A Speedy Meeting To Us, And Friendly Greetings And Thanks From
Yours ever,
F. Liszt
Aix-La-Chappelle, Wednesday, June 3rd, 1857
185. To Johann von Herbeck
Weymar, June 12th, 1857
Dear Sir and Friend,
On my return from the Aix-la-Chapelle Musical Festival - which may
be considered successful on the whole, from the very fact that
opponents do not conceal their dissatisfaction - I find here your
kind letter, for which I send you my warmest thanks. My excellent
cousin and friend, Dr. Eduard Liszt, had already informed me of
your kind willingness to undertake the instrumentation of my
Vocal Mass: I am entirely in accord with the various sketches you
so kindly lay before me in your letter, and only beg you, dear
sir, to complete this work according to your own best judgment,
without any small considerations. I certainly should not wish the
organ to be absent from it, but it is a perfectly correct idea to
give those passages in the Kyrie, Suscipe deprecationem,
Crucifixus, and others besides,
[A score appears here]
to the wind exclusively. When I expressed to my cousin my wish to
place the instrumentation of the Mass in your hands, it was
because I was convinced beforehand of the excellence of your
work. The examples which you have given me in your letter show me
that I was not wrong, and I shall rejoice most sincerely when the
moment arrives for us to go through the whole score together.
Eduard intends to visit me here towards the end of August, and if
it is possible for you to come to Weymar at the same time with
him, and to stay a few days in my house, it will be very
agreeable to me.
On the 3rd, 4th, and 5th September the Jubilee festivities of the
Grand Duke Carl August will take place here, on which occasion I
propose to perform several of my later orchestral compositions,
and also the chorus "An die Kiinstler." ["To Artists."] Eduard
will give you a more detailed programme of the Festival later on.
Should you, however, be prevented from being present at it, it
needs no special assurance to you that your visit will be very
welcome to me any day, and I will do my best that you shall not
suffer from ennui in Weymar. [Herbeck accepted the invitation.]
May I also beg you to send me, when you have an opportunity, and
if possible very soon, the parts of your Quartet, [D minor,
unpublished] which pleases me so much, and which, both in its
mood and in its writing of the different parts, is so eminently
noble and finely sustained. In case you have not been able to
arrange for the copying of the parts, it will be a pleasure to me
to get them copied here. Our Weymar quartet, Messrs. Singer,
Stor, Walbruhl, and Cossmann, is competent for this work, and you
will, I trust, be satisfied with the performance. Unfortunately
Cossmann's illness has prevented our usual quartet-productions
for some months past, and Cossmann was also unable to take part
in the Aix-la-Chapelle Musical Festival. But yesterday he told me
that in a few days he should be able to take up his bow again,
and therefore I want them to set to work on your Quartet at once.
To our speedy meeting then, and once more best thanks from yours
in all friendship,
F. Liszt
186. To Countess Rosalie Sauerma, nee Spohr
Your letter gave me great pleasure, dear Countess and admirable
artist, and, though still obliged to keep my bed (which I have
been able to leave so little during the whole winter), I hasten
to reassure you entirely about my state of health. As a fact, I
have never done my obstinate illness the honor of considering it
serious, and now less than ever, for I hope to have entirely got
over it by the end of the week. So do not let us talk about it
any more, and let me tell you at once how sincerely I rejoice in
your projects of being, so to say, in the neighborhood of
Dresden, for it seems to me that, among the towns of Germany, it
is the one in which you will find most charm. I shall certainly
come and pay you my visit there in the course of the winter, and
I hope also that you will not altogether forget your friends of
Weymar.
When you come back here, you will find very little change, but
simply three more Weymarers - Goethe, Schiller, and Wieland - whose
statues will be inaugurated next September, on the occasion of
the celebration of the Jubilee fetes of the Grand Duke Carl
August. They are also planning music for the occasion; and I
predict to you beforehand that you will be able to read all sorts
of unflattering things on this subject, as the music in question
will be in great part my composition. However that may be, I
shall try to have always something better to do than to trouble
myself with what is said or written about me.
How delighted I shall be to hear you again, and to rock myself as
in a hammock to the sound of your arpeggi. You have not, I am
sure, broken off your good habits of work, and your talent is
certain to be more magnificent than ever. Quite lately Madame
Pohl, who played Parish Alvars' Oberon Fantaisie charmingly,
recalled most vividly the remembrance of the delightful hours at
Eilsen and Weymar, which I hope soon to resume at Dresden...Be so
kind as to present my best compliments to your husband and all
your dear ones, and pray accept, dear Countess, the expression of
most affectionate homage from yours very sincerely,
F. Liszt
Weymar, June 22nd, 1857
The Princess W. has been very seriously ill for more than two
months; she is only just convalescent, and bids me give her best
remembrances to you.
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