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Lot 193

BRITTEN (BENJAMIN)
Two typed letters signed ("Benjamin Britten"), to the novelist Anthony Powell, the first agreeing "to read your next novel in proof, and make any suggestions about musical matters"; the second making those suggestions, The Red House, Aldeburgh, 2 January 1959 and 19 March 1960

15 June 2016, 14:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

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BRITTEN (BENJAMIN)

Two typed letters signed ("Benjamin Britten"), to the novelist Anthony Powell, the first agreeing "to read your next novel in proof, and make any suggestions about musical matters"; the second making those suggestions ("...I have read the book with great pleasure; I think it is most subtle and wise, and also very funny. The musical conversation and atmosphere seem to me perfectly natural..."), nevertheless querying three passages ("...The phrase ʻIt will be rather late in the season, but I don't think that is going to matter' does not quite ring true. I tried it out on another musician, and he agreed. This phrase might just work for a new opera, but symphonic seasons – even before the war – aren't quite like that..."), 3 pages, printed headings, 4to and oblong 8vo, The Red House, Aldeburgh, 2 January 1959 and 19 March 1960

Footnotes

ʻTHE MUSICAL CONVERSATION AND ATMOSPHERE SEEM TO ME PERFECTLY NATURAL' – Benjamin Britten on Anthony's Powell's Casanova's Chinese Restaurant, the fifth novel in the Dance sequence. It was to be published the following June. It features the character of Hugh Moreland, generally thought to be based on Powell's friend the composer Constant Lambert. In January 1936, during the period in which the novel is set, the real-life Lambert had opined in a review that ʻMr Britten is, I admit, rather a problem to me. One cannot but admire his extremely mature and economical methods, yet the rather drab and penitential content of his music leaves me quite unmoved. At the same time he is the most outstanding talent of his generation and I would always go to hear any first performance of his' (quoted by Eric Walter White, Benjamin Britten: His Life and Operas, 1970, p.28).

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