Liszt had arrived in Rome in October 1861, intending to marry Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein there, the same month. But the pope had revoked his sanction of her divorce, and the couple were obliged to remain in their separate establishments. At this time, the hostility of the predominant and conservative faction of musical critics had made his position in Germany extremely difficult ("Although long prepared to bear the fiasco of my works quietly ..."). His correspondent, Dr. Carl Franz Brendel, editor of the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik (founded by Schumann) in Leipzig, had been the moving spirit behind the "Congress of Musical Artists" in 1859, and was a staunch defender of the "new music". Alexander Wilhelm Gottschalg (1827-1908), an organist, whom Liszt jokingly nicknamed "my legendary Tieffurt Cantor", shared Liszt's forward-looking ideas, and was often in his company at Weimar. He had been responsible for saving the manuscript of the Faust symphony which Liszt's precocious 14 year old pupil, Carl Tausig, had sold, for a pittance, to a servant. Hans von Schellendorf Bronsart (1830-1913) was a favourite pupil who loyally defended Liszt from the attacks of the German press. On leaving Weimar, he became theatre director at Leipzig, where he conducted the performance of the Faust symphony to which Liszt refers. The A-major piano concerto is dedicated to him and he was remembered in Liszt's will. Writing here of an apparent disagreement over Bronsart's position at Leipzig, Liszt warmly supports his being retained ("this opinion is purely objective")

The letter of 12 April is published in the Letters, ed. La Mara, II (1893)