Liszt spoke very nobly about my London enterprise, for he too eschewed any thought of it as a financial speculation. The Brendel clique, for instance, seem to think otherwise; their minds turned at once to the beloved coterie. Still, I had another good look at the Schumann symphonies with the honest wish to think them beautiful and worth propagating. Well, I have made up my mind about them now, and out of conviction I will not be bothered with them; they are simply another kind of jargon which looks like profundity, and in my estimation are just the same sort of empty nonsense as the Hegelian philosophic twaddle which is always most trivial where it seems deepest. Where there is a glimpse of meaning and melody, it is Beethoven corporeally present, unmistakably father and mother both. Pray spare me all this stuff; I am more rigid than ever in my views and ask to be kindly excused when there is talk of the heroes of music of the present age. How horrified the good clique would be if I were suddenly to tell them what I really think. You arrange it better, I hope you will!
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 274