Dezső Legány

After retiring from the concert platform the previous year, Franz Liszt
visited Hungary for the first time in May 1848. He travelled from
Weimar with the Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein and spent several
days in Vienna before leaving for Kismarton (now Eisenstadt, Austria).
There they visited the Franciscan monk Szaniszló József Albach ( 1795-
1853), whom Liszt had known since his childhood. To Albach Liszt
dedicated his Mass for male chorus and organ. Later he dedicated to
Albach two other works: a Pater noster and an Ave Maria. From
Kismarton Liszt and the Princess left for Doborján (now Raiding,
Austria) where, after visiting Liszt's birthplace, both of them returned to
Weimar. ¹

§

Eight years passed, however, before Liszt next visited Hungary.
This does not mean that he forgot his native land during those years, or
that the Hungarians forgot him. There were many reasons which
prevented him from undertaking an Hungarian sojourn. One of them was
that, as a composer and conducter living and working in and around
Weimar, he had very little spare time. Another may have been politically
motivated: he did not want to go to a country where, after the War of
Independence had been put down by the united Austrian and Russian
armies, many people whom he esteemed had been executed. In memory
of these executions Liszt composed his Funérailles for piano in October
1849--the same month Count Lajos Batthyány in Pest, thirteen generals
of the Hungarian army in Arad, and many other people had been put to
death at the command of the bloodthirsty Austrian general, Baron Julius
Jakob Haynau ( 1786-1853) and the Viennese court. Better perhaps, Liszt
may have thought, to wait to visit Hungary until a more favorable time. ²

An excellent opportunity eventually presented itself when Liszt
received a letter from Bishop János Scitovszky ( 1785-1866) at the
beginning of 1855. Liszt had known Scitovszky during his tour of