Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 102

BERLIOZ (HECTOR)
Autograph letter signed ("H. Berlioz"), to Peter Cornelius ("Mon cher et excellent Cornelius"), in French, writing by chance to see whether he will be in Vienna, BERLIOZ CONDUCTS LA DAMNATION DE FAUST, [no place], 3 December 1866

15 June 2016, 14:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

£2,000 - £3,000

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

MUSIC - HECTOR BERLIOZ

Autograph letter signed ("H. Berlioz"), to Peter Cornelius ("Mon cher et excellent Cornelius"), in French, writing by chance to see whether he will be in Vienna, mentioning that he doubtless knows that Berlioz will conduct "La Damnation de Faust" and confirming he will be arriving on the 7th, staying at the Hotel Francfort and asking to see him when he arrives, "Dieu guide ma letter!", 1 page, 8vo, [no place], 3 December 1866

Footnotes

BERLIOZ TO CORNELIUS ON CONDUCTING HIS 'LEGENDE DRAMATIQUE' IN VIENNA: Late in his life and, despite misgivings that 'age, illness and his poor knowledge of German now impaired his conducting skill', Berlioz's performance in Vienna was a great success - 'lionized by Cornelius and Herbeck and fêted as he had been in 1845' (Grove New Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Volume 6, p.397.)

Peter Cornelius, writer, composer and translator, held Berlioz in particularly high esteem. In an article in the Berliner Allgemeine Musikialische Zeitung in 1854 he coined an expression adding Berlioz's name to that of Bach and Beethoven as one of the 'Three B's' at the summit of classical music. Some years later the conductor Von Bülow substituted the name of Berlioz with that of Brahms.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A Presentation Copy of Kennedy's First Book to Spencer Tracy. Kennedy, John F. 1917-1963. Why England Slept. New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1940.

Signed to Spencer Tracy 1952 Hemingway, Ernest. 1899-1961. The Old Man and the Sea, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952.

CORNELIUS, MATTHEWS, editor. 1817-1889. The Enchanted Moccasins and Other Legends of the American Indians.