Music in 1853: The Biography of a Year

226 Pages·6.539 MB·English

by  Hugh Macdonald

HugH MacDonalD
M this book is a close chronicle of an important
year in the history of music. Why 1853?
Because for many leading composers of the
nineteenth century this year brought far-
reaching changes to their lives, and whether or
not these changes were connected, they
u
happened within a few months of each other.
Brahms emerged from obscurity to celebrity,
s
schumann ceased to be an active composer,
i and both Berlioz and Wagner became active
g
n composers again after long silences.
gi c
Ma By limiting the perspective to a single year,
n i
ki the narrative is able to follow the lives and
k Ma i actions of these composers in much greater
Dic n detail than a standard biography of any
Music in
Music in
individual; and by extending it to a group of
HugH MacDonalDis avis H. Blewett musicians, their constant interconnections
Professor emeritus of Music at Washington 1 become the central motif of the historical
With characteristic originality, Hugh Macdonald’s fertile imagination has seized
university, st louis. He has authored books 1853 process. Brahms meets Berlioz and liszt as
on a way of shedding fascinating new light on a crucial period in the history of
on skryabin and Berlioz and has previously 8 well as schumann; liszt is a constant link in
music, by telling the story of a year when great things were happening
published Beethoven’s Century: Essays on every chain; Joachim is close to all of them;
simultaneously in different parts of germany and the foundations of greater
Composers and Themeswith Boydell/urP. Wagner is on everyone’s mind. no one
things were being laid. We watch Wagner readying himself to begin composing
5 composer is at the centre of the story, but a
The Ring, Berlioz on the verge of The Trojans, the career of the 20-year-old
network of musicians, all of them friends or
Brahms (still beardless), fanned by schumann and Joachim, about to take wing,
at least acquaintances, spread across the map
and schumann near his tragic end. We follow in vivid detail their lives –
3 of europe from london and Paris to leipzig
liszt’s too – as they lived them: their day-to-day preoccupations, their journeys,
and Zurich.
their vital interaction, and all that came from it.
Music in 1853shows how musicians were
DaviD cairns, chief Music critic of the Sunday Times(1983–1992) and now more closely connected than ever before,
Berlioz scholar and author
through the constant exchange of letters
and through the rapidly expanding railway
1853is something increasingly rare in music books: not only skilfully researched H
network. the book links geography and
and deftly written, but a great read. Macdonald paints a fascinating picture of a u
pivotal year in the history of music –Wagner, liszt, Berlioz and Brahms are all g THE BIOGRAPHY OF A YEAR day-to-day events to show how international
there. By the end, readers might almost believe they were there too. H the european musical scene had become.
a larger picture emerges of a shift in musical
kennetH HaMilton, concert pianist and author of After the Golden Age: Romantic M
scenery, from the world of the innocent
Pianism and Modern Performance a
romanticism of Berlioz and schumann to
c
in Music in 1853: the Biography of a Year, Hugh Macdonald traces the travels of D the more potent musical politics of Wagner
several key figures of european music over the span of just ten months: Brahms o and of his antidote (as many saw him) Brahms.
and Joachim, Berlioz and spohr, Wagner and liszt as well as the schumanns n
appear in a fascinating mobile sculpture, whose parts attract and repel each other, a
allowing revealing glimpses behind the scene during a crucial year in music l
Front cover illustrations
D
history. compellingly written ... a great read! liszt: photograph, ernst Burger collection, Munich;
schumann: drawing by laurens, Musée de carpentras;
JÜrgen tHYM, Professor emeritus of Musicology, eastman school of Music,
Wagner: watercolour by clementine stockar-escher,
university of rochester
richard-Wagner-gedenkstätte der stadt Bayreuth;
Joachim: lithograph after a charcoal drawing by
e. Bendemann, kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf; Brahms:
drawing by laurens, Bibliothèque imguimbertine,
carpentras; Berlioz: lithograph by charles Baugniet
BOYDELL & BREWERLtd
Back cover illustration
PO Box 9, Woodbridge IP12 3DF (GB) and
inauguration of the nancy railway line, 1852,
668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620-2731 (US) Histoire populaire contemporaine de la France, Paris, 1864,
www.boydellandbrewer.com Part iii, p. 339.
music in 1853
the biography of a year
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mu sic in 1853
the biography of a year
Hugh Macdonald
◆
the boydell press
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© Hugh Macdonald 2012
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted,
recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner
The right of Hugh Macdonald to be identified as the author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published 2012
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
ISBN 978 1 84383 718 3
The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, ip12 3df, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mount Hope Ave, Rochester, ny 14620-2731, USA
website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence
or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites
referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content
on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate
Papers used by Boydell & Brewer Ltd are natural, recyclable
products made from wood grown in sustainable forests
Designed and typeset in Bodoni Twelve ITC Std by
David Roberts, Pershore, Worcestershire
Printed and bound by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, cr0 4yy
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Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Preface xi
1 Brahms Leaves Home April – May 1
2 Berlioz and Spohr in London May – July 15
3 Brahms and Liszt in Weimar June 33
4 Wagner and Liszt in Zurich May – July 42
5 Berlioz in Baden-Baden and Frankfurt July – August 58
6 Joachim and Brahms in Göttingen and Bonn July – September 71
7 Liszt in Frankfurt, Weimar, and Carlsbad July – September 84
8 Wagner in St Moritz and La Spezia July – September 95
9 Liszt in Karlsruhe September – October 106
10 Schumann and Brahms in Düsseldorf September – October 120
11 Liszt, Wagner and Berlioz in Paris October 133
12 Berlioz, Joachim and Brahms in Hanover October – November 147
13 Brahms, Berlioz and Liszt in Leipzig November – December 157
14 The Schumanns in Holland and Hanover November – February 172
Epilogue 184
Bibliography 189
Index 199
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Illustrations
1 Brahms and Reményi in 1853. Photograph © Brahms-Institut an der
Musikhochschule Lübeck. 2
2 Hotel Arrivals in Hanover. Hannoversche Anzeiger, 21 April 1853. 5
3 Joseph Joachim in 1853. Lithograph after a charcoal drawing by
E. Bendemann, Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf. 6
4 Robert and Clara Schumann in 1850. Steel engraving after a daguerrotype. 10
5 Hector Berlioz in 1851. Lithograph by Charles Baugniet, 1851. 16
6 Frederick Gye. Photograph © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 21
7 Musicians in London in 1853. Lithograph by Charles Baugniet, 1853. 25
8 Cheque for ten guineas paid to Berlioz, 22 June 1853. Hopkinson
Collection, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. 26
9 The King and Queen of Hanover. The Illustrated London News, 25 June
1853. 28
10 Franz Liszt in 1854. Photograph by Ghemar, Brussels, Ernst Burger
Collection, Munich. 34
11 The Altenburg, Weimar. From a lost watercolour by C. Hoffmann, 1859,
painted for the American musician James M. Tracy. 36
12 William Mason. Daguerrotype, 1847. 38
13 Richard Wagner in 1853. Watercolour by Clementine Stockar-Escher,
Richard-Wagner-Gedenkstätte der Stadt Bayreuth. 43
14 (a) Otto Wesendonck. Lithograph, c. 1850; (b) Mathilde Wesendonck.
Oil painting by Carl Sohn, Stadtmuseum, Bonn. 45
15 The Aktien Theatre, Zurich. Nationalarchiv der Richard-Wagner-Stiftung,
Bayreuth. 49
16 Wagner’s concert, 18 May 1853. Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich, 18 May 1853. 51
17 The Hotel Baur au Lac, Zurich. Watercolour, Zentral-Bibliothek Zürich,
Graphische Sammlung. 54
18 The Chapel of William Tell, Lake Lucerne. Engraving after J. M. W.
Turner, watercolour, 1830. 57
19 Edouard Bénazet. Photograph after a painting, c. 1860, Stadtmuseum,
Baden-Baden. 61
20 The Salle de la Conversation, Baden-Baden. From Joseph Wechsberg,
The Lost World of the Great Spas (New York, 1979). 62
21 Berlioz’s Concert on 11 August 1853. Badeblatt, 1853, p. 655. 65
vi
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list of illustrations
22 Report of Berlioz’s arrival in Frankfurt. Didaskalia [Frankfurt], 18 August
1853. 67
23 The Krüger Garden House, Göttingen. Watercolour after a drawing by
Friederike Vogel, c. 1895, Städtisches Museum, Göttingen. 72
24 Joachim in 1853. Photograph © Brahms-Institut an der Musikhochschule
Lübeck. 74
25 Rheinstein castle. Karl Baedeker, The Rhine and Northern Germany
(Koblenz, 1870). 79
26 Liszt in 1858. Photograph, Ernst Burger Collection, Munich. 85
27 Grand Duke Carl Alexander of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach. Lithograph by
Leon Noël after Richard Lauchert, Klassik-Stiftung-Weimar, Herzogin
Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek, Weimar. 86
28 The Sprudel, Carlsbad. Joseph Wechsberg, The Lost World of the Great
Spas (New York, 1979). 89
29 Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein. Photograph, c. 1856, Ernst Burger
Collection, Munich. 90
30 Georg Herwegh. Portrait, Thüringer Museum, Eisenach. 98
31 Prince Regent Friedrich of Baden-Baden. Oil painting by Rudolf Epp,
Stadt-Museum, Karlsruhe. 107
32 The Hoftheater, Karlsruhe. Die Stadt Karlsruhe, ed. Goldschmidt
(Karlsruhe, 1915), p. 402. 111
33 The Karlsruhe Festival, 3-6 October 1853. Generallandesarchiv,
Karlsruhe, 57, no. 573. 112
34 Karlsruhe Station. Die Stadt Karlsruhe, ed. Goldschmidt (Karlsruhe, 1915),
p. 474. 114
35 The Schumanns’ house on Bilkerstrasse, Düsseldorf. Photograph,
Stadtarchiv, Düsseldorf. 121
36 Drawings by J.-J.-B. Laurens: (a) Schumann. Musée de Carpentras;
(b) Brahms. Bibliothèque Inguimbertine, Carpentras; (c) Hiller. Musée
Duplessis, Carpentras; (d) self-portrait. Bibliothèque Inguimbertine,
Carpentras. 124
37 Schumann’s article ‘Neue Bahnen’. Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, 28 October
1853. 130
38 Strasbourg Cathedral. Histoire populaire contemporaine de la France
(Paris, 1864), p. 340. 134
39 Wagner, by Eugène Sayn-Wittgenstein. Lost medallion, reproduced in
Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft [Zurich], 1902. 141
40 The Maurin-Chevillard Quartet. Photograph, Gunther Braam Collection,
Munich. 144
vii
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music in 1853
41 Das Rheingold, first page of sketches, 1 November 1853. Nationalarchiv
der Richard-Wagner-Stiftung, Bayreuth, A III a 1. 146
42 Robert Griepenkerl. Landesmuseum, Brunswick, VM 2273. 148
43 Baron von Donop. Pencil drawing by Julius Geißler, 1845, Lippische
Landesbibliothek, Detmold. 149
44 Berlioz’s concert, 25 October 1853. Stadtarchiv, Brunswick. 150
45 Ferdinand David. Photograph, c. 1860, Robert-Schumann-Haus,
Zwickau. 158
46 The Gewandhaus, Leipzig. Steel engraving, Stadtgeschichtliches Museum,
Leipzig. 160
47 Peter Cornelius. Pencil drawing, Peter Cornelius, Gedichte (Leipzig, 1905),
frontispiece. 164
48 Brahms in Leipzig, 1853. Calotype by Bertha Wehnert, Robert-Schumann-
Haus, Zwickau. 166
49 The Bazaar, The Hague. Lithograph, 1854, Robert-Schumann-Haus,
Zwickau. 176
50 Clara Schumann, by Carl Sohn. Photograph from a painting destroyed in
World War II, Robert-Schumann-Haus, Zwickau. 179
51 The Schiffsbrücke, Düsseldorf. Photograph, c. 1870, Robert-Schumann-
Forschungsstelle, Düsseldorf. 183
maps
1 Germany, showing principal rail connections in 1853 xiv
2 Brahms’s hike down the Rhine 77
3 Switzerland and Northern Italy 96
4 The Schumanns’ tour of Holland 173
The author and publishers are grateful to all the institutions and
individuals listed for permission to reproduce the materials in which they
hold copyright. Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders;
apologies are offered for any omission, and the publishers will be pleased
to add any necessary acknowledgement in subsequent editions.
viii
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S
To all my students and friends at
Washington University in St Louis
founded in 1853
S
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