* * * * *
I have read and studied your Overture (“Melusine”) with ever-growing
interest; and let me say, in the fewest of words, that it is a splendid
work. It is marked by vigorous and spirited conception, unity, and
originality. Thus impressed, I proceeded to the first rehearsal, after
having gone through it privately with Mori. But it was not an easy
matter to moderate the orchestra in the _piano_ parts; especially at the
outset they would make a desperate plunge, and the trumpets were
somewhat surprised at having to fall in with their 7th on C. I winced
and groaned, and made them begin again three times. The contrasting
storms went as if Neptune held the sceptre; but when the voices of the
Sirens were to disarm that boisterous ruler, I had to call for _piano,
piano! piano!_ at the top of my voice, bending down to the ground, _à
la_ Beethoven,[27] and in vain trying to restrain the ferocious violins
and basses. However, at a second reading things went better. The work
was studied with the liveliest interest, and received with the fullest
appreciation. I hope to bring out the lights and shades still better at
the performance. You have given the horns and trumpets, alternately, the
[Illustration: musical notation]
which they rendered splendidly with stopping and damping.
After yours I had Berlioz’s Overture, “Les Francs Juges,” to conduct. We
were all curious to know what the result of French genius would be. I
say French, for so far no other country but France has recognized
Berlioz as a genius. But, oh! what a rattling of brass, fit for the
Porte Saint-Martin! What cruel, wicked scoring! as if to prove that our
ancestors were no better than pedants! And, oh! again, for the contrast
of the middle subject, that would console us with a vaudeville melody,
such as you could not hear to more advantage in “L’Ours et le Pacha,” or
the “Viennese in Berlin.” Then the mystic element,--a progression of
screeching harmonies, unintelligible to all but the March cats! To show
that something terrible is agitating the fevered brain of the composer,
an apoplectic stroke of the big drum shakes to shivers the efforts of
the whole orchestra, as also the auditory nerves of the assembled
audience....
Our “Gipsies’ March” is out,--in London at Cramer’s, in Paris at
Schlesinger’s, in Leipzig at Kistner’s. Kistner has sent a copy in our
name to Frau von Goethe, to whom we have dedicated the piece. You
approve of that dedication to her, don’t you? Your half-share of the
proceeds is, eight Napoleons from Schlesinger, eight Louis d’or from
Kistner, and fifteen to twenty pounds from Cramer.
I will carefully keep the account; so, if you want money, draw on your
banker and friend,