In conclusion one more request, dear friend. Do me the kindness
to be perfectly free and open and regardless of consequences in
the discussion of my works. Do not imagine that the slightest
vanity comes over me or impels me. I have long ago done with all
that sort of thing. So long as you allow that I possess the
necessary musical equipments to create freely in Art, as I gather
from your letter that you do, I can but be grateful to you for
all else, even were it severe blame. I have often expressed my
opinion to my friends that, even if all my compositions failed to
succeed (which I neither affirm nor deny), they would not on that
account be quite without their use, owing to the stir and impetus
which they would give to the further development of Art. This
consciousness so completely satisfies me that I can consistently
persevere and go on composing.
With all respect and attachment I remain,
Yours most sincerely,
F. Liszt
Weymar, September 3rd, 1859
If the Koenigsberg Academy does not take alarm at my name (as has
indeed been the case in other places, owing to the foolish
prattle of the critics), they might try the "Prometheus" choruses
there by-and-by. They are to be given almost directly (at the end
of October) at Zwickau, and probably later on in Leipzig, where I
shall then also have them published.
