By your warmly attached
F. Liszt
Budapest, November, 1876
205. To Marianne Brandt, Kammersangerin in Berlin
December 3rd, 1876
Dear honored Friend,
What is always very pleasant and dear to me is your goodwill. With my hearty thanks for it I send today the little notice. "Jeanne d'Arc au bucher" ["Joan of Arc at the Stake">[ came out a few months ago at Schott's (Mainz). This short dramatic Scena can be sung with either pianoforte or orchestral accompaniment. The chorus is conspicuous by its absence. Johanna [Jeanne] alone has to perform. N.B.—Only the second edition (published 1876) is to be used; not the first, which also came out at Schott's 30 years ago. Schott sent me no copy of it; it was too much trouble for Berlin to correspond with Mainz via Budapest. Herr Capellmeister Mannstadt [Now Capellmeister at the Court theater in Wiesbaden.] will therefore be so kind as to order the "Johanna" (full score and piano score) at Schott's, if you really have the goodness to sing it. [It was done in honor of Liszt's presence in Berlin, which was celebrated by the performance of some of his works.] There might possibly be special feelings now in Berlin against it, in spite of Schiller's Tragedy, "Die Jungfrau von Orleans." Therefore think the matter over.
For years past I have been mostly obliged to dissuade people from the performance of my large works. The general public usually goes by what is said by the critics, whose most prominent organs among the newspapers are hostile to me. Why should I go into useless quarrels and thereby compromise my friends? Peace and order are the first duties of citizens, which I have doubly to fulfil both as honorable citizen and artist.
As for the rest, dear friend, if it suits you to sing any one of my musical compositions, be assured of the sincerest thanks of
Yours most truly,