Perhaps I shall find you still there,
which would be a very great pleasure. We would sing together the
choruses, solos, and orchestra of your new score with all our
might! And Winterberger (who has just had a fabulous success at
Rotterdam, Haarlem, etc., where he has given several organ
concerts largely attended) might also be one of the party, for I
expect to make the journey from Zurich with him, and on our way
we shall explore the organs of Ulm, Stuttgart, Friburg, and
Winterthur.
Will you let me know by a few lines what your plans are for the
end of the summer and autumn? Shall you return to Leipzig? Will
it suit you to try your Oratorio first at Weymar? In this latter
case, which you may be sure will be the most agreeable to me, I
will try to facilitate the arrangements that have to be made as
regards copies, and to save you the expense of copying. Toward
the end of October, at latest, I shall be back here; and, if we
do not meet before, I count on your not letting this year elapse
without coming again for a few days to your room at the
Altenburg, where you are certain of being always most cordially
welcome, for we shall make no changes.
If you have a quarter of an hour to spare do write a piece of a
few pages for Hallberger, without making him wait any longer, for
I especially want one of your loose works to appear in the first
copy of the "Pianoforte."
The Princess bids me give you her best compliments, to which I
add the expression of frank and cordial friendship of your very
devoted
F. Liszt
August 6th, 1856.
Have you received my things in score? Continue to address me at
Weymar.
160. To Joachim Raff
You would be making a great mistake if you put any mistrust in my
conduct, and I can assure you with a perfectly good conscience
that to me there is nothing more agreeable and more to be desired
than to rely entirely on one's friends. With regard to the
Wiesbaden affair, I must necessarily await a definite invitation
from the concert directors before I can give a definite answer. I
think I have too often shown that I am ready and willing, for it
to be necessary for me to say more on that point. I was again at
Sondershausen last Sunday, and promised to go there again in the
course of next winter. The orchestra there, under its conductor
Stein (whose acquaintance I had not made until now), has
performed two of my Symphonic Poems - "Les Preludes" and
"Mazeppa" - with really uncommon spirit and excellence. Should
there be a similar willingness in Wiesbaden, it will of course be
a pleasure to me to accept the invitation of the concert
directors; so also I am greatly obliged to you for being so
helpful toward the spread and sympathetic understanding of my
works.
