F. Liszt
Weymar, November 2nd, 1859
224. To Johann von Herbeck.
Dear Friend,
I only returned a few hours ago from Zwickau, and find your friendly letter here, in reply to which I must excuse myself for not having been able to fulfill your wish so soon as I had intended, in respect to the Schubert Marches. This delay, which was very unpleasant to me, was occasioned by an indisposition which obliged me to keep my bed for a whole week at the end of October. The Weymar and Jena Schiller Festivals, following on the top of that, made it utterly impossible for me to get on with the instrumentation of the Marches. But I promise you that you shall have the score by Christmas at latest.
"Prometheus" will present himself to you by the end of this month. If after looking through the score, dear friend, you think the work suitable for a performance in Vienna, I shall be glad. If not, I beg you to tell me so with perfect candor, and without the slightest scruple of thereby wounding my vanity. Whether the stomach of the critics and of the public will be able to digest such a liver cut out of the vulture as this of my "Prometheus," or whether at the very first bars all will not be lost, I cannot determine; but still less would I prepare superfluous disagreeables for you by the performance of my "Tonschmiererei;" [Tone-daubing] of such ill-odor from the beginning!
Decide therefore entirely according to your own judicious opinion—and, whatever that may be, rest assured of the sincere acknowledgment and esteem with which I remain
Yours in all friendship,
F. Liszt
November 18th, 1859