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Lot 106: BRITTEN, BENJAMIN.

Est: £1,500 GBP - £2,000 GBPSold:
Sotheby'sLondon, United KingdomNovember 30, 2011

Item Overview

Description

FIVE AUTOGRAPH LETTERS AND NOTES SIGNED ("BEN B"), TO ENID VANDYK, SECRETARY TO THE ENGLISH OPERA GROUP, TOGETHER WITH THREE PHOTOGRAPHS
Britten describes his work on Billy Budd, and rehearsals for the Aldeburgh Festival, reporting his concerts in Holland and complaining that illness has "taken up all my time & energies", apologising that he had not been able to meet her for a concert and suggesting that he might take her when next in London ("...even B. Budd??..."), and enquiring whether his old friend from Lowestoft, John Pounder, knows that he will be staying with him; subsequently Britten reports the successful premiere of the opera at Sadlers Wells (..."Budd went off well, with a splendid performance, but hard work conducting...), and in later letters, exchanging greetings, including thanking Enid for her "kind letter about the Requiem"; together with an autograph letter by Peter Pears to Enid (about Britten's death: "Ben had as wonderful a death as his life...") and photographs showing Britten and Pears with Kathleen Ferrier, Eduard van Beinum and Field-Marshall Montgomery (at the Holland Festival in 1947 or 1948), and with Eric Crozier and Enid Vandyk, 9 items in all, the letters 7 pages, 8vo, with an autograph address, envelope, 4 Crabbe St, Aldeburgh, 6 July 1951, 7 December 1951, and the Red House, January 1963, the photographs up to c.13 x 24cms

Artist or Maker

Auction Details

Music and Continental Books and Manuscripts

by
Sotheby's
November 30, 2011, 12:00 PM GMT

34-35 New Bond Street, London, LDN, W1A 2AA, UK