BERLIOZ, Hector (1803-1869). French composer.
Autograph Letter Signed to his lifelong friend Humbert Ferrand, at Belley, 1 page large 8vo with facing integral address-leaf, La CÔte[-Saint-André], Saturday [16] June 1832. Regarding Berlioz's return from Rome. See Lettres intimes 44, Correspondance Générale 277. Letters addressed by Berlioz from his home town are rarely found.
Writing from his parents' house [en route for Paris after returning from his year in Italy as a Prix de Rome winner], he makes arrangements to visit Ferrand, probably in a week's time. He does not know how he will travel to Belley, but it will probably be on foot.
Ferrand was Berlioz's closest friend; a lawyer by profession, he was also a poet and novelist. They were students together, and from 1827, when Ferrand left Paris for Belley (90 km east of Lyon), they met rarely but corresponded frequently and devotedly. Of all his correspondents it was Ferrand to whom Berlioz truly opened his heart; his letters to him, spanning 43 years, provide the most expansive and vital autobiographical record - comparable to the Mémoires but written for private rather than public consumption.
[No: 23584]