I have just learned from the Presse Giacomellina, dear and honoured friend, that you have been ill and even in bed. Confound the impertinence of the Paris climate! I hope there is truth in the added announcement that you are nearing the last stage of convalescence and will soon be able to support the torture of rehearsals again, as there is then no need to give oneself up to fruitless anxiety.
In writing today I have no intention of troubling you for a word in your own hand, but ask you to let me know through Flaxland or his Berlin assistant, my obliging patron Herr Sulzer, how you are and also the approximate date of the Tannhäuser performance. I am most anxious to be there and should have to make preparations beforehand. For example, I propose to make a concert at Basel pay my travelling expenses. The folks there have given me a choice among their concert dates, which are already arranged.
My wife has not yet completely recovered and is rather weak. I was a patient myself for a week and was tied to my room. In short we have not had much enjoyment at home. Only the child is fairly well. She is to be christened tomorrow week: Daniela Senta—and my father-in-law is coming over for the occasion. Soon after, he seems to be going to change his place of abode. He has had some most painful experiences of perfidy and meanness lately and is in a more depressed mood now than I ever thought to see him. But that is between ourselves. You will probably hear more from him direct. There was much talk of his moving to Paris in order to settle there as a pianoforte-teacher!!! But this again is between ourselves. I could tell you things and give you explanations that would surprise you.
I am sending a cutting from Kladderadatsch which concerns you. All Berlin, or at least the large responsible majority, is indignant over the doings of the Academy. Two thirds of the votes are necessary for admission—the six musicians (Meyerbeer was not opposing you) naturally voted against and the painters for you. The painters were so indignant at this that they turned down all the other musicians—for instance, Halévy, proposed by Giacomo. Rietz had come up for election first, before you, otherwise he would have suffered the same fate.
Do you consider it very pushing and outrageous of me to have authorized a young man, Paul von Bojanowski, to use my name as an introduction to you? I think you will forgive me when you get to know him. As a matter of fact, when I decided to do this for him, I had in mind the possibility of your being able to employ him. One never knows when there may be an occasion. He is a young nobleman who has been ruined and is now earning an honest living in Paris by teaching languages and acting as correspondent for foreign (that is, German) papers. (Several journals employed him recently at the Warsaw conferences.) He is on the Weserzeitung, the Münchner (Süddeutsche), and others. He is under great obligation to my family and is a decent well-bred fellow with the greatest admiration for you—I think you may very well find him useful. In what way, I leave you to discover after seeing him.
By the way, Beckmann is a very dangerous person. Everyone here regards him as a French spy. Take care that Niemann does not open out to him too much. Perhaps you will give him a hint. Excuse this precocious advice. I really have heard very suspicious things about B. from various quarters. Cosima’s kindest regards to you and Frau Minna. Good-bye, and if you must be ill again, do let me be it for you.
[Poem enclosed]
Inscription for the portico of an Academy of Arts
This is the house, this is the hour, the place,
These are the sacred halls where art doth reign;
’Twas here that honorary members were elected
And here that Richard Wagner was rejected.
But ’twas well done: an artist such as he
Would find small honour in the Academy.
Source: Letters of Hans von Bülow to Richard Wagner, Cosima Wagner, His Daughter Daniela, Luise von Bülow, Karl Klindworth, Carl Bechstein, ed. Richard Count Du Moulin Eckart, trans. Hannah Waller, ed. Scott Goddard (Alfred A. Knopf, 1931), No. 287