P.P.
Well, if you insist, I will send you the organ part after all [Opus 86] – Let me have a reply at once. You don’t say whether you are going to publish the Mass and the oratorio in score or when? –
Here is the receipt you asked for –
I will gladly thank Dr. Schreiber for his translations –
At last you have adopted the sensible arrangement of sending me the proofs of the fantasia [Opus 80] to correct; and in general you should always adopt this procedure. But send me the second or third proofs, and you shall have them back as swiftly as an arrow – I am waiting for the Musik Zeitung and, when it arrives, I will draft a receipt stating that you have made me a present of it ! ! ! ! ! The devil take everything else connected with Riotte, for it is of no importance whatever – I cannot reply so quickly to your question about all the numbers, Op. 40 and so on, since apart from those works of mine which you sent me recently I have scarcely a note of my compositions which have already appeared – If the poems you want to send me are both musical and poetical, I would probably condescend to set them to music –
I wanted to go to Italy at the beginning of the winter, but contrary to my expectation my doctor would not agree – Yet on the whole I should like to leave Vienna – For my present situation is not unhampered and involves a considerable waste or loss of time – Please keep me in your memory –
Entirely your most devoted servant
Beethoven