Ethel Smyth and Karl Klindworth: Difference between pages

Tchaikovsky Research
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{{picture|file=Ethel Smyth.jpg|caption='''Ethel Smyth''' (1858-1944)}}
{{picture|file=Karl Klindworth.jpg|caption='''Karl Klindworth''' (1830-1916)}}
English composer and conductor (b. 22 April 1858 in Sidcup; d. 8 May 1944 in Woking), born '''''Ethel Mary Smyth'''''.
German pianist, conductor and teacher (b. 25 September 1830 {{NS}} in [[Hannover]]; d. 27 July 1916 {{NS}} in Stolpe, near Oranienburg), born '''''Karl Ludwig Klindworth'''''.


==Tchaikovsky and Ethel Smyth==
==Biography==
Although her military family did not nurture her musical talents, she was allowed to study under [[Carl Reinecke]] and Heinrich Herzogenberg (1843–1900) at the [[Leipzig]] Conservatory. It was at [[Adolph Brodsky]]'s home in [[Leipzig]] that she first met Tchaikovsky on 1 January 1888 {{NS}}. Later that month, Tchaikovsky had his photograph taken at a studio in [[Leipzig]] and he presented it to Ethel Smyth on 11 February 1888 {{NS}} with the following inscription in German "Miss Smyth zur freundlichen Erinnerung von P. Tschaïkowsky" (For Miss Smyth as a friendly remembrance of P. Tchaikovsky) <ref name="note1"/>. In a diary-article written a few months later Tchaikovsky would describe his meeting with her:
During his youth, Klindworth was trained to play the violin, but later taught himself the piano. At the age of 17 he became conductor of a travelling theatre company, and from 1852 to 1854 he studied under [[Franz Liszt]] at Weimar.


{{quote|Miss Smyth is one of the few women composers whom one can seriously consider to be achieving something valuable in the field of musical creation. She had been living in [[Leipzig]] for a number of years already, had thoroughly studied composition theory and written several interesting works, of which the best one is a Violin Sonata that I later heard her play together with [[Adolph Brodsky|Mr Brodsky]] in a very fine performance. It is a work of great promise, which shows that she has the potential to become a very serious and gifted composer. Since of course no Englishwoman can be without her peculiarities and eccentricities, it is no wonder that Miss Smyth displays some, too — first among these is her beautiful dog, which is inseparable with this young spinster and always dashes ahead to announce her appearance, as was the case on this occasion and on all others which I witnessed. Secondly, there is her passion for hunting, to satisfy which Miss Smyth sometimes goes off to England for a while. And, thirdly, her incredible, incomprehensible veneration, nay, passion for the enigmatic musical genius of [[Brahms]]. In her view, [[Brahms]] is the culmination of all music, and everything that came before him served merely as necessary groundwork so that, finally, absolute musical beauty could be embodied in the person of the Viennese master <ref name="note2"/>.}}
After moving to [[London]] in 1854, he spent fourteen years as a conductor, where audiences generally found his programmes of traditional works juxtaposed with modern music too challenging for popular tastes. However, he was highly rated by fellow musicians, including [[Richard Wagner]] and [[Edward Dannreuther]].


{{picture|file=Marco.jpg|caption=Ethel Smyth with her dog "Marco"}}
==Tchaikovsky and Klindworth==
Ethel Smyth's dog, called Marco, was a half-breed St. Bernard which had been given to her by a friend in 1887. Marco's unruly temperament was notorious, and he had once almost ruined a rehearsal of [[Brahms]]'s Piano Quintet at [[Adolph Brodsky]]'s house in [[Leipzig]] by bursting into the room and overturning the cellist's desk. [[Brahms]], however, had taken all this in good spirit, confirming Ethel Smyth's high opinion of his character. In her memoirs she also recalled her meetings with Tchaikovsky in [[Leipzig]] as follows:
In 1868, Klindworth was invited by [[Nikolay Rubinstein]] to join the staff of the [[Moscow]] Conservatory, where he befriended Tchaikovsky, and made several piano arrangements of Tchaikovsky's works. Together with [[Hans von Bülow]], Klindworth endorsed Tchaikovsky's overture-fantasia ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' to the [[Berlin]] publishers [[Bote & Bock]] when the score was sent to them by [[Nikolay Rubinstein]] in May 1870. [[Bote & Bock]] eventually published the full score of the overture (revised version) in 1871, thereby laying the foundation-stone of Tchaikovsky's growing fame in Germany.


{{quote|Of all the composers I have known the most delightful as personality was Tschaikowsky, between whom and myself a relation now sprang up that surely would have ripened into close friendship had circumstances favoured us; so large minded was he, that I think he would have put up unresentingly with all I had to give his work — a very relative admiration. Accustomed to the uncouth, almost brutal manners affected by many German musicians as part of the make up and one of the symptoms of genius, it was a relief to find in this Russian, who even the rough diamonds allowed was a master on his own lines, a polished, cultivated gentleman and man of the world. Even his detestation of [[Brahms]]'s music failed to check my sympathy — and that I think is strong testimony to his charm! He would argue with me about [[Brahms]] by the hour, strum passages on the piano and ask if they were not hideous, declaring I must be under hypnotic influence, since to admire this awkward pedant did not square with what he was kind enough to call the soundness of my instinct on other points. Another thing that puzzled him was my devotion to Marco, of whom he was secretly terrified, but this trait he considered to be a form of English spleen and it puzzled him less than the other madness. For years I have meant to inquire whether dogs play no part in the Russian scheme of life or whether Tschaikowsky's views were peculiar to himself; anyhow it amused me, reading his memoirs, to find Marco and [[Brahms]] bracketed together as eccentricities of his young English friend.}}
After [[Nikolay Rubinstein]]'s death, Klindworth returned to Germany where he became co-conductor of the [[Berlin]] Philharmonic Orchestra in 1882, and founded his own piano conservatory in the German capital two years later.


{{quote|On one point we were quite of one mind, the neglect in my school […] of colour. 'Not one of them can orchestrate,' he said, and he earnestly begged me to turn my attention at once to the orchestra and not be prudish about using the medium for all it is worth. 'What happens,' he asked, 'in ordinary conversation? If you have to do with really alive people, listen to the inflections in the voices… there's instrumentation for you!' And I followed his advice on the spot, went to concerts with the sole object of studying orchestral effect, filled notebook upon notebook with impressions, and ever since have been at least as much interested in sounds as in sense, considering the two things indivisible" <ref name="note3"/>.}}
==Dedications==
 
Tchaikovsky dedicated two of his piano works to Karl Klindworth:
When Tchaikovsky was briefly in [[London]] in April 1889 to conduct a concert of his own works at the Saint James's Hall, it seems that Ethel Smyth invited him to her house. Tchaikovsky, however, explained in his reply to her that he could not accept her kind invitation because he had to leave [[London]] the following day. He also informed her in this letter (written in French) of his recent concert engagements in Germany:
* ''[[Capriccio]]'' in G-flat major, for piano, Op. 8 (1870) — "à Mr Ch. Klindworth"
 
* [[Grand Sonata]] in G major, for piano, Op. 37 (1878).
{{quote|About a month ago I saw [[Brodsky|Mr Brodsky]] and his dear wife, and it goes without saying that we talked a lot about you. In [[Hamburg]] I spent a whole day in the company of ''your Idol''… [[Brahms|JOHANNES BRAHMS]]!!! He was delightful towards me. He is a very agreeable man, even though my appreciation of his talent does not quite tally with yours…}}
{{quote|Goodbye, dear Mademoiselle; I hope that you have composed many fine things, and I wish you every possible happiness.}}
{{quote|''P. Tschaikowsky ''}}
{{quote|P.S. I hope that your ''dear dog'' is faring well!!" <ref name="note4"/>.}}
 
In her later years, Ethel Smyth was a staunch campaigner for women's right to vote, and served two months in a [[London]] prison for her cause. However, this did not prevent her being created a Dame of the British Empire in 1922.


==Correspondence with Tchaikovsky==
==Correspondence with Tchaikovsky==
2 letters from Tchaikovsky to Ethel Smyth have survived, dating from 1889, both of which have been translated into English on this website:
4 letters from Tchaikovsky to Karl Klindworth have survived, dating from 1878 to 1890, all of which have been translated into English on this website:
* '''[[Letter 3832a]]''' – 30 March/11 April 1889, from [[London]]
* '''[[Letter 932a]]''' – 7/19 October 1878, from [[Moscow]]
* '''[[Letter 3861a]]''' – 19/31 May 1889, from [[Frolovskoye]]
* '''[[Letter 2829a]]''' – 9/21 December 1885, from [[Maydanovo]]
* '''[[Letter 3976a]]''' – 27 November/9 December 1889, from [[Moscow]]
* '''[[Letter 4038a]]''' – 16/28 February 1890, from [[Florence]].


2 letters from Ethel Smyth to Tchaikovsky, dating from 1889, are preserved in the {{RUS-KLč}} at [[Klin]] <ref name="note5"/>.
2 letters from Klindworth to the composer, dating from 1889 and 1890, are preserved in the {{RUS-KLč}} at [[Klin]] (a{{sup|4}}, Nos. 1456–1457).


==Bibliography==
==Bibliography==
* {{bib|1919/5}} (1919)
* {{bib|1965/26}} (1965)
* {{bib|1923/20}} (1923)
* {{bib|2000/22}} (2000)
* {{bib|1946/31}} (1946)
* {{bib|2008/13}} (2008)
* {{bib|1981/74}} (1981)
* {{bib|1990/175}} (1990)
* {{bib|1993/211}} (1993)
* {{bib|2013/42}} (2013)


==External Links==
==External Links==
* [[wikipedia:Ethel Smyth|Wikipedia]]
* [[wikipedia:Karl_Klindworth|Wikipedia]]  
* {{IMSLP|Smyth,_Ethel}}
* {{IMSLP|Klindworth,_Karl}}
* {{viaf|24868466}}


==Notes and References==
[[Category:People|Klindworth, Karl]]
<references>
[[Category:Conductors|Klindworth, Karl]]
<ref name="note1">{{bib|2003/61|Письма Чайковского в Йельском университете (США)}} (2003), p. 93–94.</ref>
[[Category:Correspondents|Klindworth, Karl]]
<ref name="note2">See ''[[Autobiographical Account of a Tour Abroad in the Year 1888]]'' (TH 316).</ref>
[[Category:Dedicatees|Klindworth, Karl]]
<ref name="note3">{{bib|1919/5|Impressions that Remained}} (1919). Here quoted from {{bib|1993/33|Tchaikovsky Remembered}} (1993), p.190–191.</ref>
[[Category:Pianists|Klindworth, Karl]]
<ref name="note4">[[Letter 3832a]] to Ethel Smyth, 11 April 1889 {{NS}}, from [[London]]. This letter is quoted in Appendix VI of {{bib|1919/5|Impressions that Remained}}, vol.2 (1919), p. 265–266.</ref>
__NOTOC__
<ref name="note5">These two letters have been published for the first time in {{bib|2013/42|Čajkovskij und Ethel Smyth im Briefwechsel}} (2013), p. 183–185, 186–187, thanks to the generous assistance of Galina Belonovich, the Director of the Tchaikovsky House-Museum, and Polina Vaidman, the museum's senior curator.</ref>
</references>
[[Category:People|Smyth, Ethel]]
[[Category:Composers|Smyth, Ethel]]
[[Category:Correspondents|Smyth, Ethel]]

Revision as of 13:13, 2 September 2023

Karl Klindworth (1830-1916)

German pianist, conductor and teacher (b. 25 September 1830 [N.S.] in Hannover; d. 27 July 1916 [N.S.] in Stolpe, near Oranienburg), born Karl Ludwig Klindworth.

Biography

During his youth, Klindworth was trained to play the violin, but later taught himself the piano. At the age of 17 he became conductor of a travelling theatre company, and from 1852 to 1854 he studied under Franz Liszt at Weimar.

After moving to London in 1854, he spent fourteen years as a conductor, where audiences generally found his programmes of traditional works juxtaposed with modern music too challenging for popular tastes. However, he was highly rated by fellow musicians, including Richard Wagner and Edward Dannreuther.

Tchaikovsky and Klindworth

In 1868, Klindworth was invited by Nikolay Rubinstein to join the staff of the Moscow Conservatory, where he befriended Tchaikovsky, and made several piano arrangements of Tchaikovsky's works. Together with Hans von Bülow, Klindworth endorsed Tchaikovsky's overture-fantasia Romeo and Juliet to the Berlin publishers Bote & Bock when the score was sent to them by Nikolay Rubinstein in May 1870. Bote & Bock eventually published the full score of the overture (revised version) in 1871, thereby laying the foundation-stone of Tchaikovsky's growing fame in Germany.

After Nikolay Rubinstein's death, Klindworth returned to Germany where he became co-conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1882, and founded his own piano conservatory in the German capital two years later.

Dedications

Tchaikovsky dedicated two of his piano works to Karl Klindworth:

  • Capriccio in G-flat major, for piano, Op. 8 (1870) — "à Mr Ch. Klindworth"
  • Grand Sonata in G major, for piano, Op. 37 (1878).

Correspondence with Tchaikovsky

4 letters from Tchaikovsky to Karl Klindworth have survived, dating from 1878 to 1890, all of which have been translated into English on this website:

2 letters from Klindworth to the composer, dating from 1889 and 1890, are preserved in the Tchaikovsky State Memorial Musical Museum-Reserve at Klin (a4, Nos. 1456–1457).

Bibliography

External Links