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LEIPZIG, April 20, 1846.
MY DEAR FRIEND,--Many thanks for your last letter, which I received
yesterday. Although I dare say you have heard through Klingemann that I
hope to complete my Oratorio, I write myself to-day to tell you so. If
my health continues as satisfactory as it is at present, I feel
confident I can be ready in time, and will give some sheets to the
copyist within the next few days, with a view of forwarding them to you
without delay. Towards Whitsuntide I trust the chief pieces of the first
part and some of the second will be in your hands. That will be soon
enough, will it not? I am still undecided whether I shall have the parts
printed, as Mr. Moore desires. Why should they not be copied out just as
well? If, contrary to expectation, I should not have finished, I have
enough other manuscripts in readiness, so that I might, as Mr. Moore
suggests, conduct some other new piece of mine. My “Athalie,” for
instance, is now in England, and, if I am not mistaken, is being
translated by Bartholomew; so, if the worst comes to the worst, those
Choruses could be sung. But, as I said before, I trust that will not be
necessary; and if it is not otherwise decreed, I most surely mean to go
to Birmingham. How delightful to see you all again! Excuse my writing so
hurriedly; I am quite incapable of putting together a sensible
letter.--But just one more question: Is it not quite time that you
should give me your orders for Leipzig? That you will be here by next
autumn, I take for granted, and my wife and I ought to set about making
all the necessary preparations. So please let us know.
Thanks for your kind and friendly words in reference to my work, and a
thousand thanks for that beautiful four-hand Sonata of yours, the proofs
of which I corrected and then got as a present into the bargain. I only
wish the time had come already for us to sit together at the piano and
play it.