To his Family

Leipzig, April 2nd, 1838.

... This evening Madame Botgorscheck’s concert takes place,—an excellent contralto singer, who persecuted me so much to play, that I agreed to do so, and it did not occur to me till afterwards that I had nothing either short or suitable to play, so I resolved to compose a rondo, not one single note of which was written the day before yesterday, but which I am to perform this evening with the whole orchestra, and rehearsed this morning. It sounds very gay; but how I shall play it the gods alone know,—indeed hardly they, for in one passage I have marked a pause of fifteen bars in the accompaniment, and have not as yet the most remote idea what I am to introduce during this time. Any one, however, who plays thus en gros as I do, can get through a good deal....