Page:The history of Mendelssohn's oratorio 'Elijah'.djvu/18

 HISTORY OF MENDELSSOHN'S '•ELIJAH."

learn from the ** Recollections " of his friend Devrient, to test the strength of his affection for the beautiful C^cile. Although his thoughts naturally and con- stantly turned towards Frankfort, he did not neglect his beloved art. He wrote the following letter, hitherto unpublished, to his old and attached friend, Carl Klingemann, in London.*

[Mendelssohn to Klingemann. J

"The Hague, August 12, 1836.

,, " . . . A thousand thanks for all your care, a'nd .'.or '.he interest you take in the whole affair.! It ip, po doubt important for me that the performance .'anil all tna airangements should be as perfect as possible ; therefore, let me thank you for it all once more.

" But I wish you knew what a far greater favour you would confer upon me if, instead of. doing so much for my old oratorio, you would write me a new one ; and, by so doing, would stir me up to fresh activity, instead of my having to do this myself. When I have finished a composition, that which really gives me pleasure in it is the progress I see

resident in London as Secretary to the Hanoverian Legation. " He was," says Sir George Grove, " a man of great cultivation, con- siderable literary power, and very rare judgment in music." He wrote the libretto of Mendelssohn's operetta known as " Son and Stranger"; and nine of Mendelssohn's songs are set to words by Klingemann.
 * Carl Klingemann (1798 — 1862) was for upwards of thirty years

+ The proposed performance of "St. Paul " at the Liverpool Musical Festival, where it was given for the first time in England, under the direction of Sir George Smart, October 7, 1S36. ( 2 )

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