Louis Spohr's Autobiography / Translated from the German

by Louis Spohr

Subsequently also, Spohr’s activity was unusually taxed at the theatre, as he was required for the approaching Whitsuntide holidays to prepare not only the usual opera but also (an exceptional case) a grand concert, in which among other things his double symphony and his first concertante were executed by himself and his pupil Jean Bott. For Whitmonday a new opera, “Arria,” by Hugo Stähle, had been selected, which as the maiden-work of a young composer who had grown up amid them had greatly awakened the interest of all lovers of music in Cassel. Already when a boy the young musician had exhibited such prominent talent, that Spohr was induced, at the wish of his father, Major Stähle of Cassel, to take him as a pupil in composition. With constantly increasing interest he now watched the progress of his talented pupil, who, already a good pianist, soon tried his hand at greater pianoforte-compositions, among which a quartet in A major (Op. 1, published by Schuberth) is especially remarkable as a success. Encouraged by this, he then, though not yet one and twenty years of age, ventured under Spohr’s guidance upon the composition of music to the opera above named, written by his friend Jac. Hofmeister, and that so fully satisfied Spohr, that upon his pressing recommendation its performance was determined upon and soon put in process of execution. Though Spohr experienced real satisfaction at the highly favourable reception this opera met with from the public, and looked forward hopefully to a brilliant future for the young composer, this first triumph was unhappily his last; for after the lapse of a year, he was seized with an inflammatory fever, which arrested his career of promise by an early death!

After Spohr had several times deferred his last visit to England to direct according to invitation the performance of some of his works, he at length resolved in the summer of 1847, to yield once more to the reiterated invitations he had received, and to direct the three grand concerts, in which the Sacred Harmonic Society proposed to give the whole of his sacred pieces—oratorios, psalms, &c. At the commencement of the theatrical vacation he therefore set out, accompanied on the journey to England by his wife and sister-in-law, and this time by way of the interesting cities of Brussel and Ghent to Ostend, where he proposed to embark. A letter written home adverts as follows to their stay in Ghent: “On our way we had been informed that upon the very day of our arrival a grand singing festival was to take place, of the united Flemish and German lyrical societies; but as we did not arrive here before 7 o’clock in the evening, some time after the chief part of the concert had begun, we thought to avail ourselves of the fine summer evening to take a walk through the town, which we found large and handsome beyond our expectation. Scarcely however had we proceeded above a hundred yards when Spohr was recognised by some gentlemen, who hastened towards him with the greatest surprise, and compelled us almost by force to go with them and hear the second part of the concert, the first part being just finished. In this manner we were all three hurried into a fine building, the ‘Palais de Justice’ and stood suddenly in the immense hall filled with several thousand persons, when at the same moment one of the gentlemen who brought us in, a member of the committee of the festival, with a loud voice called out: ‘Messieurs, le grand compositeur Spohr vient d’arriver dans notre ville, le voici!’ At this announcement the whole assembly rose from their seats, and clapping their hands cried: ‘Vive Spohr, le grand Spohr!’ and a perfect shower of flowers in the shape of bouquets large and small were showered upon him from all sides. It was long before the tumultuous applause ceased; meanwhile seats were yielded to us in the best places, and there we sat somewhat out of countenance in our dusty travelling costume in the midst of handsomely dressed ladies. But the whole scene, from its very unexpectedness, had something extremely original and almost overpowering about it. We then heard, with the rest, the second part of the concert, in which the different lyrical associations sung in part with, and partly without, orchestral accompaniment. They all met with the most lively applause, which their execution in reality also deserved.

“It lasted until past 9 o’clock, and then a crowd of persons pressed forward to salute Spohr and to speak to him, so that it was late enough before we got home to supper, and retired to rest. But this was again to be of short duration, for between 11 and 12 o’clock we heard all manner of noises and preparations for a grand serenade, which the Ghent society ‘Des Mélomanes’ had resolved upon giving to Spohr. Nolens volens he was obliged to get out of bed and dress anew not only in acknowledgement of the fine music and tremendous vivats of the assembled crowd, but also to receive a deputation, which at the solemn midnight hour announced to him his nomination as honorary member of the society,” &c.

Upon Spohr’s arrival in London he and his travelling companions were again hospitably received in the friendly family of Professor Taylor, and for them now began in every respect a period of great enjoyment. The oratorio performances in Exeter-Hall appointed for every Friday, went off with their usual finished perfection; but the programme that had been previously determined upon had suffered from the alteration, that in place of the “Calvary,” which it was feared would here also excite objection on the part of the clergy, a second performance of the “Fall of Babylon” was announced; while in the third concert, as it had been previously determined, “Die letzten Dinge,” the “Lord’s Prayer,” and Spohr’s recently composed 84th. Psalm after Milton’s metrical translation, were given. The enthusiasm at all the three concerts, which was scarcely susceptible of increase on all that had previously been shewn, was evinced this time more particularly by rapturous encores of a great number of choruses and solo pieces. The intervening days were passed in a no less satisfactory manner, in which all emulated in affording some enjoyment, or in testifying their respect for Spohr in various ways. In varied and constant interchange, invitations, festivities, promenades and railway excursions succeeded each other, one of which extended as far as 70 English miles, to the celebrated university city of Cambridge, with its grand and peculiar style of architecture; and another to the city of Ely, remarkable for its situation upon a beautiful and fruitful hill rising from the midst of a low moorland, and yet more for its beautiful cathedral, considered one of the finest specimens of Gothic architecture in England. In this, as a remains of its former splendour, the finest ecclesiastical psalmody is still chanted during divine service by sixteen singers especially maintained for that purpose, and seldom in that solitary place could perhaps be found hearers so devoutly attentive and edified as were Spohr and his travelling companions.

In pleasant reunions with the Horsley, Benedict and Taylor families, his most intimately known friends, Spohr especially passed many happy hours, in whose circles allied so intimately to art and artists, fine music was a never-failing enjoyment, and in which frequently, to the delight of his hearers, Spohr contributed his personal aid. The more decidedly however, did he decline every request to perform in public, and in one exceptional instance only consented to assist at a concert given in his honour by the Beethoven quartet society. The programme of this concert, which displayed the heading “Homage to Spohr,” comprised however on this occasion nothing of Beethoven, and three compositions of Spohr only, selected from different periods of his life, viz: 1st. A quartet (G minor), a production of his early youth; 2dly. A duet composed about 20 years later, played by Joachim and Sainton in a masterly manner, and 3rdly. The third double quartet (E minor), in which Spohr took the first violin part, and by his play and by the whole composition, the first “number” of which alone had kindled the admiration of the public, drew down a very storm of applause. The newspapers adverted in terms of the highest praise to the selection of the three compositions and to their separate beauties. Upon this occasion, respecting the duets the “Times” said as follows: “These duets for two violins belong to the greatest productions of Spohr’s richly inventive genius. Out of seemingly small materials the great composer has achieved harmonic effects scarcely inferior in richness and fullness to the quartet. The duet in E flat is positively overflowing with beauties of melody and counterpoint, a perfect masterpiece.”... And added further on: “The double quartet in E minor is one of Spohr’s most surpassingly rich compositions.... Every separate theme bears the stamp of genius, and is worked out with a perfection of finish that displays the highest degree of intelligence.”... “If Spohr had never written anything else, his fame would have been established by this work alone, as one of the greatest composers in the world.”... “Spohr plays now but seldom in public, but both musicians, and the general public alike, eagerly seize the rare opportunity of hearing the greatest violinist of the present day. His style is a pattern of purity and taste.... He not alone produces difficulties of every kind, and handles them with the ease of mere play toys,—but in his execution displays moreover the full energy and inspiration of youth.”...

The end of the vacation was now rapidly drawing near, and with it once more the hour of parting; and on the last days of his sojourn so manifold were the demands made upon his time and attention that all his habitual calm self possession was taxed to the utmost. With heart and mind impressed with happy and elevating reminiscences he returned to his native country, where with his accustomed cheerfulness and zeal he was soon re-engaged in the performance of the duties of his post.

In the beginning of November he was plunged into grief by the sudden intelligence of the death of his friend Mendelssohn, deeply lamenting whose loss both as a man and a musician, he expressed himself as follows in a letter to M. Hauptmann: “What might Mendelssohn in the full maturity of his genius not have written, had fate permitted him a longer life! For his delicate frame the mental exertion was too great and therefore destructive! His loss to art is much to be lamented, for he was the most gifted of then living composers, and his efforts in art were of the noblest!”—His next thought was to institute a festival in memoriam of the too early departed one, but as he received for answer to his proposal to that effect, from the intendant of the court theatre, that: “the proposed festival in memory of the deceased could not be permitted at the concerts of the court theatre, as it did not find approval in the highest quarters,” he determined to give it on a smaller scale at a private concert in celebration of the 25th. anniversary of the St. Cecilia society on the 22nd. November, and upon the occasion to inaugurate the fete with a poem composed for the occasion with a chorus from Mendelssohn’s “Paulus.” But after everything had been arranged for the best and the grand rehearsal been held, intelligence was suddenly received of the dangerous illness of the Elector Wilhelm II., who resided in Frankfort, which was followed by that of his death, and the order for a general mourning throughout the Electorate and a desistance from every kind of music on the following days. Hereupon, after a delay of a month, the performance of the projected festival was again about to take place, and Spohr had once more fixed the day for it, when death once more intervened—this time afflicting his own family with a very painful loss. On the 18th. December Spohr’s mother-in-law was seized with illness, and after a few days’ suffering was snatched from the disconsolate family to which she had been bound by ties of the tenderest affection. The Christmas holidays, which had usually been with them a period of happy festivity, were now changed to days of gloom and mourning, and the more so from the circumstance that Mr. Pfeiffer (father) was laid on a sick-bed by the unexpected blow, and the happy reunion in the paternal house, where Spohr always felt so happy, and so well knew how to make others so, seemed to be interrupted for a long time, if not for ever! The subsequent weeks passed amid cares and anxieties, and not until his father-in-law’s convalescence could Spohr think of celebrating the long-prepared-for festival.

The programme was so arranged, that it presented in chronological order twelve music pieces of Bach, Händel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Hauptmann, Mendelssohn and Spohr, as specimens of the style of each of those masters, to whose works the St. Cecilia society during its existence of twenty-five years had especially devoted its efforts. After the last song piece but one: “Wir preisen selig die” &c., from “Paulus,” a poem was recited, entitled: Feeling of sorrow upon the early death of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.