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Autograph letter signed ('Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy') to Giovanni Ricordi, Frankfurt am Main, 1 September 1844.
Details
MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY, Felix (1809-1847)
Autograph letter signed ('Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy') to Giovanni Ricordi, Frankfurt am Main, 1 September 1844.
In French. Two pages, 247 x 195mm, integral address leaf to Ricordi in Milan. Provenance: with J. & J. Lubrano, catalogue 61 (2005), lot 118.
Mendelssohn agrees to sell his Italian publishing rights to Ricordi. 'It would be useless to tell you that I have long known of the great and merited reputation which you enjoy, the fine editions you have made of so many masterpieces, the high importance of your house for the position of music in Italy – for what artist could be unaware of all this ... I therefore thank you most sincerely for your letter & the proposition you make me in it to sell you directly the Italian rights of my works. I accept this offer with the greatest pleasure and I beg you to let me know if an arrangement such as the one I have with my French publisher would suit you: that is to say, to fix a price which remains the same for each work large or small as I publish them in Germany. If it does, I beg you to fix the figure of this price yourself, I would find it difficult to do this not knowing Italy ...'.
Giovanni Ricordi (1785-1853) founded the Casa Ricordi publishing house in 1808; he is closely associated with operatic composers such as Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and especially Verdi. Sämtliche Briefe 4559.
Autograph letter signed ('Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy') to Giovanni Ricordi, Frankfurt am Main, 1 September 1844.
In French. Two pages, 247 x 195mm, integral address leaf to Ricordi in Milan. Provenance: with J. & J. Lubrano, catalogue 61 (2005), lot 118.
Mendelssohn agrees to sell his Italian publishing rights to Ricordi. 'It would be useless to tell you that I have long known of the great and merited reputation which you enjoy, the fine editions you have made of so many masterpieces, the high importance of your house for the position of music in Italy – for what artist could be unaware of all this ... I therefore thank you most sincerely for your letter & the proposition you make me in it to sell you directly the Italian rights of my works. I accept this offer with the greatest pleasure and I beg you to let me know if an arrangement such as the one I have with my French publisher would suit you: that is to say, to fix a price which remains the same for each work large or small as I publish them in Germany. If it does, I beg you to fix the figure of this price yourself, I would find it difficult to do this not knowing Italy ...'.
Giovanni Ricordi (1785-1853) founded the Casa Ricordi publishing house in 1808; he is closely associated with operatic composers such as Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and especially Verdi. Sämtliche Briefe 4559.
Special notice
This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.
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