| Wendelin Weissheimer | |
|---|---|
Weißheimer, from the private archive of the Weingut Steinmuehle |
|
| Born | 26 February 1838 |
| Died | 16 June 1910 (aged -28) |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Conductor, Essayist, Music Teacher, Music Writer |
| Notable works | List of compositions |
| Style | Romantic |
Wendelin Weißheimer (26 February 1838 – 16 June 1910) was a 19th-century German composer, conductor, essayist, teacher and music writer. Wendelin Weißheimer studied with Franz Liszt and was in close contact with Richard Wagner, Hans von Bülow, Peter Cornelius, Louise Otto-Peters, Ferdinand Lassalle, August Bebel and of many other notable musicians of his day.
He served as composer and conductor of the choirs in Mainz, Darmstadt, Baden-Baden, Wurzburg, Munich, Leipzig, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Szczecin, Strasbourg and Milan's La Scala.[1]
Contents |
The Weißheimer family had resided in Westhofen in the 14th century. Wendelin's grandfather, Johann Weißheimer I, from Osthofen, inherited the stone mill from his mother's family at the end of the 18th century. The manor complex on viticulture, agriculture, animal husbandry and mill grinding, already in operation in the 19th century and still today owned by the Weißheimer family, were one of the most important in the former Grand Duchy of Grand Duchy of Hesse.
Wendelin Weißheimer was born on 26 February 1838 in the winery stone mill of Osthofen, the eighth and youngest child of Johann Weißheimer II and Ottilie,[1] née Best der Welt. His parents were wealthy and his father, a highly respected and multi-talented man with a keen interest in history and politics, had already been mayor for several years and a member of the first Osthofen Hessian Ständekammer, which is why Wendelin had already met at a young age men of the March Revolution of 1848 in the stone mill. Despite strong claims of being a landowner and politician, Wendelin Weißheimer's father still found time to deal with family and tradition-historical studies, whose results were his multi-volume chronicle of the Osthofens that he handed for posterity in handwritten diaries. Thank to his versatility and open-mindedness he allowed his son Wendelin the study of music, although this clearly contradicted his actual plans to make Wendelin the heir of his estate.[1]
Weißheimer's background differed from that of many other composers as he did not come from a musical family. His father had intended he inherit the stone mill, and for this purpose he was taken to a secondary school in Darmstadt when he was only 13 to seek an apprenticeship. There, he had through his piano teacher, a member of the theater orchestra, an opportunity to listen to a rehearsal for the performance of Tannhauser, after he had heard earlier parts of the music during a visit to a military concert. Weißheimer himself wrote that these experiences had influenced him greatly. In his book: Experiences with Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt and many other contemporaries, he wrote: An unsuspected new world had risen for me, in fact. Soon thereafter, in Darmstadt, Wendelin Weißheimer listened to the Lohengrin, and in Frankfurt, the Flying Dutchman, in complete Wagnerian delirium. In his final year in school Wendelin Weißheimer had the opportunity to be introduced to music theory by theater conductor Louis Schindelmeisser, something which captivated him so much that he soon began to compose.
It was Schindelmeisser who first recognized Wendelin's musical talent and helped him become a musician. So, at first it was a matter of persuading his father, Johann Weissheimer II, of his musical intentions. To this end, Schindelmeisser went to the stone mill in Osthofen on 16 March 1856 with the task of persuading Wendelin's father to allowed his son to acquire further musical training in Leipzig. Despite his father's astonishment for his decision to make a career in music, Wendelin was very happy for his approval. So the young Weißheimer was given at his departure a picture dedicated to him by Schindelmeisser himself and also one of his many original letters of Richard Wagner.[2]
Wendelin Weißheimer attended the Leipzig Conservatory from May 1856. Both Leipzig and Weimar had a lively musical scene. But while Leipzig was conservative and spurned the new music of Liszt and Wagner, the revolutionary youth in Weimar sought new forms of expression in music and clung to the so called New German School and the genius of Franz Liszt. After the completion of his musical studies in Leipzig, Wendelin Weißheimer was given the post of second conductor at the city theatre in Mainz by Schindelmeisser. But before the start of the activity thought as introduction to the practice, Weißheimer traveled to Zurich with a recommendation letter given by Schindelmeisser to visit Richard Wagner who was living there in exile. Wagner was working on his musical drama Tristan and Isolde and usually declined to see visitors. Wendelin was first rejected, but then he spent one memorable afternoon with the master on 17 July 1858. Weißheimer writes of his departure: The pale expressive face of the then forty-five years old, accompanied me in town and everywhere else.
Just 20 years old, Weißheimer took up his post as conductor in Mainz on 17 August 1858 and, among other things, visited the hospitable house of publisher Franz Schott and his amiable and highly musical wife Betty. After a performance of Wagner's Faust overture Weißheimer got to know his Rhine-Hessian compatriot, the poet-composer Peter Cornelius, who became a lifelong friend.
Weißheimer moved back to Weimar after the Mainz Theatre season. There he found in Franz Liszt a musically like-minded person and so he finally managed to be picked up by Liszt as a student in composition. In lessons of several hours, three to four times a week, Weißheimer soon became Liszt's favorite student and an ideal relationship of trust was built between teacher and student. So Weißheimer, in Altenburg, Weimar, then home of Liszt's close friend Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein of Sayn-Wittgenstein, was introduced to a new musical world. In addition to Peter Cornelius, who had also come to Weimar in 1860, men such as Felix Draeseke, Hans von Bronsart, Carl Tausig, the Bohemian Smetana, also Franz Bendel, Gruère, Hans von Bülow and his acquaintances and friends were present.
The first performance of a composition by Weißheimer by an orchestra happened this time. Liszt had set on the program of the court concerts conducted by him on 13 March 1860 Weißheimer's symphony on Schiller's Ritter Toggenburg. To allow Weißheimer to take part in this concert at the Grand Ducal Palace only accessible to the court and nobility, Liszt had him wear a tail coat and a white tie in the middle of the string orchestra where he had to pretend that he was actually playing the violin. At the end of the concert, the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess came out in the composer's approval. The next day on this occasion of his visit to Liszt, Weißheimer first saw his daughter Cosima who was married for two years with pianist Hans von Bülow.
1861 would bring the climax of Weißheimer's stay in Weimar. The musical arrangements of the composer's musical artistic meeting, which was taken as a big surprise once Richard Wagner had unexpectedly arrived after eleven years of exile in Switzerland, began with Liszt's Faust Symphony under Bülow's baton. Weißheimer achieved complete success at the presentation of his Grave in Busento by the Court Orchestra and the academic choir of Jena students.
The autumn of 1861 was followed by a second ovation of Weißheimer as music director at the City Theater in Mainz. Now it should begin the most interesting phase of his life which distinguishes itself by his friendship with Wagner. Wagner already knew Weißheimer when of his visit to Zurich and the Weimar's musical artistic meeting.
After the Weimar's meeting, Wagner strived in vain at the premiere of his "Tristan" and unsuccessfully tried to reach Paris where Prince Metternich had provided him with a quiet apartment in the garden of the Austrian Embassy in late November. On 1 December, he arrived unexpectedly in Mainz to negotiate with the Schott publishing house his stage festival play Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg. He had just completed the text and the poetic process should take place in Paris. Over the course of the Mainz days, Weißheimer reported in detail in his book Experiences with Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt and many other contemporaries, his visit to the opera performances conducted by Weißheimer himself and his joint participation in the meetings of Mrs. Betty Schott.
In Paris Wagner had completed his Meistersinger poetry in less than two months, and on 31 January 1862 he arrived with it in Mainz. Right on the first evening there took place in the Schotts' house before a selected circle of listeners the much-anticipated presentation of the Meistersinger's poetry to which Wagner let also Peter Cornelius come and stay in Vienna. Weißheimer writes about this memorable night that Wagner carried away with the audience and caused them to rally tumultuously. At the end of the play the audience was aware that they stood at the cradle of a mighty kind work of art.
In order to be able to immediately complete the composition undisturbed by the outside world, Wagner rented a small apartment in nearby Biebrich, just below the ducal castle on the Rhine. As a result, Weißheimer and Wagner were together almost every day. Weißheimer had become almost indispensable for Wagner, so despite the difference in age[n 1] a warm friendship developed between the two. The constant financial difficulties of Wagner, who was in money matters more than reckless prompted Weißheimer to address his father in support of his friend. Johann Weißheimer II was generous and granted funds for Wagner. This was Wagner first visit to Weißheimer and his family in the stone mill in Osthofen,[n 2] where he met Wendelin's parents, siblings, and last but not least, the "wine" on 1 June 1862. In the garden pavilion by the lake shore, known as "Richard-Wagner-house", Wagner spent many boozing hours and proved to be a brilliant entertainer. In that August, Richard Wagner returned to the stone mill, this time accompanied by Hans and Cosima von Bülow.[1]
Weißheimer knew of Wagner's money problems, in which he found himself again and again due to his own fault. So also the Meistersingers was not finished on schedule and Schott held back the payments. All wealthy admirers of Wagner had denied him further material assistance, so to relieve Wagner's financial difficulties Weißheimer organized at the Leipzig Gewandhaus a concert on 1 November 1862.[3] Despite the personal involvement of the conductor Richard Wagner, the Pianist Hans von Bülow and other renowned artists and organizations with works by Wagner, Liszt and Weißheimer,[4] the attendance to the concert was so low that revenues collected were not enough to cover all the costs.[5] [n 3]
In his "experiences" Weißheimer writes: Instead of Wagner filling up his pockets, I quickly had to call my father for help – Again, as before, and repeatedly later, Johann Weißheimer II jumped in as a generous savior. Wagner held it under these circumstances no longer in Biebrich. In November 1862 he moved to Vienna, where he again tried for the premiere of his "Tristan", but this time it simply did not happen. Difficulties piled up. Although Wagner had collected outrageous amounts of money on a concert tour in Russia in 1863, he was again in financial straits. Finally he had to flee from Vienna not to be put in prison for his debts.
On 29 April 1864, Wendelin Weißheimer surprisingly received a telegram from Stuttgart with Wagner asking him for an immediate visit. Weißheimer came and Wagner reported his total collapse, not only financial, but also of his nervous breakdown. To prevent the worse, Weißheimer simply decided unceremoniously to stay with Wagner.[6] Since Wagner was in debt he was urged to disappear, they both agreed on a secluded spot in Rauhe Alb,[6] where Weißheimer should accompany him. Weißheimer had the intention to finish the piano score of the first Meistersinger's act there as quickly as possible in order to persuade the publisher Schott for additional payments. Their journey had been set for 3 May, as Wagner wanted to see a performance of Don Giovanni conducted by Karl Eckert,[6] when in an unbelievable turnaround, on 2 May, at the hotel Marquard,[6] the Secretary of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Council of State Franz Seraph von Pfistermeister,[6] appeared with a mission to explore the residence of Richard Wagner and return with him to Munich. When the proclaimed crowned Prince Ludwig II listened to Wagner's Lohengrin he said: When I am crowned, I want to show the world how much I know of the genius of Wagner. He was now seeking a way to maintain his self-given promise. As Wagner's most ardent admirer, he wanted to give him the opportunity to finish in Munich his Der Ring des Nibelungen. So instead of the rough journey to the Alps, Wagner went on 3 May 1864 to Munich, and after the reception by the King, he went to Vienna to pay his debts and get rid of all his concerns before he moved into the Villa on Lake Starnberg provided to him by the King.[6]
It was during this time that Wendelin Weißheimer's friendship with Ferdinand Lassalle bloomed. As Richard Wagner was one of the greatest revolutionaries in the music field, which up until that musical period broke many musical ideas and established new laws, Ferdinand Lassalle was in the political field the greatest demagogue of his time. After studying economics, history and philosophy, he dealt primarily with social issues and made it his life's work, summarizing the work force to a "democratic party for social progress" which the monarchy respected as the uppermost representative of the people.
Attracted by the defamed writings of Lassalle, Weißheimer found in the first days of July 1864 the opportunity to get to know the socialist democrat in Frankfurt personally and to admire his speech virtuosity. When Weißheimer found out that Lassalle had arranged an excursion in the Palatinate for the next days with the countess Sophie von Hatzfeld, he invited both to Osthofen. So, once again the Stone Mill was to expect prominent guests.
Had Lassalle established a social-democratic party in the German social life, his outstanding personality would have become immortal. It is delightful to read in Wendelin Weißheimer's "experiences" how Ferdinand Lassalle's whipping-up visit worked in the quiet agricultural and wine-growing town of Osthofen. The news of his arrival had quickly spread in the place, and when both guests walked from the railway station to the Stone Mill on 6 July, curious and shy faces from open windows watched the odious, maybe also dreadful man. Indeed, in the Stone Mill the reception was polite, but frosty. Only when Lassalle came to speak with Johann Weißheimer on his studies about Franz von Sickingen is that the horizon brightened. However, the sun burst only when, during a break in the midday meal, Wendelin Weißheimer's mother asked her neighbor straightforward: Now that there we are so comfortably together, can you also say to me Mr. Lassalle, what you want really? Lassalle hesitated at first, then, saved the situation when, quick as a flash, he gave mother Weißheimer a resounding kiss. In general laughter broke out and the ice was broken. The "Riesling" of the Stone Mill did the rest and Lassalle then almost completely captivated the Weißheimer family for hours with the explanation of his plans and goals with phenomenal eloquence. Indeed, Lassalle left friends there and when they parted ways he immediately ordered a whole barrel of the same "Riesling" which he had tasted so intensely.
Wendelin Weißheimer spent several days resting in the Palatinate with Lassalle, the Countess von Hatzfeld and other friends. Wendelin would be glad to keep Lassalle company on a trip to the east of Switzerland, but because of an urgent message received from his wife, who had fallen seriously ill in Leipzig, he had to decline his invitation. So Lassalle traveled alone to Lake Lucerne in mid-July, while the Countess von Hatzfeld went to Wildbad for a cure. The fateful meeting with Helena von Dönniges, the daughter of the historian Wilhelm von Dönniges, known to him from Berlin, would lead to a disaster in the course of the coming weeks. In a duel frivolously provoked by Lassalle, he became the victim of a fatal shot.[6] For Wendelin Weißheimer Lassalle's death was a severe blow that took him a long time to overcome, especially because he was imbued with the conviction that Lassalle's death could have been averted if he had stayed in his company. Throughout his life Wendelin remained faithful to the Social Democratic Party, although this commitment had brought him some disadvantages for his professional career.
In this meantime Wendelin Weißheimer had become music director in Augsburg. Despite his official duties and numerous other engagements he could still act as a composer. After scoring songs and ballads of the German Minnesang, as well as from Goethe and other poets, he dealt with his first opera Theodor Körner. Franz Liszt spoke very appreciatively of this work, and Wagner also praised it. Lassalle, who had particularly liked the libretto and was equally enthusiastic about the music, had even offered to write Weißheimer a textbook on Florian Geyer, Thomas Munzer or the Bohemian Jan Žižka, but his death had put an end to this idea. Richard Wagner had written for Weißheimer a draft for the opera, Wieland the Blacksmith, but before Weißheimer could have scored it, he had given it back.
For the premiere of Theodor Körner at the Berlin Court Opera, Liszt began with the former artistic director Count von Redern. However, Count von Redern recommended Liszt to run the premiere on a different stage because, according to the textbook, Prince Louis Ferdinand plays a role which would affect the Prussian royal family too strongly. For the premiere to be accommodated elsewhere it would be then important to gain the support of Richard Wagner, for whom the faithful Wendelin had fought for many years. But Wagner was just too immersed in his own work to be of any help, so because of this untimely situation Weißheimer's negotiations with Munich moved very slowly.
During his time as conductor at the Augsburg palace, Wendelin Weißheimer's marriage to Rosalie Scholle from Leipzig took place on 10 January 1865. With her he had a 45-year childless marriage. Rosalie Weißheimer survived her husband, dying at the age of 79 on 25 September 1920 in Darmstadt. From Augsburg, Wendelin Weißheimer went to the Kroll Opera in Berlin, then to the theater in Düsseldorf. Then from 1866 to 1868 he was in Würzburg. From here he tried once again a world premiere of his patriotic opera Theodor Körner. For this reason he looked up to Wagner in Munich. Wagner was living together with Mr. and Mrs. von Bülow in a house on Arcisstraße,[7] donated to him by the king and where Cosima Wagner was a housewife who took care of Wagner's correspondence. In the artist's circles, one had already recognized that Wagner had become interested in Mrs. Bülow, so it became clear that, among his friends, Weißheimer could only count on Peter Cornelius at the premiere of his Cid once Wagner was only reluctancy.
In June 1868 the friendship between Weißheimer and Richard Wagner came to an end. The motive for this was Cosima who, without going over the music, wrote on 6 July to Weißheimer that the text of his Theodor Körner could not be performed in court theaters because its seditious tendency might provoke trouble in peaceful times. Wendelin, like his father, had a stubborn personality whenever he recognized something right as wrong. Between him and Wagner now stood Cosima. However, the good-natured, harmless Wendelin was not very fond of the acclaimed Franz Liszt and the Frenchwoman countess d'Agoult's daughter who had inherited the elastic skill and perfectly shaped social mobility from her mother the big acumen from her father. Cosima also had her weaknesses. These were reflected in particular in her efforts to encourage Richard Wagner to be himself, even if Peter Cornelius and Wendelin Weißheimer turned against him. Maybe that might sound unbearable to Cosima, in addition to Wagner whom she idolized, and also to other composers with new ideas. So like this Wendelin Weißheimer matters worsened when he recognised their love affair, having him positioned himself on the part of the betrayed Hans von Bülow. At the premiere of Die Meistersinger in Munich on 21 June 1868,[6] Wendelin Weißheimer had his last encounter with Richard Wagner.
From Würzburg Wendelin Weißheimer came to be once again conductor in Mainz. During the subsequent activity in Zurich, friendship linked him and his wife to the Wesendonck family. From 1873 to 1878, Wendelin Weißheimer then worked in Strasbourg where his opera Master Martin And His Companions premiered on 14 April 1879 in Karlsruhe. Now Weißheimer moved to Baden-Baden where he became in charge of the larger spa concerts. Together with Otto Dessoff he headed the concerts of the artists meeting with the performance of his Master Martin and his companions in May 1880. In the large central lodge, Weißheimer listened to the performance together with his great teacher Franz Liszt and the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns outright, receiving from both acclaimed recognition for his accomplishment on such a wonderful work. In the following years Wendelin Weißheimer conducted during several years, despite personal disappointment in unchanged veneration of a genius, mainly works by Richard Wagner at the famous Teatro La Scala in Milan. He had his residence on the idyllic Lake Como.
Around 1893, Weißheimer moved to Freiburg im Breisgau in order to enhance his focus on his literary career. His 1898 book, Experiences with Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt and many other contemporaries saw three editions in one single year. Around 1900 he moved to Nuremberg and from Freiburg and Nuremberg the way led him back again more often to his native homeland in the Stone Mill of Osthofen. In the casino society there he gladly spent hours with old friends whom he pleased most joyfully for improvisations, mainly on works by Wagner and Liszt, and on his own compositions. In his last years, Wendelin Weißheimer also led the mass choirs on the social-democratic Party Congresses. His target was the huge masses of the workers' movement and artistically increase the enjoyment of life through great experience in arts and culture. When Wendelin Weißheimer died on 16 June 1910 in Nuremberg, his death caused great turmoil. 30.000 unionized socialists paid Wendelin Weißheimer their respects and remembered him in all the leading newspapers obituaries of the time.
Wendelin Weißheimer left 106 works (see and), including several songs and choral cycles. Even though he may have tried compositionally to go his own way, he could not emerge from the shadow of his great teacher Franz Liszt, and of Richard Wagner he deeply admired.
His operas, his cantatas, and his instrumental music underline this. Even if his "absolute" music pays homage to one of the great string quartet and successful "obligatory violin parts" to Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, he displays in his other works a clear tendency for program music. Weißheimer's piano pieces Reminiscence of Gioventu and At Beethoven's Grave, as well as his Symphony for Schiller's Knight Toggenburg certainly match the spirit of the New German School. Weißheimer literary taste is evident in the texts set to music by him. German minstrel poems, texts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Körner, Heinrich Heine and others found their musical interpretation in his songs and cantatas.
Weißheimer always tried to summarize his individual compositions into larger cycles. Thus arose the 24 songs in the cycle "German minstrel", the 18 settings of Goethe, as well as songs from Heine and Körner, appeared for the men's choir "Eight Songs", along with previously unpublished choral cycles. After his departure with Wagner, Weißheimer turned increasingly to the labor movement and exercised with his compositions for male chorus a particular influence on the cultural aspirations of the Social Democratic Party.