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London, May 7th, 1841
Schlesinger has just told me that Mendelssohn's Melodies which I sent you from London have come out. I can't tell you, my dear Mr. Hartel, how much I am put out by this precipitate publication. Independently of the material wrong it does me (for before sending them to you these Melodies were sold in London and Paris), I am thus unable to keep my word to Beale and Richault, who expected to publish them simultaneously with you.
The evil being irremediable I have only thought how to get a prompt vengeance out of it. You will tell me later on if you think it was really a Christian vengeance.
The matter is this: I have just added a tremendous cadenza, three pages long, in small notes, and anentire Coda, almost as long, to Beethoven's "Adelaide". I played it all without being hissed at the concert given at the Paris Conservatoire for the Beethoven Monument, and I intend to play it in London, and in Germany and Russia. Schlesinger has printed all this medley, such as it is. Will you do the same? In that case, as I care chiefly for your edition, I will beg you to have the last Coda printed in small notes as an Ossia, without taking away anything from the present edition, so that the purists can play the integral text only, if the commentary is displeasing to them.
It was certainly a very delicate matter to touch "Adelaide", and yet it seemed to me necessary to venture. Have I done it with propriety and taste? Competent judges will decide.
In any case I beg you not to let any one but Mr. Schumann look over your edition.
In conclusion allow me to remind you that I was rather badly paid for "Adelaide" formerly, and if you should think proper to send me a draft on a London bank, fair towards you and myself, I shall always receive it with a "new pleasure"--to quote the favorite words of His Majesty the King of the French.
With kind regards, believe me, my dear sir, yours most sincerely,
F. Liszt
Be so kind as to remember me very affectionately to Mendelssohn. As for Schumann, I shall write to him direct very shortly.
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