Pièce 53 - Letter from Sophie Weisse to Elizabeth Trevelyan

1 item

Northlands, Englefield Green, Surrey. - Is going to Holland tonight for a few days holiday. Hopes that Donald [Tovey], who has been in Germany for a while, will also be in Amsterdam. Asks if Bessie knows how the opera ["The Bride of Dionysus"] is getting on: gets more anxious as 'half year follows half year and there is nothing to show for it'. Almost impossible to know what she should do; though a 'struggle for existence' may perhaps have made him do more of the work he is 'best fitted to do', more likely it 'would have destroyed him'. Has no doubt of Donald's 'real greatness as an artist' and would do 'everything in the world that is good for him to back him up'. He is playing and practising very well. Sees Donald very little when he is here, and he cannot help knowing she minds 'the apparent loss of these five precious years very much'. Thinks he is seeing a good deal of Miss Kelly at the moment, and has written some songs for her; wishes 'a lovely beautiful planet could be created to wish the Kellys both [Mary Kelly and her brother Frederick Septimus]', though she likes the little she has seen of Miss Kelly, and if only she were poor 'and would marry him and help on his work' would be 'the happiest Schwiegermamma [mother-in-law] possible'. Hopes to see the Röntgens in Amsterdam; is 'much depressed' after a hard term and bad cold, and hopes her week's holiday will do her good. A postscript asks if it is 'generally known' that Donald studied and 'practised note for note every single valuable piece' in the piano repertoire.