Bride gets a letter from Brahms

Bride gets a letter from Brahms

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norman lebrecht

November 14, 2018

The Brahms-Institut of the Lübeck music academy has acquired an unknown letter of Johannes Brahms.

Dated October 1868, it congratulates the singer Maria Schmidt on her marriage to the composer Theodor Kirchner.

Brahms is 35 at the time and unmarried. Had he fancied Maria?

We may never know.

photo © Brahms-Institut Lübeck

 

Comments

  • Jonathan Dunsby says:

    Brahms had originally introduced the singer and Kirchner. Maybe he was proud of his matchmaking ?

  • Is there a link to the text of the letter?

  • Wiki says the marriage was “not successful.”

  • REGERFAN says:

    We can also consider the fact that Theodor Kirchner had an affair with Clara Schumann in the early 1860’s (as reported in biographies of Clara). Apparently it is not known whether Brahms knew about this.

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