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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 May 2012
In spite of rigorous exploration of nineteenth-century performing practices, performers are still apt to characterise ‘Romantic’ performance as slovenly, sentimental and tasteless. This article challenges this view by examining the practice of a violinist whose artistic outlook was seen at the time as highly disciplined and artistically motivated – Joseph Joachim. Joachim, closely allied to the Leipzig ‘school’ and the conservative branch of German music in the nineteenth century, left ample evidence of his artistic approach in terms of a performance treatise, numerous annotated editions, and five sound recordings made towards the end of his life. This evidence attests to his rigorous application of performance theory to performance practice. In addition, Joachim's pupils Karl Klingler and Marie Soldat were known as faithful adherents of this approach and they too made a number of revealing sound recordings which help to create a fuller picture. This article examines a number of these recordings in detail in order to propose that they show significant correspondences with Joachim's own practice and, by extension, provide evidence of the outworking of a Classical German ‘school’ of performance theory.
The article suggests that, by acknowledging the basis of this tradition in performance theory (much of which displays the heritage of eighteenth-century ideals) present-day performer scholars should be encouraged to see nineteenth-century performance aesthetics not so much as devoid of principle as embodying a now unfamiliar performance language. The acquisition of this language is perhaps important to a fuller understanding of nineteenth-century music.
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3 Verbal conversation with the author, CHARM/RMA Conference, Royal Holloway, September 2007.
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5 See the project webpages, which give details of the nature and scope of the project, methodology, and some sound recordings made by the author: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/dm-ahrc/
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11 Ludwig van Beethoven, Violin Concerto in D, op. 61, ed. Clive Brown (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 2011).
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17 Fabian, Dorottya, ‘The Recordings of Joachim, Ysaÿe and Sarasate in Light of Their Reception by Nineteenth-Century British Critics’, International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 37 (2006): 189–211 Google Scholar.
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19 Fabian quotes reviews of Ysaÿe playing Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in the 1890s, which suggest that he was criticised for fast performance tempos. Fabian writes: ‘That this execution sounds incredibly fast to modern listeners as well implies that in certain things taste and musical judgements have not changed much over the past 100 years.’ Fabian, ‘The Recordings of Joachim’, 197Google Scholar.
20 Joseph Joachim and Andreas Moser, Violinschule, 3 vols, trans. A. Moffat (Berlin: N. Simrock, 1902–05).
21 See Joachim and Moser, Violinschule, vol. 3, 32.
22 Andreas Moser, Joseph Joachim: A Biography, trans. L. Durham (London: Philip Wellby, 1901)Google Scholar: 241.
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24 See, for example Flesch, Carl, The Memoirs of Carl Flesch, trans. H. Keller (London: Rockliff, 1957): 34–35 Google Scholar, and Fuller-Maitland, H. J., Living Masters of Music: Joachim (London: John Lane, 1905)Google Scholar: 36.
25 See Yfrah Neaman's recollections in Philip, Performing Music in the Age of Recording, 236–7. Rosé's continued use of a ‘pure’ tone can be heard in the 1930 Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performance of Mahler's ninth symphony (conducted by Bruno Walter), in the finale solos. HMV DB3613-3622 (2VH 7027-46); re-issued as CDEA 5005 by Dutton Laboratories.
26 In compiling my A-Z of Solo String Players (Naxos Books, forthcoming) I was able to gain a privileged glimpse of a wide range of string players from the dawn of recording to the present day, which in many ways corroborates this assertion.
27 For a more detailed discussion, see David Milsom, Theory and Practice.
28 See Joachim and Moser, Violinschule.
29 Joachim and Moser, Violinschule, vol. 3, 228–31.
30 Joachim and Moser, Violinschule, vol. 3, 86–103. For a detailed examination of nineteenth-century editions of this concerto see Brown, Clive and Milsom, David, ‘The Nineteenth-Century Legacy of the Viotti School: Editions of the Violin Concerto No. 22’, in Giovanni Battista Viotti: A Composer Between the Two Revolutions, ed. Massimiliano Sala (Bologna: Ut Orpheus, 2006): 157–198 Google Scholar.
31 A ‘whipped’ effect in which the bow is thrown with some force onto the string in the upper-half or at the point of the bow.
32 Joachim and Moser, Violinschule, vol. 3, 86Google Scholar.
33 Published as part of Concert-Studien für die Violine (Leipzig: Bartolff Senff, plate number 22470.22476, 1860).
34 OPALCD 9851.
35 Joachim and Moser, Violinschule, vol. 2, 95Google Scholar.
36 Detailed consideration of Joachim's recordings under the global headings of phrasing, tempo and rhythm, portamento and vibrato are contained in my Theory and Practice.
37 This was Flesch's view (Memoirs, 49–52), and is supported to a certain extent by his recordings. Rosé's playing, as revealed in his solo recordings of c1909–10 is very much within the sound-world of the old German school, with a discreet vibrato and portamento characteristic of the tradition; yet he made little difference in approach between different repertories, and his approach to expression is somewhat arbitrary in comparison to Joachim's theoretically-justified approach.
38 Czech HMV matrix no. ES665 (CA 48), on LAB056/057.
39 Fuller-Maitland, Living Masters of Music, 28Google Scholar.
40 Flesch, Memoirs, 251. In actual fact, Klingler founded his quartet in 1905, two years before Joachim's death, although he also played in the Joachim Quartet towards the end of Joachim's life.
41 Soldat's performance of the slow movement of Spohr's ninth concerto has been accessible via Pearl's compendium of violin recordings, The Recorded Violin ,Volume 1 (BVA 1) for some time. Her entire discography was included in James Creighton's L.P. re-issue Masters of the Bow (MB 1019) but this disc has not been re-issued in modern format. The author's own copy of this record has encouraged inclusion of Soldat's performances in several discussions (spoken and in print, see footnote 5) by Clive Brown, with whom the author worked closely as part of an AHRC project at the University of Leeds, 2006–2009.
42 Moser, Joseph Joachim, 328Google Scholar.
43 National Gramophonic Society, c1927; re-issued on The Great Violinists Volume XIX (Symposium 1312).
44 Review of her London debut (1 March 1888) in The Musical Times, 29 (1888): 218.
45 Barbara Henderson, Review of Soldat, The Strad (Feb. 1910): 362.
46 Cobbett, William, ‘Soldat, Marie’, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Volume IV (London, 1928)Google Scholar: 800.
47 Odeon recording of 1912 (matrix no. 79169:xxB 5670), on Japanese HMV SGR 8506.
48 See, for example, Leopold Mozart, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (Augsburg, 1756/ R1922), trans. Edith Knocker as A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1948): 39–40 Google Scholar.
49 Re-issued on Arbiter 148 (Arnold Rosé – First Violin of Vienna); Cherubini, Quartet No. 1 – Scherzo (matrix no. H 4-8772, 52130); Boccherini, Menuetto arranged for quartet (matrix no. H 4-8772, 52131); Beethoven, op. 130 – Alla danza tedesca (matrix no. H.B.8216,51077); Mozart, Quartet k465 – Menuetto (matrix no. H.B. 8216, 51076).
50 Beethoven, Quartets opp. 18 nos. 4, 74 and 131; re-issued on Biddulph LAB 056/057 (Arnold Rosé and the Rosé String Quartet).
51 Electrola matrix nos. EH 939-943, 2RA 810-3, 811-1, 812-1, 813-1, 814-2, 815-2, 816-1, 817-1m, 818-1, 819-1; re-issued on Japanese HMV SGR-8506.
52 Karl Klingler (1879–1971), Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962).
53 A comparison of his solo playing of c1909–10 (re-issued on Arbiter 148) and his electric quartet recordings of 1927–28 (re-issued on LAB 056/057) is quite revealing.
54 Re-issued on Arbiter 148.
55 That is to say, aesthetic decisions are comparatively arbitrary and seem to reflect a greater emphasis on showmanship than musicianship.
56 MB 1019.
57 Union A 3006/8, in MB 1019.
58 Union A 3004, in MB 1019.
59 Louis Spohr, Violinschule (Vienna: Haslinger, 1833), English trans. J. Bishop (London, 1843): 214–18.
60 The reader may be motivated to ponder upon the issue of more ‘modernist’ German performance aesthetics associated perhaps with Richard Wagner and his school of thought as opposed to the Leipzig tradition as espoused by musicians such as Mendelssohn, Spohr, Reinecke and Joachim. As I argue in my article, ‘Style and Sonority in Wagner String Performance’, The Wagner Journal 3/2, (2009), 4–12, there is compelling evidence that Wagner nonetheless praised Joachim's playing and did not take issue with this performance aesthetic in the manner in which he did the conservative compositional practices associated with Joachim's colleagues, such as Robert Schumann.
61 Spohr, Violinschule, 182Google Scholar.