Legend of A Musical City by Max Graf

Author:Max Graf [Graf, Max]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2013-10-07T16:00:00+00:00

4

In the Opera House and Concert Halls–1891-1914

The Musical Capital of Nations

The presence of so many great musicians gave meaning to musical life in the period of Emperor Franz Josef. Each year new works by Brahms were performed. Hugo Wolf had his songs published. Bruckner’s symphonies were new works. All this music had not, as yet, been catalogued by the music historians. It was the music of the day, and came fresh from the pots of old Vienna’s music-kitchen. The music-critics took their testing ladles, dipped them in the steaming pots, tasted, and found the fare good or bad.

Like any educated, cultivated society, Viennese music circles enjoyed well-written, witty or malicious newspaper criticisms. The daily papers which appeared in Vienna were a great power. In 1867, the “New Free Press” was founded which, along with the London Times and the Paris “Figaro,” quickly became the most widely-read newspaper in Europe. For it, the best pens wrote on politics and art. The jewel-piece of a feuilleton was zealously cultivated after Parisian models. But here it was a Vienna feuilleton: tasteful, cultured, charming, instructive in a gracious form. The strongest German stylist in the world of journalism, the Suabian Ludwig Speidel, wrote on the theatre, and all Vienna waited for four or five days after a premiere for his feuilleton; since, after first-nights, for a few days he went walking under the Prater trees to assemble his thoughts and bring them into clear form. When, distinguished by his majestic scholar’s head, he appeared in the Burgtheater and lowered himself heavily into his aisle-seat, his hands resting on the silver knob of his cane, everyone would turn respectfully toward this great critic who would let the Viennese public know how the new play had pleased him. After the performance Speidel would go to the “Winter Beer House,” where the best Pilsener was served, and sit there until the early morning hours with a few learned friends.

Hugo Wittman, the second great Viennese feuilletonist, was also a Suabian, but he wrote in a light conversational tone, like a Parisian. The third of the “New Free Press” feuilletonists was the music critic, Eduard Hanslick, and what he wrote about music was read by all Europe.

Every evening Hanslick went to the concert hall or to the opera, and when the little old man made his appearance, a movement would go through the audience. Seldom did a musical society and a critic understand each other as well as the Viennese public and Hanslick. Viennese society loved classical music, Italian opera arias and French music, and so did Hanslick. For a long time Viennese society wanted to hear nothing of Wagner, and Hanslick wanted this still less and still longer. Viennese society was elegant. So was Hanslick. Society loved wit, and Hanslick was witty. Society enjoyed life, and was superficial, and so was Hanslick, even though he possessed a keen mind and great culture. Hanslick said in his criticisms what the most mentally limited member of Viennese society thought, but he wrote it down in most ingenious form.

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