Putting Wagner in His Place

Chris Walton. Richard Wagner's Zurich: The Muse of Place. New York: Camden House, 2007. xii + 295 pp. $65.00, cloth, ISBN 978-1-57113-331-1. Reviewed by Barbara Eichner Published on H-German (November, 2009) Commissioned by Susan R. Boettcher Chris Walton's study of Richard Wagner's tests them against local sources, thus giving those Zurich years starts with a veritable bang. After previously regarded as "distant, insignificant quoting Wagner's unflattering characterization of satellites" (p. 3) orbiting the Wagner sun a life of Zurich as "devoid of any public art form," Walton their own. As former head of the Music Division retorts: "He lies, of course. Zurich in 1849 was nei‐ of the Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Walton was of ther devoid of art nor populated by the simple; course in an ideal position to unearth little-known nor was he unknown in it" (p. 1). This dry remark details about Zurich's musical life, and much of sets the tone for the spirited introduction as well the present book echoes his previous studies pub‐ as the entire book that endeavors to "uncover not lished more locally and in German. However, merely 'Wagner's Zurich' and 'Zurich's Wagner' Walton is not the only scholar to advocate a new but also, above all, 'Zurich in Wagner'" (p. 5). In look at Wagner's Zurich. In the same year Eva doing so, Walton seeks to redress an imbalance Martina Hanke's Wagner in Zürich, Individuum that dogs the majority of Wagner biographies, not und Lebenswelt (2007) appeared, which explicitly just those dedicated to the Zurich years. All too of‐ subscribed to a cultural historical approach. If ten, Wagner's own writings, particularly his noto‐ Walton and Hanke took notice of the others' en‐ riously skewed autobiography Mein Leben deavors, their books sadly do not show any cross- (1870-1880), are taken at face value, so that every‐ fertilization beyond Hanke's quotation from Wal‐ thing is seen through his self-serving perspective. ton's earlier German publications. Thus an oppor‐ This stance makes any city he ever set foot in-- tunity of combining the best efforts of Wagner whether Riga, Bayreuth, or even cultural centers scholarship for the benefit of English- and Ger‐ such as Dresden and Munich--appear as if it were man-speaking audiences has been missed. a nonentity before the arrival of the "Master." Walton's book is divided into ten chapters of Walton, in contrast, takes Wagner's writings and differing length. The frst two, "Wagner's Zurich" H-Net Reviews and "Zurich's Wagner," offer compact and strictly its liberal and intellectually radical climate, chronological overviews of the development of unique in post-1848 Europe. music in Zurich on the one hand and Wagner's ac‐ The next two chapters are rather short and tivities in the Swiss city from 1849 to 1858 on the consider Wagner's relationship with "the place" other. The latter feels rather breathless, since its from unusual vantage points: in particular, the main purpose is to set the chronological frame‐ creative stimuli the composer found in his new work for more systematic explorations of individ‐ surroundings. "Weathering Storms" engages with ual topics in the latter part of the book. The frst Wagner's enthusiasm for nature and its possible chapter, however, is a highly informative account influences on his operas. After debunking (once of Zurich's cultural and political history from the again) the "Good Friday" myth surrounding the Reformation through the upheavals of the conception of Parsifal (1882), Walton describes Napoleonic era to the eve of Wagner's arrival, Wagner's trips into the Swiss Alps, where he demonstrating at every turn how closely politics might have found inspiration for some depictions (whether conservative paternalism or nineteenth- of nature in the Ring cycle, such as the storm in century liberalism) and culture were intertwined. Die Walküre (1870) and Brünnhilde's bare moun‐ As Zurich adhered to the strict branch of tain in Siegfried (1876). Walton also conjures the Zwinglian Protestantism, even singing in church unusual phenomenon of the "Rigigespenst" (Rigi was only grudgingly admitted in 1598. Theatrical ghost), a reflecting bank of cloud, surrounded by a performances were banned altogether, and as late rainbow halo that Wagner, according to a letter as the eighteenth century, the appearance of tour‐ by his stepdaughter Natalie, saw for the frst time ing theatrical companies made the ecclesiastical in 1850. Walton links this apparition with the and city authorities nervous. This situation left rainbow bridge in Das Rheingold (1869)--though the cultivation of music to several private soci‐ the Nordic sources alone would have sufficed for eties of amateurs that merged in 1812 to form the the image--as well as the staging of the fnal scene semi-professional "Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft of Der fiegende Holländer (1843), and adds a few Zürich." Despite the lack of musical patronage of thoughts on the latest developments in stage tech‐ court or church, musical education in Zurich nique that Wagner might have encountered in reached a high standard thanks to Enlightenment Paris and Zurich. Chapter 4, "The Life Aquatic," ideas, for example, in the "Zurich Singing Insti‐ similarly investigates the influences of Wagner's tute" and choral societies founded by Hans Georg fondness for "taking the waters" on his artistic Nägeli. Theatrical life took an upturn in 1837 output. The composer was an ardent follower of when actress and dramatist Charlotte Birch-Pfeif‐ hydrotherapy as practiced in the spa Albisbrunn fer became director and staged contemporary op‐ to alleviate his manifold illnesses; and it was eratic works. She also brought composer and con‐ there that he drafted the libretto of Rheingold--not ductor Franz Abt to Zurich. Abt was essentially an unsuitable choice for an opera whose frst the city's "music baron" (p. 31) when Wagner ar‐ scene is set entirely underwater. Walton discusses rived there--sufficient reason for the jealous Wag‐ Wagner's intestinal troubles, the cures he sought ner to disparage Abt as an artistic failure. Despite for them, and their relationship with the composi‐ these cultural activities, Walton admits that, with tion process without embarrassment, arriving at regard to "the public manifestations of art ... the conclusion that "Wagner's bowels and his Zurich was still heavily provincial," though by no muse seem to have existed in a strangely symbiot‐ means the blank slate that Wagner makes it out to ic relationship" (p. 98). be (p. 34). Zurich's main attraction, however, was 2 H-Net Reviews Chapters 5 to 7 are again brief and sketch "New German" composers active in Zurich after Wagner's closer environs in Zurich, starting with Wagner left the city. However, despite the efforts an exploration of the city's lively print culture in of Albert Rudolph Fäsy (a Lisztian rather than a "Publishing in Zurich." Wagner's large-scale theo‐ Wagnerian) and Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen, Walton retical works, Die Kunst und die Revolution has to admit that Zurich generally "gravitated (1849), Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft (1850), Oper back to a Schumannian/Mendelssohnian aesthet‐ und Drama (1851), Eine Mitteilung an meine Fre‐ ic" (p. 154) as soon as Wagner left, making Zurich unde (1851), as well as the notorious Das Juden‐ an early Johannes Brahms stronghold. Brahms tum in der Musik (1850), were all printed in Ger‐ frequently visited Zurich after Wagner's depar‐ many, which seems to be sufficient reason for ture and met the same people; this activity may, Walton not to discuss them beyond the short sur‐ however, been due to the limited number of musi‐ veys he offered in the second chapter. Instead, he cal enthusiasts in Zurich rather than mysterious focuses on some of the smaller articles and pro‐ subconscious urges to tread in Wagner's footsteps, gram notes that Wagner published with as Walton implies. Schulthess and Kiesling of Zurich in the context of The three fnal chapters are easily the most the other products of these publishers; a list of his arresting and intriguing for both general readers writings including reviews might have been help‐ and Wagner specialists. Chapter 8, "Wagner Con‐ ful here. Walton also speculates about the ways in ducts," shows how Wagner's presence changed which Wagner's presence in Zurich affected music concert life and concert programming in Zurich, publication, as he established the contact between pushing it towards more professional and "mod‐ Hector Berlioz and the frm of Rieter-Biedermann. ern" forms by constantly demanding more orches‐ Chapter 6, "Colleagues and Competitors," with tral players and more rehearsal time. The Allge‐ the intriguing subtitle "The Men Who Weren't meine Musikgesellschaft was not unhappy to in‐ There," gives ample space to musicians whom vest large sums in musicians and to let Wagner Wagner either mentions only briefly (and mainly pick and choose the program, since ticket sales negatively) in his memoirs, or whom he "forgot" rocketed whenever he was billed to conduct. Un‐ to mention altogether, despite the many points of fortunately Walton reveals very little about how contact and mutual obligation that Walton Zurichers reacted to Wagner's compositions and demonstrates. Besides Abt, choral conductor Ig‐ his unusual conducting style; the latter is dis‐ naz Heim and his wife Emilie (who frequently cussed only in an ingenious merger of Wagner's sang Wagner's works), as well as composers Fan‐ tract, Über das Dirigieren (1869), with a corre‐ ny Hünerwadel, Theodor Kirchner, Wilhelm sponding passage in Mein Leben. The chapter Baumgartner, and Johann Carl Eschmann are all gains in strength when Walton discusses the origi‐ introduced in short biographical vignettes. Wal‐ nal sources surviving in the society's archives: ton also points out several similarities between fragments of Wagner's arrangement of Don Gio‐ passages in Wagner's operas written in Zurich vanni created in 1850, and orchestral parts of and songs by Kirchner and Eschmann.

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