Dear Mr. Bache,
I thank you cordially for your kind letter, and beg you to rely always on my feelings of sincere affection and esteem.
It would certainly be a great pleasure to me to see you again in London this summer, yet I could not venture to promise or to keep my promise, and must abstain from either.
Please therefore to make my excuses to the Secretary of the Philharmonic Society, and to thank him for his kind intentions towards me. If an opportunity of realising them should occur later on,—without disappointment or disagreeableness to any one,—I should be much pleased. As regards the present time it is superfluous to give any thought to the proposition you transmit to me, in view of the obligations which will retain me elsewhere. I am even doubtful whether it will be possible for me to accept the invitation of my German friends to the Tonkunstler- Versammlung at Altenburg in July.—
The good news you give me of Klindworth is very pleasant to me. May he remember me sufficiently well to know how much I appreciate him and what an affection I have for him.
Sgambati is very much in fashion this winter, and the fashion is perfectly right in this. He sends you a thousand affectionate greetings, and Lippi, [A Roman pupil of Liszt's] Mdlle. Giuli [Liszt's best lady-pupil in Rome] and the other patients of the "Scuola" [School] hold you in warm remembrance.
Accept also, dear Mr. Bache, the assurance of my very sincere devotion.
F. Liszt
Rome, January 30th, 1868
The performance of my symphonic works in London must, like the concert of the Phil. Society, be postponed. Your zeal in this matter touches me much. I would not wish tosuppress it, and only beg you to moderate it so that it may be all the more fruitful.