their Music," which was published in Paris in his divine music in the earlier part of the evening, and had just come in from supper, when she preferred her request. Madame, jái mangé très peu,' was his answer (madam, I have eaten very little); and with this implication of having played out the worth of his supper, he left the house.' Liszt makes no affectation of ignorance concerning his own superiority. It is related that many years ago, a lady asked him whom he considered the greatest living pianist ? Thalberg," was his immediate reply. "But," continued his questioner, "do you consider him superior to yourself?" "Madam," he rejoined, "I had no idea you made any reference to me; I stand too high to be compared to ordinary pianists." Liszt is not only the marvel of the musical world as a performer, but he has written hundreds of compositions, working in almost every depart ment of music. He has also set to music the songs of Göethe and other poets, especially excelling with those of Victor Hugo; and he has been a great song-maker himself. Nor has his authorship been limited to these productions, for he Chopin delighted in hearing his compositions rendered by Liszt's masterhand. The two men were greatly attached to each other, and one of Liszt's pupils relates that in a private talk with the abbé, he said, "that when he and Chopin were young together, somebody told him that Chopin had a remarkable talent for mimicry, and so he said to Chopin, 'Come round to my rooms this evening, and show off this talent of yours.' So Chopin came; he had purchased a blonde wig ('I was very blonde at that time,' said Liszt), which he put on, and got himself up in one of Liszt's suits. Presently an acquaintance of Liszt's came in; Chopin went to meet him instead of Liszt, and took off his voice and manner so perfectly that the man actually mistook him for Liszt, and made an appointment with him for the next day; 'and there I was in the room,' said Liszt. 'Wasn't that remarkable?'" It has been said, "Hear Liszt, and die!" but, far more wisely from every point of view, "Hear Liszt, understand him, and live!". OUT OF WORK. BY MRS. HARRIET M. SMITH. A PLEASANT Cottage on a pleasant street of a thriving manufacturing town in Massachusetts. Everything about it in apple-pie order; from the well-swept walks, the clean back piazza, where some fat pumpkins and squashes were ripening in the sun, to the comfortable kitchen and neat housewife, who was deftly spreading the tea-table, while answering the question her daughter Lucy had addressed to her, as to whether father would have the new melodeon brought home that night. "And I," said Bennie, a lad of eight years, "want my new jacket; just look at this old thing!" and he held up a ragged cuff to view. "Yes, Bennie, you shall have your new suit soon, and I should not be surprised if father had the melodeon brought to-night, Lucy. Here he comes now," she added, glancing out the window, "but no melodeon; probably will have it sent up in the morning. Set up the tea, Lucy, it's late." "Why, how slow you gome, pa !" called out the boy, as he swung open the door and ran down the walk, laughingly adding as he opened the gate, "Got the rocks?" for that had been pay-day at the shop where Mr. Green worked. A damper fell on the boy's joyousness, as his eyes met the grave face of his father, who took his hand without replying, and came slowly up the walk, looking sadly all about the little place as he did so. The little kitchen, with all its usual brightness and the appetizingly spread tea-table, met him as he passed in. "Come, father, I've some extra biscuits to-night, and-" but Mrs. Green started as she glanced at her husband, as he seated himself, without a word,' at the table. "Tired, father?" said Lucy. "A little," he answered, as he took his tea. "Anything gone wrong at the shop?" inquired his wife. week if I would let him have it, with board. Hadn't we better send him word this evening that he may take it ?" "I suppose we shall have to, but I hate to have my home invaded by strangers, and the cross, crotchety one he is; I'm afraid you'll get sick of it." "We will try it, at least." And so it was de "No, but they've shut all down to-night, and cided, with many misgivings, that Bennie should will not open before next April." "Shut down?" and Mrs. Green dropped her knife and sank back with a sudden pallor on her face. "Why, they've said nothing about it before, have they?" "No; but the failure of that house in New York that sent such large orders, and that owe for the last six months' work, has crippled them so that they will not be able to go on at present, and here are sixty men thrown out of work these times, just as winter is upon us," and Mr. Green leaned his head on his hand, and seemed unable to swallow his food. The quick tears had sprung to Lucy's eyes as the announcement was made, to be as hastily brushed away, as she silently gave up the coveted melodeon, for Lucy was a sweet singer, and longed to perfect herself in music. Brave Bennie, though with a child's disappointment he had said, "then I shall have to wait for my new suit," quickly added, as his father's head went down, "but I can wear this a little longer; I shall put on my overcoat soon, and that will hide the rags." "Never you fear, Bennie," said his mother, "you shall not go in rags, so don't borrow trouble; we'll manage somehow." "Mr. Stone told me to-day, father, that if I passed examination, I should have the school next term," said Lucy. "Did he?" and a little of the care lifted from the brow of Mr. Green at the cheerful words of those who loved him. "But you are too young, child," he answered, "to be confined to teaching; I'm afraid you can't endure it." carry a note in Lucy's neat hand to the rich old bachelor at the hotel, saying that he could have board with them as soon as he wished. The answer came, "he would take possession of the parlor on the morrow;" so said Bennie, as he rushed into the house with all a boy's uproar, and shouted out, "only think, mother, Mrs. Wade stopped me as I came by, and said she wanted a boy to pick her apples and pears, and asked if I wanted the job? Guess I said yes quick enough, for Jim Thompson said she paid him well last year; I'll bet I'll earn enough for my new suit," and with a twirl of his cap, it lighted on Lucy's head, and a laugh went around the circle at the boy's enthusiasm. Mr. Green had worked hard and long, assisted by the economy and thrift of his wife, to get his little home; he had partly paid for it, and given a mortgage for the balance, to one of the hardest men in all B-. Had his work continued, he would slowly have paid it off, but that had given out, winter was close at hand, fuel to be laid in, some necessary repairs to be done to the house, and only his last month's pay to meet it all with. But we have seen how nobly the dear ones at home met the emergency; and though early on the morrow they proceeded to carry off the pretty parlor furniture to the attic, spread a drugget over the new carpet, and arranged the chamber-set from the spare room in it, they all worked with rather heavy hearts, albeit the voices of Mrs. Green and Lucy were gay and cheerful, that father might not think they regretted it too much. "No, father," his wife had said, as they talked it over the night before, after the children had retired; "we'll hold on to our home. Some way "Yes, indeed, father, I can, and I mean to get will be provided to meet the mortgage." the school too." "And we'll take Sears to board," said mother; "you know he's been teasing us ever so long for our parlor, because it's so sunny. He met me on the street to-day, and offered me ten dollars a "But, mother, are you going to be able to do the work if Lucy takes the school? You know you have not been strong since that sickness.” "Oh, she can help a good deal out of school; and, then, Bennie can run all the errands; and |