My dear Mason,
Although I do not know at what stage of your brilliant artistic peregrinations these lines will find you, yet I want you to know that I am most sincerely and affectionately obliged to you for the kind remembrance you keep of me, and of which the papers you send me give such good testimony. "The Musical Gazette" of New York, in particular, has given me a real satisfaction, not only on account of the personally kind and flattering things it contains about me, but also because that paper seems to ingraft a superior and excellent direction on to opinion in your country.
Now you know, my dear Mason, that I have no other pride than to serve, as far as in me lies, the good cause of Art, and whenever I find intelligent men conscientiously making efforts for the same end I rejoice and am comforted by the good example they give me. Will you please give my very sincere compliments and thanks to your brother, who, I suppose, has taken the editorship-in- chief of, the Musical Gazette, and if he would like to have some communications from Weymar on what is going on of interest in the musical world of Germany I will let him have them with great pleasure through Mr. Pohl, who, by the way, no longer lives in Dresden (where the numbers of the Musical Gazette were addressed to him by mistake), but in the Kaufstrasse, Weymar. His wife, being one of the best harpists whom I know, is, now among the virtuosi of our orchestra, which is a sensible improvement both for opera and concerts.—
A propos of concerts, I will send you in a few days the programme of a series of Symphonic performances which ought to have been established here some years ago, and to which I consider myself in honor as in duty bound to give a definite impetus at the beginning of the year 1855.—Toward the end of January I expect Berlioz. We shall then hear his trilogy of "L'Enfance du Christ," [The Childhood of Christ] of which you already know "La Fuite en Egypte," [The Flight into Egypt] to which he has added two other little Oratorios called "Le Songe d'Herode" [Herod's Dream] and "L'Arrivee a Sais." [The Arrival at Sais]—His dramatic Symphony of Faust (in four parts, with solos and chorus) will also be given entire while he is here.
As regards visits of artists last month which were a pleasure to me personally, I must mention Clara Schumann and Litolff. In Brendel's paper (Neue Zeitschrift) you will find an article signed with my name on Madame Schumann, whom I have again heard with that sympathy and thoroughly admiring esteem which her talent commands. As for Litolff, I confess that he made a great impression on me. His Fourth Symphonic Concerto (in manuscript) is a very remarkable composition, and he played it in such a masterly manner, with so much verve, such boldness and certainty, that it gave me very great pleasure. If there is something of the quadruped in Dreyschock's marvelous execution (and this comparison should by no means vex him: is not a lion as much a quadruped as a poodle?), there is certainly something winged in Litolff's execution, which has, moreover, all the superiority over Dreyschock's which a biped with ideas, imagination, and sensibility has over another biped who fancies that he possesses a surfeit of them all—often very embarrassing!
Do you still continue your intimate relations with old Cognac in the New World, my dear Mason?—Allow me again to recommend you measure, which is an essential quality for musicians. In truth, I am not very much qualified to preach to you the quantity of this quantity; for, if I remember rightly, I employed a good deal of Tempo rubato in the times when I was giving my concerts (a business that I would not begin again for anything in the world), and again, quite lately, I have written a long Symphony in three parts entitled "Faust" (without text or vocal parts), in which the horrible measures of 7/8, 7/4, 5/4, alternate with C and 3/4.—
In virtue of which I conclude that you ought to limit yourself to 7/8ths of a small bottle of old Cognac in the evening, and never to go beyond five quarters!—
Raff, in his first volume of the "Wagner-Frage," has realized something like five quarters of doctrinal sufficiency; but that is an example that can hardly be recommended for imitation in a critical matter, and especially in Cognac and other spirituous matters.
Pardon me, my dear Mason, for these bad jokes, which however my good intentions justify, and try to bear yourself valiantly both morally and physically, which is the heartfelt wish of
Your very affectionate