MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY, Felix (1809-1847) - photo 1
MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY, Felix (1809-1847) - photo 2
MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY, Felix (1809-1847) - photo 3

MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY, Felix (1809-1847)

Lot 67
14.12.2022 10:30UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 6 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 870826
Lot 67 | MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY, Felix (1809-1847)
Estimate value
£ 6 000 – 8 000
MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY, Felix (1809-1847)

Autograph letter signed ('Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy') to Erich Heinrich Wilhelm Verkenius ('Herr Präsident'), Berlin, 23 August 1841.

In German. 3 1/4 pages, 255 x 196mm, integral address panel, remnant of seal in red wax. Provenance: with Gary E. Combs, New York, catalogue 106 (c. 2007).



An excoriating letter on the mediocrity of musical life in Berlin, including in performances of Mendelssohn's own Piano Trio, attacking Gaspare Spontini and reporting the declining powers of the great soprano Giuditta Pasta. Mendelssohn fulfills a promise to send news of musical life in Berlin, to which he had been invited by the new Prussian monarch, Friedrich Wilhelm IV. 'Unfortunately, there is not much to report that is gratifying ... The whole attitude of musicians and of music-lovers is too little directed towards practical matters; they actually play music mostly so that they can talk about it before and afterwards ... Unfortunately this can all be seen in the orchestra (however good the individual members are). I have heard such gross errors and such mistakes in tempo being made constantly in operas and symphonies that this is possible only through great carelessness ... in short, things are bad. I have played my trio here 10-12 times; each time there were these kinds of mistakes in timing, these kinds of careless slips in the accompaniment, although these were the leading local musicians who were playing with me. The whole orchestra is actually demoralised to its foundations, and the greatest part of the blame for this attaches to Spontini who was at the head of it for such a long time ... As you know, he has now fallen out with the king, the public and the theatre; but the question is whether he will leave here'. Assuming Spontini does leave, the options to replace him are Mendelssohn himself (who has refused), Meyerbeer (who Mendelssohn says has likewise refused, although he in fact succeeded Spontini in the following year), Wilhelm Taubert and Louis Spohr. Mendelssohn concludes his musical report with news of declining powers of the great soprano Giuditta Pasta: 'I recently heard Pasta in Semiramide. She now sings so terribly wrong, particularly in the middle ranges, that it is a real torture; and yet of course the splendid traces of her great talent, the features which betray a singer of the first rank, are often unmistakable'. And yet while in any other city the audience would have been put off by her 'dreadful intonation', in Berlin they have made such allowances for her age (she was then 43) that they are 'unjustly enthusiastic'.



The recipient, Mendelssohn's close friend E.H.W. Verkenius, was President of the Cologne Committee for the Lower Rhine Music Festival. See also lot 65. Sämtliche Briefe 3241.





Special notice


This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
10.12.2022 – 13.12.2022
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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