Madame,
Your talent of observation is as incontestable as your very charming amiability. With a sagacious eye you observed my predilection for the silent "compatriot," apparently rather sombre, but of excellent composition at bottom. [A box of caviare, which Madame Rubinstein had sent to Liszt.] Doubtless the advantages which appertain to it in its own right were peculiarly enhanced by the charm of your salon, where I hope to see it again and often. Meanwhile, since you are good enough to favor me with its uninterrupted company, I beg to assure you that I shall appreciate it even beyond its specific merits, which are moreover very real. Will you be so good as to renew to Rubinstein the expression of my old and admiring friendship, and accept, Madame, the most affectionate thanks and respects of your very devoted servant,
F. Liszt
Pest, Tuesday, January 9th, 1872
115. To Edmund von Mihalovich
Very Dear Friend,
Your new Song "Du bist wie eine Blume" ["Thou'rt like a tender flower">[ is most welcome, and you have succeeded perfectly with it. It only remains to add a ninth to this No. 8, so that the volume may contain the number of the Muses. I hope that you will shortly bring me this No. 9 yourself, for we want you at the Tonkunstler-Versammlung (also the ninth), which will be held at Cassel from the 26th to the 30th June. Your "Geisterschiff" figures on the programme of the first concert, and Riedel (our President) will write to you officially to invite you to fill the post of pilot and captain of your "phantom ship," in other words, to conduct the orchestra. At the same concert Volkmann's Overture "Richard III.," Raff's "Waldsymphonie," Rubinstein's Overture to "Faust" and a new Violin Concerto of Raff will be performed. Wilhelmj will play the violin part, and I hope that other soloists of renown will also lend us their assistance. The programme of this year's Tonkunstler-Versammlung contains, besides these, a new old piece of goods—the "Elizabeth;" and an antiquated new one—"The Seven Words of O[ur]. S[aviour]., composed by Schutz at the end of the sixteenth century, and the manuscript of which was recently discovered at Cassel itself.
The "Elizabeth" will be given at Erfurt on the 2nd May, and on the 8th Riedel gives Berlioz's "Requiem" at Leipzig, for the benefit of our "Beethoven Scholarship." It goes without saying that I shall be present at these two performances.
.—. Schuberth has been very ill at New York, and is not yet sufficiently well to set out on his journey. I am expecting him here towards the middle of June: he will come to Cassel, where we will settle the little matter of your manuscripts in five minutes.
Yours in all friendship,