The Correspondence of Jean Sibelius and Rosa Newmarch, 1906-1939

The role played by Rosa Newmarch (1857-1940), the leading authority on Russian music and culture in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain, in popularizing the music of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) is routinely mentioned in studies of the composer and in surveys of early-twentieth-century British musical life. This book traces a friendship documented in over 130 letters, notes and telegrams currently in the National Archives of Finland and covering the entire period of a relationship that lasted from 1906 to Newmarch's death in 1940. The correspondence, which appears to be almost complete on both sides and which was conducted in a mixture of French and German, reveals the intense friendship between Sibelius and Newmarch, sheds light on musical life in Britain, and provides some of Sibelius's most intimate commentary on his own works, as well as on those of other composers. This edition provides for the full set of letters in an English translation, as well as a detailed introduction outlining the personal and professional relationship between Newmarch and Sibelius in the context of early-twentieth-century British musical life, as well as extensive commentary on the events, personalities and ideas referred to in the individual letters. Newmarch's previously unknown programme note for the first UK performance of Sibelius's Fourth Symphony is also included.BR>The book's translation and publication of the letters in English will be complemented by making the letters available online in their original language. PHILIP ROSS BULLOCK is University Lecturer in Russian and Fellow and Tutor in Russian at Wadham College, Oxford.