133 To Louis Kohler
My very dear Friend,
Hans von Bulow will bring you these lines. You must enjoy yourself in the artist who, above all other active or dying out virtuosi; is the dearest to me, and who has, so to speak, grown out of my musical heart.—When Hummel heard me in Paris more than twenty-five years ago, he said, “Der Bursch ist ein Eisenfresser.” [The fellow is a bravo.”] To this title, which was very flattering to me, Hans von Bulow can with perfect justice lay claim, and I confess that such an extraordinarily gifted, thorough-bred musical organism as his has never come before me.
Receive him as an approved and energetic friend, and do all you can to make his stay in Konigsberg a pleasant one.
Yours in friendship,
F. Liszt
Weymar, March 16th, 1855
The engraving of my Symphonic Poems is in progress, and in the course of this summer five or six of them will be ready. There is a good bit of work in it.
At the present time I am exclusively engaged in the composition of a “Missa Solemnis.” You know that I received, from the Cardinal Primate of Hungary, the commission to write the work for the consecration of the cathedral at Gran, and to conduct it there (probably on the 15th of August).