300 Letters

 

There is only one happiness in life -- to love and be loved. 

                                                               — George Sand

The composer Franz Lizst  once loved a women so intently that he wrote her 330 love letters in the span of six weeks. The woman was a mother of three children and didn't answer one of them until his last letter.

    That last letter said he was leaving Paris and would never see her again. She wrote him back and left Paris with him.

  These delightful stories of romantic composers and their romantic music and dramas are described in this interview between Mona Golabek and Martha Stewart. The radio show that Mona hosts is called The Romantic Hours.

Photo Credit

   Mona Gobalek's mother was a piano teacher. Mona wrote a book about her mother's life called 
The Children of Willesden Lane. It is her account of her mother's story. From her mother, she heard the following words of inspiration:

    "If your heart is open when you listen to a piece of music, you're going to feel the soul behind the person that wrote that piece of music."

   These composers from the Romantic Period of music continue to speak to those of us who are willing to listen .