Correspondences with Natalie Curtis and Jella Oppenheimer are now being edited

Busoni’s correspondences with Natalie Curtis, an American ethnomusicologist, and with the Viennese salonnière Jella Oppenheimer (so far known mainly from Hofmannsthal research) will be published next in this edition. They will be prepared by students in the summer term 2023 as part of a joint hybrid seminar at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Karlsruhe University of Music.

Some letters by Busoni to Jella Oppenheimer were already included in Antony Beaumont’s English-language selection; in our edition, all known pieces (a good 50 in all) will be published for the first time, including the Oppenheimer letters. While this correspondence has survived balanced on both sides, only three letters by Busoni to Natalie Curtis are available; these, as well as the 20 Curtis letters (relevant, among other things, for Busoni’s Indian Fantasy), will be published here for the first time.

Christian Schaper, Saturday, April 22, 2023