Well, my dear Z[meskall], you may give Walter, if
you like, a strong dose of my affair. For, in the first place,
he deserves it in any case; and, what is more, since the time
when people began to think that my relations with Walter were
strained, the whole tribe of pianoforte manufacturers have been
swarming around me in their anxiety to serve me - and all for
nothing. Each of them wants to make me a pianoforte exactly as
I should like it. For instance, Reicha has been earnestly requested
by the maker of his pianoforte to persuade me to let him make
me one; and he is one of the more reliable ones, at whose firm
I have already seen some good instruments - So you may give Walter
to understand that, although I can have pianofortes for nothing
from all the others, I will pay him 30 ducats, but not more than
30 ducts, and on condition that the wood is mahogany. Furthermore,
I insist that it shall have the tension with one string - If he
won't agree to these conditions, then make it quite plain to him
that I shall choose one of the others to whom I will give my order
and whom I shall take later on to Haydn to let the latter see
his instrument - About noon today a foreigner, a Frenchman, is
coming to see me. Herr R[eicha] and I shall then have the pleasure
of seeing myself compelled to display my art on Jakesch's piano
- Ad notam - If you too would like to come, we should then have
a good time; for afterwards we, i.e. Reicha, our wretched Imperial
Baron and the Frenchman will be dining together - You need not
don a black coat, for we shall just be a stag party -
Your
Beeth