F. Liszt
Weymar, September 8th, 1855
Enclosed are Berlioz' letter and the manuscript of "Sappho."
144. To Moritz Hauptmann
[The celebrated theorist and cantor of the Thomashirche in
Leipzig (1792-1868)]
Very dear Sir,
By the same post I send you, with best and warmest thanks for your friendly letter, the volume of Handel's works which contains the anthems. The second of them, "Zadok the Priest and Nathan the Prophet anointed Solomon King," is a glorious ray of Handel's genius, and one might truly quote, of the first verse of this anthem, the well-known saying, "C'est grand comme le monde." ["It is as great as the world.">[—
The cantata "L'Allegro, il Pensieroso," etc., enchants me less, yet it has interested me much as an important contribution to imitative music; and, if you will kindly allow me, I want to keep the volume here a few days longer and to send it back with the two others.
I agree entirely, on my side, with your excellent criticism of Raimondi's triple oratorio ["Joseph," an oratorio by the Roman composer, consisting of three parts, which was given with great success in the Teatro Argentina in Rome in 1852]. There is little to seek on that road, and still less to find. The silver pfennig (in the Dresden Art-Cabinet), on which ten Pater Noster are engraved, has decidedly the advantage of harmlessness to the public over such outrages to Art, and the Titus Livius, composed by Sechter, will probably have to moulder away very unhistorically as waste-paper. Later on Sechter can write a Requiem for it, together with Improperias over the corruption of the taste of the times, which have found his work so little to their taste.
With the pleasant expectation of greeting you soon in Leipzig, and of repeating to you my best thanks, I remain, my dear sir, with the highest esteem,