I have been busy until
this very moment and therefore it is now too late to attend the
rehearsal - In any case you probably don't need me today, since
Clement is conducting for the time being and most excellently
without me - I could not get the concerto. And even if I had got
it, it would have been no good. For at the Theater auf der Wieden
I have had the experience of hearing performers play from rough
copies. You cannot ask me to expose my compositions to the uncertainty
of a performance which is likely to fail.
I
will come to the meeting on Monday, although indeed I know that
my presence is quite unnecessary, because people never pay any
attention to what I say.
Wholly
your
Beethoven