Lettre adressée depuis Bath à Renée Chaine, compagne du pianiste Alfred Cortot : "on oubliait pour des jours entiers les grands évènements"

Autograph letter signed by Lotte Zweig addressed to Renée Chaine, companion of pianist Alfred Cortot, one page written in black ink.
Lotte Zweig, newly married to Stefan Zweig who had left his first wife Friderike, gives news of their lives in the English countryside to Renée Chaine, companion of a great friend of her husband, Alfred Cortot. The relationships between Zweig and Cortot, renowned pianist and specialist in Chopin, are rarely mentioned by biographers - the correspondence between the two couples and their numerous meetings across Europe nevertheless testify to the strong bond that united them. Zweig, who wanted to write a biography of the composer, had also declared: "When Cortot's hands no longer exist, Chopin will die a second time. He is the only one who can express tenderness in greatness." Cortot, for his part, also held Zweig in great esteem: "The days when we meet a Zweig are to be marked with a white stone in the lives of beings who have respect for ideas or curiosity of intelligence." "(Letter of October 13, 1937).
Definitely leaving Germany in 1934, Stefan Zweig moved to England with his new wife Lotte: "Zweig's new existence, with a few details, seems to reproduce identically its existence. If the site of Bath immediately seduced him because it irresistibly reminded him of Salzburg and its surroundings. Likewise, the house with which he fell in love, Rosemount House (the Mount of Roses), is located on a hill whose the name (Lyncombe Hill) evokes the Kapuzinerberg (Capuchin mountain or hill) [...] Beyond these toponymic and geographical similarities, the natural environment of Bath, its status as a cultural city , reveal his nostalgia for lost paradise "( Stefan Zweig - autopsy of a suicide, Dominique Frischer).

"Dear friend,
I have wanted to write to you for a very long time, and thank you for your last letter, but alas, our correspondence has grown tremendously, and it was only here two hours from London that Mr. Zweig found enough rest to work. We are very happy here - a lovely old town, with exquisite architecture and a beautiful English landscape, a nice house, a quiet life, a lot of work, a lot of walks and for the weekend [sic] some good friends [sic] . It is ideal after the worried and troubled life of London. What we regret is not seeing you again for so long. Isn't there a way for you to spend a few days here in Bath? We would be very happy and you would also have fun with your stay, I am sure! *
Friendly
Monkfish Zweig "