In all haste, before the very pleasant Frankfurt impressions that I owe to you fade (under the pressure of overwhelming obligations that threaten to absorb me wholly), I want to thank you for the pleasure you gave by the performance of my Variations for Orchestra. / You must have seen for yourself that I was not unusually pleased by these performances and that I am capable of appreciating your achievement, having for years done all I could to get such work, such thorough study, such preparation not only of the orchestra but also of the conductor, established as the basic requirement of all playing of music in public. So what I experienced was not only a musician’s satisfaction at finding his principle of study realised: over and above that it showed me that there are people who set a high artistic morality before all else and are resolved not to attain success by any means other than obedience to that supreme artistic morality. / That I am grateful to you for this is something I need not especially emphasise. But I should like to say apart from this: / I have forgotten much evil and also much good (unfortunately that too) in my life. But I do not want to forget this, for to me it is one of the finest and most reassuring signs in these unpleasing times and, as I have said: I shall make a point of remembering it!