Wilhelmsthal, August 25th, 1871
Address Rome, Santa Francesca Romana, Campo Vaccino.
What are Joseph's and your plans for the winter?
111. To Walter Bache
Dear Mr. Bache,
Your kind remembrance of the 22nd October has given me sincere pleasure, for which I thank you cordially. Please excuse me for not telling you oftener by letter my constant feelings of affection for you; the hindrance of occupations and cares drives me, alas! into an extreme parsimony as regards letter writing with my best friends, but I think that is my only omission towards them. To see M. de Bulow again was a real joy to me. His health is improving, and his prodigious maestria at its height. He is going to make a concert tour this winter in Vienna, Pest, Prague, Berlin, etc., and will come to London in May. I hope that the people there will be able to appreciate his superiority in its entirety. Bulow, more than any contemporary artist, takes the lead in celebrity. He is not only a very great virtuoso and musician, but also a veritable sovereign of music. Mme. Laussot, who has the genius of nobility of the heart, also came to fete me on Sunday. I shall see her again at Florence in a fortnight, on my way to Pest, where, as you know, I am henceforth fixed, by royal and national favor. Whether there or at Weimar, I hope we shall meet again next summer, dear Bache, in perfect harmony.
Your very cordially affectionate and devoted
F. Liszt
Rome, October 25th, 1871
Bravo and thanks for your concert programmes, which I beg you to continue sending me.