P.S. - I take the liberty of keeping your edition of the Catalogue
here meanwhile, as it cannot be used for the arrangement of the
Hartel edition.
132. To Anton Rubinstein
Your fugue of this morning, my dear Rubinstein, is very little to
my taste, and I much prefer to it the Preludes that you wrote at
an earlier date in this same room, which, to my great surprise, I
found empty when I came to fetch you for the Berlioz rehearsal.
Is it a fact that this music works on your nerves? And, after the
specimen you had of it the other time at the Court, did the
resolution to hear more of it seem to you too hard to take? Or
have you taken amiss some words I said to you, which, I give you
my word, were nothing but a purely friendly proceeding on my
part? Whatever it may be, I don't want any explanations in
writing, and only send you these few lines to intimate that your
nocturnal flight was not a very agreeable surprise to me, and
that you would have done better in every way to hear the "Fuite
en Egypte" and the "Fantaisie sur la Tempete" of Shakespeare.
Send me tidings of yourself from Vienna (if not sooner), and,
whatever rinforzando of "murrendo" may happen, please don't do a
wrong to the sentiments of sincere esteem and cordial friendship
invariably maintained towards you by
F. Liszt
Weymar, February 21st, 1855.
