Till the end of October my address will be: 43, Via dei Greci,
Roma (Italia). From the middle of November: Budapest (Hungary).
216. To Frau Ingeborg von Bronsart in Hanover
Dear Kind Friend,
I am much touched by your charming letter, and grieved at not being able to accept your friendly invitation. That would certainly be more agreeable than to attend to all sorts of duties; but, since three parts of these are self-imposed, I am all the more bent upon fulfilling them; and, in order to keep faith with myself, I am returning to Budapest before the middle of November, and shall remain there till April. Perhaps I am less useless there than elsewhere; it is an idea or an illusion of mine.
What excellent and beautiful things the two Hans are going to do at Hanover! [Hans von Bulow had been appointed Hofcapellmeister in Hanover, where Hans von Bronsart was Intendant of the theater.] It is a matter of lively joy to me, and next summer I hope that my ears will benefit by the new musical regime all in honor of Art, and the example of which will be of service and bear fruit far and wide.
Last week I forwarded from the author to your address a copy of Sgambati's Quintet, dedicated to Bulow; and also a Fugue (preceded by a grand Prelude and ending in a Chorale—the same which Guido d'Arezzo made use of to name the six notes of the gamut: "Ut queant taxis resonare fibris, etc.!"…One of the two Hans will tell you the rest of the hymn, which is always chanted on the 24th June, the feast of St. John the Baptist).
Once on a time you used to cultivate fugues with maestria: will that of Sgambati seem to you classical enough? I almost doubt it, since in these matters your strictness is extreme. In consequence of H.M. the Queen of the Netherlands being in mourning, the "auditions" at the chateau of Loo do not take place this year. I shall therefore go straight from here to Pest.
Please give my love to your children, and believe me to be for all time the heartily devoted friend of their papa and mamma.
F. Liszt
(Villa d'Este,) October 2lst, 1877