I am
hungering and thirsting to go back to Hungary. Every recollection
of it has taken deep root in my soul...And yet I cannot go back!
I am grieved that you can tell me nothing better of Lannoy. I
cannot understand how that is possible. The news of the Queen has
given me great pleasure - if you hear anything more about her let
me know. I have a kind of weakness for her.
About the Cantata I will write to you fully later.
Farewell, and be happy if possible, dear Schober; write again
soon, and remain ever my friend.
F. L.
Excuse the spelling and writing of these lines! You know that I
never write German; Tobias [Tobias Haslinger, the Vienna music
publisher.] is, I think, the only one who gets German letters
from me.
Manchester, December 5th, 1840
31. To Breitkopf and Hartel
London, May 7th, 1841
Schlesinger has just told me that Mendelssohn's Melodies which I
sent you from London have come out. I can't tell you, my dear Mr.
Hartel, how much I am put out by this precipitate publication.
Independently of the material wrong it does me (for before
sending them to you these Melodies were sold in London and
Paris), I am thus unable to keep my word to Beale and Richault,
who expected to publish them simultaneously with you.
The evil being irremediable I have only thought how to get a
prompt vengeance out of it. You will tell me later on if you
think it was really a Christian vengeance.
The matter is this: I have just added a tremendous cadenza, three
pages long, in small notes, and anentire Coda, almost as long, to
Beethoven's "Adelaide". I played it all without being hissed at
the concert given at the Paris Conservatoire for the Beethoven
Monument, and I intend to play it in London, and in Germany and
Russia. Schlesinger has printed all this medley, such as it is.
Will you do the same? In that case, as I care chiefly for your
edition, I will beg you to have the last Coda printed in small
notes as an Ossia, without taking away anything from the present
edition, so that the purists can play the integral text only, if
the commentary is displeasing to them.
It was certainly a very delicate matter to touch "Adelaide", and
yet it seemed to me necessary to venture. Have I done it with
propriety and taste? Competent judges will decide.
In any case I beg you not to let any one but Mr. Schumann look
over your edition.
In conclusion allow me to remind you that I was rather badly paid
for "Adelaide" formerly, and if you should think proper to send
me a draft on a London bank, fair towards you and myself, I shall
always receive it with a "new pleasure" - to quote the favorite
words of His Majesty the King of the French.
