Books › Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1928 › scan 135
Scan 135
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1928
13 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. Printed page 99. See the scan on archive.org.
1at the Opéra was complete, although his quiet unpretentious style was not, and could not be, as much to the taste of the French as it was to that of the German and English public. Cherubini appears to have felt a special interest in Spohr's compositions, and the latter takes special pride in relating how the great Italian made him play a quartet of his three times over. Returned to Germany, Spohr settled at Dresden, where Weber was just then engaged in bringing out his 'Freischütz.' Spohr was no more able to appreciate the genius of Weber than that of Beethoven. It is curious that, without knowing of Weber's opera, he had had the intention of setting a libretto on the same story; but when he heard that Weber had treated the subject, he gave it up. During Spohr's stay at Dresden, Weber received an offer of the post of Hofkapellmeister to the Elector of Hesse-Cassel; but being unwilling to leave Dresden, he declined, at the same time strongly recommending Spohr, who soon after was offered the appointment for life under the most favourable conditions.
3APPOINTMENT AT CASSEL.—On New Year's Day, 1822, he entered on his duties at Cassel, where he remained for the rest of his life. He had no difficulty in gaining at once the respect and obedience of bands and singers, and soon succeeded in procuring a more than local reputation for their performances. Meanwhile he had finished his 'Jessonda,' which soon made the round of all the opera-houses in Germany, with great and well-deserved success. It must be regarded as the culminating point of Spohr's activity as a composer. At Leipzig and Berlin, where he himself conducted the first performances, it was received with an enthusiasm little inferior to that roused a few years before by the 'Freischütz.' In the winter of 1824 he passed some time in Berlin, and renewed and cemented the friendship with Felix Mendelssohn and the members of his family, which had been begun when they visited him at Cassel in 1822. In 1826 he conducted the Rhenish Festival at Düsseldorf, when his oratorio 'The Last Judgment' (Die letzten Dinge), previously given at Cassel (see Vol. III. p. 111), was performed. It pleased so much that it was repeated a few days later in aid of the Greek insurgents. His next large work was the opera 'Pietro von Abano,' which, however, like his next operas, 'Der Berggeist' and 'Der Alchymist,' had but a temporary success. In 1831 he finished his great Violin School, which has ever since its publication maintained the place of a standard work, and which contains, both in text and exercises, a vast amount of extremely interesting and useful material. At the same time, it cannot be denied that it reflects somewhat exclusively Spohr's peculiar style of playing and is therefore of especial value for the study of his own violin-compositions. It is also true that its elementary part is of less practical value from the fact that the author himself had never taught beginners, and so had no personal experience in that respect.
5The political disturbances of 1832 caused a prolonged interruption of the opera performances at Cassel. Spohr, incensed by the petty despotism of the Elector, proved himself at this time, and still more during the revolutionary period of 1848 and 1849, a strong Radical, incurring thereby his employer's displeasure, and causing him innumerable annoyances. However, he made good use of the interruption to his official duties by writing his symphony 'Die Weihe der Töne' (The Consecration of Sound, No. 4, op. 86), which was produced at Cassel in 1832. During the next year he composed the oratorio 'Des Heilands letzte Stunden' (Calvary), on a libretto which Rochlitz had offered to Mendelssohn, but which the latter, being then engaged on 'St. Paul,' had declined. Spohr's oratorio was first performed at Cassel on Good Friday, 1835. His first wife had died in 1834; in 1836 he married Marianne Pfeiffer, a pianist, who survived him, dying at Cassel, Jan. 4, 1892.
7ORATORIOS FOR ENGLAND.—In 1839 he paid his second visit to England, where meanwhile his music had attained great popularity. He had received an invitation to produce his 'Calvary'1 at the Norwich Festival, and in spite of the opposition offered to the work by some of the clergy on account of its libretto, his reception appears to have surpassed in enthusiasm anything he had before experienced. It was a real success, and Spohr for the rest of his life refers to it as the greatest of his triumphs. Soon after his return to Cassel he received from Professor Edward Taylor the libretto of another oratorio, 'The Fall of Babylon,' with a request that he would compose it for the Norwich Festival2 of 1842.
9In 1840 he conducted the Festival at Aix-la-Chapelle. Two years later he brought out at Cassel Wagner's 'Der fliegende Holländer.' That Spohr, who, in the case of Beethoven and Weber, exhibited such inability to appreciate novelty—and who at bottom was a conservative of conservatives in music—should have been the very first musician of eminence to interest himself in Wagner's talent is a curious fact not easily explained. To some extent his predilection for experiments in music—such as he showed in his 'Weihe der Töne,' his symphony for two orchestras, the 'Historic Symphony,' the 'Quartet-Concertante' and some other things—may account for it; while his long familiarity with the stage had doubtless sharpened his perception for dramatic effect, and thus enabled him to recognise Wagner's eminently
111 Previously given with an English translation by Edward Taylor at Hanover Square Rooms, London, by the VOCAL SOCIETY, under Taylor, Mar. 27, 1837.
122 For the circumstance of the Norwich Festival performances, see Annals of the Norfolk and Norwich Musical Festivals, by R. H. Legge and W. E. Hansell, 1896.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.