Sale 2461 - Autographs, November 7, 2017

INVITATIONTOTHE MUSICIANS’ CONGRESS 173 c   LISZT, FRANZ. Autograph Letter Signed, “F. Liszt,” to publisher of the Allge- meinen deutschen Musikzeitung Otto Lessmann, in German and French, offering to dedicate a symphonic Canone perpetuo in thanks if only he himself were more familiar with the canon form, inviting him to accompany him to the Musicians’ Congress in Zürich, and adding that he is reading and recommending his paper. 2 pages, 8vo, written on the recto and verso of a single sheet; inlaid, faint scattered staining, horizontal fold.With the address panel from the original envelope, mounted to a larger sheet. Weimar, 23 April 1882 [2,000/3,000] “. . . If the form of a canon were not so unfamiliar to me, I would dedicate to you a symphonic thanks- giving Canone perpetuo . . . . “This year the Musicians’ Congress will take place at Zürich—where I will be present as a man who is superfluously necessary (in the superfluous manner which is necessary according toVoltaire ), since the establishment of the Musicians’ Congress with Brendel 20 years ago—that is to say, this time it will take place in Zürich from July 9 to 12. “Let us go there together . . . .” In 1859, the first Musicians’ Congress (Tonkünstler-Versammlung) met in Leipzig, where Karl Franz Brendel, editor of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , delivered a speech commemorating that magazine’s 25th anniversary; in that address, Brendel introduced a name for the recent developments in the music being made in Germany and elsewhere: the “New German School.”