Part 10 (1/2)

V

In the earlypianist, Arthur Napoleon, joined Gottschalk at Havana, and the two gave concerts throughout the West Indies, which were highly successful The early suh Central America and Venezuela, but a severe attack of illness prostrated Gottschalk, and he was not able to sail before August for his new field of musical conquest Our artist did not return to New York till 1862, after an absence of five years, though his original plan had only contemplated a tour of two years It must not be supposed that Gottschalk devoted his tih he by no lected the requirements of musical labor As he hilorious landscapes, the languid _dolce far niente_, which tended to enervate all that caht on his susceptible temperament with peculiar effect A quotation from an article written by Gottschalk, and published in the ”Atlantic Monthly,” entitled ”Notes of a Pianist,” will furnish the reader a graphic idea of the influence of tropical life on such an iinative and voluptuous character, passionately fond of nature and outdoor life: ”Thus, in succession, I have visited all the Antilles--Spanish, French, English, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish; the Guianas, and the coasts of Para At ti become the idol of some obscure _pueblo_, whose untutored ears I had charmed with its own sihtan seriously to entertain the idea of re myself to such influences, I lived without care, as the bird sings, as the flower expands, as the brook flows, oblivious of the past, reckless of the future, and sowed both my heart and my purse with the ardor of a husbandrain he confides to the earth But, alas! the fields where is garnered the harvest of expended doubloons, and where vernal loves blooality was that, one fine , I found myself a bankrupt in heart, with usted with the world andmen (ay, and women too), I fled to a desert on the extinct volcano of M------, where, for several months, I lived the life of a cenobite, with no companion but a poor lunatic whom I had met on a small island, and who had attached himself to me He followedconstancy of which dogs and madmen alone are capable My friend, whose insanity was of a enius in the world He was, antic, monstrous tooth Of the two idiosyncrasies, the latter aloneaffected with the other symptom to render it an anomalous feature of the hu that this enormous tooth increased periodically, and threatened to encroach upon his entire jaw

Tor humanity, he divided his leisure between the study of dentistry, to which he applied hiress of his hypothetical tyrant, and a voluminous correspondence which he kept up with the Pope, his brother, and the Emperor of the French, his cousin In the latter occupation he pleaded the interests of huht,' and exalted nity of his illustrious friend and benefactor In thestill survived--his love of e as it h insane, he could not understand the so-called _e of the crater, at the very su country The rock upon which it was built projected over a precipice whose abysses were concealed by creeping plants, cactus, and bamboos The species of table-rock thus for, and transfor-rooe His last wish had been to be buried there; and fro in theI rolledthe most incomparably beautiful landscape, all bathed in the soft and limpid atmosphere of the tropics, I poured forth on the instruhts hich the scene inspired antic amphitheatre hewn out of the in forests full of those subdued and distant harmonies which are, as it were, the voices of Silence; before ues marvelously enhanced by the extreme transparency of the air; above, the azure of the sky: beneath, the creviced sides of thesavannas; beyond the the the horizon with its deep-blue line Behind me was a rock on which a torrent of melted snow dashed its white foam, and there, diverted fro into the gulf that yawned beneath my

”Amid such scenes I composed 'Reponds-moi la Marche des Gibaros,'

'Polonia,' 'Columbia,' 'Pastorella e Cavaliere,' 'Jeunesse,' and ers to run over the keys, wrapped up in the contemplation of these wonders; while my poor friend, whom I heeded but little, revealed to me with a childish loquacity the lofty destiny he held in reserve for humanity Can you conceive the contrast produced by this shattered intellect expressing at randohts, as a disordered clock strikes by chance any hour, and the majestic serenity of the scene around ave way I becaent toward myself and mankind, and the wounds of my heart closed once more My despair was soothed; and soon the sun of the tropics, which tinges all things with gold--dreaor to s

”I relapsed into the manners and life of these primitive countries: if not strictly virtuous, they are at all events terribly attractive

Existence in a tropical wilderness, in the midst of a voluptuous and half-civilized race, bears no reseer, or an American Quaker Times there were, indeed, when a voice was heard within me that spoke of nobler aiht be; and commanded imperatively a return to a healthier and more active life But I had allowed uor, this insidious _far niente_; andbefore a polished audience struck me as superlatively absurd 'Where was the object?' I would askwith open eyes, careering on horseback through the savannas, listening at break of day to the prattle of the parrots in the guava-trees, at nightfall to the chirp of the _grillos_ in the cane-fields, or else s hts that are the very heart-blood of a _guajiro_, and out of the sphere of which he can see but death, or, what is worse to hiitation of our Northern society Go and talk of the funds, of the landed interest, of stock-jobbing, to this Sybarite lord of the wilderness, who can live all the year round on luscious bananas and delicious cocoa-nuts which he is not even at the trouble of planting; who has the best tobacco in the world to smoke; who replaces today the horse he had yesterday by a better one, chosen from the first _calallada_ he meets; who requires no further protection from the cold than a pair of linen trousers, in that favored clime where the seasons roll on in one perennial sum paler to reith their smiles the one who murmurs in their ears those three words, ever new, ever beautiful, 'Yo te quiero'”

VI

Mr Gottschalk's return to America in February, 1862, was celebrated by a concert in Irving Hall, on the anniversary of his _debut_ in New York

This was the beginning of another brilliant musical series, in pursuance of which he appeared in every prominent city of the country Whileto pure ”claptrap” and bravura playing, for using his great powers to reat a hold as ever over the oers Gottschalk hihed at the lectures read him by the critics and connoisseurs, ould have him follow out ideals for which he had no taste It was like asking the butterfly to live the life of the bee

Great as were the gifts of the artist, it was not to be expected that these would be pursued in lines not consistent with the limitations of his temperament Gottschalk appears to have had no desire except to an to any loftier e by his own recorded words He passed through life as would a splendid wild singing-bird, , but never directing that talent with conscious energy to some purpose beyond itself

In 1863 family misfortunes and severe illness of his, but instantly he recovered he was engaged by M Strakosch to give another series of concerts in the leading Eastern cities Without atteer over his career for the next two years, let us pass to his second expedition to the tropics in 1865 Four years were spent in South A with the other in doing hiifts were heaped on him by his enthusiastic Spanish-American adave sixty concerts, and was presented with a costly decoration of gold, diaold medal, which the board of public schools, the board of visitors of the hospitals, and the old nition of Gottschalk's ave for various public and huh the whole of his career, had shown the traditional benevolence of his class in offering his services to the advancement of worthy objects A similar reception awaited Gottschalk in Montevideo, where the artist became doubly the object of admiration by the substantial additions he made to the popular educational fund While in this city he organized and conducted a great ed, exclusive of the Italian Opera coht Gottschalk to the last scene of his musical triumphs, for the span of his career was about to close over hiave Gottschalk an ardent reception, which made this city properly the culmination of his toils and triumphs

Gottschalk wrote that his performances created such a _furore_ that boxes cole seats fetched twenty-five He was frequently entertained by Dom Pedro at the palace; in every way the Brazilians testified their lavish admiration of his artistic talents In the midst of his success Gottschalk was seized with yellow fever, and brought very low Indeed, the report came back to New York that he was dead, a report, however, which his own letters, written from the bed of convalescence, soon contradicted

In October of 1869 Gottschalk was appointed by the ereat festival, in which eight hundred perforable labor, in rehearsing histhe almost innumerable details of such an affair, acted on a frath froed hih the tedious preparation, and when he stood up to conduct the first concert of the festival, on the evening of November 26, he was so weak that he could scarcely stand The next day he was too ill to rise, and, though he forced hi, he was so weak as to be unable to conduct the music, and he had to be driven back to his hotel The best medical skill watched over him, but his hour had co he died, December 18, 1869 The funeral sole character, and all the indications of really heart-felt sorroere shown a the vast crowd of spectators, for Gottschalk had quickly endeared himself to the public both as man and artist At the time of Gott-schalk's death, it was his purpose to set sail for Europe at the earliest practicable moment, to secure the publication of some of his more important works, and the production of his operas, of which he had the finished scores of not less than six

Louis Moreau Gottschalk was an artist and coifts were never enius as a hest order Shortly before he died, at the age of forty, he seemed to have ripened into more earnest views and purposes, and, had he lived to fulfill his prime, it is reasonable to hazard the conjecture that he would have richly earned a far loftier niche in the pantheon of , Oriental temperament, which tended to pour itself forth in dreams instead of action; vivid emotional sensibilities, which enabled hiination stih opti at its best, tended to blunt the keen ambition which would otherwise inevitably have stirred the possessor of such artistic gifts Gottschalk fell far short of his possibilities, though he was the greatest piano executant ever produced by our own country He ht have dazzled the world even as he dazzled his own partial country, showy, but, in the judge in co, in whom a perfect technique was doh ideal, passionless but severely beautiful

Gottschalk's idiosyncrasy as a composer ran in parallel lines with that of the player Most of the works of this , tender, ht with the flash of fancy, rather than strong with the power of iination We do not find in his piano-forte pieces any of that subtile soul-searching force which penetrates to the deepest roots of thought and feeling Sundry musical cynics ont to crush Gottschalk's individuality into the coffin of a single epigram ”A musical bonbon to tickle the palates of sentimental women” But this falls as far short of justice as the enthusiasenial tes of life on their bright side, and a naive indolence which indisposed the artist to grapple with the severest obligations of an art life, prevented Gottschalk froreatness possible to hiularly lovable, and to justify the passionate attachment which he inspired in most of those who knew him well But, with all of Gottschalk's limitations, he must be considered the most noticeable and able of pianists and composers for the piano yet produced by the United States

FRANZ LISZT

The Spoiled Favorite of Fortune--His Inherited Genius--Birth and Early Training--First Appearance in Concert--Adam Liszt and his Son in Paris--Sensation s--Franz Liszt thrown on his own Resources--The Artistic Circle in Paris--Liszt in the Banks of Rooult and her Connection with Franz Liszt--He retires to Geneva--Is recalled to Paris by the Thalberg _Furore_--Rivalry between the Artists, and their Factions--He co Virtuoso--The Blaze of Enthusiashout Europe--Schuarian Virtuoso as the Superior of Thalberg--Liszt's Generosity to his own Countrymen--The Honors paid to his--He loses the Proceeds of Three Hundred Concerts--Contributes to the Cone Cathedral--His Connection with the Beethoven Statue at Bonn, and the Celebration of the Unveiling--Chorley on Liszt--Berlioz and Liszt--Character of the Enthusiasm called out by Liszt as an Artist--Remarkable Personality as a Man--Berlioz characterizes the Great Virtuoso in a Letter--Liszt erases his Life as a Virtuoso, and becomes Chapel-Master and Court Conductor at Weimar--Avowed Belief in the New School of Music, and Production of Works of this School--Wagner's Testination of his Weimar Post after Ten Years--His Subsequent Life--He takes Holy Orders--Liszt as a Virtuoso and Co tire e

I

There are but few na than that of Franz Liszt, the spoiled favorite of Europe for reatest piano-forte virtuoso that ever lived His life has passed through the sunniest regions of fortune and success, and from his cradle upward the Gods have showered on hiifts His career as an artist and musician has been most remarkable, his personal life full of roes inand significant Froenius was acknowledged with enthusiashout the whole republic of art, from Beethoven down to the obscurest _dilletante_, and it may be asserted that the history ofthat achieved by the perforreat player in every capital of Europe, fro When he wearied of the fame of the virtuoso, and became a composer, not only for the piano-forte, but for the orchestra, his invincible energy soon overcame all difficulties in his path, and he has lived to see hi musical thinkers and writers