Beethoven asks Anton Wocher to pass the enclosed letter (an invitation to subscribe to the Missa solemnis op. 123) on to Prince Esterházy. Wocher was the Viennese private secretary to the Austrian envoy in London, Prince Paul Esterházy. The invitation to subscribe was addressed to the famous music lover Prince Nikolaus Esterházy. Beethoven sent many of his invitations to subscribe to larger works (Fidelio, Missa solemnis, Ninth Symphony) to the princes via friends and acquaintances, as he hoped this would be more effective.
He hopes to soon be able to invite Anton Wocher to Hetzendorf, and would gladly also ask Georg von Gaal (writer, librarian and also one of Esterházy's employees in Vienna). However at the moment he is suffering from a rather bad eye infection and hopes that the country air will soon clear up his condition.
