Alfred Brendel, almost 90, has Goethe on his mind
mainThe retired pianist has an essay in the FAZ today on Goethe, music and irony.
Test your German.
Take your time.
Sample: Despite his encyclopedic interests, his enormous work as an author, his responsibility for the University of Jena and his state duties, Goethe’s connection with music was hardly ever interrupted. His incantation that one should never read, always sing, is to be taken almost literally. Many of his poems were already connected to music in the imagination. They had to be composed as quickly as possible, some of which were already tailored to existing melodies from the outset…
90 years next Tuesday, January 5th. The same day Maurizio Pollini turns 79, and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli would turn 102.
January 5th should become the “World Pianist Day”.
That is true.
It is also my birthday – sadly, I am only in the amateur lowlands looking for base camp! 🙁
January 5 – also the birthday of the great Erica Morini!
I don’t see a link but googled “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) Brendel Goethe” to find the short article and now hope to find an English translation of it.
KPoet, intellectual, musician himself, Alfred Brendel writes engagingly of Goethe’s poems and the Lied. Goethe’s own musical credentials ran to his friend Friedrich Zelter, Mendelssohn’s teacher who brought his young pupil to meet Goether in an extended visit. Goethe in youth had heard young Mozart, possessed his ms., and had passing acquaintance with Beethoven and Shubert. Goethe and his younger friend Friedrich von Schiller are entwined as much with with music as with and each other.
I look forward to reading Brendel’ brief article in full. He uses the key word “Irony” in its title. I have never understood quite what irony is in literature or music, but the rule is that Irony must be mentioned in any discussion of Goethe or his greatest admirer after himself, Thomas Mann.
Brendel’s own writing caught my attention by his praise of his teacher Edwin Fischer and Alfred Cortot as uniquely satisfying his emotions and intellect. It’s a remark both of great perspicuity and of great oerspicacity, as they are so different from himself, but that si perhaps why.
Alfred Brendel will lecture in English on Goethe and Music on 21 January 2021 to the English Goethe Society at 5.15 for 5.45. To Register go to EGS Programme Online / Institute of Modern Languages Research, University of London. It will be broadcast live by video link. Later Youtube.
Brendel will give his Goethe talk on January 21st at the English Goethe Society, see https://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/events/event/22855.
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Despite his encyclopedic interests, his enormous work as an author, his responsibility for the University of Jena and his state duties, Goethe’s connection with music was hardly ever interrupted. His incantation that one should never read, always sing, is to be taken almost literally. Many of his poems were already connected to music in the imagination. They had to be composed as quickly as possible, some of which were already tailored to existing melodies from the outset…
Or, in something not perfect (I have a day job) but nonetheless a little closer to English….
Despite his encyclopedic interests, his immense literary output, his responsibilities at the University of Jena, and his official duties, Goethe retained an almost constant connection to music. His poetic entreaty prioritising the sung word over the written deserves to be taken almost literally. Many of his poems were already linked to music in his imagination. They had to be composed as quickly as possible, and some of them were tailored to existing melodies from the start..
God I hate Google Translate.
Google Translate improves with user input, and it has improved hugely over the past few years. If you find errors and have the time, add your corrections to the database and you’ll help make it less hateful. 🙂
I’m a professional translator and interpreter (not German). Why would I want to give my expertise away for free?
A shame his one-time Hampstead neighbour John le Carré won’t be around to appreciate it. According to his biograpgher Adam Sisman, Brendel and his wife introduced David Cornwell to the poet Joseph Brodsky. (Incidentally, on his own admission, le Carré was tone deaf, so would scarcely be in any position, sadly, to appreciate all those wonderful settings of Goethe, Heine, Schiller et al).
And?
Overrated IMO.
Agreed.
Now in retirement, Brendel told his protege Kit Armstrong he wants to be known as a writer first and pianist second.
No chance, but I hope he keeps trying.
With their front beaver-like teeth, Brendel and Jansons should have had a corn-on-the-cob eating contest. That would still be the sort of amusement that passes for culture in America these days. They could even make it a reality show on a major network. I hope I’ve offended everyone equally.
With elective affinities in music from Werther, Goetz von Berlichingen, the Faust, and Egmont to Erlkoenig, Meerestille und Glueckliche Fahrt, Ueber allen Gipfeln ist Ruh, to Schubert’s setting if the lgreat philosophical poem “Die Grenzen der Menschheit” (The Boundaries oif Mankind”), Goethe enriched music from Schubert, Loewe, and Beethoven to Berlioz, Liszt, Gounod, Mahler, Massenet, Dukas, Medtner, Pfitzner, and Schnittke,– among many others, a fruitful subject for Brendel’s lecture.
Brendel’s neighbour LeCarre mentions Thomas Mann in his novels and finally wrote him into a scene in the green room of a Zuerich lecture-hall where it was Mann who gave the lecture, much as Mann wrote Goethe into his novel “Lotte in Weimar” (“The Beloved Returns”), based on Charlotte Kesner’s factual journey with heer daughter to visit her old friend. Giethe’s son, secretary, and Schopenhauer’s sister also appear. Its pastiche style reproduces Goethe’s conversation by things he said or wrote, and was introduced as evidence in the Nurernberg trials.
Goethe’s son’s name was August, named for his father’s Weimar ducal friend and patron. August was married to Ottilie ,a favorite of Goethe’s. Eckermann, author of “Conversations with Goethe”, had traveled with August to Rome in 1828 but fell ill and returned to Weimar. August stayed on in Rome and after a carriage accident fell ill himself and died there aged 41, two years before his father died in 1832 at 83.
The name of Goethe’s long-suffering secretary is Riemer. Schopenhauer’s sister was named Adele.
Among the great books that ought to have been written are Dr. Samuel Johnson’s “Life of Boswell” and Goethe’s “My Concersations with Eckermann”.