Dear Friend,
A summons which cannot be put off obliges me to be present at the
Goethe Festival here on the 28th of August, and to undertake the
direction of the musical part.
My first step is naturally to beg you to be so good as to send us
soon the score of your "Faust." If you should be able to spare
any of the voice or orchestral parts it would be a saving of time
to us; but if not we shall willingly submit to getting the parts
copied out as quickly as possible.
Kindly excuse me, dear friend, for the manner in which this
letter contradicts my last. I am very seldom guilty in such a
way, but in this case it does not lie in me, but in the
particulars of the matter itself.
For the rest I can assure you that your "Faust" shall be studied
with the utmost sympathy and accuracy by the orchestra and
chorus. - Herr Montag, the conductor of the Musik-Verein [Musical
Union], is taking up the chorus rehearsals with the greatest
readiness, and the rest will be my affair! - Only, dear friend,
don't delay sending the score and, if possible, the parts.
Sincerely yours,
F. Liszt
Weymar, August 1st, 1849
If your opera is given not later than the 1st of September I
shall certainly come to Leipzig.
63. To Carl Reinecke
Heligoland, September 7th, 1849
I am very sorry, my dear M. Reinecke, not to have met you at
Hamburg. It would have been such a real pleasure to me to make
acquaintance again with your Nonet, and it seems to me, judging
from its antecedents in the form of a Concerto, that by this
decisive transformation it ought to be a most honorably
successful work.
The "Myrthen Lieder" have never been sent to me. If you happen to
have a copy I should be very much obliged if you would send it me
to Schuberth's address.
With regard to the article which has appeared in "La Musique" I
have all sorts of excuses to make to you. The editors of the
paper thought fit, I do not know why, to give it a title which I
completely disavow, and which would certainly have never entered
into my mind. Moreover the printer has not been sparing of
changing several words and omitting others. Such are the
inevitable disadvantages of articles sent by post, and of which
the proof correctors cannot read the writing.
Anyhow, such as it is, I am glad to think that it cannot have
done you any harm in the mind of the French public, which has
customs and requirements that one must know well when one wishes
above all things to serve one's friends by being just to them.
Two numbers of your "Kleine Fantasie-Stucke" have been
distributed, up to about a thousand copies, with the paper "La
Musique," under the title of "Bluettes," - a rather ill-chosen
title to my idea, - but, notwithstanding this title and the words
"adopted by F. Liszt," which the editors have further taken the
responsibility of putting, I am persuaded that this publication
is a good opening (in material) into the musical world of France,
and, looking at this result only, I am charmed to have been able
to contribute to it.
