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Musical Courier 1902-08-27: Vol 45 Iss 1170, 1902
44 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE MUSICAL COURIER
3Berlin Branch Budget
5GERMAN HEADQUARTERS OF THE MUSICAL COURIER
6BERLIN, W., LINKSTRASSE 17,
7August 11, 1902.
9ONE of the composers for whom I have ever from childhood up to this very day felt the strongest personal predilection is Schubert. I consider him the one who was naturally most predestined for his vocation, for, with the possible exception of Mozart, he had the greatest fount and easiest and most lovely flow of musical inspiration, just as Bach was by nature best equipped for his art in a technical way, and it must have been as easy to him to write a fugue as it was to Schubert to produce one of his immortal songs.
11You will be at no loss, therefore, to understand why I grasped with avidity at the new piece of music literature, Richard Heuberger's "Franz Schubert," just published by the Harmonie Company, at Berlin, after my attention had been drawn to it through Dr. Carl Krebs' commentary upon the Vienna composer-critic's estimate of Schubert, which I herewith translate for you:
13In the collection of biographies of "Renowned Musicians" which Heinrich Reimann is editing the various numbers have proved of different value. By the side of superficial we also find superfluous ones, such as Neitzel's fulsome adulation of Saint-Saens and Prochazka's "Johann Strauss." Then there are gushing but sincerely meant and, after all, reliable ones, such as Bulthaupt's "Loewe," Kruse's "Lortzing" and Niggli's "Jensen." Furthermore, careful compendiums of earlier researches, such as Dr. Schmidt's "Haydn," Gehrman's "Weber," Frimmel's "Beethoven," and lastly works which have been built up from the fundament and furnish new material, such as Muenzer's "Marschner" and Heuberger's "Schubert."
15Since Kreissle von Hellborn's biography, which is inadequate in various ways, perhaps because it was the first one, and Grove's good article in the Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which is now also more than twenty years old, this is the first book on Schubert's life and labors worthy of remark.
17As far as the life of Schubert is concerned diligent searchers have collected for years all the material that could possibly be found. It does not amount to very much, but to draw from this paucity the conclusion that the time had not come yet for a Schubert biography, and that it would be better to wait until little by little, piece-meal, more material could be gathered together, seems a fallacious one to me. For whoever wants to portray an artist's life should place the representation of the inner development, such as it is sublimated in his works, in the foreground and ahead of the merely external small talk, which, according to my feelings, is usually treated with all too much importance.
19Heuberger has indeed courageously compounded the single pieces which so far have been gathered into one total picture, unheedful of the possibility that sooner or later one or the other detail may yet become patent, which would show single episodes in Schubert's curriculum vitae in a different light.
21He has also added some new information. Thus, he found some documents which clarify to some extent the dark period after 1816. It was hitherto an accepted belief that Schubert quit his services as school teacher in that year. It now seems, however, that he was his father's assistant until 1818, when "for causes worthy of consideration, in order to develop art talents recognized by connoisseurs," Franz took a furlough of one year, but was to, or intended to, resume afterward his post as assistant schoolmaster, an intention which was never carried out, however.
23The principal source from which Heuberger drew is the now complete collected edition of Schubert's works and the revisions thereof. Following this authentic material, he sketches in lovingly particularized description his, despite all conciseness, quite vivid picture of the artistic activity of our greatest lyrical musical creator.
25He shows us how Schubert first stuck with zeal to renowned models, tracing drawing copies as it were, in order to gain technic. How then with astounding quickness he ripened into a master, not, however, without laborious endeavor; for he sometimes tried three, four times before he succeeded in his art purpose. In 1815 already he wrote down two versions of his song, "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt," which only in 1827 was given its finished form. For the "Gesaenge des Harifers," which appeared as op. 12, he made a number of preliminary sketches or studies, the final purpose of which was obtained at last in the printed version. Schiller's "Emma" he composed three times successively. The "Erlking" and "The Trout" exist in four versions, all differing from each other, and one ever more perfect than the preceding one.
27In the selection of his texts Schubert was much more careful and thoughtful than is usually believed, a fact which Heuberger points out with special stress. He chose his texts with most refined taste, eliminating here and there verses for aesthetic reasons, softening or strengthening some of the expressions and making other changes as he saw fit. There are also other erroneous acceptations which Heuberger corrects, thus, for instance, Schubert's readiness to compose something or other quickly at a restaurant table, as has been told in numerous anecdotes promulgated by his friends and contemporaries. All such stories, Heuberger says, are to be taken with the utmost caution, if indeed they are not entirely to be discredited. Thus it was asserted that Schubert had composed the renowned serenade, "Hark, Hark, the Lark!" upon the back of a bill of fare at the Restaurant Biersack. The original, however, is found written upon strong "regal" paper and not at all upon a single sheet, but is part of a collection in which several songs are contained, the lines of the staffs for the music having been carefully drawn with pencil by Schubert himself.
29The single fields of the art cultivated by Schubert are tellingly delineated in their total character, and in their most important pieces are more specifically described, while things of no importance are passed over without comment. With some of the judgments pronounced by Heuberger not every one will agree. Thus I cannot, for instance, coincide with the supreme praise he—and not he alone—bestows upon the "Wanderer" fantasia. Aside from the Adagio, which indeed is wonderful, it seems to me to belong among the weaker works of Schubert. But truly this does not matter so much. The principal thing is that Heuberger's "pronouncements" are based upon sound taste and profound musical understanding. The peculiarities of the Klaviersatz of Schubert Heuberger makes apparent in several well selected musical examples, and about the music for the piano many good and true things are said. "This music can almost speak," Heuberger once remarks, "but its greatest charm consists in that after all it cannot speak."
31It is to be regretted that Heuberger did not point out more strongly the relations of Schubert to his predecessors and successors, that which separates him from them and that which connects him with them, whereby the picture of his art life would have been set still more firmly into the frame of his time. But for this more space would have been needed than was available in the little volume. Perhaps this missing part will be retrieved in a later more comprehensive essay. As it is, the little work can be considered an enrichment of musical literature in the field of the not over numerously extant carefully written biographical studies, and hence should be gratefully welcomed.
33The Wagner performances at the Munich Prince Regent Theatre began last Saturday night with a representation of "Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg," which in a private telegram sent by a friend of mine is described as "superb." Several changes have been made in the theatre whereby the acoustic properties are said to have been vastly improved. Chorus and orchestra were excellent under Zumpe's direction. The mise-en-scène and stage management under Possart's régime are all that could be desired. Among the principals in the cast were of special interest to Americans Fritz Scheff as Eva and Reiss as David, because these artists were former members of Mr. Grau's German personnel in New York. The tenor's performance is praised unstintedly by my correspondent, while for the part of Eva he considers Miss Scheff much too "soubrette" like and by no means sufficiently serious as an artist. Feinhals as Sachs and Knotz as Stolzing were "really first class." The house was well filled, but not crowded, and "the Americans played a conspicuous part in the audience."
35In the first Berlin performance of Richard Strauss' opera "Feuersnot," which is to take place at the Royal Opera House in October next, Miss Emmy Destinn and Rudolf Berger will sing the two principal parts, and the composer, of course, will conduct.
37Regarding the second piano concerto of Emil Sauer, of the existence of which I made mention in my last week's Budget, the composer-virtuoso writes to me from Blankenberghe, the Belgian watering place, under date of yesterday: "I have just finished a second piano concerto, which I shall perform for the first time on November 3 in Berlin under Richard Strauss' direction. Although fundamentally different in contents, in mood and in form from my No. 1 concerto, it is, nevertheless, not less effective." Well, "we shall see what we shall see," as Marc Blumenberg sagely says.
39I don't know it from experience, of course, but I have frequently heard it asserted that the American girls are flirts. So are the German girls, but the difference is this, that the American girls are prettier, and hence their flirting is also more dangerous to their victims. I choose this latter word intentionally, for it really occurs, not as infrequently as it should, that susceptible young Germans fall victims to the wiles of the pretty Americans. Especially often does this happen among the young musicians, among which nervous crowd the fair students of the other sex raise havoc. If the thing winds up with an elopement and a subsequent marriage, or vice versa, it does not turn out so badly after all, except that it is apt to raise a parental storm on the American side of the big herring pond. But to avoid such a storm, which the wise American misses foresee, and also themselves aware of the fact that it is not exactly sagacious to marry a young musician without money, these fair heartbreakers leave the object of their flirtation, returning home without the young man, or even jilting him before leaving. Such a case caused a suicide in Berlin a year or so ago, and now comes the news from Vienna that the young and exceedingly talented violinist Christ, a member of the Imperial Court Orchestra, committed suicide by throwing himself from a high precipice near Bozen in the Tyrol. The cause for the suicide is to be found that Christ fell in love with a rich, pretty American girl, who is said to have flirted with him, and then, when the young man in his infatuation "dared" to propose to her, to have laughed outright at the idea of her, an American millionaire girl, marrying a poor musician! The sight of the corpse, if, indeed, she beheld it at all, may have cured the young lady of the habit of flirting, and the case may also prove a warning to others. For that reason I have dwelt upon it at some length.
41Miss Josephine Vittori, from the Strassburg Opera House, who made her début as soubrette here last week at Kroll's (the New Royal Opera House) as Rosalind in "Die Fledermaus," and as Haideroeschen in Planquette's melodious, pretty operetta, "The Bells of Corneville," is the possessor of a charming stage presence, and just as full of humor and vivacity as her personality is also her acting piquant and at the same time ladylike. In this respect the young lady reminds one of the best models from the old school of operetta divas. Most of the latter did not even possess so sonorous and sympathetic a vocal organ as does the pretty Miss Vittori, but the trouble with this young lady is that she has not learned how to sing, and the frequently all too apparent lack of technic and general vocal culture spoils to a considerable extent the effect of her singing, just as it will ultimately tend to spoil Miss Vittori's voice, for nobody has yet been able to find the secret of preserving a human singing voice without training it. Unlike the Hardman piano, this most delicate of all musical instruments does not improve with use, unless the owner knows the art of treating it.
43From Dessau comes the sad and quite unexpected news of the sudden demise of Court Conductor August Klug-
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