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WSLB-Hds 95662 - Handwritten postcard from Schenker to Seligmann, dated August 29, 1906
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⇧ Korrespondenz-Karte. [written diagonally:] Absender ⇧ H Schenker Wien, III., Reisnerstr. 38 ⇧ An: ⇧ Herrn Prof. Ad. Fr. Seligmann Ischl Ahorngasse 3. [postmark:] || 3/3 WIEN 49 | 29 VIII 06 – 9 | * a * || [postmark:] 30. 8. 06 | ISCHL | 7–8 V || {verso} L. Fr. Abgesehen vom Meineid betreffs des „Duettino † “ (Don Juan x Zerline), dessen Tempo nicht nur vom musik., sondern auch dram. Standpunkt ganz ausgez. aggresiv war, haben Sie sich ein schönes Verdienst um so manchen Festspielbesucher erworben, da Sie gerade in der „N. Fr. Presse“ 1 einige sehr wesentliche Korrekturen gegenüber der Darstellung Rochlitzens*) zum Besten gegeben. 2 Um wie viel höher stand die D. J[.] Auffg. über der Figar.-Auff. von Mahler ! 3 Ist das nicht seltsam, daß, trotz scheinbar gesteigerter dramatischer Einsicht, Mahler das unmittelbare, warme Leben im „tollen Tag“(!) 4 nicht wiedererzeugen kann, u. ebensowenig im „D. J.“? Der tolle Tag als Jom Kipor, u. D. J. als Fliegender Holländer, pfui Teufel! Wie erst sinnlich, u. hell war aber Mozart! Was sagt aber Rochlitz dazu? ⇧ *) [?Spottensinn] Sch.’s für Korngold © Transcription William Drabkin, 2022 |
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⇧ Postcard [written diagonally:] From ⇧ H. Schenker Vienna III, Reisnerstraße 38 ⇧ To: ⇧ Prof. Ad. Fr. Seligmann Ischl Ahorngasse 3 [postmark:] || 3/3 VIENNA 49 | 29 VIII 06 – 9 | * a * || [postmark:] 30. 8. 06 | ISCHL | 7–8 a.m. || {verso} Dear friend, Apart from the perjury concerning the “Little † Duet” (Don Giovanni and Zerlina), the tempo of which was markedly aggressive not only from a musical but also from a dramatic standpoint, you have done a great service to so many Festival visitors by offering readers of the Neue Freie Presse 1 several very significant corrections to Rochlitz’s*) 2 depiction. How much higher did the performance of Don Giovanni stand above Mahler’s performance of Figaro ! 3 Is it not strange that, in spite of his apparently enhanced dramatic insight, Mahler cannot reproduce the immediate, warm life in “The Mad Day”(!), 4 and just as little in Don Giovanni ? The mad day as Yom Kippur, and Don Giovanni as the Flying Dutchman , ugh! How sensuous and bright, however, Mozart was! But what does Rochlitz say to that? ⇧ *) Schenker’s expression of [?mockery] for Korngold. © Translation William Drabkin, 2022 |
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⇧ Korrespondenz-Karte. [written diagonally:] Absender ⇧ H Schenker Wien, III., Reisnerstr. 38 ⇧ An: ⇧ Herrn Prof. Ad. Fr. Seligmann Ischl Ahorngasse 3. [postmark:] || 3/3 WIEN 49 | 29 VIII 06 – 9 | * a * || [postmark:] 30. 8. 06 | ISCHL | 7–8 V || {verso} L. Fr. Abgesehen vom Meineid betreffs des „Duettino † “ (Don Juan x Zerline), dessen Tempo nicht nur vom musik., sondern auch dram. Standpunkt ganz ausgez. aggresiv war, haben Sie sich ein schönes Verdienst um so manchen Festspielbesucher erworben, da Sie gerade in der „N. Fr. Presse“ 1 einige sehr wesentliche Korrekturen gegenüber der Darstellung Rochlitzens*) zum Besten gegeben. 2 Um wie viel höher stand die D. J[.] Auffg. über der Figar.-Auff. von Mahler ! 3 Ist das nicht seltsam, daß, trotz scheinbar gesteigerter dramatischer Einsicht, Mahler das unmittelbare, warme Leben im „tollen Tag“(!) 4 nicht wiedererzeugen kann, u. ebensowenig im „D. J.“? Der tolle Tag als Jom Kipor, u. D. J. als Fliegender Holländer, pfui Teufel! Wie erst sinnlich, u. hell war aber Mozart! Was sagt aber Rochlitz dazu? ⇧ *) [?Spottensinn] Sch.’s für Korngold © Transcription William Drabkin, 2022 |
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⇧ Postcard [written diagonally:] From ⇧ H. Schenker Vienna III, Reisnerstraße 38 ⇧ To: ⇧ Prof. Ad. Fr. Seligmann Ischl Ahorngasse 3 [postmark:] || 3/3 VIENNA 49 | 29 VIII 06 – 9 | * a * || [postmark:] 30. 8. 06 | ISCHL | 7–8 a.m. || {verso} Dear friend, Apart from the perjury concerning the “Little † Duet” (Don Giovanni and Zerlina), the tempo of which was markedly aggressive not only from a musical but also from a dramatic standpoint, you have done a great service to so many Festival visitors by offering readers of the Neue Freie Presse 1 several very significant corrections to Rochlitz’s*) 2 depiction. How much higher did the performance of Don Giovanni stand above Mahler’s performance of Figaro ! 3 Is it not strange that, in spite of his apparently enhanced dramatic insight, Mahler cannot reproduce the immediate, warm life in “The Mad Day”(!), 4 and just as little in Don Giovanni ? The mad day as Yom Kippur, and Don Giovanni as the Flying Dutchman , ugh! How sensuous and bright, however, Mozart was! But what does Rochlitz say to that? ⇧ *) Schenker’s expression of [?mockery] for Korngold. © Translation William Drabkin, 2022 |
Footnotes1 A. F. S., "Salzburger Festspiele," feuilleton, Neue Freie Presse, August 28, 1906, pp. 1–3. Seligmann had written (p. 2, column 3): “He [Don Giovanni] sang the duet with Zerlina and his “champagne aria” – I swear it – in a much too fast, thus in a false, tempo.” 2 Friedrich Rochlitz (1769–1842), German writer and composer, whose translation of the libretto for Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1801) was for a long time the standard text of the opera in German opera houses. Seligmann’s pencil annotation suggests that Schenker was using “Rochlitz” as a codename for the Viennese music critic Julius Korngold. 3 Schenker recorded in his diary for April 5, 1906: “Marriage of Figaro at the Opera under Mahler: The comic element seems to have been cut out altogether; indeed, it can almost no longer be called ‘the crazy day.’ The performance was exaggeratedly serious.” 4 La folle journée, ou Le mariage de Figaro, the French play by Beaumarchais on which the libretto of Mozart’s opera is based (see also footnote 3). |
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Format† Double underlined |
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Commentary
Digital version created: 2022-11-21 |