Joseph Joachim

This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com C# STATE U'; . A:\ [KNC-IETEM J. L. ''' OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY | | "- ~Z-7--> - Ż - f A Z ż /~~~ ****** 22, . - * * ** z. - - . * JOSEPH JO AC HIM A BIOGRAPHY (1831–1899) BY ANDREAS MoSER TRANSLATED BY LILLA DURHAM (By permission of the Author) INTRODUCTION BY J. A. FULLER MAITLAND With Portrait by G. F. WATTs, R.A., and other Portraits and Facsimiles LONDON PHILIP W E L L BY 6 HENRIETTA STREET, coveNT GARDEN, w.c. 1901 NC. MMAQ lo M \ \\\\a Printed by BALLANTvnk, HANson & Co. At the Ballantyne Press INTRODUCTION IF good wine needs no bush, then should such an excellent piece of work as Professor Moser's biog raphy of Joseph Joachim need no introduction on its appearance in an English dress; but, besides the accident that the author's name is not as yet very widely known in this country, there are a few points in his work which may at least partly excuse a few remarks that might seem superfluous. The task which Prof. Moser undertook was a most enviable one, for very few biographers have had to tell the story of a life so full of dignity, usefulness, and beauty, or one which embodies so completely the realisation of the noblest ideals in art and character. The career of Joachim is very far indeed from being the mere record of successful performances, though no one in the history of music has enjoyed more fully than he the enthusiasm of the intellectual public, or has so well deserved it. To the average reader, his rela tions with the great contemporaries with whom he has been brought in contact will be of surpassing iii iv INTRODUCTION interest, and it is in his treatment of these that Prof. Moser is perhaps at his best. Instead of giving us the bare narrative of the circumstances in which Joachim found himself in the different cities of his residence, Prof. Moser makes us realise the whole condition of things musical in such centres of the art as Vienna, Leipzig, Weimar, Hanover, and Berlin, treating his subject with such skill that he has made an important contribution to the general history of the art. In dealing, too, with the greater or lesser disputes from which even Joachim could not stand completely aloof, his biographer gives due promi nence to the things which make for peace, a promi nence which is amply justified by the facts, as is shown by the courteous, honest, and tactful letter in which Joachim owns his inability to give to the compositions of Liszt as high a value as that at which they were assessed by some of the great pianist's disciples. The difficult task of alluding to the overwhelming sorrow of Joachim's private life has been accomplished with admirable taste and reticence, and throughout the book, in the perfect balance between the intellectual and the emotional side of his work, Prof. Moser shows that he has caught some of the most prominent characteristics of Joachim's own art, for he is never for a moment INTRODUCTION V either dry or gushing. He phrases most happily the qualities that go to make his subject the greatest violinist that the world has seen; and perhaps none of the suggestive sentences in which he has attempted to pluck the heart out of the mystery of the incomparable quartett-playing is quite as well put as this: “He is the first man who has played the violin, not for its own sake, but in the service of an ideal.” Some of those in England who are proud to call themselves the friends of Joachim may feel a little aggrieved at the very small space, hardly more than a passing reference, allotted to the time the illustrious artist has spent in London. But, to make up for this omission, one that could have been repaired without much difficulty, the pos sessors of the English version have before them a far more complete picture of Joachim's life than it was possible to give the German public when the book was published early in the present year. It was intended, as the author tells us in his preface, to form an appropriate contribution to the master's Sixty Years' Jubilee in the spring of the past year; and as it had to be prepared in time for that celebration, it could not, of course, contain an account of the festivities in honour of the event. In the English version, however, that omission has vi INTRODUCTION been made good, and a complete account of the festival is included at the end of the book. Of the way in which Miss Durham has done her work as a translator, it is impossible to speak too highly. The sense of the reader is never offended by an idiom that reflects a German turn of expression, or a phrase which can only be under stood when it has been turned back into German; and it would be possible to read it from end to end without detecting its foreign authorship by the style. J. A. FULLER MAITLAND. AUTHOR'S PREFACE On a cold winter's day, about the middle of the eighties, as I was crossing the open space by the Potsdamer Thor, on my way to give a violin lesson at the Thiergarten Hotel, my meditations were in terrupted by loud calls issuing from a carriage bound for the neighbouring railway station. The carriage halted, and its occupants invited me to join them, which I did not hesitate to do. The travellers were Joachim, Rudorff, and Kruse, who were going to Magdeburg to give a concert with the Philharmonic Orchestra. The continued existence of this excellent or chestra, which now plays such an important part in the musical life of the Prussian capital, is in a great measure due to the frequent tours which Joachim made at this time with the Philharmonikers, and also to the numerous concerts which he led in Berlin. On the platform at the station Kruse placed a railway ticket in my hand, and thrust me into the vii viii AUTHOR'S PRE FACE coupé, murmuring, “You may as well hear for once how Joachim plays the Beethoven Concerto, and how we manage Schumann's Symphony in D minor, and the third Leonore Overture, away from home.” As the train was by this time in motion, it was impossible to refuse the invitation of my friend, who at that time was Konzertmeister to the Philharmonic Orchestra. For two reasons I can never regret this little tour : on account of the brilliant concert, which I cannot easily forget, and the intimate intercourse with the three artists which I enjoyed after the performance. The day before had been Rudorff's birthday, and in order to celebrate this event in a fitting manner, Joachim ordered that sparkling wine which, under the name of Hausschlüssel, plays a certain part in these pages. A drop of this at the right time could thaw even that most silent of all musicians, Robert Schumann; and in the same way, during all the twenty years of my acquaintance with Joachim, I have seldom seen him so communicative as he was that evening after the concert at Magdeburg. We seemed to see passing before us all the glorious artists who watched over Joachim's youth, helped his efforts with their sympathy, and who have made his whole life AUTHOR'S PRE FACE ix richer by the recollection of “hallowed hours' spent together. When we parted in the early hours of the morn ing, the idea occurred to me that I might collect the pictures which had been conjured up in our minds, and arrange them in sequence, in order that wider circles might enjoy a glimpse into Joachim's rich artist-life. My delay in carrying out this idea has brought with it the advantage that I am now able to include another ten years of his life in my book. The active personal intercourse with the master, whose pupil I am proud and grateful to call myself, the frequent playing with him, and the circumstance that I have now for more than ten years faithfully served him as a teacher at the Hochschule, place me in the happy position of being able to describe the course of his life with absolute fidelity, and I venture to hope that my long-standing familiarity with his intellectual side qualifies me also to portray him as an artist. Were an occasion necessary to weave the flowers so generously strewn on his path into a wreath, I could think of none more fitting than the master's “Sixty Years' Jubilee,” on the 17th of March 1899. Rejoicing at the youthful vigour which still X AUTHOR'S PRE FACE breathes in Joachim's art, the faithful pupil and friend dedicates this book as an offering on this exceptional occasion. An individuality can only be understood in its entirety when the circumstances which have com bined to develop it are known. The many influences to which Joachim has been subjected from his earliest childhood make it seem necessary for us to consider his artistic forebears and contemporaries, in order that we may arrive at a correct estimation of the service he has rendered to the art of his time. When I attempted to portray Joachim as a man, Goethe's dictum (to Heinrich Meyer, Feb.

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