a termination to my stay in Rome, you, dear friend, shall be the first to hear of it.

With hearty greetings to your wife, I remain

Yours in sincere and friendly attachment,

F. Liszt

Rome, July 12th, 1862

Your little commission about Lowenberg shall be attended to. Let me soon have news of you and of my intimate friends again. There is absolutely nothing to tell you from here that could interest you. In spite of the heat I shall spend the summer months in Rome.

7. To Dr. Franz Brendel

[Letters 7, 8, 9, 18, and 24 to Brendel have been partially published in La Mara's "Musikerbriefe" (Letters of Musicians), Vol. II.]

What a delightful bunch of surprises your letter brings me, dear friend! So Pohl has really set to work on the Faust brochure—and Schuberth is actually not going to let the piano-arrangement of the "Faust Symphony" lie in a box till it is out of date. How curious it all sounds, just because it is so exactly the right thing and what I desired!—If you are back in Leipzig please send me soon a couple of copies of the Faust brochure (those numbers of the journal containing Pohl's articles have not reached me), and also send me the 2-pianoforte arrangement of the Faust Symphony (a few copies when convenient). I have as yet received nothing of the parcel which Kahnt announced as having sent me with some of my 4-hand things; and as I have fished out here a very talented young pianist, Sgambati [A pupil of Liszt's, and now one of the first pianoforte players and composers of Italy; has been, since 1871, Professor at the Academia Sta. Cecilia in Rome] by name, who makes a first-rate partner in duets, and who, for example, plays the Dante Symphony boldly and correctly, it would be a pleasure to me to be able to go through the whole cycle of the Symphonic Poems with him. Will you be so good therefore, dear friend, as to ask Hartel for the whole lot in the 2-pianoforte arrangement (a double copy of each Symphonic Poem, for with one copy alone I can do nothing, as I myself can only play the thing from notes!), and also the 4-hand arrangement, with the exception of the "Festklange," which Hartels have already sent me?

Besides these, I expect in the same parcel the Marches which
Schuberth has published (the "Goethe Marsch" and the Duke of
Coburg) and the "Kunstler Festzug" [Artists' procession] (for 4
hands), which I ordered previously.—

The "Legend of St. Elizabeth" is written out to the very last note of the score; I have now only to finish a part of the piano arrangement, and the 4-hand arrangement of the Introduction, the Crusaders' March, and the final procession—which shall be done by the end of this month at latest. Then I send the whole to Weimar to be copied, together with a couple of other smaller manuscripts. What will be its ultimate fate will appear according as…Meanwhile I will try one or two little excursions into the country (to Albano, Frascati, Rocca di Papa—and a little farther still, to the "Macchia serena" near Corneto, where in earlier times much robbery and violence took place!), and before the end of September I hope to be able to set steadily to work again, and to continue my musical deeds of "robbery and murder"! Would that I only could hear, like you, the Sondershausen orchestra, and were able to conjure friend Stein and his brave phalanx into the Colosseum! The locality would assuredly be no less attractive than the "Loh," [The Sondershausen concerts are, as is well known, given in the "Lohgarten."] and Berlioz's Harold Symphony, or Ce que l'on entend sur la montagne [One of Liszt's Symphonic Poems], would sound there quite "sonderschauslich" [curious] [Play of words on Sondershausen and "sonderbar" or "sonderlich"]. I often imagine the orchestra set up there, with the execrated instruments of percussion in an arcade—our well—wishers Rietz, Taubert, and other braggarts of criticism close by (or in the Aquarium!)—the directors of the Deutsche Musik-Verein resting on the "Pulvinare," and the members all around resting on soft cushions, and making a show in the reserved seats of the Subsellia, as senators and ambassadors used to do!—

Tell Stein of this idea, and give him my most friendly thanks for all the intelligent care and pains that he so very kindly gives to my excommunicated compositions. As regards the performances of the Sondershausen orchestra I am quite of your opinion, and I repeat that they are not only not outdone, but are even not often equalled in their sustained richness, their judicious and liberal choice of works, as well as in their precision, drilling, and refinement.—It is only a shame that no suitable concert-hall has been built in Sondershausen. The orchestra has long deserved such an attention; should such a thing ever fall to their lot, pray urge upon Stein to spread out the Podium of the orchestra as far as possible, and not to submit to the usual limited space, as they made the mistake of doing in the Gewandhaus, the Odeonsaal in Munich, etc., etc., and also, alas, in Lowenberg. The concert- hall of the Paris Conservatoire offers in this respect the right proportions, and a good part of the effect produced by the performances there is to be ascribed to this favorable condition.—

According to what I hear Bulow is not disposed to mix himself up in the preliminaries of the next Tonkunstler-Versammlung. Accordingly some one else must be entrusted with the afore- mentioned task in Carlsruhe, although Bulow was the best suited for it. If you do not care to enter at once into direct communication with Devrient, Pohl would be the best man to "pioneer" the way. It would not be any particular trouble to him to go from Baden to Carlsruhe, and to persuade Devrient to favor the matter. This is before all else needful, for without Devrient's co-operation nothing of the sort can be undertaken in Carlsruhe. If the Tonkunstler-Versammlung takes place not out of the theater season, then one or more theatrical performances can be given in conjunction with it, especially of Gluck's Operas; as also an ultra-classical Oratorio of Handel's might well be given over to the Carlsruhe Vocal Unions. .—.

What "astonishing things" are you planning, dear friend? This word excites my curiosity; but, on the other hand, I share your superstition to speak only of actions accomplished ("faits accomplis"). In Schelle you will gain a really valuable colleague. Has his "History of the Sistine Chapel" come out yet? If so, please be so good as to send me the book with the other musical things.—

My daughter, Frau von Bulow, writes to me that Wagner's new work "Die Meistersinger" is a marvel, and amongst other things she says:—

"These 'Meistersinger' are, to Wagner's other conceptions, much the same as the 'Winter's Tale' is to Shakespeare's other works. Its phantasy is found in gaiety and drollery, and it has called up the Nuremberg of the Middle Ages, with its guilds, its poet- artisans, its pedants, its cavaliers, to draw forth the most fresh laughter in the midst of the highest, the most ideal, poetry. Exclusive of its sense and the destination of the work, one might compare the artistic work of it with that of the Sacraments-Hauschen of St. Lawrence (at Nuremberg). Equally with the sculptor, has the composer lighted upon the most graceful, most fantastic, most pure form,—boldness in perfection; and as at the bottom of the Sacraments-Hauschen there is Adam Kraft, holding it up with a grave and collected air, so in the 'Meistersinger' there is Hans Sachs, calm, profound, serene, who sustains and directs the action," etc.

This description pleased me so much that, when once I was started on the subject, I could not help sending you the long quotation. The Bulows, as you know, are with Wagner at Biebrich—at the end of