Yesterday I had a visit from Berlioz, who is tramping for his daily bread and is in a really bad way. He cannot earn a sou in France and so has to try to eke out a scanty livelihood by concerts, which, as I know, bring him in very little, in England and Germany. He has been invited here by the New Philharmonic for two concerts. He has arranged things with the press here already, he, too, having been terribly torn to pieces by it at the beginning. Besides his Romeo and Juliet Symphony he has also conducted a Mozart symphony in G minor, which he let them murder so abominably that I made off. But that is quite English; they like it so, and Berlioz, who is only after money, knows what he must do. Besides he lacks all depth.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 285