1853
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IntroductionThis page presents the image of an autograph letter of Berlioz in our collection (and its English translation); we donated this autograph to the Berlioz Museum at La Côte Saint-André on the occasion of the 206th anniversary of Berlioz’s birth on 11 December 2009, together with another autograph letter of Berlioz dated 16 June 1832.
This undated letter was written by Berlioz shortly before his departure to London on 14 May 1853. It is addressed to Michel Lévy, of the publishing firm Michel Lévy Frères, who had published Les Soirées de l’Orchestre in 1852, and would later publish A Travers Chants in 1862 and the Mémoires posthumously in 1870. Joseph d’Ortigue was a colleague and close friend of Berlioz at the Journal des Débats.
The letter was first published in J.-Y. Mollier, Michel & Calmann Lévy ou la Naissance de l’édition moderne 1836-1891, 1984, pp. 260-261. It was subsequently reproduced from this autograph in Correspondance générale (no. 1598ter, vol. VIII, Suppléments, pp. 360-361).
Berlioz’s autograph letter (Museum inventory no. 2009-4-2)
My dear Lévy,
I am leaving for London, otherwise I would have come to recommend to you a very carefully written volume by d’Ortigue, entitled Causeries musicales. Try to publish this as soon as possible, and to offer the author good terms. We will naturally be supporting this in the [Journal des] Débats, better than was done for my Soirées.
Yours, H. Berlioz
The Hector Berlioz Website was created on 18 June 1997 by Monir Tayeb and Michel Austin; this page created on 28 March 2004; updated on 20 December 2009.
© Musée Hector Berlioz, for the autograph. All rights reserved.
© (unless otherwise stated) Monir Tayeb and Michel Austin. All rights reserved.
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