At the beginning of the holidays he therefore set out on the journey, but first to Oldenburg, to direct a grand concert there, the receipts from which were destined for the institution of a pension fund for the members of the orchestra there.
The programme had been previously cast by A. Pott, the resident director, his former pupil and enthusiastic admirer, and consisted wholly of Spohr’s compositions, viz. concert overture in the serious style; latest violin concerts in E minor, executed by the composer; duett from “Jessonda” sung by Mrs. Schmidt of Bremen and Mr. **; clarinet concerto, played by Mr. Köhn, member of the ducal orchestra; grand symphony in C minor (No. 5); the “Lord’s Prayer,” for solo, chorus, and orchestra.
Upon Spohr’s arrival he found the whole of the musical pieces (the last two of which he himself directed) so well practised under Pott’s direction, that at the rehearsal he was greatly pleased by it. At the public performance, also, every thing went off so well, that Mrs. Spohr expresses herself in a letter home as follows: “We felt as though we had been suddenly transported to England. The music, the finished execution, the spacious, densely filled, and splendidly acoustic building, the enthusiastic applause and admiration—all were in truth grandly English. And all this was doubly surprising and gratifying when one thinks that this took place in a small town with a population of only 12,000. Orchestra and singers, three hundred persons in all, worked together with wonderful harmony. Every piece of music was excellent, but the impression made by the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ was quite indescribable, and the words in which Pott shortly before expressed himself to Spohr, after a rehearsal of it: ‘Happy is the man who can pray with such intense devotion; peace must indeed dwell in his soul,’ presented themselves here in their full import to my mind. Spohr, also, was of my opinion that he had never heard the piece so well played, for even in the finest shades of the expression there was nothing more to be desired. The whole platform from which Spohr led the orchestra, and the steps leading to it, were strewn with the finest roses; the whole front of the orchestra was decorated with wreaths; and beneath his bust, crowned with laurel, were the words ‘Louis Spohr’ in gigantic letters, composed of roses and laurel artistically interwoven. While the assembly were listening with the deepest attention to the splendid tones, it was little imagined by any one how every enjoyment was embittered to Spohr, by a sudden seizure with cramp in the stomach, which soon became so intense, as he himself afterwards related, that when conducting the symphony and the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ he had great difficultly in keeping himself erect. After the concert we were to have assisted at another fête, given by the minister von Beaulieu at his house, in honour of Spohr; but under the circumstances this became impossible, and we hastened home with all speed, where, having arrived, Spohr went immediately to bed, and was obliged to resort to sedatives; but the cramp would not yield to them, and the doctor who was called in, vainly endeavoured to afford him relief, so that the pain became intense. At this very moment when Spohr lay in such a sad condition of suffering that he expected every moment would be his last, a singular and striking contrast was presented to his position, by a monster torch-light procession followed by a large concourse of the inhabitants of Oldenburg, which halted under our windows, and began a grand serenade with the overture and several choruses from ‘Jessonda,’ performed by all the native and foreign musicians then in Oldenburg, together with three choral societies. Many other pieces were to have been performed, but by Spohr’s wish, Pott availed himself of the opportunity when a loud cheer was raised by the crowd, to address them in his name from the window in a speech of thanks, which, although improvised, was as well put together and delivered as though he had long previously studied it. But when he acquainted them with Spohr’s illness also, a general depression spread immediately through all present, and the previously so joyous assembled serenaders, withdrew in silent sadness. In our house, meanwhile, all was remarkably lively: the hostess, Mrs. Oppermann, wife of the Councillor Oppermann of the high court of appeal, was entertaining two carriage-loads of guests who had come to the concert, together with all her acquaintance, who had assembled below to be enabled to hear the serenade music better. In strange contrast with these intervened the various attendances to the necessities of our patient, the messages to the apothecary, my agony of mind—in fact, it was a situation singular indeed of its kind.
“At midnight the physician came again, wrote some new prescriptions, and gave fresh instructions, but all in vain; the attacks of the cramp lasted till near 3 o’clock, when they became at length less violent, and by degrees entirely ceased. But as the doctor was of opinion this morning that the motion of the carriage might be prejudicial to the invalid, we have deferred our departure, and the more so, as we could be nowhere better off than here, where we receive the kindest attention and care from the whole household, and everything that the heart can wish is at our service. To-day, Spohr received from the Grand-duke a splendid diamond ring as a ‘souvenir of Oldenburg,’ which greatly surprised and pleased him. The Grand-duke had intended to place the ring himself on his finger at the dinner to which he had invited him, but this also was defeated by the illness that overtook him,” &c.
Spohr having determined by the advice of the physician to proceed as soon as possible direct from Oldenburg to the baths of Carlsbad, and devote the remainder of his vacation to the re-establishment of his health by drinking the waters, he thought he should no longer be able to fulfill his promises—to direct his “Jessonda” at Bremen, and the first performance of the “Crusaders” at Berlin—wherefore with a heavy heart he sent off letters announcing his inability to proceed to those places.
Meanwhile, however, the remarkable efficacy of the Carlsbad waters, which he had already several times experienced, evinced itself again upon him in so satisfactory a manner, that in the very first week of his stay the idea suggested itself to him, to remain for the present but a fortnight only in Carlsbad, and defer following up the cure of its waters to the following summer, so that his so unwillingly abandoned purpose of proceeding to Berlin might yet be carried out. In this hope he continued the course of baths with such unwearied perseverance and unswerving confidence that he was enabled to reach Berlin in sufficient time to assume personally the direction of his “Crusaders.”
At the first grand rehearsal, in which he was introduced by Meyerbeer and Councillor Küstner to the assembled company of the theatre, he became convinced that his work had been studied with particular pleasure and predilection, and the song parts, although not filled by stars of the first magnitude, were nevertheless impersonated, as regarded the chief and secondary characters, in a thoroughly satisfactory manner. On the evening of the performance he was received upon his appearance with the greatest enthusiasm by the public, and loudly called for after every act. On the following night the opera was repeated with the same brilliant success. The public papers contained also the most favourable notices of each, and the “Vossische Zeitung” especially gave an article from the pen of Rellstab to this effect: “We have to speak of an event in art that will occupy one of the most prominent and honourable places in the history of our stage—the first performance of Louis Spohr’s new opera, “The Crusaders.” The merits of the master have already made themselves so prominently conspicuous, and the worth of that which we possess in him is so fully acknowledged, that it is not necessary even to speak of the character of his music nor of its effects upon the development of art in the present day.... What we had to expect as a whole, every body knew who knows the artistic direction of Spohr’s genius—and who does not know it? That we should hear a work that might be ranked with the noblest of the kind to which the composer has adhered throughout his whole life, was to be expected. But we must frankly confess, we had not dared to hope for so much freshness, so many instances of fiery power, as the now more than sexagenarian master actually gives us! Throughout the whole, he is the same we have long known; but in many circumstances of the detail he presents us with numerous gifts of new and finished excellence—and also of frequent brilliancy. His muse has never addressed herself to the crowd: she never sought to seduce by coquettish and alluring advances; her language, her movements have been alone animated by a noble spiritual inspiration, and sought to win the heart by purity and dignity. We had at first intended to indicate the most prominently beautiful passages, which we consider it just to particularise; but we soon found them so numerous, that we were compelled to content ourselves with a selection. In the first act we recall to mind the singular freshness of Baldwin’s greeting; Emma’s devout song: “Dass ich die Braut des Himmels bin,” the effective and ominous mingling of the tolling of the funeral bell in the discourse with the porteress; the first strong physiognomic delineations of the abbess Celestina, in the words: “Ich kenne Dein Geschlecht—Dein Schicksal führt Dich her;” we remember some features that designate the same character and its impassioned ebullition, as: the soft transition of the orchestra after the words: “Ihr sollt das Mädchen lieben;” and the subsequent words: “Gerichtet hat ihn Gott!—die Mutter weint,—die Tochter büsst,—dem Todten sei verziehen;” which are of the deepest and most impressive effect from their musical treatment.—The march of the Saracens in this act is also of most original colouring, and recurs again in the third act, where it is connected with that which has gone before, and is handled in so startling and beautiful a manner in the orchestra, that the public expressed their delight at the return to it there by a general outburst of applause.—If we cite fewer passages in the subsequent acts, it is not that these were poorer, but not to weary the reader’s patience with the enumeration of individual parts; and indeed the power of the music increases with the interest of the subject treated. The recognition scene between Balduin and Emma, Balduin’s threat at its conclusion, and the whole finale of the second act, form striking moments, which always ensure the admiration of the hearer. In the third act, the duet between Balduin and Bruno is a fine master-piece of music, and the conclusion, the despair of Balduin, replete with energetic force, and instrumented in a truly powerful manner. The battle chorus of the Turks, from its prominent difference of colouring, excited the enthusiasm of the auditory, who followed the conformity of the opera well sustained throughout from that part to the end, with the most lively interest.... We must also acknowledge the zeal of all the performers.... But no less are thanks and honour due to the public! They have this time shewn themselves fully sensible of their office of judge and reward-giver, and gave that unremitting attention to the work throughout which is most expressive of the admiration and interest it awakened. Scarcely any fine passage passed unnoticed by more or less warm demonstrations.... The day thus terminated in a triumph for long years of meritorious services, and in a day of honour for this particular work, which bears witness to the wealth in artistic riches possessed by the composer, and in what sure keeping and governance they are in the hands of our highly esteemed master;” &c.—Passing over other similar notices, a criticism (signed H. T.) may be adverted to here, for its strikingly harsh contrast with the former; overflowing with dissatisfaction and every kind of reproach of this opera, and which although not among the other papers now before us, is still remembered by the family as one that greatly surprised them by its contents. In cases of this kind Spohr always laughed at the angry zeal of his friends, affirming that every one had a right to express his personal opinion freely, but at the same time with the remark: “When a piece of music is really good, no reviling critic can take from it an atom of its merit!”—
Though the brilliant success of this opera, which Spohr had written under circumstances of particular predilection, constituted the most important moment of his eight days’ visit to Berlin, he passed the previous and subsequent days in the most agreeable manner in the amiable family circle of Professor Wichmann. But not alone in the hospitable reception accorded him and his wife, which afforded them all the delights of a charming domesticity, did Spohr experience the highest gratification; for from other quarters also marks of attention were shown him yet more demonstrative of the honour in which his genius was held.
Especially gratifying as were to him the attentions of his colleagues in art, Meyerbeer, Taubert, Hub. Riess, and others, he was not insensible to the tribute of acknowledgment paid to him by the King; and the honour of an invitation to the royal table was yet more enhanced in worth to him, from its being communicated to him at the King’s request in a personal visit from the celebrated Alexander v. Humboldt. Of this royal dinner party, at which, besides Humboldt, Tiek, v. Savigny, and other personages of note were present, who emulated with each other in pleasing and intellectual conversation with the King and Queen, Spohr always spoke with much pleasure in later years. More especially, however, he would recur to the following amusing incident:
Between the King and Spohr, who was seated opposite to him, rose an ornamental centre-piece of considerable height, in the shape of a costly flower-vase, which whenever the King was desirous of addressing his conversation to Spohr, greatly interfered and prevented him from seeing his face. Upon each occasion, the King was obliged to stoop in order to look round the inconveniently intervening object, until growing impatient, after having made several signs to the servants to remove it, which they appeared not to have understood, the King seized it with his own hand, and removing the obtrusive ornament procured for himself an unimpeded view across the table to Spohr.—On the last evening, while the Wichmann family and their guests were seated in the illuminated garden saloon in friendly chat, they were greatly surprised by the sudden entry from the obscurity of the garden of several dark figures, which were followed by a constantly increasing number, until the whole of the members of the royal orchestra, with Meyerbeer and Taubert at their head, assembled, upon which the senior member presented Spohr with a beautifully executed golden laurel-wreath, while Meyerbeer, in a speech of much feeling, thanked him “for all the grand and beautiful things which in his enthusiastic love of true German art he had hitherto created, and especially for this his excellent work, “The Crusaders,” &c. This discourse upon the evening of his taking leave, spoken with warmth and sincerity by such a man, could not fail to make a deep impression upon Spohr and every person present, and it was followed by a silence the most profound; until professor Wichmann, who was the first to recover his self-possession, approached Meyerbeer, and to the just praises conveyed in his excellent speech, replied with much humour in the words: “Positively, Demosthenes was a mere stump orator in comparison to you!” at which the cheerful tone of the company was magically restored, and Spohr then returned thanks in a concise yet feeling manner. Besides this handsome present from the royal Berlin orchestra, he took back with him to Cassel another souvenir of his stay there, viz. his own bust executed by professor Wichmann, which on account of its speaking resemblance and artistic excellence has always been greatly admired both by connoisseurs and the general public.