l Reinecke he writes that he is "no friend of song-transcriptions
(for piano), and of Liszt's some are a real abomination to me." He
commends Reinecke's efforts in this direction because they are free
from pepper and sauce _a la_ Liszt. Nevertheless, those of Liszt's
song-transcriptions in which he did not indulge in too much bravura
ornamentation are models of musical translation, and the collection of
forty-two songs published by Breitkopf & Haertel should be in every
pianist's library. "Of Chopin," he writes in 1836, "I have a new ballad
[G minor]. It seems to me to be his most enchanting (though not most
_genial_) work; I told him, too, that I liked it best of all his
compositions. After a long pause and reflection he said: 'I am glad you
think so, it is also my favorite.' He also played for me a number of
new etudes, nocturnes, mazurkas--everything in an incomparable style.
It is touching to see him at the piano. You would be very fond of him.
Yet Clara is more of a _virtuoso_, and gives almost more significance
to his compositions than he does himself."

Brendel having sent him some of Palestrina's music, he writes that "it
really sounds sometimes like music of the spheres--and what art at the
same time! I am convinced he is the greatest musical genius Italy has
produced." Nineteen years previous to this he had written from
Brescia: "Were not the Italian language itself a kind of eternal music
(the Count aptly called it a long-drawn-out A-minor chord), I should
not hear anything rational. Of the ardor with which they play, you can
form no more conception than of their slovenliness and lack of
elegance and precision." Handel appears to be mentioned only once in
all of Schumann's correspondence ("I consider 'Israel in Egypt' the
ideal of a choral work"), but Bach is always on his tongue. The
following is one of the profoundest criticisms ever written: "Mozart
and Haydn knew of Bach only a few pages and passages, and the effect
which Bach, if they had known him in all his greatness, would have had
on them, is incalculable. The harmonic depth, the poetic and humorous
qualities of modern music have their source chiefly in Bach:
Mendelssohn, Bennett, Chopin, Hiller, all the so-called Romanticists
(I mean those of the German school) _approximate in their music much
closer to Bach than to Mozart_."

To Wagner there are several references, betraying a most remarkable
struggle between critical honesty and professional jeal