Magyar Hírek, 1986 (39. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)

1986-11-08 / 22. szám

THE LISZT MUSEUM

In an article, written for the New Hungarian Quarterly, Dezső Legány described Liszt's Budapest homes: the first in the Inner City Presbytery of Pest, the second at Hal tér near the Danube—and the last and final one, which became the Liszt Museum in 1986. We are reprinting this part of Dezső Legány's essay.

The building designed to be the Academy of Music (and Liszt’s home) was built in what was then Sugár Út (today’s Népköztársaság útja) the finest avenue of the city. The architect, Adolf Lang, had, in 1876, thoroughly examined the Academy rooms in Hal ter and no doubt, Liszt’s private quarters there as well. Consequently, this, the third of Liszt’s Budapest homes was similar in lay-out but on a larger scale and more elegant.

In the autumn of 1879 the academic year began in this new building. On 15 January 1880 Liszt returned from the Villa d’Este in Tivoli. The Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Education had booked and paid for three rooms in the Hungária Hotel which were at Liszt’s disposal for the rest of the academic year which he.spent in Budapest, He gave his lessons in the hotel for he was told that the walls of his rooms in the new Academy building were not dry yet. This, however, was purely an excuse to gain time. All the rooms, apart from Liszt’s had been in use since the autumn, and Erkel had already moved in above Liszt. The Ministry and, last but not least, Liszt’s friends, all wanted Liszt’s new home to be made ready with special care, and this needed much time.

The interior design was entrusted to the twenty-three-year old Sándor Fellner who, after studying in Paris, had returned home in 1879. The extensive work was supervised by him from beginning to end.

Liszt had three rooms and a servant’s room. The largest was the salon or sitting room which had two windows and French windows opening onto the balcony. Fellner had it papered peacock-blue and the ceiling was richly decorated in a 16th century Rennaissance style. The furniture was old oak, and the doors and windows were stained the same colour. Each piece of furniture, designed by Fellner himself, was strictly early French Rennaissance (meubles Henri IT), but with the difference that leather was used as well as plush.

Four doors opened out of the sitting room, three into his suite and one directly into the concert hall to the Academy of Music. A marble stove

and a bench the upholstery of which was cross-stitched in faded green stood opposite the windows bordering the glassed-in verandah. A magnificent rug, a present from Count Albert Apponyi, Ödön Mihalovich and Frigyes Harkányi was at the centre. A gas chandelier hanging from the ceiling was a present from the Mocsonyi brothers. The two pianos sent by Bösendorfer were on the right, near the windows overlooking Sugár út. That is where the harmonium was placed which had been brought from his rooms in Hal tér.

The meubles Henri II were four armchairs, two chairs, a straddle-legged stool, an ottoman and a cardtable. Two of the armchairs were covered in brown leather and peacock-blue plush, and two in dark green leather and dark red plush. Peacockblue plush was used for the upholstery of the straddle-legged stool. The card-table, also dark red plush, was covered in a cloth of exceptional beauty: brown with dark red plush embroidered in Holbein stitches. The ottoman upholstery was brown shot with gold and dark red plush. It had four cushions of which three were dark red and one peacock blue; all satin-stitched. The seats of the two piano stools were of cane inter-woven with silk. Liszt preferred to play sitting on a cane-seat. Both the windows and the french window onto Sugár út were hung with curtains of great originality. They were satin stitched and trimmed in cream lace. The embroideries were the work of fifteen ladies. With the exception of the cloth covering the straddle-legged stool (which was designed by Fellner himself), they followed old Hungarian embroidery motifs which the director of the Museum of Applied Arts had taught them. These

motifs were very different from those in the fashionable salons of Budapest. The revival of old Hungarian embroidery was fashionable in high society. Fellner had this in mind when designing the furniture, but fortunately he managed to avoid the over-use of embroidery.

Around this time, or a little later, two very beautiful chests (containing some of Liszt’s scores) were presented by Sophie Menter. They were among the original pieces in the salon. A miniature bronze statue of Beethoven which he had received from the Austrian Beethoven Commemorative Committee as a token of appreciation for his recital in Vienna in 1877 stood in one corner. The original could not have been commissioned had Liszt not generously foregone his fee on that occasion. Two crayon drawings, illustrations of the Dante Symphony and “St Francis over the \Vaves” by Gustave Dóré were among the pictures in the salon.

The dining-room (to the right of the sitting room) was less luxurious. Its valuables were the fine editions, memorial wreaths and other objects, all kept in two glass-cases.

The door out of the dining-room led into the bedroomstudy. It had the appearance of a small museum. Liszt’s library was kept there. What he needed for corresjxindenee and composing was on a desk and on a small table beside it. Frameo portraits and other souvenirs were placed on the desk. A marble statue of St Elizabeth of Thuringia stood in a niche above the desk. Portraits, landscapes and caricatures were on the walls. A tapestry of great value decorated the wall above the bed. A prie diew stood near the bed, with presents received from Pope Pius IX in 1869; a prayer-book and a key to Vatican

city, as well as some bronze statuettes. A piano table from Bösendorfer had an extendable two octave keyboard and a Chaiselongue. Returning to the sitting room one could walk directly on to the podium of the concert hall of the new Academy of Music. At first there were two Bösendorfer pianos there, and later a piano which was a gift to Liszt from the Clrickering Company in America.

Work was finally finished by the end of 1880. On 15 January of the new year, Liszt left Rome for Budapest. He broke his journey in Venice, and then came from there through Trieste and Fiume by a direct fast train. The journey took about twentynine hours.

On his arrival and on the two days following, his rooms were awash with flowers. On that very day, January 20th, he wrote to Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgeinstein: “This morning I arrived. As I did not wish to be of trouble to anyone, I restrained myself and informed no one as to the day and hour of my arrival. Nevertheless, Zichy and Ábrányi were waiting for me at the station and took me to my new lodgings which are decorated in perfect taste. You must surely know from the papers that some ten ladies have beautifully embroidered my armchairs and divans to make them worthy of a prince’s palace. Balzac would have taken pleasure in discribing their monograms, wreaths and symbols. Many friends have presented me with rugs, which are in harmony with the curtains and with the symphonic whole of all the hung and fixed finery. Each of them is surpassed by that most precious and valuable talisman rug you embroidered in Weimar. (It is on the wall above my bed). His Eminence Cardinal Hohenlohe’s present is a wonderful coverlet with flowere, is on my bed in the daytime. In the sitting room, a lovely», china vase, a present from the Princess Wrede, is on the table and is the neighbour of your Notre Dame de Lourdes by Lassarre.”

Right up to his death Liszt spent every winter in Sugár út. Quite a number of his valuables have survived, the most important being, of course, his scores and books.

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