You know what makes sense, though? For Fredersdorf, dedicated flutist, to want a copy of the score of a beautiful Bach sonata that's not in print yet!
Ohhhh that does make a lot of sense. And yes to Fredersdorf's feelings <3
BTW I had a listen and it's (expectedly) a gorgeous sonata. (I don't usually listen to flute music, since I'm not a wind person, so this is also filling in gaps in my music literacy :) )
Rüdiger Safranski frustrated me in his Goethe biography by giving me next to nothing about Zelter, who was for the last 30 years of Goethe's life not only his most important correspondent but the only one of his new friends with whom he was on a "Du" footing. So I would have liked to know what kind of person he was, more of his background than two sentences, but does Safranksi deliver? He did not. Anyway, that's now rectified.
Okay, I'm curious about this -- how did he get to be on a "du" footing? I mean, did this new information about Zelter's personality give you any insight into that?
He was an autodidact, starting out as a bricklayer and being so in love with music that he became member of an orchestra, then of the Sing Akademie, then the leader of the Sing Akademie. He taught both Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn as children and youngsters (and is responsible for Felix playing for Goethe in Weimar and getting compared to child!Mozart, whom Goethe saw as a teenager in Frankfurt playing together with Nannerl). (Err, Goethe was the teenager, when seeing child Mozart. Mozart was eight or seven, I think.) There's a lovely Goethe characterisation of him: „In Gesprächen ist Zelter genial und trifft immer den Nagel auf den Kopf […] Er kann bei der ersten Begegnung etwas sehr derb, ja mitunter sogar etwas roh erscheinen. Allein, das ist nur äußerlich. Ich kenne kaum jemanden, der zugleich so zart wäre wie Zelter.
("In conversation, Zelter is a genius and always hits the ball in the corner. He may appear a bit rough, sometimes even rude when you first meet him. But this is only the outside. I hardly know anyone who at the same time is so tender as Zelter.")
In addition to coming across as sympathetic, I think "Du" was partly because he was a self made man who rose from humble circumstances and who combined passion for art with at times gruff manners. I don't think Goethe (who himself rose from middle class commoner to ennobled goverment official courtesy of Carl August) would have offered the "Du" to a nobleman. (Especially not as an older man.) But to former bricklayer (that's why he renovated Nicolai's house, btw) Zelter? Absolutely.
And that's a gorgeous sonata indeed. Which we now know Frederdorf loved!
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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timeasmymeasure
Bach and Zelter
Date: 2021-03-21 05:37 am (UTC)Ohhhh that does make a lot of sense. And yes to Fredersdorf's feelings <3
BTW I had a listen and it's (expectedly) a gorgeous sonata. (I don't usually listen to flute music, since I'm not a wind person, so this is also filling in gaps in my music literacy :) )
Rüdiger Safranski frustrated me in his Goethe biography by giving me next to nothing about Zelter, who was for the last 30 years of Goethe's life not only his most important correspondent but the only one of his new friends with whom he was on a "Du" footing. So I would have liked to know what kind of person he was, more of his background than two sentences, but does Safranksi deliver? He did not. Anyway, that's now rectified.
Okay, I'm curious about this -- how did he get to be on a "du" footing? I mean, did this new information about Zelter's personality give you any insight into that?
Re: Bach and Zelter
Date: 2021-03-21 01:19 pm (UTC)("In conversation, Zelter is a genius and always hits the ball in the corner. He may appear a bit rough, sometimes even rude when you first meet him. But this is only the outside. I hardly know anyone who at the same time is so tender as Zelter.")
In addition to coming across as sympathetic, I think "Du" was partly because he was a self made man who rose from humble circumstances and who combined passion for art with at times gruff manners. I don't think Goethe (who himself rose from middle class commoner to ennobled goverment official courtesy of Carl August) would have offered the "Du" to a nobleman. (Especially not as an older man.) But to former bricklayer (that's why he renovated Nicolai's house, btw) Zelter? Absolutely.
And that's a gorgeous sonata indeed. Which we now know Frederdorf loved!
Re: Bach and Zelter
Date: 2021-03-21 05:03 pm (UTC)Re: Bach and Zelter
Date: 2021-03-21 05:08 pm (UTC)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
Date: 2021-03-21 05:09 pm (UTC)Re: Bach and Zelter
Date: 2021-03-21 05:17 pm (UTC)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
Date: 2021-03-21 05:20 pm (UTC)(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
Date: 2021-03-21 06:54 pm (UTC)This is what Horowski's so good at and so frustrated that many other historians aren't.