Liszt on Mendelssohn

This story is “reported to have come from Franz Liszt,” and it’s best taken cum grano salis—especially the sharper digs. Still, it gives a revealing snapshot of how Liszt liked to narrate musical rivalries.

Liszt claimed that Mendelssohn once drew a cartoon of the devil playing the G‑minor concerto with five hammers on each hand. Why? Liszt says he had performed the concerto from the manuscript and “improved” a few passages he found too simple, which irritated Mendelssohn—who, unlike Schumann or Chopin, would supposedly take no advice from anyone.

Liszt then recalls a Paris dinner at the Comtesse de P.’s. Asked to play, Mendelssohn sat at the piano and—surprisingly—started Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 4, playing it so badly that guests who had heard Liszt play it burst out laughing. Mendelssohn grew angry, improvised a quick ending, and switched to his own Capriccio in F‑sharp minor (Op. 5), which he played with elegance.

When Mendelssohn then asked Liszt to play something “new and striking,” Liszt decided on playful revenge: he announced he would perform Mendelssohn’s Capriccio “arranged for concert performance” by himself—and did so on the spot. Instead of exploding, Mendelssohn laughed, examined Liszt’s right hand, and joked that his only vindication would have been to challenge Liszt to boxing—but after seeing that hand, he would abandon the idea. The awkward moment ended in good humor.