[...] Although it was very difficult, and not very remunerative, to choose out suitable fragments complete in themselves from The Rhinegold for my concerts in Vienna, such were very successfully extracted from The Valkyrie. Two of them, "The Ride of the Valkyries" and "Siegmund's Spring Song," were so uncommonly popular that I am to repeat them in the third concert, and a desire has arisen to put transcriptions of them in the hands of the public. Tausig has been remarkably successful in making paraphrases of the kind for the pianoforte, and the local publishers are ready to pay a good fee for them. I have nothing against their publication. They have really nothing to do with my actual compositions and come under the head of transcriptions and fantasias, which, unfortunately, the original publishers in Germany have not succeeded in protecting. Nevertheless, the future publisher of The Valkyrie might prefer not to let these pieces escape him, and since, moreover, I have given my word to offer you the first refusal for purposes of publication of the remainder of The Valkyrie, I take the liberty of drawing your attention to these circumstances and of offering you both pieces on Tausig's behalf.
The first of the two ("The Ride of the Valkyries") is extremely brilliant but also very difficult; nevertheless, it is such that, if the composition proves successful, the publisher may expect to see it standing open upon the rack of every pianoforte in Vienna. The second (the "Spring Song") is, on the contrary, very easy and should very rapidly become popular. [...]
My most grateful thanks for the Five Poems. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 550