Kaikhosru Sorabji’s Letters to Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock) ed. by Brian Inglis and Barry Smith (review)

This handsome new volume presents the corpus of letters from composer–pianist– critic Kaikhosru Sorabji (1892–1988) to his contemporary, Philip Heseltine (Peter War-lock) (1894–1930). Written between 1913 and 1922, Sorabji’s letters have remained largely unseen among the Heseltine papers in the British Library, apart from a series of short excerpts published in 1992 (see Kenneth Derus, ‘Sorabji’s Letters to Heseltine’, in Sorabji: A Critical Celebration, ed. Paul Rapoport [Aldershot: Scholar Press, 1992], 195–255). Meticulously transcribed here by Barry Smith, the complete letters are lively and engaging, providing fascinating insights into both the early development of these two composer–critics and their socio- cultural and musical milieu. The Introduction by Brian Inglis is critically astute, effectively drawing on recent scholarship to bring the issue of identity (particularly race) to the fore in a nuanced framing of Sorabji and his work, while also perceptively considering questions of sexuality, influence, and stylistic development in relation to both composers. Only Sorabji’s side of the correspondence is preserved, so the editors took up the idea of interspersing Heseltine’s letters to friends in which he describes those he is receiving from Sorabji. This makes for entertaining (and, at times, as explained below, disturbing) reading. The appendices add further interest with a selection of printed documents penned by the protagonists—including Heseltine’s 1913 Musical Times article, which was the catalyst for the correspondence, and Sorabji’s brief but touching tribute to Heseltine in 1931, following his death.

Closing an early letter to Heseltine, begun on 6 January 1914, Sorabji exclaimed: ‘Do soon write one of your most delightful letters and don’t be too furious that this letter is so long and wordy. I can’t help it. I must write!’ (p. 51). And write he did. These early letters are brimming with vivid descriptions of new works, concerts in London, and musical personalities, alongside discussions of political, religious, and cultural subjects, all shot through with brilliant wit. Quite the opposite of an insular English outlook, Sorabji’s letters reveal a voracious cosmopolitanism. Heseltine remarked to Frederick Delius early in the correspondence: ‘He is very interesting, since he tells me all about composers of whom I know nothing’ (December 1913, pp. 45–46). Indeed, Sorabji discusses a vast amount of repertoire, often ‘hot off the press’, by international composers from Zoltan Kodály, Alexander Scriabin, and Erik Satie, to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Richard Strauss, Jean Sibelius, and Albert Roussel, at times notating his incisive analyses with music examples.

As the correspondence moves into 1916, there is a compelling sense of anticipation as Sorabji begins to compose in earnest, often meeting with Heseltine to share his works at the piano. Now the reader becomes privy to the intimacy between the two composers as they support each other’s creative endeavours. When Sorabji asks if he could dedicate his first piano concerto to Heseltine, he explains: ‘I am quite sure that but for your encouragement and “bonté” the Concerto would never have seen the light of day’ (May 1916, p. 105). ‘Soul-shattering’ was Heseltine’s verdict on the concerto after Sorabji played it for him at the Bechstein studios (letter to Colin Taylor, March 1916). By the end of the correspondence in 1922, we have followed Sorabji’s completion of, inter alia, five further piano concertos, his first symphony, several songs, a piano quintet, and three piano sonatas. Heseltine wrote to Delius of ‘his quite extraordinary talent’ and ‘the overwhelming emotional power of his music’, while marvelling at his ‘technical mastery’ (March 1920, p. 120). Several figures illustrate all this creative activity: a page from the first concerto’s manuscript full score reveals the pianism demanded of Sorabji to bring this piece to life for his friend (p. 32), while an eye-catching letter of July 1916 sees Sorabji notating the...