Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Autograph letter signed (with initials, 'R.W.') to [Heinrich Szadrowsky], [Zurich, c. November 1856]
In German. Four pages, 136 x 107mm, blue paper, bifolium. Provenance: Sotheby's, 26 & 27 November 1987, lot 417.

On arrangements for his famous concert at St Gall with Liszt. Wagner is delighted at the prospect of his joint concert with Liszt in St Gall, but urges Szadrowksy to pay close attention to the organsation, especially of the orchestra, on which he gives detailed instructions:

We assume that you can, if you wish, increase the prices of the concert in which Liszt and I take part, in order to be able to meet all of our demands for the completeness of the orchestra. I am therefore definitely counting on you to hire at least the musicians I have listed, and in any case bring the string instruments up to 18 good violins, 6 violas, 6 violoncellos and 4 basses.

He goes on to give close instructions for the choice of woodwind, down to the individual musicians, recommending two known to him from Zurich. He then sketches out the programme for the concert, beginning and ending with Liszt's symphonic poems Orpheus and Les Préludes, with the Beethoven symphony as the third item and two unspecified sung works on either side: these could be Senta's ballad and the sailors' chorus from Die fliegende Holländer, although these will require respectively a female and male chorus

The arrangements under discussion are for the famous concert given at St Gall on 23 November 1856 by Liszt and Wagner: the final order of works had Liszt's symphonic poems in the first half, separated by two romances from Gluck operas conducted by Szadrowsky, and Wagner conducting Beethoven's Eroica Symphony in the second half. The concert had in part been put on to give Wagner an opportunity of hearing orchestral performances of Liszt's works, which he confessed made a deep impression on him.