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ALS, three pages on two adjoining sheets, 7 x 9, personal 'Severn House' letterhead, May 15, 1914. Handwritten letter to Henry Clayton, secretary at the Novello & Co. music publishing company, penned in his difficult-to-decipher hand, in part: “The Concerto was a huge success again yesterday & I am strongly advised to withdraw the performing fees! Lady Speyer told me she had seen Ysaye [Belgian violinist and composer Eugene Ysaye] &c &c, & said that the only thing that stood in the way of the worldwide success (?) of the work was the terrible obstacle of Novellos – I said all I could to combat the later part: but, shall we let the work go free for the future? I am quite agreeable – I return the French things: I have really nothing of the kind they want …& my work would not be represented adequately – will you break this fact as gently as you can to Messrs. Magnani.” In a lengthy postscript, Elgar makes reference to a French publication of his beloved song cycle “Sea Pictures.” Of course if you like to do it, you could send the songs of mine which you publish but cui bono [i.e. who will benefit]? The Sea Pictures (Boosey) are in French & obtainable in Paris, but I will not send…them to M. Magnani as they require [an] orchestra.” In fine condition.
Elgar's Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61 had been given its first performance by Fritz Kreisler in London in 1910 and it remains one of the longest and most emotionally complex violin concertos the world had seen. His ‘Sea Pictures,’ five songs for contralto and orchestra, had been first performed by Dame Clara Butt in 1899, and his friend Lady Speyer, to whom he refers in the letter, was the violinist Leonora von Stosch, with whom Elgar first tried out parts of the Violin Concerto in his home.
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