The earth is suffocating... Swear to make them cut me open, so that I won't be buried alive.

I haven't heard anything so great for a long time; Beethoven snaps his fingers at the whole world.

Yesterday's concert was a success. I hasten to let you know. I inform your Lordship that I was not a bit nervous and played as I play when I am alone. It went well... and I had to come back and bow four times.

To be a great composer requires immense experience... One acquires this by listening not only to other men's work, but above all to one's own!

All the same it is being said everywhere that I played too softly, or rather, too delicately for people used to the piano-pounding of the artists here.

Here, waltzes are called works! And Strauss and Lanner, who play them for dancing, are called Kapellmeistern. This does not mean that everyone thinks like that; indeed, nearly everyone laughs about it; but only waltzes get printed.

They want me to give another concert but I have no desire to do so. You cannot imagine what a torture the three days before a public appearance are to me.