Autograf: Universitätsbibliothek Kassel - Landesbibliothek und Murhardsche Bibliothek der Stadt Kassel (D-Kl), Sign. 4° Ms. Hass. 287[Taylor, E.:24

Dr. Louis Spohr
Hesse Cassel
Germany
 
 
Stoke Ferry – Norfolk
 
Mar 29„ 1842
 
My Dear and Honoured Friend
 
I have been anxiously waiting & hoping, from day to day, that I might be able to write to you with some good intelligence of our negotiations respecting the application to your Prince1, for I feared you would think that we were dilatiory in our movements. But various circumstances conspired to occasion delay. The visit of the King of Prussia absorbed the attention of our Court2 – then came the new minister’s plan of finance, which drove all other thoughts out of all heads, and especially our worthy President Mr. Wodehouse (the member of Parliament for East Norfolk) on whom we depended to apply to Prince Albert, was so engrossed, night & day, by the important affair of the Corn Bill3, that he was compelled to delay his application. He made it, however, and without success. The Prince‘s reply was that „he had no personal acquaintance with the Elector of Hesse Cassel, and, therefore, could not ask him the desired permission.” – Before your letter arrived, recommending an application thro‘ the Duke of Cambridge, we had applied, this Mr. Wodehouse, to Lord Aberdeen, who is now our Secretary of State for foreign affairs – and this morning I have had the pleasure to receive the following note from him
 
 
London. March 28. 1842
 
My Dear Taylor,
 
I have just received an assurance from Lord Aberdeen that he will direct the English Ambassador at Frankfort to apply to the Elector of Hessen Cassel for permision for Dr. Spohr to attend the Norwich Festival
 
Ever Yours most truly
 
Edmond Wodehouse.
 
 
This, I hope, will be sufficient, and that we may now look forward with confident expectation to the delight of seeing all the dear party from Cassel again at Norwich. Pray give me the earliest information of your Prince’s reply.
I wish Prince Albert had acceded to our request, for it would have been a graceful & proper thing for him to have done: but he seems to have a great deal of the stateliness & immoveableness of the German character, & to intrench himself behind the barriers of etiquette. Had our application to the Duke of Cambridge been neccesary, I have no doubt it would have succeeded. He is a good tempered man – and has always, when in England, mixed freely with the people. He is not particularly wise, but he has sense enough to know the importance & value of your presence here, and has always posessed a great love for our art.
I saw Moscheles & Bennet lately in London, who are both anxious to hear your new Sinfonia. You will not be disappointed if it fails to produce the same effect on an English as on a German audience. We have no idea of any thing in Instrumental music beyond an appeal to the ears. Any thing addressed to the imagination or to the understanding is lost upon us. Always bear in mind that no Englishman out of the profession, knows any thing of Music.
How can such auditors understand the hidden meaning, the bright imagination which one of your later Sinfonies contain? Bennet observed to me with great truth ”We don’t understand Spohr’s music in England – we don’t play it often enough to have its meaning & discover its design“ - and F. Cramer remarked to me very lately after a performance of ”the Last Judgment”4 - ”We are now beginning to feel the beauties of this work, & to learn how to bring them out.“
I am glad that you saw Bennet. He was charmed with his visit to Cassel, & with your kindness to him. I shall return to London next week, and shall go down to Norwich the week after, in order to arrange respecting our principal singers.
We gratefully feel & acknowledge your kindness in relinquishing the offered engagement at Salzburg on an occasion so interesting to every musician.
I am now enjoying the society of my wife & daughters who unite with me in kindest regards & most heartfelt good wishes to yourself, to Mad. Spohr & Mad. de Malsburg.
Believe me
 
My dear & honoured Friend
Yours most sincerely Edw. Taylor.



Dieser Brief ist die Antwort auf Spohr an Taylor, 17.03.1842. Spohrs Antwortbrief ist derzeit verschollen.

[1] Der spätere Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm.
 
[2] Vgl. „Ceremonial, observed at the Investiture of His Majesty Frederick-William the Fourth [...]“, in: London Gazette (1842), S. 227f.
 
[3] Vgl. „Corn Bill“, in: Hansard 1803-2005.
 
[4] Die letzten Dinge.
 
Kommentar und Verschlagwortung, soweit in den Anmerkungen nicht anders angegeben: Karl Traugott Goldbach (11.01.2019). Herzlicher Dank gilt Clive Brown, der bei der Entzifferung einiger Wörter half und auf Fehler hinwies.