[...] You want me to send you some newspapers? Very well, but what do you want to read in them? Something to help you throw sand in people’s eyes concerning my local successes? For that only the Illustrated News and Daily News would be of any use: these are provided with appreciative reports on the Philharmonic’s concerts, and hence on my own achievements, by Mr Hogarth, the Society’s full-time secretary. A few other critics find the tone of Messrs Davison and Chorley over-impertinent, and so they write conciliatory reports, in which they concede that some point or other was good, but do not deny that some other point was bad. I am bound to question whether anyone can judge me, or, indeed, whether they can even listen impartially to what I am giving them to listen to. But it is the two gentlemen named above who know best what they want: they are paid to keep me in my place, and in that way they earn their daily bread, which is not as cheap in London as many Americans think. - Everyone who lives here is so deeply convinced of the worthlessness, insolence, venality and vulgarity of the local press that - to be honest - I prefer not to dirty my hands by so much as touching a newspaper. Anyone who understands anything and has a really independent opinion does not mix with this Jewish rabble. Indeed, I have been assured that after the second concert it was possible to predict a certain change of bias on the part of the reporter of the Morning Post, because the Times etc. had attacked me so mercilessly that the former was forced to be more cautious, since no reporter wishes to fall foul of any other: for there may be occasions later on when they have need of each other’s services. Only the editorship of the Times itself seems to have found Davison’s invective too strong and coarse, which is said to be the reason why his report on the second concert did not appear. It is possible that this unexpected turn of events may have an encouraging effect on the other papers next time, and that a shift in my favour may be noticeable; it is possible, too, that, if things go on like this and if the real audience continues to be favourably disposed towards me, everybody may end up by becoming converted to my cause, a move to which the Philharmonic itself - which is fighting for its survival - could contribute a good deal if it were to undertake certain manoeuvres: and so it is possible that you were right to say: “that’s how things are, that’s the way of the world, and in this way you’ll finally come to be - recognized!” - Everything is possible! But what about me - ? What is the point of my being here? To perform symphonies, which - to be honest - I made my métier in Zurich only by way of an exception and as a favour to you - : and what else? The Tannhäuser March and one of my overtures? And then?? - Yes, I know. -
As you can see my present mood is not exactly one of sweetness and light, but it is certainly not the result of my having harboured expectations which have subsequently been disappointed: no, it is that others continue to expect something to emerge from a quite futile conflict between my own innermost nature and a nature that is totally alien to me. For my own part, I have already found the necessary peace and quiet to be able to see things in an ironical light and to treat them with indifference, and in that way to wait for the affair to run its course. The weather will improve, I shall often visit the wild animals, and ultimately I shall return home having saved a few odd pfennigs. What more can one wish for? -
Ah, the lovely music they have here! I was recently at a concert of the New Ph. S. There was an endless series of overtures, symphonies, concertos, choruses, arias, etc., one after the other - it was sheer delight: they were all conducted in a slip-slop fashion by Dr Wylde until the whole thing was over, which was fairly late: the public applauded as always; and the next day all the papers said that this was the finest concert of the whole season: immediately after the second of the concerts that I conducted, those same reporters who had written favourably about me accorded this other concert the very same praise they had given mine. Shall I not send you these newspapers? -
But the real delight of the English is the oratorio: here their music becomes the interpreter of their religion - passez-moi le mot! - For four hours they sit in Exeter Hall, and listen to one fugue after another, secure in the belief that they have done a good deed for which they will one day be rewarded in heaven by hearing nothing but the most beautiful arias from Italian opera. It is this deeply religious fervour on the part of English audiences which Mendelssohn understood to perfection, encouraging him to compose and conduct oratorios for them with the result that he became the true saviour of the English musical world. Mendelssohn is to the English what Jehovah is to the Jews. And Jehovah’s wrath now strikes me down for being one of the unbelievers; for you know that among the qualities attributed to the dear God of the Jews is a very real thirst for vengeance: Davison is the high priest of this divine wrath. - What would Auntie say if I were to write an oratorio for Exeter Hall? -
[...]
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 183