On this date in 1841, not for the first or last time, Franz Liszt came to the rescue. Liszt performed Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto in Paris, with Hector Berlioz conducting. The occasion was a fundraising project for a Beethoven monument to be erected in Bonn. Up to that time, it was not the custom to raise statues to cultural icons. Schiller finally got his only a few years earlier.
Then as now, virtually every musician revered Beethoven. Even so, some were reluctant to put forth the effort to make the monument a reality. Those who did were met with a tepid response.
Enter Liszt. When the project was in danger of floundering through lack of financial support, he personally donated over 10,000 francs. Until then, the total amount collected in France was barely 425 francs! More significantly, he returned from his early retirement from performing to put Europe on its collective ear with a series of concerts and recitals. Among these were a pair of duo piano programs with Frédéric Chopin.
Ca-Ching!
The monument would finally be unveiled on August 12, 1845, in honor of the 75th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Beethoven died in 1827, at the age of 56. On top of everything else, Liszt wrote a special work for the occasion, the “Festival Cantata for the Inauguration of the Beethoven Monument in Bonn.” The title pretty much says it all.
Robert Schumann, who had something of a cagey relationship with Liszt, actually dedicated his “Fantasie in C” to the cause AND to the pianist. Felix Mendelssohn contributed his “Variations sérieuses.”
The unveiling of the monument was to be the high point of a three-day Beethoven Festival. A month before the event, the planning committee realized that there was not a suitable venue in all of Bonn that would accommodate 3000 attendees. At Liszt’s urging, an architect was engaged and a new hall was built, Liszt picking up the tab himself. By the time construction began, it was less than two weeks before the festival, and builders had to work around the clock in order to complete the structure in time.
The unveiling took place in the morning, with Liszt again performing the “Emperor” concerto in the afternoon. He followed that up by conducting Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The next day, his “Festive Cantata” was featured as part of a four-hour concert.
You would think, after all he had poured into the occasion, the Bonn authorities would have kissed his feet. However, Lola Montez crashed a reception at the Hotel Der Stern, danced on a table, and insisted that she was Liszt’s personal guest. This embarrassed Liszt and created a bit of a scandal, so that the man who did the most to make both the Beethoven monument and festival realities was not invited back for the centenary celebrations.
This kind of thing happened to Liszt all the time. Is it any wonder that, also on this date, in 1865, Liszt took the cloth, Pope Pius IX conferring upon him the title of “Abbé?”
