Spohr now determined to write another quartet (his 34th.), upon terminating which he immediately opened the winter series of his still continued quartet circle with it. Although this new composition was considered extremely fresh and charming by both co-operators and auditory, yet he himself was so little satisfied with it, that after repeated alteration, which were rejected as soon as made, he laid aside the whole quartet as a failure; nor did he write another until a whole twelvemonth had elapsed: this differed in every respect from the former, and he substituted it for it under the same number. Upon its first performance at the quartet meeting this piece of music pleased him right well; but shortly afterwards it seemed to him to require many improvements, and as these did not turn out to his satisfaction, sorrowfully, but resigned to the consciousness that he could no longer carry out in a satisfactory manner the ideas which floated before his fancy, he associated the new 34th. quartet with that which he had previously rejected, and expressed the wish to his wife that neither should at any time be made public.
He came to a similar decision in respect to a symphony which he had composed shortly before, which was performed once only in the presence of a few only of his most intimate musical friends, at a rehearsal by the court orchestra of Cassel. Notwithstanding the numerous beauties and novelties in thought which it contains, to him nevertheless it did not appear worthy of being placed in the fine catalogue of his earlier written symphonies, and in this manner by himself was this—his tenth—symphony condemned, not to destruction it is true, but to eternal concealment.
In the summer of 1857 Spohr availed himself of the vacation to go to Holland, his former visit there being still borne by him in pleasing recollection, he had therefore long been desirous of proceeding thither with his wife to shew her that country, as yet unvisited by her, and remarkable for so many peculiarities. Little as he had calculated upon any musical enjoyments there at such a season of the year, his pleasure was great to hear on the very first evening at Verhulst’s, in Rotterdam, in a numerous circle of musicians and lovers of music, several quartets both of his own and of Verhulst’s composition, upon which occasion the violinist Tours, whose acquaintance he had formerly made, proved himself a great virtuoso, as first violin. The director of music Böhm, of Dortrecht, who had shown from his youth a strong attachment to the honoured master, exhibited it anew by the unwearying attention with which he strove to alleviate all the cares and difficulties of travel in a foreign country, and took them wholly upon himself. Willingly following the arrangements of the excellent “travelling marshall,” as Spohr was wont playfully to call him, the travellers were now enabled to see the many remarkable objects in the chief cities of Holland in a comparatively much shorter time, after which a further journey was undertaken from Amsterdam to that part of North Holland lying beyond the Y. The singular topographical feature of the whole country, the meadows intersected by innumerable canals and lakes, meadows covered with grazing cattle, the hundreds of gaily painted windmills, the cheerful blue sky, and the easy travelling upon the smoothly paved highroads, more like the parquetted floors of an apartment—in short, the whole delightful journey, with its interesting final objects, the celebrated places Saardam and Broek, presented a succession of charming pictures that surpassed all expectation and put Spohr in particular in the most cheerful possible mood.
Their kind “marshall” Böhm accompanied the travellers on their return as far back as Utrecht, but placed them there in good hands, under the hospitable roof of one of Spohr’s grateful pupils, the director of music Kufferath, with whom they passed some exceedingly pleasant days. As the country round Utrecht abounds with handsome country-seats and parks, these furnished occasion for frequent delightful walks with the family of their host; and the musical entertainments given to Spohr—a quickly arranged organ-concert got up by Nieuvenhuisen, the organist of the cathedral, and a grand serenade by torch-light in the evening—made the memory of those days worthy of being associated with the pleasing reminiscences of his former visit.
On the return-journey Spohr stopped a day at Cologne, where Hiller, the director of music, quickly improvised a brilliant dinner-party in his honour, and afterwards gratified him with the performance of some highly interesting musical pieces in his own house. Hiller himself played with great spirit a recently composed sonata for the pianoforte of extreme difficulty of execution, some numbers of the comic opera composed by him called: “Jest, cunning and revenge,” which was received with universal satisfaction, and by Spohr in particular with lively applause. This was succeeded later in the evening by a musical surprise; the celebrated Cologne choral society, wholly composed of male voices, had assembled in all silence in the hotel, and at the door of their honoured guest sang their finest songs in the most masterly manner, which, together with a spirited address, spoken by professor Bischof, afforded him very great pleasure.
Gratified in every respect with his journey, Spohr returned to Cassel, where, reinvigorated and refreshed, he devoted himself with his usual zeal and interest to the materially lightened labours of his office, shared now with his young and active colleague.
Meanwhile, at that time was heard here and there the report that it was contemplated to pension him off; but when he was apprised of this by a friend, and it was put to him whether he would not rather anticipate such an intention by proposing himself to retire upon his pension, he replied with decision, that: his duty and inclination impelled him alike to remain in the performance of his official engagements so long as he could fulfil them satisfactorily. Thus things remained on the old footing, until on the 14th. November, both contrary to his wish and expectation, he received the following rescript from the Elector:
“In pursuance of our most gracious will and pleasure, we have granted to the director-general of music and court Kapellmeister at our court-theatre, Dr. Louis Spohr, by reason of his advanced years, permission to retire into private life, and have been further pleased to grant him a yearly pension of 1500 Thalers from our court treasury from the date of the month next ensuing. The department of our lord high marshall of the palace will make the further dispositions to that effect. Cassel, November 12, 1857. Friedrich Wilhelm.”
Painfully affected as Spohr was upon the receipt of this, he with his usual good sense soon overcame the shock of the first impression and contemplated the matter on its brighter side; in which sense he then gave expression to his sentiments in his letters to distant friends, and among others, in replying shortly afterwards to the director of music Bott respecting other affairs, he wrote as follows; “You do not appear to have yet learned that the Elector, without my solicitation, has placed me in retirement, and although the terms of my engagement specified that my salary should be paid so long as I lived, he has pensioned me off on 1500 Thalers per annum. It has nevertheless appeared in all the newspapers, together with the account of the festive form in which I directed for the last time the opera of Jessonda at the theatre. At first it gave me very great pain, for I felt still perfectly competent to conduct the few operas which latterly fell to my share. But I soon learned to estimate my present freedom at its real value, and now feel very glad that whenever I choose I can get away by rail whithersoever my fancy takes me! I have submitted also to the deduction from my salary, having been informed that I should not be able to compel the payment of the full salary without a new law-suit, and because it was repulsive to my feelings to take the whole amount without performing any service for it, and I can live very well with three-fourths of it by means of my savings!”