10 heart-melting quotations from composers’ love letters

13 February 2024, 16:05

Some of the most beautiful love letters ever written were by the great composers. Here are some of our favourites.

This Valentine’s Day, explore the times composers have fallen so deeply in love, they couldn’t help but put pen to paper and let the emotions flow out...

1. Beethoven to his ‘Immortal Beloved’

   In 1812, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote a heartfelt letter to an anonymous woman who he called his ‘Immortal Beloved’. Scholars today think it may have been intended for Countess Josephine von Brunsvik, but the composer never sent the letter. Regardless of who the muse may have been, it remains one of the most famous love letters of all time.

2. Mozart to his wife, Constanze

   In a letter to his wife, Constanze, Mozart showed his playfully passionate personality and vivid imagination, wishing to shower her in “millions” of kisses.

3. Ethel Smyth to Emmeline Pankhurst

   The British composer Ethel Smyth famously had a relationship with fellow suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. Together, the two not only fearlessly fought for women’s right to vote – they also fell in love.

4. Brahms to Clara Schumann

   Johannes Brahms was famously in love with Clara Schumann who, rather unfortunately for Brahms, was already married to one of his best friends – Robert Schumann. Historians disagree over whether the pair ever acted on their feelings, but this quotation is pretty unequivocal…

5. Gustav Mahler to Alma Mahler

   When Gustav Mahler fell for Alma Schindler, a young composer with great promise, he fell hard. When she initially didn’t reply to his first outpourings of affection, he began writing her flowery letters in an effort to woo her. Eventually, she could no longer deny her feelings for him, and they became inseparable. They married soon after.

6. Alma Mahler to Gustav Mahler

   In this diary entry, following one of Gustav Mahler’s letters professing his love, Alma finally confesses how smitten she is with him. She had been denying her feelings, but soon it became clear that he was serious about her. When she finally gave him a chance, she never looked back. They enjoyed a devoted marriage until his death in 1911.

7. Richard Wagner to Cosima Wagner

   Richard Wagner began an affair with Cosima von Bülow, whose husband conducted the premiere of Tristan und Isolde, and whose stepfather was none other than Franz Liszt. The smitten pair went on to marry and have children together – including a daughter called Isolde and a son called Siegfried.

8. Benjamin Britten to Peter Pears

   English composer Benjamin Britten wrote this heart-warmingly earnest declaration to his partner, the tenor Peter Pears. The two were not only personal but also professional partners, and Britten composed much of his music with Pears in mind.

9. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to Vladimir Davydov

   Vladimir Davydov, known to Tchaikovsky as ‘Bob’, was the composer’s nephew who lived in his house for many years. Tchaikovsky was so besotted that he dedicated his sixth symphony to Davydov and ultimately signed over his copyright and royalties to ‘Bob’ in his will. But their already troubled story had a tragic ending when Davydov died of suicide.

10. Leos Janáček to Kamila Stösslová

    Towards the end of his life, the Czech composer Leos Janáček fell in love with a much younger woman called Kamila. The letters they exchanged were written so ardently and frequently that they inspired the composer's quartet ‘Intimate Letters’.

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