No
doubt I shall always be a very untidy correspondent where you
are concerned, seeing that, as it is, I am not a very diligent
letter writer. Well, you must just overlook this - I trust that
you have received my brother's letter in which he asked you to
draft the notice about the really extraordinarily numerous and
serious mistakes. In a few days I will send you a list of them.
The edition is so beautiful that it is most unfortunate that it
should have been launched into the world with that extreme slovenliness
and lack of care - Since you have engraved my variations from
my manuscript, I am also in a state of perpetual trepidation lest
a number of mistakes may have crept into them; and I should very
much like you to send me a proof copy beforehand. It is such an
extremely unpleasant experience, particularly for the composer,
to see an otherwise finely engraved work full of mistakes. In
the grand variations you have forgotten to mention that the theme
has been taken from an allegorical ballet for which I composed
the music, namely: Prometheus, or, in Italian, Prometeo. This
should have been stated on the title-page. And I beg you to do
this if it is still possible, that is to say, if the work has
not yet appeared. If the title-page has to be altered, well, let
it be done at my expense - One forgets such things here in Vienna;
and indeed one scarcely ever thins of them - The incessant distractions
and at the same time the great bustling activity all around tend
to make one very careless about such matters. Hence you must forgive
me for raising the point so late in the day.
As
to the question of a poem I cannot yet enter into any arrangement.
But when the work you have announced has been published, I should
like you to be so kind as to inform me, so that I my look around
for a poem - Don't forget about the variations, both about the
proof-reading and also about the title-page, provided that it
is still possible to carry out my instructions. - If I can be
of any use to you in Vienna, apply at one to
your
most devoted servant
Ludwig
van Beethoven