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Updated: May 11, 2025
George Sand, Countess D'Agoult, and others, could persuade him to appear before large mixed audiences. His genius only shone unconstrained as a player in the society of a few chosen intimate friends, with whom he felt a perfect sympathy, artistic, social, and intellectual.
I will tell you of her immense and secret devotion to these two men, and you will agree that there is nothing in common between angels and devils. All the follies she has committed are claims to glory in the eyes of great and beautiful souls. She has been the dupe of la Dorval, Bocage, Lamenais, etc.; through the same sentiment she is the dupe of Liszt and Madame d'Agoult.
Simon, a tale dedicated to Madame d'Agoult, and published in the Revue des Deux Mondes, 1836 a graceful story, of no high pretentions is noticeable as marking the commencement of a decided and agreeable change in the tone of George Sand's fiction.
We will pass lightly over this decade of his career, merely stating briefly that the lady the beautiful Countess d'Agoult, captivated by the brilliant talents of the Hungarian virtuoso, left her husband and child, and became for ten years the faithful companion of his travels and tours over Europe.
When Liszt had made his concert trip to Paris, the comtesse had awaited him at Sand's home. Then, after his famous duel with Thalberg the weapons being pianos he joined the group at Nohant, where Chopin and Sand, and Liszt and D'Agoult, and such guests as they gathered there, led a life of elaborate entertainment which made Nohant as famous as another Trianon.
The comtesse died of pleurisy in 1876, at the age of seventy-one. How long these sweethearts of musicians last! Thus closes the chapter of Liszt's affairs with the Comtesse d'Agoult. It had lasted, all things considered, surprisingly long five years. A pleasant note of character was sounded by Liszt, which rings him to the difficult love affair of Robert Schumann.
The King, however, objected, as "he could not have the Marquis d'Agoult in the same carriage with himself; the governess of the royal children, who was to accompany them, having refused to abandon her privilege of constantly remaining with her charge." See "De Bouille," pp. 307 and 334.
Both being Catholics, it was necessary to experience a change of heart and become Protestants. He exclaimed one day: "Si nous étions Protestants" but the comtesse crushed this hope with a sharp "La Comtesse d'Agoult ne sera jamais Madame Liszt." Liszt bowed to the inevitable, and kept together his many patches of honour as well as he was permitted.
In the remarkable group of musicians, poets, and artists who were assembled at that time in Paris, and who mutually inspired one another a group which included Liszt, Meyerbeer, Hiller, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Heine, George Sand, the Countess D'Agoult, Delacroix, etc. there were no doubt not a few who knew what a rare genius their friend Chopin was.
He was very much in demand in Paris as an artist. In 1835 he carried the Comtesse d'Agoult off from a ball, and went with her to Geneva. He remained in Geneva until 1839, when his triumphal progresses through Europe commenced. In 1848 he became Kapellmeister in Weimar.
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