GRACIOUS MAJ E STY ,

PE RMISSION

D I D RE SPE CTFULLY ED CATED.

T THE EE O QU N.

MADAM ,

The great nation which has the happiness of living in the freedom of the law under your

’ Maj esty s glorious sceptre shows its continuous m ental relationship to the people of Germany,

r who owe thei origin to the same race , in nothing perhaps more plainly than in the ardour with which for upwards of a century it has appro priated the creations of our great composers .

Just as Shakespeare has become to the Germans

a national poet, so to the English is Handel

a national composer. The immortal works of

d with Mozart, Beethoven, Hay n, and Weber met enthusiastic reception and lasting admiration in

dn . England, as did Hay and Weber themselves But it was genuine affection which the people of Britain bestowed upon our great and youthful

a x . m ster, Feli Mendelssohn Bartholdy Hardly

more than a boy when he began his artistic

all a . career in London, he soon won he rts

Everyone watched with fond and eager interest

the steady progress of the youth and the man

his El ah whose greatest work, ij , the ripest

of f to fruit his genius, was irst presented the

world at an English festival . He well deserves

the honour bestowed upon him of a place

amongst the chosen spirits whose portraits adorn

the monument which Your Majesty, as a wife

and as a Queen, has erected to a Prince who

occupies so prominent a position amongst the

ul noblest promoters of human c ture .

The rare distinction bestowed upon this little book, of being allowed to bear the victorious

t name of Your Majes y, is due above all to the memory of the gloriou s master to whom it

. is consecrated My thanks are doubly heartfelt. May a reflection of the gracious reception which my noble friend enjoyed from Your Majesty be

followm as granted to the g pages, consecrated

they are to memory, and also partly ema nating from h

u have honour to s bscribe myself,

Madam,

’ Majesty s humble devoted servant,

E R FERDINAND HILL . E PREFAC .

PHOTOGRAPHY often gives us the most different

of likenesses the same man, each one recognizable,

but none exhaustive ; and it is only the painter

r — provided he be a real a tist who , out of the i man fold reflections photographed on his brain , can produce a portrait in which everyone may

hims read what he elf saw in the original, and

e re which everyone will acknowledge to be a. r p i s entation of wh le m an the o . In the same way the traits which different people seize in giving

their personal recollections of a famous man

w ll - e i always be somewhat one sided, in spit

u of the most truthf l intention, and it is only — the one—wh b biographer and he the right o, y t putting every hing together, all that he has seen

and heard, or even guessed, can bring to light in all the individuality of the man, its com leteness and f p ulness of meaning. Even in

s letters and conversations, where everyone depict

f is hi - himsel , there a certain photograp c one sided

s are nl e ne s, because they intended o y for a singl

di a r in vidu l ; and most people, however t ue they d f may be to themselves, always mo i y their mental

a to physiognomy to a cert in extent, according the diflerent individualities with which they come

ur into contact. I have endeavo ed in these pages to give a picture of Mendelssohn as he is reflected f in my remembrance they may there ore, perhaps, supply material to his future biographer, giving as they do a new aspect of that richly- gifted

or of man, at any rate, a more complete picture one side of him than has hitherto been supplied to us in the valuable writings and letters already

is in his publ hed, namely, relations to a true

a t -fr and mr if be hearted rtis iend co ade, I may allowed thus to style myself. The peculiarity

r a e at of his relations to me, even at the ea ly g which his genius had ripened and he became

celebrated, was, that they were those not only I ! of ff . friendly a ection, but of real fellowship very much regret that I was not in the habit

'o f putting down my experiences, during the

years in which, from time to time, I enjoyed

n s such intimate intercourse with him . Ma y preciou

“ details have escaped me, though I still have a perfectly clear picture of my friend before me .

However, all that I have told may be received with the most implicit confidence .

Music cannot be described ; language is totally incapable of giving even the m ost distant idea

And of a musical composition. in the same

i t u way, very l ttle can be told of the ac al com m unications which go to make up the intimate intercourse of two musicians . The hours which

I spent with Mendelssohn at the piano, in the interchange of our views on music and c inds own ompositions of all k , our and other

’ people s, were , in a certain sense, the best which

I had the happiness of enjoying with him ; but it would be impossible for me to give more than

e the most general account of th m. If, on the o ther hand, I have tried to preserve many of my ’ d r ar or ear f iend s rem ks, that are perhaps trivial, fi insigni cant traits of speech or action, I have done so with the conviction that the merest t is n rifle interesti g, when a great man is con

’ m r c erned . Mendelssohn s ad i ers have reproached me for not coming forward long ago with my c i ommunications . Various reasons w thheld me , and all one above others, namely, that I might not give occasion to the very slightest accusation o f trying to gain popularity through his friend

of s hip . Proud it as I was and am, it was too

s . acred to me to be made use of Now however,

I come forward all the more boldly with these

u l r pages, so f l of admi able traits of the departed,

be because , one of the brightest and most

firm am ent beautiful stars in the of German art,

own is experiencing, in his country, the attacks

of of i , envy , of want comprehens on and judgment which can only bring dishonour on those from

o ll d whom they pr ceed, for they wi never succee in detracting from the glory which surrounds his

. n ame . Gold cannot be tarnished hi m Thus, with fond devotion, I add t s si ple garland to the

adorns the open brow of the youthful master, and will adorn it so lon as reason and feelm clear

s h to ne s and depth, freedom and beauty are eld

o e c nditions of the highest creations of art.

FERDIN AND

COLOGNE , 1873 . E I ’ E FACE D TOR S PR .

MY part in this work has been confin ed to the pleasant task of passing an excellent translation di through the press, and ad ng a few notes of date or place to the text since its appearance in il ’ Macm lan s Magazine .

The volume has had the advantage of Dr. ill ’ i mi H er s rev sion, and for this and his per ssion

of the to make use of the portrait, the best thanks publishers and myself are due to him .

As a lover of music and of Mendelssohn

however, I owe him a much deeper debt, which dl I gladly acknowledge . This book is undoubte y the most important contribution to the biography of Mendelssohn that has appeared since the pub lication of the two volumes of his Letters . One

his more volume of letters to family, or one more l dr - ike the present, but ad essed to a non musician

— his a Schubring or a Hildebrandt and, whether f Li e be ever written or not, the world would be in tolerably full possession of one of the — most remarkable, interesting, and many sided

characters of the century .

As I write the news arrives of the death Of

’ s Paul Mendel sohn, Felix s younger brother, and

the last remaining member of the family circle to

e which he was so fondly attached . It is a doubl — reminder first that but for over - work and over excitement Felix Mendelssohn himself might have

been still with us, or but recently departed ; and dl secon y that those who knew him personally, and

to whom he was not only a musician but a living,

n fts lovi g friend, rich beyond measure in the gi s f and power of li e, are fast passing away with their recollections and traditions out of the reach of the biographer.

. R VE G G O .

SYDE HAM N , 4 J u ne 25th, 187 . CHAPTE R II .

P S— E E MBE 1 3 1 T P L 1 2 ARI D C R, 8 , 9 A RI , 83

— A I! -LA - H PE LL E A ND SSE LD O F MA Y 1 4 TO M CH 1 C A DU R , 83 , AR , 83

CHAPTE R IV . — FRANKFO RT AND L E IPSIC 1 831 AN D 1 837

CHAPTE R V .

RA K R L E IPSIC E RL I 1 83 7 1 83 9 F N FO T, L ONDO N, , B N

’ (ME ND E L SSOHN S MARRIAGE )

CHAPTE R V I .

— ’ ‘ L E IPSIC WINI E R o r 1 83 9-40

CHAPTE R VII .

R I E I PSI o—WIN TE B o r 1842 a ronr, BE L N, L

CHAPTE R VIII .

C oN CLusI ON PRINCIPAL DATE S IN ME NDE LSSOHN’ S

LIFE .

1 . . 80 . r at am Feb 3 9 Bo n H burg, ’ 1 ami em e to L e . Be m e Zelter s . 81 5 or 1 6 . F ly r ov ipsic co s pupil

t t G et e . 1 82 1 . Fir st visi o o h

1 22 tz e a . 8 . Tour in Swi rl nd '

1 2 m et e t e . J our ne to Pa and e u . 8 5 . Octe tt . Tru p Ov r ur y ris Ch r bini

’ e r e t o M m m e N t eam . 1 826 . Ov rtu idsu r igh s Dr

1 2 e t r e Mee e t e . 8 8 . Ov r u , r ss ill

in a —R m at S m ir t i t to L . u t d e 1 829. F s v si ondon To r Sco l n for ion y

phony. — - 1 i t to G et e . Ita a e He e e t r e 1 830 . Th rd visi o h li n journ y brid s Ov r u

- Italian Sym phony Walpurgis night .

L . G m i e t . 1 2 . M Pa 83 unich, ris, ondon nor Conc r o

- e t t Me e . t . Pa . L . e o S 1 e . 833 4 . Duss ldorf ondon Ov r ur lusin ul 1 N ov . 9. e . L e . e at at e 1 83 5 . Duss ldorf ipsic D h of his f h r, — . Ma 22 . 1 L e a t . Bet t a . St . Pa fir t e m e 83 6 . ipsic Fr nkfor ro h l ul s p rfor d, y

1 . a ia e Ma 2 . 83 7 M rr g , rch 8 . D minor Concerto 4zu d Psalm .

Birmingham . — — 1 38 . L e . e a and fla 8 ipsic S ren de Allegro giojoso E t Quartet . — 1 83 9. L e i . Bu B a . m i Ma . psic y l s D nor Trio . ny Songs — 1 840. L e . E a . e t L e a . ipsic ngl nd F s gesang . obg s ng

41 i — 1 . Le . B rlm 8 e . nt e . t m psic A igon Sco ch Sy phony . V ariations

ér e e . Fi t e S i us s rs illn ss .

1 842 . Be L el SIC . L t e . tz e a rlin p ondon, wi h his wif Swi rl nd . Death m t e De of his o h r, c .

— ’ 1 843 . L e Be i . Mi m m e N t e am ipsic, rl n dsu r igh s Dr Music . Athalie . P ah s s .

- 1 4 . B i 84 e . L . e . V e t . min rl n ondon Sod n iolin Conc r o C or Trio .

e t e to t a e a ata Ov r ur A h li Org n Son s . — Be in a t . (E di . u s . B flat tet . E a e rl Fr nkfor p Quin lij h b gun .

Re signs post at Be rli n .

1 84 L a B 6. e . E a t m n am . 2 5 . L a a ipsic lij h ir i gh , Aug ud Sion .

1 84 . L L . i tz e a . 7 eipsic . ondon Sw rl nd Death of his sister Fanny ,

Ma 1 4 . r t . L e e . m a te y Ch is us or l y F inor Qu r t . Death

N ov . 4 .

FRA N 1822 . KFORT,

I worked most diligently at harmony and counter il a V ollw e er. point, under the venerable But that

boy only two or three years Older than myself,

s own hould be conducting his operas, seemed to

me unheard of. True, I had read the same thing

a was bout Mozart but then it was Mozart, and he

more a demigod than a musician. So I was not a little excited when Schmitt came to us one day with the news that Felix Mendelssohn was in t Frankfor , with his father, mother, brother, and

to sisters, and that he , Schmitt, would bring him

see us the next day. The house in which we lived really consisted

Of - the two one tolerably modern, looking on to

“ river, and the other, an Older one, adjoining the fi rst, and facing a narrow street, which contained

the only entrance to both. The windows at the

back of the modern house overlooked the court, and one of them commanded the narrow passage

leading from it to the house door. At this window I took my stand at the hour which Schmitt had his named for visit, and, after waiting for some

was time in the greatest impatience, rewarded by

seeing the door open and my master appear. Be

hind him was a boy, only a little bigger than f n ll mysel , who kept leapi g up ti he contrived to

Me e was the 3 rd e rua 1 80 nd lssohn born on of F b ry, 9, and Hiller on the 2 4th t e 1 11 Oc ob r, 8 . I IG E LI F RST S HT OF F ! .

’ his s on mi s get hand to Sch tt s houlders, so as to hang on his back and be carried along for a few ’ ”

Off . steps, and then slip again He s jolly enough,

Off n - thought I, and ran to the sitti g room to tell my parents that the eagerly- expected visitor had arrived . But great was my astonishment when I saw this same wild boy enter the room in quite a ifi l dign ed way, and, though very ively and talka

all rt tive, yet the time preserving a ce ain formality. He himself impressed me even more than the

and account of his performances had done, I could not help feeling a little shy during the whole of the visit .

The next day Schmitt called again , to take me to the Mendelssohns . I found the whole fam ily as sembled in a great room at the Swan

i . hotel, and was very k ndly received I shall never forget the impression made on me by the

. mother, whom I was never to see again She was sitting at work at a little table, and inquired about all that I was doing with an infinite kindness and gentleness that won my childish confidence at once . There was a Frankfort quartet party in the

s room, but beside these I remember only young

t , Edward Devrien , who pleased me very much not u only by his good looks and gracef l ways, but also n by the exquisite manner in which he sang a air of B 2 CH AN 1825 . FR KFORT, [ A R

’ ! Mozart s . We had a great deal of music Felix * — in C re played one of his quartets minor, if I collect right ; bu t I was most struck by his sister Fanny’s performance of Hummel’s Rondeau brillant in A, which she played in a truly masterly style . x Meantime I became more intimate with Feli , and

vi at his second sit he astonished me immensely. I n ’ was showi g him a violin sonata of Aloys Schmitt s, when he at once took up a violin which lay on the piano and asked me to play the sonata with him ; he got through his part very cleverly and well , though the brilliant passages were naturally some what sketchy. ’

Having thus made Mendelssohn s acquaintance, I was constantly on the watch for news of him from

the many artists who came from Berlin to Frankfort ,

r and they were never ti ed of singing his praises . But it was not till some years later that his abilities Th made a full and permanent impression on me . e Caecilia Society was then in all its freshness and

, r r Sche bl vigour under the admi able di ection of l e. Mendelssohn happened to be present at one of the

- s n 1 82 5 practice meetings in the pri g of , as he was

passing through Frankfort on a holiday tour, and was asked to play. We had been singing choruses “ ” a from Judas Maccab eus . He took some O f the

Q artet for P a te and tr n 0 u i nofor S i gs ( p . E LI! E ! E M I E ’ F T POR S S. — principal melodies especially See the Conquering H ro — to o e and began extemporise n them. I — hardly know which was most wonderful the skilful e count rpoint, the flow and continuity of the thoughts, or fire di x the , expression, and extraor nary e ecution which characterized his playing. He must have been

r f of at for fi ve y ull Handel that time, the gures

he u e and which s d were thoroughly Handelian, the

o ar a in r p wer and cle ness of his p ssages thi ds, sixths ,

and be octaves, were really grand ; and yet it all

- s longed to the subject matter, with no preten ion to di splay, and was thoroughly true, genuine, living

music . It quite carried me away, and though I n w Often heard his wonderful playi g after ards, I do not think that it ever produced such an overpower

ff on ing e ect me as it did on that occasion, when

The x he was but a boy of sixteen . ne t day, while

ll of still fu what I had heard, I met another pupil ’ of S mi of t . ch tt s, a lad about twen y, long since dead

s a We talked about Mendel sohn, and he sked me how long I thought it would take to be able to do i all that. I laughed. He thought that w th two

’ years extra hard work it might be done . It was s the first though by no means the la t time , that I came across anyone so foolish as to think that

genius can be got by practice .

His opinions on art and artists at that time, were

full of the vivacity natural to his age, and had in ANK 1 825 . FR FORT,

— - them something—what shall I call it over ripe

al and most dogmatic, which as he grew up not only

. became balanced, but entirely disappeared We drove over one afternoon to see André at Offenbach .

On the way, I told him that it was probable I di should be sent to Weimar, to continue my stu es u nder Hummel . With this he found no fault, but I remember his speaking of Humm el very much in

di of w the condescen ng sort tone in hich Zelter, in ms t his letters to Goethe, expresses hi elf abou God ’ And to Andres and the world. when we got , I was struck with a certain precocious positiveness in

all f ll his language, though he said was u of the most — . A re genuine enthusiasm nd one of the liveliest,

t - f s a brightest, and bes in ormed of mu ici ns, who retained his freshness unimpaired to the end of a

— ar long life retorted good naturedly but very sh ply. André was one of those musicians who are com

letel in p y wrapt up Mozart, and who measure ’ everything by the standard Of Mozart s beauty — and finish a standard sufficient to condemn many ’ fi n of the nest thi gs . Spohr s J essonda and ’ ” Weber s Freischiitz were just then making their

u a of Andre had tri mph nt round the theatres, and much to say against them . Mendelssohn, who knew by heart what the other had only a general recollec n tio of, agreed with him in some things, and ff in di ered others, but was most enthusias tic about I . ]

“ t he instrumentation How the orchestra is treated ! ” a nd a 1 The Of wh t a sound it has cried he . tone voice in which he uttered this kind of thing still rings in my ear ; but I am convinced that such utterances were more the result of a natural eu

deavour his as to imitate pet m ters, than the real e Of hi was a xpression his nature, w ch lways intensely m di far as odest. The scussion even got as Bee t hoven Andre had t a , whom of en visited in Vienn . The worst thing he could find against him was his ma nner in (so to speak) of composing, to which in this learned theorist had had a glimpse . For r t stance, he told us that he had seen the manusc ip

of A the major Symphony, and that there were f whole sheets le t blank in it, the pages before and a fter which had no connection with each other. Beethoven had told him that these blanks would — be filled up but what continuity could there be in music so composed ? Mendelssohn would not s tand this, and kept on playing whole movements and bits of movements in his powerful orchestral s l Andre in h tyle, ti l was suc delight that he was

for t s s . obliged, the moment, to s op his critici m

Indeed, who could think of carping or cavilling after hearing Felix play the Allegretto of the A major Symphony ? u - t A leaf from an alb m, containing a three par

! at , canon, and d ed Ehrenbreitstein Valley Sep AN 1 827 . FR KFORT,

e 2 7th 1 82 7 the t temb r , , gives me clue to my nex m eeting with Mendelssohn . During the interval

I had been with Hummel at Weimar, and had made a ~ journey with him to Vienna, where I had pub lished 1 . w as my Opus , a pianoforte quartet I

w as now again at work at home . One day as I looking into the court, this time by chance, a young man crossed it, whom I did not recognize, in a tall

r be , shiny hat. It tu ned out to Mendelssohn , but fi apparently much altered in looks . His gure had become broad and full, and there was a general air

s of smartness about him, with none of that careles case which he sometimes adopted in later life . He — was travelling with two of his fellow students to w Horchheim, near Coblenz , with the vie of spend

’ He ing part Of the holidays at his uncle s place.

nl r stayed o y a sho t time at Frankfort, but long enough for me to see that since our last meeting he had grown into a man . He was staying with Schelble ; and I embrace this Opportunity to speak of that distinguished man and l fi t musician, more especia ly as he was one of the rs ’ t o recognize Mendelssohn s worth, and to devote all

s Schel l his influence to forwarding his mu ic . b e was a thoroughly cultivated musician , and remarkable as a pianist for his earnest and intelligent rendering of classical works ; his voice was a splendid baritone t u enor, which he had c ltivated in the same spirit as .

r t ; place . His spi i still pervades the Society for many years it was conducted on the same principles ll by his pupil Messer ; and at present Carl Mu er is

its efficient head . wr Though Schelble ote but little, he had gone

very deeply into composition . His judgment, both l in great and small things, was extraordinari y acute, and his remarks on music were as interesting as

they were suggestive. As he had introduced Felix into the Society

when a boy, and Felix in his turn had won its e nthusiastic goodwill by his marvellous gift Of

Schelble fir improvisation, so was the st, outside of ’ hn Berlin, to perform Mendelsso s choral works . F elix went to look him up directly after his arrival

. fi in Frankfort, and I accompanied him The rst things that Mendelssohn played to us were some of ’ Moscheles di stu es . They were but recently pub

lished , and Felix spoke of them with great warmth, and played several by heart with extraordinary

energy and evident delight. But we wanted to

hear something new Of his own ; and great was our a stonishment when he played in the most lovely,

tender, charming style, his string quartet in A m * inor, which he had just completed. The impres s ion it made on us pleased him all the more as the

“ a tet N o 2 . ta ni ” Qu r . (Op con i ng the song Ist e s wahr P L ] te f ndency o this piece had not been appreciate d in his Own and f circle, he had a eeling of isolation in c onsequence. An d then he played the Midsummer ’ Night s Dream Overture ! He had told me pri v ately how long and eagerly he had been working t i — a t how in his spare time between the lectures at the Berlin University he had gone on extemporizing at it on the piano of a beautiful lady who lived “ c lose by. For a whole year I hardly did anything ” e l se, he said and certainly he had not wasted his

’ Of f ur of C n his the ail e amacho s Weddi g, O pera which had been produced at Berlin in the x of fun previous spring, he spoke with a mi ture

d - ff an a f xa . o o h l subdued ve tion He t ok , for my fi n bene t, whole dialogues betwee various people

c in dr oncerned in it, try g to give them a amatic ff t— u k e ec with how much tr th I do not now, but

- an us n f . yhow, in the most am i g and li e like manner

But d a I nee h rdly , put down my own poor and

uncertain recollections of these communications,

r Devrient w as s ince Edwa d , who so closely con nected with the whole thing both as a friend and il of is an artist, has given us a deta ed account th ’ fi" e ntire episode in Mendelssohn s life d his Felix invited me to accompany him an

" t &c . trans ated 43 My Recollections of Felix Mendelssohn Bar holdy, , l

tal e Macfarren a e 2 3 . by Na i , p g F AN 182 R KFORT,

as s friends at least far as Bingen , and my parent gladly gave their consent to this little excursion . l At Mainz, where we stayed the night, a smal boat was hired (it was still the ante- steamboat time) and stocked with all manner of eatables and drink a n bles, and we floated dow the glorious river in

r ad great spi its . We talked, and laughed, and mired everything ; and as a specimen of the sort

O f jokes we indulged in, I remember Mendelssohn

u s the suddenly asking one of , Do you know “ Hebrew for snuflers When the Mau sethurm in came sight, and I said that my leave was at u an end, and that I must be landed at R desheim,

nl too they would not hear of my going, and I o y easily let myself be persuaded to remain . But m my companions got out at Horchhei , and in the

nz r evening I found myself alone at Coble , in rathe

of an uncomfortable position . The recollections the journey home rise up so vividly before me, that my reader must kindly pardon me if I try to revive them here , more for my own satisfaction than for his. My small store Of money was very much on the — decline even in the boat I had had a vague — suspicion of it but on no account would I have

- n u borrowed from my fellow travellers. Givi g p all idea of supper I went to the post, and after I h ad paid for a place in the coach to Bingen , found AN AD VE N TURE .

ll 4d I had sti twelve consolatory kreutzers (about ) .

Early in the morning I got to Bingen, and pro c eeded th e - ll e to river bank, which sti looked quit d i eserted ; but the sun was r sing, and it was beau tifull Af e y cool and still . ter a time a boatman cam up half asleep and asked whether I wanted to go ” u a . il cross If you w l put me over to R desheim, “ ’ I said, then may Heaven reward you, for I can t

" give you more than six kreutzers . The man had in his a feel g heart in breast, and probably thought n that something was better than nothi g, so he very cheerfully took me over to the other side.

r It was a glorious morning ; my spi its rose, and I began my wandering through the lovely Rheingau r with a glad heart . My last six k eutzers I spent in bread and pears to keep me alive ; but I had

a , thought of a haven, into which, literally spe king s I hoped to run , and where I trusted my want At Bieberich would be at an end. , then the

of c apital of the Duchy Nassau , lived the Court was . Capellm eister Rummel, whom I knew He who - , a good natured man , and a clever composer

Of ; , r ather abused his facility producing however r he must have had his admi ers, for at every

Frankfort fair his name was to be seen paraded in the music shop of the famous Schott and 00 .

, had I stood as a How often, and how enviously y boy in front of the shop, and read the man ANK 1 827 . FR FORT, titles of his compositions ! It was about ten in the

a morning when I entered his room, and received

Af fir t hearty welcome . ter the st greetings I wen

his to the piano, and asked him to show me latest compositions, which he gladly did . I played

a Sonata, another Sonata, a Fantasia, a Rondo, — Variations and always went on begging for more,

- till the maid came in with a steaming soup tureen. ’ Won t you stay dinner said the Capellmeister,

he rather, as it seemed to me in my anxiety, as if ” were driven to it. With pleasure, I answered, — once more breathing freely I was saved After dl dinner he kin y accompanied me to Castel, and, as

a he knew all about the local arrangements, took

homolerer place for me, in a kind of stage called a ,

. was to Frankfort I got home safe, the coachman

r paid, I recounted my adventu es, showed Mendel ’ ssohn s - l . 0 album leaf, and all was wel the happy days of youth ! A II CH PTER .

P RI — M E 1 I E E R 831 TO PR L . A S D C B , , A , 1832

’ ME N DE LSSOHN S published letters show how variously he was affected by his visit to the — French capital at that time also the capital

of ur s E ope . What happened to him el ewhere,

in f or when contact with persons, per ormances,

r ms n ci cu tances agai st which he had a prejudice, and from which he would have preferred keeping

himself at a distance, happened here also,

a of fter some resistance, he was taken possession

by them . The few years which followed the Revolution of

r July are among the best in modern French histo y. The impression of the Three days was still fresh ’ in people s minds ; everyt hing had received a new l impetus, and iterature and the arts especially were if full of a wonderq y stirring and exuberant l e. dl for As to our beloved music, one could har y wish

so- ir a better state of things. The called Conservato e Habeneck in all r f concerts, under , were thei resh - CHAR 1 2 . PARIS, 831 3 [

’ ness ; and Beethoven s Symphonies were played t here with a perfection, and received with an e nthusiasm, which, with few exceptions, I have w never since witnessed . Cherubini was riting his Masses for the Chapel in the Tuileries ; at the Grand Opera Meyerbeer was beginning his s eries of triumphs with Robert the Devil Rossini was writing William Tell ; Scribe a nd of Auber were at the height their activity, and all the best singers were collected at the

Italian Opera . Artists of all degrees of distinction n lived in Paris, or came there to win Parisia laurels .

Baillot, though advancing in years, still played with all the fire and poetry of youth ; Paganini had given a series of twelve concerts at the Grand l Opera ; Kalkbrenner, with his bril iant execution, represented the Clementi school ; Chopin had established himself in Paris a few months before ’ n r Mendelssohn s arrival ; and Liszt, still i spi ed by the tremendous impetus he had received from

Paganini, though seldom heard in public, per formed the most extraordinary feats . German

- u chamber music was not so , much in vog e as it ’ Baillot s - afterwards became, but still quartet party m had its fanatical supporters, and in any German and French houses the most serious music was a f f ectionately cultivated, and good players were

- 1 831 32 . PARIS, his best was one evening at the house of the Leo

’ Valentinis . , in Beethoven s D major Trio It was

Of a peculiarity his, that when he played new things of his own to intimate friends, he always did it with a certain reticence, which was evidently founded on a wish not to allow his playing to increase the impression made by the actual work

is f . h itsel It was only in orchestral works, where l e attention was fully occupied, that he a low d himself to be carried away. But in the music of the great masters he was all fire and glow. h I eard him Oftenest and at his best that winter, ’ Baillot s Old at house, and at that of an and much e e respected lady, Madame Ki n , whose daughter, x Madame Bigot (then dead), had given Feli a few l music lessons when he was a boy. With Bail ot o he played Bach and Beethoven Sonatas, M zart

and Concertos with quartet accompaniment, splendid extempore cadenzas ; also his own Piano forte Quartet in B minor, and other things . ’ Baillot s l hl circle was sma l, but thoroug y musical and cultivated, and everything was listened to with a sort of religious devotion . Mendelssohn had brought with him to Paris the draught- score of the Hebrides Overture . He told me that not only was its general form and colour suggested ’

to him by the sight of Fingal s Cave, but that fi the rst few bars, containing the principal subject, E I E VE E H BR D S O RTUR .

* had actually occurred to him on the spot . The s ame evening he and his friend Klingem ann paid a visit to a Scotch family. There was a piano

in dr - d the awing room, but being Sun ay, music

was utterly out of the question, and Mendelssohn had to employ all his diplomacy to get the i nstrument opened for a single minute , so that he and Klingem ann might hear the theme which f orms the germ Of that original and masterly v O erture, which, however, was not completed till s u ome years later at D sseldorf.

Am Habeneck ong the Parisian musicians, took

a n deep i terest in the gifted youth, and many of the admirable players of his orchestra were devote d

him O f to , especially the younger ones, many them f b ’ riends of my own, whom e was always glad to s ee , and who clung to him with all the warm feel

Of Am ing Frenchmen . ongst them I ought espe

c iall ranchomm e l l y to mention F , the excel ent ce lo

tt to a i in This is strictly correct. The le er his f m ly, describ g the — p assage to Staffa and th e inside of th e cave for the sight of which Ka Me e — ate Au f I am indebte d to the kindne ss of Dr. rl nd lssohn is d d t a wr tte the a e e Hebride te u t as a . in r , d. 7 A gus , if c u lly i n on isl nd “ e xtra i ar m e I w as th It contains th e words to show how ord n ily ov d , e — f ollowing occurre d to m e and then com e the first ten or twelve bars f ix ee a te he e a ette m e auf o th e Overture in score . S w ks f r nds l r ho ,

W iederl ehen - A I 1 831 32 . P R S,

Cuv illon player, and and Sauzay, the gifted violin — players and pupils of Baillot the latter afterwards

- - his son in law .

Ce bon Mendelssohn, they used to say e ! quel talent, quelle t te, quelle organisation .

Cuvillon poured out his whole heart to him, and Felix was quite touched in telling me of his — confidences one evening how he had come to

Paris full of enthusiasm for Baillot, to have

s o le s ns from him, and had fancied that such a man mu st live like a prince ; how he had pictured to himself his establishment and all his way of life and then to find this king of violin players lodging ‘ a/u, troisiem e a r , in lmost reduced ci cumstances, giving lessons the whole day long, accompanying young ladies on the piano, and playing in the ! orchestra It had made him quite sad, and he could not imagine the possibility of such a state of things .

It was through Habeneck and his Société. des Concerts that Mendelssohn was introduced to the Parisian public . He played the Beethoven G major Concerto— with what success may be seen from his published letters . The Midsummer ’ ” Night s Dream Overture was also performed and much applauded. I was present at the first re

h i s m t e ate Par 1 5th and 3 1st March 1 To o h r, d d is, , 832 . ME N E L N AT THE M D SSOH DRU S.

hear al s — s . The second oboe wa missing which might have been overcome ; but just as they ’ n i mm was were goi g to beg n , the dru er s place also

di . U hi scovered to be empty pon w ch, to every ’ n body s amusement, Me delssohn jumped on to the

‘ o e d u o rch stra, seized the r msticks, and beat as go d

a roll as any drummer in the Old Guard. For t he performance a place had been given him in a

box on the grand tier, with a couple of dis

tin u ur r g ished musical amate s . Du ing the last

orte f a f , a ter which the f iries return once more, ’ o ne of these gentlemen said to the other ! C est

t e — e - le r s bien, tr s bien, mais nous savons reste

a nd out they slipped without hearing the reste, and without any idea that they had been sitting

next the composer. The termination of Mendelssohn’s connection

with that splendid orchestra was unpleasant, and

h urt him much. It was proposed to give his l a ac . Reformation Symphony, and a rehears took pl e the I was not present, but only account which o ur young friends gave me was that the work did ! ’ n ot please the orchestra at any rate, it was ’ uvillon s s n ot performed. C de cription was that “ r too m u a to it was much too lea ned, uch f g , ” &c &c. . t oo little melody, , To a certain extent s the composer probably came round to thi opinion, fo r the Symphony was not published during his - ca n . 1 32 . PA RIS, 183 ( l * he ifetime . But at the time I am writing of h was very fond of it, and the quiet way in whic r it was shelved certainly pained him . I neve r Of eferred to the occurrence, and he never spoke it to me . A few other far more painful events took place during that Paris winter . One morning Mendels

fir sohn came into my room in tears, and at st could find no words to tell me that his friend Edward a z . v Riet , the violinist, was dead E erything th t he said about him, the manner in which he described his ways and his playing, all showed how deeply

l s f corres on the e s af ected him . In his published p f dence, years after, I found his grief expressing itsel in e fi w as a high r and calmer strain, but at rst it difficult for him to control himself in the very least. ’ Of Then came the news Goethe s death, which h h touc ed me also very deeply, though a life of suc wonderful completeness should perhaps dispose one mi more to ad ration than t o regret . Mendelssohn gave me a most detailed account of his last visit ” to the alter Herr, and of the sketch he had given him on the piano of the history of modern music from Bach to Beethoven . He spoke very ’ feelingly of the terrible loss Goethe s death wou ld

It em a e m a t ti 1 868 and a r in d in nuscrip ll , w s first playe d in E a at th e r ta Pa a e e the di e t ngl nd , Mr. Ma ! C ys l l c und r r c ion of nns on , the 3 oth — Novem ber of that yearn E d. E —ME YE RB CH SS E E R .

di ! l be to old Zelter, ad ng You will see, he wi l not ” — a long survive it . He was right few months

ri later, and Zelter followed the f end who had granted him a little corner in his palace of imm or tality. i On the whole, as is evident from his publ shed

- f letters, Mendelssohn led a pleasant easy going li e

r s f in Pa i , and gave himsel up to the enjoyment e Of the moment without hesitation . A larg part of his time was devoted to chess ; he was a capital player, and his usual antagonists, Michael Beer, ’ the poet, a brother of Meyerbeer s, and Dr . in Herman Franck, only occasionally succeeded

him Franck beating . would not allow that he w as inferior, and upon this Mendelssohn invented a phrase which he relentlessly repeated after every victory ! We play quite equally well ” t ua ll — n qu i e eq y o ly I play a very little better. n r Meyerbeer, who was certainly a si cere admi er of his talent, Mendelssohn saw but . seldom. A funny little incident occurred shortly after his

s arrival in Pari . Mendelssohn was often told that he was very like the composer of Robert ; and at first sight his figure and general appearance

r did perhaps give some g ound for the idea, especially as they w ere their hair in the same i style . I somet mes teased Mendelssohn about it, to his great annoyance, and at last one morning - A I 1831 32 . P R S, he appeared with his hair absolutely crept. The aff our al air excited much amusement in set, especi ly when Meyerbeer heard of it ; but he took it up

his - r with usual invincible good natu e, and in the nicest way. Chopin had been at Munich at the same time w had t ith Mendelssohn, and given concer s there, and otherwise exhibited his remarkable abilities. W hen he arrived in Paris, as a complete stranger, he met with a very kind reception from Kalk all a brenner, who, indeed, deserved pr ise as a most

s . poli hed; clever, and agreeable host Kalkbrenner ’ z fully recogni ed Chopin s talent, though in rather n a patronizing way. For i stance, he thought his techni u e ffi q not su ciently developed, and advised him to attend a class which he had formed for ad

d il - ur v ance . e pup s Chopin, always good nat d, was u w ri w n illing to refuse out ght, and ent a few times to see what it was like . When Mendelssohn

r for heard of this he was fu ious, he had a great ’ o of n l pinion Chopi s talent, whi e, on the other

a l n a hand, he had been nnoyed at Ber i by K lk ’ brenner s charlatanry. One evening at the Men ’ delssohns house there, Kalkbrenner played a him grand Fantasia, and when Fanny asked if

vi i an e it was an impro sat on, he swer d that it was i . The next morn ng, however, they dis vi covered the impro sed Fantasia, published note for

- 1 32 . PARIS, 183

t i to represent the perfec gentleman , and know ng how extremely disagreeable it would be to him to meet such a noisy company, we surrounded him him in the friendliest manner, and assailed w ith such a volley Of talk that he was nearly driven to despair, which of course delighted us .

Youth has no mercy . it I must here tell a little story, if indeed

r s deserves the name, to show what mad spi it

Mendelssohn was capable of at that time . One night as we were coming home across the t deserted boulevard at a late hour, in earnes conversation Mendelssohn suddenly stops and calls out We mu st do some of our jumps in I ! ! Paris our jumps, I tell you Now for it one — ’ two three I don t think my jumps were l the very bril iant, for I was rather taken aback by

t . sugges ion , but I shall never forget the moment ’ Soon after Mendelssohn s arrival in Paris,

his Dr . Franck and I were waiting for him in W w e room, hen he came in ith a beaming fac and declared that he had just seen a miracle, a real miracle and in answer to our questions “ ’ s ? w as he continued, Well, i n t it a miracle I

’ E rard s at with Liszt, showing him the manu

‘ script of my Concertofi and though it is hardly

P a te ert G m 2 5 i nofor Conc o in inor, Op . . OLE LL— E BU CH RUBINI .

i off leg ble, he played it at sight in the most

e uld perfect manner, bett r than anybody else co — possibly play it quite m arv ellou sly l I confess n I was not so much surprised, having long know f hi s rom experience, that Liszt played most t ng fi him best the rst time, because they gave

had enough to do . The second time he always to hi for his . add somet ng, own satisfaction

I must not forget to speak of Ole Bull , the

ft f had violin player, a erwards so amous . He

al s j ust escaped from the theologic school , and

a s fir m was in P ri for the st time . His enthusias for was dl of l music boun ess, but his own specia a t lent he gave no sign whatever . He was the

es is i s pleasant t l tener imag nable, and his view

r about music and musicians, expressed in ve y questionable but not the less amusing German , w a him ere a re l treat to us . We often invited di dl to nner, and played to him en essly. A few d years later, I saw him again as the celebrate di hi virtuoso, but the Swe sh element w ch so

‘ i fi had a del ghted me at rst, become rather mannerism . Mendelssohn went occasionally to see Cheru ” ni ar ! bi . What an extraordin y creature he is

ul n he said to me one day. You wo d fa cy that a man could not be a great composer w m a f r ithout senti ent, he rt, eeling, or whateve - A I 1831 32 . P R S,

else you call it ; but I declare I believe that Cherubini makes everything out of his head ” a lone. On another occasion he told me that he

- had been showing him an eight part composition, * a cap ella (I think it his was Tu es “ and al added, The old fellow is re ly too pedantic in one place I had a suspended third in two ’ ”

ul d . parts, and he wo dn t pass it on any con ition hi Some years later, happening to speak of t s i ! Old ncident, Mendelssohn said The man was ” r ight after all ; one ought not to write them . Felix ’s wonderful musical memory was a great source of enjoyment to us all as well as a to himself. It was not learning by he rt, so m uch as retention— and to what an extent !

' W of l hen we were together, a small party musica d people, and the conversation flagged, he woul

s it - of- down to the piano, play some out the

way piece, and make us guess the composer. ’ O n one occasion he played an air from Haydn s ” Seasons.

’ Th ll r tand er l x d e trav e s s p p e e , Uncertain and forlorn

in which not a note of the elaborate violin

a ccompaniment was wanting. It sounded like a

r ul eg ar pianoforte piece, and we stood there

‘4' 1 11 t m e an Op. , pos hu ous work for voic s d orchestra. IN G IN THE W 1) PUTT 1N , a long time as perplexed as the traveller himself. Abbe The Bardin, a great musical amateur, used to get together a number of musicians and amateurs at his house once a week in the after noons, and a great deal of music was gone hr o t ough very seriously and thor ughly, even without rehearsals . I had just been playing Bee ’ thov en s E flat Concerto in public, and they asked for it again on one of these afternoons .

The parts were all there, and the string quartet w l too, but no players for the ind. I wil do ” wi s the nd, said Mendelssohn, and itting down to a small piano which stood near the grand one fil wi r , he led in the nd pa ts from memory, ’ so completely, that I don t believe even a note of the second horn was wanting, and all as simply and naturally done as if it were nothing .

no It was a famous time . When we had engagements we generally met in the afternoons .

We willingly gave up lunch, so as not to have i to go out in the mornings, but a l ttle before dinner—tim e we used to get so frightfully hungry that a visit to the confectioner’s was absolutely

necessary . I believe we fasted simply to get an excuse for indulging our passion for pastry. In the evening we often went to the theatre oftenest to the Gymnase Dramatique, for which - A I 1 831 32 . P R S,

Scribe at that time wrote almost exclusively, e and where a charming actress, L ontine Fay, had d completely taken possession of us . She acte

’ in s of . Scribe s plays, and took the part young l hi all wives in doubtfu situations, w ch c into li was play all their grace and sensibi ty. She a ul an slender brunette with wonderf dark eyes,

indescribable grace in her movements, and a

voice that went straight to your heart. The fi celebrated Taglioni, the rst to make that great f was a name amous through the world, lso one

of our great favourites . No one ever made me feel the poetry of dancing and pantomime as s he did ; it is impossible to imagine anything m ore beautiful and touching than her performance

. o of the Sylphide B rne says of her somewhere, e the She flutt rs around herself, and is at once ” s tt r butterfly and the flower, but thi pre y pictu e c a onveys only a p rt of her charms. I had written a pianoforte Concerto not long

b a efore, and pl yed it in public, but the last

did as movement not ple e me, and having to play a r hi it gain du ing t s Mendelssohn winter, I deter wri i mined to te a new Finale, wh ch I secretly i e “ ntended to be a picture of L ontine Fay. I had fi begun it, but the concert was xed for an early da y, and Mendelssohn declared I should not get m m . ur y work done in ti e This of co se I denied, LE ON TINE FA Y.

s o m we ade a bet of a supper upon it . My ’ friend s opposition excited Inc to make a real trial

of il a the sk l, and I scored the orchestr l part of whole movement without putting down a note

of i did his the solo part. The copy st too best, and the result was that I contrived to play the Concerto with the new Finale on the appointed

da . x y Feli paid for the supper, and Labarre , the

w l - w n e l kno n harpist, a handsome, clever, amusi g fel f to . ar l ow, was invited join us How the por

t of e ful rait L ontine Fay was success , I leave to

own be decided by its merits, though Felix con

f u i her essed that it was not nl ke .

of In the midst all these distractions, Men

delssohn i for seized every qu et hour work, much of which was a complete contrast to his act ual

al of in life at the tim e . It consisted gener ly putt g the fi o s as nishing t uche to former pieces, such

&c ur his S ri A . ch ch music, t ng Quintet in , Of

m new did usic absolutely , he not write much to

r speak of du ing those months, but I remember

his playing me some new songs, and some short e fi piano forte pieces . I had just complet d my rst

Tries r dl three , and the ve y warm and frien y interest which he took in them was often a Wh great help to me. en he liked a thing he rt liked it with his whole hea , but if it did not

ul please him , he wo d sometimes use the most - cam 1831 32 . [ PARIS,

g singular langua e . One day when I had been playing him some composition of mine, long i f since destroyed, he threw h msel down on the il floor and rolled about all over the room . Happ y there was a carpet ! Many an evening we spent t quite quietly together talking about ar and

fir t artists over the cheerful blazing e. On grea things we always agreed, but our views on Italian and French composers differed consider

a ably, I being stronger partizan for them than the he . He sometimes did not Spare even masters whom he thought most highly of. He once said of Handel that one might imagine he had had his different m uslical drawers for ” his choruses, one labelled warlike, another ” r heathen, a thi d religious, and so on . Speaking of the Opera in general he said that he thought it had not yet produced so perfect and complete a masterpiece as “ William Tell ” and ’ hill dr be others of Sc er s amas, but that it must n ll w mi t capable of thi gs equa y great, hoever gh

u the accomplish them. Though f lly alive to ’ weak points in Weber s music, he had a very s n ff tro g and almost personal a ection for him. He declared that when Weber came to Berlin

m of Freischutz to conduct the perfor ance , he dare him did not to approach , and that once when Weber was driving to the Mendelssohns’

CHAPTER III .

AI! - LA- CHAPE LLE AND DUSSE LDORF

Y 4 TO M R H MA , 183 , A C , 1835.

* F ix Mendelssohn to his Mother el .

U E L RF 2 4 3rd Ma 1 83 . D SS DO , y,

A WE EK ago to - day I drove to Aix- la- Chapelle with the two Woringens ; an order from the

C five f had abinet, days before the estival, given permission for it to be held at Whit suntide as , and this order was so worded to render it very probable that the permis

fu r sion would be extended to tu e years . It ’ f took us eleven hours posting, and I was right

f ll . u y bored, and arrived cross We went straight few to the rehearsal, and I heard a num bers of ” a a Debor h, sitting in the st lls ; then I told Woringen that I must write at once to Hiller fir from there, the st time for two years, becaus e his m r he had done task so ad i ably. Really his

’ 0 l II of Mendelssohn e u Vo . . p blished Letters . A ME E TIN G—A AP Y H P TRI O .

w was so o and ork m dest, sounded so well,

t all ui i Handel hough the time q te subord nate to , a nd without cutting anything out ; and it delighted to find hi k n me someone t n ing as I do, and doi g

ul a. m an just as I sho d. I noticed with a mous

of di the tache, in the front row boxes, rea ng

s a e al wn core ; and ft r the rehears , as he came do i hin nto the theatre and I went up, we met be d the o F i scenes, and sure en ugh it was erd nand

Hiller, who tumbled into my arms, ready to

s for f m queeze me to death joy. He had come ro

s and Pari to hear the oratorio, Chopin had cut

his wi lessons to come th him, and so we met

ul the once more . I co d now thoroughly enjoy

f al for hr a estiv , we t ee stayed together, and got box for ourselves in the theatre where the per form ances took place ; and the next morning of

c ur all at a o se we were the pi no, and that was a i great delight to me. They have both mproved

in u f r exec tion , and as a piano o te player Chopin is now one of the very first ; quite a second nini i all Paga , doing entirely new th ngs, and s orts of impossibilities which one never thought ll c ould be done . Hi er also is a capital player,

. w ith plenty of power, and knows how to please They both labour a little under the Parisian love r and f e adl for effect and strong cont asts, o t n s y d r l ose s ight of time and calmness an eal musical - 8 AI! LA CHA PE LLE , 1 344.

so feeling ; perhaps I go too far the other way,

m t ou r fi all we u ually supply de ciencies, and

t hi e hree learn from each other, I t nk ; meanwhil d I felt rather like a schoolmaster, and they seeme inoro oibl Af rather like mirlgflores or y es. ter the f i u est val we travelled together to D sseldorf, and had a very pleasant day with music and talk ; i yesterday I accompan ed them to Cologne, and this morning they went up to Coblenz in the — J a steamer came down again, and the ch rming e pisode was at an end.

In the interest of my readers I should hardly

be able to add anything to this delightful letter, But I cannot resist the temptation of going over ” e this charming pisode once more, pen in

, l in and hand recapitu at g dwelling on it, even where it does not especially concern the friend

to whom these pages are consecrated. m In the su mer of 1 83 3 I was living in my ’ f mother s house in Frank ort, having lost my father ln the spring ; I w as then very much ’ taken up with Handel s Oratorios, the scores of hi ndl w ch had been ki y put at my disposal by ” R . f Ferdinand ies Deborah I never saw be ore, and it so pleased me that I began translating it into

w o German, though ith ut any fi de nite purpose. I happened to tell Ries what I was doing and , on my return to Paris with my mother in the a a n utumn, I received letter from him, aski g if I felt disposed to translate the book of the o ‘ ratorio, and write additional accompanim ents to

us for the m ic, the next Lower Rhine Musical

all Festival, and have it ready by the New Year.

I accepted the proposal with the greatest delight,

ot the im an g my work done by appointed t e, d.

a s al n a reward was invited to the Festiv . Chopi , with whom I w as in daily and intimate inter

c i s r a o ourse, easily let h m elf be pe su ded to g

wi our th me, and we were busy making travelling plans when news arrived that the F estival was not to take place at Whitsuntide, dl d though possibly later. We had har y reconcile

our in our selves to postpon g journey, when we heard that after all permission had been granted

r hi ur C the fo W tsuntide . I h ried to hopin with n w ews , but ith a melancholy smile he answered

that it was no longer in his power to go . The fact is that Chopin’s purse was always open to ha assist his emigrant Polish countrymen ; he d. put aside the necessary means for the journey ; ha e r ~ but the journey ving been postpon d, fo ty eight hours had been quite sufficient to empty

his cash- box As I would not on any condition ft h give up his company , he said, a er muc con ul s ideration, that he thought he co d manage it, H P. D E L 1834 . C USS DORF, [ A produced the manuscript of his lovely E flat ’ off Ple el s waltz, ran to y with it, and came back with 5 00 francs ! Who was happier then than — I ? The journey to Aix la - Chapelle was most s l r uccessfu . I had the honour of being qua tered in Oberbiir erm eister and the house of the g , r Chopin got a room close by. We went st aight

and to the rehearsal of Deborah, there, to my great surprise and delight, I met Mendelssohn, di At who imme ately joined us . that time they seemed not to have much idea of his greatness at - - w Aix la Chapelle , and it was only t elve years later, the year before his death, that they made u p their minds to confide the direction of the

Festival to him. With the exception of some parts of

Deborah , my impressions of the performances ff di are quite e aced . But I stinctly remember the da u y we spent together at D sseldorf, where the

Academy, recently revived by Schadow, was t l hen in the fu l vigour of youth . Mendelssohn had conducted the Festival there in the spring, and entered on his functions as musical director in the autumn . He had a couple of pretty ’ r - floor Schadow s ooms on the ground of house, ” was working at St . Paul, associated a great d eal with the young painters, kept a horse, and was altogether in a flourishing condition. We spent the whole morning at his piano playing to e ach other, and in the afternoon Schadow invited u s for a a w lk . The general appearance and tone of the company in which we found ourselves made an i on ll f mpression me that I sha never orget. It

his —S a was like a prophet with disciples ch dow,

a his fi a m an with his noble he d, digni ed e sy

and his . ner, eloquent talk, surrounded by a

of of a number young men, many them rem rk

al ably handsome, and the majority ready great a i is rt sts, l tening to him in humble silence, and s eeming to think it perfectly natural to be

ur him lect ed by . It had become so completely a t r n his second na u e to Schadow, eve outside stu to nim n encou dio, act the teacher, a ati g and a or ur r ging, even severely lect ing, that when Felix announced his intention of accompanying us to C on l win da a ologne the fol o g y, he sked him in a serious to ne what would become of

Pa l wi all s dis St. u th the e excursions and li r i . l t act ons Mende ssohn rep ed quietly, but

fir ul a . mly, that it wo d all be re dy in good time The walk ended with coffee and a game at F ix bowls ; and el , who had been on horseback, lent me his horse to ride home on . Chopin was a stranger to them all, and with his usual e xtreme reserve had kept close to me during the al i t w k, watch ng every hing, but making his observations to me alone in the softest of voices .

a . Sch dow, always hospitable, asked us to come in th ni f n again e eve ng, and we then ou d some of the most rising young painters there . The

r im all conversation soon became ve y an ated, and would have been r ight if poor Chopin had not sat so silent and so little noticed. However, Mendels his sohn and I knew that he would have revenge, and were secretly rejoicing at the thought. At

s la t the piano was opened ; I began, Mendelssohn f h ollowed ; then we asked C opin to play, and rather doubtful looks were cast at him and us . f But he had hardly played a few bars, be ore

in e all S everybody the room, speci y chadow, was

fi n ar trans xed ; nothi g like it had ever been he d. all in They were the greatest delight, and begged for more and more. Count Almaviva had dropped his disguise, and everyone was dumb. The next day Felix accompanied us on the

a steamer to Cologne . We rrived late in the ’ af to A ternoon, and he took us see the postles

r in Chu ch, and to the Bridge, where we parted rather a comic way . I was looking down into

r r in an the ive , mak g some extravag t remark or nl other, when Mendelssohn sudde y calls out Hiller getting sentimental ; heaven help us ! Adi — eu , farewell and was gone . w him r the ith , and I am su e you can get me best information on the point . If printed, pray f l say what you think of it, and give me the ul

. title, that I may send for it The words may

, be Latin, Italian, or French, and the contents f w . as I said before, sacred or other ise The chie condition is that it should employ both chorus and orchestra ; and if it were a piece of some

- an- u length, say half hour, I sho ld like it to be in several movements ; or, if there is no long

ul i . piece, I sho d even l ke a single short one It appears that he wrote a number of grand mn t hi Hy s for the Revolu ion, w ch ought to be ' ? very fine ; might not one of these do It is

of n impossible to see anything the ki d here, and it would only take you a couple of hours or a walk or two ; so I am convinced you can l e do what I ask, especial y as you are intimat with Cherubini, and he will therefore tell you di e rectly what he has writt n in this line, and w here it is to be found. It would of cou rse be best if we could find s in ui ometh g q te unknown to musicians . You i i m may mag ne how glad the whole com ittee,

’ Oberbiir erm eisters and all the company of g , and all the entire town of Cologne, and the rest, would be to write to Cherubini and make this a of pplication . And course they would also ~l wil i be n for w l ngly charged somethi g it ; but, ith his mi an strange ways , they ght catch him in evi l hour, and probably he does not care much about it ! therefore it is better for you to under

r be take the matter, and w ite to me what is to d x All n one ne t. that I want is to have nothi g bu t really fine music on the second day, and

hi r . that is why t s request is impo tant to me, i and why I count on your fulfill ng it. Then I shall at the same tim e hear how life goes with you on your railway. Sometimes . I hear about it through the M essaye'r or the n l Soiree Constitu tion e , when you give a , or play

’ Bach s Sonatas with Baillot ; but it is always .

r very short and fragmenta y. I want to know if you have any regular and continuous cocu

u w , patio , hether you have been composing much are mi to and what, and if you co ng back

S . Germany. o you see I am the same as ever * few My Oratorio will be quite ready in a

a Schelble to weeks, and I he r from that it is be performed by the Caecilia Society in October ;

I have some new pianoforte things, and shall shortly publish some of them . I always think of you and your warning whenever an old and fashioned passage comes into my head, [ CHAN

wi of hope to get rid of such ideas . You ll course conclude from this that I often think

of mi an . you, but you ght believe that yhow

' My three Overtures are not out yet ; Hartel writes to me to- day that they are at the ’ few wil . binder s, and l be here in a days I s hall send you a copy as I promised at the first n opportunity, and as soo as my new Symphony

a l . will comes out, you sh l have that too I gladly release you from your promise of sending t me those plaster carica ures in return, and ask y ou instead to let me have some copies of new c ompositions, which I should like a great deal h in . C o etto better Remember me to p , and let me know what new things he has been doing ; tell him that the military band here serenaded me on rt hi my bi hday, and that amongst other t ngs t hey played his B flat Mazurka with troinbones and big drum ; the passage in G flat with two bass bassoons was enough to kill one with ’ A r s l . o os aughing p p , the other day I saw Berlioz S ymphony, arranged by Liszt, and played it t ul n e hrough, and once more co d not imagi how n y ou can see anything in it. I ca not conceive a i ri hilis nyth ng more insipid, wea some, and P tine,

r fo with all his endeavours to go stark mad, he never once succeeds ; and as to your Liszt with fi his two ngers on one key, what does a homely H PINE — C O TTO ME SSAGE S . provincial like me want with him ? What is the good of it all ? But still it must be nicer in

if . Paris than here, it were only for Frau von S ’ M s (Frau von . sister) , who is really too pretty, ’ and is now in Paris (here there s not a soul ’ ’ that s pretty) . And then there s plenty of agree

Cuvillon able society (remember me to , Sauzay, il m but and Liszt, also to Ba lot a thousand ti es ; not to Herr nor Madame nor the child ;

and tell Chopin to remember me to Eichthal) , ’ — and it s always so amusing there, but still I wish you would come to Germany again ou I have gossipped long enough . Mind y

r answer ve y soon, as soon as you can tell me to what I want to know, and remember me

r . you mother, and keep well and happy Your

FE LIX ME NDE LSSOHN BARTHOLDY.

r March 1 4 1 83 5 . DussnLDoa , ,

- r DE AR HILLE R, Many thanks for your dea

hi . kind letter, w ch gave me very great pleasure be It’s not right of you to say that I should forced on account of the business to write to because I should have done so at you again,

if , any rate ; and you want to try you had AR E L 1 835 . CH D USS DORF, [

see better answer at once, and then you will how soon I shall write again . I should so like to know all about your life, and what you do, and be able to picture it to myself thoroughly.

About my own I have not much to say, but there is no thought of my leaving Germany and going to England ; who can have told you such a thing Whether I stay at Dusseldorf longer m than I am bound by my contract, which co es to an end next October, is another question ; for there is simply nothing to be done here in the way of music, and I long for a better orchestra, and shall probably accept another offer that I have had . I wanted to be quite free for a few

art - years, and go on a sort of journey, and snap my fingers at musical directorships and the like ;

' but my father does not wish it, and in this I follow him unconditionally. You know that from the very beginning all I wanted here was a really quiet tim e for writing some larger works which will be finished by October ; and so I hope to have made use of my stay. Besides it

r is ve y pleasant, for the painters are capital l l fel ows, and lead a jol y life ; and there is plenty of taste and feeling for music ; only the means are so limited that it is unprofitable in ’ run all for the long , and one s trouble goes

r all nothing. I assu e you that at the beat, they A QUE E R ORCHE STRA .

c ome in separately, not one with any decision,

ia nos and in the p the flute is always too high, a nd not a single Diisseldorfer can play a triplet

c two mi learly, but all play a quaver and se

Alle ro off quavers instead, and every g leaves t i w ce as fast as it began, and the oboe plays E

n r fiddles atural in C minor, and they carry thei

u r n nder thei coats when it rai s, and when it is ’ — fine they don t cover them at all and if you n once heard me conduct this orchestra, not eve

f u ul o r horses co d bring you there a second time. And yet there are one or two musicians among t di hem, who would do cre t to any orchestra, e ven to your Conservatoire ; but that is just the — m isery in Germany the bass trombones . and

the dr um and the double bass excellent, and

e verything else quite abominable. There is also

of 1 2 0 a choral society members, which I have l t o coach once a week, and they sing Hande l i v ery we l and correctly, and in the w nter there

are six subscription concerts, and in the sum

m er every month a couple of masses, and all

the diletto mti fight to the death, and nobody w s w ill sing the solos, or rather everybody ant w , t o, and they hate putting themselves for ard t hough they are always doing it ; but you know — w hat music is in a small German town Heaven help us I This is certainly rather an odd way of c oming back to the question of your returning l and to Germany. But stil the very agreeable telling way in which you refused my dinner

i e . nvitation does not yet r pel me On the contrary, I should like you for once to answer the ques tion seriously ! Is there any condition on which you would like to live in Germany ? and

? alk if so, what In the theoretical way we t ed

- — of it in front of the Post house at Aix la

Chapelle, we shall never get far in the matter. i f But now I should like to know whether, for ’ ’ s instance a place like Hummel s, or like Spohr ’ a t Gru nd s Cassel, or at Meiningen, in short ’ any Capellmeister s place at one of the small

u s . courts were vacant, you wo ld accept uch a hi ak ur ? t ng, and m e up yo mind to leave Paris Would the pecuniary advantages be of any great importance to you ? or are you not thinking of coming back in any case ? or are you too much tied by the attractions and excitements of your ? ’ present life Pray don t be vexed with me for s and l all these question , answer them as fu ly n as you ca . It is always possible that some

r r ca place may tu n up in Ge many, and you n imagine how I should like to have you nearer, both for my own sake and the sake of good music.

E L 1835 . DUSS DORF,

beg to be remembered to you , and hope that you will soon be here again .

At of 1 847 l the end , when I came to Dusse

f ir on dor as D ector, I found the music there quite a different footing from that which ’ Mendelssohn had described. The twelve years energy which Julius Rietz had devoted to it had in in not been va . On my removal to C 1 85 0 ologne in , I managed to secure the post S m ann for Robert chu . A CH PTER IV.

R N K R AN P — D F A FO T D LE I SIC l 836 AN 1837.

n MY dear mother had given up living in Pa s,

8 0 as to leave me free for a journey to Italy, hi w ch I had long wished to undertake . We

r u k 1 83 6 et rned to Fran fort in the spring of , and im mediately after our arrival I hurried off to

D u hi u l sseldorf. The Lower R ne M sical Festiva was to take place there that year under Mendels ’ ” s dir ohn s ection, and St . Paul was to be

fir p erformed for the st time . The concert was

— - held at the Becker garden (now the so called “ ” - Rittersaal belonging to the town music hall), but the room was too small for the large audi e nce and orchestra, and in the Sleepers wake

of r chorus, the blast the t umpets and trombones from the gallery down into the low hall was for qu ite overpowering. I had arrived too late all rehearsal, and, sitting there alone, listening ul t o an entirely new work, in a frightf ly hot

nd e l so dee a clos room, was natural y not ply E 2 E L 1836. DUSS DORF,

impressed as I expected to be . But the audience, who had already heard it three or four times, were delighted ; the performers were thoroughly

hir inspired ; and on the t d day, when, among hi r w as other t ngs, the chorus Rise up, a ise ff repeated, I listened with very di erent ears, and b o was as enthusiastic as any ody. The oratori afterwards grew on me more and more, especially the fi the rst part, which I now consider one of ’ fi of hn noblest and nest Mendelsso s works . Mendelssohn was in every way the centre nl point of the Festival, not o y as composer, director, and pianist, but also as a lively and agreeable host, introducing the visitors to each i other, and br nging the right people together,

i saw with a k nd word for everybody. There I

for fi d Sterndale Bennett the rst time, renewe i i di my boy sh friendship w th Fer nand David, and greatly enjoyed meeting the young painters of ’

chadow s . S school, many of them already famous The only musical part of the Festival which I ”

. ul was remember, besides St Pa , the marvel lously spirited and perfect performance of the Kreutzer Sonata by Mendelssohn and David on

f A few days a ter my return , Felix followed fi me to Frankfort . The rst thing which he encountered there was a report of the Festival RANK — E ILIA CIE T F FORT C C SO Y.

nl one hi ul (the o y he had seen), in w ch St. Pa

was of in ni spoken that lofty, patro zing, damaging t one too often adopted by critics towards artis ts

who stand high above them. It was some time before he could get over the fact that the first criticism of his beloved work should be so offen — s ive thus the writer had gained his object . Our excellent friend Schelble had been obliged by illness to retire to his home at Hiifingen near

Ba in his den, and dur g absence Mendelssohn had p romised to undertake the direction of the

r him nl Caecilia Society fo . He took it o y

f or six weeks r m , but du ing that short ti e his

influence was most inspiring. He made them

s n B a i g Handel and ach, especi lly the wonderfully

f l e beauti u cantata by the latter, Gottes Z it

ist die allerbeste Zeit. He had the art of communicating his own enthusiasm to the f c us r . hor , so as completely to elect i y them At the same time he won all hearts by his invariable good - nature and kindness in every act and word Mendelssohn was living in a large house

Schelble r belonging to , which stood at the co ner ” S A s wi d vi w o f the chone u sicht, th a splen id e

r was u p and down the iver, and very comfort vi able there. He enjoyed recei ng his friends,

a nd even loved an occasional interruption from CH R AN 1836. A FR KFORT, [

s m . y pathetic visitors in the morning Our house , ” at off the Pfarreisen, was not far , and we

r saw a great deal of each other . My dea for mother, who in spite of her intense love me could easily be enthusiastic about talents.

own h which surpassed my , was in raptures wit M n him endelssohn, and ready to do anythi g for

his that lay in her power. She soon discovered favourite dishes and knew how to indulge him in m wi h so any little ways, that he felt quite at home t us . She would often secretly order a carriage

the for us, so that we might make excursions in

e beautiful environs of Frankfort . On one of thes expeditions I had the opportunity of seeing my f riend in rather a passion . It was near the

' r village of Bergen . The coachman did o said i n some stupidity or other, upon wh ch Mendelssoh jumped out of the carriage in a towering rage, and after pouring a torrent of abuse upon the m an , declared that nothing should make him get in again . The punishment was on our side, and my mother was quite frightened when we arrived late in the evening, hot and exhausted, i At hav ng had to walk the whole way home. i supper Fel x himself could not help laughing, though still stoutly maintaining that he was r ight .

~ I remember that one day, after dinner, Men A A ME NDE LSSOHN I N P SSION .

delssohn f S di ound my tu es lying on the piano, and instantly sat down and played off the whole — four - and twenty one after the other in the most di “ splen d style. My mother was in ecstasy. He ” rf is a wonde ul man, that Felix, she said to me, mi w bea ng ith delight. He, meanwhile, was in

ri r the greatest spi ts at having given us pleasu e, but so hot and excited that he went off at once

t o f on my room, to the leathern so a which he f of i was so ond roll ng about. We had many pleas ant and interesting visitors

at tim di that e, amongst others the famous Swe sh — s ong writer Lindblad, whose northern accent added a peculiar charm to his liveliness and

gaiety. His visit was short, but we saw a

al of . n af r great de him One mor ing, te Men

his r delssohn had played Overtu e to Melusine, ” s to f ! s he said, That music li tens itsel Perhap — it does and it must be delighted with what it

hears . A special interest was given to that spring ’ a his by Rossini s vis it to Fr nkfort, and almost

daily m eetings with Mendelssohn at our house. This most renowned of all Maestros had come

t o Frankfort with the Baroness James Roth w di of s child, for the ed ng of one the younger — ’ members of the family in the Baroness s mind no doubt to add to the glory of the feast by AN 1836. FR KFORT,

was hi ad , his presence . She a ghly cultivated l y ’ v and knew Rossini s best points, ha ing had

of n plenty opportu ity, during their long journey, of observing his deep appreciation of whatever

f his tu . was beauti ul , and delight in art and na re ” his l ni had ac Since Wi liam Tell, Rossi re hed the highest pinnacle of his fame, and was now

ls of his if a o at the height personality, I may f so express mysel . He had lost the enormous corpulence of former years ! his figure was still

and full, but not disproportioned, his splendid

w of countenance, which displayed both the po er

of the thinker and the wit the humourist, beamed

with health and happiness . He spoke French

quite as well as Italian, and with the most melo

diou s ! voice his long residence in Paris , and inter f course with the best people there, had trans ormed him from a haughty young Italian into a m an

of di fi f rmi the world, gni ed, grace ul, and cha ng, and enchanting everybody by his irresistible

amiability. He had come to see us one morn

ing, to our great delight, and was describing

his journey through Belgium, and all that had ll struck him there, when I heard the be , and

feeling certain that it was Mendelssohn, ran out

. ix to open the door of the corridor It was Fel ,

and him l with Ju ius Rietz, who had just

arrived. I told them that Rossini was there ,

AN 1836. FR KFORT,

w ’t ing such things as he did yesterday, I on play him anything more . What did he mutter ? I did not hear ” anything . But I did ! when I was playing my F s his harp minor Caprice, he muttered between ’

Oat sent la sona te ole Scarla tti. teeth, ’ Well, that s nothing so very dreadful . Ah— bah l ”

l w n to However, on the fol o i g day he played him n s again. I must add that Rossi i alway looked back to this meeting with Mendelssohn

the with heartfelt pleasure, and expressed s i trongest adm ration for his talent . The impression made by Rossini on the whole colony of Frankfort musicians was really l overwhelming. The second day after his arriva I had to drive about with him to all the artists

act of importance, and with many of them to the part of interpreter. Some were ready to f aint with fear and surprise when he appeared.

n e My mother afterwards i vited all th se gentlemen, and one or two foreign artists who happened

a; to be staying in Frankfort, to meet him at s oirée and it was almost comic to s ee how each did his best to shine before the great leader of the light Italian school. Capellmeister

h own a Gu r played a sonata of his , Ferdin nd — R OSSINI AN OVA TI ON .

Ries the Study with which he had first made a . s ensation in London, Aloys Schmitt a Rondo , and some one else a Notturno . Mendelssohn was intensely amused at the whole thing, Rossini was more pompous that evening than I e r ver remember to have seen him ; ve y polite, mi — in very a able, and very complimentary fact, too complimentary! But next day his sly humour came out . A grand dinner had been

Mainlu st arranged in his honour at the , and as many celebrities of all kinds as there were

a room for took part in it, Mendelssohn mong, th e e . n rest When the din er was over, the h ro of the day began walking up and down the garden and talking in his usual way ; mean while the place had become crowded with people who wanted to see the great man, and who pushed and squeezed and peered about to di get a peep at him, he all the time preten ng wi to ignore them utterly. I have never tnessed such a personal ovation to a composer in the

air— his open except, perhaps, on way to the grave ! The year 1 83 6 was one of the most impor ’ tant of Mendelssohn s life, for it was that in which he first met his future wife . Madame Jeanrenau d was the widow of a clergyman of

Her the French Reformed Church in Frankfort. [0mm

of f she husband had died in the prime li e, and f was living with her children at the house o her

' Sou cha s of distinc parents, the y , people much x n tion in the town . Feli had bee introduced ms f to them, and soon felt hi el irresistibly attracted by the beauty and grace of the eldest e and d e . aught r, C cile His visits became more

r al wi more f equent, but he ways behaved th such as reserve towards his chosen one, that, she ’ once laughingly told me in her husband s pre s for she ence, several weeks did not imagine h f ’ i ersel to be the cause of Mendelssohn s v sits, but thought he came for the sake of her m ful other, who, indeed, with her youth vivacity, c fi in leverness, and re nement, chattering away

dial the purest Frankfort ect, was extremely a r tt active. But though during this early time e Felix spoke but little to C cile, when away f all n rom her he talked of her the more. Lyi g on a nn the sofa in my room fter di er, or taking long walks in the mild sum mer nights with

Dr. S. s ul and my elf, he wo d rave about her charm, her grace, and her beauty. There was nothing overstrained in him, either in his life or in his art ! he would pour out his heart about her in the most charmingly frank and

fun artless way, often full of and gaiety ; then a gain, with deep feeling, but never with any e m a l xaggerated senti ent lity or uncontrol ed passion. was It easy to see what a serious thing it was, for one could hardly get him to talk of any thing which did not touch in some way upon

. At n Ce her that time I did not k ow cile, and t nl i herefore could o y act the sympathetic l stener.

How of fi thankless the part con dant is, we learn from French tragedies ; and I had not even the

f c of fi was satis a tion being sole con dant, for S . ’ often present during Felix s outpourings ; but on the other hand he and I could talk over all

our ff for these revelations, and a ection Men delssohn m ade it easy for us to forgive the ’ monotony which must always pervade a lover s ’ nfiden l no co ces . Mende ssohn s courtship was and wi secret, was watched th much curiosity and interest by the whole of Frankfort society ; and many remarks which I heard showed m e

a ni ul r f mi th t to possess ge us, c tu e, ame, a ability, t f h and for une, and belong to a amily of muc

as as is a consideration well celebrity, in cert in circles hardly enough to entitle a man to raise do his eyes to a girl of patrician birth. But I not thin k that anything of this sort ever came ’ to Mendels sohn s cars. In the beginning of August he went to the

r fi as seaside fo the bene t of his health, and also,

ll us on d his Devrient te s goo authority, to test love by absence . Soon after he left, I received the following letter from the Hague ; and his humorous irritation shows even more plainly than his pathetic complaints, how hard he found ’ it to bear the few weeks separation .

’ h A u ust 1 3 s R VE NH GE 7 t 8 6. G A A , g ,

E R ILLE R — D A H , How I wish I were at the

Pfarreisen with you , telling you about Holland, instead of writing to you about it. I think it is impossible in Frankfort to have any idea of how dull it is at the Hague . ’ di If you don t answer this letter rectly, and write me at least eight pages about Frank ” Fahrthor u fort and the , and about yo rself and your belongings, and music, and all the living w orld, I shall probably turn cheesemonger here and never come back again . Not one sensible t hought has come into my head since I drove out of the Hotel de Russie ; I am now beginning by degrees to accustom myself to it a little, and have given up hoping for any sensible ideas, and only count the days till I go back, and rejoice that I have already taken my sixth bath

- to day, about a quarter of the whole penalty . If you were me, you would already have packed up

The J eanrenauds e e to the Fa h ” liv d clos hrt or. BAD I A SPIR TS ND WORRIE S . t en times, turned your back on the cheese

a few n ds country, s id a incomprehe sible wor to t ll your rave ing companion, and gone home again ;

I ul be la to ain sho d g d enough do so, but a cert Philistinism that I am known to possess holds

e in of m back . I had to stay three days stead tw o u f to at D sseldor , because it was impossible hi few get S . away, and I t nk those days did a good deal towards making me melancholy. There was such an air of the pas t about every — t hin f a for hi g, and at l remembrance w ch you — know I care but little would play its part

ai fine ag n . The Festival is said to have been , bu t that did not make the time less tedious . I had to hear no end about Schindler and his

fu was m n . w ritin gs and re tations, and it not a usi g I dined at and that als o recalled bygone

s Rietz is for the moment recovered, but look s o dreadfully ill and worried, and is so over at u w orked by the musical set D sseldorf, and

- a s o ill treated by others, that it made my he rt on a che to see him . We had rain the steamer m as far as Rotterdam ; Schirmer ca e on here

us , with , and then went by steamer to Havre — ! and after that to Paris but oh I wish I were

- r a t the Pfarreisen l for all , the real bothe S s f n t began here. . got cros , and ou d every hing THE A E 1 8 6 . H G U , 3

’ dn in or a too dear, and we coul t get a lodg g

and did carriage, the Dutch not understand a dl dr all Germ n, though S . bol y ad essed them

his w as was in it ; and boy naughty, and there no end of bother. We have got a lodging at

a dr S the H gue now, and ive out to cheveningen

‘ n every mor ing at eight, and take our bath, and i all n . are in good work g order However, nothing can destroy the effect of the sea out at Scheven ingen, and the straight green line is as mysterious

f as fish s and un athomable ever, and the and shell which the tide washes u p on the shore are pretty enough . But still the sea here is as prosaic as it can possibly be anywhere ; the sand- hills dl look dreary and hopeless, and one sees har y

of any reflection in the water, because the level the coast is so low ; half the sea is just the

the r al w colour of shore, because it is ve y sh lo

”

fi l ar . at rst, and on y begins to be deep f out

nl dli - There are no big ships, o y mid ng sized ’ fishin - ul g boats ; so I don t feel cheerf , though a Dutchm an caught hold of me to—day as I was

nn n al and sai ru i g ong the shore d, Hier solle se mm ” nu m ajestu osische Idee sa ele. I thought to ’ t d myself, It s a pi y you are not in the lan where the pepper grows and I in the wine ’

. for country One can t even be really alone,

, here too there are musical people, and they take

— not at all I shall never forget them. It really is a great pity that we meet so seldom and for such short times ; it would be such a pleasure to us both if it could be otherwise . Or perhaps you think we should quarrel at last I don’t 5“ believe it .

Have you ever, since I went away, thought ? of our Leipsic overture which I am so fond of Do let me find it finished when I come back ; it will only take you a couple of afternoons dl i now n . , and har y anything but copy g And ? my pianoforte piece, how about that I have not thought of music here yet, but I have been w dra ing and painting a good deal, and I may also perhaps bring back some music . What is

a ili ? the C ec a Society doing Is it alive still, or sleeping and snoring ? Many things belonging

our m to Frankfort ti e are over ! .

- told me to day that H . is engaged to be married ! is it true Then you also must marry soon . I propose Madame M . Have you seen

" ? her again, and the Darmstadt lady Write to

k . l me about all Fran fort Tell Md le . J. that there is only one . engraving hanging in my

la ville de Tou lon room here, but it represents , and so I always have to think of her as a

3“ a 21 See p ge 6. . 1

Toulonese And r . mind you remember me to you m a r other most particul rly, and w ite to me very v x ery soon. If my patience is not e hausted, I s al ill 2 4th 2 6th of A s h l stay here t the or ugu t, and then travel by land or water back to the

F - ree town of Frankfort. Oh that I were there now ! If you show this letter to anybody I w ma l ish you y be roasted, and anyhow I shou d be ' r ri hanged ; so lock it up or bu n it, but w te

t o aste restomte d la Ha e. me at once, p , y

l and hi of w t Farewel , t nk nicely me and ri e s oon .

Your F. M . B .

It will eas ily be conceived that I did not

hi e al dl d burn t s lett r, and I sh l har y be blame A for not keeping it locked up any longer. few days after I received it I met with a little

m n swim inin - a ccident. Ju pi g into the g bath in a shallow part of the river, I trod on a sharp piece of glass, and must have cut a small

f r , v ein, o when, with a good deal of pain I got i f i of an to land, a l ttle ounta n blood spr g from was a i the wound. I more amused th n fr ghtened n at the sight, but towards eve ing a kind of ner hi f vous attack came on, w ch made me eel very

A few d weak and ill. days later the octor air and to recommended change of , sent me r 2 H m r o burg, at that time a most reti ed and idyllic little spot . There was one small house

al i near the miner spring, in wh ch my mother and I established ourselves ! the whole bathing population consisted only of some two dozen

Frankforters . From Homburg I sent Mendelssohn a report of myself, and received the following answer

THE GUE 1 8th Au ust 1 83 6. HA , g ,

E R E R IN N — s D A F D A D, This is very bad new w ur i hich yo letter g ves me, and the whole tone — of it is so low spirited that it shows what a tiresome and serious illness you have gone n through . I hope you are getti g on better, and that these lin es will find you in quite a different frame of mind from the one you wrote

as n in ; but you had to be sent to the cou try, the hi t ng must have been rather obstinate, and if with your strong constitution you had nervous f s t attacks, and suf ered from exhau tion, it mus l real y have been serious, and you must have n l ! eeded much patience, poor fel ow I only hope t hat it is all over now, and that I shall find n a ain you in Fra kfort g quite strong and well. It is curious that I also should have hurt my f hi oot bat ng, about a week or ten days ago LE A E PROSPE CT OF RE S .

r h r nl (much less se iously t an you, of cou se, o y

s prained) , and since that time I limp about

l hi a aboriously, w ch cert inly creates a sort of

s nl mak the ympathy between us, though it o y es ’ s tay here more tiresome ; for if one can t give full ’ play to one s body (in a twofold sens e) in a

- al hi bathing place like this, one re ly has not ng e lse to do . In fact, if you expect this to be a c heerful letter I am afraid you must take the

will too for the deed, for I am much full of

s i am whim now that I have to l mp about, and n o as mfo . t . k good a co rter Besides his, S too

hi f off few f e msel a days ago, and has le t me her “ alone amongst the people who speak a strange ” t to all all the ongue. So now I have sw ow — e nnui by myself we used at least to be able

n to to swear in company. The bathi g seemed

e x s and was f hau t him too much, he a raid o f ill dl getting seriously , so I could har y press him a and to st y, he is probably already

s in and u itt g comfortably quietly at D sseldorf,

whilst I have our whole apartment to myself, a nd can sleep in three beds if I like. Twenty o ne baths make up what they call the small

c m one ure, the mini um that can do any good, and when these are finished I shall be off

rwar to in a couple of hours, and I look fo d E mmerich and the Prussian frontier as if it [CHA R

w ere Naples or something equally beautiful . Next Monday I shall take this long- expected t - first m y the wenty bath, and plan is to go up no Rhine by steamer, as unfortunately there is quicker way. I must stop a day at Horchheim, ’ at my uncle s, for on the way here I hardly stopped at all ; and I hope to goodness on

2 8th u Sunday evening, the Aug st, I may cele brate Goethe’s birthday at Frankfort in Rhine ’ w ine ; and as I write this you can t imagine

i t o how I long for the t me . Shall we be able spend the evening together directly ? I am always afraid you will stay too long at your

r be Hombu g, and who knows whether I should able to go and see you there ? Whereabouts is t ? or his Homburg Is it Homburg vor der Hohe,

- Hessen Homburg where the Prince comes from, or which ? Just now it seems to me as if I had also heard of one in the Taunus ; if so, and that be yours, could not we meet some where between Frankfort and Mainz on the 2 8th ? d That would be splendid, and we woul come along together past the watch- tower into

su ch fine Frankfort, and have a talk all the

ri evening. Please w te me a few lines about — it, and about how you are you would be doing me a great kindness ; only say how and w hen I am to meet you, and give me good HOMBERG —RE TURN

news of yourself and your belongings . I can plainly see from your letter that it was an

' cfiort and ank all for to you, I th you the more

n wr a havi g itten it, but you must ple se make

a effort if onl nother good , even it is y a few lin dre t o hn es, and ad ss it Herrn Mendelsso ,

C z ui . oblen , and then I shall get it q ck and sure dra I am wing a great deal, but composing

little ; but I wish I were at the Pfarreisen.

u f l Forgive this st pid letter ; arewel , and may we i ain in have a happy meet ng on the M , good

health .

Always your F. M . B .

In cons equence of this letter I must have s hn hi offered to meet Mendel so at Hochst, w ch I

could eas ily reach from Homburg. Nothing

as f came of it, however, may be seen rom the following note

LE N Z 2 7 th Au ust 1 83 6. COB , g ,

* OLD R M — I ur DE AR D A A, got yo letter yes

rda t e y at Cologne, and can only answer it

4“ t e in n r I a e I ha d give n my first Concert Ove r ur D mi o , which h v tit e erture to the rama m entione d once or twice, the l of Ov Old D of ” n old am a a nd F e rnando this brought about the e xpre ssio s Dr , ,

t . en it was e the like which we shall find often repea ed Wh publish d , as it e e e to a ra a c b I om itte d the title, r f rr d d m whi h is only now y

degre es be coming an old one . [em a

- s it to day from here in great ha te, for is better to talk than write. I shall not be able to say f exactly when I go from Mainz to Frank ort, and come to Buchst I have to have leeches

' - ow ordre ole mou ti on my stupid foot to day, p f

- hirur ien and r , (c g ) , so must stay here to mo row and keep quiet ; it would be too horrible to in come to Frankfort and have to stay . I hope to be able to come on Monday evening, but I

ar - n and may still perhaps st t to morrow morni g, in any case I am too uncertain to be able to

rendez vou e give you a s. I must obey the le ches ; but anyhow I could not have gone to Homburg with you ; I feel myself far too much drawn to

- w and the old Free to n, you know how I long to e . and be there Do com back there soon, let me

find li oste restante an f a ne from you, p , Fr k ort, sa will to y how and when you . come, so that I

. e may meet you Remember me to your p ople,

6- 4 and keep well and happy, in major, and

of ) chords all sorts .

Your F. M . B .

Mendelssohn’s engagement took place during r —a my stay at Hombu g great event, and much spoken of. He called on us one afternoon with

a ncee his fi and her sister, but as he had only

L 1836 . E IPSI C, had been a really nice fellow you would long ago have sent me a few lines, and have thought, fi ’ As he does not write rst, he probably can t, w nl so I ill, and certai y you are not as driven and worried as I am . And then you often see e t C cile, and you might have written to me abou

’ her, and you don t do it a bit, and yet you expect to be called generous ! But I won’t

ir complain if you will make up for it d ectly, and write and describe everything that has happened to you since the 1 9th of September at midnight .

About myself there is really nothing to say . I conduct the Subscription Concerts and divers others, and I wish with all my heart I were at

h wr the Fahrt or. You have plenty to ite .

v ur e about how you are li ing, how yo peopl are, whether you have time and inclination for composing, how my pianoforte piece is getting on a how is , and the C ecilia Society ; my bride looking, how you get on in their house ; about

helble P Sc . , about the fat , about all Frankfort dl (where I would so gla y be, and you perhaps in

ou and Leipsic) , all this y must write about, di do it very soon, dear Fer nand. ll After all I have something to te you about, and that is our second Subscription Concert and

i m e your Overture in E, w th which you gave HE LE R ’ E S OV RTURE E V E .

and all of us such real and heartfelt pleasure It sounded extremely fresh and beautiful with the o rchestra, and was played with real liking ; some, f i ' parts, rom wh ch on the piano I had not

expected so much, came out admirably in the o wn rchestra, especially one where it goes do

ortissimo f ri f in whole notes (your avou te passage,

s very broad and strong) and ounds splendid, and my wind instruments went at it so heartily

t was t r hat it qui e a t eat. David made the — strings do it all with the down bow you should have heard it ; and then the softness of the wind m s ianis instru ent , and the return to E major p

' ’ e st mo . The whole composition gave me mor

a i pleasure th n ever, and I l ked it better than

an so- d y of the new things that I know. The calle public were less delighted than I had expected

and wished, because it is just the kind of thing that they can and ought to understand ; but I think it comes from their not yet having

ur s seen yo name to any orche tral composition, which always makes them chary of their enthu ’ the siasm in Germany. So it s lucky that Director of the theatre sent the very next day to ask for the Overture for a concert which is t o in e and I be given in the theatre a w ek or two, ’ ‘ mi . On promis ed it him . (I hope you don t nd ) the 8th of January we do the one in D minor, LE IPSI C .

and towards the end of the winter I shall ’ probably repeat both . I don t know what the

r for eviews have said about it, I did not read them ; Fink said to m e that it was beautiful

wr and h iting, Sch was going to write at lengt

— ' a bout it God grant it may be something good. Bu t what does it matter The generality of

s e mu icians here were very much pl ased with it,

and hi is that is the chief t ng. But when my pianoforte piece coming You had better not boast so much about your Caecilia Society ; we Leipz igers are getting up a

of ll performance Israel in Egypt, which wi be something quite perfect ; more than 2 00

s ingers, with orchestra and organ, in the church ; I look forward to it im mensely ; we shall

c and is ome out with it in about a week, that also one of the things which makes my head in a all a whirl just now, for these rehears ls, with

the in amateurs, ladies and gentlemen, sing g and

screaming away all at once, and never keeping ff . o quiet, are no easy matter You are better

a t a i n the C ec lia Society, where they have bee d di — well rilled into obe ence, but then they ’ cri t ticise among themselves, and hat isn t nice

1“ ' ’ was the E d t r the All emein e Mustkalt sche Z eit/ton h Fink i o of g g, t e ’ the d a a principal musical paper of y. Schum nn s was the N eu e Z eit — d s clm ft fu r Mu sik. E . CON E RT C DOIN GS . — either. In fact and so on ! I wish I were Fahrthor a at the and lso at the Pfarreisen,

ou i Stam at y may bel eve me or not. y is staying r here, and I have got to teach him counte point ’ I declare I really don t know much about it

lf . myse He says, however, that that is only

An d carria e my modesty. the g l How am I ever to thank you enough for it 7 Are you a Freemason ? People declare that ’ there are some four- part songs for men s voices n in the lodge here, which no one but a Freemaso

ll m t o could have composed. Do you sti ean keep to your Italian journey in the spring ? i Pray, dear Ferd nand, write soon and long, and ’ f ni for orgive my silence, and don t pu sh me my small paper with a small sheet of your

own.

“ My best remembrances to your mother, and

write soon and keep w ell and happy.

FE LI ! . Your M B .

A few weeks later I had this one !

E IP I 2 6th N ovember 1 83 6. L S C, ,

D AR E R IN N — r e E F D A D, Here is you Overtur (if you object to my having kept the autograph I will bring it you at Christmas and exchange) a nd the copies of your songs which you wanted, f a nd which I went and got from Ho meister.

Many thanks for your delightful long letter, bu t now that I hope, please God, to be in

F f s f rank ort thi day three weeks, I hardly eel in

t he mood to answer it properly. It is so much ni cer and pleasanter to do it oneself in person . I should have sent you the Overture long ago, if the copyist had not kept me waiting such a s hameful time ; the one in E will have to be r of x epeated at one the ne t concerts, and now I am curious to see what they will say to the

D min As or. to the carriage, I may perhaps

bring it back myself at Christmas. I am having it i repaired a little, and the sm th declares it wi f ll then be per ect . Many thanks to your

Stam at wi mother for having lent it me. y ll be

a t Frankfort in a few days, on his way back to — ’ Paris I maintain that he has got dc ZAllemagne a nd clu contrep oint double p ar dessus les oreilles — and in three weeks, please God, I myself 0 c ome to Frankfort . that I were at the ’ I farreisen ! I should first come and say good

e nin ve g to you, and then turn to the right.

To— nl e m Wied day I can o y say, f ersehen !

Remember me to your mother.

FE LI Your X M. B. I have very little to tell about the short visit a ncée C x which he paid his fi at hristmas, e cept ing that I saw him oftener than might have n x r um bee e pected under the ci c stances . He interested himself much in our work at the

a ili S C ec a ociety, where they had begun study

S dir . ing t. Pa under my ection Our per form ance of fir aft e it was the st er that at L ipsic,

which Mendelssohn himself had conducted, though li ir Dus in rea ty the th d, counting that at the s eldorf hi was ll Festival, w le the work sti in

manuscript. Shortly after his return to Leipsic I received the following letters

E IP I l oth J anua r 1 83 7 . L S C, y,

— AR E R IN N OLD RAM r DE F D A D ( D A) , Fi st let me thank you for the nervos reru m which you lent of me, and which I now return ; they were the

for ft greatest service, I had very little le when ’ I got here. Still I don t think that that was the chief reason why I felt so dreadft low when I came into my room again on the evening

—s of my return o low, that even you with your fiinty heart would have pitied me ; I sat quite s n s quiet for full two hour , doing nothi g but cur e And s the Subscription Concerts to myself. with thi 1837 . LE I PSI C,

fi old strain I come back to Ha z, and wish I were at the Pfarreisen . I am always happy there . com Tell me yourself, what pleasure I take in the S the remaining nine concerts, in ymphony S ? f by H . and the Symphony by The day a ter ’ - Moli u e s m ! and to morrow we have q Sy phony, that is why I am writing to you, because we had

‘ off O t r ll to put your ver u e ti the next concert, ’ when we shall also have [Sterndale] Bennett s r fi f pianofo te concerto, the sacri ce scene rom ’ Idomeneo, and Beethoven s B flat symphony. d I meant not to write before next Fri ay, but

off f or . as that would put it a week , and I want to m an of n save my reputation as a busi ess, I l n wil write agai then. So you had better look out and answer me before that, or I shall abuse your Overture, or rather, make it go badly, and

ins secu ndum ordin m M intrigue aga t it, e cl

chisedek . fo , etc You once praised me r of making friends all the German composers, ’ — but this winter it s the very reverse I shall be in hot water with them all. I have got six new sym phonies lying here ; what they are like

God only knows, I would rather not ; not one of ll them wi please, and nobody has to bear the blame but me, because I never let any com

n ert No. 3 in n r la e the m Co c o , C mi o , p y d by co poser him self.

LE IP SI C.

hi r. If understand t s, and think it quite fai only I had not to wait so long. How many

a i times must it th w, and freeze, and ra n, and

d ff the must I be shaved, and rink my co ee in

ni a mor ng, and conduct symphonies, and t ke

alk . w s, before March comes Schumann , David, and Schleinitz (though he does not know you) wish to be r emembered to you . I must leave off and go to dinner ; in the afternoon we

Moli u e in fe rehearse q , the evening there is a te for the newly- married couple (the Davids) ; his f wi e is really here, and is a Russian, and he

- in- of is married to her, and is a brother law ” Prince Lieven, and our Concertmeister . It is needless to say more . Many remembrances and good wishes to your dear mother, and

dl . And many compliments de M le J. so fare well, and do not forget your E L F IX M. B .

E IP I 2 4th J a n ua r 1 83 7 . L S C, y,

E AR E R IN N — I MY D F D A D, have to give you my report of the performance of your D minor " Overturefi which took place last Thursday even ing. It went very well ; we had rehearsed it

e B e t and B a t Afterwards publish d by r i kopf r el, with many altera t un e th t t t e t e t re n ions, d r e i le of Firs Conc r Ov r u in D mi or, Op . HE L ’ E E E R S D MIN OR O V RTUR .

very carefully several times, and many parts of it greatly surpassed my expectations ; the most beautiful of all is the A minor p iano passage in win it —it the d, and the melody that follows ds n n soun capital ; then also, at the begi ni g of

so - - orte in G n the called working out, the f mi or, with the p iano after it (your own favourite

and dr instru passage) , then the ums and wind

iano in ments p D major right at the end. The winding- up sounds far better in the orchestra than I had expected . But I must tell you that fi i after the rst rehearsal, rely ng on the good understanding between us, I could not resist ‘ — changing the basses to the melody in A and also where it comes back in F and in D—from ’ sta cca to to sustained notes ; you can t think ff what a restless e ect they gave it, so I hope ’ you won t be annoyed at my taking such at liberty ; I am convinced you would have

for done the same, it did not sound at all as you wanted it to . il hin But now, there is st l somet g on my

m n . u i d which I want to say The Overt re, even at the performance, did not take hold of the i musicians as I had wished, but left us all a l ttle

e cold . This would not have matt red, but it was remarkable that all the musicians whom I spoke

— t all ex rem el to, said the same hey had been y G g I CHAP LE IPS C . [ pleased with the first subject and the whole of i di A the open ng, and the melo es in minor and

had ui major, and so far felt q te worked up by

r i li n it, but f om that point the r ki g began to

s ll riki decrea e, ti by the end, the good and st ng impression of the subject was forgotten, and they felt no more interest in the music. This seems to me important, for it touches again upon a matter about which we have had such endless dis s ' of wi cussion , and the want interest th which it is possible for you at any time to regard your

be art, must at last felt by others also . I would not like to say this to you if I were not so perfectly convinced that the point . is just one at which every man is left to himself; and t where neither nature, nor alent, not even the him l very greatest, can help , but on y his own di h fi in f will . I slike not ing more than nd g ault ’ with a man s nature or talent ; it only depresses and worries and does no good ; one cannot add ’ all r in a cubit to one s stature, st iv g and

' struggling are useless there, so one has to be ns l silent about it, and let the respo ibi ity rest with God. But in a case like the present with

ur t yo work, where all the themes, every hing n n which is tale t or i spiration (call it what , you f will) is good and beauti ul and impressive, and the development alone not good, then I think

CHAR LE IPSIG. [

— If in . walk, or a moment short, of a thought ou you laugh at me for all this long story, y will perhaps be doing very right ; but certainly not, if you are angry, or bear me a grudge for it —it , is foolish of me even to think of such a thing ; but ho w many musicians are there who would put up with it from another 7 And as you must see from every word how I love and

i u o adm re yo r talent, I may als say that you are — not perfect and that again would offend most

' musicians . But not you, for you know I take t the matter to hear . ’ As in for that passage Bach, I don t happen to have the score, and I should not be able to

find here it at once, but I never considered it a mi sprint, . though the edition generally swarms with them. Your version seems to me therefore n u i correct . I should have tho ght the A flat quite necessary at Thou smotest them — and

- peculiarly Bach ish .

Kindest regards . Your F. M.

This letter, in which Mendelssohn lectures ff me so a ectionately, appears in the second volume of his published letters, but I felt that I could not omit it here ; and I must add a few wi words, th regard to the matter about which dl x we had had such en ess discussions, as Feli — s a e s da i ays, matt r in which to thi y I bel eve

m be r yself to right, though I do not the efore by any means wish to set myself up against his c sm ritici on that occas ion . — That a composer must be born that u nless

.there is a natural power working in him with

all f of n i the orce i stinct, he will produce noth ng — ! of param ount greatnes s there can be as little d o ubt as that he must learn and study all that

as is to be learned, quite much and more than

e h wou ld do for mere technical purposes. But n the question now arises , where does the inbor

w of ? p ower end, and the po er workmanship begin ’ A h ni ccording to Mendelsso n s opi on, as expressed

a w n inv en bove, all that comes ithi the range of

s fi and tion of melody belong to the rst power, hi the development to the second, in w ch the s w l trong i l , coupled with the presupposed amount

of i abil ty and dexterity, deals like a master with w t he . material in hand This vie of his, no doubt s f his hared by many, had a two old source, in h armonious nature and his perfectly matured

e a a rtistic education. The great r spont neity of

“ m elodious thought cannot be denied ; and though with the acceptance or rejection of the fi rst

ira tion insp criticism already comes into play, the nite c hoice in that case is not so indefi as it becomes in the working ou t of the leading ideas and choice is always distracting. But in spite of

the this, it seems to me a mistake to consider after development as less dependent on original genius than the first discovery ; for if this develop ment rests only on what has been learned and

do studied, if the qualities of poetical creation n ot come into play in the same degree in both

r it cases, if it is not fresh, living, and o iginal, cannot make any impression ; the cleverness and learning of the musician will always meet with

ni him s due recog tion, but can never make pas mi for . s an inspired composer One ght even a sert, that in the union of musical thought and specu

vi i a lation with the v d power of the im gination, a still higher degree of productive genius is called out than in the formation of the simple

di hi as melo ous idea ; if indeed t s latter, as soon

t f m s it passes beyond the most elemen ary or s, doe not at once need the strongest chisel and the find finest file . I the proofs of this opinion in t the masterpieces which adorn our art. In the bes

fiv e works of the great masters, Bach, Handel, n e Hayd , Mozart, and Beethoven, it is impossibl t o point out any separation between invention a nd treatment ; as soon as such a separation is di ni scer ble, the music is no longer so great. In f the act, there are not a few cases where just

him as made devote the minutest care, as well

a . the greatest energy, to att ining his ideal He could not conceive that anything els e was pos

. And sible yet after all, towards the close of

e mi the l tter just quoted, he himself ad ts, that the be st must always be the half- unconscious ; — — for what else to use his own words can be s aid to be the matter of a walk, or a moment ” —ih of 13 short, a thought

I need hardly add, that I have no wish to d of eny the necessity the most uninterrupted, s u us i tren o , and painstak ng labour. CHAPTER V.

R NKF R L N N — — LE IP I E RLIN 1837 39. F A O T O DO , S C, B

ME N DE LSSOHN was married on the 2 8th of

March, the ceremony taking place in the French

Reformed Church, to which his bride belonged. It seemed strange to hear anyone so thoroughly German harangued in French on this solemn o ccasion ; but the simplicity of the service, and the e din xtraor ary fascination of the young couple , touched and impressed everyone . I had composed a marriage song for the reception of the newly ’ r mar ied pair at the grandparents house, and for its performance had engaged the services of the ladies belonging to a small choral society which I had conducted every week during the winter ’

s . at the E . house In spite of all the admiration and idolatry of these young ladies for Men hn delsso , and though they knew we had leave , and that it was very pretty and laudable to show s uch an attention to so great an artist, it was not without some embarrassment that the graceful [CHAR band entered the strange house under my direc r tion, and took up their position in battle a ray

va t before the eyes of the astonished ser n s, to s await the expected arrival . But Mendel sohn and mi s his char ng bride were so touched and plea ed, and the numerous members of the family, as

. might have been expected, so extremely amiable, that the fair singers soon completely forgot their

and hl e doubtful situation, thoroug y enjoy d being

hi of r in the t ck the mer y throng. The young couple went first to spend some time at the charming town of Freibu rg- im

Breisgau . A place more congenial to their poetic and artistic tastes could hardly have been found. m s It is a smiling little city, with clear strea

r ill n running through the streets, glo ious h s looki g

r w down on it all a ound, lovely environs ith v al iews over mountain and v ley, river and plain ; h and besides all this, the omely, simple, South — German dialect and manners in short a perfect place for a honeymoon . It will be remembered e that C cile had great skill in painting. She * x ou rnal ni n and Feli kept a j , u que of its ki d,

w r and which I was allo ed to see on thei return, which contains written m atter and drawings by in each in turn , landscapes , houses, little scenes

it ’ N ow the e n Me e n n e t da te in poss ssio of nd lssoh s you g s ugh r, a am M d e Wa ch, at Bonn .

ai r A R 1 837 . c n FR NKFO T, [

However, I must at once protest against the possible misunderstanding of my being supposed to hold artistic creation in general to be the pro duce of the state of mind at the moment . Even in the most ordinary life the mood of the mind l if w changes so continual y, that one were to follo it, no artistic work of any unity would ever come into being ; these matters are ruled by other and higher laws . But anything which was the result of such a wedding tour naturally leads

dr ar one to make observations and aw comp isons, though I should hardly have expressed them if they had not forced themselves upon me at the time . In the midst of the engagements and excite hi h x ments w c now engrossed the young pair, Feli " composed his beautiful E minor qu artetfi the progress of which I watched with the keenest interest . I must not forget one of the last occasions on which I conducted the Caecilia Society The performance was in honour of the

e young couple, and consist d chiefly of selections ”

. h from St Paul, wit pianoforte accompaniment only and I remember how delighted Mendelssohn was with the fine rendering of some of the

* “ O . 44 N o 2 t ra 1 t 1 p , . . The Au og ph is dated 8 h June, 837, ” a u — d Fr nkf rt. E . — v. E A E E A A MIN OR QU RT T S P R TI ON . chora les a ' , which I had made the chorus sing l cap e la .

It w as now almost time for m e to set out on.

al hn il my It ian journey. Mendelsso , meanwh e, ll on w trave ed do n the Rhine, and we hoped to

him e . see again in a f w days Our hopes were, m however, disappointed, and my next letter fro him was dated from Bingen

INGE N 1 3 th J u l 1 83 7 . B , y,

E AR E R IN N — n D F D A D, When you got i to the off carriage the other day at Homburg, and drove with your ladies, I must have had a presentiment n that - w e should not meet agai for some time ; I n felt alm ost sure we should not. It is stra ge enough that it has really turned out so I shall li not return to Frankfort before my Eng sh

ur jo ney, but in a week or ten days I go from n wn the here to Coble z, and so on, slowly do S Rhine ; and in eptember, when I get to Frank ll r a fort for half a day, you wi al e dy be far away Who Al . in the mountains, perhaps across the ps in ? knows where and when we may meet aga In

un ; any case, I hope, changed how much we should have had to talk about before the long t separation ! but the chief thing is that we mus

have a happy meeting some time or other. AN F 1 837 . FR K ORT,

ff I could not manage it di erently, the journey ffa here was rather a sudden a ir, and I was quite prepared to find the inn as uncomfortable as one to the in Homburg, and no lodgings be had ; in that case we should very soon have c be ome back to Frankfort, and I should have o C taken myself to the H tel de Russie . ontrary to our expectation we found the in quite bear a r ble, the view beautiful, and the neighbou hood and ar f environs so splendid and v ied, that a ter a few days I put off thinking about returning

f r to Frank o t, and have now quite given it up, for I hope that my people will go on a little

further with me . You really cannot think how this beautiful spot on the Rhine grows upon m e ft every day, and how I love it ; I have o en seen

rfi a five it before, but only in a supe ci l way. In ” Mausethurm minutes, with a boat, I am at the ,

f in Riidesheim my avourite po t, and then over at ; and the Rhine is so beautif ul in the changeable

t o weather, and even af er the late st rms .

a ar e il Th nk God, my de C c e is well and cheerful ; if I tell you that I love her more every ’ ’ day, you won t believe me, but it s literally true . I

have not worked much here, I mean not written

much, but I have a new violin quartet, all but fi hi nished, in my head, and I t nk I shall finish C my pianoforte oncerto next week. I have

L ONDON .

so farewell ; I have got back into the angry

style again after all.

1 st My address till the of August is here,

oste resta nte 1 0th p from then till the , Coblenz ,

oste res ta nte il 2 oth u p ; from then t l the , D ssel 2 0th dorf, ditto ; from then till the of September,

Klin em ann London, care of C . g , Hobart Place, ml Eaton Square, Pi ico ; and from the end of in September again Leipsic . Is not that very precise ? And my pianoforte piece ? Am I ? l ever to get it Do tel me, for I should so

like something new and good to play, and can

hardly count on my concerto for that .

now . W And farewell, dear friend rite to me

soon . Many many remembrances to your mother, and thank her for the love and kindness which she has so often shown me ; think of me some w times, and let us look for ard to a happy

meeting soon . E LI Your F X M. B.

as I too at l t set out on my journey, beginning n by wanderi g through the Black Forest on foot, and spending some delightful days in Baden

with my friend Ferdinand David, also just fin married, and his lively, re ed, and interesting

r wife . Thence I went to the Ty ol, and late in n the autumn to Italy, where I spent the wi ter, L N N— ME I K E O DO HO S C N SS.

a nd d to where my mother, who coul not bear b e ar as the sep ated from me, joined me soon as ’ to e l weather began get pleasant . M nde ssohn s l t r urin of h et e s to me d g that time, some whic

f of the ollow here, give a far better picture

h hl ift t a m en ig y g ed man and rue friend, th n y p

an c possibly do .

ND N l t S e tember 1 3 s 8 7 . LO O , p ,

EAR E R IN N — sit—in D F D A D, Here I the fog

v r — — e y cross without my wife writing to you, because your letter of the day before yesterday

r ir ul for equ es it ; otherwise I sho d hardly do so,

- I am much too cross and melancholy to day. ’ It s nine days since I parted from Cecile at u f few fi s D sseldor ; the r t were quite bearable, t hough very wearisome ; but now I have got into — — the whirl of London great distances too many — people my head crammed with business and a ccounts and money matters and arrangements

a nd is mi un s it beco ng bearable, and I wi h I were

wi Cécile n be s itting th , and had let Birmi gham

and ul if an Birmingham, co d enj oy my l e more th

- Dam I do to day. it you know what that means, ’ don t you ? and I have t hree more weeks of it

’ . before me, and have got to play the organ at B

on the 2 2nd and be in Leipsic again on the 3 oth L N N 1 83 7 . O DO ,

— in wi e a word, I sh I were rid of the whol n f busi ess . I must be a little fond of my wi e, because I find that England and the fog and beef and porter have such a horribly bitter taste this — time and I used to like them so much . You

s seem to be having a splendid journey, and thi

il fi as has letter w l see ner country than I do , it

Inns ru ck to go to p . Do inquire at Innspruck if anybody knows anyt hing about a Herr Christanell of Schwatz, who has written to me twice, and c l al s himself a great amateur of music, and about w hom I should like to know more . And so you are seriously thinking about your Jeremiah, and all the while striding off to Italy to compose operas there for the season ? You really are a m ad old Drama .

It is pretty quiet here . Most people are in away the country or elsewhere. The Mo scheles’ have been at Hamburg for some weeks, and I shall not see them ; Thalberg is giving concerts at Manchester and other places ; h e has made an extraordinary sensation and is v ery much liked everywhere, and I hope still to ; meet him Rosenhain is at Boulogne, and comes

; a la cam a ne back soon Benedict at Putney, p g Miss Clara Nov ello travelling from one Festival t o ll another, and wi probably not be in Italy until next spring ; till then she comes to Leipsic have given my remembrances to your people e herself. So farewell , dear Drama, and forgiv this horridly stupid letter, it is exactly what I a m myself.

LI . Your FE X M . B

B S t The chief thing I leave for the , jus

r as all girls do . Am I ever to get your E mino Symphony ? Do send it to m e l You have

m e cheated me out of my concert piece . Get m t the E minor Sy phony, the Leipzigers mus — hear it and like it .

E IP I l 0th D ecember 1 83 7 . L S C, ,

MY E R E R IN N —I all D A F D A D, thank you with m r y heart for having w itten in November, ’ in spite of my last month s irregularity ; I really could hardly have believed it . The arranging of my new house, moving into it, — w ith many concerts and a deal of business in

m a short, all the impediments, whatever they y

u be, which a reg lar Philistine, like I, can only enumerate to a smart and lively Italian like you —m ll y insta ation as master of the house, tenant, m usical director of the Subscription concerts— all this prevented me from doing my regular corre spondence last month . But just because of that HILLE R IN I TALY.

I wanted to beg you , and I do beg you

- ar of all to day, most e nestly, that in spite the inconceivable difference of our positions and sur i f round ngs, we should stick ast to our promise of m hl ont y letters ; I feel that it might“ be doubly interesting and good for us both to hear about each other, now that we must seem so dr f ead ully strange to one another, and yet just s for that reason all the closer friends . At lea t I find that whenever I think of Milan and Liszt f li and Rossini, it gives me a curious ee ng to remember that you are in the midst of it all ; and with you in the plains of Lombardy it is perhaps the same when you think of me and

s w m e Leipsic . But next time you mu t rite a

ll of a ul long detailed letter, fu p rtic ars, you ’ can t imagine how they interest me ; you must n tell me where you live, what you are writi g, and everything that you can about Liszt

e r and Pixi and Rossini, about the white cathed al, and the Corso— I do so love that enchant ’ u r ing co ntry, and it s a double pleasu e to f hear from you rom there, so you really

’ - A all if alf . mustn t use h sheets bove , tell me you enjoy it and revel in it as thoroughly as ? I did Mind you do , and mind you drink in s and the air with as much ecsta y, idle away — the days as systematically as I did but why CH . A R LE IPSI G, 1 837 [

? should I say all this, you will do it anyhow

Only please write me a great deal about it. You want to know whether I am satisfied ’ here ? Just tell me yourself if I oughtn t to be fi e satis ed, living with C cile in a nice, new, comfortable house, with an Open view over the

fi the ow r in gardens and the elds and city t e s , feel g ml f so serenely happy, so cal y joy ul as I have ~ ’ never felt since I left my parents house, and able to command good things and goodwill on

“ all ! sides I am decidedly of opinion, either this f place or none at all . I elt this very strongly ’ after the reports about s place at no ten horses and no ten thousand thalers could hi take me there, to a little court, w ch from its very smallness is more pretentious than the great

its us a ones, with the utter isolation of petty m ic l doings, and the obligation to be there the whole

ar in e ye manag g the theatre and the opera, inst ad n of havi g my six months free. However there are als o many days when I think no post would be the best of all . Two months of such con stant conducting takes more out of me than two years of composing all day long ; in the winter

I hardly get to it at all. At the end of the greatest turmoil if I ask myself what I have

en is ardl actually be doing, after all it h y worth

not speaking of, at least it does interest me

7 . LE IP SI C, 183

t ured ff then, and now a ect such superiority, do

w am not kno that. I indignant about the whole ’ f N eukom m s af air, and quiet, equable behaviour appeared to me doubly praiseworthy and digui

fied when compared to theirs . This resolute demeanour of his has made me like him much better. Just fancy also that I had to go straight from the organ loft into the mail coach, and drive for six days and five nights on end till 1 got to Frankfort, then on again from there the n f next day, arrivi g here only four hours be ore

fi c . n the beginning of the rst con ert Well the , since that we have given eight concerts, such ” as rc . you know, and the Messiah in the chu h

O ur star this winter is Clara Novello, who has

r and come over for six conce ts , has really de lighted the whole public . When I listen to that

r healthy little person, with her pu e clear voice, n how and her animated singing, I ofte think of I have actually stolen her away from you in s Italy, for she was going straight there, wherea il now she w l not go till the spring. But by persuading her to come here I was able to do i our cause the greatest serv ce, for this time it

and is she alone who puts life spirit into it, and

wi . as I said before , the public are ld about her “ ” corno cli bassetto The air from Titus with , the l ’ ” Polacca from Be lini s Puritani, and an English — v . N E LA A E LL J CO C RTS C R N OV O .

i" ’ Air of Handel s, have driven the public quite

frantic, and they swear that without Clara

l has Nove lo there is no salvation . She her whole

il and fam y with her, very pleasant people they

are . You are often and much thought of. ’ The finest of the new things was Beethoven s . ” a r Glorreicher Augenblick, a long Cant ta (th ee

of w quarters an hour, ith choruses, solos, etc . ) in honour of the three monarchs who met at the Vienna Congress ; there are splendid things in

C — a it, amongst others a avatina, prayer, quite ’ wi l in Beethoven s grand style , but th wretched y “ stupid words where heller Glanz is made to , ” w rhyme with Kaiser Franz , follo ed by a great flourish of trumpets ; and now Haslinger ha s

s actually put other word to it, and calls it The

Praise of Music, and these are even more

W for retched, poesy is made to . rhyme with ” of um noble harmony, and the flourish tr pets An d d comes in still more stupidly. so we spen

our days in Germany. David played my E minor quartet in public

to - the other day, and is repeat it to day by special desire I am curious to know how I shall like it ; I thought it much prettier last did fi l e time than I at rst, but stil I do not car

u h much about it . I have beg n a new one whic

as u ” — a Ma a ae . From mighty kings . Jud s cc b us ’ CH LE IP SI C. [ A R

fi . is almost nished, and which is better I have a lso done a few new songs, some of which would probably please you , but my pianoforte ’ C oncerto I think you would challenge . It s ’ a wh your own f ult, y haven t you sent me your promised piece ? You perhaps don’t know that

c- r Ricordi, the musi selle , often sends parcels here

' ’ it in to Wilhelm Hartel . So you might put ’ “ ! some day. There s a delicate reminder I have had to get the score of your E minor Symphony written out from the parts ; the score that came with it (in your own hand) had an almost totally d ff fi Anda nte Alle retto i erent rst movement, the g was in B flat instead of C , and the two last move m diff —in s w ents quite erent, hort I did not kno nl what to do , and o y yesterday had the pleasure o f receiving the old well- known score from the copyist and playing it through at once . I have put it down for one of the January concerts, d an it will form the second part by itself. The t wo middle movements are quite superb . Now

I must stop . Give Liszt many remembrances f and w rom me, and tell him how often ith what pleasure I think of him . Remember me to k Rossini, if he li es being remembered by me.

And above all, keep fond of me yourself.

E LI Your F X .

m ha s not e This Sy phony b en printed .

‘

LE 1 838 . IPSI C,

my room for a fortnight) you may imagine my

a gony, not being able properly to hear either the o ! rchestra, or my own playing on the piano

off Last time it went after six weeks, and God “ grant that it may do the same this time ; but

m r though I summon up all y cou age, I cannot il q uite help being anxious, as, t l now, in spite of

a ll no remedies , there is change, and often I do

v not e en hear people speaking in the room . Besides this there is another still greater

a nxiety, from which I hope every day to be released,

a nd which does not leave me for a moment . My

m - in- e ou other law has be n here for a fortnight, y w kno for what reason . When you see your n whole happiness, your whole existence , dependi g

u pon one inevitable moment, it gives you quite

a peculiar sensation . Perhaps I shall be better when the weather improves ; I hardly remember s uch a winter ; for a whole fortnight w e have

1 4 2 2 e had from to d grees of cold, yesterday at i last it was m lder, but we had a snowstorm, w hich is still going on and has almost blocked il ? u p the streets . How is it with you in M an A thousand thanks for the details in your

las t letter, they interest me more than you can i i do magine, liv ng as you in the very midst of

s o much that sounds quite fabulous here . You m ust tell me a great deal about it all whenever MU I AL MA E R —HE E L S C TT S N S T.

and you write ; tell me about your Psalm, how

r ad they sang it, and whether you have al e y

and enre begun the opera, what g you have ’ Pixis debu t— in all chosen, and about short,

about what you are doing and what you like . Here everyt hing goes on in the u sual quiet

musical way . We have one subscription concert every week and you pretty well know what we

do there . For the New Year, when the concert

always opens with sacred music, we performed ” a my Psalm As pants the h rt. I have written

u ina le a new and very elaborate chor s as af to it, s and the whole Psalm plea ed me a good deal , because it is one of the few things of my own which I am as fond of now as when I was A m Ta lichsbeck writing it. sy phony by g , which

in ar . was very much praised P is, and played at i the Conservatoire, made but little mpression, and

s eemed to me nothing particular . Henselt the pianist was here shortly before ; the New Year, and certainly plays exquisitely there is no question about his belonging to the to first rank, but it remains be seen whether he will be able s ufficiently to master his German

anxiety and conscientiousness , that is to say, his

v l ner ousness, so as to make himself genera ly

in . known, and play London or Paris He nd his fin s practises the whole day till he a ger ’

LE 1838 . IPSI C, are so done up that in the evening when he has to give a concert he is quite tired and exhausted, and then, compared to other times, plays mechanically and imperfectly. His great — specialty is playing wide spread chords . He goes his fin t on all day stretching gers, and amongs

in wi restissimo other th gs does the follo ng, p

S His tudies are charming, and form a great feature at his concerts . He is now off to

Russia. We played your Overture in E at his concert ; it went well, and was greatly enjoyed. The Fer nando Overture will come next ; but your mother nl the did not send me the corrected score, o y did m parts, which I not want, because we have the i but here . I got noth ng the score of the E

e minor Symphony, which you said was to b

r burned, but with you leave or without it I shall do nothing of the sort. It is strange that

not again I do take to the last movement, whilst the second and third please me even fi more than before . It is xed for one of the

February concerts . A symphony by Burgmuller of Dusseldorf was very much liked the other

IP I LE S C.

n It was a great blow to me, and gave me a stra ge feeling, just because his manner and way of going on had displeased m e ; but this news is such a contrast with all that, as to make one completely forget everything else for the moment . The a cilia Society certainly seems strangely fated. I have no idea who could or would undertake was i ill it now. Only a week ago Ries sl ghtly — with gout and jau ndice and in two days he is suddenly dead ! If you were in Germany now I should say you ought to go to Weimar in Hummel? “ place ; there mus t be much that is nice about it ; perhaps it will remain vacant till you a come back some day. You always liked Weim r

A all . if very much bove , you would only come back, there is no want of places, I see that plainly now, it is only the men that are — d wanting my old story over again . An you

ou And say that y are long past all that now. I I hope that have not yet come to it.

E IP I 1 4th A ril 1 83 8. L S C, p ,

D AR E R IN N — wi E F D A D, You ll be angry with me for my long silence ; again I can do nothing h but beg pardon, and hope that your wrat will

Hu e e 1 th t er 183 mm l di d 7 Oc ob , 7 . v . N INE ME N A D 1 1 ] CO F T N ILLN E SS . 5 be changed into good- will when you see my

w - n fist A ell know . great deal has happened

between this and the last letter, and much which prevented me from writing . No doubt you have heard through your mother that Cecile presented me with a son on the 7th of February ; but perhaps you don’t yet know that towards the e nd of the month she suddenly became dreadfully

ill ur , and for fo days and four nights had to s truggle with a terrible fever and all kinds of

o il . ther ev s Then she recovered, thank God,

q uicker than could have been expected, though l t s ti l slowly enough, and it is only quite lately tha n t a ll traces of ill ess have disappeared, and tha s he is again as cheerful and looks as well and h fresh as you recollect her. What I went throug

at i , that t me, I could not tell you in any letter n or indeed in words ; but you will be able to

i in ur di . mag e it for yo self, dear Fer nand And

all i now that the anxiety is over, and my w fe l and child are we l , I feel so happy, and yet not a bit p hilisterhafl ; you may laugh as much ’

as you like, I don t care , it is too lovely and

d elightful to see a wee little fellow like that, who has brought his mother’s blue eyes and

snub nose into the world with him, and knows her so well that he laughs to her whenever she her comes into the room ; when he is lying at I 2 LE IPSI G.

b i reast tugg ng away, and they both look so happy ’ r I don t know what to do with myself for joy . Afte

t m ensa fin s hat I could decline , or do ger exercise

with anybody for as long as ever they liked, and

a allow you to laugh at me and welcome . In e few days we go to Berlin, so that C cile may get to know my youngest sister and the whole il fam y ; Paul and his wife were here last month, and stood godfather and godmother to the little

one at his christening. The little man is called

Carl Wolfgang Paul . In Berlin I shall see how ’ m y wife gets on at our house ; if it s all right I shall go by myself to the Cologne Festival in

f to our weeks, and come back directly afterwards l Ber in, so as to spend the summer quietly there e or here and work. If not, C cile will go with me to Cologne ; but my mother and sisters

would not at all like that, so I think she will

probably stay with them, and perhaps go to the

Rhine with me next year.

These are my plans for the present . And you ? If I were you I should certainly have trudged off to Rome yesterday for Good Friday

and l Pa m Sunday, and I keep thinking that it ll is sti possible you may have done so . On ’ Palm Sunday I always think of the Pope s chapel and the golden palm branches ; in the w ay of ceremony and grandeur it is the most

LE IPSI C .

v ince you . It is my old story over again, w hich you have already heard two hundred

. times, and have disputed four hundred times in Certainly the theatre, as you describe it

it n Italy, is better and has more life m tha

s our , but you should help us to bring about an improvement . A . and his followers will n o ever do it, they only drive the cart deeper int the mire , and will disappear without leaving a t c ra e .

But to turn to something better . Could you and would you send me a copy of your Psalm 2 and also any other new thing that you m ay

and who have, give the whole parcel to Ricordi

r 2 often sends things here to W . Ha tel That i n would be splend d of you, and I beg you ma y

er many times to do it . I too have been rath busy this winter . David played a new violin

E i er Quartet of mine, in flat, in publ c the oth

ré ou day at the last of his Soi es, and I think y w ould find real progress in it ; I have begun a third ; I have also finished a concert piece for piano and orchestra (a sort of Serenade and “ Rondo f for of course I shall never get yours),

95th — I s e a new Psalm (the ) , suppo e I hav already written to you about m y having added

3" e e a e and e a and e t a S r n d All gro giojoso for pi no orch s r (Op. v . NE W M I I . L 1 ] CO POS T ONS C ARA N OVE LL O . 1 9

— ’ four numbers to the 42md and then there s a

- s - set of four part ongs for Open air singing, and various other little creatures that would so much like you to clip and brush them a little if you A ’ ? . m os were here p p , isn t this rich They have

been giving a first performance of my St .

all Paul at Dresden, with sorts of wonderful

ri preparations , and ten days before, R . w tes me

a formal letter, saying that they wished to fi shorten the rst part a little , and he should

u therefore cut out the chor s Rise up, arise ,

with the chorale Sleepers wake, as those numbers did not appear to him to be necessary

for the action . I was stupid enough to be frightfully put out for a whole day at this wil piece of presumption, but you too l think it

r ich . Clara Novello will really soon be in Italy w now . I hear that she is at Munich, and ill go

on from there direct . She went from us to

Berlin, where she had such incredible success, that I am afraid it m ade her a little over- con

' fident , for at Dresden and Vienna, where she a went directly afterwards, she is s id to have made

very little sensation . In Berlin, on the other

two hand, she gave concerts, sang twice for the

m , poor, four ti es at the theatre, twice at court and how can I tell where besides ? Mind you BE RLIN .

pay her every possible attention , if she flutters into your arms .

And now I must close, though I still have quantities of things to say . More next time .

My wife sends you many best remembrances. w She is busy about the journey. Please rite to

ou me to Berlin (Leipziger Strasse No . then y shall have Berlin news in exchange for Milan news (by which I should lose a good many

- d . yar s) But good bye, dear Ferdinand, be happy, and always fond of your F . M.

E RLIN 1 5 th J u l 1 83 8 . B , y, — E R. E R IN N D A F D A D , As all manner of creatures were created by God, to wander about the earth, ’ u bad correspondents among the n mber, don t be ‘ too angry with me for having got this nature . There are times when I cannot make the ink if flow, and I could get answers (for instance

fir w l from you) without st riting myse f, I really should quite forget how to write. You may per ceiv e , first from my long silence and from my

f . present sti f writing, that this is one of those times

b is But as I said efore, it for the sake of the ll answer. I hope you wi discover some quite new way of abusing me for the beginning of your letter, because then I am sure to get it soon. And besides; you will have to answer as a man

1 838 . BE RLIN ,

I have now been here in my old home since

. a May It gives me peculiar sensation , so much

own is in it is changed, so much in my self

changed, and yet there is a sort of comfortable

homelike feeling in it as if I had never left it. Then my family is so secluded and isolated here

that one really knows very little of Berlin, and hardly comes 1nto contact with anybody but the

as people in the house, which has its good side, m well as its disadvantages . Looking around e

now as a stranger and free from prejudices, I

certainly feel glad that I did not stay, however much I may regret it on account of my family ; but the climate and the air here are unprofitable

and good for nothing . For study and work and l isolation Berlin is just the place, but hard y at

all for enjoyment . Everything in my former life has now for the first time become quite clear

how to me, and I see plainly all my old hostilities with the people and my bad position were brought about of necessity ! and this has made

these months especially interesting to me . We

are quite pleased with each other now, and on the whole I like Berlin very much, because, having got rid of the wretched business h altoget er, I can enjoy what is good in the place without any bitter feelings . The first evening after my arrival we went to v. ) G D AND BAD A T E RLI OO B N .

’ the theatre to hear Gluck s Armida ; I have

dl t at har y ever, if ever, enjoyed any hing so much

- the opera . That great mass of thoroughly trained n r musicia s and singe s , ably conducted by Spontini , ff the splendid house, full to su ocation, the good — mise en—scene b , and a ove all the wonderful music, made such an impression on me that I was obliged to say to myself that there was nothing to be done with small towns and small means and small

here . circles, and that it was quite another thing

But how often since have I had to retract that .

so— n The very day after, they gave a called Beethove m S m Memorial Festival, and played his A ajor y

be phony so atrociously, that I soon had to g many pardons of my small town and my small means ; the coarseness and effrontery of the play

a e ing were such as I have never heard nywher , and can only explain to myself by the whole

n ffi as ature of the Prussian o cial , which is about

well suited for music as a strait- waistcoat is for a

man . And even then it is an unconscious strait “T d waistcoat . ell, since then I have heard a goo

deal in the way of quartets and symphonies, and ir playing and singing in private c cles , and have At altogether begged pardon of my little town . most places here music is carried on with the same mediocrity and carelessness and assumption w ffi s as ever, hich quite su ciently explain my old 1 83 8 . BE RLIN ,

wrath, and the very imperfect methods I adopted to c ure it . It all hangs together with the sand, the ffi situation , and the o cial life , so that though one may enjoy a good thing here and there well n t enough , one ca not become really acquain ed with anything. The Gluck operas may be reckoned amongst such good things . Is it not s t trange tha they always draw a full house, and that the public applauds and is enchanted and calls the singers back ? And that it is about the only place in the world where such a thing is possible ? ” A nd that the next evening the Postillon draws just as full a house ? And that in Bavaria it is forbidden to have any music in any church, either Catholic or Protestant, because it desecrates the church ? And that chora les are becoming t ? obbliga o at the theatres Confound it all . However the chief thing is to get as much

‘ novelty as possible, and that there should be plenty of good and beautiful things in the world ; that is why I am so eager about your Overture a nd your Opera . You will have heard that I was at Cologne for the festival . It all went well ; the organ was s plendidly effective in Handel and still more so — in Bach it was some newly- discovered music of ’ his , which you don t yet know, with a pompous d s ouble choru . But even that, to my feeling

CH P BE RLIN . [ A though I certainly have about as much difli culty in s wallowing most of these things, as the stork had with the porridge in the shallow dish . The stork reminds , me of my boy, who t is stout and fat and merry, and takes af er i his mother both in looks and dispos tion, which in is an expressible delight to me, because it is e the best thing he can do . C cile is well and blooming and sends you many greetings . But I have not told you anything about w m ! hat I have been writing, I ean what music t wo Rondos for Piano , one with and one without o tw o rchestra, Sonatas, one with violin, the other with Cello , one Psalm, and just now I am at a in third violin Quartet, and have a Symphony

m . y head, which will soon be launched In B ? Hat . And you Do you mean to send the Overture A thousand affectionate greetings t o your mother . Enjoy your life in that heavenly c ountry and think nicely of me .

Your F. M. B .

E RLIN 1 7 th A u u st 1 83 8. B g ,

’ E R E R IN N o D A F D A D , Y ur yesterday s letter d elighted me so much, that I do not like to

so lose any time in telling you . It is the nicest o f all that I have ever had from you, and I A D OCTOR OF PHIL OSOPHY.

n i read it agai and again, always with new del ght at the happy and tranquil mood which it r at eflects, each separate good and loving thing i in it, at the beginn ng and the middle and the e nd . I am so glad that such happiness should f all to your share, and I wish you joy of it with all my heart, or rather I enjoy it with you , for I see from your letter how well you know how

to enjoy it yourself. It must indeed be delight f ul there at Bellagio with your mother ; and it is because you seem so penetrated by this happy f i eel ng, that your letter gave me such pleasure , W for I confess I had hardly expected it. hat . you tell me about the new Oratorio is also not

s o bad, and I can see from all this that you are just now living exactly the sort of life that I

w . always ished you to live, and about which I was always holding forth to you— it’s all the — s ame where may Heaven keep it so for you

always , and may you always think of me

a ffectionately as you do in this letter. The Babylonians certainly had valve trumpets (in fact all Babylon was a kind , of valve trum e O pet), su h luxurious , arrogant rientals would

h ardly be satisfied with mere trumpets in C .

’ But please don t call them tromp ettes (2 p iston

in your score, I have such a hatred for the word — p iston you see I am a regular doctor of phi 1838 . BE RLIN ,

loso h r fi p y. Well, and when the O atorio is nished , ? are we to hear it in Germany Now, that will

do really be a word in season . Only mind you

it somewhere within my reach, so that I may fi have some share in it, I mean in the rst per

form ance ; you should do it in Leipsic, that would

be splendid, and all the singing and playing faculties of the place should be at your command

and on their mettle for you . Do get it done

soon, and tell me a great deal about it, so that I may at least have a foretaste of it in the

meanwhile . I agree with every word you say about the

Novello, and also about Liszt . I am very sorry

h of t at we are not to have the Overture, but ’ course I can understand that you don t want any of it to be played before the first perform i ? ance. And w ll that be next winter And is the whole Oratorio actu ally sketched out in f ? ’ b our parts That s really industrious, and y this you at once set me an example, for the ten operas and ten oratoriOs which you say I am to

write in the next twenty years . I assure you, it gives me the greatest desire and stimulus to

l exarri le if fol ow your advice and p , only there were one true poet to be found in the world, and ffi he were my friend . It is too di cult to find so much all at once . One would have to be driven

1838 . BE RLIN ,

' great pleasure, and they told me to give you

. r many kind remembrances . We were togethe n in that way every eveni g, talking polities, a in was ni e rguing, and mak g music, and it so c s and pleasant. We only had three invitation im ar the whole t e, and of music in public I he d l is bad little more than I was ob iged to ; it too , in Spite of the best resources ; I saw a perform ance of Oberon last week which was beyond

ne all conception, I believe the thing never o c

— 4 went together all through ; at the Sing Aka

own demie they sang me a piece of my , in such

a a w y that I should have got seriously angry, if Cecile had not sat by me and kept on saying “ ” Dear husband, do be calm. They also played me some quartets, and always bungled the very same passages that they had bungled ten years

ri ago, and which had made me fu ous ten years ago - another proof of the immortality of the soul . * i vi lin D fini My th rd o quartet, in , is shed ; firs a the t movement pleases me beyond me sure, and u — l I wish I co ld play it to you, especia ly a f orte passage at the end which you would l be sure to like . I am a so thinking of com

44 N o 1 Th e a t a in e tern a e Op . , . . u ogr ph, poss ssion of Sir W. S d l — e ett ate e 24 E d . B nn , is d d B rlin, July, ZE AL FOR COMPOSIN G.

’ posing an opera of Planché s next year ;

lr of I have a eady got two acts the libretto , and like them well enough to begin t o

set to work . The subject is taken from lis s A Eng h hi tory in the Middle ges, rather w fa serious, ith a siege and a mine ; I am eager the see the end of the libretto, which I expect

next week . I also still hope to get words for

ri t an orato o this year. You see, tha I was already going to follow your advice of my own

inv en accord, but, as I said before, the aid and

n the tio of poet is wanting, and that is the

chief thing. Pianoforte pieces are not exactly the things which I write with the greatest plea

or wi sure, even th real success ; but I sometimes if want a new thing to play, and then something exactly suitable for the piano happens to come if la into my head, even there are no regu r pas

’ s in wh r ul of ages it, y sho d I be afraid writing it o d wn Then, a very important branch of piano forte music which I am particularly fond of

tries a hi wi accom ani , qu rtets and other t ngs th p — t ment is quite forgot en now, and I greatly feel

the want of something new in that line . I

should like to do a little towards this . It was “ with this idea that I lately wrote the Sonata.

— 4? n in F stfll in MS. Sonata for piano and violi , x 2 CH P E LIN 1 838 . [ A B R ,

v for iolin, and the one for cello , and I am thinking next of writing a couple of trios . I n now have got a Sym phony in B flat in ha d ,

and mean to get it finished soon . I only hope that we shall not have too many foreign virtuosi not at Leipsic this winter, and that I shall have

en o — hi too many honours to j y w ch means, con n certs to co duct. So Herr F. has gone all the

w a . y to Milan Brr, he is enough to spoil the

warm climate . Yes, you see, I have to digest

such creatures, and am in Leipsic, instead of at

Cadenabbia u , where I once was, opposite yo r

present lodging. When I am writing to you at

the lake of Como, I feel the greatest longing to

see that paradise again, and who knows what I may do in the next year or two ? But you will fi i rst have to have been here w th your oratorio, f which is best o all. Do you know that my sister Fanny will perhaps see you soon ? She intends going to Italy with her husband and L child and only returning next yearfl When I know more definitely about her journey I will

tell you, so that she may not miss you, as i — d d. ri to Franck Now good bye, w te me soon

a ! t h as e e ee e an Al s his n v r b n publish d, nor is any MS. score, or y

t a e it e a. few te in m em an m o r c of , b yond no s or du books, known t e x t - is . E d.

' See e etter to a Han e e 1 publish d l F nny s l, of S pt . 183 9.

al me . Is it re ly necessary for me to tell you ? f that first However, that I might not ollow a my own opinion solely, or be lone in addressing

r you, I told the concert di ectors about the part of your letter referring to the oratorio (cum

re mo sa lts— mi u g that is to say, o tting yo r over great modesty) and received the following answer

Stadtrath . from Porsche, the secretary to the — concerts at first I meant to send you the i it ns orig nal letter, but I shall copy i tead, because the paper is so thick that the postage would be thick t00 ' Honoured Sir (notice the official style) - ao cording to your obliging information that Herr Ferdinand Hiller is occupied at Milan in the J composition of an oratorio, The Prophet ere ’ miah, from which great things may be expected as to merit and importance ; the concert direc tors have comm issioned me to assure you that it would afford them much pleasure to see the work and hear it performed at one of the concerts

mi 1 83 9- 40 during the co ng winter of , if Herr Hiller will have the kindness to forward the

. e e . . score to us With the great st est em, etc , etc , L ei sic March 1 83 9. R HE p , PO SC .

’ It is to be hoped that you ll never think again “ ili ” about my having too much responsib ty . v. MAL A ] FOR IN VIT TI ON TO HILLE R .

A nd I hope that this insignificant opportunity may give you zest and inclination for begin n new ing a work. In your next letter (addressed

t o u f l dl of D sseldor til the mid e May, to Frank f ort till the end of June) you must give me a f ew w words, in reply to this , hich I may c ommu nicate to the Directors ; it pleases them immensely when an artist like yourself takes n mi of otice of them as the Com ttee the Concerts , and they were all much flattered by your

r chu rch equest. We could not well do it in the , becau se we shall have to let our church- concerts

r m est for a year or two , before we can put the o n a proper footing again (it would take too ul long to explain all the reasons), so it wo d be

- wi ar of in the concert room, th a l ge chorus a m ateurs ; therefore mind you give the chorus

and as plenty to do, I said before, answer as ’ off s oon as you can . There s a parcel going to you in a few days by Kistner ; it has been in his hands all ready packed for the last four

and s weeks, at la t he promises really to send it of 42 nd al o ff ; it contains the score my ps m, ” and ll e St. Paul, a Ce o sonata of mine lat ly th p ublis hed (which I only send because of e

nov elt h other lovely cover, and by way of a y

w ise there is not much in it) . But if you are new h not pleased with the psalm in its dress wit IP I 1839. LE S G,

ni l . l the old li ng, I shall shoot myse f The parce i will be six weeks on the road, I hear, and w ll be addressed to Giovanni Ricordi at Milan ; so you must inquire there when you have an

o t ou opp rtumy . Of course y understand that I mean of you to keep all the contents the parcel.

off I sent your two overtures, with the metro n nome marks, to the Philharmonic a fort ight ago, after we had first given a good performance of a the one in D minor at the ch rity concert here,

al and found your terations very advantageous.

in the flow It ga s very materially by them, and of And it is not at all interrupted. now, though

an I am really ashamed to , I must tell you of

' article which I read about you in the newspaper . the other day, and which gave me a deal of

r pleasu e. One morning at rehearsal somebody showed me a num ber of the new musical paper

(Schumann, the editor of it, was in Vienna all the winter) in which there was something which concerned me, and looking through the rest of tin the paper, I found a leading article, con ued t u m hrough two numbers, headed by yo r na e . I o t ok it away with me to read, and a great deal of it really gave me extraordinary pleasure ; it is evidently written by some one who is not per sonally acquainted with you in the very least n degree, but on the other hand knows every o e

1839. LE IPSI C,

seemed then to have , of the honour and glory e w f which he gained everywh re, of his i e and c nfini a of hildren, and of the i tely sad st te a m ind which knew no other remedy but one, which wipes out the whole previous existence with all its happiness as if it had never been. How the news must have shocked you ! It was o nly in your last lette r that you were speaking of him ; you had seen him so lately, and were so

of him—i And fond t is really dreadful. who can think of fame and celebrity and happiness, or wish dl in for them, when a man outwar y so happy and wardl f the y so gi ted, could at same time be

s o dl n . boun essly u happy To me, there is more in it than in the profoundest sermon I ever heard, and once I begin to think of it I cannot get over

Ou it at all . Do tell me all y can about it ; all that you know of further particulars and details. I have heard nothing but the details of the evening

his before, and of last moments . Tell me, if

ou t y know any hing about it, what could have brought him to such terrible misery and to s uch a resolve. If it were nothing more than

s his in t r those few hi sings and w tl gs at the heat e, as they say in the papers, nobody ought e ver to appear in public again after they have once earned bread enough to keep them

v s from star ing, or ought ever to choo e a pro ’ — v . ] N O URRI T S DE A TE ME RCADAN TE

fession which would make them dependent on

the public . Now I must answer some of the questions in m f your letter. A nu ber of d i ferent people con

duct Moscheles r . r at the Philha monic, Sir G Sma t, ,

Potter, etc . , so it is impossible to foretell into

what sort of hands you might fall, clean or

unclean . I am quite at sea again about my i ’ Engl sh opera ; the poet won t alter it, and I ’ ’ nl — won t compose u ess he does it s the old, old ” s ong of the drunken Bohnenschm ied. And I i always have to beg n it over again, because I

ou know I am right . But woe betide y if you ’ ” Mercadante s praise Giuramento, for I have had the pianoforte arrangement in my room for

ever so long, and have certainly given myself find trouble enough with it, and yet I it quite

uff u ins erable and v lgar, without a note in it ’ which I care the least bit about . Don t be angry ’ ’ w ith me, I can t help it ; it s curious that the ’ surroundings and the air and the way it s done really do make an impression on everybody but here in Leipsic the Giuramento cuts an — awful figu re in my own house that is to say. You will never in all your life make mu sic like ’

that, it can t be ; that is why I rejoice doubly for the numbers of your opera which you

promise me and for which I am most eager. [CHA R

In a week I go to the Festival at Dusseldorf, where the Messia is to be given on the first ” the day ; on second the Eroica, the Beethoven

a M 42 nd C m jor ass , an overture and my psalm ; ’ and on the . third Gluck s Alceste in the

theatre with costumes and all . There are to be

r m singers f o Berlin, and they will make the

last (evidently the best) practicable . The festival w is at Whitsuntide again . After ards we are to — - in be at the wedding of my sister law, Julie

J eanrenau cl , who is going to marry a young Schunk from here ; after that we stay on in i Frankfort for a time, then spend a fortnight w th my uncle on the Rhine— and my castles in the

air go no further . Now this letter is really ’ done ; it s quite absurdly long ; many m any

remembrances to your mother, and also to Mdlle.

J “ ' and write to me very soon, dear Ferdinand

your letters are such a pleasure to me.

Always your FE LIX.

My wife and child are well and beg to be

remembered to you .

R NK R 2 7 th J u n e 1 83 9. F A FO T, ,

MY E R RIE N — 0 D A F D, Y ur brother says I am t o put in a word for you into his letter . Every

RAN 1839. F KFORT, quickly over it in the bustle of travelling pre

arations p , I am struck by so many and such ’ t it l great beau ies in , that I can t help te ling

- in you so to day, though few words, and thank ing you for the great pleasure and enjoyment you have given me with it. This second part seems to me far superior to the first in every ‘ find respect, and wherever I look I splendid

. Wh touches, quite peculiar to you at I like best of all is the A major chorus with the

— tem o solo and the repeat the p , and the vigorous opening are new and capital ; one f expects something quite dif erent, and not nearly d fi fine. An so then the rst chorus, and the war march in C major, and the entrance of the

r cho us in the recitative, and the one in F minor, and in fact the whole thing. It seems to me that the poet has again now and then missed

ul in a point but why sho d I beg criticising, when there is so much to surprise and delight me beyond my expectation ? I promise you not to ll open my mouth again, at least not ti I get your answer, which will be very soon I hope, and till I know that you are not angry with me‘ for Opening it so enormously wide already.

Write soon, dear Ferdinand, and thanks, thanks, thanks for all this good and beautiful music .

You Some letter of yours must have been lost. R ’ A I HLLLE S OR TOR O . write that you may perhaps hear from me at

of w Bern, and I had no idea your S iss journey, and was quite perplexed by your dating from

so . Basle . How shameful it is that we were and near together, both on the Rhine, now again so far from one another ! And yet it is quite

ul right that you sho d be in Italy again, and that you should not let yourself be disturbed

- o in your wishes and doings . To morrow I g

to e e f m back Leipsic, where I hop to h ar ro if hi re you soon. My w e and c ld a well, and send

ur messages to you and yo mother, and I do the ff o . same with all my heart. Now I must be Ri ikulm I like your having put g , Mid

at ; night, the end of the Oratorio but the C A n major is still better, and the major openi g

fu is the most beauti l of all, and so Ferdinand,

best thanks to you my dear friend.

E LI Always your F X.

I had taken my dear mother and her com a al panion to Basle, because the st te of her he th made it necessary for her to take the baths at f she Wiesbaden . Nevertheless, a ter a few weeks

became so ill that I hastened home . I received LE IP I S C.

IP I l 9th Se tember 1 3 E 8 9. L S C, p ,

E R E R IN N — I D A F D A D , need hardly tell you ’ how your yesterday s letter saddened me ; you know what heartfelt sympathy I feel in you and your welfare . May God restore your dear f mother to complete health, and give com ort and happiness to you all ; I can well imagine your anxiety and sadness at present ; dear Fer dinand if only I were with you ! Even though

I might not be able to help, I could perhaps divert your thoughts a little ; have I also not f elt from the bottom of my heart, how at such m oments all art and poetry and everyt hing else that is dear and precious to us, seem so empty and comfortless, so hateful and paltry, and the only thought that does one any good is ! Oh ” that God would help . When you have a spare

m e moment, do write a line to say how she is ; we should so much like to hear from you as o ften as possible ; write me a line at least every

w . eek , I shall be so impatient for it I send off the first part of the oratorio by ’ - done to day s post . I have not quite with the d secon , so I did not write to you in Italy about

- da it ; I shall send it to morrow or the y after, and then write you properly and fully. Let us

CHAPTER VI .

— 1 9-4 LE IPSIC WI NTE R or 83 0.

E IP I 2 9th S e tember 1 83 9. L S C, p ,

E RIE N - MY D AR F D , No words are needed to tell you how deeply I grieve for you in this great sorrow ; you know how I sympathize with you in everything that concerns you; whether it

trifles be good or bad, even in the merest ; how much more so then in the greatest loss which could befall you ! Anyone who knew your dear mother in the very least, or had ever seen you together, must know what an irreparable blank is made in your life and heart by her death . But why say all this to you ? I would so much wi rather be th you, so that we might have a quiet time together, and I might try and if possible help you to bear this bitter trial. n Even that I ca not do ; and besides, just fi m at rst, neither sy pathy, nor words of com f f ort, nor even riends, can do one any good r r m a when they try thei ve y best, they y nl ar n nn o r o y do h m, and certai ly ca ot help be ’ of any use ; only God and one s sense of duty

. n e can do that But what, I wa t d to write to you about was suggested to me by the last

r words in you letter, where you say that you must stay in Frankfort for the present on account

of . are business matters When these over, ’ couldn t you come to us for a little ? Would a of aff not the ch nge surroundings, the ectionate and hearty welcome which you are sure of from

s all the musician here, the separation from a place which though now doubly dear must also if be doubly sad, do you good, and not cheer

ur now you, at least distract yo thoughts and ? dir then I do not mean now ectly, but I was f a nd thinking o the end of next month, Novem

' as ber ; my Vienna journey is good as given up, ff ni so I can o er you a ce, warm, pretty room, which we would make as comfortable as possible

e n , for you . C cile joi s with me in my request and we hope you will do what we ask . I don’t speak of how well we could talk all over the oratorio together, and that we might f do towards arranging for the per ormance, or of all the music that I should hope to make

To- nl n you enjoy . day I o y wish to impress upo you how much I want you to spend the next L 2 ff month in di erent surroundings, and with friends who are as fond of you as we are .

r How enti ely our whole future rests always, ’ ! e and every day, in God s hands My C cile is fi expecting her con nement in the next few weeks, and if one is to speak of the cares of married nl life , I as yet o y know those which at such a m mi ti e engross me every hour and nute, and leave me no peace for any other thought. Thank ll Heaven, she is so we and strong, that I hope God will continue to grant her health and hap — piness and so with a sanguine heart I repeat i my request and our inv tation to you . Farewell

- for to day, my dear, dear friend ; try to keep u p, and may Heaven give you courage and strength

Always your F. M.

In the course of a few weeks this affectionate letter was followed by another similar to it, with

! these words Your room is ready for you, with a piano in it, and you shall be as undis turbed as you like ; and a good deal disturbed e too . My C cile sends you her remembrances, and joins most heartily in my request ; so do come and try perfect rest and our quiet homely life for a time, and let me hope to see you very ” soon . It was impossible to resist such an invita

LE I 1839. IPS C,

e luti n to keep quiet, so that they might not be

- too eager in their demands . Now good bye till we meet !

E LI Your F X .

Mendelssohn and David met me at the place where the coach stept and gave me the warmest fi of welcomes . In the course of the rst few days I was introduced to Mendelssohn’s relations and friends , and soon felt as if I had belonged to ’ that delightful circle for years . Mendelssohn s house was pleasantly situated, with a nice open look- out from the front upon the Leipsic bou ’ lev ard , and the St . Thomas s school and church, ’ once the sphere of the great Bach s labours . The arrangement of the rooms was as follows !

fi di - rst , a sort of hall, with the ning table and a few chairs ! to the right of this a large sitting room and some bed rooms ; to the left my ’ friend s study with his piano . Opening out of

fin e dr wi - this was a large a ng room, which how ever was robbed of some of its natural elegance

by the bed which had been put there for me, though this was counteracted by a piano also

put there for my use .

Our way of life was regular and simple . At about eight we breakfasted on coffee and bread n and butter. Butter Felix ever eat, but broke ’ vr. ME 1 1 ] HO LIFE AT L URGE N STE IN S GARDE N . 5

f l his bread into his cof ee ike any schoolboy, as ” n he had been accustomed to do . We di ed at one , and though he despised butter he always

liked a glass of good wine, and we often had to t r u y some special sort, which he wo ld produce li w with great de ght, and swallo with immense

s f atis action . We generally made quick work with

o u r t dinner, but in the evenings af er supper we used often to sit round the table for hours chat t i nl ing (not smok ng) , u ess we moved to the pianino which had been presented to Madame

Mendelssohn by the directors of the Gewandhaus . The first few days were taken up with n p aying and receivi g visits, and passed quickly

u e nough . My next thought was to res me my

r work . I had a pe formance of my oratorio in l prospect, and there was stil a great deal to be “ done towards it . We must sit and compose at ” the same table together, said Mendelssohn, one ’ ” - morning ; and let s begin at once to day . l h The fol owing day was the Liedertafel, by whic I must not be supposed to mean one of those huge societies formed in the last forty years to assist the love of the Vaterland and of wine ” n the a d woman. This one consisted of a dozen

s il rough mu icians, some of them st l representing of L the most zealous supporters music in eipsic,

ho did all w used to meet from time to time, and 40 L P I 1 8 . E I S C,

h table s onour to their title, for their was no les ” e . xcellent than their songs. Mendelssohn thought it would be great fun if we set the same words to music, and let the singers guess which was d which. No sooner said than done . We looke t hrough several volumes of poetry, and soon agreed ’

Eichendorf s can. in the choice of a song of . I n still see us sitting Opposite one another, dippi g our i nl pens nto the same inkstand, the silence o y broken at rare intervals by some joke or other, n and the piano not once touched. In writi g out the parts, each copied half of his own composition ’ and half of the other s . The scores were not to

, appear, and above all the secret was on no account to be betrayed to the members of the

Liedertafel .

nin r The eve g a rived, and the thing was a

s complete success . The ongs were sung at sight

and nl in capital style, o y one of the singers, f . hl s o Dr Sc einitz, one of the most accompli hed l his i wi iving amateurs, gave op nion, th thorough — of . conviction and was right. None the others could make up their minds . We laughed and held our tongues . Mendelssohn afterwards apologised to me

m One t e . Pe tschke has of h , Dr , published som e very pretty art ’ q u ets for m en s voices .

1840. LE IPSI C,

s . ohn had inhabited in his bachelor days So, ’ after about a fortnight at my friend s house, I moved into my new quarters .

We had had a tolerable quantity of music , however, during this time . Mendelssohn had just fi mi nished his great D nor trio, and played it to

fire me . I was tremendously impressed by the and spirit , the flow, and, in short, the masterly a char cter of the whole thing. But I had one i small misgiv ng. Certain pianoforte passages in it, constructed on broken chords, seemed to me

— - to speak candidly somewhat old fashioned. I

ed fre had liv many years in Paris, seeing Liszt quently, and Chopin every day, so that I was thoroughly accustomed to the richness of passages which marked the new pianoforte school. I made some observations to Mendelssohn on this point, fi suggesting certain alterations, but at rst he would not listen to me. Do you think that that ” ul ? wo d make the thing any better he said.

The piece would be the same, and so it may ” remain as it is . But, I answered, you have often told me, and proved to me by your actions,

s that the mallest touch of the brush, which might conduce to the perfection of the whole, must not be despised. An unusual form of arpeggio may not improve the harmony, but neither does — it spoil it and it becomes more interesting to IAN A P OFORTE PASS GE S . the player . We discussed it and tried it on the

piano over and over again, and I enjoyed the small triumph of at last getting Mendelssohn

over to my view. With his usual conscientious e arnestness when once he had made up his

mind about a thing, he now undertook the w lengthy, not to say wearisome, task of re riting

the whole pianoforte part . One day, when I

him at found working it, he played me a bit which he had worked out exactly as I had sug to him gested on the piano , and called out to h me, T at is to remain as a remembrance of Af you . terwards, when he had been playing it at a chamber concert with all his wonderful

fire , and had carried away the whole public , he “ s aid, I really enjoy that piece ; it is honest wil music after all , and the players l like it,

because they can show off with it. And so it

proved. In the course of that winter I witnessed a ’ curious example of Mendelssohn s almost morbid conscientiousness with regard to the possible per

fection of his compositions . One evening I came

into his room, and found him looking so heated,

and in such a feverish state of excitement , that ’ w I was frightened. What s the matter ith ? ” n you I called out. There I have been sitti g a for the last four hours, he said, trying to alter 1 840. LE IPSI C,

’ few bars in a song (it was a quartet for men s. ’ voices) and can t do it. ff s the He had made twenty di erent version , greater number of which would have satisfied most people What you could not do to- day l do in four hours, said I, you wi l be able to

- to morrow in as many minutes . He calmed

i . down by degrees, and we fell nto such earnest conversation that I stayed with him till very in late . Next day I found him unusually good

spirits , and he said to me, Yesterday evening when you were gone I was so excited that it

was no use thinking of sleep, so at last I com — posed a little hunting song, which I must play ” you at once . He sat down to the piano, and

I heard the song, which has since delighted Eiehen hundreds and thousands of people, namely ’ ” e riisst du o ! dorf s, Sei g g sch ner Wald I

hailed it with joyful surprise. hi a Musical life in Leipsic, w ch has lways nl r been extremely active, had certai y acqui ed an ’ extraordinary impetus through Mendelssohn s per f sonal in luence and energy. His eminent talent as a conductor was especially favourable to the performance of orchestral works . Vigorous leaders had managed, before his time, by the help of

fi r their ddling, to put plenty of spi it and precision

so into them, but no one had ever imagined

1 40 I 8 . LE IPS C, movements were short and decided; and generally dl i har y v sible, for he turned his right side to the

fi fi l a orchestra. A mere glance at the rst dd e, ffi slight look one way or the other, was su cient .

It was the sympathy in the cause, which gathered strength from the sympathy brought to bear on it by so wonderful a man . m ‘ Sy phonies and overtures were then, as now, the prominent features in the Leipsic programmes. It is well known what a ready welcome Men delssohn had for any composers whose works in

i or any way deserved it . Thus, in that w nter,

h s rather in the second alf of it, many noveltie

Kalliwoda his were produced . conducted one of symphonies (in B minor) which met with a very ’ ” Kittl s J a d- favourable reception . g Symphonie, w s hich had been given in Paris with ome success, was performed in the presence of the composer, who introduced himself as a humble amateur. We also had one by the composer of the “ Last ” Schnei Judgment, the old Dessauer, as Friedrich ’ der was often called . Schubert s great C major * symphony made such a powerful impression that it was put down in the programme a second

dl the time . However, it had har y begun when

fire public took fright at a false alarm of , and

B t m V e a R . m a and fi t rough fro i nn by Schu nn , rs perform ed in MS. — , , n 2nd a 1 3 E d. o 2 M rch, 8 9. THE LE N A E 1 59' FOUR O OR O V RTURE S .

fled . Afterwards it was played at the end of

as fire a . the l t concert, with much , and no larm

al a for fir s in I so he rd there, . the st and la t time if Am s m . my l e, a sy phony by Vogler ong t the ’ o t r e . ver u es, Rietz in A major especially deserves

i of mention, hav ng become one the best known

of works that composer. I happened to be with Mendelssohn at the moment when he got the t score . He had known this excellent composi ion

r wi at Dusseldo f, and was greatly delighted th the successful alterations which had been made in d his own i . it, probably by , adv ce He soon foun

li for d a pub sher it, and was immensely excite at being able to send the news to Rietz in his~ At musical solitude at Dusseldorf. one of the to f vi d first concerts which I went , a hal impro se performance of the four Leonora - Fidelio Over “ tures took placefi The first and second were in

the programme the latter, then unpublished, being given for the first time ; it was received

with great enthusiasm, and encored, upon which hi Mendelssohn gave the t rd, the greatest and best instru known ; and later in the concert, some

mental solo having been omitted, he also gave ”

l . the fourth the overture to Fide io, in E This wonderft interesting conjunction of these !

em ra e us a e e t if It is well to preserve the date of this m o bl m ic l v n — 1840. E d. l 1 th January, 1 840. LE IPSI C, four masterpieces was all the more charming for

- its not having been pre arranged. Amongst his choral works I must specially

mention the splendid Psalm, When Israel out ” fi of Egypt came , the rst performance of which ’

t 1 840. ook place on New Year s Day, The first movements of it are certainly among the ’ n oblest of Mendelssohn s compositions, and will always hold their own against the most important

things which our art has produced . Neither the novelty of the work nor the presence of the com

ul poser co d add to its merit, but they certainly

heightened the impression, and it need not be said e t hat its reception was enthusiastic . I also hav a very vivid remembrance of the performance of ’ “ ” Cherubini s a capital Finale from Abencerrages, which Mendelssohn had taken great pains to get

from the directors of the Berlin Opera . The solo vocal music at a great number of the concerts was sustained by a charming young

Meerti s Belgian lady, Mlle . Elise , and afterward

- by the well known Sophie Schloss . All manner of Cavatinas out of unknown Italian Operas (which the public of course enjoyed extremely)

had to be scored for the programmes, and to o u r great delight these were so well done by a very clever copyist as only to require slight revision from Mendelssohn before perform

9 LE IPSI C, 183 .

things at that time than now, when the piano forte, violin, and cello have almost exclusive

- command of the concert room . No doubt this it is of advantage to the programmes, but is by no means so to the orchestras , as — it entirely deprives the wind instru ment players of the opportunity of gaining a little extra honour and extra pay. Thus it has come about that our much- vaunted improvement in executive music can only be called real with respect to the string instruments . And the pre ference given to the brass in modern music is likely to make the performance of works by the fi old masters more and more dif cult . But I am

d . igressing, and must return to Leipsic

- The interest of the Quartet Evenings, which Ferdinand David had carried on for some years past , was greatly heightened this winter by Men ’ - delssohn s co . operation He often played at them, and his renderings of Mozart and Beethoven were incomparably beautiful . He and I also

— e occasionally played four hand things, and mad ’ a great sensation with Mozart s Variations in G. But what I remember most distinctly was his ’ performance of Bach s Chromatic Fantasia it was

u so q ite overwhelming, and the applause was

s great he w a obliged to go back to the piano. t He then improvised, combining in the cleveres ’ ME NDE LSSOHN S PLA YIN G.

’ way a theme of Bach s with his own well - known w 1 1 Song ithout Words in E (No . , Book ) thus uniting past and present into something diffi new and cult to describe . David was no less — many sided in his way ; in addition to the three w wi great quartet riters he favoured us th Spohr,

Onslow, and Mendelssohn, and also Schubert,

then little known as a quartet composer . I must not forget to mention the fact that this winter he brought before the public the Chaconne of

Bach, since so much played . Mendelssohn aecom * anied a d libitum p on the piano , and it was a i great success . The publ c were also much de lighted one evening to see Mendelssohn and ’ Kalliwoda playing the Violas in Spohr s double ’ quartet and Mendelssohn s octet . Mendelssohn never touched a stringed instrument the whole if it— year round, but wanted he could do as he

could most other things .

the Nor must I forget, for sake of that clever ’ artist s friends, that during this season young

uls Verh t, who was in some measure a pupil of ’ fir Mendelssohn s, earned his st spurs as con ” ductor of the Euterpe concerts . At these he gave some very promising large choral works of

his own composition .

te a i e ac m a me t and . Mendelssohn af rw rds publ sh d his co—p ni n , Schu t t is and t er s a h E d . m ann another, o h o h olos of B c ’ LE I I 1 39. PS C, 8

This winter was remarkable for the appear ance t ll s of some of the mos bri iant players .

ir of m F st all Ernst, then at the sum it of his t talent, and enchan ing the whole world. Men de ls sohn was very fond of him. Ernst told me m wi t one day, al ost th emo ion, how at the time of his concerts in the Konigstadter Theatre at

Berlin, he was very much pressed one morning in Mendelssohn’ s presence to put down his “ e g El gie in the programme a ain, though he had already played it I don’t know how many times . When Mendelssohn also began urging

! If him to do it, Ernst answered, in fun you will accompany me I will and Mendelssohn in fact made his appearance on the Konig stadter e stage, accompanied the El gie, and vanished . It was not only their beloved violins which united David and Ernst, but also the

s beloved game of whi t. I certainly believe that neither of them ever played the violin so late into the night as they did whist. It was harm n less e ough, and good and bad jokes played

as a ds just great a part in it as the c r . Towards the spring Liszt arrived in Leipsic f hs resh from his triump at Vienna and Prague, and revolutionized our quiet town . It will be remembered that in Paris he had excited Men ’ delssohn s highest admiration . At his first con

1 840. LE IPSI C, e f ted to the very utmost . Mendelssohn arranged a grand soirée at the Gewandhaus to which upwards of two hundred people were invited .

.I It was a half conversazione, half concert . had the honour of taking part in a performance ’ of Bach s concerto for three pianos . I myself entertained Liszt at a rather solemn dinner on fi the rst floor of a fashionable hotel , and invited all the heads of the musical societies in the place to meet him . Some time afterwards, when we were talking over these heroic social deeds of

u nfi o rs, Mendelssohn was i nitely amused at hear e w ing that my mere private f te, hich had included such a small number of people, cost me much more than his grand demonstration . He had such a childishly naive and good- natured way of laughing at anything of that sort, and really was never so pleasant as when he could be making fun of something or other. At the last of the Gewandhaus Concerts I

r conducted my orato io , the Destruction of

sent fi Jerusalem . I had Mendelssohn a nished n sketch of it in the foregoi g summer, and he at once took the warmest interest in it ; it was

nl a certai y owing to his influence th t, though the score was not yet even written, the oratorio

2nd 1 40 April, 8 . s hould have been accepted for performance by dir of the ectors the concerts . In th e putting t ogether of the words there was a great deal i fi w th which we were neither of us satis ed.

libretto One day he took the home with him, and surprised me in the kindest way on Christmas Eve with a fresh and complete copy o f it . I need not explain how useful his severe c ritical remarks were to my composition . One d ay when I thanked him he said ! I only show y ou what you would have found out for your s f in el a few months . The oratorio had a very warm reception ; but what pleased me most was ’ Mendelssohn s entire satisfaction . He sat amongst di e the au ence with C cile, and told me what pleas ure he had felt not only in my music but a s of wi l o in the correct judgment his fe, who

had always picked out the best things . He also a dmitted that the work had a very peculiar c olouring, and I only refer to this now because it has sometimes been spoken of as an imitation ” o f l the Elijah, which was not completed ti l

six years later. In the course of that winter Mendelssohn published a number of works, and amongst ’F o thers his D minor trio . He went on correcting

4 . Op. 9 40. LE IPSI C, 18

u and altering it p to the last minute, and many of the plates had to be engr aved over again .

He also composed a good many new things . But what occupied him most of all was the Hymn of Praise (Lobgesang) which he had under taken to compose for the commemoration of the in 4 di 1 8 0. he scovery of printing, June How managed to work in the midst of so many distractions it would be difficult to imagine but for his wonderful mental equanimity. In general

be . u was completely master of his powers, tho gh I do not mean to say that he could or would have composed at any moment— but he cer tainly often did so when one would least have ’ s expected it . When I go into a painter ” f n studio , he once said to me, I am o te envious . It must be too nice to live all day ’ our entirely for one s work, as they do . But independent way of spending our tim e has a ” inde en great charm about it too . Of this p dence he made the greatest use, and probably n ever spent his time alike two days running .

u One afternoon I fo nd him particularly cheerful, “ and he said to me ! I have had such a satis factory morning ! I have been playing a great ’ d all s eal, sorts of people music, and yours too , an d also composing and writing. I mean to do t his every day now ! And yet he hardly

1 840. LE IPSI C,

' The nephew set to work with feverish eagerness ;

and s . , as far as I could judge, ucceeded admirably But after all he got more vexation than pleasure ’

from it, for the old gentleman, with an uncle s

want of consideration , had meanwhile made use

of some other version, and Felix did not even

get a word of thanks, whereat he greatly com

plained . I take this opportunity of saying that I feel sure that Felix must have written a con

siderable number of lyrical poems, though I do

not know if he told his friends of it . If I am

right, we may surely hope that some future time i may bring them to light. They would certa nly

not be without merit. Another partly literary work which occupied “ my friend for some time was an address to the

sum King of Saxony . A of thalers had been bequeathed to the king by a Leipsic

gentleman, with the request that it should be

! devoted to some artistic purpose . In conjunction ” wi - th Von Falkenstein, then Kreis director, and “ w now Minister, Mendelssohn dre up the plan for

the organisation of a Conservatorium, to which he added an entreaty that the king would devote the money in question to the foundation of the

institution . It is well known that the Leipsic e 1 43 Cons rvatorium was opened in the year 8 ,

that Mendelssohn laboured enthusiastically for it, THE M r E L GE R o IJAH. and that this school contributed greatly to the

of w as progress musical life in Leipsic . It

’ e qually Mendelssohn s doing . that Hauptmann

and Moscheles were appointed to posts there .

One evening I found Felix deep in the Bible . ” Listen, he said ; and then he read to me , in

a the gentle and agitated voice, the passage from

of n First Book Kings, begi ning with the words, d An . behold, the Lord passed by Would n ot that be splendid for an oratorio he — e xclaimed and it did become part of the ” Elij ah. In the midst of the manifold occupations and t s ocial meetings in which he gladly took par , and w hich he graced by his talent and brilliant con

v s er ation, there would come days of exhaustion, vi s m e ven of depression. At such times, sit fro

s f w e hi friends, oremost among hom w re David

hl . a nd Dr. Sc einitz, would always do him good Sometimes he would amuse himself with doing — little water- colour sketches or he would read

’ of s ome poem Goethe s , such as Hermann and ” fi Dorothea or Iphigenie . The rst of these he ul was especially fond of, and he wo d go into

raptures over the deep feeling which penetrates l t he most insignificant things in that wonderfu

, w ork . He said one day that the line

heker den Knas ter Und e s lobte darau f der Apot , 1840. LE IP SI C,

’ was enough to bring tears into one s eyes . He and would also get out Jean Paul sometimes, revel in his humour ; one evening he read aloud

’ to me out of Siebenkas for at least an hour.

But sleep was always his best resource . Several times I found him lying on the sofa before dinner,

r ready dressed, having been asleep for hours, afte which he would awake with a capital appetite. A quarter of an hour after he would say with

e the air of a spoiled child, I am still quit i n t red would lie down again, sayi g how deli n cio s it was, stretch himself out, and in a few

can minutes be fast asleep again . He go on ” two e m e in that way for days, C cile said to , “ ” and then he is fresher than ever . Nature — supplied him with the best cure but unhappily it could not remain so always . For his birthday we arranged a joke with

fi a which he was immensely delighted . The rst ide of it arose from the fact that his wife and her sister and myself were of the same nation, the free town of Frankfort being our common native

e place . I wrote a little piece, or rather a coupl

s the of scenes, in Frankfort dialect, giving my elf ” part of the now typical Hampelmann. Ma

Ham e m a th e am e the t i a a a p l nn is n of yp c l Fr nkfort burgher, favouri te chara cter in farce s .

1 840 LE IP SI C, .

When our life had become a little quieter so that we often spent the evenings at home, Mendelssohn proposed that we should improvise

We on given poems . read and played in turns,

f a each declaiming for the other, and ound it most amusing and exciting pastime. Heaven nl ll o y knows how many poems of Schi er, Goethe, and Uhland had to serve us for musical illus

ns Af vis tratio . ter one of my impro ations Men

’ delssohn c said to me, I an t imagine how you can ever for a moment feel any doubt about. your musical gifts ; and these words often afterwards in sad moments rang with consolation in my ears . During my subsequent stay in Dresden I had the opportunity of continuing these improvisations with my friend Edward

Devrient m , who perhaps declai ed better than l his anyone else, certainly more musical y. In t way we were able to give great pleasure, and f as an amusing social diversion, I have o ten, even up to the present time, carried on this

ri game with some f end or other, and it always

' fir recalls the happy times in which we st began it.

" We had many serious conversations together that winter, and I very much regret that I did ’ s not note down ome of my friend s sayings . But when one is living in affluence one does not r eadily think of putting by. A few things which E S RI O US CON VE RSATI ON S .

I happen to remember may find room here . After the performance of a most prosaic symphony, which met with a very cold reception , he said

l the to me , We have successfu ly conquered i Phil stines now, but it remains to be seen whe ther our Art will not be still more threatened from the opposite side . Once when I was speak ing of the happiness that lay in the conv iction of so many people whom one highly esteemed dl being kin y disposed towards one, he grew very excited upon the subject, and said, It is cer t ainly the best thing that one has . When I am fi t thoroughly dissatis ed with myself, I hink of such and such a person who has shown himself l ‘ ’ a friend to me, and say to myse f, You can t in be such a bad way, after all, if such men are fond of you . One day, speaking of his adherents and his opponents, he said that he could perfectly understand that certain musicians who took u p the very strict line considered him t half a deser er, because many of those of his compositions which met with most favour must appear to them frivolous compared to former

ones, and therefore they might say he had for saken his better style .

With his earnest character, it was especially disagreeable to him when people treated serious . m things with exaggeration . I had a visit fro I 1 840. LE IPS C,

a Belgian author this morning, he told me , “ a few hours later ; the man really has an astounding flow of talk, and said several good

and things . But when he was gone , I began to think it over, I found that it might have been expressed much better in the very simplest way therefore why use such big words ? why want to appear so deep It is this simplicity, always fi m exempli ed in his works, which makes the appear shallow to those people who take bom bastic nonsense for depth . There is no shallow d ’ ness to be found in Men elssohn s works, but rather in those which are too shallow to contain the beauty of simplicity . n Once at dinner, when we were talki g about ’ be ad Beaumarchais comedies , which greatly m e ired, he said, One really ought to hav Beaumarchais ; so I got it for him and wrote inside it, One really ought to have Beau ’ marchais (Me ndelssohn s table

One peculiarity of his, which I have already

his alluded to, was way of suddenly jumping to something very comic or very serious in the midst of a quiet conversation . One afternoon when we were lounging about in the prome nades, he turned upon me all at once with the question ! Do you believe in the progress of h ? ” umanity How, in what way do you

HAR 1840. C LE IPSI C, [

into the water, and let it swim away as it liked.

With all his love for his old teacher, the remem brance of the following fact always made him ’ angry. Some years before Felix s birth, his ’ of Zelter s father, who was a friend , gave the ’ latter a great quantity of Bach s Cantatas in the original manuscripts and when Felix became his him pupil, Zelter used sometimes to take to the

closet where these treasures were stored up, and i show them to him, say ng, There they are ; just think of all that is hidden there I But poor li Fe x, though he thirsted for these costly trea

s r l u es, was never once al owed to look inside

m . ul the , and taste them They wo d certainly have been better cared for in Mendelssohn’s ’ Zelter s hands than in . Mendelssohn was very fond of repeating a funny expression or word over and over again

till it became a joke. As in former years he had amused himself with calling me Old ” hi w n for Drama, so now during t s i ter, a long

al dr s time he ways ad e sed me with the words, il l ” Ha , Zedekiah out of one of my choruses

a in the Destruction of Jerus lem. Or else it would be a passage out of some pianoforte piece

which he liked, and which he would always be

bringing up again, and playing to me when it f was furthest rom my thoughts . M E AR A E I OR CH CT R STI CS .

I als o have pleasant recollections of the al t w ks which we of en took with David, on clear, c old days, far out into the Rosenthal . We

cafes and used to stop at one of the there,

ul as Mendelssohn wo d indulge in his latest, but

I believe, very passing, passion for billiards . Whether he was as clever at that as at every hi t ng else I could not judge, for though I lived m w any years in the land of billiards, I kne hi not ng of the game . It may seem strange that I should not have m n entioned Schumann, especially as Mendelssoh t hl hought so hig y of him, but at that time he li in m ved greater retire ent than usual, and

hardly ever left his room . His newspaper, his

s ongs , but above all his approaching marriage with C lara Wieck, completely occupied him ; his bride, alr did eady celebrated, not often come to Leipsic t n that winter, but a few years af erwards at Dresde I enjoyed a great deal of pleasant and intimate intercour se with the famous pair. Everyone knows how happy Mendelssohn was

u b at home . His beautif l , gentle, sensi le wife l spread a charm over the who e household, and reminded one of a Rafael Madonna . Little Carl , il u s fi t the eldest ch d, amused intensely with his rs e ’ attempts at speaking. C cile s family, charming e people, were in and out all day, and the whol N 2 em a LE IPSI C, 1840. [ atmosphere was a sort of rivalry of am iability

ff - it of a and a ection, was a period h ppiness which falls to the share of but few mortals We

e us laughed much when C cile told how, as she c out she ame of a concert at the Gewandhaus, had heard two women talking about her and pitying her because her husband was so cruel, ” i to ! nhuman, and barbarous her

All r occu this time, though I was ve y much

f rw pied with my work, and looking o ard with

fi of anxiety to the rst performance the oratorio, I could feel and enjoy to the utmost the hap ’ piness which Mendelssohn s affection and esteem

And s imparted to me . at last, when my labour were crowned by an entirely unbiassed success, the concluding days of my stay in Leipsic became

if 2nd of some of the happiest in my l e . On the

A 1 840 was pril, , the Destruction of Jerusalem performed for the first time at a concert given dh the fi at the Gewan aus for bene t of the poor. The chorus and orchestra were capital ; Frau Livia l Frege, whose ovely and expressive singing can never be forgotten by any who had the good a a S hl fortune to he r her, Fr ulein Sophie c oss, with fine her sympathetic voice, the clever tenor, d Schmidt, and a very cultivate amateur baritone, u sol s ndertook the e . The audience was enthu s iastic , and next morning my excellent publisher,

CHAPTER VII .

R N K R E RLIN LE IP I — 1 F A FO T, B , S C WINTE R OF 842 .

MY chief authority for this period is my j ournal, which , though short enough, I kept very n fi regularly . Havi g spent the rst winter after mv marriage in Rome , I returned to Frankfort with m i 1 842 y young w fe in the summer of , and was i dl most k n y welcomed by my numerous friends, amongst whom I may reckon those connected with Mendelssohn by his wife . Felix came to mi Frankfort with his fa ly in September, and

v stayed a fortnight . My wife had culti ated her beautiful soprano voice with great care in Italy, and for some months was very successful on the stage . Mendelssohn took the greatest interest t in her musical gifts, and his short visit tha autumn was like a musical spring to us . He

da generally spent half the y at our house, and we used to meet him and his wife at parties n early every evening. I had filled a thick blue m s - r nd u ic book with music of all so ts, German a ’ MULLE R S PORTRAI T.

i e Ital an psalms, airs and romanc s, which I had

of composed for my wife, and all these Men

dels sohn s a insi ted on he ring ; in fact, he never

came to see us without as king for the blue book. ar ull C l M er, a clever painter, whose acquaintance

we had made in Rome, happening to be in k Fran fort just at this time , promised to do us a pencil sketch of Mendelssohn if we could only t ’ get him to sit. A my wife s request he con ’ i s f sented to put h m el into the painter s hands, on condition that she would sing to him during

the time . Sixteen songs of various lengths com

leted his p the sitting, and this sketch, with

of 1 5th S autograph and the date the eptember, * 1 842 is of . , one our greatest treasures A few days before his departure he wrote in ’ i a m l my w fe s lbu a setting of the Vo kslied,

rind at e s Ke e E s weiss r h doch in r,

ie mir ist W so wohl , so wohl and painted underneath it a miniature map of

Germany, to impress her new country on her dr ir mind . Next to the map he ew a pa of

l as e yel ow kid gloves, a sign of his end avour to Af his r attain the height of elegance . ter retu n to Leipsic he continued his gallant behaviour by

e e th V See the Frontispi c of is olume . AN R 1842 . FR KFO T,

writing her an Italian letter, which I shall give

in its proper place . At that time he chiefly played to me the ” choruses from his Antigone . He delighted to recall the energetic way in which he had fi pushed forward and xed the performance, in ’ opposition to Tieck s hesitation and doubt ; and as usual in such cases gave me amusing and graphic accounts of his little devices for getting round the famous old poet ; he seemed to enjoy all this almost more than the beautiful work

itself, which had taken him only just over a fort

night to compose . He had completed his great 1 A minor symphony in the course of the

- summer, and was at work on a four hand

arrangement of it for the pianoforte, which he fi made haste to nish on my account . During his stay we had invited our Frankfort acquaint ances for the first time to a musical Matinee ; Felix completed the arrangement the evening

before , and we began our music with this glorious

work . As usual Mendelssohn’s time was always entirely taken up in some way or other with l music . Charles Hal e, who has since gained such

a high artistic position in England, came to

” “ i“ Th Th e t a e Scotch Sym phony . Au ogr ph score is dated 20th — d a a E . J nu ry,

RAN R 1842 . F KFO T,

also is possible . As an accompaniment to con

re ational the g g singing, or for strengthening harmony in oratorio choruses, the organ is indis in l u . stru pensable, sub ime, nique But as a solo ment I can only enjoy it when the greatest care is taken both in the choice and performance of such pieces as lie completely within its pro

r vince . To make use of the organ for secula music is to misuse it ; but many even of the great works written expressly for it , though ff suitable in feeling, are not e ective in a church . The organ is a queen who should only show r herself when su rounded by her choicest state . Mendelssohn was immensely excited whenever he played the organ, and indeed, even for musical o it rganisations less highly developed than his, must be most intoxicating to revel in that ocean f t n of sound. Still, there is a gul be ween maki g music and listening to it. He also accompanied us to the opera a few

m a a times , and I y here rec ll a gay remark of his as we were listening to a performance of the ” fi in Favorita for the rst time . In the open g n scene, if I am not mistake , there is a chorus of monks, which begins with an ascending scale, accompanied by the orchestra in rather an old fashioned style . Now they will sing the d s w as e cending scale, said Felix ; and he right. i m E T THE T A SAN DHOF.

The young singers of Frankfort were deter mined again to do honour to the famous composer, ” éte S i and a great f was given at the andhof, w th t part songs, tableaux vivan s, toasts, speeches, and w . as the like It very pretty, though it had none of the poetry of the one which Mendelssohn so charmingly describes in a letter to his mother,

3 rd July, I was in Italy at that time, and was only represented by some of my songs n which were sung. But I can ot resist going

ar n back a few ye s, and quoti g a letter from di éte one of the la es who helped to arrange the f , because it gives such a vivid picture of the chief figure t off f l was Every hing went beauti ul y, and it just as if God had given His blessing to the hn whole affair. Mendelsso seems not to have fi been able to wait till the time xed, for he and his lovely young w ife arrived much too early. But he adapted himself to the situation w ith a the greatest good humour, and w tched the pre

fin i . parations for his reception with in ite del ght I have never seen such a perfectly happy being his ar u n as he w as when he heard qu tets s g for e the first tim e in the wood. His whole fac l

, beamed, his eyes literally sparkled with pleasure

ante a e 73 . See al so , p g AN R 1 842 . FR KFO T,

.a nd he was so excited that he actually danced

about on one leg, calling out after each song, I Again, again, please , once more We had to ’ ’ do the Lark s Song three times running with , ” all the repeats . It was in consequence of this f ete that he — dedicated the first bo ok of his Part songs for

ices r . S the Open Air to Dr p and Her Martin, two very musical gentlemen who had greatly

helped in the preparation of the party . ‘ 1 42 2 h But to return to 8 . On the 5t Men

delssohn went to Leipsic , and then to Berlin. It was only twenty years afterwards that I learned from the published collection of some of his letters in 1 863 what a truly friendly action

he had done for me during that very time . Amongst these letters I discovered one to Sim in rock, the publisher Bonn, in favour of some one whom the editors of the letters discreetly C ” There designate as ! . was no doubt about my being this unknown quantity ; and hav ing

revealed the secret, I cannot resist reprinting the

letter again, for it displays such a wonderful amount

-of m tender consideration and loving sy pathy . It

2 1st ! is dated Frankfort, the September

— E R MR SIMRooK - . I D A , write to you to day about a matter in which I must count on your

AN R 1842 . FR KFO T,

eff orts, provided they are noble and the cause a An d i hi good one. certa nly t s is true in the ff very highest degree, both of his e orts and his

c ause . That is why I wanted to beg you to

s all publi h some of his compositions, and above , if possible, to enter into some sort of agreement

with him. I know perfectly well that the Germ an publishers have not done any very brilliant business (as it is called) with most of

as his works yet, and I cannot ensure its being different now ; but that this deserves to be

o w and therwise I feel no doubt hatever, this is

my reason, and my only reason, for making you

this request . Were it not so, however great a mi ul ask . friend he ght be of mine, I wo d not it h But just because the only consideration whic . o ught reas onably to be entertained is that of

intrinsic worth, and because it is the only one which ought to insure success if everything were

r i ca ried on fairly in th s world, and because it is too annoying to hear the old story repeated for e ver of the deserving and clever artists who at first have the greatest difficulty in getting their m usic brought out and made known, and after wards are made a fuss about by everybody when o ne of their works happens to make a hit and — gains the ear of the public though, after all, neither the pleasure nor the fuss can make up vrr. LE A A ] P DIN G FOR BROTHE R ARTIST. 191

for their former troubles—just because of all this iff I want you to act d erently, and to believe a more in re l work than in chance success . It

must be put a stop to some day, and the only

question in such cases is how soon, and after how many disagreeables ; and that is just the point where a publisher may be of so much

al Un v ue and importance to an artist. iversal

s r all f applau e b ings them to the ront, of course but I feel that you would be just the man to

a in reform this st te of th gs, and bring about one

ul which sho d be at once ideal, practical, and

just . Pray forgive my boldness, and if possible

fulfil my request . As far as I understand, a large remuneration is of no consequence but it is of the greatest importance that you should write

r k in a friendly and a tistic tone, that the wor s w l ff nd fi should be published and e l di used, a nally, if you are willing and able to carry out the

matter, that my share in it, my name, and my

com letel secret. request, be kept p y How happy it would make me if I were shortly to hear from

and d him that you had written, made him a kin offer to publis h some of his new songs and

e all wi pianoforte pieces ! Aft r , perhaps you ll only say What does this idle composer and ” still more idle correspondent mean i But I cer as tainly have improved in my correspondence, ANK 1842 . FR FORT,

you may see from this, and in the other matter

” ll s a I mean to improve very shortly, and sha a s il

- fi you with music paper (as soon as it is well lled), dwn and beg you, in my name, what I have

for ri begged so earnestly and fervently my f end.

A u lways yours faithf lly,

FE e E N E L HN R H L M D SSO BA T O DY.

The following extract from a subsequent letter of his from Berlin to Simrock also deserves a place here

was r If ever I ag eeably surprised by a letter,

I was so by yours which I received here yesterday.

fi of w The kind and quick ful lment my ish, and the large sum which you sent me for my Songs — I to without Words really, do not know how thank you enough, or express the great pleasure you have given me ; I must confess I had hardly expected so hearty and complete a response as

u m yo r immediate reply to y letter, and am now doubly glad that I took a step from which, even as I wrote, I was very nearly withheld by false s al - m hame, and by that fat worldly wise axim ’ about not meddling with other people s affairs . fi I feel that your conduct, as exempli ed in your ’ fi af yesterday s letter, only con rms me resh in

E LIN 1 842 . CHAR B R , [

Fahrthor were already centuries since I left the , and as if Berlin were a thousand miles from ’ Frankfort . There s nothing worse than travelling

north in the autumn ; for the yellow leaves, and

and the bare trees, and cold blasts, hot stoves, seem to come upon one quicker and quicker till

i s ri one ght in the midst of them, and then one

r sees the cou t carriages all out, and eats sour

of grapes and bad nuts, and wastes a deal “ in breath in grumbl g over them, and at the same time bores oneself and everybody else but

alr l n Oh dear, I am eady fa li g back into the old Berlin strain ! But why is everyt hing better in ? the south The people , the fruit, the weather, ? ’ the country, and everything Your wife won t ’ so— hear of its being but that doesn t alter it. At Leipsic I was told that there had been a ’ musical morning- soiree at Ferdinand Hiller s last

i Herwe h Sunday, w th g and other notabilities .

did m e And then, as I said before, it seem to no end of a time since I left the Roth though it was only three hours before the said morning- soiree ; but I was already at Langensebold whilst the Rothm annche was

fine re sounding with good music .

This is really a business letter, though you

The am e the e we t e e at n of hous h n liv d in Frankfort . E E LI SS N CE OF PHI STIN ISM.

’

S. s may not think so . I was at yesterday a es il bout your m sage. He says he w l have your s ra t song eng ved, and hen, when he gets your answer he will be able to publish them in six s hi weeks, with a German tran lation, w ch we both thought desirable ; if you are satisfied with the

r n fix whole a ra gement, he begs that you will the day of publication for him and for Ricordi. He made difficulties about engraving the Cello

us Sonata, because he has j t now got to engrave ’ of the whole Halevy s Queen of Cyprus, besides all r rr of so ts of arrangements and potpou is it, and could not publish any large work at the m wi l r same ti e ; however, if you like , he l w ite to di f Ricor , and order a hundred copies rom , ’ him him S s , and get to put the name of his ( )

firm i - wil on the t tle page, and then he l see that

ul it gets known in Germany. I co d not exactly make out what particular advantage this would

to as ns s be you, but he i isted, I was at la t

ul w obliged to promise that I wo d rite to you,

a and so I do it . If I h ve done wrong, send me ” - Hattis cherif . your , but without the bow string

S is nl . . the o y publisher here (Z is the essence li i t of Berlin Phi st nism bo tled, and sprinkled

s - s over a mu ic shop), so he doe what he likes, and you have to cringe if you want to get e anything published in Berlin . The day befor 0 2 E LIN 1842 . B R ,

’ yesterday they gave Rossini s William Tell as a new o era fi p , for the rst time , to celebrate the

i &c. grand wedd ng, (what should I know about ? it ) They cut it down to three acts, and announced it as arranged by the composer for ” the stage in Paris . Since then it has been the

all i talk over Berl n every day, whether or not ’ it is Rossini s true vocation to be a composer that is to say, whether he has been able to rise

dr to the level of amatic music, and possesses the it— inspiration for whether, in fact, it was justi ’ fiable l to choose such a subject, Schil er s tragedy being certainly a far more perfect work of art — & . c 850. than this opera whether meanwhile, , (Oh dear ! how good the dinners at the Main lust are Certainly the Philistinism of all the rest of Germany put together is nothing com pared to this spiritu a Miche this immortal “ Nicolaifi who blooms and blossoms in all dis e ussions on art, and peeps out of every Berlin form of speech . But now I am tired of this dry i tone, and must talk to your w fe in Italian .

’ — - ILLUSTRISSIMA SIGN ORA l S io avessi v01uto aspettare la esecuzione della sua promessa, voglio

“ ” “ ” M e th e Ge m a B e ich l is r n John ull . Nicolai was render d ” mm ta a Ita e m i or l by work on ly, sol ly re arkable for the wholesale way i h e a r — in wh ch e abus s th t count y E d .

LE IPSI C .

E IP I 1 9th J anuar 1 843 . L S C, y,

E IN N MY DE AR G OOD F RD A D . When your letter of the l 6th of November arrived (it was the best and nicest that I have ever had from

ri you, a d not one has ever given me so much e pleasure, or touched me much more), I d ter

at mined once to write to you the next day, and at the same time to thank your wife for her affectionate lines . I put it off a few days and now what a terrible gulf there is between that time and this I have to thank you for a second letter since then, another proof of your true friendship and kindness to me .

- n Till now I could not think of letter writi g, or I should have thanked you at once, and have already done so many times in my fi heart . But at rst I could do nothing, at most read a few pages or so, and it was only some weeks afterwards, when I could occupy myself with any routine musical work, or with n writi g music , that I began to feel a little better — but letters were not to be thought of, and the least conversation with my most intimate friends

l u would bring back the dul , conf sed feeling in my head, a sort of stunned sensation , together with the sorrow. I have had to conquer it these

3“ e had t m t e th e 12th e m H los his o h r on of D ce ber. E D SF ONDE N CY.

last three days, the mass of business letters had accumulated to such an enormous degree ; and having once begun writing I felt that I must at least send you a few words of greeting and ’ - You thanks ; it won t be much more to day . know my feelings towards you and yours and the deep interest I take in your welfare let me hear

of ft it soon and o en, for it always cheers me

and gives me pleasure . Thank God, my wife and l children are we l, and I really ought never t o do anything but thank Heaven on my knees

for m such happiness . Wh en I am alone with the i m i l draw ng wind lls for the chi dren, putting the

o V boes and iolas into the score, or correcting tire

s — ome proof sheets, I sometimes feel quite cheerful and happy again ; but when I begin to think of

o h ther t ings, or have to see people, and look after the rehearsals or concerts which I have to go on

c u dir ar as ond cting ectly afterw ds, it is as bad

e . ver So I am not at home for anybody all day,

e hr sit in xcept between t ee and four, and my

little study, which I have now arranged, and where I am most comfortable ; it is the old

nur r i ll o se y, wh ch you wi remember, just opp site

m e a the front door, with a beautiful view over

um n dows and fields towards the sunset . Sch an and David we see sometimes , A . hardly ever, for he really only lives and breathes for the S d. ubscription Concerts , and I am very little goo t — here just now and so the days slip on. May yours be all the brighter and happier ! I hear ' of a your giving great Charity Concerts, and lso

r f m that you new work is soon to be per or ed. I ill fir hope you w tell me about it, and con m the good news .

ls You ask for detai of my present position .

The King of Prussia has allowed me to return.

‘ ill s here, and stay t he want me in Berlin ; in

e that case I have promised to go back . I hav since written to him , that until I am personally established in Berlin I wish to give up half my ill in salary, and meantime w carry out all his str uctions here . Thereupon he wrote to me here that he was satisfied with this ; he has also given me a new title, but otherwise there has been no change of any importance. In a word I am only awaiting here what I was at first to have awaited

ul di in Berlin, namely, that I sho d be in spensably il w ll needed there. I st l doubt whether that i e s and ver be the ca e, hope (more than ever now, as you may imagine) that the King of Prussia n will allow the present state of thi gs to continue .

What made me specially cling to Berlin, what in fact produced that consultation, or rather com x bination, no longer e ists now.

n s The i terest of that beque t, which I peti

1 4 LE IP SI C, 8 3 .

a and u f i h bout your Opera, yo r own satis action W t

ou f s it, and its conclusion ; y eel thi now that il ul nl your work is done, wh st others wo d o y feel

r f n it on the day of perfo mance, a ter receivi g

and laurel wreaths poems, and such like ; but really the satisfaction can only be true and genuine ’ when one s work is finished. I am quite delighted

with all that you say about it, and I have no doubt whatever that a work written in such a

s ri f of ul pi t, and rom the depths your so , cannot f ail to make an impression on your countrymen.

not e But it will only me t with success, it will deserve it— which in these days is saying

ten thousand times more . How I look forward ’ to it ! Pray don t dream of letting the first per

form ance in n ul be anywhere but Fra kfort ; it .wo d

be the greatest mistake . You know how much ’ importance I attach to one s native country ; in your present circumstances I attach it also to

wn of your native to ; they are fond you there,

they know all about you, and have to make amends for former slights in their behaviour towards you ; and little as I should like to enforce this for the sake of making a bad thing pas s for

good, so much the more would I do it to ensure

s i . a ll r uccess for a good th ng Besides, the theat es

do in Germany are at present in a bad state, so m ot let yourself be deterred by any defect in your Frankfort theatre ; rather try and im prove all l it, and the others as wel by degrees . ’ s ? How can you wonder at N . success They put all that into the newspapers themselves ; ’ a nd you who read them don t know what to n l m thi k of it all, whi st I, meanti e , am much

off u S e tem better , for I have become s ch a p briseu r agains t all newspapers that I believe n n n othi g, absolutely nothi g, except what I see w - ith my eyes on the music paper, or hear with

my ears . Unfortunately it is somewhat the same thing with Wagner ; I am afraid that a great deal becomes exaggerated in that quarter ; and just those musicians whom I know to be con

scientiou s . people, increase my fear not a little Still I have not yet heard any connected things o ut of his operas, and I always think that they

“ must be better than people say . Talent he has nl most certai y, and I was delighted that he got that place, though even that made him enemies

few e nough in the course of those weeks, as I will tell you when we meet and go for a walk t ogether at sunset . Your question about your oratorio at Berlin you must explain to me more clearly ; what do you mean by being able to give a perfo ance ? ” Do you want to give a concert on

ur p pose, or do you merely want to give it a CH LE IP SI C . [ A R

? hearing at the Sing- Akademie or elsewhere The subscription concerts here begin on the l st of October ; there is no regular musical season in Berlin before the middle of September ;

ou end so that if you come, as y say, towards the of August and spend a few quiet weeks with u s in the , here or Dresden, it would then be regular concert season . Now do carry this out, and fulfil these fine plans and premises as soon as the summer comes on . You remind me to take a good singing m if aster for our Music School . Please tell me there is one to be found in all Germany. Mean time I have had hard work to stop them from altogether doing away with the teaching of sing ing, which is almost more necessary than any hi — thing else. T rty four pupils have sent in their

the names, and the school is to be Opened in m dl . S n id e of April chuma n will teach the piano,

s o and shall I . h Next Thursday, as I hear, is the hundredt anniversary of the foundation of the Leipsrc Sub

e scription Concerts, and the orchestra is to hav

is a supper. My symphony out, and to be had since yesterday ; Guhr did not say anything fi to de nite about it, or I should have sent it him sooner. I hunted out that Scena for Mdlle.

S fi new chloss, for her Bene t Concert, wrote a

1843 . LE IPSI C,

And when you declare that you have a real of i ou liking for any musical sphere act on, y meet with a hearty respons e from me and from all your friends and all musicians ; and your insane misgivings about the doubtfulness of your compositions I shall again put down to

u the account of ungovernable f ry, and not com

d s plain of that either, as it lea s your thought An d to so desirable a result . yet, to be candid, I do complain of it after all ; and only hope that when you get these lines everything will

- ur look brighter and more rose colo ed. i s I can write but l ttle about my elf, or any If thing else, just now. the dear God will only — grant me and all of us a happy Spring then thi every ng will go well again, even letter ’

. can now but writing There s little I say or do , hi n nl always keep on t nki g. If o y the dear God

ri would grant us a happy Sp ng. And because I ’ n s don t want to go on repeati g thi in a letter, I will to- day only make has te and answer your questions . Do you mean that for a joke, what you say about the Director- general of the sacred ? nl wi music or does it o y sound so, thout your ? ’ intending it You must know that I don t get the least thing for it but the title on paper, and nobody knows whether I shall ever .get anything more . I neither have the right nor the wish E I B RLIN JE NE SAIS QUO .

' n f . ou or to i ter ere in anything that goes ,

on s . does not go , in the way of mu ic in Berlin This much only do I know from all my expe riences find fi , that you would it very dif cult to — give the oratorio in a concert of your own it is

diffi to v l s in cult make the . ci i ities requi ite for ducing

to n for the chorus si g, the money getting the

—of f orchestra to play, and the unheard per ection which is necessary to make the public really ’ interested ; therefore it s better that the Sing A m t kade ie should give it at their concer s, and A ul . you sho d conduct nyhow, you ought soon to comm unicate with Rungenhagen about it ; I would gladly save you the trouble and bother n wi of a corresponde ce th that Society, if, on the

’ of one hand, I were not already utterly weary

on did them, and the other not know that my recommendation would more likely produce the

f if all t opposite ef ect, any at ; because every hing

is in r there done a sort of haphaza d way, and din lin e ne sais u ot accor g to that strange Ber j q ,

r by which nobody knows , nobody cares, but eve y

f . body rules, rom the King down to the meanest

porter and the pensioned drummer . As far as

‘ f s r . one can reas onably ore ee, a letter f om you to Rungenhagen would be the best thing at pre sent ; especially if you can therein refer to your HA 43 . C R LE IPSI C, 1 8 [

c w Rellstab onversation ith , and say something about his having advised you , and so on .

But, as I have already said, business being chiefly carried on in an unreasonable way there, a different plan may perhaps be just as good for instance , if you happened to know one of

and d the managers, coul entrust the matter to im ’ h . If all this doesn t suit you, and you want me to write to him, then I shall have to do that

t ea too, and every hing else that I can, to pl se you ; but , as I said before, I think I could then a - nswer for a failure, and their unbusiness like and — u nartist like style of procedure is almost more than I can stand . Forgive this philippic. I suppose I shall be in the right, whatever the n n ewspapers say, good or bad I am worki g at the music for the Midsummer Night ’s ” ’

&c. Dream, with chorus , entr actes, , and when I have done that I shall also finish the choruses “ for CEdi u s . t p , which I have begun I know nex ” to nothing about the Tempest, so only a third of those reports , if even that, has any foundation . You want me to write about Berlioz 7 A s ubject like that is far too vast and full of detail ?

- besides even as to his success or non success, n his givi g pleasure or not, there are so many

di f . f erent opinions In the autumn, when you c it ou ome here, I will tell you about ; now if y

CHAPTER VIII .

— 1 43 LE IPSIC AND BE RLIN AUTUMN OF 8 .

SIN CE the accession of King Frederic William

to IV . , who wanted to transplant Mendelssohn the his capital, latter had often wavered between

w to living at Berlin or at Leipsic. He was dra n i in Berl n by his promise, and to Leipsic by his

clinations . 1 843 was However, at the end of it decided that the whole family should move to Berlin ; and under these circumstances I received at Frankfort the flattering proposal that I should undertake the direction of the Gewandhaus ’ e u Concerts during Mend lssohn s absence . Tho gh s eeing very clearly that a temporary situation of t ffi hat sort would have its di culties, and how hazardous it would be to follow immediately after, or rather act as substitute for , a conductor who was worshipped to the degree that Mendels s ohn was, I still thought I could not refuse ; for m since my arriage, I had been longing for some r r m egular, a tistic occupation, such as y friend ILLE ’ AT THE E H R G WANDHA US . had long wished me to have, and a more inte resting one than that now offered me at Leipsic d could har ly be imagined. So I crossed the Rubicon and the Fulda with

a and on the 2 3 rd a in light heart, , rrived Leipsic,

few f il f was where a hours a terwards, wh st my wi e

in f u of rest g from the atig es the journey, I was present with Mendelssohn and other friends at a ” ’ of i ur n S . performance Samson, t Thomas s Ch ch,

the di f ul under rection o Hauptmann . The pec iar situation in which Felix and I stood towards

é'ne each other caused a slight g that evening, but

next day it entirely disappeared. He and David came to see me early in the m orning ; in the evening he accompanied us to a performance at

us ds the theatre, supped with afterwar in the h r hotel, and was in suc exuberant spi its, so gay f and genial and communicative, that I elt how anxious he was to put everything on a smooth

He confessed to Cecile and David that at the first meeting he had felt rather a pang at seeing the person who was to fill the place he so loved i and gave up so u nwillingly . But how l ttle this

disturbed his confidence in me he proved, by repeatedly telling me that it would not be im possible under certain conditions to fulfil the l promises he had made to the King, and stil r 2 P 1 43 . LE I SI C, 8

retain his accustomed sphere of work at Leipsic. He even initiated me so far into the secret as to d tell me the particulars of the con itions, and to beg for my candid opinion on the subject. I could only advise him to agree to them. He also gladly volunteered to play in the first concert which I conducted, and which took place on the l st of October. He played his G minor l Concerto, which David al owed me to conduct, although it was his duty to conduct all solos with orchestral accompaniment. It was the first time

I heard the Concerto with orchestra, though I had known it in Paris . It made a most favourable impression on the public that he should thus ini ’ tiate my first appearance at the conductor s desk by taking a part in the concert, and it was b thought to do honour to oth of us.

A off few days afterwards he went to Berlin, fi without his family, to conduct the rst per ’ ” ce form an of the Midsummer Night s Dream. I followed on the 1 1th with David and the

- r clever good natu ed Niels Gade, who had just

fir come to Leipsic for the st time . The young prodigy Joachim also could not resist the tempta tion of going to hear this latest work of Men ’ 1 4th delssohn s . On the it was given for the

New first time in the Palace . Mendelssohn joined us at dinner at the Einsiedler in

4 CH LE IPSI C, 1 8 3 . [ A R

“ pause introduced, but it was made use of to offer all kinds of refreshments to the people in n the front rows belongi g to the Court, so that a full half- hour was taken up with loud talking and moving about, whilst the rest of the audience, who were quite as much invited, though perhaps only tolerated, were sitting in discomfort, and

u had to beg ile the time as best they could . This

W - disregard of artistic considerations, as ell as

e he common civility, so enraged Mend lssohn that hardly took any notice of all the fine things that we had to say to him.

A few t days af er I had returned to Leipsic, l Felix also came back there . Musical ife was in

f ! r full low Gade gave us a new symphony, Schu mann brought out his Paradise and the Peri fi for the rst time, Mendelssohn played at a chamber

’ concert, and we performed Bach s Triple Concerto fi once more, Clara Schumann taking the rst part ’ in it . Mendelssohn s relations with that great artist had always been based on the most chival

u ff ro s a ection, and I well remember a charming l little incident il ustrative of this, which occurred at a ma tinée at the house of our dear friend n m Be de ann the painter. A large number of friends had been invited to hear Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann amongst them. He played Beethoven’s great F minor Sonata THE “ A A I NA A ALE PP SS O T FIN .

Appassionata at the end of the Andante he let t he fin al chord of the diminished seventh ring on

for a long time, as if he wanted to impress it very f orcibly on all present ; then he quietly got up,

a nd u n t rni g to Madame Schumann , said You ” must play the Finale . She strongly protested . Meanwhile all were awaiting the issue with the

u s h tmost tension, the chord of the dimini hed sevent hovering over our heads all the time like the

s word of Damocles . I think it was chiefly the

un f i nervous, com ortable feel ng of this unresolved discord which at last moved Madame Schumann ’ to yield to Mendelssohn s entreaties and give us h ni t e . Finale The end was worthy of the begin ng, a nd if the order had been reversed it would no fin doubt have been just as e . The King of Saxony was present at one of t he first of the Gewandhaus Concerts which I

r é c onducted . Mendelssohn ar anged a great soir e in the Gewandhaus Concert—room in honour of

e e her t he Grand Duchess H l ne, and also played to

o n the organ . He was busy just then with a four h and arrangement of the Midsummer Night’ s

tr him Dream music, and I used to y it over with

off a s he finished each part . He put his departure

fi . for Berlin as long as possible, evidently nding it very hard to separate himself from a circle

w hich had become so dear to him . In one of his very affectionate letters t o m e he once suddenly asked ! Do you really think ” ? As we could ever quarrel I think not . far as

was r ini ossible. I conce ned it seemed to me p But, w wful ith a sorro heart, I must here mention the

brouillc fact, that it did come to a between us,

f f susce arising rom social , and not rom personal, p i ili i t b t es. I think we were both in the wrong,

a and but no angry words p ssed between us, certam the matter would soon have been smoothed over if he had not gone to Berlin in the beginning of December . However, it put an end to our correspondence, even though Men ’ delssohn s feelings towards me remained unchanged ; m I heard this often enough, sooner or later, fro mutual friends, as well as from his wife. In fact,

I have just now, quite by chance, come across a letter which he wrote to his old friend Professor

l us 1 st Hi debrandt at D seldorf, on the of October, 1 847 fiv e hi , weeks before his death, and w ch I n ca not quote, because my doing so would be m e - istak n for the strongest self praise . But I look upon the cessation of my intercourse with t u in his n hat wonderf l man dur g last years, eve

al as though it was only an extern separation, one of the greatest losses which I have sustain ed in m a y agit ted life .

e co e a e . S e d , p g 66

BE RLIN .

dr widow, surrounded by her charming chil en, a nd could not help feeling deeply affected ; the ingenuous bantering prattle of the children, the e l graceful, gentle way in which C ci e tried to

c r . heck thei high spirits, nearly overcame me How much happiness was lost to him who had — been taken from u s how much happiness those w ho were left behind had been robbed of Again after some years I returned for a few d ays to my native town . I had heard very sad ’ a ccounts of the state of health of Mendelssohn s widow, who was then staying in Frankfort, and 2 5th I feared the worst . It was on the of Sep t 1 85 3 e ’ ember, , I went to the house of C cile s f - amily and rung the well known bell , which had s o often answered to my touch when I went prepared for happy times . In a few minutes ’ - in- J eanrenau d Mendelssohn s mother law Madame , burst out of her room and opened the door for ’ i e - - in . me . She was expect ng C cile s brother law

ou . Oh, it is y , dear Mr Hiller, she said in a gasping voice, with that frightful calm which “ often comes from despair I have just lost my d aughter 1” CONCLUSION .

THE mass of the public are in general not

ill- pleased when either great poets , or great

c f omposers , are somewhat badly . People pity

r en thei fate, but the misery which they have

d u w red invests them ith a certain interest . The o utward radiance which shone around Goethe

c him ertainly procured numerous Opponents, and the advantageous circumstances which surrounded Mendelssohn from his birth are by many still 3 1 1 “ looked on as blemishes . r ’ é a u Le g nie c est la faim, s id a R ssian

diplomatist to me one day. This absurd wit ticism meant nothing more than that a small amount of starvation is very wholesome diet for

. genius . But even that is false Talent may be

spurred on by it to the energy which is neces s ary for its development ; but genius works by difii the force of nature , and the material

cu lties with which it has to struggle are like CON CL USI ON . rocks in the bed of a mighty stream ; it dashes ,

. over them, making lovely waterfalls as it goes The struggle for the bare necessaries of life may be hard enough , but in itself it has no

- special merit . It is only the instinct of self pre servation which compels the mere labourer to work, and though the struggle may be more painful when the head is called into action

e instead of the hands, it is certainly not mor

r meritorious . A second kind of st uggle is that

n u against prejudice, against wa t of nderstanding,

u fine against jealo sy, or whatever all such things may be called ; but what champion of light can ? u More be spared this or less, everybody has to

fi and ght these battles, some sooner, some later, in the midst of this second struggle it is far harder to preserve the desire for creating, and

il fir the power of w ling, than it is to resist the st one. It is certainly very unfortunate, when, as

u often happens, both str ggles are combined. Whether the increased admiration which is paid to anyone who has made his way in the face of fi e . want, is perfectly justi ed, remains to be s en d Anyhow, it certainly depen s very much on the fi manner in which he ghts .

inde en Perhaps a stronger, because a more p dent, force of will is needed to produce great t Who hings out of wealth than out of poverty .

CON CL USI ON .

compelled to wait for the reward of his work in

order to pay his debts . Or is that preference

for misery the unexpressed feeling, which in fact

ought never to be expressed, that it is too much hin of a good t g when outward prosperity is. united to the happiness of possessing the poetic ? creative faculty Such a preference must surely

arise from error. The satisfaction of a man who forcibly conquers mean cares must surely be much greater than that of one who never felt

them. ‘v Be e M this as it may, the spectacle of thos

spiritual warriors, who[ like the heroes in Kaul r ’ “ bach s Battle of the lifted above

ri o the earth, and st ve for vict ry in the clouds, is at any rate more gratifying than that of those

fi a d who ght on the earth n raise clouds of dust. They themselves are works of art ; their bright a forms are beautiful, ap rt from the palm branches which wave before them and one ought

to feel the proudest pleasure that fate succeeds,

f a though but seldom, in bringing orw rd a

r thoroughly f ee man . Felix Mendelssohn was a bright being of this f nature . Gi ts of genius were in him united to

a the most c reful culture, tenderness of heart to

sharpness of understanding, playful facility in hi f everyt ng that he attempted, to power ul energy ‘ f for the highest tasks . A noble eeling of grati tude penetrated his pure heart at every good

hin hi . t g w ch fell to his lot This pious disposition, s s t piou in the be t sense of the word, was the secre of his constant readiness to give pleasure and to

show active sympathy. Were it conceivable that all his works shou ld

his perish, the remembrance of poetic nature would alone suffice to afford the Germ an public the great satisfaction of thinking that such a being in was born their midst, and bloomed and ripened

there . How gloriously the Greeks would have honoured and praised him as a chosen favourite of Apollo and the Muses ! For “ all the highest m ” things are free gifts fro the gods .

S S A E V S YST L P L E P ESS CHARLE DICKE N N D AN , CR A A AC R .