My dear Anders,
The time has come when I must decide whether I can obtain a piano through your kind mediation and under favourable terms, or whether I must incur the onerous expense of hiring one. In view of the fact that I did not find you at home when I called yesterday, I assume that you are feeling somewhat better ( - upon which I congratulate you most heartily - ) and at least are able to leave the house; and this fact, coupled with the fine weather we are enjoying today, encourages me to beg you most earnestly to obtain a piano for me today, so that there is a good chance of my receiving it by tomorrow. You know the kind of instrument I would like to have, - make sure that it is a powerful one and as good a quality as possible, for I have noticed that a better instrument inspires me more than a bad one does, and in that way is more likely to inculcate in me a taste for music, which I otherwise detest. - [...]
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 37