Wien 24. September

Lieber u. theurer Freund Schenker!

Herzlichen Dank für Ihr Thema (Bravour) mit Variationen. Ich erröthete tief, bewußt des eigenen Unwortes. 1 Trotzdem möcht’ ich Sie gerne von Angesicht zu Angesicht sehen. Sonntag zwischen fünf u. sieben trifft meine Hoheit im Imperial ein, um die Huldigungen {2} der dortigen Bevölkerung 2 entgegenzunehmen.

Seid mir bis dahin herzlichst gegrüßt u. von Frizerl 3 eifrigst bedankt für Euren gnädigen Erlaß.


Ihr
[signed:] Hans Liebstoeckl

© Transcription Martin Eybl, 2006


Vienna September 24

My dear, good friend Schenker,

Cordial thanks for your Theme (bravura) with Variations. I blushed to the roots of my hair, conscious of my own misnomer. 1 Despite it, I should very much like to see you face to face. Sunday between 5 and 7 my Highness arrives in the Imperial to receive the homage {2} of his people 2 there.

My heartfelt greetings until then, and Frizerl 3 thanks you most fervently for your gracious decree.


Yours,
[signed:] Hans Liebstoeckl

© Translation Ian Bent, 2007


Wien 24. September

Lieber u. theurer Freund Schenker!

Herzlichen Dank für Ihr Thema (Bravour) mit Variationen. Ich erröthete tief, bewußt des eigenen Unwortes. 1 Trotzdem möcht’ ich Sie gerne von Angesicht zu Angesicht sehen. Sonntag zwischen fünf u. sieben trifft meine Hoheit im Imperial ein, um die Huldigungen {2} der dortigen Bevölkerung 2 entgegenzunehmen.

Seid mir bis dahin herzlichst gegrüßt u. von Frizerl 3 eifrigst bedankt für Euren gnädigen Erlaß.


Ihr
[signed:] Hans Liebstoeckl

© Transcription Martin Eybl, 2006


Vienna September 24

My dear, good friend Schenker,

Cordial thanks for your Theme (bravura) with Variations. I blushed to the roots of my hair, conscious of my own misnomer. 1 Despite it, I should very much like to see you face to face. Sunday between 5 and 7 my Highness arrives in the Imperial to receive the homage {2} of his people 2 there.

My heartfelt greetings until then, and Frizerl 3 thanks you most fervently for your gracious decree.


Yours,
[signed:] Hans Liebstoeckl

© Translation Ian Bent, 2007

Footnotes

1 The background to this is unclear. Schenker may perhaps be reacting in a critical letter to an article by Liestöckl and a word that occurs there, the "misnomer."

2 Before World War I, the circle around the conservative Viennese critic Robert Hirschfeld (see OJ 14/44) used to meet in the Café Imperial on the Vienna Ringstraße. In his memoirs, Julius Korngold names Ludwig Karpath, Max Graf, Hans Liebstöckl, and Gustav Schönaich as members (Julius Korngold, Die Korngolds in Wien: Der Musikkritiker und das Wunderkind – Aufzeichnungen (Zürich: M & T Verlag, 1991), 65–74). Around 1907, Schenker also frequented this café, and he mentions in addition to Hirschfeld also Ferdinand Löwe and Franz Schalk as his conversational partners (Federhofer, Heinrich Schenker: Nach Tagebüchern ... (1985), 301, fn. 1). If the present letter were written in Hirschfeld's lifetime, hence in 1914 at the latest, this circle could be what is meant by the "people" of the Imperial.

3 Fritzerl: presumably Liebstöckl's son Frederick (b. 1900), see Herrmann A. L. Degener, ed., Degeners Wer ist's?, 10th edn (Berlin: Herrmann Degener, 1935), 970.