Mimi writes that Herr von Bronsart is arranging a concert for Bayreuth, at which my father intends to play the E-flat major concerto.[1] Herr von Bronsart now seems to have the courage to express his former convictions, since Herr von Hülsen is in good humour. Pitiful people. — In the evening we continue reading the correspondence between Goethe and Wolf, and are ever satisfied by Professor Bernays; much has been said of Goethe’s quest, and also of our own melancholy times. —
An instalment of the work on the war has arrived; the very first sentence is magnificent, of a Tacitean simplicity, without the affectation of Roman brevity. R. now loves and reveres only the army. —
In the evening he tells me that he has joy only in me, that I am all he possesses; and it touched me most strangely that, as I was lately given over at night to my sorrowful thoughts, he dreamed that I was in Munich in a merchant’s shop, that he came thither to fetch me, but I remained at my work, saying: “It must be so—the children are taken from me”—most sorrowful indeed.
[1] Not Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, 1849, but Beethoven’s No. 5, Op. 73, which Liszt played in concert with Wagner in Pest on 10 March 1875.
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins [© Jo Cousins | WAGNER Salon]