Reception of the 1850 article

It should be borne in mind that NZM had a very small circulation and no more, in J-M Fischer’s estimate, than approximately 1,200. Virtually the only response was a letter of complaint to the editor of NZM from Mendelssohn’s old colleague Ignaz Moscheles and other professors at the Leipzig Conservatory.

Fischer has found virtually no other substantial response. The article, which Wagner had hoped would be a sensation, and bring him in some money as a journalist, sank like a stone. Nearly all of Wagner’s associates, including Liszt, were embarrassed by the article and thought it was a passing phase (which it was not) or a mere fit of pique (which, in part, it was).