Famous composers and their works, Vol. 2 - Unknown

Reproduced from a lithograph portrait drawn by W. Pfaff.

At this time Spohr continued the composition of chamber music and formed a quartet, consisting of himself, Wiele, solo violinist of the court orchestra, Ferdinand Spohr, viola, and Haseman, 'cello. About this time, too, he wrote the first of his four double quartets, which were then a great novelty. He visited Leipsic and Berlin to conduct first performances of "Jessonda," which in both cities achieved great success. In 1824, he enjoyed the society of Mendelssohn during the winter in Berlin. Returning to Cassel he wrote his opera "Der Berggeist," which was produced at the marriage of the Elector's daughter on Mar. 23, 1825, and was well received.

In the same year Rochlitz, editor of the Leipsic Music Journal, offered him the text of the oratorio, "The Last Judgment," and he set to work on it at once. The oratorio was produced in the Lutheran church of Cassel, on Good Friday, Mar. 25, 1826, and made a deep impression. In 1827, he produced another opera, "Pietro von Albano," which in spite of Meyerbeer's enthusiastic praise, had little success. In 1831, he finished his "Violin School," a book of instruction which is still held in esteem though not regarded as the best. In 1832, political disturbances, in which Spohr played the radical and offended the Elector, interrupted the opera performances at Cassel for a long time, and the artist devoted his time to oratorio and instrumental composition. In 1832 he wrote his most noted symphony, "The Consecration of Tones," and in 1834 he was at work on his "Calvary," which was produced at Cassel on Good Friday, 1835. He went to England a second time in 1839, to conduct "Calvary" at the Norwich Festival. The success of the work was so great that he was commissioned to write "The Fall of Babylon" (the book by Edward Taylor) for the Norwich Festival of 1842. In 1840 he conducted a festival at Aix-la-Chapelle, and in 1842 he produced Wagner's "Der Fliegende Holländer" at Cassel.

He had heard much in its praise from Dresden, and having read the work was at once pleased with it. In writing to a friend he said: "It 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 there-in; 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 the theatre, be thoroughly clear, and intelligible.... 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." This opinion of Spohr's is creditable to his judgment as a musician and his generosity as a man. He worked hard and gave a performance which pleased the public. He wrote to Wagner of the success of his work and received from the young composer one of his characteristic letters of gratitude.

The Elector of Hesse-Cassel, unmoved even by a monster petition headed with the name of Lord Aberdeen, declined to permit Spohr to go to England, and conduct the "Fall of Babylon" at the Norwich Festival. The oratorio was produced without his assistance and was highly successful. He went to England, however, at the beginning of his summer vacation and gave some profitable concerts. In 1844 he brought forward his last opera, "Die Kreuzfahrer" ("The Crusaders"). For this he had arranged his own libretto from a play by Kotzebue. The success of the opera, performed at Cassel and Berlin, was brief. He made a trip to Paris, where the Conservatoire orchestra honored him with a special performance of his "Consecration of Tones." He conducted the "Missa Solemnis" and the Ninth Symphony at the Beethoven Festival at Bonn, in the same year. In 1847 he again visited London, when his "Fall of Babylon," "Last Judgment," "Lord's Prayer," and Milton's eighty-fourth psalm were presented in three concerts by the Sacred Harmonic Society. In the same year the twenty-fifth anniversary of his assumption of the directorship at Cassel was celebrated by a performance of excerpts from his operas.

The revolutionary events of 1848 interrupted Spohr's flow of compositions. He felt, as he wrote to his friend Hauptmann, that "the excitement of politics and the constant reading of newspapers incapacitated him from giving his attention to any serious and quiet study." In 1849, while recovering from an illness caused by a fall on the ice, he planned his ninth symphony, "The Seasons," which he wrote shortly after his recovery. He went to Breslau in the hope of hearing Schumann's "Genoveva," but owing to delays heard only some rehearsals. During his two weeks' stay in Breslau, honors were heaped upon him. Banquets were given, concerts of his music were arranged, and his opera "Zemire und Azor" was performed at the theatre. In 1850 he was made to suffer from court malice. The Elector, probably to chastise him for his radical political ideas, refused him permission to take a summer vacation. He went away without leave, and the result was a lawsuit with the managers of the theatre, which after four years he lost by a technicality.

In 1852, at the invitation of the Covent Garden management, he again visited England to produce his "Faust," which was successfully given on July 15 with Castellan, Ronconi, Formes and Tamberlik in the principal parts. In 1853 Spohr showed once more his respect and consideration for the rising genius of Wagner by devoting his energies to a careful production of "Tannhäuser." The letters of Spohr show that while he heartily sympathized with Wagner's irresistible sincerity of purpose and the honesty of his dramatic art, he, like many others, found the new master's manner of writing hard to comprehend. He exclaims in one letter to Hauptmann: "What faces would Haydn and Mozart make, were they obliged to hear the stunning noise that is now given to us for music." Nevertheless Spohr saw the germs of a noble dramatic style in these works of Wagner, and after his successful and artistically admirable production of "Tannhäuser," he turned his attention to "Lohengrin." Owing, however, to the opposition of the Elector and the court, the work was not produced, and, indeed, Spohr never heard it. In the same year (1853) he made his sixth visit to London, conducting three concerts of the New Philharmonic Society, at which, among other things, his own double symphony and Beethoven's ninth were performed. His opera "Jessonda" was put in rehearsal at Covent Garden by Mr. Gye, but Spohr had to return to Cassel before it was produced.

On his return journey he planned his septet for piano, two stringed and four wind instruments, one of his most admired chamber compositions. In 1854 he passed his summer vacation in Switzerland and visited Munich. In 1855 he visited Hanover, where he heard his seventh violin concerto played, as he writes, "in a very masterly manner, by Joachim." On his departure from Hanover the Royal Hanoverian Chapel presented him with a very handsome conductor's baton. In 1856 Spohr became conscious that his productive powers were failing. He wrote two quartets and a symphony, all three of which he condemned, after repeated alterations, to remain in manuscript and silence. In 1857 he made a trip through Holland and returned to Cassel much refreshed. On Nov. 14, much against his inclination, the elector retired him from active duty on a pension of fifteen hundred thalers per annum. He soon became reconciled to his retirement, but two days after Christmas he met with a more serious misfortune in a fall which broke his left arm and rendered him incapable of further violin playing. This was a source of deep grief to him and no doubt prepared his spirit for the final resignation of all earthly joys. How he clung to his artistic endeavors may be seen in a letter to Hauptmann (April 6, 1858) in which he says: "I am now perfectly convinced that I cannot accomplish any great work more. I regret to say that my last attempt of the kind failed, and my requiem remains a fragment; nevertheless, as the subject, as far as the Lachrimosa dies illa, at which I stuck fast, pleases me well, and seems to have much that is new and ingenious in it, I shall not destroy it, as I should like to take it up again, and shall make another attempt to complete it." He devoted half a day to this attempt, but the effort only brought him to a final determination to abandon composition for good and all.