Article on Letter to the Editor Written by Gottshalk

The “cronique de New-York” prints a lengthy, humourous letter to the editor written in French by Gottschalk. With irony and sarcasm, he complains about his strenuous life touring the country, his lack of time to eat, the uncultivated (but eager to learn) audiences he finds in the Midwest, and the young ladies who demand he play “The Last Hope,”which was then his most famous piece, apparently practiced by many female piano students.  The following is a selection of excerpts.  Occasionally he uses English words (for humorous purposes).  Those words appear here in italics.

            On his busy schedule: “I spend some 10, 15, 18 hours [a day] on the train.  Often I arrive just in time for the concert; I have my baggage sent directly to the concert hall. [I barely have] enough time to dress up and start quickly. . . . I hurry: Banjo, Trovatore, Berceuse follow each other rapidly, but not fast enough to fulfill my desire to hasten the time to eat.  But, alas, cruel destiny reveals itself, in the form . . . of Strakosh, [who says], in the midle of my gastronomic dreams, ‘We must leave promptly.’ . . . I then curse at the divinities of the Styx, the impresarios, the piano makers, and the inventor of music. . . . Last week, I subsisted for eighteen hours only on mint pastilles and half a dozen apples.”

            On audiences: “I see, of course, all kinds of audiences.  Sometimes we arrive in villages where no concerts have ever been given.  In those cases, we generally have a very big audience. . . . I doubt there is a country in the world where one can find such primitive audiences with such a disposition to learn. . . . One time, in a small town in Ohio, a charming young lady and her mother spent the whole concert watching my feet. . . . [F]inally I realized that the reason for their giggling was the movements of my feet using the pedals. . . . [T]hey did not know the use of those’apendages.’ . . . [A] man seeing my grand piano being moved asked me what I called that ‘big accordion.’ . . . But these exceptions are not numerous, [and instead I have seen] how civilization has progressed in our country.  There is no village, no matter how insignificant it is, where one or more pianos can’t be found.

            On his repertory: he complains about how sick he is of playing the same pieces over and over, mentioning that “Whispering Winds, by Wollenhaupt, Silver Spring, by Mason, Les Cloches du monastère, by Lefebre Wely, and . . . my own The Last Hope are here in a state of calamity. . . . I had . . . resolved to ban [The Last Hope] from my concerts, but, alas! I received, during an intermission (in a small village in Wisconsin, I think) a note where someone had squibbled ‘Will Mr. Gottschalk oblige thirty six [!!] young ladies who have studied The Last Hope by playing said piece!!! I resigned to the fatality and played The Last Hope.”