When Stephen Sondheim died last November, it was revealed that throughout his career the great songwriter had written copious responses to his fans’ letters. Twitter was briefly awash with heart-warming examples of his gracious thanks and detailed answers – there’s even an Instagram account dedicated to them.
But what sort of wide-eyed geek actually writes to a famous musician? Well, me, for starters – the 17-year-old version at least, on a high from being released from school into the cultural wonderland of London. A visit to Wigmore Hall to see cellist Steven Isserlis left me reeling and pre-internet I must have had to go to the local library to find the British & International Music Yearbook to hunt down his agent’s address. I don’t remember what I wrote – no doubt it was fervent and profoundly uncynical – but there came an answer of several generous pages (now lost in the muddle of my storage).
‘I was touched that he had found the time to write a thoughtful letter in reply to a random boy asking questions’
I’m not the only one to have. I’d met him briefly in Glasgow at a new music festival. My letter was rather snivelling: “Thank you for being an inventor of genius.” A reply arrived within a couple of weeks: “Dear Mr Dunn,” he began, and then his words became illegible, but he seemed to want to enter into a correspondence. He was using special carbon copy paper and I would have had to scribble my reply on his original. I spent too long thinking about what to do, as I wanted to keep his original handwriting, but sadly he died, so I never replied.’
