Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Autograph letter signed (‘Rich. Wagner’) to [Heinrich] Szadrowsky, Zurich, 18 November 1856
In German. Two pages, 143 x 104mm, bifolium, with Wagner’s embossed monogram. Provenance: Sotheby’s, 26 & 27 November 1987, lot 415.

Wagner and Liszt make a last-minute change to the St Gall concert programme: Wagner reports that he and Liszt wish for that ‘unhappy clarinet aria’ by Mozart to be replaced with a piece by Gluck. He informs Szadrowsky that he and Liszt plan to travel to Eisenbahn, requests a day’s rest after the concert, and bids his correspondent farewell until Saturday [when the concert is presumably to take place].

The event in question is 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.