Eric Sams Letters to Andrew Porter

14.

8th May 1967

Dear Andrew,

I should have realised earlier that the way to get a prompt rejoinder from you was to write to somebody else. I thought at first of pretending that my letter to Stanley Sadie was merely a ruse in this interest; but I must confess that I had assumed, wrongly, that you were easing out of the editorial chair. I am just numb with contrition.

   I was very taken with the few names that occurred at once, such as Reinhold Keiser; it would take most people a long time even to think of Reinhard Keiser.

   How about Hugo Wolf?

   A first shot at a review of Alan Walker has turned out to be book–length. I suppose I can't have carte blanche? I certainly seem to have all the symptoms.

   Is it possibly that there might be a day, say, or a week, when it would be less inconvenient for you to look at the Schumann song book typescript than at other times?

   It looks as if I’m going to have to revise my view of the merit of the Maria Stuart Lieder in the light of current critical opinion. Or perhaps it's just that Schwarzkopf makes them sound tolerable?

   Yours ever

P.S. The Österreichische Musikschrift has written to say it's interested in “Ich hasse Dich”.