BERLIOZ Hector (1803-1869). L.A.S. " H. Berlioz", Paris May 16 [1828], to his father Doctor Louis BERLIOZ; 2 pages in-4 (slightly wrinkled, small repairs). Beautiful letter to his father announcing his first concert. In his Memoirs (chap. XVIII), Berlioz recounted how, madly in love with the English actress Harriet Smithson, he resolved to make himself known to her; he had not yet given anything to the public except his solemn Mass in the church of Saint-Roch. "Then I tried what no composer in France had yet tried. I dared to undertake to give, at the Conservatory, a great concert composed exclusively of my works. Despite the opposition of Cherubini, director of the Conservatory, he obtained the concert hall, thanks to the superintendent of Fine Arts Sosthène de La Rochefoucauld. He had the overtures by Waverley and the Francs-Juges (and an aria from this opera) played, the scene of the Greek Revolution, and, as a replacement for the cantata The Death of Orpheus, the Resurrexit of his solemn Mass. Although the concert was a great success, Harriet Smithson never even heard of it. "In short, however, this concert was of real use to me; first by making me known to the artists and the public, which, despite Cherubini's opinion, was beginning to become necessary; then by putting me to grips with the many difficulties presented by the composer's career, when he wants to organize the performance of his works himself. Through this ordeal I saw how much I still had to do to overcome them entirely. Needless to say, the revenue was barely enough to pay for lighting, posters, poverty law, and my unpayable choristers who