[...] On this occasion I may tell you that I quite agree with your view that the proposed shortened pianoforte arrangement (by Esser) [The Mastersingers] should be dropped. There remains, then, simply Tausig's full pianoforte arrangement, which will be an excellent piece of work of its kind. The subject is settled, then.—
May I this time, by way of exception, draw your attention to a circumstance exceedingly advantageous to the sale? The fact is that we shall be able to lay before the public a large number of brief, self-contained morceaux détachés, to which the peculiarities of this work lend themselves very invitingly. I have already marked down at least a dozen of them, comprising songs and little pianoforte pieces, and I place the whole collection before you. Courage, then, and zeal! [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 623