But as Spohr in the meanwhile had come to a decision, and of his own impulse allowed his kindly consideration for his wife and her parents to prevail with him, their daily intercourse having become with him also a pleasurable habit, he wrote back in his reply the following few but characteristic words: “The interest and sympathy, which breathes throughout your kind letter was most gratifying to me also in regard to the Prague business. But I had already made up my mind in the interim, and I am glad that my answer declining the offer had been sent to Prague, before my father-in-law knew anything about it, or with tears in his eyes could have to thank me for my decision....”—In this manner Spohr remained in Cassel, to which he had become attached as to a second home, and he continued to discharge his duties with his customary zeal.
He now again gave his attention to the study of a difficult work: “The flying Dutchman” of Richard Wagner, which Spohr proposed to himself to bring out as a festival opera for Whitmonday, having heard much in its praise from Dresden, and upon perusal of the libretto, which had been sent to him, had found the subject so satisfactory in every respect, that he pronounced it a little master-piece, and regretted, “not to have met with a similar and as good a one to set to music, ten years before.” When at the rehearsals he had become more closely acquainted with the opera, he wrote to Lüder respecting it, and invited him to the approaching performance in Cassel: “This work, although somewhat approaching the new-romantic music à la Berlioz, and although it has given me immense work on account of its extreme difficulty, interests me nevertheless in the highest degree, for it is written apparently with true inspiration—and unlike so much of the modern opera music, does not display in every bar the striving after effect, or effort to please. There is a great deal of the fanciful therein; a noble conception throughout, it is well written for the singer; enormously difficult it is true, and somewhat overcharged in the instrumentation, but full of new effects, and will assuredly, when it once comes to be performed in the greater space of a theatre be thoroughly clear and intelligible. The theatre rehearsals begin at the end of this week, and I am exceedingly desirous to see how the fantastic subject and the still more fantastic music will come off en scène. I think I am so far correct in my judgment, when I consider Wagner as the most gifted of all our dramatic composers of the present time. In this work at least his aspirations are noble, and that pleases me at a time when all depends upon creating a sensation, or in effecting the merest ear-tickling,” &c. Notwithstanding the apparent almost insurmountable difficulties, Spohr succeeded in giving one performance, which left nothing to be desired, and the work was most favourably received by the public. In full satisfaction to the author he felt impelled to write to Wagner to make him acquainted with it; upon which the latter in the fulness of his joy replied: “My very esteemed sir and master, I was really obliged to recover myself somewhat from the joy—from the rapture I may say—which your extremely kind letter afforded me, before I could undertake to write, and express to you the gratitude of my heart.... In order to enable you to understand the extraordinary emotion your intelligence produced in me, I must first calmly explain what were my expectations in regard to the success of this opera. From the unusually great difficulties which it presented I could expect but little from it, however good the musical and dramatic strength with which it might be put upon the stage, unless there was a man at their head who, endowed with peculiar energetic capacity and goodwill, would espouse my interests with predilection and in the face of every obstacle. That you, my highly-esteemed master, possessed beyond all others the qualifications for so energetic a direction, I well knew,—but whether you would consider my work sufficiently worthy of your attention to take so decided an interest in it, that was certainly the very natural doubt that made me despair more and more, the nearer the day of its announced performance approached; so that I confess I had not the courage to go to Cassel, to become personally a witness to my shame and to the realisation of all my fears. But I now see indeed that a lucky star has risen over me, since I have gained the sympathy of a man from whom an indulgent notice only would have been sufficient fame for me:—but to see him take the most decisive and crowning measures in my behalf, is a piece of good fortune which assuredly distinguishes me above many, and which really for the first time fills me with a sentiment of pride, such as hitherto no applause of the public could have awakened in me” &c. With equal gratitude and kindliness Wagner acknowledged the correctness of the omissions made by Spohr in the opera, in the which he “recognised but further proof of the true interest he had evinced for him,” and this he reiterated in all his subsequent letters with the warmest expressions of attachment and esteem.
With the commencement of the theatrical vacation, Spohr made preparations for the journey to London, where he hoped to receive satisfaction for the disappointment of the refusal of leave absence in the previous autumn, to proceed to Norwich to conduct the much-talked-of performance of his oratorio, “The fall of Babylon.” For months previously the committee had applied to that effect through the embassy at Cassel, to the Prince, but had met with a summary refusal, upon which Spohr received several letters from England, expressing how much they felt aggrieved by it, and lord Aberdeen especially, who had authorised the application to the Prince through the medium of the English embassy. Upon this the committee met in Norwich and sent a deputation to London to the duke of Cambridge, who expressed himself willing to write personally to the Prince in the most pressing terms. But without avail; after a lapse of two months his application was refused also, and both he and the whole royal family were not a little hurt by it. In Norwich, meanwhile, it was thought that every means had not yet been exhausted, and to Spohr’s extreme surprise he suddenly received an enormous petition signed by a considerable number of the inhabitants of Norwich, beseeching the Prince in the interests of that city to allow Spohr to direct his oratorio there. Although he himself had now little hope of a favourable issue to this prayer, he was nevertheless greatly moved by the receipt of so imposing a document, and awaited a reply with the greatest anxiety. This however did not come; but the Hessian minister for foreign affairs, von Steuber, wrote the following letter to the wife of Mr. von der Malsburg, grand marshall of the court, by whom the petition had been presented: “I have to announce to your Excellency that I delivered the petition in question, and urged personally all the circumstances detailed therein, but as you yourself feared, there is no hope of a successful result” &c.—
Although Spohr could not personally share in the triumph which this new oratorio achieved for him in England, he nevertheless received almost daily detailed epistolary accounts of the success of the festival, and at length also a whole box full of newspapers of every shade of politics, which seemed almost to vie with each other in expressions of admiration of his work. Of these, some few of the most conspicuous and characteristic in style of comment may here be cited: “The Times” says among other things: “The gem of the festival was Spohr’s oratorio. The text is written with especial regard to the nature and the character of an oratorio, and the subject which Spohr has illustrated by the exercise of his talent is especially favourable to its exhibition. Three nations are represented: the captive Hebrews, the luxurious Babylonians and the Persians in their pride of conquest: these furnish materials for the most varied musical treatment by the composer, of which he has availed himself in the most admirable manner, and thoroughly understood how to adhere throughout the music to the identity and nationality of the different nations. His peculiar genius for the invention of beautiful melodies, and his power to enrich these with appropriate harmonies is also preminently conspicuous in this splendid work.” After a detailed analysis of the separate “numbers” it is further said: “The general opinion of the oratorio is this: It is a master piece of art, worthy to rank with “Die letzten Dingen” and “Des Heilands letzten Stunden.” Emphatic as this praise may be, it is nevertheless just. Though from the same hand, the work is nevertheless essentially different from these. The former excite feelings of deep devotion and christian piety, in the latter we distinguish the character of the deity more in its majesty and omnipotence; Jehovah displays himself to us in acts of power by dooming the ungodly to punishment. The work fulfils all the conditions of a true oratorio, and its performance was a triumph of English art. One thing only was deeply and generally deplored, that Spohr was prevented from being present at this triumph.” In the Morning Chronicle, after similar enthusiastic expressions of opinion, follows: “In a word, the music is characterised by the whole power and peculiarity of Spohr’s genius, and we may boldly assert that it is the grandest work written since the days of Händel.”—The immense crowd that pressed forward to the hall to witness the performance is adverted to by all the papers, and the Morning Herald especially, speaks of it thus: “Although to hear Spohr’s oratorio an unusually numerous auditory was to be expected, yet no one could have formed an idea of what actually occurred. From an early hour in the morning carriages arrived in numbers, filled with the rank and beauty of the county.... The whole interior of the building was immediately filled; where a resting-place could be found for one foot only, fool-hardy individuals were to be seen located in the most dangerous situations, and every one seemed determined to endure the greatest inconvenience rather than forego the pleasure of hearing Spohr’s oratorio. Many persons clambered up to the roof, and from thence in at the window, but numbers were compelled to remain outside, and content themselves with looking down from their dizzy height upon the crowds below. This is no exaggeration, but strictly true; and that such a degree of interest should have been evinced for a new musical work, is certainly an event that stands alone in the history of music,” &c. While Spohr found at home a cheering distraction in these gratifying accounts, his admirers and friends in England were considering how to make him some compensation for his loss, and before the close of the year he received an invitation to London during his next vacation, to conduct his oratorio.
Upon Spohr’s arrival in London in June 1843, Professor Taylor, who had conducted his oratorio at Norwich, in his stead, and who had discharged that difficult task most creditably, had so far made all the preliminary preparations that after a few rehearsals, its performance could take place at the Hanover Square Rooms to his full satisfaction. The public also gave vent to their enthusiasm, with the most reiterated and demonstrative applause, and at the conclusion greeted him with three cheers. Nevertheless all those who had been present at the festival in the fine St. Andrew’s Hall at Norwich, were not by any means satisfied that Spohr had not been permitted to hear his work under equally favourable circumstances, in all its grandeur, and he received the invitation to direct a second grander performance, which the Sacred Harmonic Society were desirous of giving with their chorus of five hundred voices in the large concert-room of Exeter Hall. But as he had proposed to himself to devote the yet remaining week’s leave of absence to a journey to Wales, of the scenery of which he had heard so much spoken in praise, and as the time moreover appeared to him much too short for a careful study of his oratorio, he returned an answer declining the invitation. Upon subsequent pressing solicitation, nevertheless, and repeated conferences, he at length yielded, and it was then agreed that the requisite rehearsals should be made during Spohr’s absence, so that he would have nothing more to do than to take upon himself the direction of the performance, and meanwhile he could proceed undisturbed upon his projected journey. Highly necessary to him, also, was such a refreshing change of scene after the almost overwhelming fatigues of the musical entertainments and dinner-parties of the preceding weeks, at the greater part of which he himself took an active share in the performances. At the last concert of the Philharmonic Society, in which he directed the performance of several of his compositions: “Die Weihe der Töne,” the overture to the “Alchymist,” and the flower duet from “Jessonda,” but first himself executed his concertino in E major upon the violin, he was, as recorded by the “Spectator”—“welcomed like a Prince, the whole company rising spontaneously from their seats to salute him” ... and when he had concluded his artistic and indescribably charming play, the irrepressible outbursts of delight shewed how completely he had touched the heart-strings of his auditory. At the end of the concert the directors conveyed to him moreover the wishes of the queen, that he would play once more in an extra-concert to be given for that purpose. As he could not well refuse this, the concert took place a week afterwards, and comprised in its compendious programme among other things a symphony of Mozart, the ninth symphony of Beethoven, with the choruses, and three of Spohr’s compositions: concertino in A major, the overture to “Macbeth,” and Tristan’s air in “Jessonda,” in which Staudigl was twice encored.
Respecting the further circumstances of the concert a letter written home contains the following: “The extra-concert of yesterday was a very brilliant success, and afforded us high enjoyment. The appearance there of the Queen was an event of which all the newspapers and everybody also spoke beforehand with much interest; as since her coronation she had never yet appeared at one. When she entered the room, dressed in a plain black robe, but wearing a good many diamonds, the public clapped their hands and rose from their seats, upon which the soli and chorus sang “God save the Queen” with great effect. During the entre-acte, the Queen sent for Spohr to the adjoining apartment, where she discoursed with him for some time in a very flattering manner, and advised him during his further journey in England to travel incognito, otherwise in every town he would be annoyed and intruded upon in the same manner as in London. Prince Albert and the King of the Belgians entered also into conversation with him, and he was much edified by their remarks. Several persons whom we knew, who sat near the Queen, laid great stress upon the circumstance that upon Spohr’s appearance in the orchestra, she and her husband bowed very profoundly, and clapped their hands very warmly,” &c. At further music parties he experienced great pleasure in hearing his trios, quartets, airs and duets from his operas, and songs, executed with the most perfect finish, and was always much delighted with the wonderfully pure execution of the favorite English glees. Upon these occasions he was not at all disturbed by the enormous quantity of musical pieces which were brought forward, for with his inexhaustible nerve and power of endurance he was fortunately enabled to compete with the English.
As a curiosity of the kind the following programme may be adduced, of a musical festival got up by Mr. Alsager, then co-editor of the Times, in honour of Spohr:
Queen Square Select Society.
Musical Festival in Honour of the arrival of Spohr in London.
Sunday July 2, 1843.