TO THE MUSICAL DIRECTOR, JULIUS RIETZ, DÜSSELDORF.
Dear Rietz,—Yesterday evening we performed your overture to Hero and Leander and also the battle-song; both met with general acclamation, and with the unanimous approval of musicians and public. During the rehearsal, when we reached the passage in D major at the end of the overture, I saw already smiling faces and nodding heads among the players, which pleases me much when the piece is yours. They were all greatly struck with it, and the audience, who sat yesterday still as mice and without a murmur, broke out at the end in the most vigorous applause, and abundantly confirmed their judgment.
Both rehearsals and performance have afforded me great satisfaction; there is something so genuinely artistic, so really musical in your management of the orchestra, that I felt at home from the first bar, and it riveted my interest till the last.
But since you insist on my putting on my critical spectacles, I may say that both pieces suggested to me one desire, namely, that you would write much and continuously. My reason I need not give,
