1853
Brahms and Reményi visit Joachim in Hanover--Concert at
Court--Visit to Liszt--Joachim and Brahms in
Göttingen--Wasielewski, Reinecke, and Hiller--First meeting with
Schumann--Albert Dietrich.
Leaving Düsseldorf on May 18, the day following the close of the
festival, Joachim proceeded on a week's visit to Weimar, and, returning
thence to spend a day or two at home in Hanover before settling for the
summer at Göttingen, where he proposed to attend University lectures,
was surprised by a call from Reményi and Brahms.[18] His first attention
was naturally devoted to his old school-fellow, but by-and-by he turned
to the stranger, and an account of the interview may be given in his own
words:
'The dissimilar companions--the tender, idealistic Johannes and the
self-satisfied, fantastic virtuoso--called on me. Never in the
course of my artist's life have I been more completely overwhelmed
with delighted surprise, than when the rather shy-mannered, blonde
companion of my countryman played me his sonata movements, of quite
undreamt-of originality and power, looking noble and inspired the
while. His song "O, versenk dein Leid" sounded to me like a
revelation, and his playing, so tender, so imaginative, so free and
so fiery, held me spell-bound. No wonder that I not only foresaw,
but actually foretold, a speedy end to the concert-journey with
Reményi. Brahms parted from him soon afterwards, and, encouraged
before long by an enthusiastic recognition, marched proudly onwards
in his own path of endeavour after the highest development.'[19]
Reményi had not been mistaken in building hopes for the success of the
concert-journey upon the chance of an interview with Joachim, who proved
the medium through which both he and his companion were guided to the
respective spheres for which each was peculiarly fitted. The great
violinist was at this, his first interview with Brahms, so deeply
penetrated by the certainty of his genius, so impressed by its daring,
and so profoundly touched by the evident sincerity and childlike
freshness of his nature, that he took him then and there to his heart,
and made his cause his own. He at once exerted his influence in Hanover
to such purpose that the travellers were engaged to appear before King
George and the royal circle.
'There is in his (Brahms') playing,' he wrote to the Countess
Bernstorff, a lady of great musical accomplishment attached to the
Hanoverian Court, 'that concentrated fire, what I may call that
fatalistic energy and precision of rhythm, which prophesy the artist,
and his compositions already contain much that is significant, such as I
have not hitherto met with in a youth of his age.'[20]
Joachim's engagements did not allow him to wait in Hanover till the date
of the proposed court concert; but before his departure he cordially
invited Johannes, who called to bid him farewell, to visit him in
Göttingen if his relations with Reményi should come to as early a
termination as Joachim thought likely.
Mention of the concert before King George and the royal family is to be
found in a volume, 'Aus allen Tonarten,' by Heinrich Ehrlich, court
pianist at Hanover, who was present, and has recorded that Brahms played
the E flat minor Scherzo. In a subsequent letter to this musician
Joachim wrote:
'... It was his exceptional talent for composition, and a nature
which could have been developed in its integrity only in close
retirement, pure as the diamond, tender as snow.'
From Hanover, Reményi and Brahms travelled to Weimar, where Joachim had
ensured them a welcome by writing to Liszt on their behalf. Of the first
meeting between the world-famous musician, who lived in a style of
ostentatious luxury in a house on the Altenburg belonging to the
Princess Caroline von Sayn-Wittgenstein, and the obscure young composer
from the Lane-quarter of Hamburg, we have, fortunately, the account of
an eye-witness, William Mason, of New York, who was at the time resident
in Weimar as a pupil of Liszt, and one of the ardent young champions of
the new school.
'One evening early in June,' says Mason,[21] 'Liszt sent us word to
come up the next morning to the Altenburg, as he expected a visit
from a young man who was said to have great talent as a composer,
and whose name was Johannes Brahms. He was to come accompanied by
Edward Reményi.
'The next morning, on going to the Altenburg with Klindworth, we
found Brahms and Reményi already in the reception-room with Raff
and Prückner. After greeting the new-corners, of whom Reményi was
known to us by reputation, I strolled over to a table on which were
lying some manuscripts of music. They were several of Brahms'
unpublished compositions, and I began turning over the leaves of
the uppermost of the pile. It was the pianoforte solo, Op. 4,
Scherzo in E flat minor.... Finally Liszt came down, and after some
general conversation he turned to Brahms, and said: "We are
interested to hear some of your compositions whenever you are ready
and feel inclined to play them."
'Brahms, however, who was in a highly nervous state, declared that
it was quite impossible for him to play, and as the entreaties of
Liszt and Reményi failed to induce him to approach the piano, Liszt
went over to the table, saying, "Well, I shall have to play"; and
taking the first piece at hand from the heap of manuscripts, he
performed the scherzo at sight in such a marvellous way, carrying
on, at the same time, a running accompaniment of audible criticism
of the music, that Brahms was surprised and delighted. Raff found
reminiscences, in the opening bars, of Chopin's Scherzo in B flat
minor, whereupon Brahms answered that he had neither seen nor heard
any of this composer's works. Liszt then played a part of Brahms'
Sonata in C major, Op. 1.
'A little later, someone asked Liszt to play his own sonata, a work
which was quite recent at that time, and of which he was very fond.
Without hesitation he sat down and began playing. As he progressed,
he came to a very expressive part, which he always imbued with
extreme pathos, and in which he looked for the especial interest
and sympathy of his listeners. Glancing at Brahms, he found that
the latter was dozing in his chair. Liszt continued playing to the
end of the sonata, and then rose and left the room. I was in such a
position that Brahms was hidden from my view, but I was aware that
something unusual had taken place, and I think it was Reményi who
told me what had occurred. It is very strange that among the
various accounts of this first Liszt-Brahms interview--and there
are several--there is not one which gives an accurate description
of what took place on the occasion; indeed, they are all far out of
the way. The events as here related are perfectly clear in my own
mind; but not wishing to trust implicitly to my memory, I wrote to
my friend Klindworth, the only living witness of the incident
except myself, as I suppose, and requested him to give me an
account of it as he remembered it. He corroborated my description
in every particular, except that he made no specific reference to
the drowsiness of Brahms, and except also that, according to my
recollection, Brahms left Weimar on the afternoon of the day on
which the meeting took place; Klindworth writes that it was on the
morning of the next day--a discrepancy of very little moment.'
It is to be observed, in the first place, with reference to this
interesting account, that Brahms' panic was probably caused by his
finding that he was expected to play before not only Liszt himself, but
a party of his pupils, the most unnerving kind of audience with which he
could possibly have been confronted; and in the second, that Reményi,
in saying his companion had fallen asleep, unquestionably merely
intended to convey the meaning that he had not taken prudent advantage
of his opportunity to ingratiate himself with the great man. The very
different methods employed by the violinist for the advancement of his
own ambition are illustrated by a letter written by him to
Liszt--evidently soon after this first interview--which throws an
illuminating sidelight upon the scene and its immediate sequel. It is
clear that Reményi at once took steps for the purpose of ingratiating
himself with the leader of Weimar and his rising young musicians by
acquainting himself with, at all events, the names of Liszt's
compositions, and announcing himself a convert to the New-German music.
He remained associated with the party for a considerable time, and Liszt
recognised his gifts whilst ridiculing his extravagances. The letter
referred to opens with a kind of preamble:
'This scribbler ventures to address the great man, after having
heard the sonata, the scherzo, the rhapsodies, the Dante fantasia,
etc. One must have courage to dare to write to such a man. Let us
see, let us try, nevertheless. We shall see whether I have the
talent to continue. Now to work!
'TISZTELT LISZT UR!
'Admirable compatriot!
'I am here on the Altenburg, the place where I have had the
happiness (read effrontery) of being received by Liszt, and where I
have the happiness of finding myself again!
'Conceive the immense joy you have given me by forwarding the
letter addressed to me from Hungary. Every bad thing is of some
use; when I reflect that this bit of a Hungarian letter has
procured me the sublime lines of Liszt--Ah! yes, I have read this
letter four or five times--no! devoured it, but not altogether;
some fragments fortunately remain for me to point to proudly in the
future (when I shall have become a great man??!!): do you see,
gentlemen? I am a happy mortal. I possess the writing--no, _a
personal letter from Liszt_. You may be assured that that is
_everything_ for me--it will be my talisman! If you by chance ask
what I am doing, really I cannot tell you--of what interest can it
be to you if I scrape on the violin or compose some new mazourek
fantastiques? That is zero for you....
'As for my political confession, it is already sent--Raff has
edited it!
'Now, I think this letter is much too long. I shall finish it by
telling you quite simply, but very sincerely, that the good God has
you in His holy keeping, and that He ever directs your genius for
the honour and glory of the human race in general, and particularly
(but particularly) of your dear country.
'Adieu, great compatriot!
'I subscribe myself,
'E. REMÉNYI,
'_Citizen of the Altenburg, ci-devant of Hungary_.
'P.S.--Brahms has left for Göttingen.'[22]
And no wonder! one feels inclined to exclaim, on reading the postscript,
the first of three appended to the epistle. Johannes must have felt that
his power of endurance was being strained to its utmost limit by daily
association with such a comrade, and determined to break it, helped,
very likely, to his resolution by the recollection of the very different
personality of that other violinist, the young king of fiddlers, who had
invited him to Göttingen. The story frequently related, that Brahms and
Reményi, or one of them, stayed on for several weeks as Liszt's guests
at the Altenburg, is contradicted by all contemporary testimony,
negative as well as positive. No such visit is mentioned in any known
letter of the period, whilst Reményi's communication to Liszt would of
itself be fairly good evidence that none such took place, and, taken
together with the independent accounts of Mason and Klindworth, must be
accepted as conclusive against the supposition. The morning at the
Altenburg can, indeed, have left little behind it in the mind of our
musician beyond a feeling of mortification, and Mason expressly states
that the impression it produced on the young men present was that it had
not been a success. It is likely that Klindworth was substantially
correct as to the exact date of Brahms' departure from Weimar. Perhaps
hoping to appear to better advantage in a _tête-à-tête_ interview, he
seems to have called a second time on Liszt, who presented him with a
leather cigarette-case in which was placed an autograph inscription in
remembrance of their meeting.[23]
Somewhere about the middle of June, then, Joachim, at work one day in
his rooms at Göttingen, had hardly time to call out, 'Come in' in answer
to a knock at the door, before the door opened and in walked Brahms.
This was the beginning of the intimate acquaintance between the two
youthful musicians, which ripened into the historic friendship that
endured until the death of Brahms forty-four years later. What a
discovery was each to the other! Alike in no respect, perhaps, save in
earnest devotion to art, and a profound feeling of obligation in her
service, the dissimilarity of their dispositions was such as to make
them mutually interesting and to cement the growing bond between them.
To Joachim the worship of art, adored goddess though she might be, could
never be all in all; it could never appease the craving for human
sympathy which, since Mendelssohn's death, he had at times felt to be
almost intolerable. Johannes, haunted by a vision of the delight of
intimate sympathy, was not convinced of its being either possible or
indispensable, and knew that he could, if necessary, live his life
without it. To Joachim, possessed of strong likings and antipathies, and
firm to convictions involving a principle, it was not difficult, in a
conflict of mere inclinations, to yield. In Johannes, with all his
childlike sweetness of nature, there dwelt an ineradicable combative
instinct. To Joachim life had been one continued triumph; he had never
known even the taste of failure. A personality from childhood, he had
conquered his world once and for all with scarcely an effort. Hannes had
passed his days in obscurity, and had seen and known only struggle. And
now, to Joachim, who had never had to plan for his own advancement, what
a fresh joy it was to think and hope and suggest for the future of
Johannes, and to Johannes, who had known little of the satisfaction of
intelligent appreciation from colleagues of his own standing, what an
astonishing experience was this enthusiastic and authoritative approval
from such a comrade! The companions, engrossed in the first place by
their compositions--for Joachim was engaged upon two overtures, and
Johannes busy with sonatas and songs--found plenty of time for other
occupations. They studied and made music together, and walked and talked
and dined together, and compared opinions and argued and agreed
together. No doubt Johannes heard much about the Leipzig of Bach and
Mendelssohn, and he found to his surprise that Joachim, the unparalleled
interpreter of Bach and Beethoven, shared Louise Japha's opinion of
Schumann's music. He certainly touched Joachim's heart by his loving
talk of Hamburg, rich in proud traditions, and not without art memories
of its own, associated with the great names of Klopstock and Lessing, of
Telemann and Keiser, of Handel and Mattheson and Emanuel Bach. The fêted
violinist, familiar since his ninth year with one or other centre of
musical learning, brilliant pupil of the conservatoire of Vienna,
beloved favourite of that of Leipzig, listened, moreover, with no little
interest to all that Johannes chose to relate of his solitary studies
with his Marxsen. The happy young Hamburger felt that he could tell
Joseph anything. He spoke to him of his struggles, his kind friends at
Winsen, his acquaintance with Louise Japha, the difficulties of his
journey with Reményi. Joachim was so much interested in the Winsen
episodes that he could not refrain from writing to Uncle Giesemann to
tell him that his young musician would be a great man some day.
In one thing only Johannes would not bear his friend company. He
declined to attend the university lectures of Ritter and Waiz, voting
lectures a bore, and preferring to take his mental food, as usual, from
books. He was very ready, however, to join the jovial fellowship that
met at the Saxsen, the students' club-restaurant frequented by Joachim
and his friends. He entered with great zest into all the fun of the
social evenings, and on the night when he and Joachim were called upon,
as the youngest of the party, to perform the 'Fox-ride,' he sat
astraddle on his little chair, and galloped round the table with the
court concertmeister from Hanover as though he were bent on keeping his
terms with the most serious-minded student of them all. The happy
holiday was crowned by a concert given by the two 'students,' which
attracted an overflowing audience and provided Brahms with welcome funds
for the prosecution of his immediate plans. He wished to make a walking
excursion along the Rhine before the summer should have passed away, and
left Göttingen about the middle of August, armed with several of his
friend's visiting-cards with which to introduce himself to musical
houses on his route. The acquaintance which Joachim desired to secure
for him above all others was that of Schumann, but Johannes, probably
sore from his recent experiences of an interview with a leader
surrounded by his followers, was uncertain if he should stay at
Düsseldorf. The separation between himself and Joachim was to be a short
one only. They were to meet in October at Hanover, where Johannes was to
pass the winter in his friend's society.
We have to picture our traveller as passing, during the next two or
three weeks, from point to point along the beautiful Rhine valley in a
frame of mind rendered almost ecstatic by the combined influences of his
daily surroundings, his recent experiences, and his well-grounded hopes
for the future. We meet him again early in September in the house of J.
W. von Wasielewsky, who at this period filled a post as music-director
at Bonn, and who has given an interesting account of Brahms' arrival in
that city.
'Towards the end of the summer,' he says,[24] 'I was surprised by a
visit from an attractive-looking, fair-haired youth, who delivered
to me one of Joachim's visiting-cards, on the reverse side of
which was his own humorously-written signature.[25] Coming in the
direction from Mainz, he had travelled on foot through the Rhine
valley, and presented himself to me staff in hand and knapsack on
his back. His fresh, natural, unconstrained manner impressed me
sympathetically, so that I not only bade him welcome, but invited
him to stay a day or two with me, to which he then and there
consented. After the first hours of our intercourse, I naturally
felt a desire to learn to know my guest from the musical side. He
at once favoured me with a performance of one of his then
unpublished early works, a pianoforte sonata, the quality of which
immediately revealed to me his great talent for composition. I also
heard him in other things. I particularly remember his
characteristic execution of the Rakóczy March, which he was fond of
playing and gave with great effect.'
Asked by Wasielewsky whether he intended to visit Schumann, Johannes
replied that he had come to no decision on the point, giving as the
reason for his uncertainty, the failure of his effort to approach the
master on his visit to Hamburg in 1850, and no persuasion of his new
friend availed to bring him to a resolution. He did not quit the
neighbourhood of Bonn immediately. Acting, no doubt, on Wasielewsky's
advice, he retraced his steps a little in order to present himself at a
great house in the vicinity--that of Commerzienrath Deichmann, a
gentleman widely known, not only from his wealth and hospitality, but
also by the warm interest taken by himself and his family in matters
connected with literature and art. Distinguished visitors of many
varieties of social rank, from royal personages downwards, were
entertained by Frau Deichmann at her residence at Mehlem, opposite
Königswinter. Celebrities on a visit to the Rhine country were generally
to be met in her drawing-rooms in the course of their stay, many of the
artists resident in the neighbourhood belonged to her intimate circle,
and young musicians of promise were received by her with especial
kindness. Needless to say that the arrival of Brahms as Joachim's
intimate was hailed by her with lively satisfaction, and the familiar
friends of the house, amongst whom were Franz Wüllner, the 'cellist
Reimers, Wasielewsky himself, and other young musicians, hurried to
Mehlem on receiving her hasty summons, prepared to extend to the
new-comer's performances as much approbation or criticism as the event
might justify.
'I found,' said Wüllner, in a memorial speech delivered after Brahms'
death in the conservatoire of Cologne, 'a slender youth with long fair
hair and a veritable St. John's head, from whose eyes shone energy and
spirit. He played us the just-finished C major Sonata, the earlier
completed F sharp minor Sonata, the E flat minor Scherzo, and several
songs--amongst them the now familiar "O versenk dein Leid." We young
musicians were immediately delighted and carried away by his
compositions.'
As might have been expected, Brahms was not allowed to leave Mehlem
immediately. He was persuaded to remain on as the Deichmanns' guest, to
improve his acquaintance with their friends, and to further explore the
Rhine and its beauties from their house, and it was during this visit
that he found the opportunity, eagerly desired by him since his stay at
Göttingen, to begin the real study of Schumann's compositions, till now
but little known to him. What must have been his wonder and his joy as
he found himself brought face to face in many of their pages with his
favourite authors, Jean Paul and E. T. A. Hoffmann, and perceived in
them as in a mirror the dreamings of his own soul! His surprise was
probably but little less on making the discovery that Schumann's
tone-poems, with all their fresh originality of method and their
fascinating romance, were no mere erratic imaginings, but were firmly
rooted in the great traditions of classical art. It is, perhaps,
impossible to realize in its strength the revulsion of feeling that must
have attended this first real spiritual meeting of 'Kreisler jun.' with
the composer of the 'Kreisleriana'; but it is safe to say that it
settled him in the determination to pay the visit to Schumann which
Joachim had planned, and that it had its share in producing the temper
of mind manifest in a letter written by Johannes in the third week of
September, whilst he was on a few days' excursion with the boys of the
Deichmann family, to the Amtsvogt Blume of Winsen:
'DEAR HERR AMTSVOGT,
'Permit me to offer most heartfelt wishes for your own and for Frau
Blume's happiness on the joyful festival which you celebrate this
month. The great esteem and love which I have for you may excuse me
for troubling you from so great a distance, and perhaps at the
wrong time, with these lines; I only know that you celebrate your
golden wedding in the middle of this month. May God long preserve
you in health, that I may often again, as hitherto, spend many
happy hours at your house. In case you still feel some interest in
my fate, you may, perhaps, be pleased to hear that I have passed a
heavenly summer, such as I have never before known. After spending
some gloriously inspiring weeks with Joachim at Göttingen, I have
now been rambling about for five weeks according to heart's desire
on the divine Rhine. I hope to be able to pass this winter at
Hanover in order to be near Joachim, who is equally noble as man
and artist. Begging you to remember me most warmly to your wife and
daughter, I would also request you to express my heartiest greeting
to your son with his wife and children, to dear Uncle Giesemann,
and to all acquaintances. With best greeting, Your JOH. BRAHMS.
'IN THE LAHNTHAL, _Sept. 1853_.'[26]
Johannes' thoughts were engaged at this time on the Pianoforte Sonata in
F minor, Op. 5, that was finally completed early in November. Who that
has really tasted of the enchantment of that wonderful composition,
great in spite of its immaturity, can doubt, on reading these lines,
that the shining Rhine with its wooded heights, that the Rolandseck and
the Nonnenwerth and the Drachenfels, and the deep blue sky and gorgeous
starry nights, had their part, with the romance and wonder and gratitude
and delight dwelling in his young heart, in the making of the work--not
in the sense of supplying the composer with a programme for his
inspiration; but as the sunbeam caught by the plant--as mingling with
his nature and becoming a portion of the very elemental force that
blossomed into the flower of his imagination?
Yet another important halt was made by Brahms at Cologne, where two more
interesting names were added to the long list of acquaintances already
formed by him during the short five months of his absence from home. He
delivered a letter from the university music-director of Göttingen,
Arnold Wehner, and a greeting from Wasielewsky, to Carl Reinecke, at the
time professor of pianoforte and counterpoint in the conservatoire of
the Rhenish capital, and Reinecke, after hearing some of his
compositions, conducted him to Ferdinand Hiller's house, and
subsequently accompanied him to the railway-station at Deutz. Here he
took train for Düsseldorf,[27] full, no doubt, of fluttering expectation
at the thought that he was about to seek an interview with the great
master of his day; sole successor, since the death of Mendelssohn, to
the mighty giants in whose traditions he had been steeped since early
childhood by Cossel and Marxsen. And as we accompany the young musician
in imagination on this last stage of his Rhine journey, we may fittingly
pay the tribute of passing remembrance to these two men. To their
talents and attainments and character he owed it that he was able to
approach the supreme hour of entrance upon the manhood of his artistic
life, shortly to dawn for him, with the certainty of equipment and
devotion of purpose that had already stamped upon his genius the
unmistakable pledge of mastership.
Several accounts, agreeing in essential points, have been given by Dr.
Schübring and others of Brahms' first acquaintance with Schumann. After
some preliminary conversation, the master desired his visitor to play
something of his own. Scarcely was the first movement of the C major
Sonata concluded, when he rose and left the room, and, returning with
his wife, desired to hear it again. And as Johannes had played it three
months previously to the amazement and delight of Joseph Joachim, so he
now played it to the amazement and delight of Robert and Clara Schumann;
and when he had finished one movement these two great artists bade him
play another, and at the end of that, another, and still desired more,
so that when, at length, the performance was at an end their hearts had
gone out to him in affection, whilst in his the first link had already
been forged of that chain of love by which he soon became bound to the
one and the other till the end of both their lives.
Johannes lost no time in finding out his old friends Louise and Minna
Japha. What wonderful adventures he had to relate to them, more than
could be got through in one or even two interviews! There was the tour
with Reményi, the performance at Court--how far away these things
seemed!--then the visit to Weimar, the student-life at Göttingen, the
journey along the Rhine. He had made the acquaintance of many young
musicians, who had one and all welcomed his coming amongst them; he had
been introduced to Hiller, become Joachim's closest friend, and now had,
he thought, won Schumann's approval. 'He patted me on the shoulder,'
Johannes told Louise, 'and said, "We understand each other." What did he
mean?' Schumann's meaning was made very obvious to Joachim, who received
the following note from the master in answer to the introduction and
messages of greeting he had sent him by Brahms: 'This is he that should
come.'
We may now turn to the delightful account given by Albert Dietrich,[28]
one of Schumann's favourite disciples, who lived at Düsseldorf in daily
intercourse with the great composer, of his first acquaintance with the
new-comer:
'Soon after Brahms' arrival in September, Schumann came up to me
before the commencement of one of the choral society practices with
mysterious air and pleased smile. "Someone is come," said he, "of
whom we shall one day hear all sorts of wonderful things; his name
is Johannes Brahms." And he presented to me the interesting and
unusual-looking young musician, who, seeming hardly more than a boy
in his short gray summer coat, with his high voice and long fair
hair, made a most agreeable impression. Especially fine were his
energetic, characteristic mouth, and the earnest, deep gaze in
which his gifted nature was clearly revealed.'
Here was another companion of the right sort for Brahms. He and Albert
met daily from this time forward during his four weeks' stay at
Düsseldorf, breakfasting together at an open-air restaurant in the
Hofgarten, and sharing each other's confidences and pleasures. Albert's
recognition of the powers of his new friend was no less thorough than
Joachim's had been, and he sent enthusiastic reports of him to Kirchner,
Naumann, and other young musicians of the Schumann set. Himself a
_persona grata_ in the various artistic circles of Düsseldorf, he was
able to open to Johannes a new and inexhaustible source of interest. He
introduced him to Schirmer, Lessing, Sohn, and other of the leading
painters, at whose houses the young musician heard much talk about the
sister arts which bore due fruit in a mind whose first need was, in
Joachim's words, 'the harmonious cultivation of its various powers and
the loving assimilation of all sorts of knowledge.' A charming young
society was quite ready to welcome a new playfellow--and such a
playfellow--into its midst, and Johannes was invited by Albert's friends
to many parties and excursions. He managed to waive the objection to
ladies' society which he had once found insuperable, and discovered that
a festivity from which they were not rigorously excluded was not
therefore a necessarily tiresome affair! Music in general and his music
in particular, was much in demand at frequent evening gatherings, and
his hearers knew not whether they were more delighted by his
interpretations of the great masters or of his own compositions.
'Everyone was filled with astonishment,' says Dietrich, 'and the
young people, especially, were dominated by the impression of his
characteristic, powerful, and, when necessary, extraordinarily
tender playing. He used to receive the enthusiastic praise
accorded to his performances in a modest, deprecatory manner.
'His constitution was thoroughly sound; the most strenuous mental
exertion scarcely fatigued him, but then he could go soundly to
sleep at any hour of the day he pleased. With companions of his own
standing he was lively, sometimes arrogant, dry, and full of
pranks. When he came to see me, he used to rush up the stairs,
thump on the door with both fists, and burst in without waiting for
an answer.... Brahms never spoke of the works with which he was
busy, or of his plans for future compositions, but he told me one
day that he often recalled folk-songs when at work, and that then
his melodies suggested themselves spontaneously.'
At the Schumanns' house Brahms learned chess and table-turning. He was
soon made free of the master's library, and borrowed from it many a book
to lend to the Japhas, who had to submit to a term of quarantine during
Minna's recovery from an attack of measles. Johannes refused, for his
own part, to acquiesce in the decree, and paid long daily visits to the
sisters as soon as they were able to receive him. He often sat at
Louise's side reading with her from an open volume placed between them,
as he had once been used to do with Lischen in the Winsen fields. One
day he brought some volumes of Hoffmann, to reread his favourite tales
from Schumann's own copy. He carried the old memories and friends, and
the simple home with its dear affections, faithfully in his heart
throughout his excitements and successes, and throughout the weeks and
months of his absence Johanna kept her promise to her boy. 'Look,' said
Hannes one day, pulling a letter out of his pocket, and holding it open
before Louise and Minna as he told them of the stipulation he had made,
'I get one like this every week; my old mother keeps her promise. Some
of it is copied from the newspapers; what is she to do when she has no
more news? she cannot write a philosophical treatise, but she always
sends me three whole pages.'[29]
The passionate admiration quickly conceived by Brahms for the character
and genius of Schumann, which was intensified by the recollection of his
past misconception of the great composer's art, was returned in
appropriate measure. Schumann became every day fonder of his young
friend, and inclination united with conviction to strengthen the strong
first impression he had received as to the extraordinary nature of his
gifts. 'Facile princeps' is written in one of Schumann's pocket-books
against the name Johannes Brahms, added, in the master's handwriting, to
a list of his favourite young musicians. It has sometimes been suggested
that the secret of the immediate fascination exercised over him by
Brahms' compositions lay in his perception of their dissimilarity from
his own. This, however, is only part of the truth. Though it be the case
that Schumann's influence is not traceable either in the melody,
harmony, or structure of Brahms' first published movements, it is
equally the fact that the 'delicate youth with dreamy expression, who,
without a tinge of affectation, spoke naturally in poetic phrases; who
signed his manuscripts "Joh. Kreisler jun."; who exactly answered
Joachim's description, "pure as the diamond, tender as snow"';[30] had
elements in his many-sided nature of near kin to the characteristic
spirit of Schumann's genius, which were by no means without influence on
the individuality of his works, and especially the works of his first
period. Schumann, astonished beyond measure by the mastery and
originality of Brahms' technical attainment, was, in regard to his ideal
qualities, certainly penetrated as much by the romance as by the
independence, by the tenderness as by the power, by the subjective, as
by the objective side, of his art, and the elder musician loved the
younger as much because of the affinity as of the difference between
them. Both contrasting sides of Brahms' nature are strikingly manifest
in the very beautiful drawing of him which was executed for Schumann at
this time by the painter de Laurens, a representation of which we are
enabled, by the kindness of Frau Professor Böie, to whom the original
now belongs, to place before the reader at the beginning of this volume.
Schumann had not been forgetful of the overtures to closer intimacy made
to him by Joachim in the spring of the year, and composed two
concert-pieces for violin and orchestra about this time, during the
writing of which, the famous young violinist and his performances at the
Düsseldorf festival were constantly present to his mind. In a letter to
Hanover concerning these and other matters, written by him on October 8,
the following passages occur:[31]
'I think if I were younger I could make some polymetres about the
young eagle who has so suddenly and unexpectedly flown down from
the Alps to Düsseldorf.[32] Or one might compare him to a splendid
stream which, like Niagara, is at its finest when precipitating
itself from the heights as a roaring waterfall, met on the shore by
the fluttering of butterflies and by nightingales' voices....
'The young eagle seems to be content in the Lowlands; he has found
an old guardian who is accustomed to watch such young flights, and
who knows how to calm the wild wing-flapping without detriment to
the soaring power.'[33]
On the same day he wrote to Dr. Härtel, head of the great Leipzig
publishing firm:
'A young man has just presented himself here who has most deeply
impressed us with his wonderful music. He will, I am convinced,
make the greatest sensation in the musical world. I will take an
opportunity of writing more in detail about him.'[34]
Five days later, writing again on business to Joachim, who was to take
part on the 27th, in the first Düsseldorf subscription concert of the
season, he adds:
'I have begun to put together my thoughts about the young eagle. I
should wish to help him on his first flight through the world, but
fear I have grown too fond of him to be able to describe the light
and dark colours of his wings quite clearly. When I have finished
the paper, I should like to show it to his comrade [Joachim], who
knows him even better than I do.'
A postscript is subjoined: 'I have finished the essay and enclose
it. Please return it as soon as possible.'
A second letter to Dr. Härtel enters into some of the promised detail:
'You will see before long, in the _Neue Zeitschrift für Musik_, an
article signed with my name on young Johannes Brahms from Hamburg,
which will give you further information about him. I will then
write to you more fully about the compositions he intends to
publish. They are pianoforte pieces and sonatas, a sonata for
violin and piano, a trio, a quartet, and a number of songs--all
full of genius. He is also an exceptional pianist.'
And now, whilst Schumann, with Albert and Johannes, was eagerly looking
forward to Joachim's arrival for the concert of the 27th, Schumann
proposed that they should prepare a surprise for him in the shape of a
new sonata for pianoforte and violin, to be written by the three of them
jointly. Thereupon Dietrich undertook the first movement, Schumann the
intermezzo and finale, and Brahms the scherzo.
The popular young concertmeister had been passing his time pleasantly
enough during the progress of some of the events just related; had
attended a festival at Carlsruhe, where he met his friends of the Weimar
circle in force--Liszt, Wagner, Cornelius, Bülow, and the others; and
had played for Berlioz at a concert in Brunswick. He was to be
Schumann's guest during the two days of his stay in Düsseldorf, and was
greeted, on his arrival on the 26th, by the assembled party of his
intimate friends. Amongst them was an attractive, youthful lady attired
in rustic costume, who stepped forward from the rest and handed him a
basket of flowers. Hidden beneath these was the manuscript sonata of
welcome, on the title-page of which Schumann had written:
'F. A. E.[35]
'This Sonata has been written in expectation of the arrival of the
honoured and beloved friend Joseph Joachim by Robert Schumann,
Johannes Brahms, Albert Dietrich.'
There was a small gathering of intimate friends in the evening at the
Schumanns' house, when the sonata was performed and Joachim was required
to guess the authorship of the several movements, a problem he had no
difficulty in solving correctly. Schumann was in a bright mood. He was
always at his happiest in his home circle with one and another of the
young musicians who might be said to belong to it about him, and he had
taken both Brahms and Joachim into his most special affection. 'One
cannot be fond enough of him,' he whispered to Fräulein Japha as
Joachim, accompanied by Frau Schumann, came to the concluding bars of
the new fantasia for violin. Johannes was nervous and excited this
evening. 'What shall I play?' he said, crossing over to Louise when
Schumann summoned him to the piano. She suggested the scherzo, which the
master had not yet heard, but eventually got a scolding for her pains.
Johannes persuaded himself that his performance was a failure. 'Why did
you give me that advice?' he asked reproachfully, returning to his
faithful friend. 'Liszt did not care for the scherzo, and now Schumann
does not like it!'
The concert of the following day was the last given in Düsseldorf under
the direction of Schumann, who was about to start with his wife on a
concert tour in Holland. He was at this time seriously contemplating a
permanent removal to Vienna, whence he had received overtures that were
attractive to himself and Frau Schumann. Whether he would have made up
his mind to the step cannot be determined. The decision was, as we know,
taken out of his hands by one of the tragedies of fate.
[18] The accounts of some authors place the visit in Göttingen. They
must be regarded as, in this respect, mistaken. Dr. Joachim is positive
on the point. 'The whole scene lives clearly in my memory; it occurred
in my rooms in Princes Street, Hanover,' he lately said to the present
writer.
[19] Festival address at Meiningen, October 7, 1899.
[20] Moser's 'Life of Joachim.'
[21] 'Memoirs of a Musical Life.'
[22] From La Mara's 'Briefe hervorragender Zeitgenossen an Franz Liszt.'
[23] According to a personal communication to the author by Frau Dr.
Langhans-Japha, to whom Brahms showed the case.
[24] 'Aus siebzig Jahren.'
[25] 'Joh. Kreisler jun.'
[26] This letter and another to Amtsvogt Blume, which follows in Chapter
VI., were first published in the _Lüneburger Anzeige_ March 29, 1901.
[27] 'Gedenkenblätter an berühmte Musiker,' by Carl Reinecke.
[28] 'Erinnerungen von Johannes Brahms.'
[29] At this period envelopes were not in universal use. The large
'letter-paper' was folded and sealed, and addressed on the blank fourth
page.
[30] Ehrlich, 'Dreissig Jahre Künstlerleben.'
[31] 'Robert Schumann's Briefe.' Neue Folge. Edited by Gustav Jansen.
[32] These words sufficiently disprove the assumption occasionally
adopted, that Schumann expected Brahms before receiving his call at
Düsseldorf.
[33] The movements of the F minor Sonata were no doubt submitted to
Schumann's criticism during the process of their composition.
[34] See, for this and other letters of Schumann, Dr. Jansen's
collection referred to above.
[35] 'Frei aber einsam' (Free but lonely), Joachim's favourite device at
this time.