Hugo Wolf on the jews

[Gott]

"Things got pretty rough at the last Philharmonic concert. A bitter
battle broke out over Liszt's 'Mephisto Waltz.' It was the standees
and a part of the gallery, resolved to give their all, against the
parterre, the mountain against the marsh. On the one side we had
youth, intelligence, idealism, good judgement, enthusiasm and
conviction; on the other dullness, frivolity, debility, ignorance,
arrogance, materialism. Such were the contending forces.

There was a lot of applause, but a lot of hissing, too. Since, as we
all know, these Semitic hissing sounds traditionally served
the 'chosen people' as shibboleth in combat with their neighbors, it
was not hard to determine who it was that so emphatically proclaimed
both their dissent and their identity. Indeed, these 'chosen people'
habitually make a great show of their exquisite taste. They are
always ready to recognize in Beethoven a good composer. And yet there
are those who see nothing heroic in the courage of such convictions.
What, then, can we call courageous? Let it pass. These excellent and
generous souls will surely enrich the National Guard with a doughty
legion of tailors, and thus be of service to the state. You can take
an oath on that.

To take seriously the ludicrous behavior of these worthy parterre
subscribers toward the works of a genius such as Liszt would be like
punishing children's bad manners with the rack. We are not so cruel.
But it is well to look for what it is that causes the public to
behave like an ill-mannered child and to think like a well-groomed
cad. How is it, we ask, that Liszt's compositions are rejected by the
majority of our degenerate public? The answer is made uncommonly easy
for me, since it is contained in the question. But then why, someone
could object, do Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, etc., appeal to this same
degenerate public? The objection is so banal, the answer so obvious,
that any blockhead could handle it easily. But should someone choose
to ask me what I mean by degenerate public, I accept the challenge
gladly, and am ready with the answer: a degenerate public is one that
is content to be the ward of a degenerate press.

It is a public of newspaper readers. That is the source of all other
evils. That is the source of the thoughtlessness, frivolity,
dependence, distraction, insensibility and, above all, the bias
against those works condemned to death by the press. If this were an
ingenuous public, it would not tolerate for another day the shameful
chains it now fastens to itself voluntarily. But the habit of cud-
chewing has already become too delightful to permit the slightest
effort to use one's own teeth. Thus, this public receives its
impression of a work of art not directly, but from the review in the
newspaper, to be had in concrete form for a patent. Go then to the
apothecary, and buy yourselves some nux vomica or some other
purgative if you want to have an impression. The effect remains
essentially the same, and you spare yourselves the price of the
ticket. And so a public, the despicable tool of a despicable press,
will pass judgement on the works of a genius! A sluggardly mob that
enters the concert hall as if it were a toy store, reduces the
noblest possessions of mankind to idle diversions, and then, if that
is not satisfactory, arrogantly turns its back on the work of art and
ceremoniously hisses...fie, fie, and once again fie!!!

Given such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Liszt's
original compositions have excited a lively 'for' and 'against'
whenever they have been played in Vienna. This time the applause from
the standees was still far from constituting a demonstration when a
few hot headed Philistines signalled, stupidly enough, the
shibboleth. That was pouring oil on fire. The applause grew louder,
and rightly so, since it was directed no less at the splendid
accomplishment of the orchestra and its conductor, Hans Richter, than
at the work itself. And did not the wonderful performance of this
Lisztian composition merit the most extravagant praise? What did
Liszt's admirers do to excite the drowsy parterre to a counter-
demonstration? They were simply giving due honor to service
rendered."

Hugo Wolf
Vienna
25 April 1886