“You, my dear Liszt, know nothing of the uncertainties of the wandering musician. You never have a moment’s anxiety as to whether, when you get to a town, there will be a decent orchestra or a theatre ready for you. To parody Louis XIV. you can say:
“‘Orchestra, chorus, conductor are myself.’
“A grand piano and a large hall are the extent of your needs. But a poor travelling composer like myself depends upon a combination most difficult to arrange and at any moment liable to be upset. How much thought, precaution, fatigue it all requires. Yet look at the reward!
“Think of the compensation of playing on an orchestra, of having under one’s hand this vast living instrument!
“You virtuosi are princes and kings by the grace of God, you are born on the steps of the throne; we composers must fight and conquer before we reign. Yet the difficulties and dangers surmounted add brilliance to our victories, and we should perhaps be happier than you—if we always had soldiers.
“But this is a digression.
“At Stuttgart I waited, hardly knowing what plans to make, until a favourable answer came to my letter of enquiry addressed to Weimar. Meanwhile I had another experience of the coldness of Germans towards Beethoven.
“Lindpaintner conducted a magnificent performance of the Leonore overture at the Redoute Society’s concert, which elicited but the faintest applause, and I heard a gentleman say afterwards that he wished they would give Haydn’s symphonies instead of that noisy music without any tune in it!!!
“Really now, we do not own such Philistines as that in Paris!