Highly honored sir, you call Joachim only the leading German violinist? I find him to be the leading performing musician altogether — an ideal of perfection. With his incomparable mastery he has terrified me and laid me low — but the feeling of artistic elevation that I owe to him won out in the end.
Hans von Bülow to Franz Wüllner, 1 December, 1866
(Berlin SBPK: Mus. ep. Hans von Bülow 1537)
This website is dedicated to the life and art of Joseph Joachim. The information on the site derives from my ongoing research and writing, which I am publishing here in the spirit of modern, open-source scholarship. For copyright reasons related to the source material, some information remains password-protected and unavailable to the public. The WordPress blog format does not allow me to organize posts as I wish: it organizes posts by date, which is to say, randomly. I am, however, presenting the Biographical Posts in sequence, and organizing all of the material in the INDEX. Content is also searchable using the “search” function, though in recent years that has become cumbersome. The detailed Biographical Posts begin here (“Kittsee, 1831”), and continue as a series of linked articles. There are some gaps in the links — this is, as I say, an ongoing project.
In general, if you wish to use any of the content on this site, especially copyright material or photographs, please acknowledge the source. I request that those with whom I have shared protected information keep their password secret and refrain from making public any information that is not already in the public domain.
I wish to acknowledge the invaluable and generous support of the University of New Hampshire, without which this work would not have been possible.
Robert W. Eshbach Associate Professor of Music Emeritus
University of New Hampshire
reshbach (at) unh.edu
1. “Of the Highest Good”: Joachim’s Relationship to Mendelssohn R. Larry Todd
2. Joseph Joachim and His Jewish Dilemma Styra Avins
3. Joachim and Romani Musicians: Their Relationship and Common Features in Performance Practice Mineo Ota
PART TWO: Joachim as Performer
4. Joachim’s Violins: Spotlights on Some of Them Ruprecht Kamlah
5. (Re-)Enchanting Performance: Joachim and the Spirit of Beethoven Karen Leistra-Jones
6. “Thou That Hast Been in England Many a Year”: The British Joachim Ian Maxwell
7. Joachim at the Crystal Palace Michael Musgrave
8. “Music Was Poured by Perfect Ministrants”: Joseph Joachim at the Monday Popular Concerts, London Therese Ellsworth
9. “Das Quartett-Spiel ist doch wohl mein eigentliches Fach”: Joseph Joachim and the String
Quartet Robert Riggs
10. Professor Joachim and His Pupils Sanna Pederson
11. Performers as Authors of Music History: Joseph and Amalie Joachim Beatrix Borchard
12. At the Intersection of Performance and Composition: Joseph Joachim and Brahms’s Piano
Quartet in A Major, Op. 26, Movement III William P. Horne
PART THREE: Joachim as Composer
13. Re-considering the Young Composer-Performer Joseph Joachim, 1841-53 Katharina Uhde
14. “Franz Liszt gewidmet”: Joseph Joachim’s G-minor Violin Concerto, Op. 3 Vasiliki Papadopoulou
15. Drama and Music in Joachim’s Overture to Shakespeare’s Henry IV Valerie Woodring Goertzen
16. “So Gleams the Past, the Light of Other Days”: Joachim’s Hebräische Melodien for Viola and Piano, Op. 9 (1853) Marie Sumner Lott
17. Tovey’s View of Joachim’s “Hungarian” Violin Concerto Robert Riggs
Bibliography
Index
2) I am interested in finding birth records from the Kittsee Kehilla from the late 1820s to the early 1830s. As far as I know, birth records exist only from the mid 1830s onward — too late to include Joachim.
3) I would like to find Margaret Alsager Ayrton’s unpublished diary.
4) I am always interested in seeing letters, photographs, memorabilia, etc. connected with Joachim. Please email me at the above address.
Joseph Joachim at the time of his Adelskasino debut
This priceless historical artifact was erroneously sold by Stair Galleries on September 13, 2008 as “Joseph Joachim Guernier — The Young Violinist,” “Oil on panel, 8 3/4 x 6 3/4 in. Provenance: Property from the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.” It’s whereabouts are currently unknown.
Thank you! RWE
Desiderata:
Ich versuche, die Korrespondenz zwischen Joseph Joachim und Bettina von Arnim zu finden, die 1929 von der Auktionsfirma Henrici versteigert wurde. [Karl Ernst Henrici, Versteigerungskatalog 155, Berlin: am 5. Juli 1929.] Für jede Information, die zum Aufenthaltsort führt, wäre ich sehr dankbar.
Ich interessiere mich für Geburtsregister aus der Kehilla von Kittsee aus den späten 1820er bis frühen 1830er Jahren. Soweit ich weiß, existieren Geburtsregister erst ab Mitte der 1830er Jahre – zu spät, um Joachim einzuschließen.
Ich würde gerne das unveröffentlichte Tagebuch von Margaret Alsager Ayrton finden.
Ich interessiere mich immer für Briefe, Fotos, Erinnerungsstücke usw., die mit Joachim in Verbindung stehen. Bitte schreiben Sie mir eine E-Mail an die oben angegebene Adresse.
Ich interessiere mich für den Aufenthaltsort des Gemäldes von Felix Possart vom Joachim Quartett in der Singakademie zu Berlin (1903).
Joseph Joachim zur Zeit seines Debüts im Adelskasino (siehe oben): Dieses unschätzbar wertvolle historische Artefakt wurde irrtümlicherweise von Stair Galleries am 13. September 2008 als “Joseph Joachim Guernier – Der junge Geiger” verkauft, “Öl auf Holztafel, 8 3/4 x 6 3/4 Zoll. Herkunft: Eigentum der New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox und Tilden Foundations.” Der derzeitige Aufenthaltsort ist unbekannt.
Sold at Sotheby’s on December 13, 2022:
Joachim. Collection of printed and manuscript music belonging to Joachim and his family.
Collection of printed and manuscript music belonging to Joachim and his family, WITH A MANUSCRIPT FULL SCORE OF JOACHIM’S OVERTURE DEMETRIUS,REVISED BY JOACHIM
the printed scores including by Bach (including a Breitkopf edition of six violin sonatas with piano accompaniments by Schumann, INSCRIBED BY SCHUMANN TO JOACHIM), Beethoven (Peters editions of the quartets op.18, arranged for piano four hands, inscribed “Joh. Joachim Pforta, d. 12 Sept. 1883”, and the violin concerto op.61), Gluck (a Peters edition of Iphigénie en Aulide, belonging to Marie Joachim), Mozart (a Peters vocal score of La clemenza di Tito inscribed by Marie Joachim), Tartini, Leclair, Spohr, Schubert, Mendelssohn (including a Peters edition of overtures arranged for piano four hands belonging to Johannes Joachim), Joachim (op.2 no.1, Romance), Schumann (first editions of Bunte Blätter, op.99, and Albumblätter, op.124), Ernst Rudorff (Variations op.24, inscribed by the composer), Brahms (including Ungarische Tänze, arranged for violin and piano, vols.1-3, vol. 3 without the violin part), and Heinrich von Herzogenberg (full score of Symphony no.2, inscribed by the composer “Seinem lieben Freunden Joseph Joachim Weihnacht 1890 HH”)
the manuscript comprising a scribal full score of Joachim’s orchestral overture Demetrius, op.6, notated in brown ink on one 16-stave system per page, dated by the scribe at the end (“Berlin, den 28sten August 1854″), WITH EXTENSIVE PENCIL ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS IN JOACHIM’S HAND, the title-page annotated by Joachim (“Umarbeitung einer frühern Ouverture”), 79 pages, oblong 4to (25.5 x 33.5cm), contemporary cloth, no place, [1854 and later]
33 volumes in all, various sizes, bound in with the volume containing Beethoven’s op.61 some manuscript items, including a sonata by Tartini, possibly marked up by Joachim, mostly cloth, nineteenth century, the inscription by Schumann on one edition cropped
A remarkable collection of volumes from the library of arguably the greatest violinist of the nineteenth century. Of particular interest is the score of Joachim’s Demetrius overture, composed 1853-1854 and later revised – a fine example of what the composer himself termed ‘psychological music’.
I would be delighted to hear from the buyer of this collection. The manuscript copy of the Demetrius Overture is of great historical importance, and should not be lost to scholarship. Please contact me at: reshbach(at)unh.edu. Thank you!
Nur das Bedeutungslose fährt dahin,
Was einmal tief lebendig ist und war,
Das hat Kraft zu sein für immerdar.
Only the meaningless passes away.
That which is and was once deeply alive
Has the power to be for eternity
— Joseph Joachim in Agathe von Siebold Schütte’s Stammbuch, Fall, 1894
elov’d of all to whom that Muse is dear
Who hid her spirit of rapture from the Greek,
Whereby our art excelleth the antique,
Perfecting formal beauty to the ear;
Thou that hast been in England many a year
The interpreter who left us nought to seek,
Making Beethoven’s inmost passion speak,
Bringing the soul of great Sebastian near.
Their music liveth ever, and ’tis just
That thou, good Joachim, so high thy skill,
Rank (as thou shalt upon the heavenly hill)
Laurel’d with them, for thy ennobling trust
Remember’d when thy loving hand is still
And every ear that heard thee stopt with dust.
Robert Bridges, May 2, 1904
First published in the Times, May 17, 1904, p. 11
Ebenezer Prout, “Crystal Palace—Herr Joachim,” The Academy: A Weekly Review of Literature, Science, and Art, February 21, 1874, 214–15.
CRYSTAL PALACE — HERR JOACHIM.
THE special feature of last Saturday’s concert at the Crystal Palace was the first appearance this season of Herr Joachim. This great artist has been so long acknowledged as the first of living violinists, that it is all but impossible to write anything new about him: and one is at the same time met by the difficulty that his performances are invariably so absolutely perfect that the mere description of them sounds like extravagant eulogy. The critic has simply to lay down his pen and admire. While, considered merely as a virtuoso, Joachim has few equals, the last thing one thinks of in hearing him is his wonderful mastery of the instrument. No idea of mere display or the overcoming of mechanical difficulties is suggested by his performance; and the reason of this is simply that, probably more than any other living performer on his instrument, he enters heart and soul into the spirit of whatever he plays. As Beethoven says, “That which is to go to the heart must come from the heart;” and with Joachim everything comes warm from the heart. It is not merely intellectual playing, though that is not to be disparaged; but it is the combination of a perfect understanding of the music and a complete sympathy with it which constitutes the great charm. He seems, if the phrase may be allowed, to have assimilated whatever he performs, and he reproduces it as if it were the spontaneous production of his own soul. Hence, whether in a sonata of Bach, a concerto of Beethoven or Spohr, or a quartet of Schubert or Schumann, the same feeling is produced of perfection, of absolute satisfaction. It is not Joachim’s “reading” of the work; it is rather the work itself. The player seeks to bring forward, not himself, but the composer; and by his very self-denial takes the highest possible artistic position.
To those who have never heard Joachim, this language may perhaps seem exaggerated; but those who have had that good fortune will heartily endorse every word.
The concert on Saturday showed that the great artist had returned to us in the full possession of his powers. Indeed he seems, if possible, to play more finely every year. His performances consisted of Spohr’s Concerto in E minor (No. 7) and a selection of Brahms’s “Hungarian Dances,” originally written as piano duets, and arranged by Joachim himself, with the concurrence of the composer, for violin and pianoforte. Spohr’s concerto, though less popular than his “Scena cantate,” is one of the best of the fifteen works of this class which he produced. The first and last movements are full of charm; the slow movement, though the opening subject is interesting, becomes tedious before its close. It is somewhat the fashion at the present day to decry Spohr. No doubt he has been unduly exalted; no one would rank him with Beethoven or Mozart; but on the other hand he is one of the first in the second rank of composers. True, there is a certain mannerism, a strong family likeness between all his works; but he is never commonplace or vulgar, and the workmanship of his music is always most artistically finished. His concertos for the violin rank among the best of his compositions, and some of them will probably outlive much of his other music.
Brahms’s “Hungarian Dances” are distinguished by great originality and a strong national colouring. We cannot but think they are more effective in their original form; but in Joachim’s adaptation they make excellent concert pieces. After what has been said above, it is needless to add a word as to the performance. It should, however, be stated that the piano accompaniments were excellently played by Mr. Franklin Taylor.
Of the remainder of the programme a few words will suffice. The symphony was Beethoven’s C minor—the best-known of the nine; the other instrumental pieces being Schubert’s graceful “Overture in the Italian Style,” written avowedly in imitation of the overture to Tancredi, and the now well-known and popular Tannhäuser overture. The vocalists were Madame Elena Corani and Signor Agnesti. Mr. Manns being prevented by domestic affliction from occupying his usual post at the conductor’s desk, his place was most efficiently filled by Mr. Wedemeyer, the leader of the first violins.
To-day, in addition to Mendelssohn’s music to the Midsummer Night’s Dream, a new overture by Mr. Alfred Holmes and three pieces for female voices will be produced for the first time at these concerts.
Ebenezer Prout, “[Herr Joachim at the Monday Popular Concerts]”, The Academy: A Weekly Review of Literature, Science, and Art, February 21, 1874, 214–15.
Herr Joachim’s reappearance at the Monday Popular Concerts last Monday was no less of a success than that just adverted to at Sydenham. The announcement of his name was sufficient to crowd St. James’s Hall to the doors; and his reception on mounting the steps of the orchestra was such as a “Monday Popular” audience reserves for its special favourites. The quartet which Herr Joachim selected for performance was Beethoven’s, No. 10, in E flat—no novelty at these concerts, the present being its eleventh performance, but none the less welcome on that account. After what has been said above, it is needless to enlarge upon the exquisite manner in which this great work was rendered; but if one point can be selected for special mention, we should be inclined to name the deeply-moving and pathetic adagio (the influence of which on Mendelssohn, it may be remarked, is clearly to be traced in the slow movement of his Scotch symphony) as one of the most perfect pieces of quartet playing ever heard, both from the expressive, yet never exaggerated “singing” by Herr Joachim of the principal melodies, and from the admirable way in which he was supported by Messrs. Ries, Zerbini, and Piatti.
An even greater effect was produced later in the evening by Herr Joachim’s playing of Bach’s sonata for violin solo in G minor. Owing to the enormous mechanical difficulties to be found in Bach’s violin sonatas, they are very seldom heard in public; and it may safely be said that no living player can give such a reading of them as Joachim. His performance last Monday was one of the most marvellous exhibitions of technical skill, combined with intellectual appreciation of the spirit of the music, which even he has ever given. The clearness with which the elaborate combinations of the fugue were brought out, and the unerring certainty of execution of the final presto (taken at a tremendous pace), can hardly be imagined by those who were not present. The audience recalled the performer with enthusiasm at the close of the piece, nor would they be satisfied until Herr Joachim repeated the last movement.
The pianist at this concert was that sterling artist, Miss Agnes Zimmermann, who chose for her solo Schubert’s sonata in A, Op. 120—a work comparatively but little known, but one of its author’s most individual, though by no means one of his greatest creations. Miss Zimmermann’s reading was not only faultlessly accurate, but full of taste and feeling. No less successful was she in Beethoven’s Trio in C minor, in which she was joined by Herr Joachim and Signor Piatti. A more satisfactory performance could not have been wished.
The vocalist of the evening was Mdlle. Victoria Bunsen, a lady with an excellent contralto voice, who took the place of Mdlle. Nita Gaetano, who had been originally announced, but was prevented by hoarseness from appearing. Mdlle. Bunsen sang extremely well, but was hardly happy in her choice of music, as her first song, Schubert’s “Wanderer,” is much better suited for a baritone voice than for a contralto; and her second, Mozart’s “Voi che sapete,” required transposition to bring it within her compass.
EBENEZER PROUT.
Deutsche Übersetzung
Ebenezer Prout, “Crystal Palace—Herr Joachim,” The Academy: A Weekly Review of Literature, Science, and Art, February 21, 1874, 214–15.
Das besondere Merkmal des Konzerts im Crystal Palace am vergangenen Sonnabend war das erste Erscheinen Herr Joachims in dieser Saison. Dieser große Künstler ist schon so lange als der Erste unter den lebenden Geigern anerkannt, dass es nahezu unmöglich ist, noch etwas Neues über ihn zu schreiben; und zugleich steht man vor der Schwierigkeit, dass seine Aufführungen ausnahmslos so vollkommen sind, dass ihre bloße Beschreibung wie überschwängliches Lob klingt. Der Kritiker hat nichts anderes zu tun, als die Feder aus der Hand zu legen und zu bewundern. Betrachtet man Joachim nur als Virtuosen, so hat er wenige Ebenbürtige; doch ist das Letzte, woran man denkt, wenn man ihn hört, seine wunderbare Meisterschaft über das Instrument. Kein Gedanke an bloße Zurschaustellung oder an das Überwinden mechanischer Schwierigkeiten wird durch sein Spiel nahegelegt; und der Grund dafür ist einfach der, dass er wahrscheinlich mehr als jeder andere lebende Spieler auf seinem Instrument mit ganzem Herzen und ganzer Seele in den Geist dessen eingeht, was er spielt. Wie Beethoven sagt: „Was ins Herz gehen soll, muss aus dem Herzen kommen“; und bei Joachim kommt alles warm aus dem Herzen. Es ist nicht nur intellektuelles Spiel – so wenig dies auch zu verachten ist –, sondern die Verbindung eines vollkommenen Verständnisses der Musik mit einer völligen inneren Anteilnahme an ihr, die ihren großen Zauber ausmacht. Er scheint, wenn man sich so ausdrücken darf, alles, was er vorträgt, in sich aufgenommen zu haben, und er gibt es wieder, als sei es der spontane Ausdruck seiner eigenen Seele. Daher ruft sein Spiel, sei es in einer Sonate von Bach, einem Konzert von Beethoven oder Spohr oder einem Quartett von Schubert oder Schumann, stets dasselbe Empfinden der Vollendung, der vollkommenen Befriedigung hervor. Es ist nicht Joachims „Auffassung“ des Werkes; es ist vielmehr das Werk selbst. Der Spieler bemüht sich, nicht sich selbst, sondern den Komponisten hervortreten zu lassen und nimmt gerade durch diese Selbstverleugnung die höchstmögliche künstlerische Stellung ein.
Für diejenigen, die Joachim niemals gehört haben, mögen diese Worte vielleicht übertrieben erscheinen; doch die, welche das gute Glück hatten, ihn zu hören, werden jedes Wort von Herzen bestätigen. Das Konzert am Sonnabend zeigte, dass der große Künstler in voller Kraft zu uns zurückgekehrt war. Ja, er scheint, wenn es möglich ist, jedes Jahr noch vollkommener zu spielen. Seine Darbietungen bestanden aus Spohrs Konzert e‑Moll (Nr. 7) und einer Auswahl von Brahms’ „Ungarischen Tänzen“, die ursprünglich für Klavier zu vier Händen geschrieben und von Joachim selbst, in Übereinstimmung mit dem Komponisten, für Violine und Klavier eingerichtet wurden. Spohrs Konzert, obgleich weniger beliebt als seine „Scena cantate“, gehört zu den besten der fünfzehn Werke dieser Gattung, die er geschrieben hat. Der erste und der letzte Satz sind voll Anmut; der langsame Satz, dessen Eröffnungsgedanke zwar anziehend ist, wird gegen Ende etwas langatmig. Es ist heutzutage bis zu einem gewissen Grade Mode geworden, Spohr geringzuschätzen. Zweifellos ist er über Gebühr verherrlicht worden; niemand würde ihn mit Beethoven oder Mozart auf eine Stufe stellen; aber andererseits gehört er zu den Ersten der zweiten Reihe der Komponisten. Gewiss, es gibt bei ihm eine gewisse Manieriertheit, eine starke Familienähnlichkeit zwischen all seinen Werken; doch ist er niemals trivial oder vulgär, und die Ausarbeitung seiner Musik ist immer höchst kunstvoll vollendet. Seine Violinkonzerte zählen zu den besten seiner Kompositionen, und einige von ihnen werden vermutlich einen großen Teil seiner übrigen Musik überdauern.
Brahms’ „Ungarische Tänze“ zeichnen sich durch große Originalität und einen ausgeprägt nationalen Charakter aus. Wir sind geneigt zu glauben, dass sie in ihrer ursprünglichen Gestalt noch wirkungsvoller sind; doch in Joachims Bearbeitung werden sie zu ausgezeichneten Konzertstücken. Nach allem, was oben gesagt worden ist, erübrigt es sich, der Aufführung noch ein Wort zu widmen. Erwähnt werden soll jedoch, dass die Klavierbegleitungen von Mr. Franklin Taylor vortrefflich gespielt wurden.
Mit wenigen Worten sei über den übrigen Teil des Programms berichtet. Die Symphonie war Beethovens c‑Moll‑Symphonie – die bekannteste der neun; die übrigen Instrumentalstücke waren Schuberts anmutige „Ouvertüre im italienischen Stil“, die ausdrücklich in Nachahmung der Ouvertüre zu Tancredi geschrieben ist, und die jetzt wohlbekannte und beliebte Tannhäuser-Ouvertüre. Die Vokalsolisten waren Madame Elena Corani und Signor Agnesti. Da Mr. Manns durch ein häusliches Unglück verhindert war, seinen gewohnten Platz am Dirigentenpult einzunehmen, wurde seine Stelle mit größter Umsicht von Mr. Wedemeyer, dem ersten Konzertmeister, ausgefüllt.
Heute wird, neben Mendelssohns Musik zu Ein Sommernachtstraum, zum ersten Mal bei diesen Konzerten eine neue Ouvertüre von Mr. Alfred Holmes sowie drei Stücke für Frauenstimmen zur Aufführung gebracht.
Ebenezer Prout, „[Herr Joachim bei den Monday Popular Concerts]“, The Academy: A Weekly Review of Literature, Science, and Art, 21. Februar 1874, 214–15.
Herr Joachims Wiedererscheinen bei den Monday Popular Concerts am vergangenen Montag war nicht weniger erfolgreich als das soeben erwähnte in Sydenham. Die bloße Ankündigung seines Namens genügte, um die St. James’s Hall bis auf den letzten Platz zu füllen; und sein Empfang beim Hinaufsteigen auf das Orchesterpodium war von der Art, wie ein „Monday Popular“-Publikum sie sich für seine besonderen Lieblinge vorbehält. Das Quartett, das Herr Joachim zur Aufführung auswählte, war Beethovens Quartett Nr. 10 Es‑Dur – kein Novum bei diesen Konzerten, da es nun bereits zum elften Mal dargeboten wurde, aber deswegen keineswegs minder willkommen. Nach dem, was oben gesagt wurde, erübrigt es sich, die vortreffliche Weise, in der dieses große Werk wiedergegeben wurde, ausführlich zu schildern; wenn jedoch ein Punkt zu besonderer Hervorhebung gewählt werden soll, so wären wir geneigt, das tief bewegende und pathetische Adagio zu nennen (dessen Einfluss auf Mendelssohn, wie man bemerken mag, sich deutlich im langsamen Satz seiner Schottischen Symphonie erkennen lässt), als eines der vollkommensten Beispiele des Quartettspiels, die je zu hören waren – sowohl wegen des ausdrucksvollen, aber nie übertriebenen „Gesangs“ Herr Joachims in den Hauptmelodien als auch wegen der vorzüglichen Weise, in der er von den Herren Ries, Zerbini und Piatti unterstützt wurde.
Eine noch größere Wirkung wurde später am Abend durch Herr Joachims Vortrag von Bachs Sonate für Violine solo g‑Moll hervorgerufen. Aufgrund der gewaltigen technischen Schwierigkeiten in Bachs Violinsonaten werden diese nur sehr selten öffentlich gespielt; und man darf wohl mit Recht sagen, dass kein lebender Geiger eine so vollkommene Deutung dieser Werke zu geben vermag wie Joachim. Seine Aufführung am vergangenen Montag war eine der erstaunlichsten Darbietungen technischer Virtuosität, verbunden mit einem intellektuellen Erfassen des Geistes der Musik, wie selbst er sie kaum je zuvor geboten hat. Die Klarheit, mit der die kunstvollen Kombinationen der Fuge hervorgehoben wurden, und die untrügliche Sicherheit der Ausführung im abschließenden Presto (in einem geradezu atemraubenden Tempo genommen), lassen sich von denen, die nicht zugegen waren, kaum vorstellen. Das Publikum rief den Künstler am Schluss des Stücks begeistert zurück und war erst zufrieden, als Herr Joachim den letzten Satz wiederholte.
„Prof. Dr. Joachim hat aus Anlaß seines Künstler-Jubiläums…“ Signale für die musikalische Welt 49. Jahrgang, Nr. 19 (Februar 1891): 298.
Prof. Dr. Joachim hat aus Anlaß seines Künstler-Jubiläums eine „Josef Joachim-Stiftung“ durch Hergabe eines Capitals von 20,000 Mk. errichtet, welche nunmehr die gesetzlich vorgeschriebene landesherrliche Genehmigung gefunden hat. Ein aus drei Personen bestehendes Curatorium, zu welchem der Stifter als Vorsitzender gehört, verwaltet das Vermögen nach den für Mündelgelder bestehenden Grundsätzen. Die Zinsen des Stiftungsfonds sollen in je zwei aus einander folgenden Jahren zur Anschaffung von Streichinstrumenten (Geigen und Violoncelli) verwendet werden, welche als Prämien durch das Curatorium verliehen werden, in jedem dritten Jahre aber werden eine oder mehrere Prämien in baarem Gelde verliehen. Die Zuerkennung erfolgt alljährlich an des Stifters Geburtstag, 28. Juni; zur Bewerbung werden unbemittelte Schüler aller in Deutschland oder von Stadtgemeinden errichteten oder subventionirten musikalischen Bildungsanstalten zugelassen, wenn sie mindestens sechs Monate die Anstalt besucht haben.
English Translation
Professor Dr. Joachim has, on the occasion of his artistic jubilee, established a “Josef Joachim Foundation” by contributing capital of 20,000 marks, which has now received the landesherrliche approval required by law. A curatorium consisting of three persons, of which the founder serves as chairman, administers the assets according to the principles governing fiduciary funds. The interest on the foundation capital is, in each pair of successive years, to be used for the purchase of string instruments (violins and cellos), which are to be awarded as prizes by the curatorium; in every third year, however, one or more prizes are to be awarded in cash. The awards are made annually on the founder’s birthday, 28 June; eligible to apply are needy pupils of all musical training institutions in Germany that are established or subsidized by the state or by municipal authorities, provided they have attended the institution for at least six months.
„Joseph Joachim‑Stiftung.“ Signale für die musikalische Welt 58, no. 32 (14 April 1900): 507.
Joseph Joachim-Stiftung. Anläßlich des 50jährigen Künstlerjubiläums des Professors Dr. Joseph Joachim in Berlin ist bekanntlich eine Stiftung errichtet worden, deren Zweck ist: unbemittelten Schülern der in Deutschland vom Staat oder von Stadtgemeinden errichteten oder unterstützten musikalischen Bildungsanstalten ohne Unterschied des Alters, des Geschlechts, der Religion und der Staatsangehörigkeit Prämien in Gestalt von Streichinstrumenten (Geigen und Celli) oder in Geld zu gewähren. Bewerbungsfähig ist nur Derjenige, welcher mindestens ein halbes Jahr einer der genannten Anstalten angehört hat und, da es sich in diesem Jahre um Verleihung von Instrumenten handelt, seine Ausbildung als Geiger beziehungsweise Cellist erfahren hat. Geeignete Bewerber haben, wie Professor Joachim bekannt giebt, ihre Gesuche bis zum 1. Juni an das Curatorium, Berlin W., Potsdamerstraße 120, einzureichen, welches auch weitere Auskunft über die Bedingungen ertheilt.
English Translation
Joseph Joachim Foundation. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the artistic career of Professor Dr. Joseph Joachim in Berlin, a foundation has, as is well known, been established whose purpose is to grant awards, in the form of string instruments (violins and cellos) or in money, to needy pupils of musical training institutions in Germany that are founded or supported by the state or by municipal authorities, without distinction of age, sex, religion, or nationality.
Eligible to apply is only that person who has belonged for at least half a year to one of the institutions named and who, since in this year the awards take the form of instruments, has received his or her training as violinist or cellist. Suitable applicants are to submit their petitions, as Professor Joachim announces, by 1 June to the Curatorium, Berlin W., Potsdamerstraße 120, which also provides further information concerning the conditions.
„Zu Ehren des sechzigjährigen Künstlerjubiläums von Joseph Joachim.“ Signale für die musikalische Welt 57. Jahrgang, Nr. 31 (29. April 1899): 488.
Zu Ehren des sechzigjährigen Künstlerjubiläums von Joseph Joachim fand am 22. April in der Philharmonie in Berlin ein von Joachim’s Schülern veranstaltetes Festconcert statt. Es war eine imposante musikalische Huldigung, die dem gefeierten Meister dargebracht wurde. Der Streichkörper (Violinen, Bratschen und Violoncelli) des über zweihundert Personen starken Orchesters bestand ausschließlich aus früheren und jetzigen Schülern des Jubilars und Theilnehmern seiner Quartettstunden, während die Contrabässe und verdoppelten Blasinstrumente durch erste Kräfte der Königlichen Capelle in Berlin, des dortigen Philharmonischen Orchesters, der Meininger Hofcapelle, durch Lehrer und Schüler der Königlichen Hochschule in Berlin vertreten waren. Generalmusikdirector Fritz Steinbach aus Meiningen hatte die Leitung des Orchesters übernommen.
Das Programm, mit einer Fanfare für mittelalterliche Trompeten und Pauken vom Armee-Musikinspicienten Gustav Roßberg und einem von Hermann Grimm gedichteten, von der Hofschauspielerin Fräulein Rosa Poppe gesprochenen Prolog eröffnet, verzeichnete an Orchesterwerken die Ouvertüre zu „Euryanthe“ von Weber, zum „Sommernachtstraum“ von Mendelssohn und zu „Genoveva“ von Schumann, den letzten Satz aus Brahms’ Cmoll-Symphonie und Seb. Bach’s Gdur-Concert für Streichinstrumente. Ferner als Solovortrag Joachim’s Gmoll-Variationen für Violine, gespielt vom Concertmeister Petri aus Dresden. Am Schluß brachte Joachim selbst als nicht programmmäßige Nummer und gleichsam Ueberraschung für die Hörerschaft Beethoven’s Violinconcert zum Vortrag. Die ganze Aufführung nahm den glänzendsten Verlauf und bedeutete einen Ehrenabend im schönsten Sinne des Wortes für den Jubilar. Das reiche finanzielle Erträgniß des Concerts kam der „Joseph Joachim-Stiftung“ zu Gute.
English Translation
In honor of Joseph Joachim’s sixtieth artistic jubilee, a festive concert organized by Joachim’s pupils took place on 22 April in the Philharmonie in Berlin. It was an imposing musical homage paid to the celebrated master. The string section (violins, violas, and cellos) of the orchestra, which numbered over two hundred players, consisted exclusively of former and current pupils of the jubilarian and participants in his quartet classes, while the double basses and the doubled wind instruments were represented by leading players from the Royal Orchestra in Berlin, the local Philharmonic Orchestra, the Meiningen court orchestra, together with teachers and students of the Royal Hochschule in Berlin. General Music Director Fritz Steinbach of Meiningen had taken on the direction of the orchestra.
The program, opened by a fanfare for medieval trumpets and timpani by army music inspector Gustav Roßberg and by a prologue, written by Hermann Grimm and spoken by court actress Fräulein Rosa Poppe, listed as orchestral works the overture to Euryanthe by Weber, to A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Mendelssohn, and to Genoveva by Schumann, the final movement of Brahms’s Symphony in C minor, and Sebastian Bach’s Concerto in G major for string instruments. In addition, as solo item, Joachim’s Variations in G minor for violin, played by concertmaster Petri of Dresden. At the close, Joachim himself presented, as a non‑programmed item and as a sort of surprise for the audience, Beethoven’s violin concerto. The entire performance proceeded in the most brilliant fashion and constituted, in the finest sense of the word, a night of honor for the jubilarian. The substantial financial proceeds of the concert benefited the “Joseph Joachim Foundation.”
Arno Kleffel, „Das Joachim’sche Quartett,“ Schorers Familienblatt 11, Nr. 11 (1894): 41–42.
[English translation below]
Das Joachim’sche Quartett
Das war am 25. Januar dieses Jahres ein denkwürdiger und für alle, die ihn miterlebt, ein erhender Abend. Von Meister Joachim und seinen ausgezeichneten Genossen, den Professoren Kruse, Wirth und Hausmann, denen sich diesmal zur Ausführung der zweiten Violastimme noch Herr Concertmeister Eldering angeschlossen, war soeben als Schlußnummer des Programms Beethoven’s C-dur-Quintett beendet worden, als sich plötzlich die gesamte Zuhörerschaft erhob und in eine Beifallsovation ausbrach, wie sie die Räume der Singakademie in so demonstrativer Weise und in gleich zündender Unmittelbarkeit wohl kaum noch vernommen, und die nicht eher zu dämpfen war, als bis Joachim auf dem Podium zu verschiedenen Malen den Danktribut der begeisterten Zuhörerschaft in Empfang genommen hatte. Was war, hätte man fragen können, geschehen, um diesen außergewöhnlichen Jubelausbruch zu entfesseln? Weder das Werk noch dessen Wiedergabe konnten dazu die Veranlassung gegeben haben, denn daß von dem Joachim’schen Quartett immer nur das Beste in der vollendetsten Ausführung geboten wird, muß ja jedem von vornherein als selbstverständlich gelten. Niemand von den Zuhörern würde im Augenblick die rechte Antwort gefunden haben. Jeder fühlte nur, daß sein Herz nach überquellender Dankesäußerung verlange. In dieser, vom Augenblick geborenen Huldigung liegt vielleicht die höchste Ehre, die einer Kunstleistung zu Teil werden kann. Es bedarf heutigen Tages keines Hinweises mehr, welche Stellung das Joachim’sche Quartett in Berlin, ja in der gesamten musikalischen Welt einnimmt. Wie es noch niemals einen mit blendendster Virtuosität ausgestatteten Künstler gegeben hat, der mit Verachtung jedweden äußeren Effektmittels sich während seines ganzen Lebens in so selbstloser Weise dem Dienst der Kunst geweiht hat, wie Joachim, ebenso wenig wird es auf der Welt eine zweite Künstlervereinigung geben, welche die bedeutendsten Schätze unserer Kammermusikliteratur in gleich vollkommener Stilreinheit, mit gleich pietät- und weihevoller Hingabe auszuführen im Stande ist, wie das Joachim’sche Quartett. Wie Joachim der erste war, der die musikalische Welt mit den Bach’schen Violinwerken bekannt machte, der es ferner wagte, das halbvergessene Beethoven’sche Violinconcert bei Gelegenheit des Düsseldorfer Musikfestes im Jahre 1853 zum ersten Mal öffentlich zu spielen, ebenso kannte er als Führer seiner Quartettvereinigung kein höheres Ziel, als das Verständnis des deutschen Volkes für die bisher gefürchteten und unausführbar geltenden letzten Beethoven’schen Streichquartette zu erschließen. Wie es seiner Anregung und thätigen Mithilfe erst zu danken war, daß in Bonn Beethoven’s Geburtshaus angekauft und zu einem künftigen Beethoven-Museum bestimmt wurde, so bildete seine Quartettvereinigung wiederum ein Mittelpunkt der musikalischen Aufführungen, als vor vier Jahren in Bonn das erste Beethoven-Kammer-Musikfest ins Leben gerufen wurde, um diesem Museum den ersten nennenswerten Beitrag als Stammfond zuzuführen. Wie Joachim niemals ein Tonstück zur Folie seiner außerordentlichen Kunstfertigkeit verwendet, sondern einzig und allein in möglichst abgeklärter Reproduktion desselben sein künstlerisches Genüge findet, ebenso ist man beim Anhören jeder seiner Quartettdarbietungen überzeugt, daß sich der Schöpfer so und nicht anders sein Werk gedacht haben mag. Nie hört man ein Hervordringen eines Instruments, jede Stimme scheint der anderen liebevoll
42
entgegen zu kommen, und so vereinigen sich alle vier zu einem harmonisch vollkommenen Ganzen. Es hat deshalb etwas wunderbares, mit welcher Deutlichkeit bei diesem Sichtergänzen und Ineinanderfügen der Stimmen doch die Fäden des Gewebes unserem Auge klargelegt, wie die geheimsten Gänge und Irrpfade unserem Geiste erschlossen werden. Man muß vor vier Jahren in Bonn Zeuge gewesen sein, wie mächtig, wie Offenbarungen gleich die beiden Riesenquartette von Beethoven in Cis-moll und B-dur auf die Zuhörer wirkten. Man stand unter dem Eindruck, daß Vollkommeneres nicht zu leisten, dem menschlichen Auge wenigstens nicht mehr erkennbar sei. So bilden seit Jahren die Joachimschen Quartettabende nicht nur den Brennpunkt des Berliner Musiklebens, sondern die denkbar vollkommenste Künstlervereinigung überhaupt. Während sich das Publikum sonst in den Concert- oder Theateraufführungen aus den verschiedensten Schichten des Volkes zusammensetzt, besteht die Zuhörerschaft der Joachim-Abende fast ausschließlich aus dem geistigen Adel der Residenz.
Wenn man einmal alle die Namen derjenigen in Erfahrung bringen könnte, welche die andächtige Gemeinde nur eines einzigen dieser Abende bilden, man würde über die große Zahl hervorragender, teils weltberühmter Kapacitäten erstaunt sein. Gleichviel welchem Zweig der Wissenschaft, der Kunst oder welchem Beruf er sonst angehören mag, jeder Zuhörer findet dort Anregung und Erbauung, jeder erlebt dort Stunden reinen, ungetrübten Glücks. Der Dank für diese Stunden und das Überströmen der Freude, daß der Meister, der sie uns geboten, als leuchtendes Vorbild noch in voller Manneskraft unter uns weilt, hatte plötzlich die Herzen an jenem Abend erglühen gemacht. So glänzende und rauschende Ovationen auch Joachim erlebt haben mag, vielleicht wird er auf keine mit größerem Stolz und innigerer Freude zurückblicken, als auf jene Huldigung am 25. Januar.
It was, on the 25th of January of this year, a memorable evening—one that proved uplifting for all who experienced it. Master Joachim and his distinguished colleagues, Professors Kruse, Wirth, and Hausmann—joined on this occasion for the performance of the second viola part by Concertmaster Eldering—had just concluded Beethoven’s C-major Quintet as the final number on the program, when suddenly the entire audience rose to its feet and burst into an ovation such as the halls of the Singakademie have scarcely ever heard in so demonstrative a form and with such immediate fervor, and which could not be subdued until Joachim, on the podium, had received the tribute of thanks from the enthusiastic audience several times over.
What, one might have asked, had occurred to unleash this extraordinary outburst of jubilation? Neither the work itself nor its performance could have been the cause; for it must be taken as self-evident that the Joachim Quartet always offers only the finest in the most perfect execution. No one among the listeners would, in that moment, have found the proper answer. Each felt only that his heart demanded an overflowing expression of gratitude. In such homage, born of the moment, perhaps lies the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an artistic achievement.
Nowadays, it needs no further explanation what position the Joachim Quartet occupies in Berlin, indeed in the entire musical world. Just as there has never been an artist endowed with the most dazzling virtuosity who, with disdain for every outward effect, devoted himself so selflessly throughout his life to the service of art as Joachim, so too there can scarcely exist another ensemble capable of performing the greatest treasures of our chamber music literature with equal purity of style and with such reverent and consecrated devotion as the Joachim Quartet. As Joachim was the first to acquaint the musical world with Bach’s works for violin, and further dared, on the occasion of the Düsseldorf Music Festival in 1853, to perform publicly for the first time the half-forgotten Beethoven Violin Concerto, so also, as leader of his quartet, he knew no higher aim than to open the understanding of the German people to the last Beethoven string quartets, hitherto feared and deemed unperformable.
Just as it was due to his initiative and active assistance that Beethoven’s birthplace in Bonn was purchased and designated as a future Beethoven museum, so too his quartet formed a central focus of musical performances when, four years ago in Bonn, the first Beethoven Chamber Music Festival was established in order to provide this museum with its first substantial endowment. As Joachim never uses a musical work as a mere foil for his extraordinary technical skill, but finds his artistic fulfillment solely in its most purified reproduction, so one is convinced, in hearing each of his quartet performances, that the composer must have conceived the work precisely thus and not otherwise. One never hears any instrument thrust itself forward; each voice seems to meet the others with loving consideration, and thus all four unite into a harmoniously perfect whole.
It is therefore something remarkable how clearly, in this mutual complementing and interweaving of the voices, the threads of the texture are laid bare to the eye, how the most hidden pathways and byways are revealed to the mind. One must have witnessed, four years ago in Bonn, how powerfully—like revelations—the two gigantic quartets of Beethoven in C-sharp minor and B-flat major affected the listeners. One stood under the impression that nothing more perfect could be achieved, at least nothing further perceptible to the human eye. Thus for years the Joachim Quartet evenings have formed not only the focal point of Berlin’s musical life, but the most perfect ensemble of artists imaginable.
Whereas audiences at concerts or theatrical performances are otherwise drawn from the most varied strata of society, the listeners at Joachim’s evenings consist almost exclusively of the intellectual aristocracy of the capital. If one could ascertain all the names of those who form the devout congregation of even a single such evening, one would be astonished at the great number of eminent—some world-renowned—figures. Whatever branch of science, art, or profession they may belong to, every listener finds there stimulation and edification; each experiences hours of pure, unclouded happiness. Gratitude for these hours, and the overflowing joy that the master who has granted them to us still dwells among us in the full vigor of manhood as a shining example—this it was that suddenly set hearts aflame on that evening. However brilliant and resounding the ovations Joachim may have experienced, he may look back on none with greater pride and more heartfelt joy than on that tribute of January 25.
Seit zwei Jahre Ihre freundliche Einladung bey der unvergessliche Bettina, Hannover unter Ihren Auspicien zu besuchen, gedenkend, nehme Ihr Wohlwollen in Anspruch um anzufragen ob die [K. l. ?] Theater- -direktion mir die Erlaubniß geben werde im Theater ein Concert zu geben. Die Bedingungen werden Sie selbst bestimmen, ich gebe Ihnen ganz carte blanche, da ich sicher bin meine Interesse in die besten Hände gelegt zu haben. In der Hoffnung Sie wieder zu sehen und einmal hören zu konnen verbleibt
Mit größter Hochachtung Ihr Ole Bull
S— Herrn Concertmeister J. Joachim
English Translation
Hamburg, November 30th 1860 Victoria Hotel
Most Honored Sir!
Recalling for two years now your kind invitation—extended at the unforgettable Bettina’s house—to visit Hannover under your auspices, I now appeal to your goodwill to inquire whether the theater management would grant me permission to give a concert in the theater. You may determine the conditions yourself; I give you complete carte blanche, as I am certain that I have placed my interests in the best possible hands. In the hope of seeing you again and being able to hear you play sometime, I remain
N. B.: The following partial listing of Joseph Joachim’s students is based originally upon a list given in Andreas Moser’s Joseph Joachim. A Biography, London: Philip Wellby, 1901, pp. 242-244 [M], as well as information given in Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski’s Die Violine und ihre Meister, Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1904 [W], and profiles from Musik und Gender im Internet.[MUGI]. Names marked [P] come from Dr Sanna Pederson’s blog Chamber Music in Berlin, 1870-1910: An Empire for Absolute Music , and names marked [KJ] have been garnered from the program of Joachim’s “60-jährigen Künstler-Jubliäum,” Berlin, 22 April 1899, for which the orchestra strings were drawn “exclusively from current or former students of the honoree, as well as participants in his quartet classes.” Other names have been culled from diverse sources. The Saerchinger/WHO’S WHO articles, while interesting and helpful, are not 100% accurate, particularly as regards birth dates. Where possible, I have provided correct dates and sources. This list is in the process of verification and elaboration, and is subject to recurring emendation. At this point, I do not completely vouch for its accuracy.
Finally, it should be noted that Joachim very seldom gave private lessons, preferring to teach in masterclass format; he also made extensive use of teaching assistants, who were responsible for most of the students’ technical training.
JOACHIM AND DISCIPLES
Left to right, standing: Theodore Hemberger, Theodore Spiering, Rudolph Lenz, Mary Cardew, Sol Marcosson, Josef Hösl, Carl Bemmer, Rosa Schindler, Bernard Sinsheimer; seated, Joseph Joachim, Emmanuel Wirth.
[photo probably ca. 1892]
Thanks to John Maltese.
Joseph Joachim’s Students
Ackroyd, W. [KJ] Stud. a. d. Kgl. Hochsch. f. Mus. Berlin. Links: KJ
Violinist and conductor. Studied with Monasterio in Madrid, Vieuxtemps in Brussels, and Joachim in Berlin. 1894-1915 Professor of Violin at Royal College of Music (London). Conductor, Madrid Symphony Orchestra. 1932 conducted first Spanish performance of Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps. [Arthur Jacobs and Tully Potter. “Arbós, Enrique Fernández.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed November 29, 2014.]. Saerchinger/WHO’S WHO (1918) gives his birth date as December 25.
Auer, Leopold (Lipot) (*June 7, 1845 — †July 15, 1930)
From 1853, studied at Budapest Conservatory with Ridley Kohne; 1855 Vienna Conservatory with Dont and Hellmesberger (Diploma 1858); with Joachim in Hanover 1863-65. 1863 Concertmaster in Düsseldorf; 1866 in Hamburg. 1868 followed Wieniawski as professor the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Solo violinist, concertmaster and and chamber musician. 1911 moved to Dresden; 1914 returned to St. Petersburg. 1917 moved to Oslo, and 1918 to New York. Teacher of Achron, Elman, Milstein, Heifetz, Seidel and Zimbalist. Author (Graded Course of Violin Playing, Violin Playing as I Teach It, My Long Life in Music), editor.
Graduated from Prague Conservatory, 1889. Studied with Joachim until 1896. Played in a quartet with Gustav Holländer, and taught at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin. Subsequently First Concertmaster of the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Also a distinguished violist.
Brother of Carl Louis B. Pupil of Spohr and Joachim. Court musician in Detmold (1859-61), and Münster (1861-66). From 1866 until his death concertmaster and professor of music in Basel.
Bargheer, Carl Louis (*December 31, 1831 — †May 19, 1902) Possible student of Joachim — may be mistaken for his brother. Links: BW, FL, WIKI Portrait: Hoyer, Göttingen, ca. 1855
Brother of Adolf B. Studies with Spohr (1849), David (1851), and possibly Joachim (in Hanover). Kapellmeister in Detmold from 1863-76. 1876-88 concertmaster in Hamburg; 1876-87 teacher at the Hamburg Conservatorium.
Barmas, Issay (*1872 — †1946) [KJ] Links: EJ, KJ Photo credit: Goethe Universität. Issay Barmas, “violinist and teacher. Born in Odessa, Barmas studied with I. Grzimali in Moscow and with J. Joachim in Berlin. He made his debut as a soloist in Berlin in 1899 and toured Europe. He also formed his own quartet in 1919. From 1900 to 1929 he taught in Berlin (Stern Conservatoire, 1900–05; Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatoire, 1905–29) and later moved to London. Among his publications are Die Lösung des geigentechnischen Problems (1913), Tonleiter-Spezialstudien, Doppelgriff-Spezialstudien, redactions, and editions of classical works.” [“Barmas, Issay.” Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (November 17, 2014)].
Barth, Richard (*June 5, 1850 — †December 25, 1923) [W] [KJ] Links: BMLO, KJ, W
(Left-handed) violinist, composer, educator. Studied with Joachim in Hanover, 1863-67. Concertmaster in Münster and Krefeld. 1887-94 Director of Music at the Marburg University. 1895 Director of the Philharmonic concerts and the Singakademie in Hamburg; 1908 Director of the Hamburg Konservatorium. Author: Johannes Brahms und seine Musik (1904); Johannes Brahms im Briefwechsel mit J.O. Grimm (1908). Ref: Saerchinger/WHO’S WHO
Bauerkeller, Rudolph (*May 23, 1879 — †) [KJ] Stud. a. d. Kgl. Hochsch. f. Mus. Berlin. Links: KJ Ref: Saerchinger/WHO’S WHO
His father was a first violinist in the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England. Studied at Paris Conservatory, and Berlin Hochschule with Joachim and Wirth.
(Saerchinger/WHO’S WHO, 1918)
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, April 11, 1902: “… a very interesting concert… The solos were all chosen with taste, and were not made the vehicle for a vain-glorious display of technique. A Prelude and Fugue in G minor by Bach, Tartini’s celebrated “Devil’s trill” Sonata, and an Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso by Saint-Saens were the works in which Mr. Bauerkeller displayed his highly-cultivated style, and a breadth and purity of tone, such as might be looked for in a pupil of Joachim.”
Baumann, Joseph W (*October 29, 1847 — †April 3, 1905) Ref: CE
“Joseph W. Baumann. Violinist, teacher, b Berlin (Kitchener), Ont, 29 Oct 1847, d Hamilton, Ont, 3 Apr 1905. He was self-taught until at 21 he departed for Vienna to study with Adolf Brodsky. Two years later he went to Berlin for private study with Joseph Joachim. Returning to Canada, he taught in a succession of Ontario towns – Walkerton, Berlin, Toronto – before settling in Hamilton in 1882. About 1888 he appeared frequently in recital with the pianist D.J. O’Brien, founder of the Hamilton Musical Institute (see Royal Hamilton College of Music). Baumann’s playing was noted for its full tone and robust technique, both of which were imparted to his pupils, including George Fox and Nora Clench.” (Canadian Encyclopedia, CE)
Becker, Dora Valesca (*1870 — †1958) [M] (The first female violinist on record: 1898) Recording, Links: M
Born in Berlin, she studied violin at the Berlin Hochschule from 1892 to 1896 under Karl Markees, concluding her final year of instruction under Joseph Joachim. She made her public debut on March 15, 1899, at the Berliner Singakademie, where music critics praised her “fresh and bright tone” and exceptional musicality. In 1896, she married the composer, organist, and university professor Otto Becker, with whom she had three children. The family relocated to Potsdam in 1910 upon her husband’s appointment to the Garrison Church (Garnisonkirche). There, she became a vital pillar of the local cultural scene, co-founding the “Becker Trio” and organizing the highly successful Garrison Church Concerts, which regularly drew premier musical talent from nearby Berlin until her death in Potsdam in 1925.
Born in Oakland CA, Sigmund Beel was concertmaster in Los Angeles.
(Saerchinger/WHO’S WHO, 1918)
Békei (Békey), Józsa (*January 17, 1877 — †?) Links: A Hegedű. Studied with Hubay and Joachim. She was a noted Hungarian violinist and became one of the early certified female violin teachers in Hungary. Ref: Vajda, p. 275.
The Carolyn Belcher Quartet (Carolyn Belcher and Anna Eichhorn, violins, Sara Corbett, viola, and Charlotte White, cello) was resident in Boston. Ref: CB
Besserer, Erika (*July 31, 1887 — †February 7, 1951) [MUGI] Links: MUGI. Born in Dorpat (Tartu), Estonia. Studied violin at the Royal Academy of Music (Königliche Hochschule für Musik) in Berlin under Emanuel Wirth and Joseph Joachim, beginning her studies with Joachim in 1901 MUGI, Joseph Joachim Students Registry. She established herself in German musical life as a soloist and chamber musician, notably debuting in New York alongside cellist Henry Brahmsen in 1905.
Bild, Max (*March 2, 1869 — †September 5, 1942) [M] [KJ] Tonkünstler. Paris. Links: KJ, M
“A new conductor, Mr. Alexander Z Birnbaum, a native of Warsaw, who directs the Philharmonic Orchestras at Lausanne and Geneva, also made his first appearance in that rôle in London, taking charge of our Queen’s Hall Orchestra […] Mr. Birnbaum is a conductor who employs almost a super-abundance of gesture, and never spares himself in the matter of energy. At the same time, he is one who carries his forces along with him, and admirably the bandsmen answered to his virile beat.” Musical News (London: July-December, 1907), 33:3.
“Still another former Joachim pupil Zózislaw Alex. Birnbaum played recently. He made his début last winter, and since then he has studied with Ysaye. Birnbaum has a glowing temperament, such as I have never seen in a Hochschule pupil before. He has, too, a great technical talent and a beautiful sensuous tone. Unfortunately his temperament runs away with him. He hurries the tempi, and his technic is in consequence often faulty. He is flighty, but he has the genuine violin nature and always arouses his audience to demonstrative applause.” The Musical Courier (New York: January 10, 1900), 13.
Blancke, Georg Heinrich Adolf (*June 24, 1862 — † June 15, 1937) [KJ] Mitglied des Philharm. Orchesters. Berlin. Links: KJ
Blankensee, Julius (*April 4, 1858 — †November 3, 1941) [M] [W] Studied 1873-77 (W) Links: BMLO, M, W
Bleuer, Ludwig (*1863 — †1897) [M] Links: Baker’s, M
Bligh, Eldina (*Geneva 1867 — †March 5, 1953)
Mus. ed. at Brussels Cons., and the Berlin Hochschule; stud with Joachim. London debut at St. James’ Hall. Appeared by Royal command before Queen Victoria in Dublin. Ref: Saerchinger/WHO’S WHO
Bögner, Eugen (Eugene Boegner) (*March 3, 1870 — †March 23, 1947) [M] Links: STOK, M
Studied with Rudolf Rösel in Weimar, Hans Rosenmeyer in Erfurt. 1898 at Berlin Hochschule: two years with Emanuel Wirth. 1900-1901 with Joachim, Wirth, and Moser, and 1901-1902 with Joachim and Gabriele Wietrowetz. Second violinist with the Erfurter Tonkünstlerquartett. After her marriage to the architect W. Stietzel, mostly active as a teacher.
Studied with Joachim at the Berlin Hochschule 1881-1885.
Butler, Herbert Dalton (*February 2, 1873 — †October 6, 1946) [KJ] Links: ETUDE, KJ, MB, MUSIC
Analysis of Tartini’s G minor Sonata. Stud. a. d. Kgl. Hochsch. f. Mus. Berlin. From Omaha, Nebraska. Also studied with Gustav Hollaender at the Stern’sche Konservatorium der Musik. Extensive web-page by James Radomsky, Professor of Music History, California State University San Bernardino here.
Studied with Richard Gompertz and Emile Sauret at the RAM (London), and with Gabriele Wietrowetz and Joseph Joachim at the Berlin Hochschule. Solos with Berlin Philharmonic, Richter Concerts in London, New York Philharmonic. Daughter of an English clergyman; after her marriage, she settled in Los Angeles, where she was active as a teacher. Soloist with Berlin Philharmonic 1903, 1905. [P]
“Margaret Eleanor was born 19 October 1874 in Nottingham [England]. She is living with her parents, William and Charlotte, in the 1881 and 1891 censuses. She attended Nottingham High School from 1886 to 1891, specialising in music and the violin. After leaving high school she attended the Berlin Conservatoire from September 1892 a became an accomplished violinist. In 1901 she is a Teacher of Violin in Middlesbrough. There is a marriage for Margaret Eleanor Clark in Nottingham in Jun 1906 (7b/647) to Henry Stanley PROUDLOCK. In 1911, the family are living in Castleton, Yorkshire, a small village on the banks of the Esk River, and inland from Whitby. Henry’s occupation was consulting mechanical engineer. He probably found work at the numerous quarries and mines in the district. In 1911, Margaret is recorded as a violinist. They had one daughter, Margaret Ursula, aged 5.5 months. There is also a birth recorded for John PROUDLOCK in Newcastle on Tyne in Dec 1916, mother’s maiden name CLARK.”
“Corinne Coryn, violinist, played Bach’s A major sonata and the Joachim variations. She plays with great earnestness of purpose and with exceeding care, and has a neat technic and a pretty, smooth tone. She is a little lacking in temperament, and quite so in individuality of style, but there is plenty of time for improvement in these respects, Miss Coryn being apparently still very young, and there is considerable promise for higher attainments in the future.” [The Musical Courier, Vol. 54, No. 2 (January 9, 1907), p. 6.]
“Eine reife Künstlerin in Bezug auf Auffassung ist Fräulein Corinne Coryn; sie schöpfte den geistigen Gehalt des Brahmsschen Konzerts und der Bachschen Ciacona voll aus. Wenn ihr bei Brahms technisch manches, so namentlich die Oktaven, nicht gelang, so lag dies wohl mehr an ihrer Befangenheit, als an nicht gefestigter Technik; ihr prächtiger warmer Ton kam besonders im Adagio des D-moll-Konzerts von Vieuxtemps zu schönster Geltung. Wir dürfen noch viel von ihr erwarten.” [Die Musik, I Februarheft 1902, p. 833.]
Courvoisier, Karl (*1846 — †1908) [M] Studied 1869-70 (Baker’s). Links: BMLO, Baker’s, M, Worldcat
(Saerchinger/WHO’S WHO, 1918)
Croner, Helene (*February 27, 1885 — † after 1943) [MUGI] Links: MUGI
Violinist and violist. Studied 1902-1906 with Markees and Joachim at the Berlin Hochschule. In June, 1943, Helene Croner was deported from Berlin to Auschwitz, where she was murdered. [MUGI]
Ellenberger, Georg (George) [KJ] [M] Tonkünstler. Nottingham. Links: KJ, M
Violinist and violist, teacher of Eric Coates. Advertisement in Sheffield Daily Telegraph, December 13, 1902: “MR. GEORG ELLENBERGER (Solo Violinist), pupil of Dr. Joachim receives Pupils at Messrs. Wilson, Peck, and Co.’s where terms and particulars may be obtained.”
Studied with Böhm in Vienna and later with Joachim. A proponent of the works of Wagner, he was the first music critic for La revue blanche, founded in 1891. [Brigitte Massin. “Ernst, Alfred.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed November 29, 2014.]
Ferchland, Helene (*August 5, 1879 or 1880 — †) [KJ] [MUGI] Links: KJ, MUGI
Studied with Joachim in Berlin and Thibaud in Paris. 1905 recipient of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Scholarship. Solo with Berlin Philharmonic. Member (with Gertrud Schuster-Woldan and Eugenie Stoltz) of Gabriele Wietrowetz’s string quartet, to which she belonged until it disbanded in 1917. Joachim praised her playing as “secure, accomplished, and musically intelligent. Unusually talented…” [MUGI]
Student of Joachim in the early 1850s. Further studies with Ferdinand Laub. Member of Weimar Kapelle; 1860 Soloist in Aachen; 1864 until his death Hofkonzertmeister Meiningen.
Francke, H. [KJ] Concertmaster. Laussnitz b. Königsbrück. Links:KJ
Advertisement in Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, October 16, 1903: “VIOLIN LESSONS GIVEN BY Miss SIBYL FRENCH, PUPIL OF DR. JOACHIM, BERLIN. For Terms apply Mrs. SMITH, Music Warehouse, Queen-street, Exeter.”
Freund, M. [KJ] [M] Concertmaster, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Links: KJ, M
Son of Niels Wilhelm Gade. 1879-1881 studied at Royal Danish Conservatory with Valdemar Tofte. Further studies with Joachim. 1884 violinist with Det Kongelige Kapel; 1910 concertmaster. 1885 violin teacher at the conservatory. Composer of violin works, and several operas.
Gerhardt, Oskar (*1856 – 1929) [KJ] Mitgl. d. Philharm. Orch. Berlin. Links: KJ
Gompertz, Richard (*1859 – †1921) [KJ] [M] Links: IMSLP, KJ, M
Studied with Joachim in Berlin, 1875-1878. Moved to England in 1880. First violinist with Cambridge SQ. 1883, taught at Royal College of Music, London; from 1895 Professor of Violin.
de Graan, Jean (*1852 — †1874), den Haag.
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, January 19, 1874: “Intelligence has just reached us of the death of this young Dutch violinist, a pupil of Joachim and known from his earliest days at Amsterdam as one of the most promising artistes in Europe. On his debut in London at the Musical Union, in 1870, he at once created a favourable impression, evincing a rare degree of musical intelligence and considerable executive power. During his visit to London he was the guest of Professor Ella, the director of the Musical Union, and won the esteem of many of our local professors and amateurs. After a lingering illness in Italy, he died last week, at the Hague, of consumption, at the age of 21.”
Gregorowitsch, Charles (Karol Gregorowicz) (*October 25, 1867 — †March 25, 1921) [M] [Groves] Berlin. Links: M, BI, Recording
Studied with Vassily Bezekirsky, Jacob Dont, and Joachim, who said to Bezekirsky: “You have sent me a finished violinist. There is nothing to teach him.” 1886 Berlin debut. Recipient of Mendelssohn prize. Taught Bronislaw Hubermann, who claimed he taught him “everything that could be learned from a teacher.” [Tully Potter. “Gregorowicz, Karol.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed December 10, 2014].
Grimson, R. [KJ] Lehrer am Royal College. London. Links: KJ
Gumprecht, G. [KJ] Stud. a. d. Kgl. Hochsch. f. Mus. Berlin. Links: KJ
Hänflein, Georg (*March 17, 1848 — †ca. 1909) [KJ] [M] [W] Links: KJ, M, W
1862-65 studied with Ferdinand David; three years’ study with Joachim. Member of the Italian Opera in St. Petersburg. 1874 Concertmaster, Royal Theater Hanover.
Hagemeister, [M] Richard Kammermusiker, Berlin. Links: BMLO, M
Halíř, Karel (*February 1, 1859 — †December 21, 1909) [KJ] [M] Concertmaster, Professor, Hochschule für ausübende Tonkunst, Berlin. Links: BMLO, KJ, M
Violinist and conductor. Studied with Joachim at the Berlin Hochschule beginning 1898. After 1900 concertmaster in Lübeck; 1905 Hofkonzertmeister in Darmstadt and Hamburg. 1911 teacher at the Leipzig Konservatorium. 1915-1921 concertmaster of the Dresden Hofoper. 1920s, primarius of the Havemann String Quartet, noted for its performances of modern music. Author: “Was ein Geiger wissen muss“ (1921), “Die Violintechnik bis zur Vollendung.“ (1928) Havemann was a committed anti-Semite, and a member of the Nazi party. Eventually ran afoul of Goebbels and the Nazis over his support for Hindemith. Havemann’s 1719 Stradivari was, ‘acquired’ when the Russian army entered Berlin in 1945 and was passed to the state collection in 1946. The instrument was loaned to David Oistrakh in 1947, and he used it for several years.
Herner, Carl (*January 23, 1836 — †July 16, 1906)
Educated at the Prague Conservatory, he gained his first experience in Hamburg, Kiel, and Copenhagen, and played solo violin in Brussels. He studied with Joachim in Hanover. On 1. February 1858 he became a member of the Hoftheaterorchester Hannover. Herner was a member (together with N.N. Bach and Waldemar Bargiel) of one of Joachim’s quartets that became very popular in the early 1860s. He worked as first violinist, Solo-Repititor, choir director, conductor, and finally as Kapellmeister until his retirement 1900. Herner worked 42 years in the Hanover orchestra. He composed 20 pieces for ballet, opera, choir and orchestra. [Thanks to Jürgen D. Müller of Hanover, Germany, for this information]
Studied with his father, a pupil of Spohr. 1865 moved to USA, touring with the Theodore Thomas orchestra at the age of nine. 1876-78 studied with Joachim in Berlin. 1878-86 concertmaster in Frankfurt am Main; 1886-88 concertmaster in Rotterdam. 1888 sojourn in England; leader of Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. 1895 returned to Germany and became Professor of Violin at the Cologne Conservatorium. 1900 successor of Saurret at the Royal Academy of Music in London. 1904-1910 concertmaster of Boston Symphony Orchestra. 1910 returned to Berlin and taught at the Hochschule für Musik until 1928. [Watson Forbes. “Hess, Willy (i).” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed November 27, 2014.]
Hille, Gustav (*1849 or 1851 — †after 1926) Links: UM, IMSLP, UM
1870 Pupil of Joachim at the Berlin Hochschule. 1879 member of the Mendelssohn Quartet, Boston; 1880 teacher at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia. Composer of various works for violin, piano, songs.
Himmelstoss Richard (*June 17, 1843 — †) [M] Links: M
1871 Concertmaster, Breslau.
Hollaender, Gustav (*February 15, 1855 — †1915) [KJ] [M] [W] Professor, Berlin. Links: BMLO, KJ, M, W
1892-96 Studied under Joachim (primarily with Markees) in Berlin. Also studied with Charles Gregorovitch (whom he said “taught him everything that could be learned from a teacher”), Hugo Heermann and Martin Marsick. His performance of the Brahms violin concerto was admired by the composer. Founder of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, later the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Author: Aus der Werkstatt des Virtuosen (1912). [Boris Schwarz and Margaret Campbell. “Huberman, Bronisław.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed November 27, 2014.]
Studied with Joachim, Rudorff, and Spitta at the Berlin Hochschule. Though a singer and pianist, Joachim claimed: “Sie war und (Rudorff, Spitta und mir) immer eine sehr liebe Schülerin, und ist uns lieb und wert geblieben.” (Schumann Briefedition Serie II, Band 2,2, p. 1334) Hundoegger was one of the founders of the tonic-sol-fa system, and an influential innovator in music education.
Lenora Jackson owned a 1714 Stradivari violin that had previously belonged to Joachim
Jacobsen Heinrich (*January 10, 1851 — †ca. 1901) [M] [W] Professor, Hochschule für ausübende Tonkunst, Berlin. Links: M
Student of Ferdinand David. 1869 member of Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. 1873 studied with Joachim. 1876 until his death instructor of violin at the Berlin Hochschule.
Upon graduation from the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, he toured as a concert violinist and then was appointed Professor of violin at the Hochschule. Jacobson taught many of Joachim’s pupils and or taught the pupils who aspired to be Joachim’s students. When Maude Powell came to Berlin, Jacobson was her initial Professor. Other Jacobson pupils included Will Marion Cook, Emily Shinner-Liddell, Lilian Shattuck, and Helene Ferchland. Jacobson later became Chairman of the Orchestral Instruments Department at the Hochschule. Occasional participant with the Joachim Quartet. On November 9, 1879, Jacobson took part in the World Premier of the Dvorak String Sextet with the Joachim Quartet.
Jäger, H. [KJ] Königlicher Kammer-Musiker. München. Links: KJ
Jahn, Karl (*August 29, 1846 — †) [M] [W] Concertmaster, Bern. Links: M, W
Born in Budapest, Hungary. He studied first at the National Music Hall and then in Berlin as Joachim’s pupil. In 1890 he was appointed teacher at the Königsberg Conservatory and in 1897 director. In the autumn of 1898 he returned to Budapest to teach violin at the Music Academy. He was a member of the Hubay-Popper String Quartet, and later founded the Kemény-Schiffer String Quartet Society, which was dissolved in 1910.
Kess (or Kes), Willem (*February 16, 1856 —†) [M] Kapellmeister, Moscow. Leader at Amsterdam, and Kapellmeister at Dordrecht. After 1883 conductor in Amsterdam. Links: M
Ketèlbey, Harold (Brother of composer Albert Ketèlbey). Ref: Morning Post (London) 13 October 1905, p. 8.
Violinist, conductor, and teacher, studied with Johann Kruse, and one year with Joseph Joachim (1889 — 1890) at the Königliche Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. Concertmistress of the York Symphony Orchestra, which she founded together with T. Tertius Noble. Author: The Making of a Violinist (1921), Violinist’s Vade Mecum (appeared posthumously, 1952), and translator of Leopold Mozart’s Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (orig. 1756; trans. 1948).
Koch, Oskar (*November 12, 1862 — †March 22, 1919) [KJ] [M] Links: GENI, GN, KJ, M, NG
Concertmaster, Magdeburg (23 years). [Magdeburger Zeitung, March 25, 1919.]
König, E. [KJ] Königlicher Kammer-Musiker. Dresden. Links: KJ
Kornfeld, J.
Advertisement in Kent & Sussex Courier, December 20, 1882: “VIOLIN AND ACCOMPANIMENT LESSONS GIVEN TO LADIES AND GENTLEMEN BY HERR J. KORNFELD, PUPIL OF HERR JOACHIM. Pupils Prepared for the Local Examinations of the ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC. For particulars apply (personally or by letter) to Herr J. KORNFELD, Bishop’s Down Spa; COLBRAN’S Royal Library, High-street, Tunbridge Wells; and at CHAPPELL and Co.s, New Bond-street London.”
Kotek, Josef (or Iosif) (*October 25, 1855 — †January 4, 1885) [M] [W] Instructor at Hochschule für ausübende Tonkunst, Berlin. Links: M, W
Born in Devon, England. Studied with Joachim pupil Joseph Ludwig and with Wilhelmj. 1893 Debut at Crystal Palace under Manns (Bruch Concerto No. 1). Studied 1903-1906 with Joachim at the Berlin Hochschule. Retired from concertizing ca. 1920 due to arthritis. [MUGI]
Advertisement in North Devon Journal, September 28, 1905: “Miss Marjory Langley (A Pupil of Professor Joachim from the Royal Hochschule, Berlin), gives Lessons in Violin and Viola Playing and Chamber Music At Barnstaple and Bideford. — Terms, apply, J. T. White’s Music Warerooms, Barnstaple.
László, Akós (*February 10, 1871 — †1946) Links: DTA
Composer and music critic with Otto Kreßmann’s “Allgemeine Musikzeitung.” Studied violin Emanuel Wirth, and perhaps with JJ at the Berlin Hochschule.
Works: Aus meiner Heimat (Ernſte u. heitere En. aus Ungarn, eingeleitet von Jul. Stettenheim), 1898. Neue Folge as: Ungarische Skizzen (Ernste u. heitere En.), 1900.
Lefkowitz, J. [KJ] Stud. a. d. Kgl. Hochsch. f. Mus. Berlin. Links: KJ
Studied with Ferdinand David, Joachim, and Vieuxtemps. First violin in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra at age 15. Court Kammervirtuose in Rudolstadt. 1867 moved to New York; debut in Steinway Hall. Next year made his Boston debut with Joachim’s Hungarian Concerto. 1871-1874 concertmaster of Theodore Thomas orchestra. Member of Mendelssohn Quintette Club. 1881 first concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. 1893 taught at the Chicago College of Music. [Leonard Burkat and John C. Schmidt. “Listemann, Bernhard.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed December 10, 2014.]
Loeffler, Charles Martin (*January 30, 1861 — †May 19, 1935)
Studied with Joachim and Eduard Rappoldi; theory with Kiel and Bargiel at Berlin Hoschschule. Furthered his violin studies with Massart, and composition with Guiraud in Paris. 1881 departed for USA. Briefly returned to Paris to study with Léonard in 1884. 1887 became American citizen. Second concertmaster of Boston Symphony Orchestra (21 years). Gave American premieres of works by Bruch, Saint-Saëns and Lalo. Retired from BSO 1903. Major activity as a composer. [Ellen Knight. “Loeffler, Charles Martin.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed December 12, 2014.]
Ludwig, Joseph (*April 6, 1844 — †) [M] [W] London Academy of Music (1870). Links, M, W
Studied with Joachim winters 1864 and 1865 [W]. Teacher of Beatrice Langley [MUGI: Beatrice Langley].
Notice in Kent & Sussex Courier, February 18, 1881 for a performance by “Herr Emil Mahr, Pupil of Joachim” playing Bach Chaconne.
Marcosson, Sol (*June 10, 1869 — †January 10, 1940) Concertmaster, Cleveland Orchestra (1918) Links: DFG, ECH, COS
Born in Louisville, Ky. Studied at the Berlin Hochschule under Joseph Joachim. Member of Boston Mendelssohn Quintet and quartet of the New York Philharmonic Club. Concertmaster, Chicago Symphony, and inaugural season of the Cleveland Orchestra (1918-1919).
Marienhagen, O. [KJ] Mitgl. d. Philharm. Orch. Berlin. Links: KJ
Markees, Karl (*February 10, 1865 — †1926) [KJ] [M] Links: AL, AP, KJ, M
Studied with Wirth and Joachim. Member of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and also Kruse Quartet and Halir Quartet. Instructor at Hochschule für ausübende Tonkunst, Berlin.
Marsick, Martin Pierre Joseph (*March 9, 1847 — †October 21, 1924) [M] Links: M, Oxford
1865-1867 studied with Léonard in Brussels; 1868-1869 with Massart in Paris; 1870-1871 with Joachim in Berlin. In 1892, he succeeded Sauzay as violin professor at the Paris Conservatory. Composer of various violin works.
v. d. Marwitz, (Miss) M. [KJ] Tonkünstlerin. Berlin. Links: KJ
Studied with Joachim pupils Max Brode and Ernst Wendel. 1900 – 1904 studied at the Berlin Hochschule, first year with Moser, second with Wietrowetz, and after 1902 with Joachim. [MUGI]
Studied at the Berlin Hochschule with Markees (1898) and Joachim (1899-1903). Debut with the Berlin Philharmonic. After 1911, lived in Munich as a performer and pedagogue. Leader of the Michaelis String Quartet and the Kammerorchester für altklassische Musik. Michaelis became a noted advocate for contemporary music. [MUGI]
Morgan, Geraldine (*1867 — †1918) [M] [MUGI] New York. Links: ETUDE, M, MH
Studied engineering and music history; violin studies with Joseph Joachim in Berlin. 1883 Concertmaster in Mannheim. After 1888 taught violin at the Royal Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. With Joachim published the Violinschule (3 vols.), numerous editions. Author: Joseph Joachim. Ein Lebensbild, and Geschichte des Violinspiels.
Muddock, (Miss) E. [KJ] Stud. a. d. Kgl. Hochsch. f. Mus. Berlin. Links: KJ
Müller, [M] Leeds, England. Links: M [Possibly the same as G. Müller, West Dulwich, England — Ref: Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser, November 21, 1902: p. 4]:
Studied with Tullio Ramacciotti and Joachim in Hannover (1864). Taught at Accademia di S. Cecilia in Rome. 1874 founder of Società Orchestrale Romana, which he directed for 25 years.
Polo, Enrico (*November 18, 1868 — †December 3, 1953) [KJ] Professor, Turin. Links: KJ, SANPowell, Maud (*August 22, 1867 — †January 8, 1920) [M] [MUGI] Studied 1884-85. Links: M, MUGI, SL Recordings: LOCPrill, Karl (*1864 — †August 15, 1931) Leader at Pavlovsk, then at Magdeburg. After 1891 in the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Leipzig. [M] Links: BMLO, M, Mason, Payne & Ehrlich
Studied from October 1903 until Easter 1907 at the Berlin Hochschule — at first with Joachim and Wirth, and in the last year exclusively with Joachim. In 1925 became second violinist in an all-female quartet in Berlin led by Charlotte Rosen.
Ritter, Hermann (*September 16, 1849 — †?) Links: DTA
Studied with Joachim at the Berlin Hochschule. Member, Hoftheaterkapelle in Schwerin. Music Director in Heidelberg. Played under Wagner in Bayreuth. 1879 Professor for Music History and Aesthetics at the Royal Music School in Würzburg.
Alfred Ross was a pupil of Joseph Joachim at the Royal School of Music in Berlin, Germany between 1891 and 1896. In 1907, in New York, he married fellow student and American-born Marguerite Stilwell (a pianist taught by Ukrainian-born Vladimir de Pachmann). Alfred and Marguerite Ross returned to the UK after their wedding. Both were acclaimed concert performers, and teachers of music in Liverpool. Ross played in a quartet with Ernst Schiever.
Roy, (Miss) G. [KJ] Tonkünstlerin. Berlin. Links: KJ
Ruthström, Julius (*December 30, 1877 — †April 2, 1944)
Studied 1901-03 at the Berlin Musikhochschule under Burmester, Moser and Joachim. Awarded the Joachim Prize. 1904 gave the premiere performance of Reger’s solo violin sonata op. 42, no. 1. 1928-35 director of Mellersta Sveriges Kammarmusikförening (Sweden). “Ruthström was a persuasive advocate of Swedish music and an influential teacher. His repertory was unusually large, and he was famed for his performances of Reger, Sibelius’s concerto and a variety of contemporary music. He wrote a number of technical studies for the violin.” [Robert Layton. “Ruthström, Julius.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed November 27, 2014.]
Salzwedel, [KJ] [M] Kammermusiker, Berlin. Links: KJ, M
Sanders, W. [KJ] Stud. a. d. Kgl. Hochsch. f. Mus. Berlin. Links: KJ
Schäffer, E. [KJ] [M] Stud. a. d. Königl. Hochsch. f. Mus. Berlin. Links: KJ, M
Schering, A. [KJ] Stud. a. d. Kgl. Hochsch. f. Mus. Berlin. Links: KJ
Schiever, Ernst (*March 23, 1844 — †1915) Links: Oxford
Studied with Joachim in Hannover from 1860-1864. 1868 – 1869 replaced Auer as first violinist of the Müller Quartet. 1869 Founding member (second violinist) of the Joachim Quartet, and violin teacher at the Berlin Hochschule. 1878 settled in Liverpool as concertmaster of the Richter Orchestra. For three decades, primarius of the Schiever Quartet (with Alfred Ross, Carl Courvoisier, and Walter Hatton). [Groves]
Schindler, Rosa (*September 2, 1874 — †) [MUGI] Links: MUGI
Studied with Hans Hasse, Kruse and Joachim. Debut with Berlin Philharmonic. Seldom concertized after her marriage.
Schleicher, [KJ] [M] Concertmaster, Bremen. Links: KJ, M
Studied four years in Budapest with Jenö Hubay; 1900 to 1902 continued her studies at the Berlin Hochschule, the first year with Wirth, Jacobsen and Joachim, the second year with Wirth and Joachim. Recipient of the Mendelssohn Scholarship; debut under Joachim’s leadership in the Berlin Singakademie; member of the Wietrowetz Quartet. Settled in London ca. 1912. Joachim’s assessment of her playing: “An outstanding achievement, masterful in every respect. A rare artist; conception, brilliant technique, everything there.” [MUGI]
Schumann, Frida (née Quehl. See: Quehl, Frida)
Schuster, Heinrich [KJ] [M] Concertmaster, Strassburg. Links: KJ, M
Studied with Gustav Hollaender. Matriculated at the Berlin Hochschule in 1888. Studied one year with Kruse, and from 1889 to 1892 with Kruse and Joachim. 1892-1893 exclusively with Joachim. Debut with Berlin Philharmonic under Joachim (Joachim G Major concerto, Vieuxtemps Ballade and Polonaise, op. 38, Mendelssohn e minor concerto, op. 64). Played Beethoven concerto under Nikisch. 1898 married Alfred Francken, and retired from public performance. Murdered in the Sobibor concentration camp, July 16, 1943. [MUGI]
Seibert, Willy (*1870 — †) [KJ] [M] Concertmeister, Köln. Study: four years. Links: WWC, KJ, M
Seligmann, J. [KJ] Stud. a. d. Kgl. Hochsch. f. Mus. Berlin. Links: KJ
Soldat-Röger, Marie Ernestine (*March 25, 1863 — †September 30, 1955) [KJ] [M] [MUGI] Links: M, MUGI, Sophie Drinker Institut, KJ
Spence, Bessie
Notice in The Violin Times, November 15, 1899: Glasgow: Miss Bessie H. Spence, the young violinist, who has often delighted Glasgow audiences, has been accepted by Dr. Joachim as a pupil in the Hochschule, Berlin, after a keenly-contested competitive examination. Miss Spence is a daughter of Mr. William Spence, schoolmaster, Cleland, and studied in this city under Mr. Elkan Kosman.” Notice in Aberdeen Journal, January 9, 1901 of a performance by “Miss Bessie Spence (a pupil of Joachim’s, Berlin).” Bessie Spence performed often in concert and on the radio, as a soloist, chamber musician, and as second violinist of the Fellowes String Quartet, at least into the 1930s in Scotland.
Studied 1898-92. St. Louis, Chicago, CM NY Philharmonic under Mahler.
Stiehle, Ludwig Maximilian Adolph (*August 19, 1850 †July 6, 1896) [M] [W] Muhlhausen, Alsace. Links: M
Studied with Vieuxtemps; 1863-67 with Hugo Heermann. Studied with Joachim at the Berlin Hochschule 1869-70, and again 1871-72. Member of Alard’s Quartet, Paris, 1872. 1876 Director of the Musikverein Concordia, Mühlhausen.
Stietzel, Elli (née von Broen. See: von Broen, Elli)
Such, Henry (*March 31, 1872 — †November 4, 1929) [KJ][M] London. Links: KJ, M, MUSIC, OM, YM
Studied from 1885-1892 with Joachim at the Berlin Hochschule. 1892 Berlin debut. 1895-1896 further studies with Wilhelmj. Professor at the Guildhall School of Music. Played a Stradivari violin formerly owned by Paganini. [Bakers]
Sussmann, (or Süssmann) Jascha [KJ] Stud. a. d. Kgl. Hochsch. f. Mus. Berlin. Links: ETUDE, KJ
Tennenbaum, Betty — Sanna Pederson lists Betty Tennenbaum as having studied with Joachim from 1905-1906. I have found no other verification of this, though she is cited in a favorable 1911 review (of Saint-Saens’ violin concerto) as having studied with Emil Sauret, and performing according to the French school. Wilhelm Altmann wrote in Die Musikof her appearance with the Berlin Philharmonic that it “lacked justification for a public performance in so formidable a setting.”
Tofte, Lars Valdemar (*October 21, 1832 — †May 281907) [M] [W] Links: M, Mason, W
Studied with C. Petersen and J. Selmer; in Germany with Spohr, and 1853-1856 with Joachim. 1856 Copenhagen debut. 1868-1892 first violinist with Copenhagen Court Orchestra; 1866-1904 professor of violin at Copenhagen Conservatory.
Treichler, (Hans?) [M] Concertmaster, Zürich. Links: BMLO, M
Isidore Troostwyk (1862-1923) was born in Zwolle in the Netherlands. He began studying the violin at the age of ten, and when he was sixteen, patrons funded lessons with Joseph Joachim in Berlin. (Joachim later sent him to the United States with a letter of recommendation.) In 1883 Troostwyk was appointed professor of the violin at the Academy of Music in Amsterdam, and was appointed concertmaster of the Concertgebouw orchestra. Troostwyk emigrated to the United States in 1888. He was co-founder of the Dessauer-Troostwyk School of Music, at 781 Chapel Street in New Haven, incorporated in 1893. In 1895, Troostwyk was appointed as the first Instructor of Violin at the newly established Yale School of Music, where he was later promoted to Assistant Professor, and performed as a member of the Faculty Trio. Troostwyk became the concertmaster of the New Haven Symphony at the time of its organization in 1894. He was the founding conductor of two orchestras: the New Haven String Orchestra (1907) and the Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra.
Born in Helsinki. Studied with Adolf Niemann, Anton Sitt; in Berlin with Wirth and Joachim. 1887 played second violin in a quartet headed by Marie Soldat. 1889 – 1890 traveled in England. 1891 returned to Scandinavia. Composed works for violin and songs.
Warburg, (Miss) S. [KJ] Tonkünstlerin. Manchester. KJ
Wasner, (Miss) K. [KJ] Stud. a. d. Kgl. Hochsch. f. Mus. Berlin. Links: KJ
Weintraub, J. [KJ] Fürstlicher Concertmeister. Gera. Links: KJ
Wendel, Ernst [MUGI] see: MUGI article on Else Mendel-Oberüber.
Wendheim, Gabriele von (Hoffmann, Hofmann von Wendheim, Hoffmann von Wendheim
Cited in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik as a student of Moritz Mildner in Prague (NZfM 1858 I, p. 84). Pupil of Joachim in Hanover, ca. Winter 1858. Dedicatee of Joachim’s Notturno for violin and orchestra, op. 12. Links: SDI
Wendling, Carl (*August 10, 1875 — †March 27, 1962) Studied in Strasbourg with Heinrich Schuster and Florián Zajic, and in Berlin with Halir and Joachim. Links: ETUDE
1908: “Mr. CARL WENDLING was born in Strassburg in 1875. He studied the violin at the Conservatory of Music in his birthplace, and afterward went to Berlin, where he pursued his studies under Joachim for three years and a half. Returning to Strassburg, he taught for a year at the Conservatory. In 1899 he went to Meiningen, where he was concert-master of the Meiningen Orchestra, then led by Mr. Fritz Steinbach, for four years. From Meiningen he went to Stuttgart as concert-master of the Royal Court Theatre of that city and of the regularly established concerts of the Court Orchestra. He was also leader of the Chamber Musicians’ String Quartet, with Messrs. Künzel, Presuhn, and Seitz as associates. He still holds his official positions in Stuttgart, for he was granted leave of absence for one year to be the first concert-master of the Boston Symphony for this season. Mr. Wendling has been concert-master of the Wagner Festival performances at Bayreuth since 1903, and in 1903, 1904, 1905 he was concert-master for Hans Richter at Covent Garden in performances of German opera. Mr. Wendling made his first appearance in America as a soloist on October 26, 1907, at a concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston, when he played Brahms’s Concerto in D major.” [BSO] Wending became director of the Royal Stuttgart Conservatory in 1929. He died in Stuttgart in 1962. See also here.
Werner, Theodore [KJ] [M] London. Paris. Links: KJ, M
Edinburgh Evening News, March 16, 1887: “A NEW MUSICAL GENIUS. A great deal of curiosity has been recently expressed in musical circles concerning the new and phenomenal fiddle player, the great merit of whom was instantly recognized not long since by the Prince of Wales… The other night… Mr. Theodore Werner, the new violinist, played at the Lyric Club before a very representative and brilliant assembly of prominent artistic personages, and (according to a London correspondent) he created a remarkable and profound sensation. He is a pupil of Joachim, and his bowing is worthy of the great master himself; the quality of tone he produces is very fine indeed, and as a rule more rich than that of Sarasate; while his fingering is simply perfect in finish, and absolutely faultless in rapidity and determination. Mr Werner is altogether a very marvelous musician.
Wickham, Madge Soloist with Berlin Philharmonic 1887.
Left to right, standing: Theodore Hemberger, Theodore Spiering, Rudolph Lenz, Mary Cardew, Sol Marcosson, [Josef] Hösl, [Carl] Bemmer, Rosa Schindler, Bernard Sinsheimer; seated, Joseph Joachim, Emmanuel Wirth.
[photo probably ca. 1892]
Thanks to John Maltese.
From Musical Courier, May 6, 1914, page 27:
Theodore Spiering Writes
The picture you reproduced in your Cleveland article, lent to you by Sol Marcosson and showing Joachim and Wirth with a group of pupils, took me back twenty-two years. Joseph Hösl (for years third concertmaster in the Munich Opera Orchestra) and Carl Bemmer (cello professor at the largest conservatory in Athens, Greece) seem to have dropped from Mr. Marcosson’s memory. They have been my good friends in all these years. The picture was taken after the Joachim quartet class, at which, if I remember correctly, I had prepared a string quartet of Eugene d’Harcourt—a Frenchman who has since played quite an important role in the local Parisian field—my colleagues being Hösl, Lenz and Bremmer. The regular string quartet, which for three seasons I held together, consisted, beside myself, of Marcosson, C. Rawdon Briggs (now concertmaster in Manchester, with the Hallé Orchestra) and Paul Morgan, of New York. Those times seem ages ago.
Joseph Joachim: Romanze aus dem Concert in Ungarischer Weise, Berlin, 9 January 1893
Cardiff, March, 1894 AMusQS. (“Joseph Joachim”). 1½ pp. Oblong 8vo. On a single sheet of folded paper. Five measures from the second movement of Giuseppe Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata marked “Tempo giusto” and inscribed in German “In memory of the concert in Cardiff and of Joseph Joachim.” Sold by Lion Heart Autographs.
Joseph Joachim: Album Leaf for Elisabeth Joachim, Spring 1897
“Zur Erinnerung an den letzten Kammermusikabend 1896-97. Möge, liebes Kind, Brahms Musik dir ein treuer Schatz für’s Leben bleiben, wie mir!
Joseph Joachim
Frühling 1897.”
“In remembrance of the last chamber music evening 1896-97. May Brahms’s music remain for you a true treasure, dear child, as for me!
Joseph Joachim
Spring 1897.
Berlin, June 5, 1897 Incipit. Bach, Fugue in C Major from Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1005. [In English] “In remembrance of Joseph Joachim / Berlin / June 5th 1897”
Bern, March 14, 1900 Incipit. Joachim, Romanze in B flat Major, from Drei Stücke, op. 2. [In English] “With many thanks for your nice little letter, and for telling me that your mamma liked the piece. / Joseph Joachim / Berne / March 14th 1900”
Joseph Joachim’s story is usually told from the vantage point of his later eminence: the revered Berlin teacher, the intimate of Brahms, the “Geigerkönig” whose authority shaped violin playing and musical interpretation across Europe. Yet within a generation of his debut, there were already attempts to capture his life in biographical form. Among these is Ignaz Reich’s “Joachim Joseph,” published in the first volume of Beth‑El: Ehrentempel verdienter ungarischer Israeliten (Pest, 1856), when Joachim was twenty-five. Reich’s book is a biographical “temple of honor” for notable Hungarian Jews, and his Joachim sketch stands as the earliest extended narrative of the violinist’s life.
Unlike later German biographies, which tend to present Joachim primarily as a central figure in the canon of “German” music, Reich’s portrait anchors him explicitly in a Hungarian‑Jewish milieu. The narrative begins in Kittsee and Pest and lingers over domestic scenes: the boy listening outside the door while his sisters take lessons, his plea to be allowed to learn music as they do, the arrival of the first small violin and music stand. Although Reich misidentifies Joachim’s earliest teachers (his “Stiegnitz” is identified in Moser’s biography as “Stieglitz,”Gustav Ellinger is left out completely, and Joseph’s more advanced Budapest teacher was concertmaster Stanisław Serwaczyński, not Ladislaus Szervasinsky), he preserves an important memory of early instruction and family support in Pest that dovetails in broad outline with later, more fully documented accounts.
Today’s more authoritative reconstructions of Joachim’s early years draw systematically on letters, reviews, and archival sources unavailable to Reich. What makes Reich’s much earlier sketch worth revisiting is not that it offers “new facts” beyond these, but that it shows how Joachim’s life was, already in the 1850s, being shaped into an exemplary narrative. Reich writes for a Jewish readership eager for models of Hungarian Jewish accomplishment. He emphasizes parental devotion, tireless discipline, and the boy’s modesty and moral soundness at least as much as his prodigious gifts. The text is closer in tone to a moralizing Lebensbild than to critical biography.
At the center of the story stands Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Reich presents a pivotal evening in Mendelssohn’s Leipzig home, where the eleven‑year‑old Joachim plays before a circle of “seasoned masters.” After the performance, Mendelssohn kisses the boy on the brow — the “Weihekuß” of art, evoking Beethoven’s famous “kiss of consecration” on young Liszt — and exclaims: “Just as that child there plays, so, I believe, I must once have played myself!” Around this portentious scene, Reich weaves genuinely documentary material: Mendelssohn’s famous letter of recommendation to Ignaz Moscheles, Joachim’s own highly interesting account of his daily Leipzig study routine, and the searing letter he wrote to his parents upon witnessing Mendelssohn’s death in November 1847. These inclusions, undoubtedly supplied by family members, give the sketch a documentary core even as the narrative as a whole tends toward hagiography.
From a modern standpoint the Reich article is therefore both valuable and problematic. It is valuable because it preserves early family traditions and contemporary perceptions: the sense of Joachim as a Jewish‑Hungarian prodigy, the emphasis on his relationship to Mendelssohn, and the way his London successes could already be read as a source of communal pride. It is problematic because Reich’s chronology and some of his anecdotes are unreliable. Most conspicuously, he dates Joachim’s “first journey to England” to 1843, whereas contemporary press, programs, and correspondence firmly establish spring 1844 as the date of his first documented visit to London and Windsor; his description of events clearly corresponds to that 1844 trip. Similarly, the anecdote of the Viennese critic (in Moser’s biography revealed to be Joachim’s own teacher, Hellmesberger) who declares Joachim’s bowing hopeless and later repents reads like a stock cautionary tale, modeled — as Reich freely admits — on the familiar story about Rachel at the Théâtre Français.
For these reasons, Reich’s “Joachim Joseph” is best approached not as a primary authority for dating and fact, but as a witness to the early myth‑making around Joachim. Where Reich can be checked against letters and reviews — above all in the case of the Moscheles and Leipzig family letters — his testimony is extremely useful. Where he stands alone, especially in precise dates or unnamed anecdotes, his assertions must be tested against later critical tradition.
In presenting the text that follows, we therefore treat Reich’s narrative as a document of reception: a mid‑century attempt to place Joseph Joachim among the “deserving Israelites” of Hungary and to read his prodigious rise through the lenses of Jewish bourgeois virtue and Mendelssohnian patronage. Read alongside the contemporary scholarly literature and the surviving correspondence, this early sketch allows us to see not only what happened in Joachim’s youth, but how, already in 1856, his story was being told, idealized, and claimed.
JOACHIM JOSEPH. [English translation below]
Dieser in der Musikwelt so frühzeitig zur Anerkennung gelangte Violinvirtuose und Kompositeur wurde 1831 zu Kitsee, Wieselburger Komit., geboren. Einige Jahre später übersiedelten seine Eltern nach Pest, wo sich ihnen die Gelegenheit eröffnete, für eine zeitgemäße Erziehung ihres geliebten und wie sich bald ergab, reich-talentirten Kindes, nach besten Kräften zu sorgen. Kaum 5 Jahre alt, bekundete sich bereits in ihm die lebhafte Neigung zu jener süßen Beschäftigung, die seitdem seine stete und treueste Lebensgefährtin geworden — zur Musik. Als nämlich seine Schwestern den ersten Unterricht in dieser Kunst erhielten, lauschte er mit sichtbarem Eifer während der Lehr- und Widerholungsstunden derselben, den ihm holdklingenden Tönen, und man konnte leicht erkennen, wie bei dieser geringen Veranlassung die Phantasie des Kindes so wunderbar mächtig angeregt wurde. Eines Tages überraschte den zärtlichen Vater seine inständige Bitte: er möge auch ihm gleich den lieben Schwestern den Unterricht in der Musik angedeihen lassen. In Folge dessen war die Violine, der kleine Notenpult mit allem nöthigen Zugehör bald an Ort und Stelle und das wißbegierige Kind erhielt in Hr. Stiegniß seinen ersten Musiklehrer.
Die seltene Anlage J.’s erprobte sich rasch. Kaum waren 4 Wochen des Unterrichts vorüber, als sich bereits die frohe Hoffnung für die Zukunft des Kindes im Herzen der zärtlichen Eltern zu erschließen begann. Kein mögliches Opfer scheuend, das dem Zwecke seiner musikal. Ausbildung förderlich werden konnte, gelang es ihnen später Hr. Ladislaus Szervasinsky’s (Orchester-Direktors und Solospielers am Pester städt. Theater) treffliche Leitung für das Kind zu gewinnen. Unter diesem überaus kunstverständigen Meister mußten seine herrlichen Anlagen noch um so rascher und unzweideutiger zum Vorschein gelangen, da sich der Fleiß und Eifer des Zöglings in dem Maße, als er die ersten Schwierigkeiten seines Instrumentes zu überwinden vermochte, stets glänzender entwickelten. Oft sah man einen unverkennbaren Strahl der geistigen Befriedigung aus den feuerig hellen Augen des kleinen Geigers leuchten, wenn irgend eine gelungene Passage, eine etwas kühnere Bogenführung den Beifall des gewissenhaften Meisters erweckte, auf den er, voll inniger Anhänglichkeit, viel aufmerksamer noch, als auf die kalten stummen Notenzeichen zu schauen pflegte. — Nach Verlauf eines einjährigen Unterrichtes waren die Fortschritte des 6-jährigen Knaben bereits dahin gediehen, daß Szervasinsky
(Page 62)
kein Bedenken trug, ihn vor einem kunstsinnigen Publikum im adeligen Kasino Pests, Pechatseks Variationen spielen zu lassen. Der ungetheilte Beifall, der hier dem Kinde reichlich gezollt wurde, rechtfertigte auch das Vertrauen des wackern Meisters aufs Glänzendste. 1839, im Alter von 8 Jahren, kam er auf Szervasinsky’s eigenes Anrathen nach Wien, wo er im Hause Prof. Böhms die sorgfältigste, sowol leibliche als geistige Pflege genoß. Unter der unmittelbaren Aufsicht des unübertrefflichen Meisters lebte er volle 3 Jahre fast unausgesetzt seiner Violine, während er außerdem von dem gefeierten Regens Chori zu St. Stephan, Preyer, die klassische Unterweisung im Generalbaß erhielt. Während seines Aufenthaltes in Wien trat er nur bei wichtigen Gelegenheiten, etwa wenn es einem Wohlthätigkeitszwecke oder einer allgemeinen Zöglingsproduktion des Konservatoriums galt vor die Öffentlichkeit, wo ihm aber auch stets die rühmlichste Anerkennung zu Theil wurde. In der That brachten seine an und für sich ausgezeichneten Leistungen damals eine um so größere und überraschendere Wirkung hervor, je anspruchloser und unerwarteter sie zum Vorschein gelangten. Die „T. Z.“ vom 31sten Jän. 1842 leitet ihre kritische Besprechung über das 4-te Zöglingskonzert des Konservatoriums, mit folgenden vielbezeichnenden Worten ein:
„Die Palme des heutigen Abends ward und gebührte dem 10-jährigen Schüler des Hr. Prof. Böhm, Joachim, welcher Variationen von Ernst mit einer erstaunenswerthen Virtuosität spielt…“ „Hört man“ — heißt es weiter — „in dem Spiele des Knaben das wunderbare Cantabile mit dieser Innigkeit des Gefühles, das zarte Tonleiden, die Klage der Violine, diesen klingenden Schmerz…; so wird man an der Erscheinung irre und hält sich für das Spielwerk eines optischen Truges…“ „In diesem Knaben“ — so schließt diese, von höchster, unmittelbarer Ergriffenheit zeugende Besprechung — „in diesem Knaben sehen wir die reifste Frucht in der beginnenden Blüthenzeit; wir erblicken in ihm den fertigen, tieffühlenden Künstler.“
So bekundete sich frühzeitig dieses mächtige Talent vor den Augen Aller die es zu beobachten und zu bewundern Gelegenheit hatten. Und doch fehlte es auch damals an scheelsüchtigen Beurtheilern nicht, denen der allzukühne Aufschwung des Knaben nicht ganz geheuer vorkommen wollte. Merkwürdig bleibt es, daß sich unter manchen unbedeutenden Stimmen auch eine jetzt in der Musikwelt namhafte Persönlichkeit Wiens zu der voreiligen Prophezeihung veranlaßt sah, daß der junge J. eine überaus verfehlte Bogenführung besitze und daß er überhaupt nie etwas Tüchtiges zu leisten im Stande sein werde! Dieses Urtheil hat seitdem längst seine glänzendste Widerlegung gefunden. Mittlerweile hat sogar dieser ungünstige Kritiker dem
(Page 63)
zu höherer Meisterschaft gediehenen J. die ehrende Huldigung seiner innigsten Freundschaft, als Zeichen seiner vollsten Anerkennung liebreich zugewendet. *) Indes schritt J. rüstig und unbeirrt seinem Ziele zu. Während man sich in den Kunstsalonen Wiens recht gemüthlich über die wahren oder scheinbaren, mehr oder minder verheißenden Anlagen des Virtuosenkindes unterhielt, bildete sich dieses in aller Zurückgezogenheit unter den wachsamen Augen seiner trefflichen Lehrer immer selbstständiger und kräftiger heran, und wußte sich deren Beifall und Würdigung im vollsten Maße zu erwerben.
Gegen Ende des Jahres 1842, eilf [sic] Jahre alt, verließ er auf Anordnung seiner Verwandten Wien und ging nach Leipzig in der Absicht, das dortige Konservatorium zu besuchen. Hier fand er bald Gelegenheit im Hause MendelssohnBartholdy’s bei einem Feste, das dieser seinen Kunstfreunden zum Besten gab, und wo die himmlische Kost der Musik den irdischen Annehmlichkeiten mehr als vorwalten sollte mitzuwirken. Selten war ein Konzert für einen Künstler so ehrenreich und lohnend, als das harmlose, aber entzückend schöne Spiel J.’s an diesem Abend. In andächtiger Stille verharrten die bewährtesten Meister dem Knaben gegenüber. Seine kleine Violine führte lange allein das mächtige Wort. Und als sie endete, da schritt Mendelss. voll Rührung dem volllockigen Spieler zu, und mit einem Kusse, der die Weihe der Kunst auf seine Stirne drückte, rief er begeisterten Tones: „So wie dieses Kind da, bin ich selbst wol einst gewesen!“ Mehr bedurfte es nicht; die Zukunft J.’s war von da an gesichert. Fortan wurde Mendelss. sein treuester Be-
*) Unwillkührlich wird man hiebei an jenen wackern Künstler des Theater Français erinnern, der dem damals noch unbekannten Judenmädchen Rachel, bei einer Gelegenheit den gutgemeinten Rath ertheilte sie möge nach wie vor lieber ihre niedlichen Blumensträuschen winden und dem gesangsliebenden Publikum zum Kaufe anbieten; indem er treuherzig versichern könne, daß sie bei ihren schwachen Mitteln für das Schauspielen nie geeignet sein werde. Einige Jahre später befand sich, nach Dr. Verons Erzählung, derselbe Künstler hinter den Koulissen des Theater Français gerade an jenem Abend wo Rachel ihren ersten und glänzendsten Triumpf in „Phédre“ feierte. Kränze und Blumen fielen von allen Seiten des geräumigen Schauspielhauses so reichlich zu den Füßen der gefeierten Künstlerin, daß sie bequem ihre faltenreiche, weite Tunika damit füllen konnte. Und als sie so die Scene verlassen, da trat sie ihrem ehemaligen Unheilverkünder entgegen und bot ihm kniend diese kostbaren Blumen, die Zeugen ihres ersten Triumpfes, zum Kaufe an. Der ehrliche Künstler sichtlich gerührt, sagte indem er sie liebreich aufrichtete: Es freut mich mehr als irgend Jemanden kein Prophet gewesen zu sein.“
(Page 64)
schützer, sein wärmster Freund; Haus und Herz des bewährten Meisters stand jetzt dem Kinde allzeit offen. — Vor Allem war es Mendelss., der sich dem Ansinnen, daß J. das Konservatorium besuche, widersetzte; indem er behauptete: er sei bereits dieser Anstalt längst entwachsen, und daß sich kaum ihm ebenbürtige Zöglinge daselbst finden würden. Dafür erhielt der Knabe auf weitere Veranlassung seines neuen Beschützers den Unterricht in den Bach’schen Kompositionen bei David und setzte bei Hauptmann den Generalbaß fort. Ausserdem hatte er sich Mendelssohns eigener Leitung zu erfreuen, dem er — wie er sich einst in dankbarer Rührung äußerte — die eigentliche Weihe der Kunst zu verdanken hatte.
1843 wagte J. schon seine erste Kunstreise nach London. Er ging dahin mit einflußreichen Empfehlungsschreiben versehen, besonders von Seiten seines nunmehrigen Lehrers und Freundes Mendelss. — die zur Folge hatten, daß ihm als 13-jährigem Jüngling die hohe Ehre zu Theil wurde, in einem glänzenden Hofkonzerte im Schlosse Windsor vor der Königin von England, dem Kaiser von Rußland, dem Könige von Sachsen, so wie vielen hohen und höchsten Staatsmännern: Welington, Russel u. s. w. zu spielen. Der ehrenreiche Beifall, den er hier erntete, wurde durch ein besonderes Zeichen der Anerkennung von Seiten der Königin bekundet, indem sie dem Künstler eine goldene Uhr nebst Kette, zum Andenken an diesen Tag, zustellen ließ.
Höchst bezeichnend und interressant ist das, bei dieser Gelegenheit von Mendelss. an seinem ehemaligen Lehrer Moscheles, gerichtete Schreiben, worin er seine Liebe für den 13-jährigen Knaben in der herzlichsten Weise an den Tag legt. Dieses Schreiben lautet:
„Lieber Freund! durch diese Zeilen stelle ich dir einen Knaben vor, der mir durch ³/₄ Jahre, wo ich ihn zum ersten Male kennen lernte, so recht ans Herz gewachsen, so wahrhaft lieb geworden, und für den ich eine Hochachtung fühle, wie nur für Wenige, mit denen ich in der letzten Zeit in Berührung stand. Es ist der 13-jähr. Joachim aus Pest in Ungarn, der die Absicht hat, seinem in London wohnenden Onkel einen Besuch abzustatten. Sein außerordentliches, wunderbares Talent in der Handhabung der Violine kann ich dir nicht genug beschreiben; Du mußt ihn selbst hören, um aus der Art und Weise, wie er alle möglichen jetzigen und früheren Solo’s spielt, wie er mit einer Leichtigkeit alles zu dechifriren im Stande ist, was auf Noten steht; wie er Musik hört und kennt — auf die herrlichsten Aussichten
(Page 65)
zuschließen, die der Kunst in ihm bevorstehen, und wodurch ich berechtigt bin ihn so hochzustellen, wie ich es wirklich thue.
Zugleich wirst du in ihm einen trefflichen, kerngesunden, wolerzogenen und durchaus braven und klugen Jungen finden, voll Verstand und Ehrlichkeit.
Sei ihm daher freundlich zugethan und nimm dich seiner in der großen Weltstadt London an. Stelle ihn denjenigen unserer Bekannten vor, die eine so herrliche Erscheinung zu würdigen wissen, und an denen er sich seinerseits erfreuen und heranbilden kann. Hiebei denke ich vorzüglich an unsern Freund Horsley. Auch bei Chelieis[Chorleys?] führe ihn, wenn möglich, ein. Überhaupt was du dem Knaben Gutes bezeigest, das leistest du mir. Auf baldiges, so Gott will, glückliches Wiedersehen.
„Mendelssohn.“
Diese wenigen Zeilen gestatten uns einen tiefen beseligenden Einblick in das überaus zarte und seltene Verhältniß der Freundschaft, das zwischen diesen Beiden obwaltete: zwischen dem vollendeten, ruhmbewährten Meister und seinem in edlem Nachelfer heranstrebenden Zögling. Eine Freundschaft, die uns aus jedem der warmen liebevollen Ausdrücke, aus jedem der herrlichen Worte, mit denen er seinen Joachim in die große Weltstadt begleitet — in den lichtvollsten Zügen entgegen glänzt. Moscheles bemühete sich dem Wunsche seines Freundes mit dem größtmöglichen Eifer zu entsprechen, indem er seinem theueren Schutzbefohlenen die besten Dienste leistete. Durch ihn kam J. mit sämmtlichen musikal. Berühmtheiten Londons in freundschaftliche Berührung. Zugleich lernte er hier Ernst, Sivori, Lablache und irren wir nicht, auch Schumann kennen, zu dem er bald in ein besonders zartes Verhältniß getreten. Nach einem 3-monatl., vom glänzendsten Erfolge gekrönten Aufenthalte in London, kehrte er als bereits namhafter Künstler nach seinem stillen Leipzig zurück, wo er sich so harmlosen Gemüthes seinen alten Studien wieder zuwendete, als ob nichts von Bedeutung mit ihm vorgegangen wäre. Daß die sehr überschwänglichen Lobeserhebungen der großen Weltstadt keinen beirrenden Einfluß auf J. übten, zeigt sich am besten aus einem Familienschreiben, das er kurz nach seiner Rückkunft aus London an seinen Vater richtete. Keine Spur von überspannter Einbildung oder nur von kindischer Selbstgefälligkeit verräth sich in diesen, voll gemüthlicher Einfalt geschriebenen Zeilen. Das gefühlvolle Kind berichtet unter Anderem seinem Vater:
(Page 66)
„Meine Lektionen bei Hr. Hauptmann haben bereits wieder ihren Anfang genommen. Auch mein deutscher Lehrer Hr. H[1]…, der gegenwärtig verhindert ist, glaubt bereits in 14 Tagen beginnen zu können. Ich hoffe im Laufe des Winters sowol in der Musik, als auch in andern Lehrgegenständen bedeutende Fortschritte zu machen. Ich stehe täglich (außer Sonntag) um 6 Uhr Morgens auf, wo ich bis zum Frühstücke LateinischeKlassiker oder sonst etwas Nützliches studire, worauf ich dann den ganzen Vormittag ausschließlich der Musik widme und zwar dem Violinspiele; der Komposizion und den nöthigen Übungen im Generalbaß. Um 2¹/₄ Uhr Nachmittags gehe ich wieder an die Arbeit und schreibe bis 4 Uhr; von da bis 6 Uhr spiele ich Klavier. Dann nach einem Spaziergange und Souper arbeite ich wieder bis 9 Uhr in der Musik. Zuweilen lerne ich auch Stellen aus unserem herrlichen Schiller auswendig, dabei komponire ich an einem Konzerte und spiele fleißig Fugen u. s. w.“
Ein ganzes Jahr verweilte er jetzt eifrigen Fleißes in seinem studiengeweihten Leipzig, ehe er ein zweites Mal in die Schranken der Öffentlichkeit trat; um von seinen weit gediehenen Fortschritten Rechenschaft abzulegen.
1844 ging er neuerdings nach London, wohin ihn die derzeitige Anwesenheit Mendelssohns bestimmt zu haben scheint. Er genoß diesmal wieder die seltene Auszeichnung, in einem philharmonischen Konzerte mitzuwirken, wo sonst statutenmäßig kein Künstler unter 20 Jahren zugelassen wurde. Über den herrlichen Erfolg dieses Konzertes vom 27-ten Mai 1844 lieferten die Weltblätter „Morning Post“, „Times“, „Chronicle“ u. s. w. die glänzendsten Berichte. *)
1847, 3 Jahre nach dem beispiellosen Triumpfe ging er nach Paris. Hier kündigte Heinrich Blanchard seine Kritik in den „Debats“ vorläufig in folgenden kurzen, aber vielsagenden Worten an: „Der Löwe der jetzigen Saison J. ergötzt uns durch sein gewaltiges, großartiges Spiel; durch die Fülle des Tones, den
*) In der „Times“ heißt es unter Anderem: „Joachim hat durch die ihm besonders eigenthümliche höhere Auffassung des Beethoven’schen Violinkonzerts ein so vollständiges einheitliches Ganze erzielt, daß er in dem großen Meisterwerke die vom Kompositeur beabsichtigte Wirkung vollkommen erreichte.“
„Morning Post“ schließt ihre höchst gediegene Kritik mit den Worten: „Alles beweist, daß sein Spiel der wahre Ausdruck dessen ist, was sein eigenes Herz empfindet, was Geist und Seele des Dichters ihn erfüllen; und gerade hierin ist es, worin er sich vor so vielen frühern Erscheinungen so glänzend auszeichnet.“
(Page 67)
er mit Zaubermacht seinem Instrumente entlockt… Ich werde dieser Tage über den jungen großen Künstler sprechen. Vor der Hand sei es genug, daß in ihm das schönste Talent und der beste Karakter den herrlichsten Akkord bilden.“
Kurze Zeit darauf sah J. London zum 3-ten Male, ging von da ehrenhaften Rufen Folge leistend, nach Dublin, Manchester, Liverpool u. s. w. — was auch die längste Zeit seiner Abwesenheit von Leipzig war, wo er durch 7 aufeinanderfolgende Jahre der Kunst und der Wissenschaft oblag. Hieher zurückgekehrt, hatte er bald die ehrenvolle Genugthuung als Lehrer an jener Musikschule ernannt zu werden, wo er vor wenigen Jahren als bescheidener Schülereintreten sollte. 1847 übernahm er den Unterricht am Leipziger Konservatorium. Dieser Beweis der Anerkennung hätte gewiß den freudigsten Eindruck auf ihn hervorgebracht, wenn nicht fast zur selben Zeit ein trauriges Ereigniß eingetreten wäre, das auf seine Zukunft von entscheidendster Wirkung wurde. Am 5-ten Nov. 1847 langte von ihm folgender Brief nach Pest:
„Theure, liebe, gute Eltern! Bereiten Sie sich vor, etwas ganz unerhört Schreckliches und Trauriges von mir zu vernehmen. Der liebe Gott hat mich gestern zum ersten Male mit einem großen Unglück heimgesucht; all meine Freuden, all mein Hoffen, Alles, Alles ist seit gestern Abends 9 Uhr zerstört, Mendelssohn ist todt! Es liegt eine Welt von Schmerz in den drei Worten; leider sind sie nur allzuwahr. — Todt! todt! todt! — Es ist mir unmöglich an irgend etwas Anderes zu denken oder nur einen Ton Musik zu hören. Mendelssohn war schon lange unwohl, er wurde gestern vor 8 Tagen rezidiv und ein leichter Schlaganfall kam dazu; dennoch hatten wir die ganze Zeit die beste Hoffnung, bis sich der Anfall mit großer Heftigkeit vorgestern Mitwoch um 2 Uhr wiederholte und es immer bedenklicher wurde. Gestern Abend stellte sich ein Röcheln ein, und nach und nach schwanden die Kräfte, so daß er wenige Minuten nach 9 Uhr, ruhig wie es nur ein Engel thun kann, in eine schönere Welt hinüberschlummerte.“
„Der Gedanke an Sie und andere liebe Wesen in Pest, ist das einzige, was mich noch aufrichtet. Ich bin aber sehr, sehr unglücklich und werde wol nie wieder froh werden. Wie wohl mir ein Paar Zeilen von Ihnen thun würden, liebe Eltern, können Sie sich denken, und ich hoffe sehnlichst, daß Sie mir bald Ihre lieben Schriftzüge zeigen werden.“
„Ihr trostloser Joseph.“
English Translation
JOSEPH JOACHIM
This violin virtuoso and composer, so early recognized in the musical world, was born in 1831 in Kittsee, in the county of Wieselburg. A few years later his parents moved to Pest, where they now had the opportunity, so far as they were able, to provide their beloved child—soon revealed to be richly gifted—with an education suited to the times. Barely five years old, he already showed a lively inclination for that sweet occupation which has since become his constant and most faithful companion in life: music. When his sisters began their first lessons in this art, he would listen with visible eagerness during their hours of instruction and practice to the tones that sounded so dear to him, and it was easy to see how, on this slightest of occasions, the child’s imagination was stirred in the most wonderfully powerful way. One day his tender father was surprised by his urgent plea that he, too, might be given lessons in music like his dear sisters. The result was that a violin and a little music stand with all the necessary accessories soon found their place in the home, and the inquisitive child received, in Herr Stiegniß, his first music teacher.
Joachim’s remarkable gifts quickly proved themselves. Scarcely four weeks of lessons had passed when the joyful hope for the child’s future began to dawn in the hearts of his devoted parents. Shrinking from no sacrifice that might further the purpose of his musical training, they later succeeded in securing for him the excellent guidance of Ladislaus Szervasinsky,1 conductor and solo violinist at the Pest municipal theatre. Under this highly expert master the boy’s splendid natural endowment had to emerge all the more rapidly and unmistakably, since his diligence and zeal developed ever more brilliantly as he succeeded in overcoming the first difficulties of his instrument. Often an unmistakable gleam of inward satisfaction would shine from the bright, fiery eyes of the little violinist when some well‑executed passage, or a somewhat bolder stroke of the bow, elicited the approval of his conscientious teacher, on whom, in his deep attachment, he tended to fix his gaze even more attentively than on the cold, mute notes on the page. After a year of instruction, the progress of the six‑year‑old boy had already reached the point at which Szervasinsky felt no hesitation in allowing him to appear before an appreciative public at the aristocratic casino in Pest, playing Pechatschek’s Variations. The unanimous applause so lavishly bestowed on the child there justified in the most brilliant way the good master’s confidence. In 1839, at the age of eight, he came—on Szervasinsky’s own recommendation—to Vienna, where he enjoyed in the home of Professor Böhm the most careful nurture, both physical and intellectual. Under the immediate supervision of this unsurpassed master, he devoted nearly three full years, almost without interruption, to his violin, while also receiving from the celebrated regens chori of St. Stephen’s, Preyer, a classical grounding in thoroughbass.
During his stay in Vienna he appeared in public only on important occasions, when it was a matter of a charitable purpose or a general concert of the conservatory’s pupils, and on such appearances he always received the most laudatory recognition. Indeed, his already distinguished achievements made all the greater and more striking an impression for being presented with such modesty and so little fanfare. The Theater‑Zeitung of 31 January 1842 begins its review of the fourth pupil concert of the conservatory with the following highly significant words:
“The palm of this evening was won, and rightly so, by Joachim, the ten‑year‑old pupil of Professor Böhm, who played variations by Ernst with astonishing virtuosity…”
“Listening,” it continues, “to the wondrous cantabile in this boy’s playing, to such depth of feeling, to the violin’s tender suffering and its plaint, to this sounding pain… one is almost tempted to mistrust one’s senses and to take the whole apparition for some optical illusion…”
“In this boy,” the review concludes—a response that bears witness to the most immediate and profound emotion—“in this boy we see the ripest fruit in the early blossom; in him we behold the finished, deeply feeling artist.”
Thus this powerful talent made itself known early on to all who had the opportunity to observe and admire it. And yet even then there was no lack of jealous judges for whom the boy’s all‑too‑bold ascent seemed not entirely above suspicion. It remains a curious fact that among a number of insignificant voices there was also a figure who has since become a prominent personality in the musical life of Vienna, and who at that time felt moved to the premature prophecy that young Joachim possessed a thoroughly faulty bow‑stroke and would never in general be capable of achieving anything of real worth. This verdict has long since found the most brilliant refutation. In the meantime that unfriendly critic has even offered to the now more highly perfected master Joachim the warm homage of his most heartfelt friendship as a token of his full recognition.
Joachim, however, pressed on sturdily and undeterred toward his goal. While people in Vienna’s musical salons were comfortably discussing the real or supposed, the more or less promising gifts of the child prodigy, he continued to develop, in the greatest seclusion and under the watchful eyes of his excellent teachers, ever more independently and forcefully, knowing how to win their fullest approval and esteem. Toward the end of 1842, at the age of eleven [sic], he left Vienna at the instruction of his relatives and went to Leipzig with the intention of attending the conservatory there. Before long he had an opportunity to take part, in Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s house, in a musical gathering that the master gave for his artistic friends and at which the heavenly nourishment of music was to prevail far more than earthly refreshments. Seldom has a concert been so honorable and so rewarding for any artist as was Joachim’s innocent yet enchanting performance that evening. The most seasoned masters sat in devout silence before the boy; his little violin held the commanding word for a long time. And when it fell silent, Mendelssohn, deeply moved, stepped up to the curly‑haired player and, with a kiss that set upon his brow the consecration of art, exclaimed with enthusiasm: “Just as that child there plays, so, I believe, I must once have played myself!”
No more was needed; Joachim’s future was assured from that moment on. From then on Mendelssohn became his most faithful protector and warmest friend; the master’s house and heart stood open to the boy at all times. It was above all Mendelssohn who opposed the proposal that Joachim enter the conservatory, insisting that he had already outgrown that institution and that scarcely any pupil of equal standing with him could be found there. Instead, at his new protector’s further recommendation, the boy received instruction in the compositions of Bach from David, and continued his studies in thoroughbass with Hauptmann. In addition, he had the good fortune to come under Mendelssohn’s own guidance, to whom, as he once confessed in grateful emotion, he owed “the true consecration to art.”
In 1843 Joachim already ventured his first artistic journey to London.2 He went there provided with influential letters of recommendation, especially from his teacher and friend Mendelssohn—letters that had the result that this thirteen‑year‑old youth received the high honor of performing at a splendid court concert at Windsor Castle before the Queen of England, the Emperor of Russia, the King of Saxony, and many leading statesmen—Wellington, Russell, and others. The distinguished applause he earned on this occasion was marked by a special sign of favor from the Queen, who sent the young artist a gold watch and chain as a memento of the day.
Extremely characteristic and interesting in this context is the letter Mendelssohn addressed, on this occasion, to his former teacher Moscheles, a letter in which he gives the warmest expression to his affection for the thirteen‑year‑old boy. It reads:
“Dear friend, Through these lines I commend to you a boy who, in the three‑quarters of a year since I first came to know him, has grown so close to my heart, become so truly dear to me, and for whom I feel a respect as great as for scarcely anyone with whom I have come into contact in recent times. This is the thirteen‑year‑old Joachim from Pest in Hungary, who intends to pay a visit to his uncle living in London. His extraordinary, wondrous talent in handling the violin I cannot adequately describe to you; you must hear him yourself so that, from the manner in which he plays all manner of present‑day and earlier solos, from the ease with which he is able to decipher whatever is set before him in notes, from the way he hears and understands music, you may draw the happiest conclusions about what art may expect from him in the future, and see why I am justified in valuing him as highly as I do.
At the same time you will find in him an excellent, thoroughly sound, well‑brought‑up, and entirely honest and intelligent boy, full of understanding and integrity.
Be kindly disposed toward him, then, and take him under your wing in the great metropolis of London. Introduce him to those of our friends who can appreciate so splendid a phenomenon and from whom he, for his part, may derive joy and further formation. Here I am thinking especially of our friend Horsley. If possible, take him also to Chelieis [Chorley?]. In general, whatever kindness you show this boy you will be doing for me.
Until we meet again soon, if God wills it, in happiness.
Mendelssohn.”
These few lines grant us a deeply moving insight into the unusually delicate and rare relationship of friendship that prevailed between these two: between the accomplished, widely celebrated master and his pupil, striving in noble emulation. From every warm, affectionate expression, from every splendid word with which he accompanies “his” Joachim into the great world city, this friendship shines forth toward us in the brightest light. Moscheles made every effort to comply with his friend’s wishes as fully as possible, rendering the dear protégé the best of services. Through him Joachim came into friendly contact with all the leading musical figures in London. There, too, he met Ernst, Sivori, Lablache, and—if we are not mistaken—Schumann, with whom he soon entered into a particularly delicate relationship. After three months in London, a stay crowned with the most brilliant success, he returned, already a musician of name, to his quiet Leipzig, where he resumed his former studies with as unassuming a spirit as if nothing of consequence had happened to him.
That the lavish praise heaped upon him in the great metropolis exerted no unsettling influence on Joachim is shown most clearly by a family letter he wrote to his father shortly after his return from London. In these lines, full of unaffected simplicity, there is not the slightest trace of exaggerated self‑regard or even childish self‑satisfaction. The sensitive child reports to his father, among other things:
“My lessons with Herr Hauptmann have already begun again. My German teacher, Herr H…,3 who is at present prevented, also believes he will be able to start in a fortnight. I hope in the course of the winter to make considerable progress both in music and in my other studies. Every day (except Sunday) I get up at six in the morning and, until breakfast, study Latin classics or something else useful; then I devote the whole of the forenoon exclusively to music, namely to violin playing, to composition, and to the necessary exercises in thoroughbass. At a quarter past two in the afternoon I go back to my work and write until four; from then until six I play the piano. After a walk and supper, I work again, at music, until nine. From time to time I also learn passages from our magnificent Schiller by heart; besides that, I am composing a concerto and diligently practicing fugues, and so on.”
He now spent a full year of earnest industry in his study‑dedicated Leipzig before stepping a second time into the arena of public performance to give an account of the progress he had made. In 1844 he once more set out for London, doubtless prompted on this occasion by Mendelssohn’s presence there. Again he enjoyed the rare distinction of appearing in a Philharmonic concert, even though the society’s statutes normally admitted no artist under twenty years of age. On the splendid success of this concert of 27 May 1844 the London papers—Morning Post, Times, Chronicle, and others—provided the most glowing reports.
In 1847, three years after this unparalleled triumph, he traveled to Paris. There, Henri Blanchard announced his forthcoming review in the Débats in the following brief but telling words: “The lion of the present season, Joachim, delights us with his powerful, grandiose playing; with the fullness of tone that he draws as if by magic from his instrument… In him the finest talent and the best character form the noblest harmony.”
Shortly thereafter Joachim saw London for the third time, and from there, responding to honorable invitations, he went on to Dublin, Manchester, Liverpool, and other cities—this being also the longest interruption of his seven consecutive years devoted to art and scholarship in Leipzig. On his return he soon had the gratifying satisfaction of being appointed teacher at the very conservatory where only a few years earlier he had entered as a modest pupil. In 1847 he took up a post at the Leipzig Conservatory. This mark of recognition would surely have filled him with the deepest joy, had it not coincided with a sorrowful event that was to have the most decisive effect on his future.
On 5 November 1847 the following letter from him reached Pest:
“Dearest, beloved, good Parents, Prepare yourselves to hear something utterly, unimaginably dreadful and sad from me. Yesterday the dear Lord visited me for the first time with a great misfortune; all my joys, all my hopes, everything, everything has been shattered since yesterday evening at nine o’clock: Mendelssohn is dead! There is a world of pain in those three words; alas, they are only too true. Dead! dead! dead! It is impossible for me to think of anything else or even to hear a single tone of music. Mendelssohn had long been unwell; a week ago yesterday he suffered a relapse, and a slight stroke was added to it; nevertheless throughout that time we entertained the best of hopes, until the seizure returned the day before yesterday, Wednesday, at two o’clock with great violence, and his condition became steadily more alarming. Yesterday evening a rattling in his breathing set in, and gradually his strength ebbed away so that, a few minutes after nine, he passed over, as peacefully as only an angel can, into a fairer world.
The thought of you and of other dear ones in Pest is the only thing that still sustains me. But I am very, very unhappy and feel that I shall never be truly happy again. You can imagine how much good a few lines from you would do me, dear Parents, and I long most fervently to see your dear handwriting again.
Your inconsolable Joseph.”
Ignaz Reich (1821–1887) was a Hungarian Jewish writer, poet, teacher, and translator, born in Zsámbék and later active in Pest/Budapest. His work forms an important part of the mid-19th‑century Hungarian Jewish literary and educational renaissance. Trained first by his father, the communal notary, and then at the yeshiva in Grosswardein (Oradea, Romania) and the gymnasium in Arad, he combined traditional Jewish learning with a solid humanistic education and wide linguistic competence, eventually mastering Hungarian, German, French, Hebrew, Latin, and later English. From 1851 he taught for decades at the Pest Jewish communal school (and also at the state institute for the blind), where he was a pioneer in using Hungarian as the language of instruction in Hebrew grammar and in translating the Hebrew Bible for his pupils into Hungarian. A convinced and visibly demonstrative Hungarian patriot, known for always wearing the national costume, he sought to integrate Jews into the civic and cultural life of the country while fostering economic and social improvement through education. His major work, the multi-volume German‑language Beth‑El. Ehrentempel verdienter ungarischer Israeliten (Pest, from 1856), a biographical anthology of eminent Hungarian Jews, includes the earliest published biographical sketch of the young Joseph Joachim, evidently based on information from the Joachim family. Reich also edited the yearbook Beth Lechem, promoting agriculture, trade, and industry among the Jews of Hungary, translated liturgical texts (including the prayer book and the Haggadah) into Hungarian, and contributed essays and feuilletons to the Jewish press, making him a key intermediary figure between German‑Jewish Bildung and emerging Hungarian‑Jewish culture.
“Odessa, den 8. Februar.” Wiener Signale. Wochenschrift für Theater und Musik (Vienna), February 11, 1882, 48–49.
[English translation below]
__________
Odessa, den 8. Februar.
Nach den glänzenden Erfolgen und Triumphen, welche Joachim in Petersburg, Moskau und Kieff feierte, kam endlich der große Meister auch zu uns. Ich sage „endlich“, denn seit Jahren hatte man mit Sehnsucht sein Hieherkommen erwartet, umsomehr, da das hiesige Publicum Gelegenheit hatte, so ziemlich alle bedeutenden Erscheinungen der Musikwelt kennen zu lernen, und nur Joachim, obschon wiederholt angesagt, bisher der „Perle des schwarzen Meeres“ fern geblieben war. Groß waren die Erwartungen aller Musikliebhaber, und das allgemeine Interesse war so hoch gespannt, daß längst vor dem Eintreffen Joachim’s die beiden für zwei aufeinanderfolgende Abende angekündigten Concerte bereits ausverkauft waren. Er brauchte gar nicht venividi zu sagen, aber vici konnte der Meister wohl ausrufen, denn eines so großartigen Erfolges hatte sich bisher kein Instrumentalkünstler noch in Odessa zu erfreuen, und dies hat viel zu bedeuten in einer Stadt, wo die beiden Rubinstein, Laub, Bülow, Tausig, Wieniawski, die Florentiner, die Damen Wilt, Essipoff u. A. glänzende Erfolge hatten. Aber ein solcher Andrang des Publikums, eine solche Ueberfüllung des Börsesaales war meines Wissens noch nie hier vorgekommen, — und all’ dieß auf eine kleine Annonce, ohne irgendwelche Reclame in den Journalen (Memento Sarah Bernhardt). Dieser außerordentliche materielle Erfolg wurde jedoch noch übertroffen von dem moralischen Erfolge der beiden Concerte. Ich habe bei mehreren der obenerwähnten Künstler schon viele enthusiastische Kundgebungen miterlebt, aber solcher Ovationen, wie sie dem „Könige der Geiger“ zu Theil wurden, kann ich mich nicht erinnern. — Sehr richtig bemerkt heute eine russische Zeitung, daß im zweiten und letzten Concerte der Künstler fast während einer ganzen Stunde hindurch mit den Hervorrufen zu thun hatte, theils Stücke zugebend, theils sich verneigend vor den enthusiastischen Beifallsbezeugungen des Publikums, welches sich zum Schlusse des zweiten Concertes in dichten Massen um die Estrade sammelte, den Künstler von allen Seiten umringend. Herr Joachim mag nicht wenig erstaunt gewesen sein, als er plötzlich von der studirenden Jugend emporgehoben und nun nach russischem Brauche unter betäubenden Hurrahrufen fünf- bis sechsmal in den Lüften „gehutscht“ wurde. Und Alles dies hat Joachim nicht mit Flageolet=Stückchen, nicht mit Feuerwerks=Raketen — nein, diesen Siedepunkt des Enthusiasmus hat der große Künstler mit Bach’s „Chiaconne“ [sic], mit Tartini’s „Teufels“=Sonate, mit Spohr’s Gesangs=scene, mit Mendelssohn’s und Bruch’s Concerten hervorgebracht. Dann zweifle man noch an der Zaubergeige des „Geigerkönigs“. Allgemein und tief war das Bedauern des Odessaer Publikums, daß der Meister seinen Aufenthalt auf 2 Tage beschränken mußte; hätte er an den folgenden zwei Tagen noch zwei Concerte angezeigt, sie wären ebenso überfüllt gewesen. Auch der „Englische Club“ (des Casino unserer high-life) hatte auf den berühmten Künstler für einen Abend gerechnet und die Mitglieder waren geradezu trostlos über die Ablehnung ihrer Einladung. Ueberdieß kamen während dieser zwei Tage aus mehreren umliegenden Städten Telegramme mit der Bitte, Herrn Joachim zu bewegen, die dortigen Bewohner wenigstens mit je einem Concerte zu beglücken. Aus Kischeneff kam sogar eine solche telegrafische Bitte im Namen der gesammten dortigen Gesellschaft mit der Unterschrift des Stadtoberhauptes. Wenn nun nach dem Gesagten die Erfolge des Herrn Joachim als Künstler wirklich zu den außerordentlichsten gerechnet werden müssen, welche überhaupt je hier vorkamen, so verdient es gleichzeitig hervorgehoben zu werden, daß der große Künstler im Laufe dieser zwei unvergeßlichen Tage auch als Mensch die Sympathien aller Jener im Sturme eroberte, welche das Glück hatten, mit ihm in Berührung zu kommen. Eine seltene harmonische Vereinigung von Liebenswürdigkeit, Freundlichkeit und loyaler Collegialität, wie sie eben in Joachim’s Wesen liegen, müssen natürlich Jeden magnetisch fesseln.
In beiden Concerten des Herrn Joachim wirkte der Pianist Herr Bonawitz sowohl mit Solovorträgen, als auch accompagnirend mit, und hat nach beiden Richtungen allgemeine Anerkennung gefunden. Wenn man erwägt, wie schwierig es dem besten Pianisten wird, sich neben der mächtigen Geige eines Joachim, ohne den Nimbus einer unantastbaren Autorität, zu behaupten, so kann Herr Bonawitz mit seinem ehrenvollen und verdienten Erfolge zufrieden sein; denn er wurde nach seinen Solonummern jedesmal durch Beifall und wiederholten Hervorruf ausgezeichnet. Auch sein vortreffliches Accompagnement wurde allgemein bemerkt und in der Brahms’schen G-moll-Sonate für Clavier und Violine hat Herr Bonawitz sich als vorzüglicher Interprete des Kammermusik-Genres bekundet.
So sind denn die zwei Joachim’schen Festabende wie ein schöner Traum entschwunden; die Erinnerung daran wird lange in uns hier fortleben, und ganz Odessa hegt den Wunsch, sowie die Hoffnung, daß der Großmeister aller Geiger seinem Versprechen gemäß uns im nächsten Jahre auf längere Zeit hier besuchen werde. R. F.
English Translation
Odessa, 8 February
After the brilliant successes and triumphs that Joachim has enjoyed in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kiev, the great master has at last come to us as well. I say “at last,” for his arrival here has been eagerly awaited for years — all the more so because the public in this city has had ample opportunity to become acquainted with virtually all the major figures of the musical world, and only Joachim, though repeatedly announced, had until now stayed away from the “Pearl of the Black Sea.” Expectations among music lovers were very high, and public interest so intense, that long before Joachim arrived the two concerts announced for successive evenings were already sold out. He had no need to say veni, vidi, but vici he could certainly have proclaimed, for no instrumental artist in Odessa has ever before enjoyed such an overwhelming success—and that is saying a great deal in a city where both Rubinsteins, Laub, Bülow, Tausig, Wieniawski, the Florentines, Mesdames Wilt and Essipoff, and others have all met with brilliant triumphs. Yet such a crush of people, such overcrowding of the Exchange Hall, has, to my knowledge, never been seen here before — and all this in response to a small advertisement, without any sort of newspaper publicity (memento Sarah Bernhardt).
The extraordinary “material” success of these evenings was surpassed only by their artistic impact. I have been present at many enthusiastic ovations for several of the artists named above, but I cannot recall anything like the homage paid to this “king of violinists.” A Russian paper remarked very aptly today that, at the second and final concert, the artist spent almost an entire hour responding to calls back to the stage — now adding encores, now bowing in acknowledgment of the audience’s passionate applause; by the end of the concert the listeners had surged in dense masses around the platform, surrounding the artist on all sides. Joachim can hardly have been prepared for the moment when the students suddenly hoisted him aloft and, according to Russian custom, tossed him five or six times into the air amid deafening cheers. And all this Joachim achieved not with flashy showpieces of harmonics, not with musical fireworks, but with Bach’s “Chaconne”, Tartini’s “Devil’s” Sonata, Spohr’s concert aria, and the concertos of Mendelssohn and Bruch. And yet people still dare to doubt the magic of the “violin king’s” instrument!
The regret in Odessa was deep and widespread when it became known that the master would limit his stay to only two days; had he announced two further concerts on the next two evenings, they would have been equally overcrowded. The “English Club” (the casino of our high life) had also counted on securing the famous artist for one evening, and its members were frankly inconsolable when he declined their invitation. In the course of these two days, telegrams arrived from several neighboring towns asking that Joachim be persuaded to favor their inhabitants with at least a single concert. From Kishinev there even came such a telegram in the name of the entire local society, bearing the signature of the city’s chief magistrate.
If, in light of all this, we must count Joachim’s artistic success among the most extraordinary our city has ever witnessed, it is equally worth emphasizing that during these two unforgettable days the great artist also, as a human being, won the hearts of all who had the good fortune to meet him. A rare and harmonious combination of amiability, kindness, and loyal collegiality — qualities so characteristic of Joachim — naturally exerts an irresistible attraction on everyone.
At both of Joachim’s concerts the pianist Herr Bonawitz appeared both as soloist and as accompanist, earning general recognition in both roles. Considering how difficult it is even for an excellent pianist to hold his own beside the commanding violin of a Joachim, without the protective aura of unassailable authority, Herr Bonawitz can be well satisfied with his honorable and well‑deserved success; after each of his solo numbers he was greeted with strong applause and repeated recalls. His fine accompanying also attracted general notice, and in Brahms’s G‑minor Sonata for piano and violin he proved himself an outstanding interpreter of chamber music.
spirit of modern, open-source scholarship. For copyright reasons related to the source material, some information remains password-protected and unavailable to the public. The WordPress blog format does not allow me to organize posts as I wish: it organizes posts by date, which is to say, randomly. I am, however, presenting the Biographical Posts in sequence, and organizing all of the material in the INDEX. Content is also searchable using the “search” function, though in recent years that has become cumbersome. The detailed Biographical Posts begin here (“Kittsee, 1831”), and continue as a series of linked articles. There are some gaps in the links — this is, as I say, an ongoing project.
Robert W. Eshbach
1) I am trying to locate the correspondence between Joseph Joachim and Bettina von Arnim that was sold by Henrici auction house in 1929. [Karl Ernst Henrici, Versteigerungskatalog 155, Berlin: am 5. Juli 1929.] I would be very grateful for any information leading to its whereabouts.
