* * * * *
Moscheles writes to say that he has secured rooms for Mendelssohn at No.
203 Great Portland Street, Oxford Street. He urges him to bring with him
for performance in London some of his compositions, more especially his
Overture to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and his sixteen-part Cantata,
“Hora est,” and adds that he will encounter no difficulty at the
custom-house.
On the 21st of April Mendelssohn arrived in London; on the 23d Moscheles
notes in his diary, “I took him a round of calls to introduce him to
Chappell, Cramer, Collard, etc.;” and then follow daily memoranda,
recording pleasant hours spent in and out of Moscheles’s house. The
following note refers to Mendelssohn’s offers of assistance in copying
out a Fantasia for pianoforte and orchestra, “Strains of the Scottish
Bards,” which Moscheles had just written and dedicated to Sir Walter
Scott (Op. 80),--a composition which had been put on the programme of
Moscheles’s concert announced for the 7th of May.
* * * * *
LONDON, April 25, 1829.
Might I request you, dear Mr. Moscheles, to send me by bearer the
promised part of your Fantasia to copy? I hope to have some time to
spare to-day and to-morrow morning, and will endeavor to distinguish
myself to the best of my ability by putting large heads to my notes and
being generally correct, so that I may frequently be allowed to assist
you; and if you are satisfied with my copying, I trust you will prove it
by giving me further orders. I only beg you will send me some sheets of
music paper, as I do not know your size and have none by me.
I regret that Professor Rosen,[1] who has just called on me, has
reckoned on my coming to dinner to-day, and I must therefore request you
to apologize for my absence to Mrs. Moscheles. At any rate, I shall be
with you on Saturday at about eight o’clock, as you have allowed me to
do so.