?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
"THE GERMAN PIANO SCORE [FOR 'RIENZI'] . . . IS USELESS" WAGNER, RICHARD. Autograph Letter Signed, twice (in full and "R.W."), to publisher Gustave-Alexandre Flaxland, in French, explaining that he requested the signed score [complete orchestral score of Rienzi], noting that he has sent him a corrected French score, rejecting the German piano score, and, in a postscript signed with initials: "I need the complete signed orchestral score that was sent to Mr. Guillaume by Mr. Schott. Or--rather--in this score everything is in order; it can be arranged in Paris according to it." 2 1/2 pages, 8vo, written on a folded sheet; marginal discoloration from prior matting, faint bleedthrough to second page, minor scattered smudging to text and full signature, folds. Lucerne, 16 January 1869
"I asked to see the signed orchestral score, which I sent to Mr. Guillaume in Brussels. All my assumptions about the completeness of the score were based on this copy. If it has not been received from Brussels, it must be requested, because it belongs to me. Any other arrangement does not come from me. I do not want to suffer because of these inaccuracies. The incorrectly cut places are indicated by me in the copy of the French piano score that I sent back. ". . . This copy of the German piano score, which I received this moment, is useless. I return it immediately." Published in Wagner, Richard and Mielke, Andreas, Sämtliche Briefe, Band 21, (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 2011), no. 11.
