Sir, – Further to recent correspondence (Letters, May 15th, 16th, 18th) and Rosita Boland’s “Invisibly famous: The brilliant Irish wartime codebreaker who worked at Britain’s Bletchley Park”, Books May 6th), Emily Anderson’s translations of the letters of Mozart and Beethoven are enduring classics.
Her Mozart letters especially, reveal like no other, the vibrant and effervescent personality of the great composer. She was the first person to translate, complete and unexpurgated, the letters of Mozart to his cousin, Maria Anna Thekla.
These letters are brimming with humour, puns, rhymes, topsy-turvy nonsense sentences, lavatory-laced jokes and explicit scatological passages. This material was suppressed for many years, as editors and scholars found it difficult to reconcile the writer of such exquisite music with expressions of such coarseness sent to a female relative.
Nevertheless, in Emily Anderson’s own words: “...from a psychological and personal point of view, Mozart’s letters bear comparison with those of the great letter writers of the world”. – Yours, etc,
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LINDSAY ARMSTRONG,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.