Selected letters of Mendelssohn/Letter 24
TO J. MOSCHELES, LONDON.
Leipsic, 30th November, 1839.
My Dear Friend,—I have not given Pott any musical assistance in his undertaking. If you could only see how abominably this business of monuments is carried on here, you would not do so either. People speculate on our great men to make themselves a name out of their names, send up a peal of trumpets in the newspapers, and make atrocious noises with real trumpets. “Unrefreshing as the winter wind.” If only they would found a decent orchestra at Halle for Handel, at Saltzburg for Mozart, at Bonn for Beethoven, and so on, so that their works might be well interpreted, I should be with them; but I will have nothing to do with their stones, while my musicians have stones for bread, nor with their conservatoires, where there is nothing to conserve. My present hobby-horse is the poverty of our orchestra and the remedy for it. By dint of unspeakable running about, writing letters, and tormenting people, I have managed to secure them an extra 500 thalers, and before I go away from here they must have as much again. If the town will do that then they may go further and erect a monument to Sebastian Bach. But the extra salaries first. You see I am quite a raving Leipsicer. But it would move you, too, if you could see it all for yourself, and had also the witness of your own ears for the efforts of my poor musicians to produce something good.