(August 15, 1812, to Bettina von Arnim.)
69. “These pianoforte players have their coteries whom they often join; there they are praised continually,—and there’s an end of art!”
(Conversation with Tomaschek, October, 1814.)
70. “We Germans have too few dramatically trained singers for the part of Leonore. They are too cold and unfeeling; the Italians sing and act with body and soul.”
(1824, in Baden, to Freudenberg, an organist from Breslau.)
71. “If he is a master of his instrument I rank an organist amongst the first of virtuosi. I too, played the organ a great deal when I was young, but my nerves would not stand the power of the gigantic instrument.”
(To Freudenberg, in Baden.)
72. “I never wrote noisy music. For my instrumental works I need an orchestra of about sixty good musicians. I am convinced that only such a number can bring out the quickly changing graduations in performance.”
(Reported by Schindler.)
73. “A Requiem ought to be quiet music,—it needs no trump of doom; memories of the dead require no hubbub.”