Edvard Greig, the nineteenth century Norwegian composer, wrote his parents concerning the encouragement he received from famous Hungarian composer-pianist Franz Liszt, who had just played Greig's Piano Concerto in A Minor. Greig writes:

Finally, as he handed me the score, he said, "Hold to your course. Let me tell you, you have the talent for it, and—don't get scared off!" This last is of infinite importance to me. It is almost what I will call a sacred mandate. Time and again when disappointments and bitterness come I shall think of his words, and the memory of this hour will have a wonderful power to sustain me in days of adversity; that is my confident hope.