that there were other means open to me of bringing my more recent compositions before the public than by the medium of the stage, where they could so easily stop me.  For all the practical details of the performance Tausig now proved himself particularly useful.  We agreed to hire the Theatre on the Wien for three evenings, the idea being to give one concert at the end of December and to repeat the experiment twice after a week’s interval.  The first thing was to copy out the orchestral parts from the sections which I cut out from my scores for the concert.  There were two selections from Rheingold and two from the Walkure and the Meistersinger, but I kept back the prelude to Tristan for the present, so as not to clash with the performance of the whole work at the Opera which was still being advertised.  Cornelius and Tausig, with some assistant copyists, now started on the work, which could only be carried out by experienced score-readers if it was to be done correctly.  They were joined by Weisheimer, who had arrived in Vienna, having in the end decided to come to the concert.  Tausig also mentioned Brahms to me, recommending him as a ‘very good fellow,’ who, although he was so famous himself, would willingly take over a part of their work, and a selection from the Meistersinger was accordingly allotted to him.  And, indeed, Brahms’s behaviour proved unassuming and good-natured, but he showed little vivacity and was often hardly noticed at our gatherings.  I also came across Friedrich Uhl again, an old acquaintance who was now editing a political paper called Der Botschafter with Julius Frobel under Schmerling’s auspices.  He placed his journal at my disposal, and made me give him the first act of the libretto of Meistersinger for his feuilleton.  Whereupon my friends chose to think that Hanslick grew more and more venomous.

While I and my companions were overwhelmed by the preparations for the concert, there came in one day a certain Herr Moritz, whom Bulow had introduced to me in Paris as a ridiculous person.  His clumsy and importunate behaviour and the idiotic messages—­ evidently of his own invention—­which he brought me from Bulow drove me in the end to show him the door with great emphasis, for I too was carried away by Tausig’s lively annoyance at this very officious intruder.  He reported on this to Cosima in a manner so insulting to Bulow that she in return found it necessary to express to me in writing her intense indignation at my inconsiderate behaviour towards my best friends.  I was really so surprised and dumbfounded by this strange and inexplicable event that I handed Cosima’s letter to Tausig without comment, merely asking him. what could be done in the face of such nonsense.  He at once undertook to show Cosima the incident in a correct light and clear up the misunderstanding, and I soon had the pleasure of hearing that he had met with success.