Unfortunately, I Have Been Hindered By Multifarious
Occupations From Getting Through The Proofs Of My Symphonic Poems
Quickly; And, Besides
This, these proofs have taken up a great
deal of my time; for although I had not omitted, in the
First
proofs, to have things altered in the scores many times, yet many
things looked different to me in print from what I wished them to
be, and I had to try them over again plainly with the orchestra,
have them written out again, and ask for fresh proofs. At last
the six first numbers have come out, and even if they are very
badly done I can no longer do them otherwise or better. No doubt
you have already received from Hartel the copy destined for you,
and within a short time you will receive the somewhat freely
arranged pianoforte edition - for two pianos - of the same things.
I tried at first a four-hand arrangement of them, which would be
much more practicable for sale, but gave up this mutilation, as I
saw that in four-hand pieces the working into one another of the
hands stands too much in the way of my tone-picture. The two-
piano arrangement sounds passable, if I mistake not. Bulow,
Bronsart, Pruckner, etc., have played it several times, and you
will assuredly find in Konigsberg a partner (masculine or
feminine) who will beguile you into it. I shall be very glad if
the things please you somewhat. I have labored too much in order
to realize the requisite proportion and harmony, for them to be
able to give me any other pleasure if some sympathy, and also
some understanding of the spirit of them on the part of my few
friends, does not fall to my share. However that may be, tell me,
dear friend, quite candidly, without any compliments, what
impression the pieces have made on you. The three numbers which
will appear next are still longer, worse, and more venturesome.
But I cannot let matters rest there, for these nine numbers serve
only as Prolegomena [Prologue, preface] to the "Faust" and
"Dante" Symphonies. The former is already settled and finished,
and the second more than half written out. "Away, away," [Written
in English.] with Mazeppa's horse, regardless of the lazy hack
that sticks in the mud of old patterns!
Let me soon hear from you how you dispose of your time in
Konigsberg. In Frau Knopp you have got an excellent Ortrude. What
have you been giving this winter? Do you keep on a good
understanding with Marpurg? Is Pabst remaining in K.?
Don't forget also to let me have your Methode (I forget the exact
title) through Hartel. Although I have grown too old and too lazy
to improve my piano-playing, yet I will get some good out of it
for my pupils, amongst whom are two or three really brave,
earnest fellows. Beyond that I have very little to tell you of
Weymar. Since Berlioz' stay here, which gave occasion for the
Litolff cudgel-smashing newspaper rubbish, Carl Formes and
Johanna Wagner have been playing here; the latter with well-
deserved and extraordinary success in Gluck's "Orpheus" and
"Iphigenia in Aulis" (in Wagner's translation and arrangement).
This evening the "Sleeping Beauty" (a fairy-tale epic), by
Joachim Raff, will be given.
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