I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of letting you know of the really extraordinary success, not made up, but thoroughly effectual and brilliant, of your wife. [Rosa, nee Agthe, trained by Franz Gotze.] Cologne, Dusseldorf, Bonn, Elberfeld, and the entire neighborhood agree with Aix-la-Chapelle that your wife made the festivity of the Musical Festival; and although success cannot as a rule be considered as a criterion of artistic worth, yet if it be attested so truly and de bon aloi as in this case, and follow that artistic worth, it has something refreshing and strengthening in which we, in trio, can fully rejoice.
A speedy meeting to us, and friendly greetings and thanks from
Yours ever,
F. Liszt
Aix-La-Chappelle, Wednesday, June 3rd, 1857
185. To Johann von Herbeck
Weymar, June 12th, 1857
Dear Sir and Friend,
On my return from the Aix-la-Chapelle Musical Festival—which may be considered successful on the whole, from the very fact that opponents do not conceal their dissatisfaction—I find here your kind letter, for which I send you my warmest thanks. My excellent cousin and friend, Dr. Eduard Liszt, had already informed me of your kind willingness to undertake the instrumentation of my Vocal Mass: I am entirely in accord with the various sketches you so kindly lay before me in your letter, and only beg you, dear sir, to complete this work according to your own best judgment, without any small considerations. I certainly should not wish the organ to be absent from it, but it is a perfectly correct idea to give those passages in the Kyrie, Suscipe deprecationem, Crucifixus, and others besides,
[A score appears here]