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ROSAMOND LEY
1882-1969
Concert pianist and teacher Rosamond Ley trained at the Wimbledon School of Music before attending the Royal Academy of Music. It was here, under Oscar Beringer’s tutelage that she gained numerous awards and honours for her pianoforte playing. It was in 1899, whilst still at the Academy, that she first heard Ferruccio Busoni play and was so overwhelmed by his genius that she swore never to miss an opportunity of hearing him play in the future.
Her London debut at the Wigmore Hall in February 1905 was well received and during 1906-7 she continued her studies in London and Berlin under the watchful eye of the great Venezuelan concert pianist Teresa Carre_o. (See the four letters and one postcard from Carre_o to Ley). In 1908 a recital at the Wigmore Hall resulted in criticism over her ‘frequent lapses of memory’ during performance. Undoubtedly due to nervousness, she sought advice from the composer Rene Ortmans who introduced her to Busoni. They met and after he had listened to her play, recommended that she study under Egon Petri, his star pupil, then resident in Manchester.
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As Busoni was scheduled to play in the city at the time (November 19th 1908) he suggested to her that she attend his concert and take the opportunity of meeting Petri while she was there.
Rosamond’s parents refused to allow her to travel to Manchester unchaperoned, but the problem was overcome when a close friend, Mary Bruce, offered to accompany her. Unpublished memoir notes tell how Busoni asked Ley for a photograph of herself, which she duly sent to Berlin. Mary Bruce is quoted as saying that, on the journey home in the train to London, Rosamond ‘talked like a prophet’ all the way.
Throughout 1909 Ley followed Busoni’s advice and took lessons from Petri. Towards the end of the year he suggested something to her that was to have a profound influence on the course of her life. “I was studying with Egon Petri in Manchester at the time,” she writes in a memoir, “and had the good fortune to hear about the forthcoming masterclass with [Busoni, in Basle].
He advised quite a number of us to go to it. You could join as a performer or listener. Petri pupils were all performers of course.”
The few days she spent in Busoni’s company in Basle proved a revelation to her both personally and professionally...
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ROSAMOND LEY
BASEL MASTERCLASS
In the year 1910 Busoni was asked by the Conservatoire in Basel if he would give a masterclass in the summer, and he agreed to do so. I was studying with Egon Petri in Manchester at the time and had the good fortune to hear about the forthcoming masterclass from him. He advised quite a number of us to go to it. You could join as a performer or listener. Petri pupils were all performers of course.
When we all arrived in Basel we found difficulty in getting suitable rooms, but we eventually found a place called Botlingen – a very short distance by train from the town – where there was a schloss - a castle with a moat, which had been turned into a hotel with an annexe. Quite a number of us from England found accommodation at the hotel [which meant] the problem of piano practising was solved. When we were all settled in Schloss Botlingen we were very excited to hear that the Busonis - Mr and Mrs Busoni and their two sons - had taken a suite of rooms at the schloss.
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SIEHE UNTEN DIE DREI ANDERE KLAVIERABENDE
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There was some lovely summer weather. The Busonis had a balcony where they had breakfast and they often passed through the long room in which we had meals. One morning we found Guten appetit written on the tablecloth in Busoni’s handwriting. All being under one roof we met pretty frequently. Lello, Busoni’s younger son, used to amuse himself in a canoe on the moat and one day he persuaded his father to get into the canoe [with him], which must have been seen by a student who took a snapshot without delay. I have a copy.
We all worked pretty hard for there were two lessons a week in the Conservatoire hall and Busoni gave a recital at the end of each week in it. There must have been about a hundred listeners and nobody was able to play more than twice because there were so many entries. In the evening the Busonis always had supper in the town and some of the students were generally asked to join them.
We had an excitement at the Schloss: one Sunday several of us went out for the day and when we came back we found the annexe was on fire. People had kindly thrown all the belongings out of the windows and we went around picking up our various things. The fire was just out but the roof ws all-in so we couldn’t sleep in the annexe and had to be housed in the castle. And life went on as before except that Egon Petri and wife joined the party as he was to play the Busoni concerto at the end of the course in the concert hall.
I remember Busoni stopping as he passed through our dining room to ask us if we had been to the picture gallery and he talked about the Holbein and other pictures there. I cannot imagine anything more vital and helpful for life than the gift we all received through the enchantment of Busoni.
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FERRUCCIO BUSONI
TO ROSAMOND LEY
Dear Miss Ley,
I want to thank you for the fine picture you have sent to me. I should have done it long before , but I ignored your address. I could not bear the thought that I should leave for America, without to say you good-bye. Mr Petri gave me at last the address and I am now able to greet you most heartly [sic]. I hope that resting will be kind and make me meet you again.
Yours affectionately
Ferruccio Busoni
[Berlin?
Undated: probably
October 1910]
My dear Miss Ley,
It was good of you to write and it did me good, so I have to thank you.
Everything in your letter sounds like coming from a beautiful heart. It gave me much pain to hear that you have felt unhappy in Berlin and don’t you think that you have misunderstood a good deal yourself?
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Did you not imagine that all my little sarcasms, my allusions, they were only the wrong form of expression for my longing. The longing for seeing you become human, warm and womanly; when you only were friendly, artistic and unopen. Now I see how much you give me in your way, although you refused all I was willing to give to you, the best part of myself and perhaps the last and most refined [?] feeling which I have to offer…this is a chapter which you do not care to read, but it has to be brought to and [sic] end.
What you say about instincts, as not belonging to a nation, does not convince. It is ascertained that different nations have different instincts, or the same in different measures.
When you have not been hurt by many things on my part it is because your instinct guided you rightly; that behind, as I told you, my bad countenance there was my suffering and that my suffering was nothing but the kindest feeling towards you.
But in the same measure as you gave me no chance to become aware of your suffering, you – on your part – were not willing to take any notice of mine.
Thus you are quite right to speak of the “seas of misunderstanding” while it is the greatest victory of your instinct to recognise that “something” which stands above them.
It was to me of a great comfort to receive your letter before I left you for a long time: it was to me of an important necessity and I have been waiting for it.
I thank you again and again. Shall I mention that my affection remains unaltered?
It will always be there for you, my dearest friend.
I see you again before leaving.
Yours
Ferruccio Busoni
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Emil Henning
Wein Restaurant
Berlin W.57, Bulow-Strasse 19
[probably December 1910]
My dear Miss Ley,
I have been quite unhappy not to be able to see you tonight, and I regretted to have told you not to wait any longer after a certain hour. Although I expected you to have done so, I arrived late, very late, and still with a glimming hope [sic]. But I saw you not.
So I have to apologise and to tell you that I consider it a loss to have missed this last chance here, this time. – But I trust that your precious friendship remains, that it is a thing for life. This is the way I feel.
I have to thank you that you give me a second youth.
I am ashamed to say, but I lost your english address. Please bring it to the station, written down. I hope to receive several letters from you in America – they would be welcome every where, but in the situation which expects me for the next four months they will be beneficial.
What you proposed to me at the door, when you left my home on Friday, will you allow me to return it to you?
I am, my dearest friend,
Yours
FB
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Hotel Astor
New York
December 29th 1910
Dear Miss Ley,
These lines will, as I hope, reach you still in Berlin.
On the journey, which has been a favourable one, my thoughts went back to you and to the last days, when we came so much nearer to each other.
They were fortunate for me and again I have to thank you for them.
I am already looking forward to my return – although I often scarcely dare to do so, fearing almost that destiny may not consider me enough meritorious to deserve the serene existence which I expect to enjoy then. – Life is nothing else than working in expectation of coming results. Happily there is friendship and love to help one forward. –
Little could be done on the ship. I began to read the “ordeal of R. Feucral” [?] and was again stricken by the impression of broadness and smallness alternating in style and thoughts. –
May the new year be a happy one for you; I wish it with all my loving heart.
Ferruccio Busoni
Please write to me.
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Hotel Radisson
Minneapolis, Minn
am 27 Januar 1911
Dear Miss Ley,
There are five weeks since I left you at the Berlin Station and nothing I have heard of you yet – for six weeks – nearly!
I do not know exactly how long you were to stay in B[erlin] and whether you are still there. It would be of a dear interest to me to learn from you how you spent the first month of the new year and a relief to hear that you were able to enjoy the time and the place with better spirits. –
I have done with America. It does not awake in me any new interest – and the former has cooled down in an alarming degree.
It is a curio[u]s department of the world, just as in London are peculiar quarters – necessary parts – where to you never happen to go, and where & when you should visit them you would feel strange and out of place.
My aim is to put some finishing touches on a ripe culture (as far as I am capable) and not to be a missionary to beginning education. –
They have here a malady for superlatives in proportions – (the highest, the longest, the largest, the greatest) – and no knowledge of the way which leads to them.
Really, I suffer, and lose time and strengths, which are very valuable to me in this moment of my life.
I trust that the beginning of April will put an end to all this and that I will see you in England towards the middle of that month.
Meanwhile I hope heartily to hear from you.
Your affectionate friend
Ferruccio Busoni
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LAURETO RODONI
DOKTOR FAUST
VARIAZIONI POETICHE - A F.B. GRATISSIMO ANIMO
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