In the studying of the Mass he will best ascertain
which passages most require a supplement-accompaniment.
Owing to my long-continued illness, which obliges me for the most
part to keep my bed, I have not yet been able to hear his
Quartet, which he was so good as to send me; but I shall shortly
give it over to our excellent Quartet Society (Singer, Cossmann,
Stor, Walbruhl) for a performance.
By today's post I send you an alteration in the Agnus Dei of my
Gran Mass, which I beg you to hand to the compositor. The voice
parts remain as before, but in the pauses I make the first
subject come in again in the basses, which makes the movement
more completely one whole. The compositor must work by this proof
for the whole Agnus Dei, and only revert to the general score
where the "Dona nobis pacem" (Allegro moderato) comes in.
Wagner's letter has been published in a separate form, and you
will receive several copies of it, as I believe you take interest
in it, and will make a good use of it.
The Princess has been a prisoner to her bed for more than three
weeks, and is suffering from acute rheumatism. Princess Marie has
also been poorly, so that the whole house has been very dismal.
The last few days I have pulled myself together, and have had my
choruses to Herder's "Prometheus" performed, which have
unexpectedly made a very good impression, and were received with
unusual sympathy. In the course of the summer I shall have the
whole work printed. The eight choruses, together with the
[spoken] text, which has been skillfully compiled after Herder
and Aeschylus [By Richard Pohl], and the preliminary Symphonic
Poem (No. 5 of those published by Hartel), take about an hour and
a half in performance. If I am not mistaken, the work will, later
on, approve itself in larger concerts.
About the 15th May I shall be going to Aix-la-Chapelle, to
conduct the Musical Festival there at Whitsuntide. That will be
another good opportunity for many papers to abuse me, and to let
off their bile! - If the programme which I shall put forward is
realized at the September Festival you must come here and hear it
with me.
My mother writes from Paris that Blandine has been living with
the Countess d'A. since the 20th of this month. Cosima's marriage
with H. von Bulow will probably take place before September.
About Daniel the Princess will write to you fully when she is
better.
God be with you and yours. Yours from my heart,
F. Liszt
Weimar, April 27th, 1857
183. To Frau von Kaulbach
[The letter, together with the following one, written by Kaulbach
to Liszt in the fifties, was published in the Tagliche Rundschau
[Daily Review], and afterwards in the Neue Berline Musikzeitung
[Berlin New Musical Paper] of March 19th, 1891.
