Clara Schumann ALS Praising Brahms to Conductor Herman Levi

SCHUMANN, CLARA. (1819-1896). German pianist, close friend of Johannes Brahms, and wife of the composer Robert Schumann. ALS. (“Clara Sch”). 4pp. 8vo. Hamburg, November 5, 1867. To German conductor HERMAN LEVI (1839-1900), a close associate of Richard Wagner who, despite Wagner’s objection to him being Jewish, conducted the premiere of Wagner’s Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival in 1882. In German with a partial translation.



“On 7 November I would like you to know I shall be thinking of you with warm feelings of friendship and the most fervent good wishes. May Heaven, above all, keep you fresh and happy, as you have been in recent times and grant you only pleasant hours in the friendly relationship that is presently filling your soul!



I enclose with these lines a work that, I hope, will give you pleasure... I have also enclosed...two songs by Johannes - the first I copied out myself (unfortunately I miscalculated and took a sheet that was too small, had no second one, and so it turned out regrettably small) – the other one I had to have copied because I simply had not the time... Herbstgefuhl moved me deeply, the more so because Johannes wrote me: ‘Birthday feelings from our sort.’ In the other song I like the first half extraordinarily well, but not so the A major middle section. Johannes’ Requiem (first three movements) will be performed in Vienna on 4 Dec. Today I play the 3rd concert here, with Stockhausen – on concert days I must not write, must therefore limit myself to these few lines.



...I myself am not well, but have always played very successfully... Farewell, dear Levi. To be sure, you do not deserve it – not a word from you have I heard after our lapse... nevertheless I shake your hand in old friendship...”



Clara studied piano with her father, Friedrich Wieck, at age five, made her debut with Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra at nine and was soon hailed throughout Europe for her precocious talent. In 1838, she was appointed Kammervirtuosin to the Austrian court followed by her election to Vienna’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Among her most ardent admirers were Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt, German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), and a young student of her father, Robert Schumann, whom she married in 1840 over the strenuous objections of her father.



Levi had studied at the Leipzig Conservatory before holding various conducting posts throughout Germany, including, at the time of our letter, that of chief conductor at Karlsruhe’s court theater in the grand duchy of Baden, a liberal city especially welcoming to Jews at the time. Levi remained in Karlsruhe until 1872, when he relocated to Munich to accept the coveted position of Bavarian Court conductor. Over the next 24 years, he used his position to champion the works of Richard Wagner and Brahms, who, though 14 years younger than Clara, enjoyed an extremely close relationship with her and her husband. Clara’s love and support were reciprocated by her younger colleague, for whom she remained a dear and devoted friend throughout her life. In fact, Brahms moved to Düsseldorf in 1854 to assist Clara and her children after Robert’s breakdown and attempted suicide.



Our letter mentions Brahms’ Herbstgefühl, from his 7 Lieder, Op. 48, first published in 1868, and his masterwork A German Requiem, composed between 1865 and 1868, possibly inspired, in part, by the tragic 1856 death of Robert Schumann, to whom he dedicated the work. The first performance of the first six movements took place in Bremen in April 1868 with singer Julius Stockhausen (1826-1906), as a soloist. Clara was very close to Stockhausen, with whom she performed nearly 50 times, beginning in 1854. Stockhausen was the first to present Robert Schumann’s song cycles in their entirety and brought interest to Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust. Clara introduced him to Joseph Joachim, Jenny Lind, Pauline Viardot, Ferdinand Hiller, and Brahms, with whom he also maintained a friendly relationship despite depriving him of director of music in Hamburg with his own appointment in 1862 – a position Clara sought for Brahms. The same year Brahms dedicated his Romanzen aus L. Tieck’s Magelone, Op. 33, to Stockhausen.



Our letter sends greetings to Levi in advance of his 28th birthday on November 7. In 1882, Levi, the son of a rabbi, conducted the premiere of Wagner’s Parsifal at Bayreuth. At first, Wagner had insisted that Levi be baptized before conducting the opera only to have his patron, King Ludwig of Bavaria, disapprove of the idea, stating, “Nothing is more repugnant, nothing less edifying than such squabbles; people after all are brothers, in spite of all denominational differences,” (Richard Wagner: The Last of the Titans, Köhler). Levi’s career remained closely linked to Wagner and Bayreuth.



Folded with one small tear and the intersection of folds, otherwise in fine condition. Letters by Clara Schumann filled with such details about Brahms are rare.