ABSTRACT
When the taste of the most cultivated British musicians was so dominated by Austrian and German music from Haydn to Mendelssohn, the attraction of Leipzig needed no advertising. Smart’s letter was apparently forwarded to Moscheles by Klingemann, to whom Moscheles replied from Leipzig. Having arrived in Leipzig in September 1858, Arthur Sullivan became thoroughly caught up in his new academic and social life, and waited four months before sending to Smart the account which must have been expected much earlier. In his first month at Leipzig, however, Sullivan wrote home that he would not be attending the first two Gewandhaus concerts ‘as they are on a Sunday’. Leipzig is a capital place for a battle. Two Leipzig press reviewers found Mendelssohn’s influence strong in The Feast of Roses. In Leipzig Sullivan had become friendly with Ignaz Moscheles’s son Felix, who paid a visit to London and for a time left his dog with him and his family.
