How will we celebrate Franz Liszt’s Year?

UNESCO has announced 2011 the International Year of the great Hungarian pianist and composer Franz (Ferenc) Liszt: he was born 200 years ago and this year also marks the 125th anniversary of his death. In Ukraine Franz Liszt’s Year was launched at the National Philharmonic Society. The Hungarian pianist Gyorgy Oravecz and the Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic Society performed the classic’s works, conducted by Mykola Diadiura, at the stage of the Lysenko Pillared Hall, with the assistance of the Hungarian Embassy to Ukraine and the Austrian Cultural Forum.

KYIV ROUTE

Let’s recall what an important role the great musician’s stay in Ukraine played in his life. Liszt came to Kyiv in late January 1847, during his third and the last grand concert tour. It started in Vienna in March 1846, followed by triumphant performances in the musician’s homeland, Hungary, Transylvania, Walachia, and finally Kyiv. Judging from the composer’s letters, after Bucharest and Iasi he planned to go to Odesa and Constantinople. However, it seems he understood that unlike Odesa, which was calm in the winter, in January Kyiv hosted crowded events and concerts. The city eagerly anticipated Liszt’s arrival. He was met by the three most renowned and respected musicians of the city: Amadei Vanke, Yosyp Vytvytsky, and Aloizii Panochini. Soon after the famous pianist met with Vytvytsky’s best student, the “young, but very promising musician” Alina Krahelska, who was the fiancee of Mykola Kostomarov, who would later become a renowned writer and historian.

Liszt’s first concert in Kyiv, which took place in the hall of the Contract House on February 4, was a huge success. The next concert took place at St. Volodymyr University (currently the Red Building Hall of the Shevchenko National University). Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein was present among the audience. Later she became the closest life companion of the great composer. The pianist’s last concert in Kyiv took place in the same hall on February 14.

CHERCHEZ LA FEMME

On February 18 Liszt was in the estate of Woronince (currently the village of Voronivtsi, Khmilnyk raion, Vinnytsia oblast), where she invited him to celebrate the 10th anniversary of her daughter Marie. Liszt wrote in a letter he sent that day: “Do you know the latest news? In Kyiv I accidentally met an extraordinary and outstanding (very much) lady; she is so outstanding that I decided to make a 20-mile detour in order to chat with her for a couple of hours. Her husband’s name is Nikolaus zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, and her maiden name is Iwanowska.”

The new acquaintance of the Hungarian musician was a daughter of a wealthy Polish landowner Piotr Iwanowski and Paulina Podowska. At the time she was one of the wealthiest lady landowners in Right-Bank Ukraine, she owned 15 villages with 4,643 serfs. By then, she had not lived with her husband, the younger son of a famed field marshal, for several years. She led a secluded life in her beloved Voronivtsi, raised her daughter, managed her vast estates alone, and read a lot. Contemporaries noted that she was very intelligent and well-educated; however the neighboring landowners avoided her, considering her a bluestocking.

Liszt went from Voronivtsi to Zhytomyr, where he gave two concerts. He did not stay there for long and came back to Voronivtsi, where he was eagerly awaited. Soon the pianist received an invitation from Boleslaw Potocki, the younger son of the famous Zofia Potocka, for whom Uman’s park Sofiivka was created, to perform in Nemyriv. According to Mykhailo Chaly, “soon before Liszt’s arrival the nobility from nearly all the south-western provinces started gathering. There were so many people that Nemyriv could not accommodate all of them; they stayed in peasants’ and Jews’ houses.” To all appearances the concert in Nemyriv took place on March 21 and was a huge success. On the following day the pianist left and went on with his tour; he and Carolyne agreed to meet in Odesa in summer. Easter came and Liszt stopped for the Easter holidays in Chorny Ostriv, in the estate of the Polish Prince Kosta Przezdziecki (currently urban village Chorny Ostriv near Khmelnytsky).On Good Friday, April 2, he wrote to the princess: “I have reasonably settled in Chorny Ostriv, Count Przezdziecki’s estate. I’m living in a wonderful room which belongs to his daughter-in-law with a wonderful fireplace and a library which has an extremely apt selection of books. As, fortunately, there are no women in the house, I enjoy complete freedom: I may stay in my room for up to two hours. In the afternoon I spend my time playing whist or with the count’s orchestra, which in my opinion is the best in this region and has a very nice lineup to perform in a good way the overtures of Rossini and Donizetti.” I assume that at that very period of his life Liszt finished his most popular work, the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. In the end of the manuscript he put the date of March 27, 1847.

In a short while the pianist said good bye to the hospitable host of Chorny Ostriv and went on with his tour. He gave two concerts in Kremenets, after which he left the Russian Empire. He went to Austria, and Lviv was waiting for him. Late on April 13, when the great pianist came to Lviv, where the members of the Galician Music Society sang two cantatas in his honor at the hotel where he stopped. Liszt spent nearly a month in the city. In this period he gave four solo concerts, took part in two chamber concerts, and during one of the performances, after performing Weber’s Konzertstueck in F minor with an orchestra, he conducted Beethoven’s great symphony. He wrote a remarkable letter to Princess Carolyne from Lviv: “My stay in Lemberg is astonishing from all points of view. You cannot imagine how friendly the reception during the month I spent there was. There were numerous dinners and suppers. I made several acquaintances, which were really interesting and could give way to friendship. Later I will tell you about them in detail, since you know these people. And finally, the duty and close relationship with the country, where I am no more stranger, and begin to like it with the best part of myself.”

In late April Liszt went to Chernivtsi where he gave three concerts. From there he headed to Constantinople, stopping by in Iasi and Galati. He wrote to the princess: “Sometimes I feel fear that our wonderful projects concerning Odesa may fail. But no matter what, you will remain kind and generous, the person you are, whom I admire.”

On July 28, after brilliant performances in Turkey, Liszt arrives in Odesa on the steamer Peter the Great. “Liszt! Liszt! This is the name, the word, the only sound, the center of the admiration of our audience, the point where our eyes, ears, and likings are focused,” reads a publication in the newspaper Odesskiy vestnik (Odesa Herald) of that time. After long anticipation Liszt finally meets with Carolyne and her husband. The pianist spent nearly 1.5 months in Odesa. In this period he performed at several benefit performances, gave six solo concerts, including a charity one. The great virtuoso donated the 1,000 silver rubles he raised at the concert to the Alexander Orphanage. That was a crucial period for the common future of Liszt and Carolyne. There is an assumption that Prince Wittgenstein came to Odesa not without a reason. It is most likely that the question of his future divorce with the princess was being resolved at the time. When leaving Odesa, Wittgenstein invited Liszt to come for a visit to Voronivtsi, though he was going to stay in Germany for the winter. Anyway, Carolyne persuaded Liszt that it was time to make a step he dreamt about for a long time, but could not bring himself to – to leave the big stage and devote himself fully to composing music. The pianist gave concerts in Mykolaiv and Yelizavetgrad (currently Kirovohrad). There the great virtuoso finished his many-year career as a concerting pianist without pomp or loud statements. In late September he came to Voronivtsi for the third time. Then he wrote to his mother: “It seems that the unexpected and crucial event will bring me happiness. The year 1847 is successful for me.”

The Podillian nature and folk songs Liszt heard there inspired him to compose a piano cycle Glanes de Woronince. It included three pieces, “Ballade d’Ukraine” (a dumka), “Melodies polonaises,” and “Complainte” (a dumka too). The first piece was inspired by Marusia Churai’s song “Hryts, Don’t Go to the Evening Dances.” In the second piece Liszt used the theme of Polish folk song and Chopin’s song “The Maiden’s Wish (Zyczenie).” The third piece is based on the topic of the well-known Ukrainian folk song “The Winds Are Blowing.” The composer dedicated this cycle to the princess’s daughter Marie Wittgenstein. He also dedicated her four children’s pieces, recorded in the Album he presented her with. Unfortunately, this unique example of Liszt’s music for children is scarcely known in Ukraine. The album was bought out of a private collection at an auction only in the late 20th century. Its three pieces are based on Polish folk songs, and the fourth one, called “Hryts” is again based on the song Liszt liked so much, “Hryts, Don’t Go to the Evening Dances.”

In the same period of time, in Voronivtsi, Liszt composed the pieces “Invocation,” “Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude” (The Blessing of God in Solitude), and “Cantique d’amour” (Hymn of Love), which were later included in the cycle Poetic and Religious Harmonies, dedicated to Wittgenstein.

In mid-January 1848 Liszt left Ukraine for Weimar, where he served in the following years as a bandmaster with the court of the Duke of Weimar. Soon Carolyne and her daughter followed him. The Weimar period of his life (1848-61) was the most fruitful in the composer’s creative work, which became possible largely to Carolyne’s devoted love and support. In 1855 on the princess’s birthday Liszt gave her as a present a book of 12 symphony poems with the following dedication: “To Her, who proved with her love her faith, whose hopes never ceased to grow in suffering, who found happiness in self-sacrifice, and who is now and for ever my life companion, the heavenly arch of my thoughts, my living deity, the symbol of my love, Jeanne-Elizbieta-Carolyne. F. Liszt.”

From all this the reader can see that the period Liszt spent in Ukraine was extremely important.

THE CLASSIC’S LEGACY AND UKRAINE

Incidentally, the participants of the press conference at the National Philharmonic Society included Hungarian Ambassador Mihaly Bayer, director-general of the Philharmonic Society Dmytro Ostapenko and others, but unfortunately there was no representative of Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Thus, the International Year of Franz Liszt was launched only in the Philharmonic Society, not in Ukraine. It was gratifying to hear that a Budapest airport was named after Liszt and that Franz Liszt’s Year is an important cultural event around the world. Yet it was strange to hear that the press release did not contain a word about Ukraine’s role in the life of the great Hungarian. The ambassador admitted that Hungary would not assist the holding of concerts in other Ukrainian cities, explaining this by the economic crisis. However, the representatives of the Philharmonic Society said that they plan a range of interesting concerts. The concerts are interesting indeed, but for some reason there is no concert dedicated to Liszt’s period in Ukraine. The works he composed here should be performed first and foremost in our country. The organizers promised that there would be some events in the next season. Maybe they are not aware of the importance of Glanes de Woronince, because the cycle was never widely published in the former USSR, because Wittgenstein’s name was taboo, and because Liszt’s sojourn in Ukraine has never undergone an in-depth study. Today the fingers of one hand will be enough to count the scholarly publications in Ukrainian musicology dedicated to the composer’s stay in Ukraine. And this is very sad. Musicologists the entire world over have studied Liszt’s life and creative work very thoroughly, though the Ukrainian period remains scarcely studied. This year Ukraine has a chance to show, within the framework of the International Franz Liszt Year, that it respects and studies its culture and history. I still have a small hope that our culture statesmen will understand this. However, they may miss the chance, like they did in 2010, the anniversary year of Frederic Chopin and Jan Paderewski. What can be done in this situation? Above all we need a Ukrainian book about Liszt which emphasizes his stay in Ukraine. I am working on it at the moment, and it should be published this year. Second, there is a need to publish a colored album Franz Liszt in Ukraine. Patrons, where are you? This is going to be an unprecedented album, with much demand for it, taking into account the number of Liszt societies around the world. Thirdly, there is a need to develop a tourist route, “Following Liszt’s Roads in Ukraine” or “Ukraine in Liszt’s eyes.” I am carrying out this work too, you’re welcome to join. Fourth, it would be nice to shoot a documentary dedicated to this topic. Fifth, I want to urge all pianist-teachers, please study with your students the works Liszt composed in Ukraine, and include them into the concerts you will give to mark the composer’s anniversary. The score can be found on the Internet at the following address: imslp. org/wiki/ Glanes_de_Woronince,_S.249_(Liszt,_Franz). You’re welcome to write to my e-mail: ludvolskaya@ukr.net, I will eagerly answer all of your questions and provide any assistance. I can go to your city with lectures and concerts dedicated to Liszt and his stay in Ukraine. I have been recently invited to Vinnytsia, to a regional musicology conference, where I told about Liszt in Ukraine. You should have seen how much interested the audience was in this topic. It seemed that we knew everything about Liszt, but it has turned out that in Ukraine this work is only beginning.