The
latter is as follows: -
First day: Messiah by Handel. - Second day: Mass (in D major) by
Beethoven.
The former as follows: -
First day: Mass by Beethoven (preceded by one of the shorter
works of Handel - or possibly by a Cantata by Bach [?]).
Second day: Schubert's Symphony (in C); one of the larger choral
works of Schumann (say, perhaps, "The Rose's Pilgrimage" - or one
of the Ballades), and, as I should propose, one of the longer
scenes from Berlioz' "Faust," and one or other of my Symphonic
Poems.
You will not expect of me, dear Herr Capellmeister, that I should
go off into a great panegyric about Handel and, if you caught me
doing it, you might stop me immediately with the words of the
ancient Greek who did not want any more praises of Homer - "You
praise him, but who is thinking of blaming him?" The fullness and
glory of this musical majesty is as uncontested as the pleasant,
emulating, easily attainable performance of the "Messiah," a
chef-d'oeuvre, which has been for years the "daily bread," so to
speak, of great and small vocal societies both in England and
Germany. With the exception of Haydn's "Creation" there is
scarcely a work of that kind existing which could show such
countless performances. I, for my part, chose the "Messiah" for
performance again in Weymar (in August 1850) - partly because
Herder had interested himself in the preparation of the German
text - and in the previous August they celebrated the Middle-Rhine
Musical Festival at Darmstadt with it. This latter circumstance
enhances my general consideration as to the artistic
judiciousness of a repeated performance of the Messiah, up to a
special point in regard to the Aix-la-Chapelle Festival, and
therefore I should like the question put to the Committee
"whether they consider that, in the interests of the 'fresher
life of the Musical Festival there,' it can be advantageous for
the Lower-Rhine to repeat it after the Middle-Rhine."
The sentence in the letter of the Committee, in which the hope is
cherished and expressed that "the celebrated Frau Lind-
Goldschmidt may be engaged," leads me to an almost more serious
consideration. -
Do not be alarmed, dear sir, and do not be in the least afraid
that I am going to struggle, in the usual style of our
unchivalrous Don Quixote of musical criticism, with the windmill
of virtuosity. You could not fairly expect this of me either, for
I have never concealed that, since the grapes of virtuosity could
not be made sour for me, I should take no pleasure whatever in
finding them sour in somebody else's mouth.
