The "Sneaking Brood" (As You Well Name The People) Can Henceforth
Growl As Much As They Like.
What does that matter to us, so long
as we remain true and faithful to our task?
In the performance
last year at Jena (at the secular celebration of the University)
I had the opportunity of convincing myself how capital your
instrumentation of the Mass sounds, and I especially beg that you
will not leave out one iota of it in the oboes or trombones. The
organ alone is not sufficient, especially if there is a large
chorus, and the completion of the accompaniment could not have
been better accomplished than you have done it.
N.B. - At the Jena performance I hit upon the following
alterations at the conclusion of the Gloria:
[Here, Liszt illustrates with a vocal score musical excerpt]
If you are agreed with this, then let this simplification serve
for Vienna. I can only send you the score and parts of the
"Prometheus" choruses towards the middle of November, as Klitzsch
(in Zwickau) has arranged a performance of this work on the 12th
to the 14th November, and I have already placed the parts at his
disposal. If this delay does not hinder your kind intention of
having the "Prometheus" choruses performed in Vienna, I will send
the whole packet of parts to your address in Vienna, free,
immediately after the Zwickau Concert. For the poem belonging to
it, which I will also send with the rest, it is desirable that
you should get an adequate tragic declaimer. In Dresden Davison
undertook this, and in Zwickau Frau Ritter will declaim it. I am
writing today to Herr von Bulow, but rather doubt whether he will
be able to accept your invitation for this winter. According to
what he told me lately, he thinks of going to Warsaw and Paris in
the latter part of the winter. With regard to the eventual choice
of a piece you may, moreover, pacify the strict gentlemen of the
Committee. In case Bulow should make his appearance at the
Philharmonic Concert he will, on my advice, not play my A major
Concerto (nor any other composition of mine), but just simply one
of the Bach or Beethoven Concertos. My intimate friends know
perfectly well that it is not by any means my desire to push
myself into any concert programme whatever...With regard to the
scores and parts that you want, I have noted on a separate sheet
which ones I have at my disposal, and where you can obtain the
rest. In conclusion allow me once more to beg you kindly to let
me have a couple of lines about the performance of the Mass.
Perhaps some things may occur to you which might still be altered
and simplified. Do not deprive me, dear friend, of your good
advice, which I shall be glad to make use of in the score edition
of the Mass which must shortly ensue. Naturally your name will
stand on the title-page, and the responsibility of the
instrumentation will be remitted to you.
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