That curious concert at Leipzig was the first of a long series of such absurd undertakings to which my straitened means led me. At other towns the public at least appeared en masse, and I could record an artistic success; but it was not till I went to Russia that the pecuniary results were worth mentioning.
Dates of such concerts, at which he conducted Beethoven Symphonies, fragments of the Nibelungen and Die Meistersinger, etc., are Dec. 26, 1862, and first weeks in Jan. 1863, Vienna; Feb. 8, Prague; Feb. 19, March 6, 8, St. Petersburg; March, Moscow; July 23, 28, Pesth; Nov. 14, 19, Karlsruhe, and a few days later Löwenberg; Dec. 7, Breslau. Towards the end of Dec. 1863, at a concert of Carl Tausig's, he astonished the Viennese public with the true traditional reading of the overture to Der Freyschütz.'[1]
In his 50th year (whilst living at Penzing near Vienna at work upon Die Meistersinger) Wagner published the poem to Der Ring des Nibelungen, 'as a literary product.' 'I can hardly expect to find leisure to complete the music, and I have dismissed all hope that I may live to see it performed.' His private affairs went from bad to worse. In the spring of 1864 his power of resistance was almost broken; he determined to give up his public career, and accepted an invitation to a country home in Switzerland.
Munich and Lucerne, 1864–1872 (æt. 51–56). The poem of Der Ring des Nibelungen, with its preface, must have got into the hands of the young King Ludwig II. of Bavaria. The King was acquainted with Beethoven's Symphonies, and in his 16th year had heard Lohengrin. One of the first acts of his reign was to despatch a private secretary to find Wagner, with the message, 'Come here and finish your work.' Wagner had already left Vienna in despair—had passed through Munich on his way to Zurich—and for some reason had turned about to Stuttgart. The secretary tracked and there found him. In May the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung brought the news that King Ludwig had allowed to the composer Richard Wagner a 'Sustentationsgehalt von 1200 Gulden aus der Kabinetscasse' (a stipend of about £100, from the privy purse). Here was relief at last. Wagner's hopes revived, his enthusiasm returned and redoubled.
My creditors were quieted, I could go on with my work,—and this noble young man's trust made me happy. There have been many troubles since—not of my making nor of his—but in spite of them I am free to this day and by his grace.' (1877.)
Cabals without end were speedily formed against Wagner—some indeed of a singularly disgraceful character; and he found it impossible to reside at Munich, although the King's favour and protection remained unaltered.[2] There can be no doubt that the Nibelungen Ring would not have been completed, and that the idea of Bayreuth would not have come to any practical result (the exertions of the Wagner Societies notwithstanding) if it had not been for the steady support of the royal good wishes and the royal purse. It must suffice here to indicate the dates and events which are biographically interesting.
Wagner was naturalised as a Bavarian subject in 1864. He settled in Munich, and composed the 'Huldigungsmarsch' for a military band;[3] at the King's request he wrote an essay, 'Ueber Staat und Religion,' and the report concerning a 'German music school to be established at Munich (March 31, 1865). In the autumn of 1864 he was formally commissioned to complete the Nibelungen; and, further to ease his pecuniary affairs, the stipend was increased,[4] and a little house in the outskirts of Munich, 'bevor den Propylaen' was placed at his disposal.[5] Dec. 4, 1864, the Holländer was given for the first time at Munich; Dec. 11, Jan. 1, and Feb. 1, 1865, Wagner conducted concerts there. In Jan. 1865 his friend Semper the architect, was consulted by the King about a theatre to be erected for the Nibelungen. With a view to the performance of Tristan, von Bülow was called to Munich, and under his direction, Wagner supervising, the work was performed, exactly as Wagner wrote it, on June 10, 1865, and repeated June 13 and 19 and July 1—Tristan, Ludwig Schnorr v. Carolsfeld;[6] Isolde, Frau Schnorr. In July 1865 the old Conservatorium was closed by the King's orders, and a commission began to deliberate as to the means of carrying out Wagner's proposals for a new 'music school.' But nothing tangible came of this; owing, it would seem, to ill-will on the part of Franz Lachner and other Munich musicians, and also, as was alleged, to the insufficiency of the available funds.[7] In December 1865 Wagner left Munich and settled, after a short stay at Vevey and Geneva, at Triebschen near Lucerne, where he remained with little change until he removed to Bayreuth in April 1872. At Triebschen, the Meistersinger was completed (full score finished Oct. 20, 1867), twenty-two years after the first sketches! (see ante). Hans Richter arrived there in Oct. 1866 to copy the score, and the sheets were at once sent off to Mayence to be engraved.
The 'Meistersinger' was performed at Munich, under von Bülow (H. Richter chorusmaster), Wagner personally supervising everything, on June 21, 1868—Eva, Frl. Mallinger; Magdalena, Frau Dietz; Hans Sachs, Betz; Walther, Nachbauer; David, Schlosser; Beckmesser, Hölzel—a perfect performance; the best that has hitherto been given of any work of the master's, Parsifal at Bayreuth not excepted.
Before Wagner had quite done with the Meistersinger he published a series of articles in the 'Süddeutsche Presse' (one of the chief editors of which was his former Dresden colleague Musikdirektor Aug. Roeckel) entitled 'Deutsche Kunst und Deutsche Politik.'
During the quiet residence at Triebschen, the unfinished portion of The Ring progressed
- ↑ See 'Ueber das Dirigiren,' and Glasenapp, ii. p. 113.
- ↑ See Glasenapp, ii. chap. 3, for true details regarding the extra ordinary means employed to oust Wagner.
- ↑ Not published in that form.
- ↑ The exact amount has not been made public.
- ↑ It was returned to the K. Kabinetscassa in 1866.
- ↑ Schnorr died suddenly at Dresden on July 21, 1865, and Tristan was again 'impossible' until Herr and Frau Vogl sang it in June 1869.
- ↑ The present Conservatorium, opened under v. Bülow in 1867, is practically the old institution, and does not carry out Wagner's ideas.
