标题: 1865.1 费利克斯-门德尔松-巴托尔迪从1833年到1847年的信件 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-5-18 01:35 标题: 1865.1 费利克斯-门德尔松-巴托尔迪从1833年到1847年的信件 BOOKS
Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy From 1833 to 1847. Two Volumes
JANUARY 1865 ISSUE
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Philadelphia : F. Leypoldt.
THERE are many people who make very little discrimination between one musician and another, — who discern no great gulf between Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer, between Rossini and Romberg, between Spohr and Spontini: not in respect of music, but of character ; of character in itself, and not as it may develop itself in chaste or florid, sentimental, gay, devotional, or dramatic musical forms. And as yet we have very little help in our efforts to gain insight into the inner nature of our great musical artists. Of Meyerbeer the world knows that he was vain, proud, and fond of money, - -but whether he had soul or not we do not know; the profound religiousness of Handel, who spent his best years on second-rate operas, and devoted his declining energies to oratorio, we have to guess at rather than reach by direct disclosure ; and tili Mr. Thayer shall take away the mantle which yet covers his Beethoven, we shall know but little of the interior nature of that wonderful man. But Mendelssohn now stands before us, disclosed by the most searching of all processes, his own letters to his own friends. And how graceful, how winning, how true, tender, noble is the man ! We have not dared to write a notice of these two volumes while we were fresh from their perusal, lest the fascination of that genial, Christian presence should lead us into the same frame which prompted not only the rhapsodies of “ Charles Auchestcr,” but the same passionate admiration which all England felt, while Mendelssohn lived, and which Elizabeth Sheppard shared, not led. We lay down these volumes after the third perusal, blessing God for the rich gift of such a life, — a life, sweet, gentle, calm, nowise intense nor passionate, yet swift, stirring, and laborious even to the point of morbidness. A Christian without cant ; a friend, not clinging to a few and rejecting the many, nor dirtusing his love over the many with no dominating affection for a few near ones, but loving his own with a tenacity almost unparalleled, yet reaching out a free, generous sympathy and kindly devotion even to the hundreds who could give him nothing but their love. It is thought that his grief over Itis sister Fanny was the occasion of tiie rupture of a blood-vessel in his head, and that it was the proximate cause of his own death ; and yet lie who loved with this idolatrous affection gave his hand to many whose names he hardly knew. The reader will not overlook, in the second series of letters, the plea in behalf of an old Swiss guide for remembrance in “ Murray,” nor that long letter to Mr. Simrock, the musicpublisher, enjoining the utmost secrecy, and then urging the claims of a man whom he was most desirous to help.
The letters from Italy and Switzerland were written during the two years with which he prefaced his quarter-century of labor as composer, director, and virtuoso. They relate much to Italian painting, the music ol Passion Week, Swiss scenery, his stay with Goethe, and his brilliant reception in England on his return. They disclose a youth of glorious promise.
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The second series does not disappoint that promise, The man is the youth a little less exuberant, a little more mature, but no less buoyant, tender, and loving. The letters are as varied as the claims of one’s family differ from those of the outside world, but are always Mendelssohnian. — free, pure, unworldly, yet deep and wise, They continue down to the very close of his lire. They are edited by his brother Paul, and another near relative. Yet unauthorized publications of other letters will follow, for Mendelssohn was a prolific letter - writer ; and Lampadius, a warm admirer of the composer, has recently announced such a volume. The public may rejoice in this; for Mendelssohn was not only purity, but good sense itself; he needs no critical editing ; and if we may yet have more strictly musical letters from his pen, the influence of the two volumes now under notice will be largely increased.
It is not enough to say of these volumes that they are bright, piquant, genial, affecdonate ; nor is it enough to speak of their artistic worth, the subtile appreciation of painting in the first series, and of music in the second ; it is not enough to refer to the glimpses which they give of eminent artists, — Chopin, Rossini, Donizetti, Hiller, and Muscheles, — nor the sideglances at Thorwaldsen, Bunsen, the late scholarly and art-loving King of Prussia, Sclvadow, Overbeck, Cornelius, and the Düsseldorf painters ; nor is it enough to dwell upon that delightful homage to father and mother, that confiding trust in brother and sisters, that loyalty to friends. The salient feature of these charming books is the unswerving devotion to a great purpose ; the careless disregard, nay, the abrupt refusal, of fame, unless it came in an honest channel ; the naive modesty that made him wonder, even in the very last years of his life, that he could be the man whose entrance into the crowded halls of London and Birmingham should be the signal of ten minutes’ protracted cheering ; the refusal to set art over against money ; the unwillingness to undertake the mandates of a king, unless with the cordial acquiescence of his artistic conscience ; and the immaculate purity, not alone of his life, but of his thought. How he castigates Donizetti’s love of money and his sloth ! how his whip scourges the immorality of the French opera, and his whole soul abhors the sensuality of that stage ! how steadfastly he refuses to undertake the composition of an opera till the faultless libretto for which he patiently waited year after year could be prepared ! We wish our religious societies would call out a few of the letters of this man and scatter them broadcast over the land: they would indeed be “leaves for the healing of the nations.”
There is one lesson which may be learned from Mendelssohn’s career, which is exceptionably rare : it is that Providence does sometimes bless a man every way,—giving him all good and no evil. Where shall we look in actual or historic experience to find a parallel to Mendelssohn in this ? He had beauty : Chorley says he never looked upon a handsomer face. He had grace and elegance. Pie spoke four languages with perfect ease, read Greek and Latin with facility, drew skilfully, was familiar with the sciences, and never found himself at a loss with professed naturalists. He was a member of one of the most distinguished families of Germany : his grandfather being Moses Mendelssohn, the philosopher ; his father, a leading banker ; his uncle Bartholdy, a great patron of art in Rome, while he was Prussian minister there ; his brother-in-law Hensel, Court painter ; both his sisters and his brother Paul occupying leading social positions. He was heir-apparent to a great estate. He was greeted with the applause of England from the outset of his career ; “ awoke famous,” after the production oi the “Midsummer Overture,” while almost a bov ; never had a piece fall short of triumphant success ; in fact, so commanding prestige that he could find riot one who would rationally blame or criticize him,— a “ most wearying ” thing, he writes, that every piece he brought out was always “wonderfully fine.” lie was loved by all, and envied by none ; the pet and joy oi Goethe, who lived to see his expectation of Mendelssohn on the road to ample fulfilment; blessed entirely in his family, “the course of true love ” running “ smooth ” from beginning to end ; well, agile, strong; and more than all this, having a childlike religious faith in Christ, and as happy as a child in his piety. Ilis life was cloudless ; those checks and compensations with which Providence breaks up others’ lot were wanting to his. We never knew any one like him in this, but the childlike, sunny Carl Ritter.
We still lack a biography of Mendelssohn which shall portray him from without, as these volumes do from within. We learn that one is in preparation ; and when that is given to the public, one more rich life will be embalmed in the memories ol all good men.
We ought not to overlook the unique elegance of these two volumes. Like all the publications of Mr. Leypoldt, they arc printed in small, round letter; and the whole appearance is creditable to the publisher’s taste. The American edition entirely eclipses the English in this regard. 1 hough not advertised profusely, the merit of these Letters has already given them entrance and welcome into our most cultivated circles : but we bespeak for them a larger audience still ; for they are books which our young men, our voting women, our pastors, our whole thoughtful and aspiring community, ought to read and circulate.