I do not always agree with you in this view, but on this occasion
I hope I have hit the happy medium.
Accept my best thanks for the friendly interest you have shown in
my orchestral compositions in the concert direction of Wiesbaden.
Whether I shall be able to comply with several invitations for
concerts in the coming winter depends on a good many
circumstances which I cannot quite settle beforehand. But in any
case I shall be glad if my compositions become more widely
spread, and perhaps during your present stay in Wiesbaden the
opportunity may offer of conducting one or two numbers of the
Symphonic Poems, in accordance with your previous intentions.
At the end of next week at latest I set out for Gran, to conduct
my Mass on the 31st of August (in celebration of the consecration
of the Basilica). Toward the middle of September I go to Zurich,
where, if I am not prevented by any special hindrances, for which
I always have to be prepared, I think of spending a couple of
weeks with Wagner.
Fare you well, dear Raff, and send soon some tidings of yourself
to
Yours most truly,
F. Liszt
Weymar, July 31st, 1856.
Hans von Bulow has been with me a couple of days, and goes to
Baden-Baden the day after tomorrow. Winterberger is scoring an
extraordinary triumph by his organ-playing in Holland, and played
the Prophete and BACH Fugue [Fugue on the name of Bach] before an
audience of two thousand people with immense success.
Do not forget to give my friendly greetings to Genast [the
celebrated Weimar actor, afterwards Raff's father-in-law] and my
homage to Mademoiselle Doris [Afterwards Raff's wife, an
excellent actress].
159. To Anton Rubinstein
It is a very great regret to me, my dear Rubinstein, to have to
miss your visit the day after tomorrow, of which you sent me word
by Mr. Hallberger. You know what a sincere pleasure it always is
to me to see you again, and what a lively interest I take in your
new works. This time in particular I am at high tension about the
completion of your Paradise Lost. If the continuation and the end
correspond with the beginning which you showed me, you have
reason to be really and truly satisfied with yourself, and you
may sleep in peace conscious of having written a grand and
beautiful work.
Unfortunately, whatever curiosity I have to be quite assured of
this, I cannot stay here any longer, and must start tomorrow
morning for Gran, where, in spite of a lot of useless talk, the
thread of which you have perhaps followed in the papers, they
will end after all by giving my Mass on the 31st of August (the
day of the consecration of the Basilica). You see that I have
only just time to set the thing on foot, and cannot, without the
risk of unpleasantness, defer my arrival beyond the day which,
moreover, I officially fixed about a week ago.
