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, insignifcant quoting Wagner's unfattering 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 eforts of Wagner whether Riga, Bayreuth, or even cultural centers scholarship for the beneft 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 difering length. The frst two, "Wagner's Zurich" H-Net Reviews and "Zurich's Wagner," ofer 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 infuences 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 refecting 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 sufced 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 infuences 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--sufcient 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

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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 eforts 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 sufcient 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 ofered 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 afected 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 briefy (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. Although symphonies by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus these observations are framed by careful consid‐ Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven, as well as a erations about borrowing and creative infuence, Christoph Willibald Gluck overture, which were they are not wholly convincing and smell slightly used for his concerts. Walton scrutinizes the of the "reminiscence hunting" of the nineteenth scribes and expression markings in loving detail century. The following chapter, "Composing in and demonstrates convincingly that Wagner ad‐ Wagner's Footsteps," then traces infuences in the vocated great fdelity to the musical text as well as opposite direction by introducing the handful of fexibility in execution, particularly a fuctuating

3 H-Net Reviews tempo. These fndings are again related to his her. In Wagner's case, part of the control lay pre‐ own compositional practices. The chapter is cisely in her refusal to yield to his desire for a rounded of with a useful table of Wagner's con‐ complete "Vereinigung"--a rather elegant solution cert, theatrical, and domestic performances in to the perennial question that appears in any ac‐ Zurich. count of the Wagner-Wesendonck relationship. In In the fnal two chapters, Otto and Mathilde enriching and changing our picture of Mathilde, Wesendonck take center stage. Walton does his Walton also gives satisfaction to a marginal fgure, best to dispel several pervasive myths: that of Otto her Italian tutor Francesco de Sanctis, who nor‐ as a simpleton who stupidly kept supporting an mally appears in the Wagner literature only as extravagant composer who cuckolded him, and Mathilde's "Mediterranean firt," but who was in that of Mathilde as a mere sounding board for fact a professor of Italian literature with revolu‐ Wagner's creative genius. Otto emerges as an as‐ tionary credentials and a profound grasp of tute and cosmopolitan businessman who might Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophy--quite a rival have been glad to assist the fugitive Wagner be‐ for Wagner. By stressing Mathilde's interest in cause his own brother Hugo, a liberal and mem‐ Sanctis, Walton puts the famous "Morning Confes‐ ber of the Frankfurt parliament in 1848-49, had to sion" of April 1858, which ultimately forced Wagn‐ leave Germany. Walton's speculations regarding er to fee Zurich to avoid an open scandal, into a Otto's more private reasons for supporting Wagn‐ quite diferent light, "less like a love letter than an er are less convincing. Although it is no doubt attempt ... to justify oneself with regard to an ar‐ rather peculiar that he asked his second wife, gument that one has lost badly" (p. 228). The chap‐ whose real name was Agnes Luckemeyer, to call ter closes with a sensitive discussion of Mathilde's herself "Mathilde" like his frst wife and his only literary works, which are, according to Walton, sister, the idea that Otto and Wagner were united "an echo of the dialogue that she and Wagner en‐ in an inclination to incest sounds rather far- joyed" (p. 237). In any case, although the life of the fetched. Walton admonishes himself not to be car‐ Wesendoncks was no doubt enriched and ried away by "increasingly unlikely speculation," changed by Wagner's presence in Zurich, Walton but proposes immediately afterwards that "Otto makes it abundantly clear that they were intellec‐ tolerated his wife's infatuation because, in fact, he tuals and human beings in their own right. shared it" (p. 197). Nevertheless, the biographical In the brief conclusion, Walton reiterates his re-readings of Walküre and Tristan (1865), if such conviction that the exiled composer could not things have to be done at all, ofer intriguing have come to a better place to complete his transi‐ glimpses of a completely diferent understanding tion from Dresden Kapellmeister to musician of of Wagner's works. The fnal chapter is dedicated the future. He may slightly overstate his case. to "Voicing Mathilde: Wagner's Controlling Muse." Walton's Zurich--and Wagner's Zurich--of the Walton makes a strong case that her creative and 1850s undoubtedly emerges as a highly interest‐ intellectual capabilities have been unjustly under‐ ing and stimulating place that shaped the Wagner rated in favor of portraying her as a purely erotic we now know, but no doubt a prolonged stay in stimulant for the composer. According to Walton's London, Paris, or even Dresden would have persuasive analysis of their relationship through shaped an interesting (albeit diferent) Wagner as letters, memoirs (notably, the often overlooked well. Despite the many sources examined, Wal‐ testimony of Wagner's stepdaughter, Natalie) and ton's detailed account leaves some fgures in a the creative work of both, Mathilde was a self-pos‐ hazy half-light, for example, the community of ex‐ sessed, strong-willed woman who exerted consid‐ iled intellectuals (if Wagner had little to do with erable control over the men and women around them, the "why" would surely have deserved at‐

4 H-Net Reviews tention) or a central fgure such as Minna Wagner. Nevertheless Walton's study gives an excellent "feel" for the place, introduces the average Wag‐ nerian to many enlightening facts about musical life in Zurich, rights several wrongs of previous Wagner scholarship, and leaves the reader with several intriguing, highly speculative, though not always entirely convincing new ideas about Wag‐ ner's creativity.

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Citation: Barbara Eichner. Review of Walton, Chris. Richard Wagner's Zurich: The Muse of Place. H- German, H-Net Reviews. November, 2009.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=25818

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