A
pianino will do quite well, and I beg you most earnestly not to
put yourself to any inconvenience for my things. In my orchestral
works I have taken the larger measure of instrumentation (Paris,
Vienna, Berlin, Dresden - or, if you prefer personal names,
Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Berlioz); but in spite of this
most of them can be performed in smaller proportions, as has been
most strikingly shown, for instance, in Sondershausen. The chief
thing before all else is the conductor; if he be a good and
reliable musician things may then be well managed in a variety of
ways - and in "Tasso" especially the harp is hardly wanted. So
don't bother yourself any more about it, and soothe Bronsart.
If I am not mistaken, I think I have now answered all the
principal questions in your letter. As to what concerns personal
matters we will talk about that shortly. I shall write one of
these next days to Schuberth (as soon as I have finished my
revisions for Schott). He has made me a proposal to which I am
inclined to agree. [The rest of the letter is missing.]
252. To Dr. Franz Brendel
Dear friend,
I expressly wish that Weissheimer should accompany the songs
which Fraulein Genast will sing at the Euterpe soiree. I have
especially commissioned him to make the motive of this wish of
mine, if necessary, still clearer to you.
