TO PAUL MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY.
My Dear Brother, You have taken so kind an interest in my "Elijah" from the beginning, and your encouragement has helped me so much to its completion, that I feel bound to write to you at once after the first performance yesterday, and tell you how things went. Never did the first production of any piece of mine succeed so admirably, or call out such enthusiastic sympathy from musicians and public as this oratorio. At the first rehearsal in London it was evident that it won favour, and that the performers played and sang the music with pleasure, but I confess that the swing and zest of the first performance were far beyond what I expected. I only wish you could have been there! Through the whole two and a half hours that it lasted, the great hall filled with 2,000 people, and the great orchestra all strained to the utmost and concentrated on the music, not a single whisper among the audience; I could control absolutely the crowd of instruments and the great volume of choir and organ, leading them precisely as I wanted. How often did I think of you!
