Page:The history of Mendelssohn's oratorio 'Elijah'.djvu/51

 BIRMINGHAM.

��long ago, for you know with how much pleasure I read it, and how truly indebted I felt to you and the Committee for continuing your very kind feeling towards me ! But I was uncertain which answer I had to give to some of the most important points, and this uncertainty is still the same ; yet I must write, as I receive to-day your second letter, which shows your wish to have an immediate answer.

" The principal point about which I am uncertain is whether I shall be able to have my new oratorio ready in time for your Festival, There would have been no doubt of it, had I been able to continue my work quietly at Frankfort, as I began it. But now there are so many businesses here, at Dresden, and at Berlin, which took up all my leisure time during the last months, that I have not been able to go on with it. If the businesses continue as they have begun (which, however, I hope they will not), I shall not be able to finish my oratorio in time. If they do not continue, I shall finish it in time. But during this uncertainty I am not able to make an engage- ment as to the first performance of this work.

" The second point is that I am afraid I shall not be strong enough to go through the office of being sole conductor of the morning performances at such a Festival as yours is. In former years I had only to conduct my compositions, not the other pieces of your programme ; and yet I recollect how excited and fatigued I always felt after the Festival was over. Therefore, I hesitate to accept of the honour which you intend doing me, and which I fear I should not be able to go through, although I sincerely wished it. ( 33 )

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