. - .
With the proofs of my third piece on the "Prophete" I will also
send you all the pieces on it (piano and voice) which you have
been so good as to lend me, as well as the piano score, which I
don't require any more; for, unless I should have a success which
I dare not hope for (for these three pieces), and an express
order from you for another series of three pieces, which I could
easily extract from that vast score, I shall make this the end of
my work on the "Prophete." I come at last to a question, not at
all serious, but somewhat embarrassing for me, - that of fixing
the price of the manuscripts that you are so good as to print. I
confess that this is my "quart d'heure de Rabelais!" [The "quart
d'heure de Rabelais" refers to an incident in his life, and
means, in round terms, the moment of paying - i.e., any
disagreeable moment.] In order not to prolong it for you, allow
me to tell you without further ceremony that the whole of the six
works together, which are as follows: -
Lieder of Beethoven, Lieder-Cyclus of Beethoven, Consolations
(six numbers), Illustrations of the "Prophete" (three numbers),
published by your house, are worth, according to my estimation,
80-100 louis d'or.
If this price does not seem disproportionate to you, as I am
pleased to think it will not, and if it suits you to publish
other pieces of my composition, I shall have the pleasure of
sending you in the course of the year: -
1. A "Morceau de Concert"(for piano without orchestra), composed
for the competition of the Paris Conservatoire, 1850.
2. The complete series of the Beethoven Symphonies, of which you
have as yet only published the "Pastorale" and the "C minor." (In
the supposition that this publication will suit your house, I
will beg you to make the necessary arrangements from now onwards
with Mr. Haslinger; perhaps it will even be expedient that the
Symphony in A (7th), which Haslinger published several years ago
from the arrangement that I had made, should reappear in its
proper place in the complete series of the symphonies.)
3. Bach's six fugues (for organ with pedals), arranged for piano
alone.
In the middle of February I shall send you the complete
manuscript of my little volume on Chopin, and a little later in
the same month we shall set ourselves to work here on the study
of Schubert's opera, the performance of which will take place in
the first days of April. If, as I do not doubt, the performance
of the "Prophete" draws you to Dresden, I shall certainly have
the pleasure of seeing you there, for I have just begged Mr. de
Luttichau to be so good as to reserve me a place for that
evening, and I shall not fail to be there.
