* * * * *
Your letter of the 12th broke in on me like a ray of sunshine piercing
an autumn fog. Were I subject to the blues, like so many sufferers in
this fog-ridden city, your cheerful lines would have set me up for any
length of time.
Your appreciation of my “Studies” gives me much pleasure. I did not feel
called upon to aim at popularity with the general public, nor did I
venture to believe that my work addressed itself to the more restricted
circle of connoisseurs. That you, of all the Select, should welcome me
with a Bravo, strengthens my faith in myself. Delighted I am, too, to
find that you, with your master eye, should at once have hit on the
passages that seem to me my more successful inspirations.
We cannot get over our regrets to have missed you in London and
Birmingham; your triumphs in the latter place are being echoed all over
England. Your “Saint Paul,” your pianoforte Concerto, and your
performances on the organ, one and all, are unreservedly praised. I am
glad to see that your Oratorio is announced by the Sacred Harmonic
Society as “the popular Oratorio.” We so-called Directors of the
Philharmonic Society are thirsting for something new in the line of
Symphonies or Overtures. It is as hopeless a task to satisfy the wishes
of the Society as it was in times gone by for the Danaïdes to fill their
tub. Some would have us supply them with half a dozen posthumous
Symphonies of Beethoven, complete or fragmentary; others want a place
found on the programme for every attempt at composition made by native
talent.
You have promised us your A major Symphony in its new shape, and we mean
to keep you to your word, and hope you will not let us wait long. It is
a great favorite of mine, and I feel as if I were going to meet a
beautiful girl in a new dress, and were wondering whether that would
make me admire her more than before. _Nous verrons, nous entendrons._
In the mean while I hold in safe keeping my Beauty attired as I first
knew her (the original score), and remain faithful to her.
Liszt writes from Milan that several of his compositions are to be
published in London, and that he intends dedicating one of them to me.
May my fingers grow by then! He wishes to become better known in this
country, as he proposes coming here shortly.
The “Gazette Musicale” exalts Berlioz’s Requiem above all music of all
times. A new vista, it says, is opened! You know I am not a believer in
this genius; tell me whether anything of his has been to your taste.
Good-by; if my letter is welcome, reward me by soon letting me have one
in return.
Ever your friend,