Address always to Haslinger's.
Adieu, my dear excellent Schober. Remain as good to me as you are dear!
Yours ever affectionately,
F. Liszt
Remember me most kindly to Ziegesar and Wolff.
51. To Alexander Seroff
[Russian musical critic and composer (1820-71)]
I am most grateful, my dear sir, for the kind remembrance you keep of me since Petersburg, [Seroff was at that time in the Crimea.] and I beg you to excuse me a thousand times for not having replied sooner to your most charming and interesting letter. As the musical opinions on which you are kind enough to enlarge have for long years past been completely my own, it is needless for me to discuss them today with you. There could, at most, be only one point in which we must differ perceptibly, but as that one point is my own simple individuality you will quite understand that I feel much embarrassed with my subject, and that I get out of it in the most ordinary manner, by thanking you very sincerely for the too flattering opinion that you have formed about me.
The Overture to "Coriolanus" is one of those masterpieces sui generis, on a solid foundation, without antecedent or sequel in analogous works. Does it remind you of Shakespeare's exposition of the tragedy of the same name (Act i., Scene I)? It is the only pendant to it that I know in the productions of human genius. Read it again, and compare it as you are thinking of it. You are worthy of those noble emotions of Art, by the fervent zeal with which you worship its creed. Your piano score of the Overture to Coriolanus does all honor to your artist conscience, and shows a rare and patient intelligence which is indispensable to bringing this task to a satisfactory end. If I should publish my version of the same Overture (it must be among my papers in Germany) I shall beg your permission to send you, through Prince Dolgorouki [Prince Argontinski-Dolgorouki, a devoted lover of music. A friend of Liszt's: had rich property in the Crimea.] (I can't tell you half the good I think of him), an annotated copy, which I will beg you to add to the insignificant autograph which you really estimate too highly in attaching so affectionate a price to it! Accept once more, my dear sir, my most affectionate regards.
F. Liszt