I hear from Paris that at all the street corners there they are selling a little pamphlet for a sou entitled "Le seul moyen de ne pas mourir le 13 Juin a 1'apparition de la Comete." ["The only means how not to die on the 13th of June at the appearance of the comet.">[ The only means is to drown oneself on the 12th of June. Much of the good advice which is given to me by the critics is very like this seul moyen. Yet we will not drown ourselves—not even in the lukewarm waters of criticism—and will also for the future stand firm on our own legs with a good conscience.
I had still much more to say to you, but the letter has become so long that I should not like to take up any more of your time. It is to be hoped that we shall see each other in the course of this summer, when we shall be able again to talk over everything to our hearts' content. Meanwhile I thank you again warmly for your friendship, and remain yours from my heart.
F. Liszt
What you tell me of your idea for Daniel [Liszt's son] is very agreeable and soothing. I must beg the Princess to correspond with you in reference to the matter. My decision to send D. to Vienna, in order to finish his law there, and to entrust him to your protection, is pretty much unchanged.
Weymar, March 26th, 1857
In the next number of Brendel's paper appears a long letter from R. Wagner on my individuality as a composer, which will be of interest to you.
181. To Georg Schariezer, Vice-President of the Church Musical Society at the St. Martin's Coronation Church in Pressburg
[From a copy of Herr Stadthauptmann Johann Batka in Pressburg.— The Church Musical Society, which has been in existence since 1833, and which undertakes the performance of classical instrumental Masses during the service every Sunday and saint's day, performed Beethoven's Grand Mass as early as 1835, and many times since, and has given Liszt's Gran Mass every year since 1872.]
Dear Sir,
The friendly intention of the highly renowned Pressburg Kirchenmusikverein [Church Musical Society] to give a performance of my "Missa Solemnis" is an uncommon pleasure to me, and I send Your Honor my special thanks for the kind letter with which you have honored me in the name of the Kirchenmusikverein. Much as I should like to meet your wishes without any ceremony, and to send you the score and parts at once, yet I am constrained to beg for a long delay, for the reason that the score, together with the pianoforte arrangement, is obliged to remain for some months longer in the Royal State Printing House in Vienna, and I cannot get the parts copied out afresh until the publication of the work next September. The copies which were used at Gran and Prague have been lost, and several essential alterations which I have finally made in the score necessitate the making of an entirely new copy.