Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) - photo 1
Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) - photo 2
Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) - photo 3
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Hugo Wolf (1860-1903)

Lot 88
11.12.2024 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
ID 1349752
Lot 88 | Hugo Wolf (1860-1903)
Estimate value
£ 12 000 – 15 000
Hugo Wolf (1860-1903)
19 autograph letters signed ('Hugo Wolf', 'Wolf' or 'Wölfing', three unsigned) to Henriette Lang (later Baronin von Schey), Vienna, Maierling, Windischgraz, Bayreuth, Rinnbach, Unter-Sankt-Veit, Döbling, Traunkirchen and n.p., 26 January 1881 - 26 November 1884, 15 May 1893 - 24 December 1897
In German. Approx. 71 pages, various sizes, mostly c.180 x 115mm, letter of 26 April 1881 including two musical quotations (one from Marschner's 'Hans Heiling'), letter of 11 June 1881 with a postscript on a separate slip of paper; most with envelopes. With transcriptions. Provenance: Stargardt, 12 March 1993, Lot 1171 (part lot).

Highly-charged letters revealing Wolf's seesawing emotions and creative impulses, as well as his devotion to Wagner. The earliest letter gives a colourful description of his horror at a performance of his string quartet, describing the 'miserable mood of the composer who has to watch with inner horror as the four murderers ... gruesomely mutilate his child', and confesses his mood of lassitude, 'I am terribly lazy this year, I do absolutely nothing: I would like to say that my work is limited to recording and storing up many impressions, which one day should take on a certain form and shape', mentioning that his seven Heine songs are to be published by Kistner in Leipzig. On 26 April 1881 he writes in equally charged language of his emotions at the end of his relationship with Henriette's close friend Vally Franck, comparing it to the sensation of hearing the tones of a flute, oboe and clarinet betray their nature and become 'artificial, calculating, pompous', illustrating the change with two musical quotations. On 26 June he is still tormented by thoughts of Vally, and is avoiding sleep, 'for fear of the horrific dreams', both those in which she still loves him and those in which 'I clearly hear the words "I don't love you" ... To be able to stay awake now, fantasising on the piano, is the most healing medicine for me'. On 15 August 1882 he writes from Bayreuth, at the first festival to include Parsifal: he has already seen one performance and is about to attend another, though 'Wagner himself [is] invisible'. Another Wagnerian experience is described on 10 June 1883, after a performance of Tannhäuser in Vienna, where he is obliged to quell with a 'poisonous basilisk stare of hate and death' a hapless female neighbour who was too busily waving her fan. On 22 October the same year he encourages Henriette to visit so that they can argue about Wagner's Tristan: 'Arguing with women is fruitless, says Mörike, but ... such skirmishes are like the effervescence of champagne ... one can only have a conversation (I believe) with intelligent women; intelligent men lack the mobility, the grace, the piquancy, the immediacy ...'. On 26 November 1884, Wolf writes to congratulate Henriette on her engagement to Joseph von Schey. The last letter, written on Christmas Eve 1897 from the mental institution in which he was confined, thanks Henriette for the gift of some cigarettes, expresses his misplaced hopes that he will 'leave this god-damned "crying institution" at the end of this month', and describes his plans to move to Lucerne or Weimar, leaving Vienna behind for ever.

Henriette Lang (1856-1934) was the sister of Melanie Köchert, Wolf's lover and muse. Published (with a few omissions) in Briefe an Henriette Lang, ed. Werner (Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, 1923), with the exception of the letters of 17 April 1881, 15 May 1893 and 24 December 1897 – the last deliberately omitted 'as it shows clear signs of [Wolf's] illness'.
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United Kingdom
Preview
11.12.2024 – 11.12.2024
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