The opinion of artist on artists is a dubious quantity. Recall the
startling criticisms of Bocklin on his associates in art made public
by the memoirs of his friends after his death. Such judgments are often
one-sided, not without prejudice, and mostly the expression of impulse.
It is a different matter when the artist speaks about the disciples of
another art than his own, even if the opinions which Bocklin and Wagner
held of each other are not a favorable example. Where Beethoven speaks
of other composers we must read with clear and open eyes; but even
here there will be much with which we can be in accord, especially
his judgment on Rossini, whom he hated so intensely, and whose airy,
sense-bewitching art seduced the Viennese from Beethoven. Interesting
and also characteristic of the man is the attitude which he
adopted towards the poets of his time. In general he estimated his
contemporaries as highly as they deserved.
109. “Do not tear the laurel wreaths from the heads of Handel, Haydn and
Mozart; they belong to them,--not yet to me.”
(Teplitz, July 17, 1852, to his ten-year-old admirer, Emilie M., who had
given him a portfolio made by herself.)
110. “Pure church music ought to be performed by voices only, except a
‘Gloria,’ or some similar text. For this reason I prefer Palestrina;
but it is folly to imitate him without having his genius and religious
views; it would be difficult, if not impossible, too, for the singers of
today to sing his long notes in a sustained and pure manner.”
(To Freudenberg, in 1824.)
111. “Handel is the unattained master of all masters. Go and learn from
him how to achieve vast effects with simple means.”
(Reported by Seyfried. On his death-bed, about the middle of February,
1827, he said to young Gerhard von Breuning, on receiving Handel’s
works: “Handel is the greatest and ablest of all composers; from him I
can still learn. Bring me the books!”)
112. “Handel is the greatest composer that ever lived. I would uncover
my head and kneel on his grave.”
(Fall of 1823, to J. A. Stumpff, harp maker of London, who acted very
nobly toward Beethoven in his last days. It was he who rejoiced the
dying composer by sending him the forty volumes of Handel’s works (see
111).)
[“Cipriani Potter, to A. W. T., February 27, 1861. Beethoven used to
walk across the fields to Vienna very often. B. would stop, look about
and express his love for nature. One day Potter asked: ‘Who is the
greatest living composer, yourself excepted?’ Beethoven seemed puzzled
for a moment, and then exclaimed: ‘Cherubini!’ Potter went on: ‘And of
dead authors?’ B.--He had always considered Mozart as such, but since he
had been made acquainted with Handel he put him at the head.” From A.
W. Thayer’s notebook, reprinted in “Music and Manners in the Classical
Period,” page 208. H.E.K.]
113. “Heaven forbid that I should take a journal in which sport is made
of the manes of such a revered one.”
(Conversation-book of 1825, in reference to a criticism of Handel.)
114. “That you are going to publish Sebastian Bach’s works is something
which does good to my heart, which beats in love of the great and lofty
art of this ancestral father of harmony; I want to see them soon.”
(January, 1801, to Hofmeister, in Leipzig.)
115. “Of Emanuel Bach’s clavier works I have only a few, yet they must
be not only a real delight to every true artist, but also serve him for
study purposes; and it is for me a great pleasure to play works that I
have never seen, or seldom see, for real art lovers.”
(July 26, 1809, to Gottfried Hartel, of Leipzig in ordering all the
scores of Haydn, Mozart and the two Bachs.)
116. “See, my dear Hummel, the birthplace of Haydn. I received it as a
gift today, and it gives me great pleasure. A mean peasant hut, in which
so great a man was born!”
(Remarked on his death-bed to his friend Hummel.)
117. “I have always reckoned myself among the greatest admirers of
Mozart, and shall do so till the day of my death.”
(February 6, 1886, to Abbe Maximilian Stadler, who had sent him his
essay on Mozart’s “Requiem.”)
118. “Cramer, Cramer! We shall never be able to compose anything like
that!”
(To Cramer, after the two had heard Mozart’s concerto in C-minor at a
concert in the Augarten.)
119. “‘Die Zauberflote’ will always remain Mozart’s greatest work, for
in it he for the first time showed himself to be a German musician. ‘Don
Juan’ still has the complete Italian cut; besides our sacred art
ought never permit itself to be degraded to the level of a foil for so
scandalous a subject.”
(A remark reported by Seyfried.)
[“Hozalka says that in 1820-21, as near as he can recollect, the wife
of a Major Baumgarten took boy boarders in the house then standing where
the Musikverein’s Saal now is, and that Beethoven’s nephew was placed
with her. Her sister, Baronin Born, lived with her. One evening Hozalka,
then a young man, called there and found only Baronin Born at home. Soon
another caller came and stayed to tea. It was Beethoven. Among other
topics Mozart came on the tapis, and the Born asked Beethoven (in
writing, of course) which of Mozart’s operas he thought most of. ‘Die
Zauberflote’ said Beethoven, and, suddenly clasping his hands and
throwing up his eyes, exclaimed: ‘Oh, Mozart!’” From A. W. Thayer’s
notebooks, reprinted in “Music and Manners in the Classical Period,”
page 198. H. E. K.]
120. “Say all conceivable pretty things to Cherubini,--that there is
nothing I so ardently desire as that we should soon get another opera
from him, and that of all our contemporaries I have the highest regard
for him.”
(May 6, 1823, to Louis Schlasser, afterward chapel master in Darmstadt,
who was about to undertake a journey to Paris. See note to No. 112.)
121. “Among all the composers alive Cherubini is the most worthy of
respect. I am in complete agreement, too, with his conception of the
‘Requiem,’ and if ever I come to write one I shall take note of many
things.”
(Remark reported by Seyfried. See No. 112.)
122. “Whoever studies Clementi thoroughly has simultaneously also
learned Mozart and other authors; inversely, however, this is not the
case.”
(Reported by Schindler.)
123. “There is much good in Spontini; he understands theatrical effect
and martial noises admirably.
“Spohr is so rich in dissonances; pleasure in his music is marred by his
chromatic melody.
“His name ought not to be Bach (brook), but Ocean, because of his
infinite and inexhaustible wealth of tonal combinations and harmonies.
Bach is the ideal of an organist.”
(In Baden, 1824, to Freudenberg.)
124. “The little man, otherwise so gentle,--I never would have credited
him with such a thing. Now Weber must write operas in earnest, one after
the other, without caring too much for refinement! Kaspar, the monster,
looms up like a house; wherever the devil sticks in his claw we feel
it.”
(To Rochlitz, at Baden, in the summer of 1823.)
125. “There you are, you rascal; you’re a devil of a fellow, God bless
you!... Weber, you always were a fine fellow.”
(Beethoven’s hearty greeting to Karl Maria von Weber, in October, 1823.)
126. “K. M. Weber began too learn too late; art did not have a chance
to develop naturally in him, and his single and obvious striving is to
appear brilliant.”
(A remark reported by Seyfried.)
127. “‘Euryanthe’ is an accumulation of diminished seventh chords--all
little backdoors!”
(Remarked to Schindler about Weber’s opera.)