Liszt’s daughter Blandine wrote to Liszt’s companion Carolyne von Sayne-Wittgenstein
on 27 May 1861 from Paris about French composer Charles Gounod: ‘Gounod is very
friendly and enthusiastic about my father’s music. He played him his Sonata dedicated to
Robert Schumann and Liszt’s ‘Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude.’ (Safflé and
Deaville, page 113). Liszt was in Paris from 10 May to 8 June 1861. It was his first visit
to Paris in more than seven years. ‘At the home of the Metternichs Liszt dined with
Gounod, who had brought along with him the score of his latest opera, Faust, a work
which was already the talk of the town. Liszt wrote: ‘I presented him with his waltz for
dessert – to the great entertainment of those listening.’ (Walker, page 539)
On 24 August 1864, three days after the opening concert of the Karlsruhe Festival at the
Court Opera House, Bülow’s pupil Alide Topp played for Liszt who wrote:
‘[She] is quite simply a marvel. Yesterday she played for me by heart my Sonata and the
‘Mephisto’ Waltz in a way which enchanted me.’
English pianist and Liszt pupil Walter Bache (1842-1888) often heard Liszt play his own
works. In March 1865 the twenty-three year old Liszt pupil heard the composer play his
Sonata in Rome for a group of pupils, and perhaps in April 1869 in the Boesendorfer
salon in Vienna. Bache was with Liszt for seventeen summers in Rome and back home
in England performed and enthusiastically promoted Liszt’s works including the Sonata.
On Monday 3 May 1869 the seventeen year old Liszt pupil Georg Leitert (1852-1902),
later to study at Weimar with Liszt, played Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata and the
Liszt Sonata in the small auditorium of the Concert hall in Budapest winning applause for
himself and the composer. Liszt pupil Sophie Menter (1846-1918) was present as were
the composer and his close musical acquaintances. (Legány)
On Sunday 8 January 1871, at one of Liszt’s musical mornings in the hall of the
Presbytery of the Inner City Parish Church, Budapest, the eighteen year old Liszt pupil
Róbert Freund (1852-1936) played the Liszt Sonata and Liszt himself played some of his
own arrangements. (Legány)
Robert Freund had studied with Moscheles, and for two summers with Schumann’s
friend Wensel who may have provided an introduction to Brahms. In 1869 Freund
studied in Berlin under Tausig. When Freund was in Budapest in 1870, Liszt arrived in
December for a stay of several months.
Freund continues in his unpublished memoirs (Source: ‘Etelka Freund’ (1879-1977) by
Allan Evans: website ‘Arbiterrecords’):
‘After having stood in vain several times below [Liszt’s window] (he stayed in the old
parish house – now gone), I finally mustered enough courage, entered the house where I
ran into his servant in the stairwell, and was promptly received. I requested permission to
play something for him and, in reply to his question as to what I would play, I said “the B
minor Sonata” – a piece rather unknown at the time. He didn’t even seem remotely to