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Joachim’s Jubilee: New-York Tribune (May 7, 1899)

02 Thursday Dec 2021

Posted by Joachim in Concert Reviews & Criticism

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New-York Tribune, 7 May, 1899, Illustrated Supplement


JOACHIM’S JUBILEE.

––––––––––

HOW THE SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF

THE GREAT VIOLINIST’S FIRST AP-

PEARANCE WAS CELEBRATED

IN BERLIN.

Berlin, April 28.

The great hall of the Philharmonie was filled to overflowing on Saturday night, April 23, for the celebration of the jubilee of Joseph Joachim, who sixty years ago, a little boy, eight years old, made his first public appearance as a virtuoso in Budapest, and began the career which has made him the master violinist of Germany, and in the opinion of many of the whole world. Bach, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and the entire “noble army” of musicians, who as cameo reliefs on the pale green wall keep watch over the splendid hall, looked down on one of the most brilliant assemblies of famous men and women ever gathered together in Berlin to honor a man great “by the grace of God.” Musicians, artists, men of letters and learning, high officers and Ministers of State, with countless orders gleaming on their breasts, crowded the parquet, the boxes and the gallery to bear witness to the esteem in which they held Germany’s “grand old man.”

He sat there among them in the centre of the hall, in his big chair of honor, decorated with gorgeous azaleas, smiling on them all, pleased as a child and modest as only a great man can be. Only a few minutes before every one of those thousands of men and women, from the highest dignitary to the humblest music student at the far corners of the hall, had risen and cheered at his entrance, while the trumpets of three of the finest regiments in Berlin sounded a fanfare of welcome. How simple he was, as he came in, accompanied by a few devoted men, stopping to shake hands with a friend in the box above him, or laying his hand affectionately on the shoulder of an old colleague as he passed him on his way down the aisle! The shouts of the people and the blare of the trumpets did not for one moment distract his attention from the familiar faces that beamed on him from all sides.

Indeed, they were all familiar faces. Robert von Mendelssohn, the banker and ‘cellist, descendant of the great Felix, and Joachim’s friend for many years, sat in the chair to his right. Across the passage to his left was the beloved old professor, Hermann Grimm, who had composed the prologue for the occasion, and coming toward him to welcome him was his friend and neighbor, Herr von Keudell. In the orchestra, every member of which was standing and waving his or her handkerchief, stood Wirth and Hausmann, Halir, and Moser and Markees, the two capable instigators and managers of the festival, and, besides these, old friends and pupils from all over the world, gray-haired men, middle-aged men, boys and girls, and no one could make noise enough. When the trumpets had ceased and the vast audience was seated, Fraulein Poppe, of the Royal Theatre, came to the front of the stage and recited the anniversary poem which Professor Grimm had written. It was a touching tribute, which grew in eloquence and feeling up to the last words, which were addressed to the orchestra, and as one exquisite mellow voice 144 stringed instruments responded with the opening strains of the overture to Weber’s “Euryanthe.” If ever an orchestra was inspired, that one was! No one who was not there can realize how perfectly the love and devotion to Joachim which every performer felt were breathed into that beautiful music. The audience sat spellbound. And no wonder, for such a collection of artists never played together before. Every city in Germany which could boast of a violin virtuoso sent him to play on this unique occasion, and not only Germany, but England, whose devotion to the great master is almost, if not quite, as great as that of his own country, sent the best two professors of the London Conservatory to represent her. Scattered among the older men were a few young ones, present pupils of Joachim, and about a dozen young girls in their light dresses, some of them with their hair still hanging in braids down their backs—German, English, American.

After the Joachim Variations, played by Petri, of Dresden, and after the overtures of Schumann and Mendelssohn, the “Genoveva” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and the Brahms Symphony in C Minor, there were three stars on the Programme. “What did they mean?” Every one looked at every one else and nobody knew, but a surprise was evidently in store. Then a note from some one on the stage was carried to Joachim, and at the same moment the whole orchestra rose and began to croon softly the first measures of the Beethoven Concerto. Then all understood and cheered and clapped, but the master himself was of a different mind. He could be seen expostulating and gesticulating and shaking his head and sitting down, only to get up again to expostulate further. But the orchestra never stopped; the soft music went on insistently—it would not be denied. The people behind the boxes, standing on tables and chairs, leaned forward, not to lose a sight or sound. “They’re bringing his violin,” the whisper ran through the excited crowd; and, sure enough, there came three girls, a deputation of his favorite pupils, down the aisle toward him, holding out his wonderful Stradivarius.

When he took it in his hand the music suddenly ceased, and every drum and horn and fiddle began to pound and toot and shriek in a most enthusiastic “Tusch.” When he had taken his stand, the noble old man turned to the audience in a modest, deprecating way and said: “I haven’t practiced for three days and my hands ache. I have clapped so hard. There are many men in this orchestra who can play this better than I can, but if you really wish me to, I’ll do my best.” A pinfall could have been heard when he began. Every one sat breathless, expectant, and no one was disappointed. If another man in the world could have played better, no one in the audience would have conceded as much, for to a German a false note by Joachim, the “violin king,” is more inspired than the most perfect note of any other violinist living.

When he was through and had returned to his comfortable chair, they made him come back again and again and bow and bow, and were not satisfied until he took the baton in his hand and himself conducted the last number on the programme, the Bach Concerto in G Major. It was written for three violins, three violas, three ‘cellos and basso continuo, but was played by sixty-six violins, the number of the other instruments being increased in proportion. The whole orchestra remained standing throughout in honor of the director, and he deserved it, for Bach, in Joachim’s hands, has beauties which the most stubborn Philistine must feel.

The public had been requested to depart immediately after the close of the concert, that the room might be cleared for the banquet that was to be held there in honor of the hero of the evening, so the rank and file went early, leaving the more fortunate to enjoy the speeches and reminiscences of bygone times.

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Obituary: New-York Daily Tribune

02 Thursday Dec 2021

Posted by Joachim in Obituaries

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New-York Daily Tribune (August 16, 1907) p. 7.

N. B.: Obituaries are posted for historical interest only, and should not be taken as sources of accurate biographical information.


jj-initials1-e1395761217629

JOSEPH JOACHIM DEAD.

––––––––––

Celebrated Violinist Passes Away in Berlin.

Berlin, Aug. 15.—Joseph Joachim, the celebrated violinist, conductor of the Royal Academy of Music, Berlin, and music director of the Royal Academy of Arts, died at 1:45 p.m. to-day. He had been suffering for a long time from asthma and had been unconscious for several days.

––––––––––

Joseph Joachim was born in Hungary, on July 15, 1831, [sic] and early in life attracted much attention by his rare skill as a violinist. He studied under the great masters and appeared at all the capitals of Europe while still a young man. He was created an honorary musical doctor of the University of Cambridge in 1877, and in 1882 was appointed conductor of the Royal Academy of Music in Berlin and music director of the Royal Academy of Arts.

Herr Joachim’s first appearance was made at Pesth, when, after two years’ study, he had attained his seventh year. He first became acquainted with the violin at Kitsee, [sic] a small village in the neighborhood of Pressburg, where he was born. At the age of five he began to learn the instrument. On his first appearance Joachim played a duet with his professor, a Polish maestro named Szervacsinsky, who directed the music at the Pesth Opera House. From Pesth he moved to Vienna, and from Vienna to Leipsic, where, in 1842, he visited Ferdinand David, the eminent violinist, for whom Mendelssohn wrote his famous concerto. David declined to give lessons to one who, he said, already played better than himself. But the experienced virtuoso helped the young player with his advice, and behaved in a fatherly way toward him during his stay at Leipsic, where he studied composition under Hauptmann, chiefly known in the present day as the friend and frequent correspondent of Spohr. In the early part of 1844 Joachim went to London with introductions from Mendelssohn, who, in a letter to Sterndale Bennett, said of him: “I assure you that, although he is only thirteen, I already regard him as one of my most intimate and dearest friends.” Soon afterward Mendelssohn himself went to London, and at a Philharmonic concert given under his direction the brilliant young violinist played in marvellous style the Beethoven concerto.

In 1848, at the age of eighteen, [sic] Joachim was nominated to the post of concert master and professor of the Leipsic Conservatory, in association with his friend, Ferdinand David. A year or two afterward he became, on Liszt’s invitation, concert master at Weimar, and later on received from the King of Hanover a like appointment at the Hanoverian court. Most of the artistic and literary centres of Germany were, indeed, well known to Herr Joachim when he was still a young man; and it must be mentioned that, apart from his musical instruction, he went through a course of study at Göttingen. At Paris he played with great success the year after his first visit to London. This visit was repeated from time to time with brief intervals until 1859; and since that year, from which dates the establishment of the popular concerts, he appeared in London almost every year. His visits to London were broken in 1905, and on August 27 of that year the music critic of The Tribune wrote, on receipt of news that Joachim was too ill to make the journey to England, “whither he has gone with great regularity to preach the evangel of his noble art for half a century,” as follows:

In 1889 he celebrated the semi-centenary of the beginning of his artistic career, and $25,000 was raised as the beginning of a fund for providing poor students at the Hochschule für Musik, which he founded in 1869, with fitting instruments. Last year the diamond jubilee of his first appearance in England was celebrated in Queen’s Hall, London, when a portrait painted by J. S. Sargent, R. A., was presented to him by the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, and at a concert he conducted his own overture to “Henry IV” and played the Beethoven Concerto, which he had played in London for the first time at a concert of the Philharmonic Society under the direction of Mendelssohn on May 27, 1844. At a similar celebration in Berlin in 1899 past and present pupils of his to the number of 116 violins and violas, with twenty-four violoncellists who had attended his ensemble classes, took part in a concert conducted by Fritz Steinbach. From these circumstances it may be gathered how significant a figure Joachim has been in the musical life of the world since his advent as a prodigy nearly two generations ago.”

The critic of the Tribune quotes as follows from a monograph written by J. A. Fuller Maitland, the music reviewer of “The London Times.”

“Though it were universally conceded that the personal character and disposition of eminent men were to be guarded never so strictly from public inspection, yet in the case of public performers, where technical skill has reached its highest perfection, a kind of self-revelation takes place in every performance; and, besides the ideal interpretation of the music which he plays, Joachim unconsciously tells every one who has ears to hear what manner of man he is in himself. Truth, rectitude, earnestness of purpose, singleness of artistic aim, a childlike clarity of the inner vision, combined with the highest dignity—all these are evident to any but the most superficial listener, and there is a certain quiet ardor, eloquent of strong emotion strongly controlled, such as distinguishes only those who possess the highest imagination. It is recorded that on one occasion, when he played at first sight Schumann’s ‘Fantasia,’ for violin, the composer, instead of bursting into ecstasies over the player’s immediate grasp of the inner meaning of the music or the cleverness of his execution, whispered to his neighbor, ‘One can never love him enough.’ It is, perhaps, this power of stirring up a real personal affection in worthy hearers that is the greatest of all the player’s attributes, and such a power is indeed of priceless value.

“If one had to say in a word what was the secret of Joachim’s influence as an artist, one would surely say that this quality was that in which he stands alone among all the musicians who have ever lived. To hear him lead the Cavatina in Beethoven’s Quartet in B flat, Op. 130, or the Canzona in mode lidico from that in A minor, Op. 132, is to be allowed to gaze into the uttermost profundity of human emotion, into a depth far below the source of tears. In the former quartet two contrasting qualities of the great violinist’s art are set in close proximity, for the beginning of the finale is one of those things in which his youthful impetuosity is almost startlingly displayed. No one who has ever heard him lead a quartet of Haydn can have failed to realize that the dignity of a noble old age is associated with the insouciance, the buoyant fun and frolic of a schoolboy.”

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Gustav Eilers: Joseph Joachim (1890)

12 Friday Nov 2021

Posted by Joachim in Iconography

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Gustav Eilers: Joseph Joachim (1890)

RP-P-1951-612

Portrait of Joseph Joachim at age 59, etching on paper by
Gustav Eilers (1834–1911), Berlin, 1890.

Published by Paul Bette.
Printer: Bruno Fischer.
Height 347 mm x width 268 mm.
High-resolution image.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Object number RP-P-1951-612.


A signed copy of this portrait hangs in the venerable Zum Arabischen Coffe Baum in Leipzig, near Robert Schumann’s Stammtisch.


1890

Available from New York Public Library Music Division
Shelf locator: Muller Collection (Joachim, Joseph #12)
NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b16492080
Barcode: 33433017231303
Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 287bf6a0-c59f-012f-711d-58d385a7bc34

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-e2e4-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

 

 

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Joseph Joachim by Hanfstaengl’s Kunstverlag, Munich

12 Friday Nov 2021

Posted by Joachim in Iconography

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Joseph Joachim by Hanfstaengl’s Kunstverlag, Munich

 © 2021 Please acknowledge the source: Joseph Joachim — Biography and Research: http://www.josephjoachim.com

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A Letter of Joseph Joachim on Editing the “Chaconne” of Bach, May 6, 1879

08 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by Joachim in Letters

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Translation of the letter below



jj-initials

Ein Brief Joseph Joachims zur
Bearbeitungsfrage bei Bach

Mitgeteilt von Georg Kinsky (Köln).

Arnold Schering (ed.), Bach-Jahrbuch, Vol. 18 (1921): 98-100


In der im vorigen Bach-Jahrbuch (S. 30f.) erschienenen aufschlußreichen Abhandlung “Zu Joh. Seb. Bachs Sonaten und Partiten für Violine allein” von Andreas Moser ist auf die unerreichte Art der Wiedergabe der Solosonaten und insbesondere der Chaconne der d moll-Partita durch Joseph Joachim gebührend hingewiesen. Als eine kleine Ergänzung hierzu sei ein bisher anscheinend unbekannt gebliebener Brief [1] mitgeteilt, den der Meister der Geige im Jahre 1879 an Alfred Dörffel, den verdienten Mitarbeiter der Firma C. F. Peters in Leipzig, als Antwort auf das Anerbieten des Verlags schrieb, eine von ihm mit Vortragsbezeichnungen versehene Ausgabe der Chaconne zu übernehmen. Die Gründe, die Joachim zur Ablehnung dieses Ersuchens veranlaßten, und die daran geknüpften allgemeinen Erörterungen über Bezeichnungen in Neuausgaben klassischer Tonwerke sind reizvoll genug, um einen Abdruck des Briefes zu rechtfertigen, — wobei es außer Betracht bleiben kann, daß Joachim in späteren Jahren seine einstmaligen Bedenken aufgegeben und im Bunde mit seinem getreuen Mitarbeiter Moser die Herausgabe als der “beste Dolmetsch dieser Wundermusik” unternommen hat. [2] Es war seine letzte musikalische Arbeit, die ihn noch kurz vor seinem Heimgang unablässig beschäftigte. [3]

99

Nach der Urschrift im “Musikhistorischen Museum von Wilhelm Heyer” in Köln hat das Schreiben folgenden Wortlaut:

[Berlin, 6. Mai 1879.]

            “Geehrter Herr Dörffel!

Ihr Herr Sohn hat mir Ihren Wunsch, die Chaconne betreffend, übermittelt. Vor allen Dingen muß ich Ihnen da meinen warmen Dank für die herzlich anerkennede Art, in der Sie mir aussprechen daß Sie an meiner Wiedergabe Bachscher Sachen Freude hatten, ausdrücken. Schon um Ihnen dafür auch etwas angenehmes zu erweisen möchte ich nun Ihrem Verlangen nachkommen die Chaconne nach meiner Art zu “bezeichnen” und namentlich die Arpeggien auszuschreiben. Aber wenn ich darüber nachdenke, so muß ich zu dem Resultat gelangen, daß gerade dies etwas unausführbares an sich hat: denn was Ihnen an meiner Wiedergabe wohl gefallen haben mag, ist wahrscheinlich daß sie frei klang und den Stempel des Reflektierten, in der Weise daß ich etwa das eine Mal genau wie das andere Mal nüancirte, nicht an sich trug. Die Wirkung der Arpeggien z. B. liegt für mich darin, ein breit angelegtes Crescendo derartig auszuführen, daß mit Steigerung der Tonstärke sich gegen Ende hin allmälig 5 und dann 6 Noten aus den vier 32steln entwickeln, bis die sechs Noten die Oberhand behalten, wo dann auch der Baß markirter hervortritt. Wann ich anfange mit den 5 oder 6 Noten, weiß ich wirklich selbst nicht: es wird je nachdem ich einmal früher oder später crescendire wechseln, was wieder von momentanen Dingen abhängt, wie von minder oder mehr erregter Stimmung, besseren oder schlechteren Bogenhaaren, die leichter im piano oder im forte ansprechen, dünnern oder dicker Saiten, ja was weiß ich von welchen Zufälligkeiten! Aber aufschreiben läßt sich’s meines Erachtens nicht. Täte man’s in einer oder der andern Manier, so würde der Bachsche Text zu subjektiv gefärbt dastehen. — Und da sind wir leider an einem wunden Punkt der meisten Herausgeber unserer Zeit angelangt, der mir (ich darf es Ihnen an dieser Stelle offen gestehen) z. B. schon Davids in vieler Hinsicht höchst verdienstlichen Arbeiten bis zu einem Grade verleidet, daß ich immer trachte von andern Exemplaren als den seinen zu spielen. Man bezeichnet, man arrangirt heutzutage wirklich viel zu viel an fremden Sachen — (die eignen bezeichne man so peinlich genau wie möglich!). Wer nicht als Spieler eine so allgemeine musikalische Bildung, eine so warme Empfindung für die Componisten hat, daß sich ihm das Technische wie Geistige aus eignem Verständnis ergiebt, der bleibe überhaupt davon, sie vor anderen Menschen zu spielen. Das ist wohl für einen Schulmeister, der ich ja jetzt bin, gar wenig pädagogisch?! Vielleicht — indeß scheint mir die Aufgabe des Lehrers auch nicht die zu dressieren, sondern zu dem oben gewünschten Grade des Verständnisses hinzu-

100

leiten, wobei gewiß manches von David Gebrachte auch noch seinen anregenden Nutzen haben kann, der ja ein feiner Kopf und tüchtiger Künstler war. Aber in Bausch und Bogen führt unser modernes für Conservatorien “zum Gebrauch herzurichten” zur Manier. Schon deshalb, weil manche oft gerechtfertigte leise Vortragsregung durch aufschreiben geradezu vernichtet wird — ein gestochenes cresc: mf, f, ff sieht Einen gar derb an, und hört sich noch härter und aufdringlicher an in Ton übersetzt! — Aber nun habe ich nicht nur Ihnen Ihren schmeichlhaften Wunsch nicht erfüllt, sondern auch noch eine Art langweiliger Vorlesung gehalten, und ich habe nichts zu meiner Entschuldigung vorzubringen, als daß wenigstens Ihnen gegenüber meiner Gesinnung unrecht geschehen würde, wenn Sie sagten: qui s’excuse s’accuse. Ich hätte gern willfahrt!

In vorzüglicher Hochachtung

Joseph Joachim”


3. Beethovenstrasse, N. W. Thiergarten
[Berlin, 6 May 1879.]

Dear Mr. Dörffel!

Your son has sent me your request concerning the Chaconne. Above all, I must express my warm thanks to you for the cordially complimentary way in which you tell me that you enjoyed my rendition of Bach’s things.

If only to return your kindness, I would like to fulfill your request to “mark” the Chaconne in my way and, in particular, to write out the arpeggios.

But when I think about it, I have to conclude that precisely this has something unworkable about it: for what you may have liked about my rendition is probably that it sounded free and did not carry the stamp of the reflective, such that I did not play with exactly the same nuances from one time to another.

For me, for example, the effect of the arpeggios comes from producing a broadly conceived crescendo in such away that, with the increase in tone strength, 5 and then 6 notes develop from the four 32nds, until the six notes gain the upper hand, and the bass then also emerges more markedly.

I really don’t know myself when I start with the 5 or 6 notes: it will vary, depending on whether I crescendo sooner or later — which again depends on momentary matters, such as less or more aroused mood, better or worse bow hair which speaks more easily in the piano or in the forte, thinner or thicker strings, ahh, I don’t know what unforseen eventualities! But, in my opinion, it cannot be written down. If one were to do it in one or the other manner, Bach’s text would be too subjectively colored. — And here, unfortunately, we have reached a sore point which concerns most of the editors of our time, (I may frankly admit to you at this point), for example, even David’s works, which are in many respects highly commendable, but that annoy me to a degree that I always try to play from copies other than his.

Nowadays, people mark, people arrange really far too much on other people’s things — (on one’s own things, one’s markings should be as meticulously detailed as possible!).

He who does not have a sufficiently general musical education as a player, a sufficiently warm feeling for the composer, such that the technical as well as the spiritual emerges from his own understanding, should refrain from playing for others.

For a schoolmaster, which I am now, that is hardly pedagogical?! Perhaps — in the same way, the teacher’s task does not seem to me to be to train, but to add to the above-desired degree of understanding, whereby certainly some of the editions by David, who was a fine head and a skilled artist, can still have their stimulating benefit.

But, all in all, our modern practice of arranging “for practical use” for conservatories leads to mannerism.

For the same reason that some often-justified quietly spoken aside in a lecture can be well-nigh ruined by writing it down — one may regard an engraved cresc: mf, f, ff crudely, and it sounds even harder and more intrusive translated into tone! — But now I have not only not fulfilled your flattering wish, but also given a kind of boring lecture, and I have nothing to say in my defense than that at least you would be unjust toward my disposition if you were to say: qui s’excuse s’accuse.

I would gladly have consented!

Respectfully yours,

Joseph Joachim

[Translation © Robert W. Eshbach, 2021]


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Holograph, dated in another hand 6 and 7 Mai, 1879, in The Royal Academy of Music, London. Foyle Menuhin Archive Accession No. 2005.2446.

[1] In der dreibändigen Ausgabe der “Briefe von und an Joseph Joachim” (Berlin 1911-13) ist das Schreiben nicht enthalten.

[2] J. S. Bach, “6 Sonaten für die Violine allein.” Neue Bearbeitung …. (Berlin 1908, Ed. Bote & Bock).

[3] A. Moser, “Joseph Joachim. Ein Lebensbild,” 2. Bd. (Berlin 1910) S. 328 f.

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Concert: Leipzig, Gewandhaus, March 23, 1854 (Hamlet Ov.)

27 Sunday Dec 2020

Posted by Joachim in Concert Reviews & Criticism

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Signale für die Musikalische Welt, vol. 12, no. 14 (March, 1854): 113-14.


Zwanzigstes Abonnementconcert
im Saale des Gewandhauses zu Leipzig. Donnerstag, den 23 März 1854

Erster Theil: Introduction und erste Scene aus “Iphigenie in Tauris” von Gluck. Iphigenie: Fräulein Clara Brockhaus. — Concert für die Violine von Henri Litolff, vorgetragen von Herrn Concertmeister R. Dreyschock. — Hymne für eine Sopranstimme und Chor von Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy; die Solopartie gesungen von Fräulein Brockhaus. — Ouverture zu “Hamlet von Jos. Joachim, (Manuscript, unter Direction des Componisten .) — Notturno für das Waldhorn, componirt von Lorenz, vorgetragen von Herrn A. Lindner, Fürstl. Reuß. Hofmusikus. — Zweiter Theil: Symphonie pastorale (Nr. 6) von L. van Beethoven. (Die Ausführung der Chöre durch die Mitglieder der Singakademie, des Pauliner-Sängervereins in Verbindung mit dem Thomanerchore.)

Wenn man seine Gedanken mittheilen will, so ist die erste Forderung an dieselben, daß sie verständlich seien. Nur unter den deutschen Philosophen und Componisten sehen wir zuweilen Individuen auftreten, die jenes Verlangen nicht erfüllen können oder nicht erfüllen wollen. Das ist eine wahrhaft betrübende Erscheinung, um so betrübender als sie namentlich in der Neuzeit gerade an den begabtesten Geistern am öftersten bemerkt wird! Wir haben Herrn Joachim vor Kurzem ein außergewöhnliches Compositions-talent zugesprochen und wir bleiben auch nach der Aufführung seiner Ouverture zu Hamlet bei unserer Meinung. Neuheit und Eigenthümlichkeit der Gedanken hat sie durchaus. Allein was hilft es, wenn wir nach dem Anhören eines Tonstückes sagen können: das war sehr neu, sehr eigenthümlich, und hinzufügen müssen: aber durchaus unbegreiflich? Und durchaus unbegreiflich ist uns seine Ouverture geblieben. Wir haben eine sehr lange Reihe seltsamer Gedanken gehört, worunter welche wie leuchtende Blitze in düsterer Nacht kurz aufzuckten, aber wir vermochten sie weder als eine einheitliche Form zu fassen, noch irgend einen Bezug in ihnen auf Shakspeares Hamlet zu er-

114

kennen. Herr Joachim wird gefunden haben, daß es dem ganzen Gewandhaus-Publikum so ergangen, und er weiß, daß das ganze Gewandhaus-Publikum ihn liebt. Kann oder will er seine Ideen in der Folge in eine begreifliche Form bringen und ihren Inhalt deutlicher ausdrücken, so steht ihm eine bedeutende Zukunft offen; auf dem Wege, den er mit diesem Werke betreten, geräth er in wüste Gegenden, wo keine Menschen wohnen, die Theil daran nehmen können. […]

3-hamlet-review-signale-23-march-1854-gewandhaus-copy-2-1

3 Hamlet Review Signale 23 March 1854 Gewandhaus copy

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A Mis-dated Letter

14 Wednesday Oct 2020

Posted by Joachim in Letters

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The first volume of Andreas Moser and Johannes Joachim’s Briefe von und an Joseph Joachim, pp. 5-7, contains a letter from Joachim to his violin mentor Ferdinand David, dated London 12. April 1847, in which Joseph describes in interesting detail the concerts and players that he is encountering in the British capital. By internal evidence, the letter is mis-dated. The correct date should be 1844: the year of Joachim’s first visit to England, when he made his legendary début playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Philharmonic Society Orchestra, conducted by Mendelssohn.

Perhaps the most interesting revelation to come from the correct dating of this letter is that Joachim arrived in London expecting to play, not the Beethoven Concerto, but Spohr’s Concerto no. 8 in A minor, op. 47, “Gesangsszene.” As it happened, Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst played the Gesangsszene on Monday, April 15, in the second Philharmonic concert, conducted by Sir George Smart, forcing Joachim to change his repertoire. The history-making performance of the Beethoven Concerto almost did not happen! In any case, Joachim played the Beethoven Concerto, not the Spohr, in the fifth Philharmonic concert, on Monday, May 27, 1844, with Felix Mendelssohn conducting.

https://josephjoachim.com/2013/07/03/philharmonic-debut/

This letter shows that, even at the young age of twelve, Joachim was an astute observer and critic of other musicians. He writes rather dismissively of the London orchestra, comparing it unfavorably to the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He writes of how Ernst, a dear and important role model, nevertheless took great liberties with the Spohr — something that, young as he was, Joachim disliked. He calls Sivori a charlatan, who plays out of tune. He writes of other violinists: Auguste Pott (who played his own concerto in the fourth Philharmonic concert on May 15), Jeròme Louis Gulomy (first violinist to the Emperor of Russia—”a fine player, but not of the first class” [The Morning Post, 27 June]) who gave a number of concerts that season, and of Carlo Rossi, “16 years old, who has good recommendations from Rossini and is reputed to play badly.”

The letter is newsy and interesting, and speaks for itself. The references to Schumann are of course incorrectly annotated — the trip mentioned was the Schumann’s trip to Russia, not a trip to Berlin for a performance of Paradise and the Peri. Paradise and the Peri had been completed in late 1843, and we know that Mendelssohn took Joachim to hear its Leipzig premiere on 4 December. Thus the quotation (or mis-quotation) from memory.


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Joseph Joachim: Photo from Prince Albert’s Collection (ca. 1860)

06 Thursday Aug 2020

Posted by Joachim in Iconography

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Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) c.1880 copy of an original of c.1860. Carbon print | 23.1 x 17.5 cm (page dimensions) | RCIN 2913695



Joseph Joachim: Photo from the Collection of Prince Albert

JJ Prince Albert Collection.jpg


Source: Royal Collection Trust

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Joseph Joachim: Gottheil & Sohn, Königsberg, 1898

03 Monday Aug 2020

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Joseph Joachim: Gottheil & Sohn, Königsberg, 1898

Gottheil 2.jpg

Photo: Johannes Fleischmann, via E. Randol Schoenberg

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Concert: Oxford, November 29, 1906

21 Tuesday Jul 2020

Posted by Joachim in Concert Reviews & Criticism

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The Oxford Magazine, 
vol. 25, no. 8, (December 5, 1906), p. 135.


MUSIC OF THE WEEK

THERE was the usual crowded and enthusiastic audience to welcome the Joachim Quartet at the Public Classical Concert on Thursday afternoon: the programme consisted of three string quartets, Mozart in D minor, Brahms in B flat, and Beethoven in C minor. Professor Wirth being still unable to play owing to eye-trouble, Herr Karl Klingler has been making his first visit to England, and, much younger than his famous colleagues though he is, he proves himself in every way worthy of the honour: the great viola passages in the Brahms quartet were played with quite superb breadth and insight, and throughout all the works his splendid tone and exceptional musicianship were very noticeable. Professors Halir and Hausmann were as wonderful as ever; and the passage of time leaves no trace on all the essential things in Dr. Joachim’s playing, nor is there any change in the extraordinary perfection of ensemble with which his colleagues reproduce every tinge of his moods. All his many long years of intimate love of the great music have resulted now in a style of extraordinarily ripe and mellow beauty: there is a lifetime of thought and reverence behind every note he plays, and at the age of seventy-five he can still teach us the last word in the art of interpretation. And yet there is nothing in the least degree stereotyped about his conceptions: absolutely faithful as they have always been, they are yet creative, and have varied, and still vary, to a considerable extent. On Thursday he was in a, on the whole, somewhat specially quiet and meditative vein: when we next hear him again, he might very possibly, in the same works, reveal to us different but equally great treasures from his inexhaustible store.

Screenshot 2020-07-21 13.20.30.png

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Photo collage © Mathias Brösicke — Dematon, Weimar

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