Quatre lettres inédites de Charles Gay à Franz Liszt (1837–1838)

The Foundation Istituto Liszt holds in its manuscript collection four unpublished letters from Charles Gay to Franz Liszt. Apart from two other letters from Charles and a late short letter from Liszt held in private collections, this is all that has come down to us from their correspondence, even though their friendship, which began in the mid–1830s, continued until Liszt’s death in 1886. These letters, which are the first to be published, bear witness to a friendship that is not only artistic but also and above all spiritual. Their destinies somehow intersected as Franz Liszt, who longed to be a priest in his youth, embraced the career of a musician, while Charles Gay, who wanted to become a musician and composer, became a prominent prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.

Keywords : Charles Gay’s unpublished letters, Franz Liszt, Liszt’s spirituality