Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

—
1824 SCHUBEET 1824
aa already mentioned, was returned by Barbaja,
ostensibly on account of the badness of its
libretto. Two full-sized operas—this and 'Alfonso
und Estrella '—to be laid on ,the shelf
without even a rehearsal 1 Whatever the cause,
the blow must have been equally severe to our
simple, genuine, composer, who had no doubt
been expecting, not without reason, day by day
for the last four months, to hear of the acceptance
of his work. His picture of himself under
this temporary eclipse of hope is mournful in
the extreme, though natural enough to the
easily depressed temperament of a man of
genius. After speaking of himself as 'the most
unfortunate, most miserable being on earth,'
'
he goes on to say, think of a man whose
health can never be restored, and who from
sheer despair makes matters worse instead of
better. Think, I say, of a man whose brightest
hopes have come to nothing, to whom love and
friendship are but torture, and whose enthusiasm
for the beautiful is fast vanishing ; and ask
yourself if such a man is not truly unhappy.
My peace is gone, my heart is sore.
Gone for ever and evermore.
This is my daily cry ; for every night I go to
sleep hoping never again to wake, and every
morning only brings back the torment of the
day before. Thus joylessly and friendlessly
would pass my days, if Schwind did not often
look in, and give me a glimpse of the old
happy times. . . . Your brother's opera'
this is a letter to Kupelwieser '— the painter, and
the allusion is to Fierrabras ' ' turns out to be
impracticable, and my music is therefore wasted.
Castelli's " Versohworenen " has been set in
Berlin by a composer there, and produced with
success. Thus I have composed two operas
for nothing.' This sad mood, real enough at
the moment, was only natural after such repulses..
It was assisted, as Schubert's depression
always was, by the absence of many of
his friends, and also, as he himself confesses,
by his acquaintance with Leidesdorf the publisher
(in Beethoven's banter Dorf ' des Leides,'
a very ' village of sorrow '), whom he describes
as a thoroughly good, trustworthy fellow, but
'
so very melancholy that I begin to fear I may
have learnt too much from him in that direction.'
It must surely have been after an
evening with this worthy that he made the
touching entries in his journal which have been
preserved ; e.g. ' Grief sharpens the understanding
and strengthens the soul : Joy on the other
hand seldom troubles itself about the one, and
makes the other effeminate or
'
frivolous.' My
musical works are the product of my genius and
my misery, and what the public most relish is
that which has given me the greatest distress.'
Fortunately, in men of the genuine composertemperament,
the various moods of mind follow
one another rapidly. As soon as they begin
to compose the demon flies and heaven opens.
That gloomy document called
' Beethoven's
Will,' to which even Schubert's most wretched
letters must yield the palm, was written at the
very time that he was pouring out the gay
and healthy strains of his Second Symphony.
Schubert left town with the Esterhazys in a
few weeks after these distressing utterances,
and for a time forgot his troubles in the distractions
of country life in Hungary. At
Zselesz he remained for six months, but his
We
life there is almost entirely a blank to us.
can only estimate it by the compositions which
are attributable to the period, and by the
scanty information conveyed by his letters,
which, though fuller of complaint than those
of 1818, are even less communicative of facts
and occurrences. To this visit is to be ascribed
that noble composition known as the Grand
'
Duo' (op. 140), though designated by himself
as Sonata ' for the PF. for four hands. Zsel^s,
June 1824'; a piece which, though recalling
in one movement Beethoven's Second, and in
another his Seventh Symphony, is yet full of the
individuality of its author ;
a symphonic work
in every sense of the word, which, through
Joachim's instrumentation, has now become
an orchestral symphony, and a very fine one.
To Zselesz also are due the Sonata in Bl> (op. 30,
May or June), the Variations in Ab (op. 35,
'middle of 1824'), two Waltzes (in op. 33,
'
1824, July'), and four Landler (' July, 1824,'
Nott. p. 215)—all for PF. four hands ; other
Waltzes and Landler in the same collections
for two hands ; and the Gebet ' ' of Lamotte
Fouqu^ (op. 139a), signed 'Sept. 1824, at
Zelesz in Hungary '—all evidently arising from
the necessity of providing music for the Count's
family circle. 'The young Countesses were now
nineteen and seventeen, and doubtless good
performers, as is implied in the duet-form of
the pianoforte works. We are probably right
in also attributing the lovely String Quartet in
A minor (op. 29), and the four-hand 'Divertissement
k la hongrois6 ' (op. 54), to this visit, at
any rate to its immediate influence. Both are
steeped in the Hungarian spirit, and the
Divertissement contains a succession of real
national tunes, one of which he heard from
the lips of a maidservant as he passed the
kitchen with Baroii Schbnsteln in returning
from a walk. For the Baron was at Zsel&z
on this as on the last occasion, and frequent
and exquisite must have been the performances
of the many fine songs which Schubert had
written in the interval since his former visit.
The circumstances attending the composition
of the vocal quartet ('Gebet,' op. 139) just
mentioned are told by Kreissle, probably on the
authority of Schbnstein, and they give a good
instance of Schubert's extraordinary facility.
At breakfast one morning, in Sept. 1824, the
Countess produced Lamotte Fouque's poem, and
proposed to Schubert to set it for the family