Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

354 1835- SCHUMANN —1839
scratch out a note. It all comes from -within,
and I often feel as if I could go playing straight
on without ever coming to an end.' The influence
of Schumann the author on Schumann
the composer may often be detected. Thus
thd ' Davidshiindler ' come into his music, and
the composition which bears their name was
originally entitled ' Davidsbiindler, dances for
the Pianoforte, dedicated to Walther von Goethe
by Florestan and Eusebius.' The title of the
F)( minor Sonata, op. 11, which was completed
in 1835, runs thus :
' Pianoforte Sonata. Dedicated
to Clara by Florestan and Eusebius.' In
the 'Carnaval,' a set of separate and shorter
pieces with a title to each, the names of Florestan
and Eusebius occur again, as do those of Chiarina
(the diminutive of Clara), and Chopin ;
the whole concluding with a march of the
Davidsbiindler against the Philistines.
The reception of Schumann's works by the
critics was most favourable and encouraging, but
the public was repelled by their eccentricity and
originality ; and it was not till after the appearance
of the Kinderseenen ' ' (1839) that they
began to be appreciated. Opp. 1 and 2 actually
had the honour of a notice in the Vienna MusikcLlische
Zeitiimg of 1832, by no less a person
than Grillparzer the poet. Fink designedly took
hardly any notice of Schumann in the Allgemeine
musikalische Zeitung. But Liszt wrote a
long, discriminating, and very favourable article
in the Gazette Musicale of 1837 upon the Impromptus
(op. 5), and the Sonatas in FJt minor
and F minor. Moscheles wrote very sympathetically
on the two sonatas in the Neue Zeitschrift
filr Musik itself (vols. 5 and 6), and some kind
words of recognition of Schumann's genius were
publishedsubsequently fromhis diaiy {Moscheles'
Leben, Leipzig, 1873, vol. ii. p. 15 ; English
translation by A. D. Coleridge, vol. ii. pp. 19,
20). Other musicians, though not expressing
their sentiments publicly, continued to hold
aloof from him, Hauptmann at that time calls
Schumann's pianoforte compositions
'
pretty
and curious little things, all wanting in proper
solidity, but otherwise interesting. ' (See Hauptmann's
Letters to Hmiser, Leipzig, 1871, vol. i.
p. 255.)
In October 1835 the musical world of Leipzig
was enriched by the arrival of Mendelssohn. It
was already in a flourishing state : operas,
concerts, and sacred performances alike were of
great excellence, and well supported by the
public. But although the soil was well prepared
before Mendelssohn's arrival, it was he
who raised Leipzig to the position of the most
musical town of Germany. The extraordinarily
vigorous life that at once grew up there under
the influence of his genius, drawing to itself
from far and near the most important musical
talent of the country, has shown itself to be of
so enduring a character that even at' the present
day its.iiiflttences are felt. Schumann too, who
had long felt great respect for Mendelssohn,
was drawn into his circle. On Oct. 4, 1835,
Mendelssohn conducted his first concert in the
Gewaudhaus ; the day before this there was a
musical gathering at the Wiecks', at which both
Mendelssohn and Schumann were present, and
it seems to have been on this occasion that the
two greatest musicians of their time first came
into close personal intercourse. (Moscheles'
Leben, vol. i. p. 301 ; English translation, vol. i.
p. 322.) On Oct. 5, Mendelssohn, Schumann,
Moscheles, Banok, and a few others, dined
together. In the afternoon of the 6th there
was again music at Wieck's house ; Moscheles,
Clara Wieck, and L. Rakemann from Bremen,
played Bach's D minor Concerto for three'
claviers, Mendelssohn putting in the orchestral
accompaniments on a fourth piano. Moscheles
had come over from Hamburg, where he was
staying on a visit, to give a concert in Leipzig.
Schumann hsid already been in correspondence
with him, but this was the first opportunity he
had enjoyed of making the personal acquaintance
of the man whose playing had so delighted
him in Carlsbad when a boy of nine. Moscheles'
describes him as 'a retiring but interesting'
young man,' and the FJt minor Sonata, played
to him by Clara Wieck, as ' very laboured,
diflioult, and somewhat intricate, although
interesting.'
A livelier intimacy, so far as Schumann was
concerned, soon sprang up between him and
Mendelssohn.
When Mendelssohn had to go
to Diisseldorf in May 1836, to the first performance
of ' SI. Paul ' at the Niederrheinisehe
Musikfest, Schumann even intended to go with
him, and was ready months beforehand, though
when the time arrived he was prevented from
going. They used to like to dine together, and
gradually an interesting little circle was formed
around them, including among others Ferdinand
David, whom Mendelssohn had brought to
Leipzig as leader of his orchestra. In the early
part of January 1837 Mendelssohn and Schumann
used in this way to meet every day and
interchange ideas, so far as Schumann's silent
temperament would allow. Subsequently when
Mendelssohn was kept more at home by his
marriage, this intercourse became rarer. Schumann
was by nature unsociable, and at this
time there were outward circumstances which
rendered solitude doubly attractive to him,
Ferdinand Hiller, who spent the winter of
1839-40 in Leipzig with Mendelssohn, relates
that Schumann was at that time living the life
of a recluse and scarcely ever came out of his
room. Mendelssohn and Schumann felt themselves
drawn together by mutual appreciation.
The artistic relations between the two great men
were not as yet, however, thoroughly reciprocal.
Schumann admired Mendelssohn to the point
of enthusiasm. He declared him to be the best
m-oaician then.living, said that he looked up to