Next week I shall again spend a few days in Weimar (or Wilhelmsthal); thence I go to pay my mother a visit in Paris, and by 18th October, at latest, I shall be back in Rome.
Yours respectfully and sincerely,
F. Liszt
Schloss Lowenberg, September 14th, 1864
I requested Herr Kahnt to return to you with my best thanks the copy of the Symphonic Poems which was kindly forwarded to me in Carlsruhe.
36. To Breitkopf and Hartel
Dear Herr Stadtrath, [Town Councillor]
In compliance with the wish you so kindly express, I will again make an attempt to "adapt" the 4th movement of the 9th Symphony to the piano, and soon after my return to Rome will set to work upon the required tentative. Let us hope that the variation of the proverb: "Tant va la cruche a l'eau qu'a la fin…elle s'emplit"—may prove true. [So often goes the pitcher to the water that at last it is filled.]
While talking of various readings allow me to draw your attention to an exceptionally valuable collection. A very carefully and well-trained musician with whom I have been acquainted for many years past—Herr Franz Kroll (in Berlin)—has, with industrious and unceasing perseverance, been collecting, copying and arranging for publication the noteworthy various readings of Bach's manuscripts of the "Wohltemperiertes Clavier." [The well- tempered Piano] Last week he showed me several of them, and I became convinced of the substantial interest of the collection and encouraged friend Kroll to send you a full account of them. In now enclosing his letter to you—written at my instigation—I take upon myself, with pleasure and the fullest conviction, the musical duty of advocating the publication of these various Bach readings, and of heartily recommending Kroll's work as an essentially useful, complementary addition to your admirable edition of the "Bach-Gesellschaft" [The Bach Society].
Pray accept, dear Herr Stadtrath, the assurance of my sincere esteem and devotion.