BERLIOZ Hector (1803-1869)

Lot 1244
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Estimation :
2500 - 3000 EUR
BERLIOZ Hector (1803-1869)
L.A.S. "H. Berlioz", [Paris] May 5 [1849], to his sister Nanci PAL in Grenoble; 3 pages in-8 on bluish paper, address. Beautiful letter to his sister, evoking the composers of his time. He speaks of his wife's health [Harriet Smithson had suffered a stroke in October that left her partly paralyzed and aphasic, followed by a second attack in February]: "Henriette has been doing very well for a few days (relatively well) but she is discouraged to see the movement not returning to her right side. It is always necessary to deceive her and give her hope it is not easy. She has a garden which at the moment is very pleasant for her, we carry her in the middle of her lilacs and the good weather brings her back to life a little. For me I was perfectly fine and now my stomach aches are coming back". Then, evoking the death of Mrs. Faure, the mother of her childhood friend Casimir: "The whirlwind in which I live no longer has on me the power of dizziness that it would take to put me out of the reach of these sad returns to the past; and I will confess to you that I now look backwards more often than forwards. I can see ... how similar our thoughts and intimate feelings are in many respects, though we seldom communicate them to each other. I experience many other jolts of the same nature that you are spared. At this moment, in my special sphere, I am witnessing the rapid extinction of a whole generation of artists; some die young and dignified, like MENDELSSOHN, others debased and dazed, like ROSSINI, who still lives on the machine. Others like SPONTINI see with childish despair their last hour arriving, and regret an existence that their memories and ours still embellish alone. (Mrs. Spontini recently asked me with the most vivid urgency to write her husband's memoirs. I would like to, but I am afraid I cannot. Besides, there is in this task accomplished before the eyes of this great artist something of a testamentary nature which disgusts me and moreover removes fr
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