Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Autograph letter signed (‘F. Liszt’) to an unnamed journal editor, n.p., n.d. [c.1833]
In French. 4 pages, 232 x 183mm, bifolium. Provenance: Sotheby's, 29 & 30 April 1980, lot 390.

Liszt defends his interpretation of a Weber concerto in response to a concert review: ‘In your last article, after much that was excessively kind to me, you believe yourself entitled to make a slight accusation of charlatanism [...] No one is unaware that Weber often made use of the right that genius gave him to innovate, even in form. The well-known titles of Invitation à la Valse and Momento capriccioso are proof of this. As for the masterpiece I played last Thursday, the great composer performed it in Vienna shortly after the immense success of the Freyschutz, and at the time all the connoisseurs and critics criticised the fact that this so-called concerto was not a real concerto, that it was irregularly cut, and that it could at most be called a Fantasie [...]. Please, Monsieur le rédacteur, if you think it appropriate, insert this small complaint in your next issue, and once again accept the assurance of my most distinguished sentiments’.

Liszt writes that his performing career of twelve years is ‘un peu plus de la moitié de ma vie’, making him younger than twenty-four years old at the time of writing. The piece which he had performed was probably Weber’s Konzertstück in F minor (1821), which the composer completed the same morning of the premiere of Der Freischütz.