I keep being surprised by how small their world is! So many connections between people. (Mildred's findings regarding Peter's Knyphausen in-laws was another one of those instances.)
That's why it's so easy to play Six Degrees To Algarotti with them. :)
Zelter: Zelter met and interacted with Amalie, who knew Algarotti personally when he lived in Berlin. That's almost too easy. However, how's this:
Queen Victoria to Algarotti! Victoria encountered Felix Mendelsohn (with a little awkward moment when it turned out her favourite of his Lieder had been composed by his sister Fanny). Felix met Zelter who met Amalie who met Algarotti.
Good grief. It just occured to me. Victoria being everyone's Grandma, you can also connect Wilhelm II. to Algarotti in one more step....
I had tea with Wolfgang Wagner (grandson of Richard) (and he brought me to the train I had to catch in his car). Wolfgang's father Siegfried knew Richard who knew Felix Mendelssohn who knew Zelter who knew Amalie who knew Algarotti, so I can't manage it in six steps but almost. (Both Richard and Siegfried Wagner had their respective children rather late in life, which is why Wolfgang didn't know his grandfather. He did know his grandmother, of course, as Cosima had her children younger, and grew much older than Richard did. So maybe I could manage something closer through the Liszt connection, to wit.
Wolfgang - Cosima - her father Franz Liszt - Antonio Salieri - Lorenzo Da Ponte - Algarotti!
(Thinking about this is more pleasant than being aware I'm just a handshake away from the Worst Fanboy, who after all was fangirled himself like no one's business by Winifred Wagner, Wolfgang's mother.)
That's 6 steps for you and 7 for me (through you)! Not bad, considering how remote in time he is. :D
(Thinking about this is more pleasant than being aware I'm just a handshake away from the Worst Fanboy, who after all was fanboyed himself like no one's business by Winifred Wagner, Wolfgang's mother.)
I know! Just in the last few days, I've learned that Goethe was BFFs with Zelter, who was a bricklayer who helped renovate Nicolai's house, which was the same house that Peter Keith lived in with Frau von Knyphausen, who (with her husband) had bought it from his predecessor Herr von Blaspiel, who (along with his wife) was banished as a result of the Clement affair that we just learned about (but had been described in Wilhelmine's memoirs), and that, going a little further back in time, this Knyphausen of whom we've heard on several occasions before was painted by Pesne, and that led to F1 inviting Pesne to Berlin, with so many results that we've seen. And that's not counting the Knyphausen connections you mention!
This is what Horowski's so good at and so frustrated that many other historians aren't.
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Re: Bach and Zelter
Re: Bach and Zelter
Zelter: Zelter met and interacted with Amalie, who knew Algarotti personally when he lived in Berlin. That's almost too easy. However, how's this:
Queen Victoria to Algarotti! Victoria encountered Felix Mendelsohn (with a little awkward moment when it turned out her favourite of his Lieder had been composed by his sister Fanny). Felix met Zelter who met Amalie who met Algarotti.
Good grief. It just occured to me. Victoria being everyone's Grandma, you can also connect Wilhelm II. to Algarotti in one more step....
Re: Bach and Zelter
Re: Bach and Zelter
Wolfgang - Cosima - her father Franz Liszt - Antonio Salieri - Lorenzo Da Ponte - Algarotti!
(Thinking about this is more pleasant than being aware I'm just a handshake away from the Worst Fanboy, who after all was fangirled himself like no one's business by Winifred Wagner, Wolfgang's mother.)
Re: Bach and Zelter
(Thinking about this is more pleasant than being aware I'm just a handshake away from the Worst Fanboy, who after all was fanboyed himself like no one's business by Winifred Wagner, Wolfgang's mother.)
Yes, let's think about Algarotti.
Re: Bach and Zelter
This is what Horowski's so good at and so frustrated that many other historians aren't.