Absentees and late-comers were to be fined in various amounts, according to various degrees of delinquency, and the money collected given to 'begging people,' 'and it is to be desired that it may surfeit no one.'

The fourth rule relates to the careful preservation of the music entrusted to the care of the 'virtuous and honourable ladies,' which was not to be used outside the society, and the fifth, to the admission of listeners under conditions. The whole concludes:

'I remain in deepest devotion and veneration of the Ladies' Choir their most assiduous ready-writer and steady time-beater 'JOHANNES KREISLER JUN.

(_alias_ BRAHMS).

'Given on Monday, 'The 30th of the month of April, A.D. 1860.'

The signatures, or most of them, must have been added after this date, for amongst them is that of Frau Schumann, who paid a visit to Hamburg at about this time certainly, but not in April. She arrived on May 6 with Fraulein Marie Schumann, who was from an early age her mother's constant and devoted travelling companion, and, residing at the Hotel Petersburg, attended the practices of the choir during her nearly three weeks' stay. We shall have occasion to mention the name of the great artist more than once again in interesting connexion with the sisterhood of singers, who were not a little proud of the right given them, by her signature, to claim her as an honorary colleague.[89]

Notwithstanding the stringent rules as to punctuality of attendance inserted in this formal document, the meetings were seriously interrupted during the season, and by the absence of no less a person than the director himself. Johannes could in no case, especially in his present restless mood, have remained away from the Rhine Festival of the year (Dusseldorf, May 27-29). Schumann's B flat Symphony was to be performed, Hiller to conduct, Joachim to play the Hungarian Concerto and a Beethoven Romance, and Stockhausen to sing selections by Boieldieu, Schubert, Schumann, and Hiller. Frau Schumann was to attend the concerts, and expected to meet many intimate friends at Dusseldorf, amongst them being Dietrich and his bride, a lady long known to the circle as Clara Sohn, daughter of the painter and professor at the Art Academy. Brahms therefore accompanied Frau Schumann and her daughter when they left Hamburg for Dusseldorf on May 24, and the occasion of the festival proved no less enjoyable than those similar ones which have been referred to in our pages. A new feature at one or more of the private reunions that took place in the intervals of the concerts was the singing of quartets, under Brahms' direction, by four members of the Ladies' Choir who had come to the Festival: the sisters Fraulein Betty and Fraulein Marie Volckers, Fraulein Laura Garbe, and--Frau Schumann herself. She, indeed, it was who proposed to her hostess, Fraulein Leser, that the Dietrichs, Joachim, Stockhausen, and a few others, should be invited to listen to what proved a delightful performance.

Under the circumstances, it cannot be regarded as surprising that Brahms did not immediately return to Hamburg after the festival, but made one of a party that proceeded to Bonn, where he remained with his companions till towards the middle of July.

'The spring had set in gloriously,' says Dietrich, who, as the reader will remember, had been settled for some years in the city.

'There is something enchanting in such a spring on the Rhine. The pink blossoming woods of fruit-trees, the numerous whitethorn hedges on the banks of the river, the voices of nightingales in the light, warm nights, the fine outlines of the Siebengebirge in the distance; what excursions we were induced to make! It was a happy, sunny time, rich also in artistic enjoyment.

'For Brahms, after six years' long silence, had brought with him a number of splendid compositions. There were the two serenades, the Ave Maria, the Begrabnissgesang, Songs and Romances, and the Concerto in D minor.

'He had employed his retirement in the most earnest studies; he had composed, amongst other things, a Mass in canon form, which, however, has not been printed.

'We met frequently at the Kyllmanns' hospitable and artistic house for performances of chamber music and the enjoyment of Stockhausen's splendid singing.

'The artists came also often and gladly to our young home, and before we parted they were present with us at the baptism of our first child. Brahms, Joachim, and Heinrich von Sahr were the sponsors.'[90]

Herr Kyllmann's house in Coblenzstrasse, with its beautiful garden situated on the Rhine bank and commanding a view of the Siebengebirge, was the scene of many noteworthy reunions that gave equal pleasure to the famous guests and the art-loving, art-appreciating family, who were proud to entertain them. One party which took place early in June, during the week that Frau Schumann was able to remain amongst her friends, must be recorded in detail, for the musical performances included a string quartet played by Joachim, David, Otto von Konigslow (for many years concertmeister of the Gurzenich subscription concerts, Cologne), and the excellent 'cellist Christian Reimers; Schumann's Quintet, by the same artists, with Frau Schumann as pianist; and songs sung by Stockhausen to Frau Schumann's accompaniment--amongst them 'Mondnacht' and 'Fruhlingsnacht.' Otto Jahn, who was, of course, present to enjoy the music, brought with him his friend Dr. Becker, just arrived from England on his resignation of his post of private secretary to the Prince Consort, and Brahms must be counted with them amongst the listeners. He retired to the sofa of an inner drawing-room, and was not to be induced to perform, though Frau Schumann herself came to request him to do so, and Joachim followed with his persuasive 'Oh, Johannes, do play!' Johannes, as is abundantly evident, was no diplomatist. He often felt it easier to know himself misunderstood than to overcome his nervous shrinking from the ordeal of sitting down to play before a mixed party of listeners.

The nearly two months passed at Bonn, during which Johannes and Joachim lodged respectively at 29 and 27, Meckenheimerstrasse, proved of importance in Brahms' career. It was at this time that he made the acquaintance of Herr Fritz Simrock, a young man about his own age, junior partner in the well-known publishing house of N. Simrock at Bonn, and destined, as the later head of the firm after the removal to Berlin, to usher into the world the great majority of the composer's works.

Between Fritz Simrock and Brahms a cordial understanding gradually established itself; the publisher's dealings with the musician were from the first considerate and generous, and when Brahms' fortunes became flourishing, it was Simrock who was his confidant and adviser in business matters. As an earnest of the future, the Serenade in A, Op.

16, was published by the firm before the close of the year, the Serenade in D, Op. 11, being issued in the autumn by Breitkopf and Hartel. The Pianoforte Concerto, refused by this firm, was accepted by Rieter-Biedermann, together with the 'Ave Maria,' Begrabnissgesang, and the Lieder und Romanzen (Op. 14), all of which were published the following year.[91]

'I am very glad to see Johannes' things in print before me at last,' wrote Joachim to Ave Lallement. 'Now the _Signale_ and other superficial papers may abuse them as they please. We have done right. They will continue to smile on with their beautiful motifs long after the clumsy fault-finders have been silenced.'

The meetings of the ladies' choral society were recommenced on Brahms'

return to Hamburg in July. Fraulein Porubszky, with whom he had been on terms of lively friendship during her year of membership, which had seen him a frequent visitor at her aunt's house in the Bockmannstrasse, had now returned to Vienna, where the reader will presently renew her acquaintance as Frau Faber. The members of the choir were, however, one and all thoroughgoing admirers of their conductor, and amongst the houses open for the holding of the practices, two at which he became intimate, must be particularly mentioned--those of Herr Volckers and his two daughters at Hamm, and of the Hallier family at Eppendorf, both at that time almost in the country.

The large Eppendorf garden was the scene of many a pleasant gathering of the singers; now and again they performed there before an invited audience of friends. Hubbe tells of an open-air evening party, with an illumination, vocal contributions by the choir, which were conducted by the director from the branch of a tree, and fireworks in the intervals.

The Halliers lived in town during the winter, and Brahms often dropped in to their informal Wednesday evenings, which were attended by the artists and art-lovers of Hamburg. He was good-natured about playing in this familiar, sociable circle, and would perform one thing after another, unless particularly interested in conversation, when no entreaty could get him to the piano. As his Detmold friends had found out, he formed definite opinions on most current topics of interest, and did not hesitate to avow them, or to confess the unorthodoxy of his religious views. He went constantly also to Ave Lallement's house, where a few men used to meet regularly to read Shakespeare and other authors, and found time to attend lectures on art history and to study Latin under Dr. Emil Hallier, and history under Professor aegidi of the Academic Gymnasium.

The autumn of this year was signalized by the appearance of a new and very great work--the String Sextet in B flat--the first of Brahms'

important compositions to attain general popularity. Joachim was its sponsor, producing it at his Quartet concert at Hanover of October 20; and it was partly owing to his enthusiastic appreciation that the composition was so quickly and widely received into public favour.

It would be beside the mark to discuss, in a narrative which has no technical aim, the musical characteristics of a work that has become so entirely familiar as this one, which has long since taken its place among the few classics that attract an audience on their own merits, apart from the consideration of whether a public favourite is to lead their performance. It may, however, be remarked that the String Sextet in B flat is a work to which neither 'if' nor 'but' can be attached.

Both in beauty and variety of idea and in spontaneous clearness of development, it is without flaw, and these qualities combine with the fineness of its proportions, perfectly conceived and perfectly wrought out, to place it with few rivals amongst the greatest examples of chamber music. Fresh, happy, and ingenuous, the mastery it displays over the art which conceals art may be compared with that of Mozart himself.

With it opens the great series of works of its class which reveals the powerful individuality of Brahms in all its moods, and includes the first and second Pianoforte Quartets, the Pianoforte Quintet, the second String Sextet, and the Horn Trio--works which, in the author's opinion, were not surpassed even during later periods of the composer's magnificent activity in this domain.

Frau Schumann, Joachim, and Johannes met in November at Leipzig, the two last-named artists to assist actively on the 26th of the month at the annual Pension-Fund concert of the Gewandhaus, which was given under the direction of Carl Reinecke, the lately appointed successor to Julius Rietz. Both Johannes and Joachim appeared as composers--Brahms with the second Serenade, Joachim with the Hungarian Concerto--and each conducted the other's work. Their own artistic conscience, with each other's and Frau Schumann's approval, and perhaps that of a few other friends, was their best reward. The audience was cold; the daily press left the concert unmentioned; the _Zeitschrift_ dismissed it with a few dubious sentences--perhaps not ungenerous treatment under the circumstances--and the _Signale_, candid as ever, declared the serenade to be a terribly monotonous work which showed the composer's poverty of invention, together with his despairing attempts to appear learned. Joachim's concerto was pronounced decidedly richer in invention than his friend's work, but rather monotonous also, and certainly very much too long.

Frau Schumann, nothing dismayed by these remarks, introduced at her concert of December 8, given in the small hall of the Gewandhaus, the very beautiful Variations on an original theme, which, though hardly suitable for general concert performance, should be much better known than they are. They show the composer in one of his Bach-Beethoven-Brahms moods, by which is here meant his learned and profoundly serious vein touched with exquisite tenderness. The theme, in three-four time, has about it, nevertheless, something of the pace of a grave march, and the opening variations are tender reflections on a solemn idea. In the eighth and ninth we have the imposing tramp of pomp, whilst the eleventh and last breathes forth tones of mysterious spirituality which subdue the mind of the listener as to some passing divine influence.

These Variations together with the earlier set on a Hungarian melody, and the three Duets for Soprano and Contralto, Op. 20, were published by Simrock in 1861.

The fact that Brahms' sextet was placed in the programme of the Hafner-Lee concert announced for January 4 affords evidence that the composer was gradually penetrating with his works to the heart of musical life in his native city, though he may not have enjoyed the particular favour of its public. The Quartet-Entertainments of these artists were among the regularly recurring artistic events of Hamburg, and enjoyed unfailing support. Hafner, a Viennese by birth and a Schubert enthusiast, had found a second home in the northern city, and was accounted its first violinist; and in the 'cellist Lee he had a sympathetic colleague. He was not, however, destined to lead the sextet.

His sudden illness caused the postponement of the concert, and his death followed. The work was played in Hamburg from the manuscript by his successor in the enterprise, John Boie, with Honroth, Breyther, Kayser, Wiemann, and Lee, and with immediate success. The impression made was so great that the work was repeated three times within the following few weeks by the same concert-party.

[86] 'Aus Brahms' Jugendtagen.' See footnote on p. 205.

[87] 'Joseph Joachim,' p. 154.

[88] Reprint of Wagner's pamphlet 'Das Judenthum in der Musik.'

[89] The rules, first published by Professor Walter Hubbe in his 'Brahms in Hamburg,' are given entire in the original German in Appendix No.

III.

[90] This pleasant description is given entire, as containing a substantially accurate account of Brahms' artistic progress, though Dietrich, writing after the lapse of many years, has overlooked the fact that the works referred to had already been performed in public from the manuscripts.

[91] A revised edition of the second serenade was published by Simrock in 1875.

CHAPTER XI 1861-1862

Concert season in Hamburg--Frau Denninghoff-Giesemann--Brahms at Hamm--Herr Volckers and his daughters--Dietrich's visit to Brahms--Music at the Halliers' and Wagners'--First public performance of the G minor Quartet--Brahms at Oldenburg--Second Serenade performed in New York--The first and second Pianoforte Quartets--'Magelone Romances'--First public performances of the Handel Variations and Fugue in Hamburg and Leipzig by Frau Schumann--Brahms' departure for Vienna.

Frau Schumann, Joachim, and Stockhausen visited Hamburg repeatedly during the year 1861, and all made much of Johannes. Both Joachim and Brahms assisted at Frau Schumann's concert of January 15. Brahms took part in the performance of Schumann's beautiful Andante and Variations for two pianofortes, and conducted the Ladies' Choir, to the great delight of the members, in their singing of several of his part-songs.

The first part of the programme included 'Es tont ein voller Harfenklang,' 'Komm herbei Tod,' and 'Der Gartner,' from the set with horns and harp accompaniment, Op. 17; the second part the 'Minnelied'

and 'Der Brautigam' (from Op. 44) and 'Song from Fingal' (from Op.

17)--all performed from manuscript. On the 22nd of the month Frau Schumann and Brahms appeared together at a concert in the Logensaal Valentinskamp, with Bach's C major Concerto and Mozart's Sonata, both for two pianofortes.

[Illustration: BRAHMS AND STOCKHAUSEN, 1868.]

Frau Schumann and her daughter Marie were, during this somewhat prolonged visit, the guests of the Halliers, who understood the necessities involved by the strain of the great artist's arduous life, and allowed her perfect freedom of action. Johannes visited his old friend every day, dining privately with her and her daughter at an hour that suited their convenience; and on a few free evenings there was glorious music in the Halliers' drawing-room before a few intimate acquaintances.

On March 8 Brahms played Beethoven's triple Concerto with David and Davidoff at the Philharmonic concert, and a few weeks later the Begrabnissgesang was performed under his direction at a Hafner memorial concert arranged by Gradener, and made a profound impression.

'The composer has realized the solemn spirit of mourning with extraordinary insight. As part of a funeral ceremony, the effect of the work would be quite overpowering,' wrote one of the critics.

Joachim and Stockhausen came in April for the Philharmonic concert of the 16th, and the brilliant season closed with Stockhausen's and Brahms'

soirees on the 19th, 27th, and 30th of the month. At the first two concerts, at Hamburg and Altona respectively, the entire series of Schubert's 'Schone Mullerin' was given; and at the last--who can imagine a more enthralling feast of sound than the performance of Beethoven's melting love-songs, 'To the Distant Beloved,' the very thought of which brings tears to the eyes, sung by Stockhausen to the accompaniment of Brahms, followed by our composer's lovely second Serenade, and this by Schumann's 'Poet's Love-Songs'? Happy Hamburgers, happy Stockhausen, happy Brahms, to have shared such delights together! Will their like ever come again? Strangely enough, they lead in the course of our story, as by natural transition, to the record of a visit paid to Brahms in the second week of July by a very early friend of his and of the reader.

Lischen Giesemann had not met her old playmate since she had bidden him God-speed at the commencement of his concert-journey with Remenyi early in 1853. During the years immediately following what proved to be his final departure from Winsen, she had occasionally visited her dear 'aunt' Brahms, but, never finding Johannes at home, had been obliged to content herself by rejoicing with his mother over the letters he constantly sent to his parents from Dusseldorf, Hanover, etc. She was now a happy newly-married wife, but the memory of the old child-life remained like the warmth of sunshine in her heart, and having ascertained that her now celebrated hero was living at home again, she determined to go with her husband to see him. As ill-luck would have it, Johannes had gone out for the day when Herr and Frau Denninghoff made their call in the Fuhlentwiethe, but his mother, overjoyed to see her young friend again after a long separation, offered such consolation as was in her power by showing her his room. How many remembrances crowded upon Lischen's mind as she entered it! The practices with Remenyi, the teacher's choral society, the dances at Hoopte, the story of the beautiful Magelone and her knight Peter. Lischen found herself standing near the piano--and what did she see there? Some manuscript songs, apparently newly composed, stood on the music-desk, which bore the name of the beautiful Magelone herself in Brahms' handwriting! It almost seemed like a waking dream to the young wife, and the manuscript appeared to her as a link by which the past would be carried into the future. Nor was she mistaken. Brahms' 'Magelone Romances' have become world-famous, and wherever they are heard the delight which stirred the heart of the youthful Johannes as he and Lischen sat together in the pleasant Winsen fields eagerly devouring the old story from Aaron Lowenherz's purloined volume lives also. Lischen was not again to meet her old friend, but she never forgot either him or his music, and he, too, kept a faithful memory for the old pleasant time. Writing to her twenty years later, when at the height of his fame, he said:

'The remembrance of your parents' house is one of the dearest that I possess; all the kindness and love that were shown me, all the youthful pleasure and happiness that I enjoyed there, live secure in my heart with the image of your good father and the glad, grateful memory of you all.'

Lischen's daughter inherited her mother's voice, and was endowed with fine musical gifts; and when Agnes came to the right age, Frau Denninghoff sent her to be trained as a singer at the Royal Music School of Berlin, of which, as everyone knows, Joachim has been director since its foundation. Joachim invited Agnes to his house one evening to meet Brahms, who, coming forward to greet her, said it was as though her mother were again standing before him. He sent her a selection of his songs, and in due time she became a distinguished singer, appearing in public under a pseudonym, and the wife of a famous musician.

Lischen saw only the first four numbers of the 'Magelone' song-cycle, which had, by a strange coincidence, just been completed at the time of her visit; the fifth and sixth were not composed until May, 1862.[92]