I have long wanted to repeat my hearty thanks to you for the faithful, noble devotion which you have always bravely and decidedly shown to the Weimar Period of Progression in the years 1849-58. The third volume of your collected writings "Hector Berlioz" affords another proof of this devotion, which is highly to be valued in contrast with the far too general wishy-washy absence of opinion.
After the unheard-of success of more than 20 performances of "The Damnation of Faust" by the concert societies of Lamoureux, Pasdeloup, Colonne, in the same season in Paris—not counting the theater, for which this work is not suitable, the French Berlioz literature is increasing. You know Hippeau's octavo book "Berlioz Intime," which is shortly to be followed by a second, "Berlioz Artiste." I wish this to profit by your work.
In reading the first volume I was painfully affected by several passages out of Berlioz's letters, in which the discord and broken-heartedness of his early years are only too apparent. He could not grasp the just idea that a genius cannot hope to exist with impunity, and that a new thing cannot at once expect to please the ancient order of things.
For the rest, there lies in his complaints against the Parisian "gredins et cretins" [fools and scoundrels], whom he might also find in other places, a large share of injustice. In spite of his exaggerated leniency in favor of a foreign country, the fact remains that up to the present time no European composer has received such distinctions from his own country as Berlioz did from France. Compare the position of Beethoven, Weber, Schubert, Schumann, with that of Berlioz. In the case of Beethoven the Archduke Rudolf alone bespoke the "Missa solemnis." The profit from his rarely given concerts was small, and at the last he turned to the London Philharmonic Society for support.
Weber acted as Court conductor in Dresden, and wrote his Oberon at the invitation of London.
Schubert's marvellous productiveness was badly paid by the publishers; other favorable conditions had he none.
Schumann's biography testifies no patriotic enthusiasm for his works during his lifetime. His position as musical conductor at Dusseldorf was by no means a brilliant one…
It was otherwise with Mendelssohn, who had private means, and who, by his delicate and just eclecticism, clinging to Bach, Handel, and even Beethoven, obtained continual success in England and Germany. King William IV. called him to Berlin at the same time with Cornelius, [This means the painter Cornelius.—Trans.] Kaulbach, Schelling, and Meyerbeer, which he did not enjoy any better than Leipzig.
I make no further mention of Meyerbeer here, because he owes his universal success chiefly to Paris. It was there that all his Operas, from "Robert" and "The Huguenots" to his posthumous "L'Africaine," were first performed—with the exception of "Das Feldlager in Schlesien" [The Camp in Silesia], which also sparkled later in Paris as "L'etoile du Nord."
Now let us see how things went with Berlioz in his native land.