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THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
This edition sprinted from type in
February and March^ iSgg^ is
limited to one thousand copies, of
which this is
No 9.^...-
f
ANTON SEIDL
A MEMORIAL
ANTON SEIDL
A MEMORIAL BY
HIS FRIENDS
<^^<
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
MDCCCXCIX
COPYRIGHT, 1899
BY CHARLES SCRIBNEr's SONS
If '> 7
PREFACE
SHORTLY after Anton Seidl's death several of his
friends suggested that I should write a book about
him, biographic and critical. As I happened to
be at work on two other books which absorbed all my
spare time, I at first looked on the proposal as imprac-
ticable ; but one morning the thought came into my
mind, "Why not contribute a chapter or two myself and
let Mr. Seidl's other friends — singers, players, composers,
critics — write the others?" The rest of the plan was
soon sketched. The book was to be a labor of love for
all concerned and the friends appealed to responded cor-
dially. Lilli Lehmann and Marianne Brandt, in far-off
Germany and Austria, sent their contributions first, and
the others followed promptly. The contributions are
printed exactly as they were sent, except that some had
to be translated. The blue pencil was used in a few
places, to avoid repetition of biographic facts or anec-
dotes ; but this could not be done in all cases, on account
1CB8G71
PREFACE
of the connection. It is hardly necessary to add that I
am responsible for all the literary interludes connecting
the various contributions.
In preparing the biographic chapter I had the advant-
age of the co-operation of Mrs. Seidl. I asked her, since
she naturally knew so much more about her late lamented
husband than any one else, to write a chapter of remi-
niscences, or, at any rate, to jot down copious notes about
his career, his character and habits, so that I might incor-
porate them in the biographic chapter. She demurred
at first, on the ground that she had never written any-
thing for the printer, and was not even a good letter
writer, but finally consented. The result proved so
eminently satisfactory that I found I could use her manu-
script (in translation) exactly as sent in, except that I
found it advisable to divide it into sections and put each
in its proper place in quotation marks. Thus the reader
will always know what part of the story is hers.
Schiller said that " for actors posterity has no
wreaths." Anton Seidl was like an actor in so far as he
was not a creator, but only an interpreter. He was,
however, like Liszt or Rubinstein, a creative interpreter,
inspired, enthusiastic, authoritative. He preached the
gospel of the greatest composer of the nineteenth century
on two continents. He was the first to conduct Wagner's
greatest works in many German cities, as well as in Italy,
PREFACE
England and America. In America, especially, he will
always be identified with the acclimatization of Wagner's
operas. The twelve years he labored in New York were
years during which Wagner's art took firm root in
American soil. He did not reap the full material com-
pensation for his labors. All the more does he deserve a
reward like this volume, which will remain not only as
a monument to his interpretative genius and his worth
as a man, but also as a milestone marking the most im-
portant twelve years in the history of music in America.
To all those who have so generously helped to
make this book a success, Mrs. Seidl asks me to express
in this place her heartfelt thanks ; also to the publishers,
Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, for their kindness in waiv-
ing all share of the profits; to Messrs. D. Appleton &
Co. for courteous permission to reprint from their sump-
tuous volumes. Music of the Modem World, Seidl's article on
Conducting, which is second in value only to Wagner's
own essay on the same subject ; and to Messrs. Falk,
Wilhelm, and Aime Dupont, for permission to use copy-
right photographs.
Henry T. Finck.
New York, March i, 1899.
CONTENTS
loGRAPHic Sketch by Henry T. F
INCK
9
Including the Memoirs of Mrs. Seidl . 3-83
Student Life at Leipsic
4
With Hans Richter .
7
In Wagner's House
8
Concerts in Berlin .
10
The First Bayreuth Festival
II
Recommended by Wagner
12
Wagner's First Symphony
13
Seidl Surprises Wagner
14
The Traveling Wagner Theatre
15
Courtship Days
16
The London Barber
18
At Amsterdam and Berlin
20
Adventures in Italy .
21
Wagner's Death
23
More Honors for Seidl
24
Madame de Lucca .
26
Marriage
27
CONTENTS
A Year in New York
28
Golden Age of German Opera .
29
Debut in New York
31
Wagnerian Conquest of New York .
32
German Opera Banished .
33
Philliarmonic Prosperity ,
34
Reinstated at the Metropolitan .
36
Beloved By His Singers .
38
Stage Management .
39
Some Personal Traits
41
Home Life ....
44
Eight Pet Dogs
45
In the Catskills — Work and Play
46
Mime Buried Alive .
49
Christmas Presents .
50
Wotan Kills Mime .
52
Seidl's Generosity
54
Masquerade and a Surprise
54
Presents for His Wife
57
Relations with Musicians .
58
Favorite Haunts
60
His Majesty, Richard Wagner .
62
Theodore Thomas
63
Triumph in London
64
How Seidl Conducted Wagner .
67
Triumph in Bayreuth
68
A Permanent Orchestra
71
The World at his Feet
77
Fatiguing Duties
78
The Last Day
80
CONTENTS
The Funeral Services by Edgar J. Levey
Programme ....
Address of Mr. Wright .
Dispatch from Colonel Ingersoll
Some Personal Tributes
The Philharmonic Society
A Brooklyn Tribute
By Albert Steinberg
By James Huneker
By Henry Waller .
By Henry Holden Huss .
By Victor Herbert .
Appreciations by Musical Critics
By H. E. Krehbiel .
By F. N. R. Martinez
By August Spanuth .
By Charles D. Lanier
By Henry T. Finck
Letters to Seidl from Richard Wagner
Others ....
From Robert Ingersoll
From Templeton Strong .
From Jules Massenet
From Eugene Ysaye
From Antonin DvoHk
From Richard Wagner
From Cosima Wagner
Anton Seidl's Literary Work
The Development of Music in America
Cuts in the Nibelung Trilogy
85-97
.
86
•
92
•
93
lOI-
-127
.
lOI
102
104
114
117
119
113
isl-
-176
131
140
148
158
160
and
179-
-202
•
181
182
183
184
185
187
199
205-
-240
.
206
209
CONTENTS
Anton Seidl's Literary Work (Cont
A Scene in the Gotterdammerung
Fafner's Death
Siegfried's Narrative
Orchestra and Singer
Schumann and Wagner
On Conducting
Tributes from Great Singers
By Lilli Lehmann-Kalisch
By Marianne Brandt
By Lillian Nordica Dome
By Emma Eames-Story
By Anton Schott
By Giuseppe Campanari .
By Jean and Edouard de Reszlce
inued) 205-240
210
21 1
21 1
212
213
215
243-259
243
245
248
251
252
255
258
PO RT RA I TS
Anton Seidl, October, 1895
Mrs. Seidl, 1886
Mrs. Seidl as Eva in Meistersinger, 1886
Anton Seidl, 1888 ....
Anton Seidl, 1894 ....
Anton Seidl, 1895 • • • • •
Summer Home in the Catskills, .
SEPTEMBER, I 897
Anton Seidl Conducting, 1895
FACING
Title
16
28
34
58
80
1 12
215
FACSIMILES
Letter from Wagner, 1878 . . .187
Wagner's Original Mss. of the Song of
Walther in Tannhauser . . . 200
Seidl's Original Mss., Erlkonig Ballade . 236
Testimonials at the end of the volume
From the Maurice Grau Opera Company.
From the Directors of the MetropoHtan Opera and Real
Estate Company.
From the Musical Protective Union.
From the Manuscript Society.
BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH
BY
HENRY T. FINCK
INCLUDING
MRS. SEIDL'S MEMOIRS
BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH
IT is an odd fact that most of the great Wagnerian conductors
were born in Hungary. Liszt, Hans Richter, Nikisch,
Sucher, came from the land where the fiery Magyars and gipsies
dwell, and so did Anton Seidl. He was born at Budapest on
the sixth of May, 1850, the year when Liszt took pity on
Wagner and brought out his three-year-old Lohengrin which
no one else had dared to touch, because it was believed to be an
" impossible " opera.
The parents of Anton Seidl intended him to become a
priest. As a boy he seemed to be willing enough to gratify
their desire ; he liked to assemble his playmates about him, read
mass, dispense a blessing, and imitate other things he had seen
in church. Yet this did not prevent him from riding his hobby-
horse, singing rhythmically, " Tschin daratta, bum, bum, bum,"
and exclaiming, " I want to be a conductor." His musical talent
was revealed at an early age. He was a boy prodigy, and was
only six years old when he first played the piano at a chanty
concert. In school he played the organ for the Fathers and
became director of the male chorus. Nicolitsch, of the National
Academy of Music, gave him lessons in harmony and counter-
3
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
point. But his chief delight was the grand opera. He attended
performances as otten as possible, and when he got home would
sit up late at night trying to repeat on the piano the melodies
he had heard at the theatre, as well as to imitate the gestures of
the conductor, who seemed to him a most important personage.
When he heard Lohengrin for the first time he was so deeply
affected that he made up his mind firmly to become a musician,
and his parents who had at first opposed his musical inclina-
tions, finally yielded.
STUDENT LIFE AT LEIPSIC
Leipsic was at that time still the centre of musical life in
Germany, and to that city, accordingly, he went in 1870, aged
twenty years. His object being to obtain a general education
as well as a musical training, he not only became a pupil at the
famous conservatory, but also was immatriculated as a student
at the university, where he attended lectures on Logic, Philos-
ophy and Musical History. At the conservatory he studied
the piano under Coccius and Wenzel, the organ under Pappe-
ritz, harmony and thoroughbass under Oscar Paul and E. F.
Richter.
When Anton Seidl took his oath of allegiance before the
rector of the university he stood next to Adalbert Schueler, who
soon became one of his most intimate friends, and remained so
to the last day of the great conductor's life, his final act of friend-
ship being a short address spoken at the open bier. To Mr.
Schueler I am indebted for some unpublished anecdotes and
reminiscences relating to the student years of his friend. While
by no means inclined to neglect his lessons, Anton Seidl found
more food for his mind in the numerous concerts and operatic
performances offered in Leipsic. Nor was he averse to enjoying
4
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
a convivial evening with friends ; and thus it happened that once
in a while the motto, " business before pleasure," was reversed.
One of these " larks " and its sequel is thus described by Mr.
Schueler :
" In 1872 Anton Seidl was a member of a class in counter-
point under Dr. Oscar Paul, of the Leipsic Conservatory. There
was a good deal of writing to be done, and it was often almost
impossible to find the necessary time for writing out all the ex-
amples given. As Anton Seidl was at the same time attending
the university, he occasionally visited some of those meetings of
students, from which ' they wouldn't go home till morning.'
Such a protracted meeting of jolly students would naturally con-
flict seriously with the examples in counterpoint. It was on one
of these occasions that Mr. Seidl came to my ' den ' one even-
ing and said : ' I am going to be out with the boys to-night and
have not yet done anything towards my counterpoint lesson for
to-morrow morning. I hate to skip it, and yet I cannot attend
without some written examples. Have you got time to write
some examples for me ? ' As I had done most of my examples,
I promised, and he left his book with me.
" In the morning he came to his class room late ; so I had
just time to give him his book before he handed it to the pro-
fessor. It was too late to look over the lesson I had written
for him. Dr. Paul, who was sitting at the table, opened the
book, Mr. Seidl standing a little behind him to his right, I to his
left. The professor, whose delight it was to hunt and find mis-
takes and to make the most of his ' find ' in the way of sneering
and scolding, began to read, with pencil in hand. All at once the
pencil came down with a plunge on some unfortunate note.
" Dummes Zeug ! What do you mean by this note ? " He
looked up in Seidl's face with a frown. Now, although Seidl
5
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
felt perfectly innocent in regard to that note, he felt also that he
had to father the mistake, whatever it might be. He knew, too,
that since he never had seen it, he would not be able to explain it.
So he did his best to gain time, by taking off his glasses and thor-
oughly wiping them. I had been watching the professor's pencil
from the beginning, and seeing the mistake, said : 'I think that
note ought to be a instead of b.' Turning his head to me over
his left shoulder, the professor inquired : 'What in the world do
you know about it ? ' ' Oh, I was simply looking into the book
over your shoulder and saw the mistake,' was my answer. Seidl
still kept on wiping his glasses with a vengeance. ' Well, a will
do,' said the professor, and went on reading.
" Unfortunately this was not the only time that the pro-
fessor's pencil struck a snag. But wherever it happened, the
same peculiar conditions of the atmosphere compelled Seidl to
wipe his glasses, and the unwary professor gradually got in the
way of asking questions over his right and getting the answers
over his left shoulder. Subsequently it always seemed to both
of us like a miracle that we were not suspected and caught in the
game we played. One other occasion after that, similar circum-
stances induced me to write an exercise in Seidl's book, but the
scare we had had taught us a lesson. We both were very par-
ticular that Mr. Seidl should see what I had written before the
professor saw it."
Another episode relating to this period is thus described by
Mr. Schueler :
"In the autumn of 1870 Anton Seidl entered the organ
class of Dr. Papperitz, of which class the writer of this also was
a member. The lessons at that time were given on the old
worn-out organ of the still older St. Peter's Kirche. Anton
Seidl, who had never sat on an organ-bench before, was asked
6
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
to take his seat. Being unacquainted with the dangers of a
' loaded organ,' he innocently stepped between bench and organ,
and had both his feet planted squarely on the pedals before the
unsuspecting professor could prevent it. The result, as may be
imagined, was startling, and the face of Anton SeidI was a puzzle.
' Take your feet off the pedals ! ' exclaimed the excited professor.
Up went one foot, then the other ; the organ kept up its dismal
noise. Above its roar was heard the voice of the professor,
' Sit down and lift your feet ! ' which he finally did."
WITH HANS RICHTER
During the two years that he studied in Leipsic, the prog-
ress of the Wagner movement throughout Germany engaged
his special attention. He knew, among other things, that Hans
Richter had been with Wagner in 1866 to 1867, preparing
the Meistersinger score for the press ; that he was subse-
quently appointed Director of the Chorus at the Royal Opera
in Munich, and that he brought out Lohengrin at Brussels,
in 1870. He felt sure that no one except, perhaps, Hans von
Billow, could have penetrated so deeply into the secrets of Wag-
nerian interpretation, and, therefore, when he heard that Richter
had gone to Budapest as conductor of the opera, he made up
his mind to return to his native city and beg Richter to accept
him as a pupil. Richter readily consented, instructing him also
in the scores of the classic masters, and he soon became so con-
vinced of his pupil's extraordinary talent that, when Wagner
wrote to him, in 1872, asking him to help him in finding a
talented young man who could assist him in his work at Bay-
reuth, he promptly recommended Anton Seidl for the place. It
was a stroke of luck such as the young man had never thought
of in his wildest dreams, and he did not need Richter's admoni-
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
tion that he had before him a rare opportunity for becoming a
great interpreter. He knew, as well as his teacher, that there
were certain things — the most important of all — which he could
learn only from the master himself. So it was with eager ex-
pectations, and a heart throbbing with joy, that he packed his
trunk and took the train for Bayreuth.
IN wagner's house
Why was Wagner so anxious to have an assistant ? The
following extract from one of his letters to Liszt, at an earlier
period, will answer that question :
" I am working with all my energies. Could you not send
me a man who would be able to take ray wild lead-pencil sketches
and make a cleanly-copied score of them ? I am working this
time on a plan quite different from my former one. But the
copying is killing me ! It makes me lose time of which I might
make more precious use ; and, besides, the constant writing
fatigues me so much that it makes me ill, and causes me to lose
the mood for the real work of creating. Without such a clever
assistant I am lost ; with him I could have the whole [Tetralogy]
completed in two years."
In another place Wagner refers to his sketches in these
words : " Everything written with pencil illegibly in single
sheets. It is altogether too difficult to copy them in my way,
especially as the sketches often really are dreadfully confused, so
that only I can decipher them." It took a thorough musician
to do this work, and Wagner soon found that Anton Seidl was
just the man he wanted. He kept him in his house six
years while he was completing the Gotterddmmerung score and
composing Parsifal, and thus it came about that Anton Seidl
had the honor and advantage of becoming one of the four only
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
pupils Wagner ever had, the other three having been Hans von
Biilow, Karl Ritter, and Hans Richter.
Having been so long a member of Wagner's household,
Anton Seidl had many interesting things to relate about the great
master, and one of the most regrettable things about his early
and sudden death is that he had never written his reminiscences of
that period. To his friends he used to relate how Wagner com-
posed. He always carried some sheets of music paper in his
pocket, on which he jotted down with a pencil such ideas as came
to him on solitary walks, or at other times. These he gave to
his wife, who inked them over and arranged them in piles. In
these sketches the vocal part was always written out in full, while
the orchestral part was roughly indicated in two or more staves.
Whenever the master was in the mood for composing, he would
say to Seidl : " Bring me my sketches," and the pupil would
pick out the parts he happened to be at work on. Then Wag-
ner would retire to his composing room, to which no one was
admitted, not even his wife and children. After elaborating the
melodic, harmonic and rhythmic details of his score he considered
his main task done, and the orchestration was completed down-
stairs in the music room.
Probably no task that Wagner ever had puzzled him so
much as that of writing a march for the Philadelphia Centennial.
He had never been in America, knew little of our musical atmos-
phere, and had nothing to inspire him. Mr. Seidl told me how
Wagner secured a collection of American tunes, but could find
nothing in it to suit him. For a time he was really distressed,
not knowing whether he could keep his promise. But one day,
as he was emerging from a dark lane in Bayreuth into daylight,
the idea of the triplets which pervade the march occurred to him
suddenly ; and Mr. Seidl vividly remembered the master's joy
9
ANTON SEIDI- A MEMORIAL
at having at last found a theme on which he could lavish his stir-
ring harmonies and wealth of orchestral colors.
An anecdote regarding Parsifal, which is related in my
Wagner and his Works, may also be fitly reproduced here as show-
ing the relations between master and pupil. When Seidl had
become Wagner's secretary he one day heard him play the en-
chanting strains of the Flower Girl scene, which naturally made
an indelible impression on him. Some years later, when he was
putting the sketches into rough shape for practical use, Wagner
played various parts for him. When he came to the Flower
Girl music, Seidl remarked, "Ah, I know that ! " whereupon
Wagner jumped up excitedly, almost angrily, and wanted to
know where he had heard it. He was pacified after the matter
had been explained, but the shock remained in his memory a
long time, and every now and then he would say to Seidl : " Well,
have you found any more familiar things in my music ? "
CONCERTS IN BERLIN
In the spring of 1875 Wagner went to Berlin to give two
concerts with the Bilse Orchestra. " He appeared at the first
with the young Anton Seidl at his side," relates Franz Frid-
berg in the Berliner Tageblatt. After telling how Seidl became
Wagner's secretary, Herr Fridberg continues :
" In time he became Wagner's right hand ; he was, in fact,
the real conductor of our rehearsals. It was impossible to conceive
all that this young man from Budapest heard and knew by heart.
Before Wagner himself had noted errors in his own music, Seidl
could be seen flying over chairs and desks to correct the blunder.
The Master viewed the actions of his young famulus with paternal
love, and repeatedly I heard him murmur, ' Ho, he ! What
would I do without my Seidl ? ' If Seidl disappeared for a mo-
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
ment, and things began to go a bit at sixes and sevens, Wagner
would look about anxiously and cry, ' Help, Seidl ! ' and Seidl
would come with flying leaps to set things to rights. In one
passage it seemed impossible to achieve what was wanted of the
bass trumpet. The player was an excellent trumpeter, but could
not understand the exotic instrument. In vain did Seidl labor
with him, sing the passage, rewrite it for him, explain it over and
over again ; it wouldn't go. Wagner, too, tried his eloquence,
but with as little success. At length Seidl turned to the Director's
stand and said, ' Master, it is impossible for me to make the man
play it.' ' For me, too,' replied Wagner, angrily, and the two
looked at each other despairingly. All at once the figure of
Bilse rose up beside the trumpeter, took the instrument from his
hand and played the passage perfectly. Bilse, a practical man
and routinier, had, as usual, found a way out of the difficulty ;
the man grasped what was wanted, and played the passage in
turn correctly and with surety. Wagner turned to Seidl, and
in his Saxon dialect observed, ' There, you see, Seidl, Bilse can
do what the two of us couldn't.' Five years later I heard Die
Gdtterddmmerung under Seidl's direction in Leipsic. Not long
before I had heard the first and second performances of the
tremendous work in Munich under Levy. Without wishing in
the least to depreciate the merits of this great artist, I must say
that, for me, Seidl's conception was the greater. There was in it
more life, more movement, more poetry. In fact, I received the
impression that night that of all the conductors I had got ac-
quainted with, Seidl was the chosen interpreter of Wagner."
THE FIRST BAYREUTH FESTIVAL
It was also Anton Seidl's happy privilege to assist at the
rehearsals and performances of the Nibelung Tetralogy at the
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
first Bayreuth Festival in 1876. In the article on Conducting,
reprinted elsewhere in this volume, Mr. Seidl himself gives us
an interesting glimpse of his duties on this occasion. Before the
stage rehearsals began, Wagner said to him ; " My boy, you must
help me on the stage, behind the scenes. You and your col-
league Fischer (subsequently Court Conductor at Munich) must
assume responsibility on the stage for everything that has any-
thing to do with music — that is, you must act as a sort of musi-
cal stage manager. You will see the importance of this yourself,
and you will find that it will be of infinite effect upon your
future as a conductor." " Later," continues Mr. Seidl, " we
were joined by MottI, and naturally we undertook the unique
work with tremendous enthusiasm. Wagner was wont to call us
playfully his three Rhine daughters, for the first rehearsal under
his care was devoted to the first scene of Das Rheingold. I was
in charge of the first wagon, which carried Lilli Lehmann, who
sang the part of Woglinde. Little did I suspect that in after
years Lilli would sing the part of Briinnhilde under my direction."
In the other operas he similarly took care that certain scenic de-
tails were carried out in harmony with the music.
RECOMMENDED BY WAGNER
Mr. Seidl now believed that the time had arrived when he
ought to utilize his acquired knowledge in spreading the gospel
of Wagner's art. Having heard that there was an opening at
Mayence, he approached Wagner, who addressed the following
letter to Dr. Strecker, manager of the well-known music pub-
lishing house of B. Schott's Sons : " Esteemed doctor : I have
just read an advertisement in regard to the vacancy in the con-
ductor's place at Mainz. I beg you to use all your influence to
secure this position for mv young friend and adjutant, Anton
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Seidl (at present here). He conducts excellently, is very ener-
getic and reliable, and I vouch for him in every way. He would
be ready to begin on September i. I have taken it upon myself
to find a good place for him, and would consider it a special act
of friendship if my wish could be gratified through your kindly
intervention." The letter, however, came too late. The posi-
tion had already been assigned to another applicant — luckily for
Anton Seidl, who remained a while longer with his master and
afterwards found a much wider field of usefulness than a small
city like Mayence could have offered him.
Wagner's first symphony
It was in the year of the first Bayreuth festival that Richard
Wagner founded a sort of museum af manuscripts and other
articles relating to his life, for the benefit •f his son Siegfried.
Among other things he was anxious to include in it the manu-
script of his first symphony, which had been lost ever since 1 848.
He asked some of his friends to search for it, and they succeeded
in finding the parts in a trunk which Wagner had left in the
house of the tenor Tichatschek when he had t« leave Dresden
suddenly because of his participation in the revolutionary up-
rising. Wagner was delighted to recover this juvenile efF»rt, and
he asked Anton Seidl to combine the parts into a sc»re and to
add the two missing trombone parts. Six years later Wagner
asked Seidl to come to Venice to supervise the production of this
symphony ; but, unfortunately, his favorite interpreter was un-
able to get leave of absence from his manager. We shall see later
on how this annoyed him.
During these last years of his life Wagner intrusted all im-
portant enterprises to Anton Seidl, whenever he was consulted
about them, and this enabled the young conductor to fan the
"3
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
flame of enthusiasm for his adored master in various German
and foreign cities. In 1879 he assisted at the rehearsals for the
Wagner festival in London, and previously, in 1877 and 1878,
Wagner had sent him to Leipsic and Vienna to give the singers
at the opera the benefit of his thorough knowledge of the Nibe-
lung scores. In the following year he was engaged as conductor
of the opera at Leipsic, where he astonished the conservative
natives by the most stirring interpretations of Wagner's works.
It was there that I for the first time had the pleasure of hearing
Mr. Seidl conduct, and I now realize, better than I did then, that
it was his interpretative genius that there made me appreciate the
Nibelung dramas in some respects even more than I had appre-
ciated them at Bayreuth.
SEIDL SURPRISES WAGNER
Of what great importance to the cause of Wagnerism Anton
Seidl was is made apparent by the manner in which he won a suc-
cess at Leipsic for 'Tristan and Isolde. Wagner, discouraged by
the fate of this diflicult work at several opera houses, had made
up his mind not to allow it thereafter to be given anywhere ex-
cept under his own supervision. When Angelo Neumann,
manager of the Leipsic Opera, first asked permission to produce
this opera, Wagner refused ; but subsequently, in view of the co-
operation of Seidl, he gave his consent. What the result was
may be inferred from a letter to Neumann that Wagner wrote
at Palermo on January 16, 1882, in which occurs this passage:
" My excellent friend and patron !
" It was kind on your part to write to me about the success
of the Tristan performance at your theatre. . . You are aware
that I had made up my mind to allow this problematic work to
be given hereafter only under my personal supervision : now it
>4
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
has succeeded without me — and that astonishes me ! Well, good
luck ! I certainly discover in Seidl hidden faculties which only
require a fostering warmth to surprise even myself; therefore, I
beg you now, for the sake of the ensemble, to allow him even in
the scenic department more authority than is usually granted to
conductors, for in that direction lies what he especially learned from
me. . . Kindest greetings to Seidl and his admirable company."
Under such circumstances it was a matter of course that
when the Travelling Wagner Theatre was organized, Anton
Seidl was first of all secured for the conductorship. What was
the Travelling Wagner Theatre ? It was a project of Angelo
Neumann's to take Bayreuth, so to speak, on a trip through
Europe. He believed that if a company of first-class Wagner
singers were brought together, with Anton Seidl at their head,
for a series of Nibelung performances, the enterprise would be
attended by great success. Wagner would have preferred to
have Europe come to Bayreuth, but as he had not the means to
give another Nibelung festival at that time, he gave his consent
and blessing to Neumann's grand undertaking.
THE TRAVELLING WAGNER THEATRE
The original company included Hedwig Reicher-Kinder-
mann, Marianne Brandt, Auguste Kraus, Katharine Klafsky,
Anton Schott, Julius Liban, George Unger, and on special occa-
sions, Materna, and others. Performances were given in various
cities of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland and
England. Altogether, from September i, 1882, to June 5, 1883,
the number of performances of the Nibelung operas given on
the Continent was 135, nearly all of which Seidl conducted, be-
side 58 Wagner concerts. Thus Anton Seidl had the privilege
of first interpreting Wagner's great work in many German cities,
'5
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
and in several foreign countries, to which America was added
later.
Before the last performance given by this company (at Graz),
Angelo Neumann delivered an address to his artists, in course of
which he said : " A special word of thanks is due to you. Kapell-
meister Seidl, and your orchestra. The achievements of the or-
chestra, and your inspired interpretations, have aroused the
admiration of, I might say, the whole world, and I hope we shall
yet win many a victory together."
Previous to the long tour of the Traveling Wagner The-
atre, Anton Seidl had distinguished himself in Berlin (1881-82)
by conducting, at the Victoria Theatre, the first performances of
the Nibelung dramas ever produced in that city. Four
cycles were given with such brilliant success that the company
returned the next year from Leipsic and gave Nibelung
performances for several months. Excellent as were the co-
operating vocalists, it was conceded that the lion's share of the
triumph was due to Anton Seidl, in spite of the fact that he had
to put up with an inferior Berlin orchestra. In a letter which
I wrote at the time, and which was printed in the New York
Nation (June 16, 1881), I said that the orchestra reminded me
of " a mediocre instrument played by a man of genius." Wagner
was present at these performances, and often expressed his pleas-
ure at the achievements of his pupil. It maybe added here that
the last letter he wrote was addressed to Angelo Neumann, and
contained the words " Seidl delights me greatly."
COURTSHIP DAYS
As good luck would have it, the Traveling Wagner Theatre
had included, among its members, Fraulein Auguste Kraus, a
blonde beauty of the Viennese type. Good luck, both because
16
Mrs. Seidl
1886
O M A PHOTOGRAPH BY K A L K
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
she was an admirable interpreter of the lighter soprano roles in
Wagner's operas (she sang Wellgunde, Sieglinde, Gutrune ; also
Eva, Elsa, etc.), and because it was in this tournee that Anton
Seidl wooed and won her as his wife — a wife who for a few years
after marriage continued her professional career, and then gave
herself up entirely to the devoted care of her beloved husband.
Mrs. Seidl has written for this book the following account of this
interesting period :
" When I first became acquainted with Anton Seidl, I had
been taking lessons for a short time only. About that time the
* ensemble ' of the first act of Lohengrin was being produced,
in which I was singing the part of Elsa. We were quite
alarmed when we were told that Anton Seidl of Bayreuth, who
was then on a visit at Hans RIchter's, would be present on the
occasion. Young as he was then, he looked very serious, had a
big pair of spectacles and long hair, much longer than he wore
it in later years. He did not speak one word, not a muscle in
his face indicated whether he was pleased or not ; I was, there-
fore, not a little proud when told afterwards that he had spoken
approvingly of my voice and remarked that the blonde Elsa
would achieve success.
" The following year I had the good fortune of meeting
him again ; as a pupil of Hans Richter I enjoyed the privilege
of attending all the performances of the Nibelung's Ring at Bay-
reuth ; then later on at Vienna, whither the master sent him to
see to it that the Trilogy was studied in the spirit of his beloved
master. At that time he was offered an engagement at the city
theatre of Leipsic. Two years later I was engaged there for the
youthful dramatic roles at the Opera, and only then I began to
know him better. We were generally all assembled for rehearsal
before he in his characteristically slow way would step out of a
J7
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Still slower cab and make his way towards the stage. Once he
remarked, when the question as to the musical ability of the dif-
ferent singers came up for discussion, that, in spite of my usual
correctness, he was almost willing to wager that in the second act
of the Meistersinger, before the duet with Hans Sachs (' Good
evening, master, still so busy ? '), if his song should be followed
by loud applause, so that I would be unable to hear the orchestra,
I would fail to begin in the right place. Naturally I did not
agree with him, and when, on the following day I sang Eva, I had
no idea that he was in earnest when he told me he would give
me no clue. Schelper, after singing ' How sweetly smell the
elder blossoms ! ' was loudly applauded, but I counted my
measures, so that, in spite of my not hearing the orchestra well,
I succeeded in coming in at the proper time. How surprised I
was, when my part came, to see my dear conductor looking into
his score without making a sign for me — a proceeding which,
however, did not prevent me from singing correctly. He told
me afterwards that he would not have acted thus, if he had not
been perfectly sure that I would come out all right.
THE LONDON iJARBER
"In May, 1882, the Richard Wagner Theatre Company
went to London to produce the Nibelung Trilogy. One day
there was great excitement among the artists during a rehearsal.
What had become of Seldl ? Was he sick ? Who was the man at
the desk in his place ? These were the questions asked by the
artists, for Seidl was to conduct all the rehearsals as well as the
performances, yet here was a stranger with his back towards the
stage. Suddenly the lights were turned on higher, and at the same
moment the face of the conductor was turned towards us. After
staring a moment, we all burst out laughing. The conductor was
ig
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
no one else than Anton Seidl. But how changed he was in appear-
ance ! At that time he knew very little English, so, wishing to
have his hair cut, he entered a barbershop and intimated panto-
mimically that he wanted about an inch cut off his hair. Then he
sat in the chair and buried himself in a newspaper. When he got
up and looked in the glass he found that the barber had misunder-
stood his pantomime and cut his hair down to an inch ! Of
course, besides the loss of his hair he had to endure the gibes of
the whole company.
"During the winter of 1882-83 ^^ undertook the great
Richard Wagner Tournee throughout Germany and gave the
Nibelungen in all the large cities of Germany, Holland, Belgium
and Italy with excellent result. We had an excellent companv,
including Reicher-Kindermann, Marianne Brandt, Vogl and his
wife from Munich, Schott, and on some occasions Scaria and
Materna. The orchestra comprised 56 to 60 excellent players,
thoroughly drilled by Anton Seidl, who aroused with it every-
where demonstrations of the greatest enthusiasm. Every one did
homage to Anton Seidl. At Berlin he was asked to conduct a
concert for the benefit of the sufferers by the floods. The Em-
press Augusta Victoria had undertaken the patronage of this great
charity performance. The ladies of the highest aristocracy like-
wise took part ; they wanted to please Anton Seidl by presenting
him with a costly watch studded with diamonds, accompanied by a
dedication in the handwriting of the Empress herself Now, what
do you suppose Anton Seidl did ? He refused the costly gift and
declared himself amply rewarded by the letter from the Empress,
and prayed that the amount paid for the watch be added to the
fund collected for the sufferers by the flood. He declared that the
letter of the Empress would be kept sacred as an heirloom of his
family.
19
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
" Perhaps it was not diplomatic on his part to refuse the gift of
these ladies who were eager to do him a service ; but such conduct
gives an insight into his noble and generous character. Disinter-
ested in the highest degree, he would never do anything merely to
win the applause of the public, and in this respect his simplicity
was really touching. Often when the audience persisted, after
a performance which had come up to his expectations, in calling
him before the curtain, he afterwards received us in his room at the
theatre with demonstrations of the greatest delight ; a happy
smile diffused itself over his usually serious features. When, on
the other hand, the representation had not been satisfactory, accord-
ing to his high standard, no amount of applause gave him satisfac-
tion.
AT AMSTERDAM AND BERLIN
" At Amsterdam I was to sing the part of Eva in the quintet
{Meistersinger) for the first time in the concert hall. As the
introduction to the quintet is not the same in the concert version
as in the opera — and I had not sung the part for some time — I
asked the theatre attendant for the music, but he did not get it.
The rehearsal came on and I had no music ; so I told the con-
ductor, ' Kindly excuse me if I make any blunders, for I found
it absolutely impossible to get the music' Then you should
have heard him telling me before the whole orchestra, ' That is
no excuse ; when it is a question of the Meistersinger you
ought to have gone from one music store to another until you
found it.' I retorted, somewhat sharply, that it was not my
duty to go hunting scores, inasmuch as my contract declared
that all the music was to be supplied to me. He answered, sar-
castically, ' Of course, a spoiled Viennese princess like you doesn't
need to do such a thing.' I was furious, for he was the first man
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
who had been impolite to me. When we sat down to dinner at
the Hotel Amstel, where on first nights we were in the habit of
sitting at a large table, I sat opposite him. I gave vent to my
anger by telling him that he overstepped his right by treating
me as he did, and ' from to-day, Mr. Conductor, you are a nobody
to me. I know my parts, thank, heaven, and do not require
your baton to guide me ! ' I kept my word, too, and never
looked in his direction while singing, and never made a mistake,
either. This again angered him, for he could not help seeing
that I was right. I remained steadfast for a full fortnight when,
one day, after rehearsal, he ' threw a wheel ' with his body, and
rolled around the parlor to the utmost astonishment of all pres-
ent. Heinrich Vogl said to me about that time, ' Remember
what I tell you, you will surely be Seidl's wife yet ; he is over
head and ears in love with you.' But I would not agree to that,
declaring that I would never marry anyone connected with a
theatre; that my chosen one would have to wear a full black
beard, and under no circumstance could I love Anton Seidl, who
had treated me so uncourteously at a rehearsal. My dear Tony
acknowledged to me later on that he had been angry only because
he knew well that I was perfectly tamiliar with the quintet, and that
once for all he had wished to drive such whims out of my head —
' Prima Donna whims ' he called them — but such things were
not in harmony with my natural simplicity.
ADVENTURES IN ITALY
" Our company comprised 130 persons, and we always took
an extra train. Sometimes the whole company was in the cars,
only Anton Seidl was absent ; he slept so soundly towards morn-
ing that he could hardly be awakened. This was quite natural,
for he had to conduct every day and make, in addition to this,
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
the many exhausting journeys. In no one city, BerHn excepted,
could we give more than the Tetralogy and one concert, and
usually after the performance we had to take the train and travel
night and day for the sake of giving a single concert. Then we
had to travel again, and so it went on all the time. Once, at
Carlsruhe, we were all in our seats when the rumor circulated,
' Seidl is not here yet.' The engineer waited five, ten minutes,
then declared that he could wait no longer, and, just as the train
was starting, the head of Anton Seidl appeared at the gate gazing
at the retreating train. Everybody was excited, not knowing
whether he could take a later train and reach us in time, because
without him we could not have given a performance. By good
fortune he succeeded in reaching us at the proper time, but
from that time forward the theatre servant was instructed to keep
a close watch on him, and never to allow him to sleep too long.
" Of his great forgetfulness I may cite the following in-
stances : On our journey through Italy he bought a very fine
walking-stick, which afforded him much pleasure, but when he
reached the hotel he had left his cane in the railroad car ; the
same thing happened with a big Calabrian hat which he left at
the hotel and never recovered. The lost rubber shoes and
umbrellas would furnish a store. In Venice he told us that a
big package of linen had been directed to him from Hanover,
but as he did not remember having left any, it must be a mis-
take. It was in the preceding September, when he was at Han-
over, that he had intrusted his underwear to a washerwoman ;
thence the bundle had been forwarded from city to city until, finally,
it reached him at Venice, in April, seven months later. But he had
not the remotest idea that anything was missing in his wardrobe.
The same thing happened, unfortunately, with many letters and
souvenirs from Richard Wagner ; he had placed them with other
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
documents in a chest. One day a friend said to him, ' Mr. Seidl,
your trunk is burst open at the railway station, and the wind has
scattered your papers. The people are picking up your, valu-
ables ; if you hurry you may be able to save some of them.' On
that occasion he lost most of his letters from Richard Wagner, and
the loss was a deep anguish to him.
WAGNER S DEATH
" One evening at Aix-la-Chapelle, Mr. Seidl talked for a
long time about his disappointment because Director Angelo
Neumann had refused to let him go for the Christmas holidays
to Venice, where Wagner had requested him to come and assist
in the production of his symphony. 'As soon as this tournee is
over, I shall fly to my master,' he said ; ' I cannot endure the
separation any longer.' The following morning we were all
thunderstruck by the news of Richard Wagner's death. Neu-
mann, very naturally, was desirous of postponing the performance
of Rheingold and Seidl did not wish to conduct. But Neu-
mann was compelled to give the opera, and Seidl had to conduct,
though he did it with a bleeding heart. The tears were streaming
from his eyes during the performance, and he was utterly pros-
trated by the sad news. On the following morning he left for
Bayreuth to attend the funeral. It was his sad privilege to help,
with Hans Richter, Mottl, and Fischer, to carry the mortal re-
mains of the master to the grave.
" The Nibelungen met with extraordinary success in Italy,
both artistically and pecuniarily. The public of Venice (the first
Italian city we visited) was enthusiastic from the beginning —
wanted the first scene of the Rhinedaughters repeated, nay,
wanted even Mime to repeat ' Sorglose Schmiede,' and when finally
Frau Reicher-Kindermann, with her superbly powerful and beau-
ts
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
tiful voice, sang the part of Erda, the applause threatened to last
forever. The IValkure met with still greater success; Schott
and I were, after the first act, called out eight times : the public
kept on shouting bis! bis! and wanted to hear the first act a
second time. Thus our success went on increasing ; Anton
Seidl was lauded to the skies by press and public. Everyone
was wondering how he could, with such a small orchestra, pro-
duce such wonderful results; (Italian orchestras consist of lOO
or more performers). Seidl was in everybody's mouth ; he
was really the main attraction of the undertaking. If he sat in a
restaurant he would find himself surrounded by the elite of the
local society. Garlands of laurel leaves were innumerable. Many
a man after such triumphs would have become vain and proud.
Not so Seidl, who remained the same modest and retiring man
he had been before, happy, and sufficiently rewarded in obtaining
from his band of artists the best possible results. Illuminations
and serenades were arranged for the artists. Imagine how delight-
ful it was for us ladies to return home after a concert covered
with flowers in our beautifully decorated gondolas. For me, who
was a young girl, it was particularly romantic and enjoyable.
MORE HONORS FOR SEIDL
" In front of the Yendramin Palace, in which Richard Wag-
ner closed his eyes for the last time our orchestra played the
funeral march from the Gotterddmmerung. The whole Grand
Canal was covered with thousands of gondolas. On our return
Anton Seidl received at the hands of beautiful women bouquets of
roses, but in his profound grief at the loss of his master he hardly
noticed these offerings. Numerous invitations were sent to him,
and it was intimated to him that the acceptance of at least a few
would be to his interest, as the people intended to bestow an order
^4-
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
on him ; but he declined everything. He did not care for such
things, and was at that time so shy that he then, as always,
avoided everything in the way of ostentation — not always to his
advantage.
" He always disapproved of repetitions, and more especi-
ally so in the works of his beloved master. The death march in
the Gbtterddmmerung, however, and the Waldweben in Sieg-
fried, he was compelled to repeat because the public refused to
stop applauding. Like marble he stood there to show the pub-
lic that interruptions were out of place and that the opera must
not be marred in its continuity. But the public was not satis-
fied until these numbers were repeated. In Bologna, when the
curtain had fallen on the funeral march, a big crown of silver
laurel leaves was handed to him from the stage, the tribute of a
number of music-lovers. We ladies received on this occasion
bouquets of such dimensions that we were not able to stow them
away in the carriages and could only pick out a few of the hand-
somest flowers, leaving the rest. And so our journey through
Italy was a succession of triumphs for the music of Richard
Wagner. In Bologna it was when one forenoon there was a
knock at my door, and on my saying, ' Come in,' Anton Seidl
stood there, visibly embarrassed, with a beautiful bouquet which
he had gathered for me with his own hands. He asked me if
I would consent to become his partner in life and share with him
pleasure and sorrow. I do not know myself how love for him
crept into my heart without my being aware of it, but I felt it
was a love such as we experience but once in a lifetime. We were
betrothed without informing anyone, but the fact became known
a couple of weeks later in Turin, where we exchanged rings.
How touching it was when, walking along the beach, he would
stoop to gather some beautiful shells, or at other times to pick
»5
ANTON SEIDL^ A MEMORIAL
flowers for me. He had never done such things before, nor did
he at any former time wear a ring or a button-hole bouquet ; all
this was too showy for him, but he did it for me after our wedding.
Jealous he was beyond the expression of words. I was so success-
ful at that time that ofl^ers of engagements for short or long seasons
fairly showered upon me in every city; poems were dedicated to
me and bouquets without number sent ; but the moment anyone
looked at me he was in a rage. At Rome the German ambass-
ador (I think it was Baron Keudell) gave a grand festival to
which all the artists were invited ; in fact, it was given in our
honor. But Anton Seidl was absent. It was also in Rome that
the beautiful Queen Margarita of Italy called him in presence
of the whole public to confer upon him her thanks and the as-
surance of her profound appreciation of his merits. No one else
of the company of artists was thus honored, and the circumstance
awakened considerable jealousy among many of them.
MADAME DE LUCCA
" One of his greatest admirers was Madame de Lucca, a pub-
lisher of music at Milan, a lady who had frequently visited Wag-
ner at Bayreuth, and was one of his most devoted followers.
This lady travelled with us in Italy from city to city, unwilling
to miss a single performance ; she was very kind to me and
came very near changing my whole career some years previous
to the events I have just related. In 1876, when I was a pupil
of Hans Richter, I had the good fortune to be able to attend
all the rehearsals for the Nibelung festival in the Wagner theatre.
" One afternoon I was singing my part when someone
knocked at my door, and on my opening the door two ladies
and three gentlemen came in. One of the ladies was Madame de
Lucca, a short stout brunette, and the other a companion of hers,
26
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
the only one in the party who spoke German. She explained to
me that Madame de Lucca had heard me sing, and was delighted
with my voice. She had come with a view to propose my going
with her to Italy, where she would give me the most competent
teachers and treat me as her own child, and that it would not cost
me one penny. One of the gentlemen present, the Director of
the Scala Theatre in Milan, wanted me at once to sign a contract
that I would, in the following year, appear at the Scala in the
parts of Elsa, Elizabeth, Senta, and Marguerite, which I was to
sing in Italian, but I was not to be called upon to sing in any
Italian operas. And this magnificent offer I declined on the ad-
vice of Hans Richter, who wished to preserve me for the German
stage. Had I accepted, I am sure I should have had a splendid
future before me.
" When at Venice, in the Theatre Fenice, after the curtain
fell on the first act of Die Walkiire, a lady came and embraced
and kissed me heartily ; that was Madame de Lucca, who visited
me often and would sit for hours at my side, although we could
not speak to one another. She also sent me the most beautiful
flowers. She asked me once to urge Mr. Seidl to accept at least
one invitation, in the course of which he was to be decorated
with an order, but I could not prevail upon him to go.
MARRIAGE
" After the Wagner Theatre had completed its long series
of performances, Anton Seidl accepted an engagement under
Angelo Neumann, at Bremen, whither I went to join him as
his wife on the 29th of February, 1 884. We were married in the
Cathedral at Frankfort, where I had an engagement. The fact
of our getting married on the 29th of February, and a Friday,
caused considerable comment amongst our friends and acquaint-
»7
ANTON SEIUL A MEMORIAL
ances, but for me this Friday proved a day of good luck, and,
even if I had been superstitious on the subject, I could not have
changed the date, as I would otherwise have been compelled to
stay three years longer at Frankfort.
" Anton Seidl did not arrive at Frankfort till the day preced-
ing our wedding. The ladies of the house where I lived asked
him if he had ordered the wedding bouquet. Of such things he
naturally had not the remotest idea. Thoroughly frightened, he
replied that he was absolutely ignorant, and asked what kind of
flowers he was to order. The ladies laughed heartily at his dis-
comfiture, and told him that all he had to do was to order a
bridal bouquet at the florist's, and the florist would do the rest.
On our arrival at Bremen we were received with the highest dis-
tinction ; our apartments looked like flower gardens ; the orches-
tra gave us a serenade that evening and the chorus singers another
one the following morning.
A YEAR IN NEW YORK
" My husband had dreamed so often about America that an
irresistible power drew him towards that country, and he felt con-
vinced that he would find there a fine opening for his work.
Here I must state that when I was a young girl, I bound myself
in my contracts with Neumann to visit all countries where he
should send me excepting America. I do not know whether it
was the fear of the ocean or the instinctive knowledge that the
climate would not agree with me, and that I should soon lose my
voice ; at any rate, I had in all my contracts caused the word
' America ' to be cancelled. Then came Dr. Leopold Damrosch,
who oflfered me an engagement for New York. I should have
preferred to say ' No,' but I loved my husband so dearly that for
his sake I should not only have gone to America but anywhere.
z8
Mrs. Seidl as Eva in " Meistersinger
1886
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY FALPC
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
I should have willingly given up my life tor him ! My only
reason for coming was to study the peculiarities of the country
and see what chance my husband might have for a concert tour.
At that time I felt dreadfully lonesome, and could hardly wait
for the time when we should start on our return journey. My
desire to leave was so intense that, when on a Friday I sang the
part of Sieglinde for the last time, I immediately bought a ticket
for the English steamer so as to be able to leave New York the
next morning, for with my ticket from Dr. Damrosch I could not
have left till the following Wednesday. By the sudden death of
Dr. Damrosch everything was of course changed. Director
Stanton made my husband an offer to become first conductor of
the Metropolitan Opera, and in consequence he came to New
York in the following autumn.
" I am still convinced that a mysterious attraction drew him
to New York, for the moment he saw the harbor he was de-
lighted ; the elevated railroad he found imposing ; even the large
telegraph poles seemed to him beautiful. We were still in the
carriage when he exclaimed : ' This is magnificent ! I feel that
I shall get along well here.' When he saw the big Opera House
he was delighted with his future sphere of activity. He was en-
chanted also with the idea of being the first to introduce in New
York the great works of his master — to make them acquainted
with the Meistersinger, Rheingold, Siegfried, Gdtterddmmerung and
'Tristan."
So far Mrs. Seidl's narrative.
GOLDEN AGE OF GERMAN OPERA
The circumstances which led to the substitution of German
for Italian Opera at the Metropolitan, and thus to Anton Seidl's
engagement, need not be dwelt on here in detail. In brief,
29
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Messrs. Abbey & Grau lost such an amazing sum of money —
about a quarter of a million — during the first season in the New
Opera House, though their company included such famous
singers as Nilsson, Campanini, Scalchi, that they were unwilling
to risk another season. Unwilling to close their house — which
would have meant a triumph for the rival Academy of Music —
the stockholders decided to assume all risks themselves and try
once more. Some of the newspapers had been persistently clam-
oring for Wagner in the original, and for other German operas.
The suggestion was accordingly made that German opera should
be given a trial, as that would not conflict so directly with the
Italian opera at the Academy. Dr. Leopold Damrosch was
secured as conductor and sent to Germany to engage the singers.
He succeeded in securing no less eminent a Wagnerian singer
than Frau Materna ; but, apart from that, he gave up the star-
system and tried to win success by giving the German master-
works with fine ensembles and at reasonable prices of admission.
The operas produced were Tannh'duser, Lohengrin, fValkiire,
Freischutz, Fidelia, Les Huguenots, IVilliam Tell, Don Giovanni, Le
Prophete, Masaniello, La Juive and Rigoletto. I remember how
anxious and nervous everybody was regarding this enterprise ; let-
ters came to me begging me to be as gentle toward it as my critical
conscience would allow me to be. But the success of the first season
of German opera was so great as to astonish the most sanguine.
In place of the quarter of a million deficit of the previous season,
the stockholder-managers had only ^40,000 to pay — a mere
bagatelle to them.
In the meantime Dr. Damrosch had died on the battlefield,
but he died as a victorious general. It was therefore decided to
continue German opera for at least one more season, and a salaried
manager was chosen in the person of Edmund C. Stanton, who
30
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
went to Europe and brought back three first-class Wagner
singers — Lilli Lehmann, Marianne Brandt and Emil Fischer —
and, most important of all, a new conductor, Anton Seidl, whom
Wagner himself had, as we have seen, during the last years of
his life, favored above all other interpreters of his music, and under
whose inspired guidance Wagner opera was destined to
become a tidal wave that swept nearly everything else from the
stage.
During the first year of German opera at the Metropolitan,
Colonel Mapleson kept up his rivalry at the Academy of Music,
with Patti and Nevada as his bright particular stars. But finally
he was obliged to retire from the field. " I cannot fight Wall
Street," he exclaimed. He might have added " and Wagner."
It used to be one of Mapleson's favorite maxims that " Wagner
spells ruin." He was quite right, from his point of view ; for,
given in his way, with colorature singers and incompetent con-
ductors, Wagner's operas were, indeed, bound to fail. But the
Wagnerites insisted that if these •peras were given in New York
as they were in Germany, they w«uld succeed here, too. The
performances at the Metropolitan proved this, and Mapleson
was refuted and routed.
DEBUT IN NEW YORK
Anton Seidl made his debut at the Metropolitan ©pera
House on November 23, 1885. Interesting particulars regard-
ing this performance will be found in Mr. Steinberg's article. It
was universally conceded that, often as Lohengrin had been
heard in New York, its p«etic beauties and its thrilling climaxes
had never been brought •ut as on this occasion. Everybody
congratulated Mr. Stanton •n his good luck in securing as his
conductor the man of whom Wagner had said that, if Hans
3'
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Richter had fallen ill before or during the first Bayreuth festival,
he would have unhesitatingly placed the performances under his
guidance,* though he was then but twenty-six years old ; the man
of whom he wrote, not long before his death, " I rely on you
above all others " ; the man who had first introduced the Ni-
belung dramas in Berlin, and many other German cities, as well as
in five European countries — England, Belgium, Italy, Hungary,
Holland — and whose privilege it was now to do the same for
them in America, with the exception of Die tValkiire, which had
been done before. Under his direction Die Meistersinger had its
first American hearing on January 4, 1886; Tristan and Isolde
on December i, 1886; Siegfried on November 9, 1887; Die
Gotterdammerung on January 25, 1888; Rheingold, January 4,
1889. Each of these dramas was the lion of the season in which
it was produced, and each one established Mr. Seidl more firmly
as a favorite of the public. As a writer in the Sun has remarked,
" No conductor was ever so popular with a mass of people in
this city as Mr. Seidl was. Whether he appeared before a
large audience at the Metropolitan or at a concert of less im-
portance he was certain to be greeted with applause. He was
well known by sight to more New Yorkers than any other
musician in this city, and he was recognized everywhere in
public."
WAGNERIAN CONQUEST OF NEW YORK
It is true that in these great successes for his master he
was assisted in turn by all the eminent singers of Germany ;
but in Wagner's operas the best cast is paralyzed if the con-
ductor is second-rate ; he is the pilot who leads the ship through
all the difficulties, and to Mr. Seidl, therefore, is due special honor
* See the facsimile of Wagner's certificate printed in this vohime.
3*
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
among those who are responsible for the Wagnerian conquest of
New York.
Seven years German opera held the fort, and more and more
did Wagner come to the front. In the season of 1889-90, for
instance, the box-office receipts for Wagnerian performances were
$121,565, while those for all other performances combined were
only 183,982. As a matter of fact, the public got into such a
state of mind that it practically refused to attend any operas but
Wagner's in paying numbers. This was almost too much of a
good thing, even for the full-blooded Wagnerites, who used to be
maligned as persons who wanted Wagner, the whole of Wagner
and nothing but Wagner on the operatic stage, but who, in truth,
were among the first to crave more variety in the repertoire.
That the stockholders finally got tired of this state of affairs is
not to be wondered at. Many of them did not care for German
opera at all, but merely tolerated it because it seemed to pay bet-
ter than anything else. But, although the advanced subscription
had gradually grown from a few thousand a year to as much as
$85,000, the deficit grew larger every year, for reasons unknown
to the public, and finally it was decided to try a change and go
back to Italian opera.
GERMAN OPERA BANISHED
This decision was arrived at in secret conclave, the directors
being apparently afraid of a general outcry if they declared their
intentions openly. Loud were the wails in the Wagner camp,
for no one could foresee that the change w»uld in the end only
plant Wagner more firmly in New York s«il, through the en-
thusiasm of the great singers who had been brought over for the
express purpose of exterminating Wagner.
For Anton Seidl the cessation of German opera was a most
33
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
serious matter. Had it not been for the fact that he was in 1891
elected as conductor of the Philharmonic Society, in place of Mr.
Theodore Thomas, who had accepted a very tempting offer to
found an orchestra in Chicago, he would have been without em-
ployment or income, and would have doubtless returned to Ger-
many. Under his conductorship the Philharmonic Society flour-
ished immensely.
PHILHARMONIC PROSPERITY
When IVIr. Theodore Thomas assumed regular control of
the Philharmonic (1879-80), the first year's receipts were $18,735
— an advance of 3i 1,578 over the preceding season, when Neuen-
dorf?" conducted. Every subsequent year saw an increase until in
Mr. Thomas's last year the sum of $2 8,246 was reached. When
Mr. Thomas went to Chicago, most of his friends remained true
to the Philharmonic, while the accession of Mr. Seidl's friends and
the growth of the city swelled the number. After Mr. Seidl be-
came leader, the receipts were $29,306, $32,574, $30,111,
$32,681, $34,839, $34,324. In consequence of this growing
prosperity, the directors decided, in 1897, to add two extra con-
certs. They did so with considerable misgiving, fearing that not
a few subscribers might desert them. But the contrary proved to
be true. Whereas the concerts were increased ;i2 P^*" cent., the
subscriptions increased 60 per cent., and the receipts for the sea-
son's sixteen concerts amounted to almost $50,000.
Of Mr. Seidl's admirable work as conductor of this society
I shall speak in another chapter of this volume. The steadily
growing popularity of its concerts under his baton shows what the
most highly educated music-lovers of New York thought of him
in a capacity so difFerent from his operatic sphere. Professor
Edward A. MacDowell once remarked that there was probably no
34
Anton Seidl
iSSS
P II a T O G K A l" H
VV 1 L H E L M
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Other contemporary musician so great both as operatic and con-
cert conductor. And it is to be noted specially that Anton Seidl
won this preeminence and popularity in the concert hall through
his interpretations of other masters than his own ; for of Wagner's
works, only two or three were played by the Philharmonic each
season. Every conductor has his prejudices and his special excel-
lences, and no musician has ever interpreted all composers equally
well. Anton Seidl had his weak points and his careless days, but
I can say from an experience which includes nearly all the great
conductors of the last twenty-five years, that I have never known
one so many-sided as he was.
Besides the Philharmonic he also conducted for a number
of years a series of concerts under the auspices of the Seidl So-
ciety. These were given in Brooklyn in winter and at Brighton
Beach in summer. Sometimes he visited other cities with his
Metropolitan Orchestra, and also gave extra series in New York,
at the Lenox Lyceum and elsewhere. Though his orchestra was
not large, and though he seldom had money enough to get all the
rehearsals he wanted, he achieved remarkable results. Some of
the most delightful concerts I have ever heard were those given
on Sunday nights at the Lenox Lyceum. It was often remarked
in those days that Mr. Seidl could achieve finer results with forty
players than most conductors with eight^^
There were many difficulties and rivalries against which An-
ton Seidl had to contend in the years when he had to depend on
concerts for his living. He was also obliged to witness two seasons
of special Wagner performances in which he, the greatest interpre-
ter of these operas, could not have participated except in a way not
consonant with his dignit)^ and his artistic conscience. Moreover,
for two or three years New York witnessed the strange spectacle
of having Wagner's operas conducted at the Metropolitan by an
35
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Italian, while Wagner's favorite conductor was engaged to preside
over the Sunday popular concerts ! He was a very unhappy man
in those years ; he gave way to fits of despondency that helped
to undermine his health. I do not hesitate to say that had it not
been for those years of neglect, when everything seemed to con-
spire against him, he would be alive and well to-day. It is sad to
think, that the victims of circumstances are usually the world's
best men.
REINSTATED AT THE METROPOLITAN
Before this tragic end came, however, Anton Seidl's life once
more illustrated the law of the survival of the fittest. Help
came from two directions. The admirers of the great conductor,
feeling that things had gone too far, got up a monster petition
with several thousand signatures begging that Anton Seidl be re-
stored to the conductorship of the Metropolitan for at least the
Wagner operas. In the mean time another force was at work
that in the end would have brought about the same result un-
aided. When German opera was displaced by Italian, M. Jean
de Reszke was imported with others, as an antidote to Wagner.
He had up to that time appeared in only one Wagner opera,
Lohengrin. Wonderful artist as he was, he gradually saw
what new worlds there were for him to conquer, and having heard
Mr. Seidl conduct some of the other operas on special occasions,
he made up his mind that he would devote himself to the Wag-
ner operas and music drama thereafter, and that Anton Seidl
must conduct them. The will of the greatest of tenors is law.
I know that on one occasion M. Jean de Reszke made Mr.
Grau and Mr. Seidl sign a contract in his own room, so that no
accident might frustrate his wishes.
Future generations will read with amazement that New York
36
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
listened for years to second- and third-rate performances of Wag-
ner's great works while Anton Seidl was looking on idle, neg-
lected and despondent. A short extract from one of my criticisms
in the Evening Post will show what a peculiar state of affairs pre-
vailed even after Mr. Seidl was re-engaged for some of the
operas :
" Last night, for the first time this season, Mr. Grau ap-
plied to a Wagner opera the same principle that he applies to
all the other operas on the regular nights — that of putting the
best person in his special place. Lohengrin was given under
the direction of Mr. Anton Seidl, and the success, both financial
and artistic, was so overwhelming that it will be very strange
indeed if Wagner ever fails in future seasons to have the same
justice meted out to him as is given to Verdi, Gounod and Bizet.
Three days ago seats for most parts of the house were not to be
had for love or money, and the auditorium last evening was
simply packed up to the ceiling. It was a refined audience, too ;
there were only two large hats in the whole parquet, conversa
tion was hushed, untimely applause hissed down ; but when the
proper time for applause came, it was given with a sincerity and
enthusiasm not witnessed at any other performance this year.
" It was another object lesson as regards the truth of the
maxim we have repeatedly preached — that unless the conductor
is first-class the singers cannot do themselves justice and fail to
get the applause due them. The cast of Lohengrin was ex-
cellent, but no better than that of Die Meistersinger ; the dif-
ference in the reception of these works was that one was given,
apathetically, by a conductor who did not reveal half the beauties
of the score, whereas Lohengrin was in the hands of Mr. Seidl,
who infused into it all the energy and dramatic fire of his Hun-
garian spirit. Other conductors on Wagnerian evenings are
37
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
usually received in chilling silence, while he, last evening, was at
his first appearance received with applause so prolonged that he
had to get up and bow three times ; and after the second act
he had to come out again and again with the singers. ' One
must be blind and deaf,' wrote M. Jean de Reske to a friend
last year, ' not to perceive how the New York public adores
Mr. Seidl.' Blind and deaf, indeed ; yet it requires constant
fighting against hostile influences to keep him in his proper place.
It is a most extraordinary state of affairs."
BELOVED BY HIS SINGERS
M. Jean de Reske's enthusiasm for Mr. Seidl was shared
by all the other artists, some of whom have written for this
volume their appreciations of his genius. Several of the greatest
singers of the centurv have told me that they sometimes almost
forgot to continue their parts, so utterly absorbed and fascinated
were they by the pathos and emotional fervor of his orchestral
eloquence. Albert Niemann, the greatest Wagnerian tenor of his
day, once said to me as we were walking down Broadway :
" You speak of the profound impression the third act of
Tristan made on you ; but I can hardly believe that it stirs
you quite as profoundly as it does me. Strong man as I am, I
am not ashamed to confess that on several occasions in this act
my singing has been marred by sobs and tears which I could not
suppress.
" There is nothing grander in Shakspere, in ^schylus, than
the third act of Tristan. But it is a tremendous task to sing
it — an enormous burden on the memory. I have sung Tristan
about forty times, yet this very morning Seidl and I studied the
score together. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am that
Seidl did not accept the offer of the conductorship of the Berlin
38
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Opera. Half the labor and responsibility of singing is taken from
our shoulders by such a leader. To give an illustration, this even-
ing, for a second only, I was at a loss for my next words. Seidl
felt it ; I looked at him, read the words on his lips, and every-
thing went along smoothly."
The late Max Alvary often spoke to me in the same strain,
endorsing the sentiment I have just italicized. He deplored —
nay, actually apologized for — the necessity he was placed under
of singing in this country under another conductor when Anton
Seidl was present and unemployed. One day he thus vividly
illustrated the difference it makes to a singer whether he has
a first-rate or a second- or third-rate leader : " After a certain per-
formance," he said, " the conductor reproached me for not com-
ing in with his first beat at a certain place. ' The first beat ! ' I
angrily retorted. ' I am an actor — I have no time to watch your
beats. I was waiting for a big wave of sound to plunge into it
with my voice ; but the wave did not come.' When Mr. Seidl
conducts," he added to me, " these waves of sound, be they large
or small, never fail to rise."
STAGE MANAGEMENT
While thus the relations between Anton Seidl and the great
singers was one of genuine admiration on both sides, there was one
side of the New York performances that often annoyed the great
conductor. When everything else was so near perfection, it dis-
tressed him to see things so bungled on the stage owing to incom-
petent or careless stage management. It will be remembered that
the department in which Wagner took special care to instruct
Anton Seidl was the correspondence of the various things that
happen on the stage with the music which illustrates them. I have
before me a letter which Seidl wrote to Wagner, but never finished
39
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
or forwarded, which illustrates the amazing minuteness with which
he attended to every detail. I should like to insert this letter here
were it not that it includes some rather pointed remarks about per-
sons still living. It was written in Vienna, where Wagner had
sent him, in 1878, to serve as " correpetitor," and gives an amus-
ing account of the stupid cuts that had been made ; the " beauti-
ful " dragon which was to be so great an improvement on Bay-
reuth, but would not work until it was altered in accordance with
Wagner's directions ; and the troubles with the singers. Director
Jauner, who, when he first saw the dragon, said to Seidl triumph-
antly, " Na, ist der nicht scheener als der in Bayreuth ? " was
obliged to confess at last that a "beautiful" dragon was not
exactly what was wanted, and he confessed that " zu allerletzt hat
Wagner doch immer recht " (after all, in the end, Wagner is always
right).
Had the managers of the Metropolitan Opera House heeded
the wish Wagner expressed to Angelo Neumann, that " he should
be allowed, even in matters of stage management, more authority
than is usually given to conductors," the New York perform-
ances would not have been inferior in any respect to those at
Bayreuth. Yet, notwithstanding that shortcoming, these per-
formances set up a standard, not only for Europe, but for all the
world. Mr. Otto Floersheim, who was one of the very first to
champion the cause of Wagner in America (beginning as early
as 1 875), and who, during the last ten years, as representative in
Germany of the Musical Courier, ha.s had exceptional opportuni-
ties for hearing all the great conductors frequently, writes to me
as follows :
" Seidl was to me a revelation, for he was the first one to
demonstrate that a Beethoven, or any other symphony, could
be interpreted in a modern spirit. He was to me the impersona-
40 .
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
tion of the principle of progress in music, progress in reproduc-
tion as well as production. His interpretation of the Nibe-
lungen, Meistersinger and Tristan remain to me the models
and the standards of comparison by which I gauge all other repro-
ductions of the same works I hear in Berlin, or in any other city,
and I can assure you that they are still unequalled and surely
have not been surpassed, although I witnessed performances
under Richter, Weingartner, Muck, Mottl, Schuch and many
others. Also Parsifal, Wagner's swan song, I have not heard
performed at Bayreuth more nobly, elevatingly and suggestively
than under Anton Seidl's baton last summer."
SOME PERSONAL TRAITS
Before proceeding to the last year of Anton Seidl's life, let
us linger for a while on his characteristics as a man, t» enable
the reader to realize that by his death the world lost n«t •nly a
great musician, but a noble man in the highest sense •f the
word — a man to whom art was sacred, whose pride never degen-
erated into vanity, and who performed a number of self-sacrific-
ing actions which the world knew nothing of He was every inch
an artist, never satisfied with mere financial success, if he felt
that his ideals had not been approximated. Th»ugh the
most generous of men — he has been known •n various •ccasions
to return his check to managers who had suffered Usses — he
would not even conduct a charity concert unless it could be done
in a way that would not discredit the work or deceive the public.
Another of his traits — remarkable among musicians — was his
modesty. He knew perfectly well what he could do, but he
never acted in a wav to show that he was conscious of it. Dur-
ing the years of his eclipse he never complained, except to his
friends. He was, indeed, too modest ; he lacked the quality of
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
" push," SO necessary in this country ; and but for the zeal of his
admirers he might have been kept in the background till the day
of his death. Others intrigued against him, but he never
stooped to intrigue against a rival. Quite as remarkable as his
artistic honesty and his modesty was his enthusiasm. It" his
friends were zealous in his behalf, it was because he had inspired
them with the contagion of his enthusiasm for art. He took
an entirely impersonal view of such matters, and was conse-
quently often misunderstood by persons who can comprehend
actions and sacrifices only when made on personal grounds. Of
his devotion to his work Mrs. Seidl has some interesting things
to tell us :
" It is impossible to imagine a man more devoted to the cause
of music than Anton Seidl was when he had in view the produc-
tion of some important work ; he thought of absolutely noth-
ing else. I could not coax him away from his work long
enough to take a cup of tea. On an empty stomach he would
attend his rehearsals, and would come home (I am now speaking
principally of the German operas) so thoroughly exhausted that
he was unable to partake of any food, and it would be five
o'clock before he would touch anything, having thus gone tor
more than twenty-four hours without food. Only at rare inter-
vals could I prevail upon him to eat a sandwich. So thoroughly
impressed was he with the importance of the work before him.
And how hard he worked ! Before his illness he did not know
what it was to be tired, and when he was tired he knew no rest.
There were days when he passed fully nine hours standing in
front of the director's desk. And what exhausting journeys he
undertook in this country ! Once while on a concert trip he
had to cross the Hudson at Poughkeepsie on a sleigh and the
ice was so thin that he was in momentary danger of death ; fortu-
4^
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
nately I knew nothing about it, otherwise I should have gone
crazy. How despondent he was at times when returning home
from a rehearsal ! ' I dread to-morrow's performance,' he would
say ; ' I need more rehearsals absolutely : if I could have but
one more all might be well.' Then he would get so excited that
he could not sleep a wink all night.
" On the day set for a performance he would remain perfectly
quiet, hardly speaking a word. No one not acquainted with him
would have thought he was nervous, yet how excited he was, to
the very tips of his fingers, we knew very well ! The slightest
touch startled him. I knew this and avoided everything that
might disturb him. How different he was when sitting at his
desk ! Then all anxiety disappeared. Was it not his task to
animate his orchestra to do their very best ? Then he was like
a general ; not the slightest happening on the stage escaped his
notice, and he understood, better than any other musical direc-
tor, how to turn to account the various incidents of the stage.
Once at a ballet rehearsal in the third act of the Meistersinger,
the ballet-master knew absolutely nothing as to the kind of dan-
cing that would be proper for the occasion ; the couples simply
jumped aimlessly about the stage, when suddenly my husband
seized one of the girls around the waist and began dancing, and
it proved to be the correct way, although he never in his life had
danced before. Director Stanton, who sat by my right on the
stage, was astounded, and remarked to me : ' That man knows
everything ! '
" If anyone complimented him after the first or second act
of an opera, he would be displeased and would say, ' There are
still two acts before us. God knows what may happen before we
get through ! ' If everything went well to the end he was de-
lighted, and it was a pleasure to see with what evident content-
43
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
ment he would light a cigar and smoke it. Smoking was his
great passion, and he never felt really comfortable unless he was
holding a cigar in his mouth. He would then sit up with me
at home till two o'clock a. m., or even later, describing the
whole opera, and his excitement was so great that sleep would
not have come to him, anyway, at an earlier hour.
" How happy he felt when the critics and the public treated
him with consideration, and how modest he remained with all his
splendid successes ! This was shown especially when he was
honored with a gift of flowers ; my heart fairly beat for fear the
givers might be offended at his apparent unconcern on receiving
the flowers. How often I begged him to show at least a pleasant
countenance ! He promised to do so, but the effort proved too
great for him, as it was verv painful for him to become the focus
of the public gaze. His modesty did not admit of his display-
ing any pleasure, although at heart he felt very happy."
HOME LIFE
For a number of years Mr. and Mrs. Seidl, who had no
children, lived at 38 East 62nd Street, New York, and for the
few weeks that the conductor could spare from his concert trips
and Brighton Beach engagement, he had a cottage at Fleisch-
mann's in the Catskills. His music room in New York had a
grand piano on which usually lay, or stood, some score he hap-
pened to be studying. The walls were adorned with rare por-
traits of Wagner, as well as of Bach, Beethoven and Bismarck.
Bouquets and wreaths were scattered about, as is usual in the rooms
of prominent stage artists. One could not be in the house
long without seeing or hearing either Wotan or Mime, two of
the eight dogs that were allowed the freedom of the house.
Anton Seidl was as great a lover of dogs as Wagner ; there
4+
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
was never a time when he did not have at least one pet. At
Leipsic, in 1870, he had a very inteUigent white poodle of un-
usual size. His name was Caro and he used to carry notes be-
tween Mr. Schueler and his master. The note was fastened
to his collar, and then Mr. Seidl gave a peculiar whistle, where-
upon the dog, barking violently, ran to Mr. Schueler's quarters
half a mile away.
" The outside door of the flat in which I lived," writes
Mr. Schueler, " had an old-fashioned door bell, a wire with an
iron ring attached about four feet from the floor. This bell Caro
would ring, and after being let in, would run to the door of my
room scratching and barking until I opened the door. It was
too funny to see him hold his head sideways until I took the
note from his collar. After writing and securing the answer
under the collar, the dog would run home to his master. Caro
would never allow anybody else but his master to play on the
piano in Seidl's room. If anyone persisted in playing, Caro
barked till he stopped. The tricks Caro performed were with-
out number : playing on the piano himself, singing soprano or
bass, carrying shoes, gloves or any article in the room, walking or
dancing on his hind legs, smoking and playing sentinel, holding
a cane between the front paws, were some of his many accom-
plishments."
EIGHT PET DOGS
Mrs. Seidl's manuscript contains the following details re-
garding the dogs they had in New York, and whom they always
took to the Catskills in summer :
" Whenever our dear Tony came home from his engage-
ment at Brighton Beach or some exhausting concert trip to rest
awhile in our beautiful home in the Catskill Mountains, every-
4S
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
thing was bedecked with flowers and leaves, and the columns of
our cottage ornamented with garlands and ribbons, so as to ren-
der our home worthy of its owner. All his dogs, seven dachs-
hunds and one St. Bernard, stood on the piazza awaiting the
arrival of the train that was to bring their master home. As
soon as he stepped off the car, the intelligent animals would rush
off to greet their master in their own boisterous way, raising a
cloud of dust in which both master and dogs disappeared, until
finally, their first burst of glee having subsided, they would rush
up the hill and settle down on the piazza, where a bountiful feast of
crackers awaited them as a reward for their good behavior. Often
my dear husband would walk up the mountainside during the
greatest heat of the summer rather than take a conveyance, just
to afford his favorites an opportunity to show their affection for
their master ; then there was such a noise and glee that I often
wondered how my husband's musically-trained ears could bear
the ordeal. Once he took a trip in the middle of May to
Fleischmann's, accompanied by his favorite dog Wotan, and as it
was still quite cold, he took off his overcoat and spread it on the
floor in the baggage car to keep the dog warm, and he himself re-
mained in the baggage car to keep him from feeling lonesome
or being subjected to ill-treatment by the trainmen.
IN THE CATSKILLS WORK AND PLAY
" In the early morning at seven o'clock I was in the habit of
going to my garden, my dear Tony being still fast asleep and
resting peacefully from his very exhausting labor. Of course
everything was kept quiet so that his slumber might not be dis-
turbed. Suddenly the loud barking of the dogs called my at-
tention from my work and looking up I saw my dear Tony
looking out of the window, happy and as full of mischief as a
46
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
school-boy, and giving me a wistful glance which meant that he
wanted me to get his breakfast ready. Dignified as he was in
his ordinary intercourse with the world, he gladly submitted to
being spoiled by his wife when at home. I had to prepare
everything with my own hands as if he were a child. His
breakfast consisted usually of a cup of coffee, bread and
butter and fruit ; he shared it with his dogs, and then went
to the depot to get his letters and newspapers, and to chat a
few moments with friends he met. Then he went to Fleisch-
mann's Mountain to play a few games of billiards and then came
home for lunch.
" The afternoons were generally devoted to work, but if he
had a concert in view he would sit down from early morning at his
work-table, from which I could hardly coax him to take a mouthful
to eat. What pleasure it afforded him to work at his own home !
His studio was so quiet ! From his writing-desk he could see the
beautiful trees, hear the song of the birds, for whose benefit he had
ordered the construction of little houses to be used as nests. How
he enjoyed the delightfully fresh air and the delicious quiet ! He
was a completely changed man up in the mountains, and after a
fortnight's rest he was ready for work again. What a fast worker
he was ! Whatever came into his mind he wrote down immedi-
ately without any mistakes and in beautiful handwriting. I never
saw him writing the same thing twice. I never could understand
how it was possible for him to retain in his memory note for note
of his new scorings. What he could but seldom be induced to
do in the city he did with pleasure in the country. He would
sit down and play wonderfully well, sometimes his own spontane-
ous inspirations which, in spite of my frequent requests, he would
refuse to put on paper. Whatever composition emanated from
his pen was absolutely his own and bore the stamp of his charac-
47
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
ter and individuality; there was no borrowing from his own be-
loved masters, and he never took notes. I promised him to study
stenography, so that I might preserve at least some of his com-
positions, for he had seriously intended after the London season
to compose an opera, having received from a very talented poet
(Francis Neilson) a libretto which quite inspired my dear hus-
band. As he never played his own compositions in the pres-
ence of anvone else but myself, many a reader may be inclined to
doubt the truth of my assertion when I, his wife, say that it is a
pity he was so unwilling to let others hear them, for eminent as
he was as an interpreter, I am certain that he might have been
equally eminent as a composer. Endowed as he was with the
fire of genius, profound feeling, and a high capacity for dramatic
expression, which enabled him to inspire not only his numerous
artists but also the general public when he was interpreting the
masterpieces of Wagner, Beethoven, Liszt and others, I am
thoroughly convinced that as a composer he could have created
works of a high order.
"My dear husband loved nature, took pleasure in forests,
trees and flowers, although he knew nothing about taking care of
them ; he did not even know the names of the trees and plants.
One day he brought home a blue-bell which he had torn out by
the root near the sidewalk ; another time he brought a tiny
maple tree, which he had torn up by the root, and declared his
intention of planting with his own hands. 'Well,' I told him,
' if this little tree with its torn roots grows, then the age of
wonders has not yet gone bv.' And it did grow, and is the
only tree Anton Seidl ever planted. In various parts of our
garden he put tables and iron benches, which he proceeded to
paint so well that no professional painter could have done it
any better. He also painted my flower boxes and the wood-
48
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
house, and one would have thought he had never done anything
else in his life but paint. One day he went into the woods to
repair a foot-path which had gone to ruin. He toiled like a
common laborer who is working for wages, by the sweat of his
brow, and when I told him that this unaccustomed hard work
would result in a stiff back he only smiled ; but three days later
he was laid up and could hardly move.
MIME BURIED ALIVE
" One day one of our dogs, who had been lying on the
green sward behind the house after dinner, suddenly disappeared.
My dear husband. Bertha, our faithful housekeeper, and others
searched for him — it was our favorite Mime — but in vain. We
understood perfectly well that the dog, being passionately fond
of hunting, was probably in the hole of some woodchuck and
could not find his way out again, which meant that he would
die from hunger and thirst ; or he might have been killed by a
woodchuck. It was my husband's christening day, which we
always celebrated with a great feast ; this time he would not allow
us to celebrate, and he actually shed tears, so much did he take
the loss of his favorite to heart. At last, after an absence of
seventy-two hours, our Mime was found buried in the hole of a
woodchuck, and my dear Tony triumphantly carried him home
in his arms.
" Mime was, as I have said, very much addicted to the chase,
and availed himself of every opportunity for running away ; and
he was so sly that no matter how closely we might watch him,
he always managed to escape. Of course we had to let him out
once in a while, and then he would romp with the other dogs in
the fresh-cut grass of the lawn. Then he would lie down to
rest. After a while he would get up and lie down a little nearer
49
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
to the gate, and then, when he thought we did not pay any atten-
tion to him, off he was Hke a flash, and knew quite well that as
soon as he reached the high grass he would be invisible to
us. Then he disappeared in the woods. In the parlor he had
two low stools with cushions for a bed, and woe to the intruder
who presumed to take possession of it ; he would push him off
immediately. He was also very musical ; if anyone played or
sang for my husband. Mime was always present and remained
perfectly quiet, unless he heard discordant notes, especially
false violin notes ! Then he was beside himself and moaned
so pitifully that he had to be taken from the room, to the
great enjoyment of my dear Tony. Mime was a very bright ani-
mal ; he understood every word we addressed to him, and knew
every trick that high-grade dogs are taught, such as walking
through the room on his hind legs, begging, speaking and kissing
the hand, but the funniest of his tricks was knocking off the ashes
from my husband's cigar with his crooked paw. He also had
his sympathies and antipathies for the human race. My dear
husband had an occasional visit from the messenger of the
orchestra ; Mime was wrapped up in warm covers, and we
thought he could not hear the ringing of the doorbell, but the
moment this young man rang the bell. Mime would grow furi-
ous, whereas if others rang, he would not pay the slightest atten-
tion.
CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
" Christmas was always an enjoyable festival with us, whether
at home or on a journey. We always had a beautiful Christmas
tree and had about twenty-six guests, on whom I bestowed the
handsomest presents. As we had no children of our own, we
delighted in inviting poor children, whose happy faces afforded
5°
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
US the greatest pleasure. My dear husband was ever anxious to
prepare pleasant surprises, and nothing was too good for me or
others. I was always deeply touched on finding invariably
among the many costly presents he made me, two hats, for the
choosing of them was, as I well knew, no trifling affair for him.
He always went to the same milliner, cast his eyes over the hats
and pointed his fingers at the ones he wanted, without saying a
word. Before he decided on his choice, the girl behind the coun-
ter tried on the hats, so he could see what impression they made,
and I must say that usually these hats were more becoming to
me than those I bought for myself Naturally his appearance at
the milliner's always attracted attention, and this was an ordeal
to him.
" After the guests had received their presents the dogs got
theirs, either a couple of chops or sausages for each one of
them having been tied to the Christmas tree. They had learned
from year to year what would occur. Mime used to walk around
the tree wagging his tail and raising his nose, wistfully, until he
had found what he was looking for ; then he would bark and
perform all sorts of tricks until the desired delicacy was handed
to him ; nor was Wotan backward in claiming his share. Those
two animals had so much intelligence, and were so wise, that
we could keep up a conversation with them, they evidently
understanding every word we said. My husband was very
fond of taking his breakfast in bed and of reading his news-
papers — he took more interest in his newspapers than in his
breakfast — and so it happened, usually, that his coffee or tea
grew cold and Wotan had to wait tor his share. When Wotan
thought that he had waited quite long enough, and all his tricks
and begging had gone for naught, he would put one of his
forepaws on the bed, and with the other he would strike the
51
ANTON SEIDL — -A MEMORIAL
newspaper out of his master's hand, repeating this operation until
my husband laid by the paper and gave him his share of the
breakfast. At the dinner-table Mime would sit on one side of
my husband and Wotan on the other. We had a great deal
of fun with Mime. Both dogs slept in the same room with us,
Mime in a basket lined with blankets, and Wotan on blankets
spread on the carpeted floor. Both dogs waited for their master
to come home. Mime knew exactly when he was due. Many
carriages would pass through our street without attracting their
attention, but before my husband's carriage came to a full stop
before the door, Mime was already there. When my husband
came home immediately after a concert, his reception by Mime
was always a stormy one ; also when he came home at one a. m.,
but if he came later the reception by Mime would be notably
cooler. If it got to be as late as two o'clock a. m.. Mime
treated his master with silent contempt as we would laughingly
remark ; and even the gift of crackers, which Mime was very
fond of, was then declined. In fact, he would not look at the
late-comer at all.
wotan kills mime
" If Tik, Tak, Tek, Froh, Freia and Erda, our other six
dachshunds, made too much noise in the basement, all my husband
had to do was to talk through the speaking-tube and everything
was silent in an instant. I am sorry to say that Mime and Wo-
tan disliked one another very much. Jealousy was the cause,
and we had to be very particular not to caress one without car-
essing the other. Mime was more jealous than Wotan. When-
ever Wotan passed by Mime growled and tried to bite his feet.
This disposition was, no doubt, the cause of Mime's tragic end.
He was bitten by Wotan and so badly hurt that he died within
5*
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
a few hours. I was in my bedroom with my dear Tony, Wotan
in the front room, when we heard Wotan bark in a pecuHar man-
ner. I went into the room and found Wotan standing over
Mime ; I tore Wotan away, but it was already too late, for he had
bitten Mime's throat through. We were of opinion that Mime
must have snapped at Wotan, and the bigger dog retaliated by
killing him. My husband was so much shocked by this foul
deed that he wanted to have Wotan killed forthwith, but I dis-
suaded him from so doing, for I knew how dear was Wotan to
his heart, and that as soon as he recovered from Mime's loss he
would thank me for not having consented to Wotan's death.
Wotan was his pet ; Mime was mine. As a punishment Wotan
was banished from our room to the top floor, where for several
days he refused all food, and stood there with drooping ears (I
forgot mentioning that my husband had given him a severe beat-
ing), and behaved in such a queer manner that we were afraid he
might lose his reason. So our friends advised us to resume our
cordial relations with him, and once in a while to take him into
our bedroom, otherwise the animal would surely go mad. This
we did, but never failed to reproach him his infamous deed, and
he evidently felt very repentant. Often we caught him smelling
the spot on the floor where he had killed Mime, and following
the scent to the wash table whither we had carried the poor bleed-
ing pet. Poor Mime was forthwith taken to Fleischmann's by
our dear, faithful, and devoted friend. Bertha Seifert, and there
buried in our family plot.
" Is it not curious that my dear husband — when in the spring
of '97 I planted several trees in our garden — should have in-
sisted on my planting a weeping willow near our well ? I felt
quite down-hearted at the idea, and tried to dissuade him, as these
willows are generally supposed to be fit only for church yards
53
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
and not for flower gardens. But he insisted, and I had to do
his bidding. He said these gentle drooping twigs had a pecuHar
charm for him, and he did not attach any superstitious meaning
to them. Thus I have continually before my eyes the weeping
willows which, when first planted, caused me to have such a ter-
rible foreboding.
seidl's generosity
" I feel impelled to say a few words about my husband's
kindness of heart. For suffering humanity his hand and heart
were always open ; he never could send the poor from his door
unassisted. What he thus gave away would, in the aggregate,
amount to a very large sum, which, for his income, was far be-
yond his means. And so it was with his clothes, which 1 had
frequently to give away to strangers when he could have quite
well worn them himself a while longer ; but he could not refuse the
clothes to a poor man who said that, but for the want of decent
clothes, he might get a good position. I was sometimes compelled,
when all the half-used clothes had been disposed of, to give away
even the new ones. He proved his kindness of heart, when the
times were bad, by taking the orchestra for several weeks on jour-
neys without any remuneration for himself, even paying the
hotel bills out of his own pocket, his sole purpose being to give
his orchestra a chance to earn a little money. And how often
he gave concerts for objects of public charity is well known.
MASQUERADES AND A SURPRISE
" That, in spite of his serious turn of mind, he could enjoy
a good joke the following story will prove : Some time ago the
Fleischmanns gave a costume ball in the Catskills ; the types of
every land were to be seen ; a booth had been erected where
54
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
different things were presented. My dear Tony was there, too,
dressed as a little maiden in short clothes and apron, with his
arms and neck bare, his hair in curls, a straw hat ornamented
with rose-colored ribbons and May flowers on his head, a golden
medal around his neck, and low-cut shoes. He sang the birth-
day song of Hans Sachs. He was absolutely unrecognizable and
everybody was inquiring, 'Who is that? Who can it be?'
And it was quite a long while before, to everyone's delight, his
identity was revealed. He looked so funny ! His sunburned
face, neck and hands formed such a striking contrast with his
white arms and shoulders, and produced a curious effect.
" Once, on his return from a season at Brighton Beach, the
families Fleischmann, Blayer, Edelheim and others surprised him
by the production of a Haydn child symphony in which all the
children of the above-named families as well as some grown
people took part. Of course I was initiated into the secret, but
was supposed to know nothing about it. I was told that it was
to be a surprise party and I need not bother myself about any-
thing. Naturally, I was anxious to do something to promote
the general happiness, and so I ordered a fine supply of fruit from
New York, also two musicians, so that the children might have a
dance later on. I also left an order for various pieces of pastry
to be prepared at home. My dear husband, who ordinarily took
very little interest in cooking, was in the habit, when coming
home from a very exhausting season at Brighton Beach, of visit-
ing every individual room in our very pretty house, his heart full
of happiness ; even the kitchen did not escape an inspection, and
so we did not know how to hide the things from him. 9n the
festival day we were invited to dinner at a friend's house, but I
went there with my husband as early as 4 p. m., so that during
our absence the festive preparations might be made at •ur h«me.
ss
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Just as we were going down-stairs, a train from New York was
coming in ; he insisted on awaiting its arrival, and in my despair
I ran up to a friend of his and said : ' Please help me get my
husband away from the station, for the musicians I ordered are on
this train, and if he sees them, " the cat is out of the bag." ' For-
tunately we succeeded in getting him away from the station just
as the train was coming in. Another friend undertook to take
the musicians where they were wanted. All this he failed to see,
and his friends who ' happened ' to drop in all followed us to
Stiassny's, where we had been invited to dine. All he asked me
was what business our laboring man * Ed ' had at the depot
with Mime. I made him believe that I had sent Ed for some
things I expected. As a matter of fact, I was expecting the
things I had ordered for the evening. At Stiassny's the task was
to get him into the house, under all sorts of pretexts, but he in-
sisted on staying on the piazza. Had we left him there he would
have noticed the arrival of every delivery wagon that came up
our hill. So we were kept continually busy until we sat down
to dinner. It was understood that, as soon as everything was
ready, Fleischmann should send a messenger and advise us that
all invited guests were in the house, pretending that there were
visitors at our house waiting to see us.
" At last the servant came and requested Mr. and Mrs.
Seidl to come home, as there were visitors to see them. I made
believe inviting the family to come over to our house and to
bring the children along. It was a hard task for me to conceal
my happiness at the idea that we had succeeded so well in deceiv-
ing my husband, and I left him under pretence of advising Mrs.
Stiassny to dress her children more warmly, and went to the piazza
with her. There I observed, to my horror , that two delivery
wagons with burning lanterns were coming up our hill. Now what
s6
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
was I to do ? To tarry any longer was impossible, for my dear hus-
band would have suspected something, but he could not leave the
house while the wagons were at our door. Nothing remained for
me but to pretend that I felt suddenly ill and to declare to my hus-
band that it was impossible for me to go home before I felt better;
but I left the room as quick as possible, as it would have been im-
possible for me to play this part for any length of time before
my husband. At last the wagons were gone ; I felt well again,
and we all went up our hill together. Nothing stirred in the
house; the outside was quite dark, as usual when we were out;
my dear Tony observed that our visitors were probably on the
other side of the house in the dining-room. So he unsuspect-
ingly opened the parlor door, but immediately, pale with emo-
tion, he stood still, for the moment he opened the door the sym-
phony began. The surprise was absolute, for he had not had
the slightest inkling of the matter. It may be truly said that the
picture of so many beautiful young faces, all intent upon perform-
ing the task that had been allotted to them, to the best of their
ability, was indeed inspiring ! My Tony was deeply touched
and delighted at this reception his friends, big and little, had pre-
pared for him. The little ones were especially fond of him, as
this serious man, from whom nothing but performances of grand
compositions were expected, had often played waltzes and other
pieces for them so they could dance. The merry company
stayed with us till late at night, and my husband was the happiest
of all.
PRESENTS FOR HIS WIFE
" He was particularly fond of bright, lively colors, also new
stuffs. If, for instance, I bought him new cravats, he would
wear them every day until they were old, then he would resume
S7
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
wearing his old ones again. He was quite fond of laying wagers
with me, for as a rule he won ; but if it should so happen
that I won, he would twist things around in such a way that I
finally lost all my reckoning, and it was delightful to see how
much pleasure this afforded him ; and as a consequence I did my
best to let him win. Inexpressibly good he was. I did not
venture to say I liked this or that, for he would at once insist on
buying it for me. When Christmas was at hand I had to make
him promise me weeks before that he would not make me any
costly presents, for I had everything, and required nothing ; other-
wise he would have spent all his money on jewelry and other
expensive things just to please me. Many a time did I tell him :
'Just give me a little bouquet and it will have for me the same
value and will afford me as much pleasure as the most costly
present would, for in giving it to me you have thought of me.'
When he returned from Europe, very happy over his triumphs
at Bayreuth and London, he brought me from the latter city a
brooch which had been made for me under his special instruc-
tions. It represents the Nibelung's ring and Siegfried's horn
with small rubies, which were his favorite stones. Whenever he
returned from a journey he brought presents for the servants."
RELATIONS WITH MUSICIANS
In some notes contributed for this book by Mr. and Mrs.
Kaltenborn, the statement is made that while Mr. Seidl himself
was extremely generous, and often gave his services free at charity
concerts, he insisted that the orchestral musicians " must be paid
for their work." Mr. Kaltenborn was one of the leading violin-
ists in the Seidl Orchestra, and his first experience as a soloist
was somewhat trying. Mr. Seidl had never heard him play, and
there had been no opportunity for a rehearsal — it was at Coney
58
Anton Seidl
1894
H O T O li K .\ I I' '^ I
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Island — so that the viohnist naturally felt very nervous. After-
wards, on the hotel piazza, Mr. Seidl complimented him on his
achievement, adding, with a smile, " But why were you so nerv-
ous ? " Mrs. Kaltenborn answered for her husband : " Because he
was afraid of you !" " Oh," retorted the conductor, " they all say
that, but I do nothing ; I only look. "; and as he said that, the
characteristic expression that made his face so fascinating played
around his smiling mouth. He always seemed to enjoy being
told that a soloist had been afraid of him — of that quiet look
from over the baton.
But the soloists loved and admired him, too, for they could
be sure, in case he had had a chance for rehearsal, that they
would be well accompanied. The eminent violinist. Miss
Maud Powell, echoed the opinion of many players and singers
when she wrote to him after a Philharmonic concert : " I want
to thank you for those beautiful accompaniments, so firm yet
elastic and sympathetic, full of shading and perfectly subord-
inated in the right places. My impulse last night was to seize
your hand in gratitude in the presence of the audience ; then I
suddenly thought, ' Oh, dear; Mr. Seidl will think it American
presumption or — Frechheit.' " He was also a most admirable
accompanist on the piano, so remarkably sympathetic that it is a
great pity he did not exhibit his talent in that line more frequently.
His long experience as Wagner's secretary had taught him to play
on the piano orchestral scores in a strikingly orchestral way, and
at Colonel IngersoU's house he would sometimes entertain friends
by the hour playing from the Parsifal and other scores in a
way that sounded strangely different from the usual versions of
those works for the piano. It is a pity that he did not make
new vocal scores of the Nibelung dramas. They are needed.
He sometimes addressed a short speech to his men explaining
59
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
the character of a new composition. I remember, especially, be-
ing told of his doing that when he conducted, for the first time in
America, Wagner's juvenile symphony, the score of which he had
helped to complete. He insisted that players should study their
parts at home, and not leave everything to the ensemble rehearsal.
If a mistake was made by the violins, for instance, he knew which
one of twenty or more players was the guilty man.
" Mr. Seidl had great reverence for old age," writes Mr.
Kaltenborn, " and always censured those who were disrespectful
to an old man. Instances occurred at rehearsals that brought
out this trait of his character strongly. At Coney Island, as
elsewhere, his love of nature would show itself. Often he sat at
Brighton watching the sea for hours. He was a genial com-
panion to sympathetic friends, whom he sometimes amused by
indulging in all kinds of mimicry, in which, like his dear friends,
Jean and Edouard de Reske, he was an adept. Like his
master, Wagner — and Beethoven — he was much given to pun-
ning, and laughed at his own efforts as cordially as anyone. He
was fond of bowling and excelled in the game."
It is well known that Anton Seidl did not care for general
society, though he liked to be with friends and was happy in
their company, even if nothing was said.
FAVORITE HAUNTS
" He had his favorite haunts," writes Mr. Kaltenborn,
" one — Fleischmann's on Broadway — where he could often be
found in the afternoon, taking his coffee and smoking, and where
his friends dropped in to see him. The other was the Stewart
House, on Broadway and 41st Street, where my father-in-law,
Mr. Borman, lived. He would go there many an evening,
and always, when he went there after a concert or opera, call up
60
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
through the tube for Mr. Borman to come down, and they
would sit there until early hours of the morning, talking over
musical affairs or politics, of which Seldl was very fond, and on
which he kept well informed. Occasionally a friend would join
them, usually Albert Stettheimer or Albert Steinberg. Mr.
Borman tells of how at times they would sit, or take a stroll for
an hour or more, and Seidl wouldn't say a word, yet dislike to
have him leave."
With the artists who sang under him Anton Seidl was al-
ways on the very best of terms. Albert Niemann, Heinrich Vogl,
Max Alvary, Lilli Lehmann, Marianne Brandt, Lillian Nor-
dica, Emma Eames, Jean and Edouard de Reszke, Plancon, Las-
salle, Campanari, Fischer, and many others adored him, and the
feeling was cordially reciprocated. Always serious while devoted
to the task of interpreting a master work, he loved to joke at
other times. In Signer Campanari's contribution to this volume
the reader will find an amusing specimen of the jocular letters
he sometimes sent to his friends. On several occasions dinners
were given to Mr. Seidl, at which loving-cups were presented
to him. When the menus were passed round for signatures he
often added a line of music and a jocular verse. Nor did he in
the least disapprove being made the subject of comic poems like
the following, read at a dinner given by Dr. S. G. Perry to
members of the Lotos Club to which Mr. Seidl belonged :
THE MASTER.
Here is to our noble Master,
Who keeps his arm in constant motion,
And makes our hearts go slow or faster
According as he takes a notion.
♦ 6i
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
He never stops or asks to know
If we can bear such deep emotion,
But swings his baton fast or slow,
With loyal spirit of devotion.
And we must sit and hear the strains
With heavy hearts or high elation,
While he, whate'er our joys or pains,
Goes on with his interpretation.
The doctor says it is not wise
To list to sounds that are excessive ;
A man with weak heart sometimes dies
From music that is too expressive.
February 5, 1897.
HIS MAJESTY, RICHARD WAGNER
Of Mr. Seidl's stern side and his unflinching devotion to
his art, an interesting instance was related some years ago by the
Roman correspondent of the Frankfurter Zeitung, when the Neu-
mann Company gave a performance of Die JValkure. The
King had promised to attend, and it is customary in Italian thea-
tres, when his Majesty enters, to interrupt the performance by
playing the marcia reale. Anton Seidl was Neumann's conduc-
tor, and he was given to understand what he must do at the
moment of the King's appearance in his box. But Mr. Seidl
absolutely refused to insult the majesty of King Wagner, his
sovereign, by any such inartistic proceeding, and Herr Neu-
mann, after trying in vain to make him obedient to Italian cus-
tom, was obliged to call upon the assistant conductor to preside
over the opera. The performance began, and the King put in
62
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
an appearance just as Siegmund and Sieglinde were in the midst of
their love duo, whereupon everyone stopped, the " royal march "
was played, and then the duo was resumed.
THEODORE THOMAS
One of the pieasantest incidents to record in connection with
Anton Seidl's last year is that a cordial friendship had sprung up
between him and Theodore Thomas. When Mr. Seidl used
the Chicago orchestra at the Auditorium performances of Wag-
ner operas, Mr. Thomas called on him and complimented him
on the masterly way in which he had secured control of a new
organization. When Mr. Thomas visited New York subsequen-
tly, Mr. Seidl returned the visit, and fresh compliments were
interchanged. It is needless to add that there was none of the
" mutual admiration society " business in this. Both these men
have been noted for their stubborn refusal to bestow praise ex-
cept where they believed praise was due. To his friends Mr.
Seidl spoke warmly of Mr. Thomas as a man and a musician.
It has been stated that Seidl was interested in politics, and
it was therefore natural that he should want to share the privileges
of citizenship in his adopted country. Accordingly, in 1891 he
took out his naturalization papers, and ever after that he objected
to being called Herr Seidl. "It seems like being boycotted,"
he said to me one day. " Why don't they say Mr. Seidl ? " He
insisted on having the change made on the Metropolitan Opera
House programme.
Let us now resume our narrative.
Mr. Maurice Grau, who had been reinstated with his
partner, Mr. Henry Abbey, at the Metropolitan Opera House
in 1 891, for the express purpose of driving out Wagner, came
to the conclusion — after some unpleasant experiences with the
63
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
^y Star system — that Wagner, properly sung, was after all an
operatic manager's best friend, and that Mr. Seidl was Wagner's
chosen interpreter. Moreover, one after another of the great
singers, who had been brought over to assist Mr. Grau in
his warfare upon Wagner, went over to the Wagnerian side,
converted by the eloquence of Mr. Seidl's musical plead-
ing. Once more Anton Seidl became the idol of the opera-
goers, who was never allowed to take his seat at his desk
before he had acknowledged three rounds of cordial applause.
TRIUMPH IN LONDON
When Mr. Grau was engaged as manager of the Covent
Garden Opera in London, for the season of 1897, he took Mr.
Seidl with him and gave the London opera-goers a pleasant sur
prise. I have before me several hundred clippings from English
papers bearing witness to his triumph. The critics were not slow
to discover his merits, as the following brief citations from leading
newspapers show :
" Under his masterly control the subdued playing of the
orchestra furnished quite a revelation."
" He secured orchestral playing of rare delicacy and beauty,
and altogether proved his high reputation to be well-merited."
" Once again was a potent influence of this great conductor
made manifest in the remarkably subdued and refined playing of
the orchestra, which brought home to the ear all the beauties
of Wagner's instrumentation, and yet never overwhelmed the
voices ot the singers."
" A conductor for whom Wagner has no mysteries or
pitfalls."
" Mr. Seidl manipulated the forces under his control with a
mastery that was truly marvelous."
" Some of the audience were astonished at that which they
6+
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
imagined were certain new readings. As a matter of fact, how-
ever, they were merely a correction of mistakes in tempi and
nuance, which have crept into the performance since the days
that Costa, declining to correct a copyist's error, declared the
discordance was the composer's intention. At any rate, Seidl,
who was a pupil of Richter, and likewise studied under Wag-
ner^ in whose house he lived some years — may be accepted as
an authority on the Wagnerian traditions."
" An orchestral rendering which fell little short of abso-
lute perfection."
" Has infused a dramatic and poetic spirit into the orchestral
playing as welcome as it is novel."
" Herr Seidl has raised materially the standard of perform-
ance at Covent Garden."
" He had the happy faculty — supreme in a conductor — of
impressing the vocal and instrumental forces under his control
with his personal ideas as to the method in which the music
should be rendered."
" Anton Seidl has proved himself the best orchestral con-
ductor we have had up to now."
" Wagner should have been present himself to hear justice
done, almost for the first time, to some •f his exquisite phrases.
Where opera-goers have before found n«ise and little else, they
were on Saturday able to appreciate musicianly melody and
masterly scoring."
" The Covent Garden band has never played so smoothly,
so softly, or with such spirit. And yet Seidl is a quiet man, with
an immovable face and very little action. The wav he waits for
the singers must make them adore him. He dresses like an
ordinary citizen, but his hair is not short. He wears pince-nez,
and looks rather like Liszt in his youth."
" He is quiet in manner, without coldness at heart, and he
has that power which so few conductors possess, of making the
6s
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
player feel exactly what he wants. In moments of danger he
displays the utmost coolness."
"The beautiful music of the opera under his direction
takes on a new and overwhelming charm."
These extracts suffice to prove that the London corre-
spondent of the New York Sun did not exaggerate when he
cabled on June 26 regarding Anton Seidl's debut :
" His triumph in London in grand opera has been greater
than that of any other foreign conductor, nearly all of the critics
admitting that his interpretation of Wagner has been a fresh
revelation of the great composer's work, and the best ever given
to the English public."
Not that this verdict was universally accepted. As every
organ grinder has his monkey, every circus its clown, so every
body of critics has its buffoon. The Musical Standard declared
soberly that "one can never believe Mr. Seidl is in any sense a
great Wagnerian conductor ! "
Mr. Seidl's triumph in London was the more remarkable
inasmuch as he had to assume charge of an orchestra entirely
unused to his methods. He was hampered, too, by certain
old-established evils, of which the following extract from a Lon-
don paper gives an illustration :
" What must have been the feelings of a conductor of Herr
Anton Seidl's capacity, when he looked round upon his orchestra
at the commencement of the third act of Lohengrin on
Friday evening — on the orchestra that had to accompany some
of the first singers in Europe — and discovered that nearly twenty
of his best executants had departed by royal command for the
State concert at Buckingham Palace, leaving in their stead a
group of no doubt admirable substitutes, but still comparative
strangers."
66
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
HOW SEIDL CONDUCTED WAGNER
If Mr. Seidl could have had his own orchestra, he would
have astonished the Londoners still more. He was, indeed,
noted for the skill which he showed in vitalizing an ill-assorted
and unprepared band of players ; and he could work wonders
with few rehearsals. M. Jean de Reszke once remarked to me
that he had never taken part in a more smooth and finished
performance of Die Meister singer than that which Mr. Seidl
had been obliged, much against his wish, to conduct after only
one rehearsal. But there is a Hmit to such feats. When he had
the best of material and plenty of preparation, he never failed
to reveal the heart, pulse and the very soul of the great com-
poser whose apostle he was. Then, not only did he never drown
the singers, but in the softest passages the orchestral tenderness
was insinuating and caressing beyond comparison. The way he
made his orchestra sing, sigh, whisper, exult, plead, threaten,
storm, rage, was a marvel to every one who heard it. The dra-
matic surges of passionate sound in Tristan were irresistible.
He knew the scores by heart, and kept his eye on the singers
every moment, so that every gesture had its timely orchestral
comment. He knew, too, that the same melody must be taken
slower or faster, according to the situation. To mention but one
detail : The superb eight bars during which the King gives his
blessing to Lohengrin and Elsa, were by him, and by him only,
so far as I know, given in the slackened, broadened, majestic
tempo, which adds so much to the solemnity of the scene, and
which Wagner specially prescribed in a letter to Liszt nearly
half a century ago. In the later Wagner dramas he made the
tempo vary endlessly and have as many little spurts and eddies
and dashing falls, and trout pools full of speckled beauties, as a
mountain brook. This phase of Mr. Seidl's genius as a con-
67
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
ductor was admirably described by W. F. Apthorp after a per-
formance in Boston of 'Tristan and Isolde.
" We must first speak of Seidl,for he was the heart and soul
of it. It was he who made the fine performance of the others pos-
sible. His management of the orchestra was simply beyond
praise ; not once during the whole evening did the instruments
unduly over-crow the voices on the stage. Then the orchestral
performance, taken by itself, was a marvel of beauty ; such deli-
cacy of shading is exceedingly rare. It was not merely that suc-
cession of crass contrasts between fortissimo and pianissimo which
sometimes parades under the name of ' shading,' but a hardly in-
terrupted series of the more subtile and delicate nuances in dyna-
mics and tempo. It reminded one of what Mr. Gericke once said
of Wagner's conducting Lohengrin in Vienna : ' The most
striking thing about it was the surpassing delicacy of all the eflfects;
modifications of force and tempo were almost incessant, but were
for the most part modifications by a hair's breadth only.' "
TRIUMPH IN BAYREUTH
When Mr. Seidl went to Europe it was not merely to con-
duct at Covent Garden, but also in Bayreuth. As soon as Frau
Cosima Wagner heard that he was coming to Europe she sent him
a cable dispatch followed by letters inviting him most urgently to
interpret the performances of Parsifal in July and August. As
the London season extends far into the summer months, and as
he had already signed his contract with Mr. Grau, he was obliged
to make the condition that the Bayreuth rehearsals must not
conflict with the Wagner performances in London. A schedule
was accordingly prepared which enabled him to conduct both in
London and Bayreuth, without neglecting rehearsals. This in-
volved a good deal of extra fatigue in travelling from one place
68
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
to the Other, and Anton Seidl was already far from being in good
health. It required all of his iron constitution, strong will, and
devotion to art, to surprise and enchant both Bayreuth and
London in the same month.
And he did surprise and delight Bayreuth as much as he
had surprised and delighted London. Dr. Heinrich Porges, an
intimate friend of Wagner, and one of the assistants at all the
Bayreuth rehearsals from the earliest days, described the reception
given to Mr. Seidl at Bayreuth in the iVIunich Neueste Nach-
richten. Wagner's son, Siegfried, introduced him to the mem-
bers of the orchestra in these words : "A Knight of the Grail
has returned to us — one who has, alas, been away from Grail-
land altogether too long. I present to you Kapellmeister Anton
Seidl, one of those best qualified to interpret a work with the
composition of which he was closely associated." That the or-
chestra applauded after these words was a matter of course, but
it was not a matter of course, but a very unusual compliment, that
the orchestra applauded him after discovering how he performed
his task. Porges writes : "Anton Seidl is a conductor of the
highest rank. That was made evident at once to the players
whom he led with a firm hand ; they applauded him already at the
end of the first act, and after the second act, which he led with
overwhelming passion, they broke out into a storm of applause."
On July 9 Mr. Seidl wrote to his wife a long letter from
London, from which I translate a few pages :
" My Dearest Gusterl !
" I have just got back from Bayreuth. I can only say it
was glorious. Siegfried, who, by the way, is a charming and im-
mensely talented young man, introduced me to the orchestra
very cordially. There was applause ; every one was full of curios-
ity and we went at it immediately with all our might and main.
69
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
After the first act the players as well as Frau Cosima broke out
into loud and prolonged applause, which was redoubled after the
second and also after the third act. I had to make few stops,
for the players were attentive and luck favored us so that the
result was grand. Truly, Wagner's spirit had come over me ;
I heard everything distinctly from the beginning, which is very
difficult in this lowered orchestral place. My wide experience
in conducting in all sorts of places made it easy for me to sur-
mount all difficulties. Everybody declared that no one had ever
so quickly and unobtrusively adapted himself to the situation.
Frau Cosima embraced me at least twenty times and wept ; she
said that the good old times seemed to have returned, that I had
brought back the conception of the 1882 festival. My way of
conducting as well as my face reminded her, she said, of her
father [Liszt]. In a word, everybody congratulated me most
cordially. The orchestral players declared they had never been
conducted as on this occasion and wondered where I got all this.
Many offers have already come to me. I was invited to con-
duct the Kaim concerts in Munich ; from Bremen came another
offer relating to concerts, and in March and April I was asked
to conduct Wagner operas in St. Petersburg, Moscow and War-
saw. A mysterious letter came from Berlin inquiring whether
I was willing to accept the position of the foremost conductor
in Germany, the writer offering to come to Bayreuth and dis-
cuss the matter. Richter advises me to go to Pesth, where they
need me, he said, as a starving man needs bread , and so on. So
you see — victory in all directions. . . . As for London, Mr.
Higgins has already intimated that he counts on me for certain
next May, June and July. Now I must close. I kiss you a
million times ; you poor thing, you have had to wait long for
this letter, but my work and excitement did not allow me to
70
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
write sooner. At home everything is well, I hope. Another
kiss from your faithful
Toni.
" P. S. — Last weeic I sent ;^ioo to Seligmann's. Use it if
needed. Greetings to Rosi, Veroni and friends. Plenty of
crackers for Wotan and Mime."
I have met several American music-lovers who had attended
nearly all the Bayreuth festivals, and they declared that no one
had ever penetrated so deeply into the spirit of Parsifal as
Anton Seidl. I may add that Wagner intended to have him
conduct this, his last work, in 1882 ; but as the King of Bavaria
had lent him his royal orchestra, whose conductor, Hermann
Levi, was also a capable interpreter of his scores. It would have
been ungracious to carry out his original plan. But ifthusdeprived
of the honor of conducting the first production of Parsifal,
Anton Seidl had the privilege of leading its one hundredth
performance at Bayreuth, and it was, at the same time, the last
opera he ever conducted — a touching and beautiful ending of his
stage career.
A PERMANENT ORCHESTRA
This was, however, by no means the end of his musical
career. It so happened that Mr. Grau gave no opera in New
York the following season, the consequence being that Mr. Seidl
had to devote all his energies to concerts. There was a series
of twelve at the Astoria Hotel, at which the price of a ticket was
I5. There were other series in Chickering Hall and in Brook-
lyn, more than sixty in all, including the Philharmonic concerts,
augmented from twelve to sixteen because of their ever-growing
success under his direction. And yet he was not contented.
He felt more and more strongly that a man of his eminence,
called upon to give so many concerts, ought to have his own or-
7'
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
chestra, of which he could control the membership, the pro-
grams, the rehearsals and everything. The situation was des-
cribed at length in an editorial of mine, which appeared in the
Evening Post, and which may here be quoted :
" A number of local music-lovers have started a movement
for collecting a large fund to be used in founding a permanent
orchestra for Mr. Anton Seidl. It is probable that on the
success of this movement depends the momentous question
whether Mr. Seidl will remain in America or go to Europe.
Mr. Seidl made his reputation as a conductor. before he came to
America, thirteen years ago, and it is well known that in the last
years of his life Wagner favored him above all other conductors
as an interpreter of his works. He had been in America only a
few years when he received an offer of the conductorship of the
Royal Opera in Berlin, which, fortunately for New York, he
refused. Ever since that time similar offers have come to him
nearly every year. The sensation which he created in London
last spring as conductor of the Covent Garden opera, and after-
wards by his interpretation of Parsifal at Bayreuth, made the
Germans realize more vividly than ever before that New York
harbors one of the greatest of conductors, and offers to him mul-
tiplied rapidly. Munich wanted him as conductor of the
Royal Opera, and the de Reszkes endeavored to secure him
for the opera season at St. Petersburg. Budapest has twice
tried to win him, and among the offers of last summer was one
of a tour embracing thirty concerts, for which he was to get
as personal honorarium ^7,500.
" But Mr. Seidl had pledged himself to conduct our Phil-
harmonic concerts, and for this and other reasons he refused
all those offers and returned to New York. European man-
agers have, however, apparently made up their mind to get our
conductor, and lately several new and tempting offers have been
made to him. One was from Hamburg, where they seem de-
72
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
termined to secure him, the latest message being, ' Make your
own terms.' A few days ago another and still more tempting
despatch came from the Royal Opera in Berlin, this being the
third time that that most honorable position in all Germany has
been offered him. It is a field coveted by all foreign musicians
because of its great artistic privileges and opportunities, and be-
cause, after a service of some years, the conductor is entitled to a
pension. Mr. Seidl is undecided whether to accept or not. He
has become an American citizen, is fond of this country, and
he realizes that with the Philharmonic Society — as fine an or-
chestra as can be found anywhere — together with the German
branch of the grand opera here and in London, he has a con-
siderable field of activity ; yet he is far from satisfied, owing to
the conditions under which most concerts are given in this city.
" It must be remembered that in addition to the Philhar-
monic concerts, for which three rehearsals are allowed, Mr. Seidl
has about fifty miscellaneous concerts. For many, if not most,
of these he can secure only one rehearsal where he wants three
or four. It is true that even thus he attains results more stirring
than most other conductors do here and abroad with well-drilled
orchestras ; but he secures them at an enormous expenditure of
energy, which is undermining his health and making him pessi-
mistic. Not long ago, at a certain concert for which he could
get only one rehearsal, not one of the brass players who had
rehearsed with him turned up. They had secured a more profit-
able job at a ball, and sent inferior substitutes, with whom —
totally unprepared as they were — he had to put up, though the
worry lest some accident occur, for which the conductor would
be held responsible, nearly made him ill. Such things happen
frequently, and unless something can be done to remedy them,
Mr. Seidl, who is of a highly nervous temperament, will either
collapse or leave us for Europe."
Alarmed by the urgency of the situation, the friends and
73
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
admirers of Anton Seidl conceived the plan of raising a fund for
the establishment of a permanent orchestra. It was agreed that
no conductor had ever aroused a larger and more enthusiastic
following than Mr. Seidl, yet he was the only prominent leader
in this country who had never been provided with a genuine per-
manent orchestra. Henschel, Gericke, Nikisch and Paur had
the Boston Orchestra to play on as their private instrument, with
which no one else could meddle. Mr. Thomas had the Chicago
permanent orchestra, Van der Slacken one in Cincinnati, and
Mr. Walter Damrosch had for several years an orchestra in New
York which was endowed with plenty of money to make it
really permanent, and was advertised as New York's only per-
manent orchestra. The admirers of Mr. Seidl were, therefore,
justified in claiming that it was now his turn to have a first-
class band provided for him, so he might show whether he
could make it permanent and ultimately self-supporting.
It so happened that two projects for a permanent orchestra
were started about the same time, neither part)' knowing of the
other. Colonel Robert IngersoU's family, including Mr. and
Mrs. Walston H. Brown and Mrs. and Miss Farrell, together
with Mrs. William Loomis and Miss Elizabeth Hunt Welling
first approached Mr. Seidl in regard to the matter. When the
other party heard of this plan it promptly agreed to cooperate
with the friends of Mr. Seidl, feeling convinced that he was the
best man for the place. Accordingly in response to an invita-
tion sent out by Mrs. Richard Watson Gilder, Mrs. Wil-
liam H. Draper, Mrs. Richard H. Derby, Mrs. Charles A.
Post. Mrs. Charles H. Ditson, Mrs. H. T. Finck and Miss
Lucia Purdy, more than a hundred music-lovers assembled
at the residence of Mr. W. H, Drake to devise plans for
raising funds for a permanent orchestra, presided over by
74
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Mr. Seidl. The meeting was called to order by Mr. Rich-
ard Watson Gilder, who called attention to one great advan-
tage music has over other arts : " To build up great works
of architecture or sculpture requires many years of waiting, but
the art of instrumental musical reproduction can be had in per-
fection at once. We have a leader of genius, and plenty of first-
class players ; all we need, therefore, is to hold these together by
financial support, and the thing is accomplished. To see any
city of the world purveying for itself finer orchestral music than
we might make permanently ours is something not to be endured.
A city dedicated primarily to trade needs especially the detachment
of spirit that comes through hearing the noblest music, nobly
rendered."
Dr. W. H. Draper gave a resume of previous attempts to
establish a permanent orchestra in New York, and several more
addresses were made. A committee on organization was appoint-
ed and had several meetings at the house of Dr. Draper. The
following list of officers was submitted and unanimously ratified
at one of these meetings : President, Charles T. Barney; Secre-
tary, Gustav E. Kissell ; Treasurer, William E. Strong ; trus-
tees, W. Bayard Cutting, Richard H. Derby, Charles H. Dit-
son, Robert W. De Forest, Charles Lanier, Charles F. McKim,
Stephen H. Olin, Henry W. Poor, Whitelaw Reid, J. Hamp-
den Robb, Albert Stettheimer, Gustav H. Schwab, Mrs. Robert
Abbe, Mrs. Arthur Von Briesen, Mrs. Walston H. Brown,
Mrs. Prescott Hall Butler, Mrs. Henry Clews, Mrs. William
P. Douglas, Mrs. William H. Draper, Mrs. Richard Watson
Gilder, Miss Louisa Morgan, Miss Purdy, Mrs. Victor Sor-
chan, Mrs. James Speyer.
The terms of the subscription to the guarantee fund were as
follows :
75
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
"In consideration of the organization of the Orchestra So-
ciety of New York and of its undertaking to give musical per-
formances, we, the undersigned, each for himself and not one for
another, agree with one another and with the said society, to pay,
each year, during the five years beginning May i, 1898, to the
said society at the call of its treasurer, our pro-rata share of any
deficiency that may exist between the annual receipts and expen-
ditures of the society, in accordance with the amounts set op-
posite our respective names. All, or any part of the yearly
amount subscribed by us, not called for in any one year, may be
called by the treasurer in any succeeding years if the trustees
shall so elect, but in no event shall the total liability of either of
us be in excess of five times the amount hereinafter set opposite
our names. No subscription hereto is to be binding until a total
of at least $25,000 has been subscribed for each of the above-
mentioned five years."
At the last meeting held, and before subscription blanks
had been distributed, it was announced that the sum of $52,000
had already been subscribed by Charles H. Ditson, W. C.
Schermerhorn, James Speyer, Charles T. Barney, Charles H.
Coster, George T. Bliss, Henry W. Poor, Gustave E. Kissel,
William E. Strong, Charles Lanier, Mrs. Gilbert E. Jones and
Mr. and Mrs. Henry T. Villard. It had also been announced
that Mr. Grau would be glad to engage the Seidl Permanent
Orchestra for his opera season, thus insuring the members reg-
ular employment for six months a year, and making an addition
equal to $80,000 to the fund. He also offered the Metropolitan
Opera House free for all rehearsals and concerts. There was
no doubt whatever that the additional $75,000 wanted could
have been raised in a few weeks. Mr. Seidl was wonderfully
elated at the prospect which thus suddenly opened before him.
76
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
He gave up all thought of accepting the offers from Berlin and
other German cities, and began making plans for the season.
The concert-master of the Permanent Orchestra was to be none
less than Mr. Ysaye, who would also have conducted some of
the concerts. The only difficulty was in regard to the opera,
which would take up so much of the orchestra's time that it
would not be possible to give more than ten or twelve concerts.
It was, however, agreed that that would be enough to begin with,
as New York was already flooded with musical entertainments.
THE WORLD AT HIS FEET
Thus, after a few years of undeserved neglect, Anton Seidl
had suddenly ascended a lofty summit from which he could survey
a grand field of future activity. The whole world lay at his
feet — Berlin, Budapest, London, New York, the capitals of
Germany, Hungary, England, the metropolis of America, were
competing for his services. He had to make his choice, and he
decided to take the Grand Opera in London and New York,
together with the Philharmonic and the Permanent Orches-
tras, work enough, in reality, for two men. But he was
enthusiastic, and had his body been as strong as his will, he
would have accomplished his Herculean tasks. He had been
ailing, however, for some time ; indeed, he had never quite re-
covered from the attack of pneumonia he had in 1896, which
brought him so near death's door that some of the newspapers
had articles headed " Seidl Dying." He told me afterwards
that he had a hard struggle with death ; he seemed to be ready
to drop down a precipice, but held back with his strong will.
" If I had yielded the least bit I should have gone over," he said.
The last two years of his life had aged him ten in looks. He
looked tired and careworn, and was no longer the strikingly hand-
77
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
some man everyone had admired for his splendid head no less
than for his interpretative genius.
The tragedy of his death has been related by Mrs. Seidl,
from whose manuscript I quote once more :
FATIGUING DUTIES
" On my husband's return from Europe, in September, I
was alarmed by his sickly appearance, which he declared was due
to a severe cold he had caught, and to the fact of his having
partaken of no food for twelve days, but which he felt sure a
week's stay in the Catskills would cure. He had, evidently,
while in Europe overexerted himself, for in addition to the
many rehearsals for Tristan, Lohengrin and Siegfried, in Lon-
don, he also directed the rehearsals for Parsifal at Bayreuth.
Thus he was compelled to make the journey from London to
Bayreuth and return three times. As soon as he finished at
Bayreuth, he was at once compelled to return to London, and
there conduct several Wagner operas, and immediately after the
opera was ended he had to leave again for Bayreuth — a trip
which, during the heat of midsummer, is not a trifling matter ;
especially for a man like Seidl, who put his whole soul into his
work without ever considering that this continual strain might,
possibly, ruin his health. He did not seem to realize, at that
time, what it was to be fatigued, so thoroughly was he imbued
with the sacredness of his mission to insure the production of
Parsifal in accordance with the intentions of his dearly beloved
master. His ability to accomplish that result, and his desire to
stand on the same hallowed spot where his adored master had
stood, at Bayreuth, were compensation enough for all the trouble
and annoyance he was subjected to. It is a noteworthy fact,
seemingly providential, that the last performance of Parsifal
78
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
was the hundredth of that work and at the same time the last
opera Anton Seidl ever conducted. It was his swan song and
certainly the most fitting end conceivable of a noble career.
" During the last summer and the following winter he re-
ceived numerous offers of engagement from the highest art insti-
tutes of Europe. His insecure position in this country, where
engagements are made from year to year and no engagements are
made for a series of years, as is the case in Europe, the many poor
years (professionally speaking) which he witnessed, and, last, but
not least, his useless complaints when he was called upon to give
concerts with but one preliminary rehearsal, discouraged him ex-
ceedingly. 'Had I but the means,' he would say, 'to engage
a permanent orchestra, what great things I could accomplish if I
could command as many rehearsals as I chose.' How often he
would say, ' What shall I do? If I tear down all my bridges in
Europe I am done for as far as that country is concerned. In
Europe I can have as many rehearsals as I wish; my income
is assured ; I need not kill myself by overwork ; after a certain
number of years I may retire on a pension, and I have the most
honorable position any man could wish. If I remain here it
might possibly be my luck to find myself suddenly with noth-
ing to do and in my old age a pauper.' However, his love for
his new fatherland prevailed and caused him to give up every-
thing else, although thoroughly convinced that his prospects for
the future were by no means bright. He doubted at first if the
money for an orchestral fund could be raised. ' But whatever
may occur,' he said, ' I am determined to remain in this country,
for I love America.'
" It goes without saying that all this worry excited him ter-
ribly, for how many jeering and heartless criticisms he had to put
up with on the part of his enemies ! When in addition to this
79
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
he could not during the whole winter get rid of the grippe, and
I begged him so often not to work so hard, and to try first to
recover his health, he always managed to comfort me and appease
my anxiety. A short time before his sudden death he was as-
sured by faithful friends and art enthusiasts that he should
have his permanent orchestra ! So, after all, the dream of his
life was to become a reality ! How happy and proud it made
him. ' Now at last I shall be able to show what I can do ! I
am sure that in the very first year I shall surprise everybody,
and after three years I shall not fear comparison with the best
orchestra in the world; and those whose trustful confidence en-
abled me to realize my highest ideals shall find their pleasure in
my success, and will thus find their reward.'
"On Monday, March 28, he had invited Ysaye, Pugno,
Gerardy, Schueler and a few other gentlemen to dinner in honor
of Pugno, who was to leave for Europe the following Wednes-
day. I do not know even now why I objected so much to
this dinner; my principal reason was that mv husband would be
kept unusually busy during the week by the Philharmonic re-
hearsals for the Ninth Symphony, besides other rehearsals ; feel-
ing that this would be too much for him in his enfeebled con-
dition, I begged him to give his dinner later on, after the
production of the Ninth Symphony ; but he insisted on giving
it on Monday, because Pugno had to be present and my dear
husband had to attend a rehearsal of the chorus on Tuesday.
THE LAST DAY
"On Monday morning, March 28, he got up in the best
of spirits. The promise of a permanent orchestra, the ap-
proach of the London season where he was to have such excel-
lent artists, besides the promise that all his wishes would be
80
Anton Seidl
i8%
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY DUPONT
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
realized in respect to the Ring of the Nibelungen, including a
careful attention to all the stage details, and then, to crown the
whole, the conducting of Parsifal at Bayreuth — all this was
calculated to raise his spirits to the highest pitch, so that he
joked and laughed merrily. At eleven o 'clock he had a rehearsal
with Madame de Vere and Henry Holden Huss ; after which he
had another rehearsal with a foreign singer. Later on came Miss
Farrell, with whom he conversed quite a while ; then he took his
lunch. Shortly before i p. m. he left me to go to Fleischmann's
cafe, where he partook of black coffee and read the papers. He
told me he would be home again by six o'clock. Messrs. Ysaye
and Schueler arrived first. I asked the former what time it was,
and he answered 6.15. " Then Tony may be here any minute,"
I replied. Presently someone rang the door bell, and Bertha
told me that Mr. Bernstein, the brother of my husband's man-
ager, Siegmund Bernstein, wished to see me. Without suspecting
anything, I went to see him and he told me that my dear husband
had gone to his manager's house quite illat five o'clock; that he had
had serious gastric trouble, which, after a spell of vomiting, had
left him unconscious. On his return to consciousness he felt con-
siderably relieved, saying that he would come home after resting a
little, and that I should sit down at the table with my guests and
proceed with the dinner. I was dreadfully frightened, and turn-
ing to the guests, begged them to proceed with the dinner and ex-
cuse me, as I had to go to my husband. Mv maid got me a cab,
and I drove with Mr. Bernstein to his brother's house. He told
me there was no danger, as a doctor had at once been sent for, but
terror had fixed its deadly talons on me, and the horse seemed to
crawl. I prayed all the time to God, ' Oh, do not let my dearest
fall ill ; let me bring him home well.' When I arrived he lay
calmly in bed, but did not open his eyes, nor did he say anything.
81
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Naturally this frightened me, though his breath was calm and
regular. I asked the physician if there had been an apoplectic
attack, but he answered No, and showed that Tony could,
slowly, move his hands and feet. I thanked him, but still fear-
ing the worst, I sent a note to our family physician. Dr. Lang-
mann, begging him to come at once. The letter was sent in our
cab. Meanwhile the Bernstein family, who were extremely kind
to me, begged me, whenever I tried to speak to my husband, not
to disturb his sleep. Unluckily our physician was not in when
the note came. When he at last got it and arrived, he asked
me, after looking at my husband, what he had eaten, as there
seemed to be evidence of ptomaine poisoning. He immediately
sent for a stomach pump, and meanwhile begged me not to be
alarmed, as my husband's heart had always been very sound, and
the pulse was little above the normal beat. He also telephoned
for his assistant, but before Dr. Moscovitch could arrive with the
stomach pump, a sudden change must have come over my poor
dear husband, for Dr. Langmann was working hard to keep up
his breathing. Another physician was sent for, and when both
the doctors arrived, blood-letting was resorted to — but in vain.
He was past human aid: the noblest, best of hearts had ceased
to beat."
Dr. Langmann has kindly sent me the following : "Anton
Seidl's death was due to one of those exceptionally rare cases
when the roe of a shad in springtime develops a deadly poison, so
much more deadly since it cannot be detected by sight, taste or
smell. There were some minor chronic ailments which must be
considered as contributory causes."
The autopsy revealed gallstone and liver trouble. Consid-
ering the general state of Mr. Seidl's system it is not likely that
he could have possibly carried out the tremendous tasks he had
8a
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
taken upon himself for the next year. Better than linger in bed
during a long illness it was that he should die at the moment of
his supreme glory and triumph. This reflection was the only
ray of consolation to the poor, heartbroken widow and the multi-
tude of mourning friends.
83
THE FUNERAL SERVICES
B Y
EDGAR J. LEVEY
L
METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE,
Thursday, March 31, 1898.
MEMORIAL SERVICES,
ANTON SEIDL,
Bom May 6, J 85a Died March 28, J898.
ORDER OF EXERCISES:
1. DIRGE, - Musical Mutual Protective Union.
Ginductor : Nahan Franko.
2. MALE CHORUS, " Wenn Zwei Freunde Scheiden. "
Arion Society. Conduaor : Julius Lorenz,
3. "ADAGIO LAMENTOSO"
from Symphonic Pathetique, - Tschaikowsky.
Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor : Richard Arnold.
4. "HELDEN REQUIEM, " - - H. ZoeUner.
Deotscher Liederkranz. Conductor : H. Zoellner.
5. ADDRESS by the Rev. Merle St Croix Wright.
6. "SIEGFRIED'S FUNERAL MARCH." Wagner.
Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor : Henry Schmitt
THE FUNERAL SERVICES
'■^Tou shall not come nearer a man by get-
ting into his house." — Emerson.
THE news of the death of Anton Seidl was a shock for which
his friends and the New York musical public found them-
selves wholly unprepared. On Monday, March 28, 1898, in ap-
parently good health, he went after luncheon to the Vienna Cafe,
at Tenth Street and Broadway, where he was in the habit of read-
ing the foreign newspapers and meeting friends. After leaving
there he walked to the house of his manager, Mr. S. Bernstein,
312 East Nineteenth Street, where he first complained of feeling
ill. Here his condition rapidly grew so much worse that Doc-
tor Swan, and later Doctors Moscowitch, Wagner and Lang-
mann, were called in attendance. Their efforts were of no avail,
and at 10:15 p. m. Anton Seidl breathed his last.
It is a common saying that the renown of an interpretative
artist is fleeting and rarely lasts beyond his generation. If so,
there is, at least, compensation in the intimate relationship exist-
ing with those who come under the immediate sway of his art —
a relationship which seems to endow them with a sense of pe-
87
ANTON SEIDI. A MEMORIAL
culiar pride in his fame and to cause a sense of personal grief
at his loss.
Anton Seidl held a place in the affections of the American
public such as no artist had ever held before, nor, likely, ever
will hold. The last are bold words ; but with all that the future
may hold for art and music in America, it is safe to believe that
never again will artistic conditions so ripely await the coming of
any man as did those which attended Seidl's entrance into our mu-
sical life. Arriving here at the moment when the success of mili-
tant Wagnerism only needed his authoritative leadership for com-
plete victory; obtaining that victory speedily and with it the de-
votion — at first partisan, then universal — which always falls to
successful leadership in human strife, even in art ; later, the ack-
nowledged centre around which clustered and grew the many
activities of our musical world, he was, at the moment of his
death, in the fulness of his powers, in the zenith of his glory,
and the idol of lovers of an art which finds its field in the play
of human emotion. It is not surprising, therefore, that the ob-
sequies of Anton Seidl were attended by a popular demonstra-
tion, unique in the depth of feeling displayed by many thousands.
Mrs. Seidl had at first opposed the idea of a public funeral.
It seemed to her to ill accord with her husband's simplicity and
dislike of ostentation. As soon as the news of his death became
known, however, the universal desire of the musical public to
give tangible expression to its love and respect became too ur-
gent to be denied. As though assured that there would be a
public funeral, every prominent musical organization in the
city, instrumental and vocal, professional and amateur, begged,
by the adoption of resolutions and bv personal appeals, to be al-
lowed to participate in the services. The directors of both the
Carnegie Music Hall and the Metropolitan Opera House ten-
88
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
dered the use of their buildings, and the offer of the latter was
accepted as the more appropriate, it having been with the his-
tory of opera in New York that Seidl's career had been most
prominently identified.
The day of the funeral was set for Thursday, March ji.
The short time allowed to perfect the arrangements necessitated
simplicity in the main features of the public function. There
was no time to prepare for an elaborate display of pomp, even
had that been thought fitting. The musical public, however,
were allowed an opportunity for the expression of their heart-felt
grief, and their demonstration of that far surpassed in effect the
impression that might have been made by more imposing forms.
The services at the Seidl home. No. 38 East Sixty-second
Street, were private. At about 12.30 p. m. the funeral cortege
proceeding on its way to the Metropolitan Opera House found
the streets on the route thronged with sympathetic observers.
Not until the procession reached the corner of Fortieth Street
and Fifth Avenue, however, did the funeral take on its public
character.
At this point there were gathered a hundred representative
musicians of the Musical Union, who had volunteered, under the
leadership of Victor Herbert and Nahan Franko, to act as a full
military band to play funeral music to and from the opera house.
Preceding the hearse, this band with thrilling volume and rich-
ness of sound began the great Beethoven funeral march (op. 26).
The opera house was reached at 1.20 p. m. The streets on all
sides were crowded with people who had been unable to obtain
entrance, but who waited so that they might at least uncover
with bowed heads as the coffin passed before them. The ad-
mirable police arrangements prevented the great mass of people
from becoming unmanageable.
89
ANTON SEIOL A MEMORIAL
The pallbearers were Richard Arnold, Carl Schurz, Rafael
JosefFy, Eugene Ysaye, Victor Herbert, George G. Haven, A.
Schueler, Oscar B. Weber, E. Francis Hyde, David Liebmann,
Walston H. Brown, Henry Schmitt, Charles T. Barney, Albert
Stettheimer, Julian Rix, Louis Josephthal, H. E. Krehbiel, Dr.
William H. Draper, Xaver Scharwenlca, Richard Watson Gilder,
August Spanuth, James Speyer, E. N. Burghard, Paul Goepel,
Edward A. MacDowell, Henry T. Finck, Zoltan Doeme, Al-
bert Steinberg and Edgar J. Levey.
Preceded by the pallbearers and followed by the mourners
the remains were borne into the house while the brass band on
the stage played a solemn dirge. Instantly the vast assemblage
arose and remained standing while the sad procession marched
down the aisle. The strains of the music were broken by the
sobbing of many. Nothing more dramatic had ever been seen
on the stage than that entrance. The same thought was in the
minds of everyone. All that was mortal of Anton Seidl was
entering the house of his greatest triumphs "zum letzten mal" —
for the last time. His house, it almost seemed ; and this a last
home-coming.
The four walls, the auditorium, the stage were felt to be
permeated with the memories of those triumphs. The echoes
of loud applause and the cheers of bygone days lingered in the
air, and there came to the memory an overwhelming rush of the
melodies of old.
Down, slowly down to the orchestra pit, and there on a
catafalque on the selfsame spot on which he had so often stood
in life, he took his place again.
From the railing to the stage the space was draped in black,
and surrounding the catafalque on all sides were masses of flow-
ers sent by friends, musicians, artists and singers from all parts
9°
ANTON SEIDL — -A MEMORIAL
of the world. Three of these pieces call for mention. One was
a conductor's desk, bearing an open score, imbedded in the
flowers of which there appeared on the one page a portrait of
Wagner, on the other, one of Seidl, and the inscription was
" Vereint auf Ewig."
Another was a wreath of several thousand violets from Jean
and Edouard de Reszke. The third was a floral tribute from
Lillian Nordica, who had ever taken pleasure in acknowledging
how much of her success in the role of Isolde she owed to her
studies with Seidl. This bore the singularly appropriate quota-
tion from Isolde's lament before the body of Tristan :
" Closed is the eye, and stilled the heart, and there is not
even the zephyr of a passing breath. She must stand before
you weeping."
On the stage, which was set as a cathedral and lighted by
many candles, sat the members of the Philharmonic Orchestra,
awaiting then, as so often before, the rapping on the conductor's
desk calling for attention. Surrounded by his friends, on the
one side by the musicians he had led, on the other by the pub-
lic he had moved, there arose and enveloped him for the last
time the waves of beautiful sound he had loved so well to
evoke.
The short but effective musical programme was excellently
rendered, the musicians being evidently moved and inspired by
the occasion. In the Tschaikowsky Adagio, which had been one
of the favorites of Anton Seidl's last years, there was the note of
poignant grief running into self-abasement and crushing hope-
lessness ; in the Wagner number a glorification, an apotheosis.
The eulogy delivered by the Rev. Mr. Wright was touch-
ing and eloquent. In large part extemporaneous and delivered
from but few notes, it cannot, unfortunately, be reproduced.
91
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Some of his remarks, however, as recorded in the journals of the
day, were as follows :
ADDRESS OF MR. WRIGHT
" What is the mind of man to music ? How can his words
be heard beside its mighty voice ? Yet music was his speech.
Music is great, because man, its maker, is first great. There
is but one mind and one voice that might be desired here to-day,
and that is mute. He lies here dumb among the tributes of
sorrowing friends.
" To-day we honor a man who first honored himself, who
honored us, honored our city and our country by making
America a worthy member of the great international musical
family. He, as director of the opera, had the courage to give
music a new birth, and he may justly be called the premier of
the music of America. As the soldier is carried to his grave
with flags lowered and amid the volleys, so it is but just that he
should lie here amid the scenes he loved so well.
" This, our fellow, was a creator. His magic touch and
enchanting sympathy opened a new world. One such work as
he has performed is sufficient achievement for a life. He was a
foreigner, but of that class of foreigners who make a country
native to our souls — a citizen of this country preferring America
and by America preferred. He was a leader perpetual in the
everlasting war against evil, selfishness, and lust, his only thought
to uplift and ennoble men.
" Though dead, he lives. His influence over music is im-
perishable. As music is the mother of arts, and father of sub-
stantial character, so he brought his inspiration and comfort to
our wearied souls. Music heals, unites, connects, completes and
frees man to his true self.
92
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
" All honor to Anton Seidl. He is mourned by two worlds
because he brought to each a new world, the inward revelation
of the spirit. There lies his baton. No man shall take it up.
Anton Seidl was unique. Anton Seidl forever."
After the Rev. Mr. Wright had finished his words, and just
before the funeral march was played, Mr. Krehbiel appeared on
the stage and read the following dispatch sent from Wheel-
ing by Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, a firm friend and devoted
admirer :
DISPATCH FROM COLONEL INGERSOLL
" In the noon and zenith of his career, in the flush and glory
of success, Anton Seidl, the greatest orchestral leader of all time,
the perfect interpreter of Wagner, of all his subtlety and sym-
pathy, his heroism and grandeur, his intensity and limitless pas-
sion, his wondrous harmonies that tell of all there is in life, and
touch the longings and the hopes of every heart, has passed from
the shores of sound to the realm of silence, borne by the mys-
terious and resistless tide that ever ebbs but never flows.
" All moods were his. Delicate as the perfume of the first
violet, wild as the storm, he knew the music of all sounds, from
the rustle of leaves, the whisper of hidden springs, to the voices
of the sea.
" He was the master of music, from the rhythmical strains
of irresponsible joy to the sob of the funeral march.
" He stood like a king with his sceptre in his hand, and we
knew that every tone and harmony were in his brain, every pas-
sion in his heart, and vet his sculptured face was as calm, as
serene as perfect art. He mingled his soul with the music and
gave his heart to the enchanted air. He appeared to have no
limitations, no walls, no chains. He seemed to follow the path-
93
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
way of desire, and the marvelous melodies, the sublime harmon-
ies, were as free as eagles above the clouds with outstretched wings.
" He educated, refined and gave unspeakable joy to many
thousands of his fellow-men. He added to the grace and glory
of life. He spoke a language deeper, more poetic than words —
the language of the perfect, the language of love and death.
" But he is voiceless now ; a fountain of harmony has ceased.
Its inspired strains have died away in night, and all its murmur-
ing melodies are strangely still.
" We will mourn for him, we will honor him, not in words,
but in the language that he used.
" Anton Seidl is dead. Play the great funeral march. En-
velop him in music. Let its wailing waves cover him. Let its
wild and mournful winds sigh and moan above him. Give his
face to its kisses and its tears.
" Play the great funeral march, music as profound as death.
That will express our sorrow — that will voice our love, our hope,
and that will tell of the life, the triumph, the genius, the death
of Anton Seidl."
At the last words the Philharmonic Orchestra began the
funeral interlude from Die Gbtterd'dmmeriing and as its last
fading notes died away the final tribute of love and respect
had been paid by the music-loving public of the metropolis
of the western world, where Seidl had made his home.
" Und scheint die Sonne noch so schon,
Am Ende muss sie untergehen ! "
The procession reformed and, preceded as before by the band
of musicians from the Musical Union, the remains were taken
94
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
to the crematory at Fresh Pond, where they were incinerated in
accordance with the wish that Seidl had so often expressed.
In the vast throng that filled the Metropolitan Opera
House, at these obsequies there may have been a few whose
presence was to be accounted for merely by that curiosity
which often prompts people to attend any imposing public
ceremony. To such, if we may imagine them as unmusical
and ignorant of the peculiarly intimate relation that existed
between Seidl and the New York public, it must have been
a cause for astonishment that there should have been man-
ifested such deep emotion on the part of so many thousands,
most of whom could have had no personal acquaintance with
the dead.
Why should such depth of feeling be exhibited for one
with whom no glance had been exchanged, between whom no
word had ever passed ? Why did the sense of loss seem so per-
sonal ?
For these thousands a well-beloved friend had indeed
passed away — none the less a friend because their communion
with him had not been by spoken words. For with friendship
it is far less the spoken word that counts than that sympathy
which is the consciousness and realization of common under-
standing and emotion.
Music is the artistic expression of emotion ; and when
music stirs the heart there is at once established between all
listeners a mutuality of sentiment, the sincerity of which is
never paralleled in any spoken exchange of ideas. Toward the
moving cause of this wonder — the interpretative artist — why
should there not exist, when the feeling is deep, such gratitude
as is known only in ideal friendship ? But Anton Seidl was
more than an interpretative artist: he reproduced. All dramatic
95
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
music is the physical expression of the composer's emotion ; and
a great artist, if not so overmastered by the sensualism of his art
as to seek a mere tribute to the beauty of musical forms, will
arouse that same emotion in his audience.
It was in his dominant freedom from the tyranny of musi-
cal notation that Seidl's greatness appeared most manifest. He
did not read from his scores as one would read from a book ;
but, like a great orator, he mastered their contents and then de-
livered them for the message that was there.
Music alone of all the arts speaks solely through terms of
sensual beauty, and it is too often true that a musical perform-
ance finds in its means its end ; if the ear is pleased, what mat-
ters it if the heart be left untouched ?
Anton Seidl cared for no music that did not stir the pulse.
But if he was moved he would move others; for it was his gift that
he could reproduce in tones whatever he felt, naturally, unaffect-
edly, truthfully, powerfully. In his conducting he ever sought
out the feeling that underlay the composition, and the same
emotions that in the heart of the composer first gave the music
birth he reproduced in the hearts of his listeners. He never let
music play itself, or " played it through "as the phrase is. Hence
the universal tribute to his " strong individuality " ; which meant
nothing more than an acknowledgment that, like the perfect or-
ator, he had mastered the spirit of the composition and spoke with
conviction. Many conductors, lacking this, and with the end of
only enouncing the physical beauty of musical forms, are frequently
betrayed into timidity in the execution of phrases. For such as
these, the creators and followers of that arid, pseudo-classical
tradition, so chilling to art, there is no expression in music where
none has been specifically indicated by the composer. If music
were always to be interpreted by great artists, composers would,
96
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
doubtless, like Sebastian Bach, eschew indications of tempi and
avoid all dynamic marks. With Seidl, the expression was
instinctive, and the discourse never flagged ; never became
monotonous or commonplace ; and if it had been possible to musi-
cally annotate his readings, the scores would have been inde-
cipherable from the multitude of marks of expression.
Under him the orchestra truly approached the Wagner
ideal of an ever-moving sea of sound ; the ebb and fall, the
swell and hush of the music were continuous and ever changing.
The sympathy of his audiences responded to the beats of his
baton until it seemed as though it were less the instruments of
his musicians than the attuned hearts of his listeners upon which
he was playing.
And so it was that the thousands mourning at the bier of a
dead musician with whom they had never exchanged a word,
grieved for the loss of a friend with whom they had so often
undergone the same emotions. The essence, the ideal of friend-
ship was there ; and that they had been moved together under
the spell of music, rather than by the less potent force of
spoken words, did but warrant the realization of a closer in-
timacy.
97
SOME PERSONAL TRIBUTES
THE PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY
THE first rehearsal for the eighth concert of the Philharmonic
Society was conducted by Anton Seidl, the second by the
concert master Mr. Richard Arnold, and the third by Mr. Van
der Stucken, of Cincinnati. One of Mr. Seidl's favorite compo-
sitions, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, was on the programme.
Under the circumstances the last movement with the Hymn to
Joy was, of course, omitted and in its place was played the Dead
March from Die Gdtterddmmerung, which, as at the memorial
services, brought tears to many eyes.
The following official notice was given out with the pro-
gramme :
" The Philharmonic Society of New York closes its fifty-
sixth season, the most successful and prosperous in its history,
in sorrow and mourning, through the sudden decease of its late
honored conductor, Mr. Anton Seidl.
"After the resignation of Mr. Theodore Thomas in 1891,
Mr. Seidl was elected conductor of the society, and has since
continuously served in that position until his sudden demise,
while actively engaged in preparation for the present concert.
Under his leadership the society has uniformly prospered in its
attendance and in its artistic results, and the members desire to
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
place on record their profound respect for his consummate at-
tainments as a musician and their deep sense of loss in his
decease.
" Mr. Seidl's genius for conducting was innate, but was fos-
tered by assiduous study and long early association with the
masters of this generation. His remarkable insight into the
orchestral works performed by the society and the vitality and
charm of these performances under his direction will long be
cherished in the memories of those who have been guided by
him in their performance and by those who have listened to
their interpretation."
A BROOKLYN TRIBUTE
I OVERHEARD to-day a child's remark, one who had not
reached fourteen vears ; it was intended only for the mother's
ear. She knew and loved the great artist Seidl in the simplicity of
the soul's life. Through the past five years in his public work she
had learned through him to understand and love the mas-
ters, and was looking forward to further education under this
great interpreter. Having wept to exhaustion, upon the news of
his death, which came with such appalling suddenness, she said :
" We grieve, and it seems impossible to believe he is gone,
but I cannot but feel he has passed into that higher sphere to
influence all musicians more."
It was a truth I needed, and it is a truth especially needed
by his afflicted wife. Our hearts cry out in anguish and rebel-
lious questioning, though we have known him only through his
work. Such glorious work ! We shall never forget those soul
feasts in the Brighton Beach Music Hall until memory is
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
merged In the delights of eternity. Those nights and days
when we, through this great apostle of art, were taught how
great is the immortal soul of man ! Those nights of Liszt,
Wagner, Mendelssohn and Beethoven ! Still, withal, was he
hampered, misunderstood and criticised, unable to bring his work
to the desired perfection because of paltry dollars, as ever to-
ward that perfection he worked in patient love. We knew what
his work was, when orchestral circumstances permitted the
moulding by his master hand of the fine material under him.
But what, oh merciful, pitying God, what must be the desolation
of the heart of his stricken wife ? But desolation only, in the
first frightful severance of such a tie, as existed between this
greatest of all conductors and the companion and partner of his
life's work : she being a musician, could support and comfort
him in his moments of disappointment and discouragement.
None need such loving support as pre-eminently as the artist
on all lines. But could she and we lose for a time our own
sense of awful sorrow and loss, to look out in spirit and see that
nature, expressing itself, without limitation, in the company of
those mighty souls whose work he interpreted in so unparalleled
a way, one could be glad in his joys, and forgetting our desola-
tion, rejoice with him and for him. Then, blessed truth to all
sorrowing hearts, he is not dead, but living ! Not merely living
in the hearts of all those who were privileged to work with, and
therefore truly know him, but living, individually, living as are
all the great and mighty ones, aiding and abetting the spiritual
work of art.
Those who, in their sordid, narrow, uninspired lives, have
thought him cold, let them read his article in the Music of the
Modern World, " About Conducting," and see there if such
can feel the mighty pulsation of the artist soul and recognize at
103
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
once the modesty as man and as musician, the manly assertion
of his work, who through the master hand could harmoniously
blend the different parts of the orchestra into one great and per-
fect instrument. That article is a classic, in its purity of lan-
guage, depth of truth and artistic enthusiasm ! It was just what
we who have loved and known him would have expected. In it
one recognizes how great and magnanimous he was ; as he ex-
plains the advantages and the disadvantages of orchestral work as
it exists to-day ; hampered as it is by lack of means from be-
ing a permanent orchestra in which all the artists work to the
mutual benefit of all, instead of being forced to seek outside
work to support themselves and fimilies. He knew he had
been criticised and blamed through the misunderstanding of
his critics, yet he simply makes an impersonal explanation for
the benefit of musicians, for the better understanding of music
as an art.
How could we know that those high, pure and lofty senti-
ments, crystallized in perfect form, were to be his last ! Those
who knew him best knew he had only begun to be, where in
individual work he cared to express himself musically.
P. E. A. L.
Brooklyn, March 31, 1898.
BY ALBERT STEINBERG
SEIDL THE MAN
ON an early winter afternoon, about fifteen years ago, there
stood near the dingy railway station in Bayreuth a slender,
smooth-faced man — he looked scarcely more than a boy then —
who could not conceal his grief as did the older people who en-
deavored to console him.
104
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
First a man with a reddish beard and huge spectacles ap-
proached him and spoke a few kind words. This was Hans
Richter, and every one, even the foreigners, instantly recognized
the High Priest of Wagnerian Art. The couple were presently
joined by a veritable giant of a man, who had in his pale blue
eyes the dreamy and yet the penetrating glance of a prophet.
" Albert Niemann," whispered the crowd of mourners, for Rich-
ard Wagner's body was expected from Venice, and the little
town of Bayreuth was draped from end to end in mourning and
the lanterns were flickering feebly, it being a dark, bleak and
miserable day.
The little group referred to grew larger every minute,
Levi, Piglhein, Lenbach, Reichmann and a host of other notabili-
ties appeared upon the scene. They all spoke in hushed tones
and the young man seemed never to hear a word.
Who was he that he should grieve so much more than the
others ? An artist without a doubt. His sensitive features and
the shock of hair that flew wildly about his face would have
told you as much the moment you set eyes on him.
A MAN TO KNOW
But was he also near of kin to the dead man that he should
be so utterly unnerved .'' The writer of these lines addressed
himself to the Count Schukowski, the master of ceremonies on
that lamentable day, and was told that the disconsolate young
man was " no other than Anton Seidl. He had at one time been
Wagner's private secretary, and had triumphantly taken Angelo
Neumann's ' Wagner-Theatre,' not alone through Germany, but
also through Italy. The master always had a great afl^ection for
Seidl," the Count continued, " had taken the warmest interest in
his career ; he feels, of course, as if he had lost his dearest
105
\
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
friend. You should know him, for he is a man of great, per-
sonal charm and surely a remarkable artist, for you know that
Richard Wagner never had the least patience with any one who
wasn t.
Little did I think that the man who interested me so much
then was destined to spend nearly the remainder of his days in
America.
For in the fall of '85 I was suddenly accosted on the street
bv a friend, who, before I knew it, presented me to Anton Seidl.
I told him that it wasn't our first meeting, and when I re-
called to him the incidents of that mournful day in Bayreuth
he instantly grasped me by the hand as if I were indeed an old
friend. He spoke sadly and reminiscently of the first meeting,
but when I said : " Now, really, Kapellmeister, what did you
think of the funeral march from Gotterddmmerung as it was
played by the Bayreuth town band at Wagner's funeral ? " he
burst into uncontrollable laughter, for his sense of musical
humor was of the keenest.
''lohengrin'' revealed anew
A few weeks after this encounter Seidl conducted for the
first time in New York, Lohengrin being the opera. We all
thought we knew that opera perfectly well, and yet it sounded so
differently that many of us were greatly puzzled. Not alone were
the climaxes built up in a strange manner, the melos brought
out in a more plastic fashion, and a hundred lovely poetic details
supplied that were formerly missing, but the opera, as I have al-
ready observed, sounded differently. Being asked why this was
so, Mr. Seidl smiled and even winked, but refused to give any
further explanation. For my own part, I think that Mr. Seidl
may have had the same experience with Lohengrin in New
106
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
York that Hans Richter had in London. When the latter re-
hearsed the opera the first time in the EngHsh capital it sud-
denly leaked out that the parts contained no less than one hun-
dred and eighty-six errors, and that it had been given in this
way, mistakes and all, for something like a quarter of a
century.
Let that be as it may, Anton Seidl was acclaimed a musician
of the highest type the moment he made himself heard here.
And his success grew apace. With every new interpretation the
number of his adherents became larger, their admiration more
fervent.
AN ''aMERICAMANIAC''
Wherefore Mr. Seidl determined forthwith to settle down
here with his wife — who, as Auguste Kraus, was known as one of
the brightest ornaments of the German Opera Company — and
to become an American citizen. In those days he was afflicted
with " Americamania " in its acutest form. Everything appealed
to him — our democratic ways, our enthusiasm for the works of
Wagner, our mixed drinks, our Welsh rarebits, our American
clubs, our American scenery. He lived for a while with his
wife in West Thirty-eighth street, but decamped quickly for rea-
sons that had better not be told, though a French maker of farces
would embrace you for telling him these reasons. Resolving
never to be taken in again, Anton Seidl and his wife took up
their quarters for a while in the apartments of the Metropolitan
Opera House, but it was not until they took a house of their
own that even their intimate friends had the slightest notion of
the couple's charming domestic attributes. For never was there
a house in which you met with such boundless hospitality, with
such truly interesting people.
107
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
MIME, THE SPOILED CHILD
At first it contained, besides the servants, but four inmates —
viz., Mr. Seidl, Mrs. Seidl, Bertha, their trusted companion, and
Mime. Mime was the spoiled child of the family and the
sweetest, cleverest and most devoted Dachshund that ever came
over the water. To be sure he was not very musical, but he
could do things that no " Dackel " ever did before. When he
saw other " Dackels " showing off, by sitting for a moment on
their hind legs, Mime would bark in derision, for Mime always
sat on his hind legs. It was as easy to him as is the G minor
Mendelssohn concerto to a modern piano virtuoso.
There were other and finer things that Mime could do.
Thus, when Mrs. Seidl would say, " Wie spricht der Hund "
(let me hear the dog speak), this canine prodigy would actually
talk. What he said was, of course, intelligible to Mr. and Mrs.
Seidl only ; also, perhaps, to the faithful Bertha, who would
obligingly interpret to the visitor the wise remarks of Mime.
But even the man who was not up in Dachshund lore could un-
derstand the sapient Mime the moment the lid of the grand
piano was opened. He would growl and snarl and retire to the
dining-room, for music made his breast savage, and neither Bach
nor Wagner would soothe him in the least. As soon as all had
become quiet again Mime would reappear in the drawing room
to exhibit to the astonished guests his most artistic feat. Walk-
ing on his hind legs, he would approach Mr. Seidl and " speak "
in most ingratiating tones. Mime's master would refuse to listen
until the dog whined and begged and implored. Then, and not
until then, would Mr. Seidl lower the hand which held his burn-
ing cigar, from which Mime with his left paw would brush off
the ashes. To describe the amazement of the uninitiated visitor,
the delight of Mr. and Mrs. Seidl, and the haughty pride with
io8
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
which Mime — his feat once accomplished — would take himself
off to bed is really quite impossible.
EARLY FRIENDS IN AMERICA
In the early days of his American life Mr. Seidl had only
a few friends who saw much of him. He cared but little for
society and he did not acquire the English language as easily as
did his wife. The circle then consisted of Mr. Edgar J. Levey,
now assistant Deputy Controller, who was so brimful of musical
enthusiasm that he even studied German to make himself intelli-
gible ; of Mr. Oscar B. Weber, of Niemann, the most com-
manding figure of the German operatic stage, and several others.
Wagner's music was not as familiar then as it is nowadays, and
nothing gave Anton Seidl greater joy than to sit down at the
piano and unfold to his friends the beauties of Wagner's scores.
He had little or no technique from a virtuoso's point of view.
And yet he played the instrument in a manner that was unique.
His touch was so beautiful that the piano seemed to sing, and
he could play in a manner that was truly orchestral.
THE MUSIC HE LOVED
The music of Wagner was, of course, his religion, but he
loved Bach passionately. If ever vou took him in his study un-
awares you found him pondering over a prelude or a sonata of the
pious old cantor. Latterly he was wrapped up in Tschaikowsky,
too, and these three masters — Bach, Wagner, and Tschaikowsky
— he revered more, I think, than any other composers. They
appealed more strongly to his temperament ; but it must not be
thought for that reason that he was not in sympathy with other
things he undertook, for he was a firm believer in the old saw
that what is worth doing at all is worth doing well, and nothing
109
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
could have been more unjust than the charges which were fre-
quently brought that Mr. Seidl slighted all music that was not
Wagnerian. These rumors frequently prejudiced people against
him, especially distinguished singers and pianists. Yet when
Mr. Seidl unexpectedly led Faust one evening Jean de
Reszlce, who had never sung this opera under him before, re-
marked to me : " I was never so surprised in my life, for I never
sang with so much ease and assurance before. The man seemed
to anticipate everything I did, and accompanied me as if we had
studied the part together for years."
Similarly did Mr. Joseffy express himself to me when he
first played to Seidl's accompaniment one of the Tschaikowsky
concertos in Philadelphia some years since. " Seidl can conduct
anything — when he wants to," was the virtuoso's verdict.
seidl's wit and wisdom
No one enjoyed this qualified panegyric more than Seidl did
himself when he heard of it. It cannot be said that he was a
great wit himself, but he greatly admired that quality in others.
On the other hand, he possessed a certain dry humor that was
delicious, and which was doubly delightful to those who under-
stood the Austrian dialect, in which he always spoke. To men-
tion but two of his sallies which went the rounds at the time they
were made.
A young singer whose voice was gorgeous, but whose
talent, as is frequently the case, was infinitesimal, often pestered
him by asking him his advice. She had just been making bad
slips at a rehearsal and came to him, score in hand, saying,
with a mixture of composure and contriteness, " Now, what do
you advise me to do, Herr Kapellmeister ? " And gazing
steadfastly at the young woman for a minute or two he retorted.
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
with the utmost deliberation, " I advise you " — emphasizing
the latter pronoun — " to marry some rich old tradesman." And
the lady did !
Again, when the agents of Richard Strauss made what he
considered exorbitant demands for the performance of " Thus
Spake Zarathustra," Mr. Seidl observed, " I know that Zara-
thustra spoke a great deal, but he didn't say that much."
Rehearsals worried him ineffably, for he was always willing
to give up hours of his time to them, to discuss with the mem-
bers of the orchestra what he thought and felt and what he
wanted. On such occasions he was never met even half-way.
The instrumentalists, who owed him much, instead of listening
to wisdom such as they may never hear again, bethought them-
selves of their private lessons and often grew restive till Mr.
Seidl himself lost all patience.
A FAVORITE RESORT
But rehearsals or no rehearsals, and in good humor or in
ill-humor, you could see him every afternoon at about three
wending his way to the Cafe Fleischmann, situated at the corner
of Tenth Street and Broadway. Detesting walking as he did, he
would take the Fourth Avenue car, and, indifferent to all climatic
conditions, always stand on the front platform smoking his cigar.
To the majority of the drivers and brakemen the gentleman
in the high silk hat, and the long hair, was known simply as
" The Professor." That's a funny little democratic way we've got.
A few who were curiously interested made it their business to dis-
cover his identity, and, upon boarding the car, courteously saluted
him as " Mr. Seadle."
But his was a familiar figure not at Fleischmann's alone,
but in all uptown resorts as well. At the Waldorf-Astoria, at
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
the Stewart House (where he stopped whenever his town house
was closed), and at Delmonico's,the attendants looked pleased the
moment they clapped eyes on him, for he was not only exceed-
ingly generous, but also very courteous to those who ministered
to his wants.
The most lovable side of the man's nature, however, was
revealed when he was quite free from care. Before he went to
London for the last time, he went to his summer home in the
Catskill Mountains. There, in a place called Fleischmann's —
though better known by its former name which was Griffin's
Corners — Mr. Seidl was as full of life and pranks as a school-
boy. Had the place been a bit of his own Hungarian Father-
land, he could not have been fonder of it. And when any of
his friends came up from the city to visit him he was in a ver-
itable transport of joy. Nothing was too good for such a one,
and Mrs. Seidl, who was one of the most loyal, devoted wives
man ever had, vied with her husband to make the guest feel at
home.
Heavens, how those people did feast ! Even Mr. Pepys, of
diary fame, would have been satisfied. A dozen people could have
turned up for dinner unexpectedly and yet the supply of Leber-
knoedel-Suppe, of trout, of Backhaendl and of Apfelstrudel would
never have given out. The wines, too, being of the choic-
est vintage, the house naturally rang with mirth and laughter upon
such occasions.
HIS DUMB FRIENDS
But when there were no people Mrs. Seidl, in spite of a
horde of servants, would herself look alter her vegetable garden
or after her kennel, for Mime no longer ruled as autocrat in the
house of Seidl. He had nearly been dethroned by Wotan, a
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
huge St. Bernard, who knew a trick or two himself. And, besides,
there were eight other little Dachshunds, such as " Froh," and
" Freia," and " Valla," and other crooked-legged creatures with
Wagnerian names. Whenever Mr. Seidl was away for a time
It was a sight to witness this regiment of canines scamper down the
hills to greet him upon his return. They were all tricked out in
ribbons of the gaudiest colors ; some of them, I do believe, carried
little flags in their collars, and when the train came in, down would
they rush toward the station, making noises that were surely never
heard even in Dante's Inferno. But to Anton Seidl's ears it
sounded like the music of the spheres.
Never were dogs so petted and spoiled and pampered, and
never were dogs so shrewd, so foxy. When Christmas came
around they knew it as well as anyone, and the man that would
have dared to make Herr Mime believe that it was Easter would
have run a good chance of leaving a piece of his leg and his
trousers behind him. Upon my word, I do also believe that these
dogs hungup their stockings on the night of December 24th just
like other children, for they had a Christmas tree — not a puny,
measly tuppenny Christmas tree, but a great big, splendid Christ-
mas tree — and for each dog there was suspended from various
branches a huge sausage, and each sausage had a label on it, such
as " For Wotan," " For Mime," etc., for those dogs could read!
TRAGEDY OF THE KENNEL
And to think of it! The pity^ the horror of it ! In that
happy dog family murder most foul was done in the end ; for one
day Wotan, whose name should have been Hagen, caught
Mime by the throat, crushing the life out of the poor, dear, faith-
ful brute then and there.
To poor Mr. Seidl this was, in all seriousness, a fearful
113
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
blow. He could not bear the sight of the big, treacherous St.
Bernard after that, and when he spoke of the murdered Mime,
which he did to his intimates only, he did not mind showing his
grief.
A man that was as fond as Anton Seidl of the dumb brute
was a good, a lovable man, depend upon it.
The music he made often transported the listener to heaven.
His kindness to his dogs must have made them think they were
in Paradise.
BY JAMES HUNEKER
SEIDL THE SPHINX
ANTON SEIDL is dead. When Balfour wrote his famous
"Conservation of Energy" we who believed in impersonal
immortality were delighted. Here then was a means by
which one could escape through the gateway of life into eter-
nity and without the bells of dogma buzzing on one's collar.
But test this new evangel of science by the heart-throbs ; consider
it calmly when the soul cries in anguish for the beloved one whose
voice is forever stilled on this side of the sun, and how cold, how
artificial, how desolate seems such philosophy !
Anton Seidl is dead, and shall we never see him face to face
again ? This question obdurately propounded itself to us when
we saw a casket borne into the Metropolitan Opera House the
last day of March, and this question smote us as it was taken to
the crematory. Alas ! it is a question no theologian, no man of
the laboratory, may answer.
I met the great Wagner conductor in December, 1885. I
well remember the occurrence, for I was a hero-worshipper then,
i'4
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
and the man with his elemental energy seemed a sort of demi-
god. He gave us a new Wagner — the real Wagner — and little
wonder he soon dethroned other conductors. He had the tem-
perament ; above all he had the tradition.
Seidl had few intimate friends. I could hardly count my-
self among them. I was seldom alone with him, yet each time
we saw Broadway in the early morning light. Then he talked
— talked for hours, if not fluently, gracefully. It is a mistake to
suppose his reticence meant ignorance. On one subject at least
he was at home. He knew by heart the Wagnerian literature
and its polemics. He was saturated with Wagner and it was his
bible. He was an organism framed by nature and training for
conducting. All else was subordinated to this unique purpose.
The man was an incarnated baton.
Seidl cared little for literature or painting, yet he was not in-
sensible to either. He told a friend that he purposed studying
Brahms. " He is a great man," said he. He knew Schopen-
hauer, and spoke intimately of Nietszche and Richard Strauss.
Yet the laconic habit of the man was all but irremediable. He
was pervious to the influences of good-fellowship, but let a stranger
intrude and like some deep-sea organism Seidl shut up and looked
grim things through you and over you. His face at such times
was granitic ; carved in implacable stone. He made enemies
easily, friends slowly ; his very failings were virile, his virtues
masculine.
He was a man to his ensphered soul !
A slow irony variegated his speech, but it was of the Jug-
gernaut sort. It crushed ; it killed. His smile was sweet and
it could damn, for about his wonderfully expressive mouth were
lines of sarcasm, and while they warmed into life in a measured
manner they were none the less effective.
"5
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Seidl was the greatest crescendo maker this generation has
heard. We all hear big crescendos, but if they are nervous they
lack weight. If they have the right weight they are apt to be
otiose and lacking in nerve fiber. Seidl had the passionate pulse,
and he went down, down until the very bowels of the earth were
reached. How his basses did play Tristan and Isolde, the Ring,
Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger ! Who can do more with these
dramas than did Anton Seidl ?
When Seidl was silent you could almost hear him thinking.
He had the sort of personality that overpowered through sheer
existing. Without any apparent volition on his part he made
one feel that he was a distinguished man — a man among men.
His funeral was more impressive than any music drama
ever seen or heard at Bayreuth. The Metropolitan Opera
House was for the moment transformed into a huge mortuary
chamber. It was extremely picturesque, yet sincerely solemn.
The trappings of woe were not exhibited for their mere bravery.
A genuine grief absorbed every person in the building, and when
Henry Edward Krehbiel read Robert G. Ingersoll's dispatch the
quaver in his voice, a thousand times more significant than the
rhetorical phrases he uttered, set many sobbing.
It was a time for tears.
The stage setting was a mixture of the church scene in
Faust, with suggestions of Le Prophete, and even The ^een of
Sheba. The marmoreal hush, the sad burning tapers, the huge
multitude, and that casket — that casket resting where once on
his heels had stood an erect man with the eye of a general
and the brain of a poet.
It was overwhelmingly touching.
Seidl had that indefinable quality we call individuality. His
mask was the great comedian's or the mask of the ecclesiastic.
ii6
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
His manners had a touch of the churchly, and Involuntarily your
eye looked for the Episcopal purple ring on his finger. His
garb suggested the priestly, and with his strongly-modelled
Gothic head — a head the replica of Liszt's — his picturesque and
flowing hair, smooth-shaven face and emotional mouth, he was a
figure of rare dignity and distinction. His eyes alone were
eloquent when his other features were Sphinx-like — brown, al-
most black ; while conducting they riveted his men with a
glance of steel. It was the eye omniscient, for his tympanist,
his contrabassist, his concertmaster will tell you that he seemed to
watch each and every man thoughout a performance. The mag-
netism of the man was the magnetism of the sphinx. It was not
always a pleasing magnetism. He went to a Wagner music-drama
in a sacrosanct mood. It was his religion. Outwardly as calm
as bronze, his orchestra from the first tap of his stick felt the elec-
tric impulse, the unyielding will of this Bismarck of conductors.
To me he always seemed a sphinx, the sphinx of Wagner, who
knew Wagner's secret voices and interpreted them magnificently.
Alas ! that Anton Seidl is dead.
BY HENRY WALLER
THE first time I met Mr. Seidl was about five years ago,
when I had just finished the score of my first opera. The
Ogalallas. I shall never forget his kindness to me when I presen-
ted myself tohim, a complete stranger and with a very bulky man-
uscript under my arm. I believe the servants of most conductors
have standing orders to admit no one carrying any sort of a par-
cel which looks as If a manuscript might be concealed in It. Mr.
Seidl, though, was kind to everyone who went to him for his
117
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
advice or assistance ; whether he knew them or not did not
matter. As an example of this I may mention that he examined
carefully the score of my opera (and hard enough it must have
been to decipher, since it was my first work for the orchestra),
suggested many alterations, and took a great amount of trouble
for one he had never seen before. This was the beginning
of my acquaintance with him, and he always showed the same
kindness and interest. I have been at his house often when
people have called to sing or play to him, and he always gave
them his attention. Once — last winter — when I took him the
prelude to an opera, Cleopatra, he went all through the score
with me — also asked me to play it to him ; and it was only by
the servant entering with a message from Mrs. Seidl, " Would
Mr. Seidl please go back to his dinner .'' " that I discovered he
had left the dining table to keep the appointment he had made
with me. At a rehearsal of the same prelude, which he played
at one of the Sembrich concerts, he took the same pains, playing
it three or four times till it went to suit him. I am dwelling on
this side of Mr. Seidl's character because I think that by many
people he was not credited with one quarter of the real kindness
of heart he possessed. His manner at times was abstracted and
" indifferent," and he had a disconcerting way of looking some-
times at people of his acquaintance as if he had never seen them
before. A stranger meeting him in one of these moods might
have supposed him to be of a morose temperament, hut the
contrary was the case, as all who knew him can testify. His
fondness for animals alone was a quite sufficient proof of the
kindliness of his nature. As to his talents, the world has judged
of them ; for, in spite of his sudden death in the middle of his
career, he had already taken his place — in Europe as well as in
America — and as a conductor of Wagner's later works he was
iig
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
supreme. A member of his orchestra told me that the last scene
of Tristan and Isolde always moved Seidl to tears, so deeply
did he feel this wonderful music. When he died he had not
only the respect and admiration of the whole musical world, but
the sincere affection of all who knew him.
BY HENRY HOLDEN HUSS
HAVING been asked to give a few personal reminiscences of
Anton Seidl, I would like to recall some features of a
picturesque instance of his versatility, and right here let me pause
and say that Seidl, within certain well defined, limits was versatile.
Of course his great, supreme gift lay in his appreciation of
the intensely dramatic moments of Wagner's music, the cli-
maxes — the Gipfelpunkte as the Germans would say.
His masterly power in reproducing the overwhelming mo-
ments of "Tristan und Isolde, Die Gdtterddmmerung, Siegfried,
etc., will always be his strongest claim to be numbered amongst
the short roll of giants who have wielded the baton and played
upon great orchestras and vast audiences, as a violinist plays
upon his instrument, but the versatility of the man was not so
widely known and recognized. One has, however, but to re-
call the wonderfully varied phases of emotion to be met with in
Wagner's music — the naive realism of The Flying Dutchman,
the tender romance and poetry of Lohengrin and Tannhduser,
the ideality, youthful passion, rough humor and chivalry of Die
Meistersinger, the marvelous intensity of that flower of poesy
Tristan und Isolde, with its white heat of passion, and The Ring
of the Nibelung — that vast panorama, with its programme music,
the introductions to Rheingold, WalkUre, the Ride of the Wal-
119
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
kiiren, the forest music of Siegfried, its heroic strength, idyl-
lic charm, romance and passion, grotesque humor, grandeur,
tragedy, and majesty, and last of all Parsifal, that wonderful dual
picture of mediaeval mystical poetry, religious feeling and earthly
allurement — I say one has only to recall how wonderfully and
completely Seidl entered into all the manifold shades of feeling
to realize that in being the great Wagnerian interpreter that
he was, he manifested remarkable versatility. But I wished to
tell of other instances of this trait; for instance, his sympathetic
and wonderfully vivid and noble performance of Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony. Seidl, on being told what a deep impression
his conducting had made, replied modestly enough to me,
" Well, there you have Wagner's ideas on the subject." What
was specially striking was the elasticity of the tempi, making the
music most spontaneous in its appeal to one.
Then, again, witness his intime appreciation of Liszt, Ber-
lioz, Tschaikowsky, Dvoi-ak — the latter amongst other qualities
with his Schubertian lyricism. All moderns, you say, quite true ;
but with what infinitely varied differences in their music ! One
should not forget, also, the dignity and self-restraint of his
Bach interpretations.
In summoning up these memories an interesting paradox
presents itself, viz. : although he was one of the most subjective
of artists, yet in his great moments you forgot his own per-
sonality, the orchestra, the audience, and felt only the power
of the music which he was literally re-creating anew for
you.
The picturesque instance of his versatility, of which I wish
to take notice, occurred at the beautiful home of Mrs. Phoebe
Hearst in Washington. The idea was to present Haydn and
his orchestra at the Court of Prince Esterhazy.
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Seidl, the orchestra, all the guests, the lackeys, everyone was
in the costume of 1760. Seidl, of course, made an ideal figure
in the ancient costume, with his clear-cut features, as Papa Haydn,
a lost opportunity for a characteristic portrait. And never was
the farewell symphony played with greater delicacy, refinement
and grace. The ending was especially effective with its gradual
diminuendo, each musician blowing out his candle and quietly
leaving his desk, until Seidl-Haydn and his " concertmeister "
were left alone in the fast-gathering gloom.
One of the numbers of the programme which called forth an
interesting comment from him was a little known and archaic
Trio of Haydn played by the first violinist, the 'ceUist and my-
self. The delicately, almost ethereally toned grand piano was an
ancient instrument, made by Stein, in Salzburg (Mozart's birth-
place), in 1760, with an action like thistle-down, and having all
its black keys white and its white keys black, as an Irishman
would say.
Seidl remarked after the performance of the Trio that the
early chamber music of Mozart and Haydn would have better
balance if just such old instruments were used. The delicacy
and discretion (rare quality!) of Seidl's accompaniments of a couple
of Mozart Arias sung by Mme. Blauvelt at the same concert
proved that the great Wagnerian conductor had the same love
and appreciation for Mozart that Wagner himself possessed.
In suggesting the writing of this little tribute of affection,
the editor desired me to tell how helpful Anton Seidl had been
in giving counsel and advice in regard to my compositions, as
this kindly side of his character was one little known to the great
public. So, what otherwise might have been considered intrusive
egotism will, I trust, be accepted as a sincere tribute of gratitude.
Few musicians would have bothered themselves as he did, on an
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
extremely torrid day at Brighton Beach, to listen to a violin con-
certo, to go into the pros and cons of the instrumentation,
whether the solo instrument was allowed due prominence, etc.,
in all displaying a discriminating musicianship and keen apprecia-
tion of musical perspective which is, alas, so often lacking in
otherwise great conductors. Although boasting at the time of
but a very slight acquaintance with him, this was but the first of
many conferences about this and other of my compositions, and
it mattered not whether his criticisms were laudatory or other-
wise, I never left him without being stirred and inspired to
fresh endeavor. A number of my colleagues can testify in the
same way of the generous and painstaking interest manifested in
their compositions.
Never-to-be-forgotten was the last time I saw him ; it was
the morning of the day he died. Mme. de Vere-Sapio had come
with me to his home in 62nd Street for a piano rehearsal of my
Cleopatra s Death, which she was to sing at the last Philharmonic
concert. How animated he was ! how full of helpful suggestions
— suggestions which went to the heart and marrow of the sub-
ject ; in his excitement, beating time as if the whole one hun-
dred and ten men of the orchestra were present, as they doubt-
less were to his vivid imagination. On leaving him, as if actuated
by an unconcious presentiment, we inquired particularly how he
felt ; he replied that he was in tolerable health only, and smiled
as I playfully remarked that it would never do for him to be ill
for the last Philharmonic concert of the season — a concert, alas,
which was to be his dirge !
There was in my experience only one performance of the
Siegfried death music, which was played at this concert, which
equalled it in impressiveness and pathos, and that was in the
great bare Munich Bahnhof when Richard Wagner's body, rest-
ing in a plain gray freight-car, with no distinguishing mark save
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
a single laurel wreath lying on top, was transferred from one
track to another, and several combined military bands made the
vast structure resound with the mighty apotheosis.
We, who were the friends of Seidl, will always regret that
his cherished wish never came to fruition, viz. : that of having an
opera company under his control. Well do I remember his
saying : " Once before I die, I would like to have the Wagner
operas and other good operas : Fidelia, Euryanthe, Don Juan,
etc., performed as they should be, and especially the Wag-
ner operas, as I know Wagner desired to have them. I should
select with extreme care the stage manager, etc. ; I would
have rehearsals of the chorus the preceding summer ; every de-
tail of the mise-en-scene should be looked after ; the goal should
be a truly artistic whole."
It is pleasant that the prospect of a truly permanent orches-
tra, with opportunities for unlimited rehearsals, should have made
his last days — as Mrs. Seidl remarked — amongst the pleasant-
est of his life. But why did New York wait until he was on the
threshold of the grave ? Surely in his case Shakespeare's dictum
that " the good that men do is oft interred with their bones " is
wrong.
Can lapse of time, or other experiences ever rob us of the
enthralling delight, the poesy, the mighty rush of emotions
awakened and called into life by his wonderful dramatic gifts ?
BY VICTOR HERBERT
WHEN I first came to the United States, in 1886, I had
known Anton Seidl only by his great reputation as a
Wagner disciple, then so widespread in Europe. He was at that
time in the second year of his work at the Metropolitan Opera
123
ANTON SEIDL- — A MEMORIAL
House. The musicians comprising his orchestra had readily come
to appreciate his profound knowledge of Bayreuth tradition, alike
of the stage and the orchestra. They had found in Seidl a man
thoroughly imbued with Wagner's ideas, both in the general con-
ception and in the smallest detail of each opera. He fairly bristled
with animated energy, and was ever alert to right the minutest of
errors. His thorough knowledge of this work, which with him
was a life passion, enabled Seidl to make incredible progress with
both players and singers in the preparation of his superb produc-
tions. The great presentation o? Tristan and Isolde at the Metro-
politan Opera House in the year mentioned was accomplished
with but five rehearsals with the orchestra, including the one set
apart for correction of the orchestral parts.
But our conductor never took to himself any credit for such
remarkable achievements. Always anxious to ascribe honor
where honor was due, he attributed this, the greatest success of
the season, to perfection of discipline in the orchestra, the ready
perception of its members and their fine routine in orchestral
work. To his soloists he was ever anxious to accord a full
measure of praise. In 1886, for instance, the principals included
Lehmann, Auguste Kraus, Marianne Brandt, Niemann, Robin-
son, Anton Schott, Alvary and Herbert-Foerster, whose artistic
contributions to these great operatic performances were graciously
recognized by the conductor, his characteristic modesty invariably
placing them and the orchestra before himself.
The musicians frequently saw that the music affected Seidl
most profoundly. He was a man of deep emotion. Certain
passages in Siegfried and the wonderful closing scene of
'Tristan always made him cry like a child, so that by the time
the curtain had dropped he would be in a state of emotional
collapse.
114
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Seidl was universally admired and loved by the members of
his orchestra. He never showed the faintest trace of false pride.
His players were his companions, his helpers ; he was simply
one of them. It was through this strong bond of fraternity that
he came to acquire a powerful personal influence over the instru-
mentalists which was entirely distinct from the musical magnet-
ism exerted in rehearsals and public performances. This all-
powerful, impelling yet unfathomable power of control imperi-
ously commanded his followers in the orchestra by first awaking
their entire interest and then spurring them on to efforts that
they could make under the baton of no other master. The
graceful, incisive, clean-cut movements of his stick were intelli-
gible at all times. And, for his part, Seidl always relied impli-
citly upon the quick perception of his musicians, never wasting
time in unnecessary explanations of what was to be brought out
in this bar, or avoided in that. We always knew by a glance
from his eye just what was expected of us.
Mr. Seidl was a man little given to words. As it was once so
aptly remarked of von Moltke's position in the realm of scientific
warfare, so may it be said of Anton Seidl as a musician and con-
ductor, that he was " der grosse Schweiger " (the great silent).
Yet he never failed to say the right thing in the right place, and
many anecdotes are related of his quick wit and dry humor.
When he talked it was because he had something to say; and as
many of his friends can attest, he was exceptionally apt in his re-
marks.
Some years since, after a performance of his orchestra at
Brighton Beach, a few of us sat down towards midnight for a
lunch with Mr. Seidl in his favorite cafe. There were present
in the little party several musicians, and among the enthusiastic
amateurs of music a prominent New York manufacturer, who was
125
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
an ardent admirer of Italian opera. For twoscore years or more
had this gentleman faithfully attended all of the Italian opera
presentations in New York ; he had fraternized with all the famous
artists who sallied forth from their Milan stronghold to make
conquests of New World audiences. As one would naturally ex-
pect, during the course of the evening he turned the drift of con-
versation upon the subject of his favorite hobby. Niemann was
present, and, if I mistake not, there may have been another singer
or two in the little gathering. All save Seidl had something to
say about the decadence of the ultramontane school of opera. Fin-
ally, when the subject seemed to have been exhausted, the conduc-
tor made a few remarks.
He was known to be very fair in his judgment of men and
their works. He admired all that was good in Italian operatic
music, but was ready to condemn what was rubbish. Many of
the singers from sunny Italy he regarded as great; Campanini's
glorious voice and superb vocal art were his especial admiration.
But his profound regard for the eternal fitness of things appeared
to instigate this brief succinct expression of his views on the topic
under discussion.
"In the property room of the Metropolitan Opera House,
gentlemen, there is a helmet." He paused for a moment, reflec-
tively puffed at his cigar, and then resumed : " It may be tarnish-
ing now, but a year or two ago it was brightly burnished. If you
were to hunt it up you would find that this specimen is much
like other helmets save for the ' Schwanritter ' emblem which it
bears. It was made for Lohengrin, and my dear friend Cam-
panini wore it in a truly magnificent performance of the role.
Yet if you were to find that helmet to-day you would discover
that in addition to the prescribed dimensions and insignia of this
piece of knightly headgear Mr. Campanini had put on a blue
iz6
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
plume, probably three feet in length. That, my dear gentlemen,
is Italian opera."
Seidl's death was the pathetic termination of a career which
had just fairly realized its highest ambitions. He had just come
into the acquisition of all that he hoped for. Strong influence
had secured for Seidl a substantially permanent orchestra. This
was a well-deserved recognition of his merits and talents. He
had the Philharmonic Society, and the Metropolitan Opera
House German productions. He had the promise of regular
work at Bayreuth festivals ; and a permanent engagement at Cov-
ent Garden, in London. And in the midst of all this, the ripe
harvest of a busy life, Seidl was stricken down.
[27
APPRECIATIONS
BY
MUSICAL CRITICS
BY H, E. KREHBIEL
A FEELING very much akin to dismay has filled the
music-lovers of New York since Anton Seidl died sud-
denly on the night of March 28th, 1898. Until he was gone, it
was hard to realize how large a place he had filled in the musical
economy not only of New York, but the world. His death left a
gap in the operatic forces of the Metropolitan Opera House, New
York, and Covent Garden, London ; robbed the Philharmonic
Society of New York of a conductor under whom it enjoyed six
seasons of unexampled prosperity; weakened the artistic props of
the Wagner festivals at Bayreuth, which have been more and more
in need of fortification as the enterprise has gained in worldly
wealth ; orphaned a number of undertakings which looked to the
edification and entertainment of the people of the United States
and Canada in the course of coming seasons. He was within a
step of the attainment of a position quite without parallel in the
history of musical conductors in respect of the scope and influence
which would have been opened to his labors, when he died, and
this it is that made his death seem so utterly grievous and dis-
astrous. It was a loss not to one community, but to many; not
to a single artistic institution, but to art itself.
i3«
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Mr. Seidl's activities in New York compassed twelve sea-
sons. He came in the fall of 1885, to be the first conductor of
the German opera, then domiciled at the Metropolitan Opera
House, and he remained at the head of that notable institution
until Messrs. Abbey & Grau and their Italian cohorts overthrew
the German regime in i 891. When his labors ended at the opera,
they began with the Philharmonic Society. Mr. Theodore
Thomas, who had long been the conductor of the society, went
to Chicago in 1891, and Mr. Seidl became his successor at the
beginning of the season 1891-92. In that season performances
in Italian were resumed at the Opera, and Mr. Seidl's labors
were confined to the concert-room. So they were during the
season of 1892-93, when the destruction of the interior of the
Metropolitan Opera House made operatic representations im-
possible. In the next two seasons Mr. Seidl conducted the
Sunday-night concerts given by Messrs. Abbey & Grau, but the
director's desk at the Opera House did not know him till Ger-
man was added to the official operatic languages, in the fall of
1895. Then he again became a Metropolitan Opera conductor,
and so remained, extending his labors to London in the spring
of 1897, and to Bayreuth in the summer of the same year. He
was under contract to conduct the representations of Wagner's
lyric dramas in London and New York in the seasons of 1898
and 1 898-1 899. But this does not sum up the range of his
action. During the entire period of his American residence, he
conducted a vast majority of the orchestral concerts given under
other auspices than those of the institutions mentioned, and he
was extending his activities more and more widely with each
year, so that it may correctly be said that, had he lived to carry
out the plans which he had laid down for the next season here
and abroad, he would have been unique among the world's con-
132
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
ductors in the variety and extent of his labors and the reach
of his influence. This fact is in itself a proof of the strong per-
sonality of the man. Had he been the most skilful master of
orchestral and operatic routine in the world, or the most accom-
plished academician in his field and nothing more, he could not
have so impressed himself upon contemporary music, could not
have made the need of himself felt in such a degree in two hemi-
spheres.
What manner of man and musician, then, was he ? More
distinctively than any of his colleagues, even those whose
training was like unto his, a product of the tendencies given to
reproductive art by Richard Wagner. He represented those ten-
dencies in all their aspects, positive and negative, creative and
destructive, progressive and regressive. In all the things
wherein his greatness lay, he was the embodiment of an author-
ity which asked no justification and brooked no denial. Out-
side his specific field he was an empiric — one of a noble sort like
Wagner himself, indeed, but an empiric nevertheless. He had
no patience with theories, but a wondrous love for experiences.
In him, impulse dominated reflection, emotion shamed logic. It
was much to his advantage that he came among an impression-
able people with the prestige of a Wagnerian oracle and archon,
and much to the advantage of the cult to which he was devoted
that he made that people " experience " the lyric dramas of his
master in the same sense that a good Methodist " experiences "
religion, rather than to " like " them. He was a young man when
he came, but he had been for six years the musical secretary of
Wagner and a member of his household. Before then he had
studied at the Leipsic Conservatory, and afterwards worked in a
modest capacity at the Vienna Opera. In Budapest he came under
the eyes of Hans Richter, who sent him to Wagner to perform
133
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
the duties which had once been his. During all the preparations
for the first Bayreuth festival, he was one of the poet-compos-
er's executive officers. He participated in the artistic manage-
ment of the stage during the performances of 1876, and after-
ward conducted the preliminary rehearsals for the concerts which
Wagner gave in London and elsewhere in the hope of recouping
himself for the losses made at the festival. Naturally, when he
came to New York he was looked upon as a repository of
Wagnerian tradition — a prophet, priest, and paladin.
It was not given to Mr. Seidl's friends to observe traces of
his academic training except as they may have been preserved in
his skill at the pianoforte. He was, by open confession — so, at
least, do I interpret some of his sayings — what the Germans
call a Naturalist. His branch of musical practice was the repro-
ductive, and he believed conducting to be an art which in its
truest estate could be acquired only by plenary inspiration. It is
commonly said that he was first a pupil of Hans Richter in the
art, but he never said so himself. On the contrary, he said
publicly that Richter had become a conductor without lessons,
and that, though he had made earnest studies of Beethoven and
Wagner with Richter, he had never troubled himself with tech-
nical practice in the manipulation of the baton. What he learned
in this direction he learned chiefly by standing at the side of
Wagner, listening for him, and noting the methods which Wag-
ner employed to make his players one with him in understand-
ing, feeling, and aim. Only once have I known him to men-
tion a technical feature of the conductor's art which he deliber-
ately adopted from another's method. He used the Munich
Conductor Levi's manner of beating time in recitatives. For
the rest, he depended upon himself — his influence at the moment,
his knowledge of the music, his consciousness of command over
134
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
men. The first essential in conducting he held to be complete
devotion to the music in hand. The conductor must penetrate
to the heart of the composition and be set aglow by its flames.
That done, he must make his proclamation big and vital, full of
red blood, sincere and assertive — assertive even in its misconcep-
tions. He had no room in his convictions for mere refinement
of nuance or precision of execution. Too much elaboration of
detail he thought injurious to the general effect.
These beliefs were entirely consistent with his tastes, tem-
perament, and training, all of which were largely, perhaps one
might say hugely, dramatic. His heart went out to music which
told a story or painted a picture, and in the presentation of such
compositions he became all-compellingly eloquent. Sometimes,
too, he found picturesque elements in most unexpected places,
as, for instance, in the variations which make up the last move-
ment of Brahms's symphony in E minor. As a rule, Brahms's
music lay beyond the horizon of his sympathies, but this tre-
mendous Passacaglia seemed to warm him, and he read it better
than he did anything else of him who was the master symphonist
of his age.
Despite his belief that an ounce of gift outweighed a
pound of schooling in the art which he practised, and that
finish in detail was wholly subordinate to general effect, nothing
was plainer to the careful observer of Mr. Seidl's recreative
processes (for such all of his readings were) than that it was
his knowledge of the potency of details, and his capacity for
lifting those of essential value into prominence, upon which
his superb triumphs depended. As a master of climax, I have
never met his equal ; and he attained his climaxes, in which the
piling of Pelion on Ossa by other men was exceeded, by the
most patient and reposeful accumulation of material, its proper
135
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
adjustment, and its firm maintenance in popular notice when
once it had been gained. The more furious the tempest of pas-
sion which he worked up, the more firmly did he hold the forces
in rein until the moment arrived when they were to be loosed,
so that all should be swept away in the melee. None of his con-
freres of Bayreuthian antecedents can work so directly, so elemen-
tally, upon an audience as did he. With him in the chair, it was
only the most case-hardened critic who could think of compar-
ative tempi and discriminate between means of effect. As for the
rest, professional and layman, dilettante and ignorant, their souls
were his to play with so they were at all susceptible to the kind
of music which he preached as an evangel. Puissant as he was
when conducting Fidelia, or putting a symphony or opera
" through the Wagnerian sieve " — as Albert Niemann once de-
scribed the process to which he had subjected La Juive, much
to the vitalization of the old French work — he was transfigured
when he conducted Parsifal or Tristan und Isolde.
And now for some purely personal and individual impres-
sions of the man. Anton Seidl was one of those strong char-
acters that give an interesting tinge to all manner of incidents
with which they chance to be associated, even though they be of
themselves commonplace. Like Moltke he could hold his
tongue in seven languages, but singularly enough his habitual
taciturnity never made his company any the less interesting.
Moreover, when the mood was on him he could talk " an hour
by his dial "; and then his reminiscences of the years spent in
the household of Wagner, or the story of his experiences while
carrying the gospel of the poet-composer through Europe were
full of fascination. But the talkative mood seldom came upon
him when surrounded by a crowd. He was indifferent to the
many and fond of the few, and so his circle of really intimate
136
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
friends never grew large in spite of the multitudes who sought
and obtained his acquaintance. No combination of circum-
stances could disturb his self-possession, yet he seemed to be
most contented and comfortable when seated quietly " under four
eyes," as the Germans say. Even under such circumstances he
would sometimes sit for minutes at a time without speaking
himself or expecting a word from his companion, yet never show
a sign of weariness or ennui. In this respect he was something
like Schumann, of whom it is told that once he spent an hour
with a charming young woman to whom he was fondly attached
without uttering a word. Knowing his peculiarities she, too, re-
mained silent and was rewarded for her self-restraint by his speech
at parting, which was to the effect that the hour had been one in
which they had understood each other wholly and perfectly.
Mr. Seidl's hero, Wagner, was the antipodes of Schumann in
this respect, and there is a story which indicates that he must
frequently have been amused at his pupil's reticence. Coming
to a rehearsal he found that Seidl had contracted a cold that had
robbed him of every vestige of voice. Wagner laughed immod-
erately and with mock seriousness upbraided him for his bad
habit of talking too much which had now brought him to the pass
that he could not talk at all.
His epistolary habits were like his conversation. He wrote
as seldom as he talked, but as the talking fit sometimes seized
him so did the writing fit. Then he could devote hours to a letter
which had the dimensions and sometimes also the style of a formal
literary essay. In this kind of writing he was so prone to drop
into a pulpit manner that I once taxed him with it and jokingly
asked for an explanation. He paused for a moment then smil-
ingly made a sort of half confession that he had once been des-
tined for the priesthood. His fondness for Scriptural illustra-
137
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
tions and his " preachy " manner were habits which had clung
to him from that early day. They were the only academic relics
about him, however. I doubt if any of his friends ever heard
him discuss a question in the theory or history of music. How
far his exact knowledge in the art went I shall not undertake to
determine ; one thing is certain, it embraced every measure of
Wagner's greater works.
He seldom spoke of his conservatory days at Leipsic and
then generally in a tone of amusement. One day I compli-
mented him on his pianoforte playing, and he replied, laughingly :
" Oh ! I made quite a stir at a conservatory examination once
with Mendelssohn's Rondo Capriccioso. I was to be a pianist."
That he might have been moulded into a virtuoso can easily be
believed, for without paying much attention to the graces of
pianoforte playing he had a remarkable command of those tone
qualities that are so helpful in expressive playing. He was
always eloquent at the instrument when playing excerpts from
Wagner's great dramas, and several times when he played the
illustrations for my lectures I found it almost impossible to pro-
ceed with the discourse after he had played the music accom-
panying the death of Tristan, or the funeral march from Die
Gotterddmmerung. His pianoforte expositions were peculiarly
full and orchestral owing to the fact that he did not confine him-
self to pianoforte arrangements, but preferred to play from the
orchestral score, which he had at his fingers' ends. That he ap-
preciated the importance of adjusting method to media he exem-
plified once at a rehearsal which he gave to a pianist who had to
be called to my assistance suddenly because he had unexpect-
edly been summoned to duty at the opera. The pianist and I
were familiar with Mr. Seidl's tempi and one or the other gave
expression by look or word to surprise when he urged that one
138
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
excerpt be played considerably faster than it came from his baton
at the opera. He answered the query sententiously : " Nie
langweilig werden am Klavier ! " (" You should never grow
tedious at the pianoforte ! ")
As an evidence of his reticence touching his thoughts, feelings
and intentions, I wish, in conclusion, to offer a story, though it
has a personal bearing. Fully three years before his death I
discovered that he had developed a desire to compose. For
that alluring department of music, composition, I did not
think he possessed any large measure of qualification. I was
therefore not a little surprised to have him, after hours of general
conversation, ask me for a libretto. I told him of a book of
words that I had planned and carried out, in part, on a subject
drawn from Norse mythology ; but I had a dramatic ballad in
mind, not an opera, and, though he asked it, I declined the
costly and difficult undertaking of putting together an opera
book. Long afterward I learned, but not from him, that he
had turned his thoughts to an aboriginal American subject, and
wanted to essay what he described as an " American Nibelungen-
lied." I had suggested the Iroquois legend of Hiawatha — not
that treated by Longfellow, but the story which has a basis of
history and connects Hiawatha with the foundation of the Con-
federacy of the Five Nations. He appealed to Francis Nielson,
who wrote the book for him. All this without a hint of his in-
tentions to me. In the fall of 1897 we met in Cleveland, he
being on a concert, I on a lecture tour. He asked for some speci-
mens of Indian music, and I sent him a large number selected
because of their illustration of the characteristic elements of
Indian melody and rhythm. We talked them over afterward,
but he gave no sign of the fact that he was working on an Indian
opera.
•39
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
BY F. N. R. MARTINEZ
ANTON SEIDL is dead. He was the foremost interpreter
of the works of Richard Wagner. He had Hved in the
master's intimacy, he had studied him and his works in the close
communion of the family circle ; he had been taught by him with
affection ; he had been trusted by him. In a sense Seidl was the
art legatee of Wagner. The bequest he had received was
the mission to propagate the doctrine of modern development in
music, as promulgated by Wagner in his music dramas. He
had been Wagner's pupil ; he was to be his disciple. He ful-
filled his task. The new evangel of music he preached has
become the universal faith. Others have worked by his side,
but in America he was the dominant and controlling force. He
died in the plenitude of his powers, with honors crowding upon
him. His future was fraught with added fame. If he had
regrets they must have been softened by the consciousness that
he had been true to his creed, and had helped to make the world
better and happier. His domestic life was happy. He was
reserved, taciturn, serious in his public relations. In the in-
timacy of his friends he became expansive. He had wit, humor,
breadth of view, catholicity of opinion. He loved nature.
In his mountain home — his cottage on one of the Catskill slopes —
he was most contented. He loved America, but he adored
his native Hungary. He was a patriot. His death is a cal-
amity.
Among the four or five men who may be said to have been
determinate factors in the forming and development of the
musical culture of the United States, Anton Seidl stands pre-
eminent. Carl Bergmann, Theodore Thomas, Leopold Dam-
140
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
rosch, William Gericke and Arthur Nikisch have each done
much to build up and better the public taste for the best in
music. To the latter two the country owes its possession of one
of the finest executive musical bodies in existence. Bergmann
and Thomas were the pioneers in the field of symphonic music.
The latter was the first to sow the seeds of an appreciation
of what was then the " music of the future," and is now accepted
as the dominant principle in musical art. Dr. Damrosch followed,
and in his too brief career he gave further impetus to the artistic
trend of the community's studies. But it was Seidl who finally
fixed the attitude of this country towards Wagner and made
America an influence and a controlling factor in the conflict of
views which may now be said to be ended.
When Seidl was brought to America and placed in a position
of responsibility at the head of the Metropolitan Opera House,
the public was in a prepared state. Everything depended upon
the new man ; his task was a difficult one. In brief, it was to
preach and proclaim the gospel of Wagner, to expose and de-
velop the principles involved in the doctrine, to give authoritative
interpretations of its spirit, to make clear its emotional purport,
its moral and ethical significance, its universality.
The task was one of extreme danger. Wagnerism was then
considered a fad. Its devotees were few, its detractors were
many. The doctrines were new, radical, revolutionary. They
seemed to be destructive. They were denounced as formulations
of musical anarchy. A weak man, a timid man, an opportunist,
placed in Seidl's position might have killed the growing taste in
America. The harvest might have been ruined, and the work
of the pioneers who had cleared the ground, ploughed it and
sown the seeds, might have been all in vain.
But Seidl was neither a weak nor a timid man. He was sin-
141
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
cere, loyal and armed with conviction. His creed was broad and
firmly planted. His purpose was strong and clearly defined.
He had knowledge, sympathy and power. He was a vigorous
man, born to command. His personality was positive and mag-
netic. He became the man of the hour.
His success commenced with the first wave of his con-
ductor's baton. On that memorable night in November, 1885,
when, with characteristic New World hospitality, he was welcomed
to the conductor's seat in the orchestra pit of the old Metro-
politan Opera House, a new epoch in the history of music
in America was inaugurated. Seidl was immediately accepted
for his originality, his strength and his authority. The Wagner-
ites rallied around him. The disciple had been found, the
prophet was here. Societies of propagation were formed. Some
took the name of the master, others that of the missionary.
The propaganda was pursued with energy through the channels
of Art, of Literature and of Society.
It would all have been futile, though, had there not been
the practical demonstrations by Seidl to convince the doubters,
to conquer the indifferent and to fortify the enthusiasts.
Since then the career of the dead maestro has coincided with
the progress of musical culture in America. New York has be-
come one of the great musical centres of the world. Seidl in
death is recognized as one of the foremost of modern musi-
cians.
The span of Seidl's career was a short one. It barely ex-
tended over a quarter of a century. It really began in the
autumn of 1872. The young Hungarian had only been a stu-
dent up to that time — in his native Budapest, at the Leipsic
Conservatory, and later in the intimacy of Hans Richter's circle.
Then came Richter's recommendation of his pupil to Wagner.
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Seidl, young, full of enthusiasm, feeling himself called to be a
warrior in a crusade for art, went to the master and became one
of his most devoted followers.
Wagner recognized in him the spirit and determination of a
man bound to conquer and to control. He found that his
young disciple needed but little instruction. Seidl seemed to
divine Wagner's ideas by intuition. In a short time the young
secretary had become an associate. He was constantly at Wag-
ner's side, in his absolute confidence. He became one of the
prominent members of that celebrated circle of keen, intellectual
and brilliant men that gathered at Bayreuth. Wagner gave up
the enormous details of his work and intrusted Seidl with them.
It was Seidl who developed Wagner's plans in the orchestration
of his giant scores.
When Wagner undertook to give a series of concerts
in London, it was Seidl who was sent ahead to direct the re-
hearsals. Seidl learned all that Wagner taught him, " not," as
he once explained, " by pedantic lessons, but through daily, con-
stant and intimate musical intercourse with the German genius."
He soon knew every one of the music-dramas note by note.
His education was not kept in a narrow lane. Wagner taught
him to share his admiration for Beethoven, Mozart, Weber, and
some of the great French composers.
To this day Seidl's readings of Wagner's scores are accepted
as unimpeachable. They were derived from the composer him-
self and have never been criticised.
The time came when Seidl wished — and Wagner approved
him in the wish — for independent activity. A recommendation
from Bayreuth sufficed, and Seidl was appointed conductor at the
Leipsic Stadt Theatre.
It is a coincidence that Seidl's associate was Arthur Nikisch,
»43
ANTON SEIDL — A MEMORIAL
who subsequently did his share in the work of elevating musical
taste in America.
There was a roving vein in Seidl's nature, and after a few
years of routine he was ready to travel. It was then that Seidl
was asked to go along with Angelo Neumann, the manager who
determined to carry the banner of Wagner into the camps of the
enemy. Seidl accepted, and with a well-equipped company the
greatest of all musical crusades was started. To all parts of Ger-
many these missionaries travelled, then to Holland, to England,
and finally to Italy — the home of the antithesis of Wagner's
music. The success of this propaganda was enormous.
Then came a period of rest. Seidl went to Bremen and
became the conductor of the opera house in that sober, staid
and blue-lawed old Hanseatic town. There he married Fraulein
Kraus, a singer of talent, an artist of high qualities, a popular
favorite. His wife did not remain long on the stage after her
marriage, but devoted herself to domesticity. The married life
of the two beings was a happy one. Its felicity was strength-
ened by the common love of music. The brilliant artist be-
came a model " Hausfrau."
It was in 1885 that Seidl came to America. Since then his
career has been so actively connected with everything musical
here that he has ever been in the public eye. For five seasons
he was the arbiter of the Metropolitan Opera House, and he
made that temple of music one of the most famous in the world.
Then came the restoration of Italian opera — in 1 891-1892 —
and Seidl retired. When Messrs. Abbey and Grau determined
to include German opera in their scheme of performances, they
logically engaged Mr. Seidl to conduct them.
Seidl was an interesting personality. His physical charac-
teristics were individual. His face was clean-shaven ; his fea-
144
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
tures seemed chiselled ; his hair, long and glossy, was combed
back from his forehead and temples and fell on his shoulders. He
bore a marked facial resemblance to Liszt — a fact which oft gave
a romantic turn to the gossip in certain circles. He was a severe-
looking man, stern in expression, with very little mobility of
features.
In public he was not genial, not diplomatic. He had little
care for the conventions, or for the amenities of public occasions.
He never smiled at the prima donna when she sang an aria at a
concert and was wildly applauded. It might be Melba, or
Nordica, or Calve. They were all alike to him. He never
shook hands with a soloist after a well-executed solo, even if the
artist was a celebrity — Paderewski, JosefFy or Ysaye.
At home, though, or in the " Bierstube," or at his favorite
cafe, he shed his reserve, his crust of indifference. He then be-
came another man entirely, fond of humor, interested with cath-
olicity in all the affairs of the world, convivial and contented.
He was not quick of speech nor was he fluent. His style was
apt to be laconic, precise, a little bit pedantic at times. He
often said that he had been destined and had studied for the
priesthood, and that he had never been able to outlive some
of the influences of his seminarist days.
He was an ardent Hungarian at heart. He could be roused
from his usual quiet by bringing the conversation to a discussion
of his native country. Then he would gladly descant on the
glories of the land, the heroism of the men, the beauty of
the women.
He had become an American citizen and his affection for his
adopted country was sincere, although it was not an essential in
his emotional make-up. He believed in the musical future of
America. He was confident that great composers in numbers
•45
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
would appear. He favored opera in English. Six or seven
years ago he was quoted as saying that " no satisfactory results
can be achieved here, nor can America produce any national
music until opera is given in English. I look forward to the
time when American composers shall produce great operatic
works of a distinctly original character, written in the vernacular ;
but until that time comes I believe that such foreign works as
are performed here should be translated into English. The
achievements of such American composers as Prof J. K. Paine,
who has done admirable work ; of E. A. MacDowell, whose
compositions seem to me superior to those of Brahms ; of G.
W. Chadwick, Templeton Strong and others, augur well for the
future productions of American composers."
In a way Seidl always looked the German student. He
was simple in his dress. Black broadcloth in the city, white
linen in the country. A soft alpine hat in informal hours ; a
silk hat when ceremony was necessary.
He lived well. He was fond of good food, with a leaning
for the cuisine of Germany. The highly-spiced dishes of his
own country's gastronomy were not necessities for him. His
daily life was methodical. When not busy at rehearsals or con-
certs, he sat in his home, with his smoking-jacket and slippers.
He always had friends around.
For many years he was forced by his duties at the Brighton
Beach concerts to live at the seashore. This was not to his
liking. He preferred the mountains, the rarefied air, the silence,
the broad expanse of scenery. He had bought for himself a
cottage in the Catskills — a lovely place to rest, known to his
friends as " Seidl Berg." He hastened there whenever he had
the leisure. In midsummer, if possible ; if not, in May or in
early autumn. His drawing-room was a veritable temple of
146
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
music. Over the piano hung a portrait of Wagner, and it
seemed to dominate the whole apartment. Other masters in
wreath-entwined frames, a bust of Beethoven, precious auto-
graphs preserved under glass, rare scores with composers' dedi-
cations on their fly-leaves, bronze medals commemorating events
in the history of music, and flowers in every nook and corner,
for both host and hostess loved color and fragrance.
Through the window the eye rested on hills that seemed to
fade away and merge in the distant horizon. From the
" piazza," as Seidl called it, giving the word its Italian accent,
the dense woods, the glorious mountains, refreshed and satisfied
every longing for a bit of nature.
It was here on this piazza, in indolent ease, that Seidl
passed his happiest hours. He was fond of dogs, and he had
many. All were pets, who bore the names of the heroes of the
Nibelungen. There was Mime and Hunding and Fricka, but
the favorite was Wotan. He was a big St. Bernard, with a soft
coat of white-and-golden fur — as intelligent as the best of his
breed. He had privileges that none other had. He was per-
mitted to jump and place his forepaws on his master's shoulders
and caress him to his heart's content.
Seidl was not " a woman's man," and yet few men have
more completely swayed their emotions. It was the musician
who worked the spell, and when he laid down his baton and his
music was hushed, all was over. No one made the phrases of
Wagner so irresistible. The passion of the love duet in Tristan
and Isolde, its expression in music of longings, of unsatisfied
desires, of yearning souls and panting bodies fairly throbbed
when given life by the magic of Seidl's interpretation. The
heroic resignation of Brunnhilde when Wotan punishes her sin
with a sleep that may be eternal ; the joy of her renascense under
•47
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
the breath-giving kiss of the fearless youth ; the fury when the
drugged Siegfried denies her, and the subhmity of her self-immo-
lation when her hero has passed away — to all these phases of
Wagner's heroine Seidl gave such depth, such impressiveness,
that women wept. And the sweetness of Sieglinde, the fascina-
tion which Vanderdecken exercises on simple Senta, the maiden-
hood of Elsa ; and, to turn to the heroes, the youthful glory of
Siegfried, the fatefulness of Tristan, the spiritualitv of Lohengrin '
— all, illuminated by him, touched this or that emotion in the
heart of woman and chained her to his chariot.
Seidl's death was dramatic. Friends were waiting at his home
— great artists all, Ysaye, Gerardy and Pugno — to share his
good cheer. They waited in vain, for at his favorite nook,
overlooking the bustle of busy Broadway, he had been stricken.
He was a man of nerve and refused to give in. He went his
way and Death followed. He closed his eyes surrounded by
his associates — his own musicians.
BY AUGUST SPANUTH
IT was a red-letter day in the history of music in America,
that 23rd of November, 1885, when Anton Seidl for the
first time wielded his baton at the Metropolitan Opera House
in the City of New York. The air was pregnant with expecta-
tion when his finely-cut head appeared at the conductor's
stand, and from the very moment he raised his right arm in
that graceful and inimitable manner until the last note of the
Lohengrin music had died away, the large audience sat spell-
bound. And again we sat spellbound, but this time by grief,
when, at the same place on the 31st day of March, 1898, a cata-
148
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
falque had been erected where on other occasions the con-
ductor's stand was situated, and, covered with flowers, a coflin
was to be seen containing all that was mortal of Anton Seidl.
Death had come too sudden and too soon ; a light had been ex-
tinguished too unexpectedly to allow this great congregation of
mourners to fully realize the loss which had been inflicted upon
all. The orators delivered what they had to say with a sobbing
breath ; the musicians played the funeral music in a half-hearted,
far-away mood ; the friends of the dead master longed in vain
to give way to consoling tears ; but the general gloom made the
whole ceremony all the more impressive.
For nearly thirteen years Anton Seidl had been the very
centre of musical life in the great metropolis of the New World,
and, while everybody was more or less aware that he had brought
with him into this country a novel and loftier spirit of musical
conception, nobody had thought it possible that his mission could
have been ended so soon. At the height of life his mental
energy had shown no trace of abatement, and only this very last
season he had given such proofs of nervous endurance and
working power that they made one completely overlook the
changes which his external appearance had undergone during
the last six months. And even now — after we have had sufficient
time to accommodate our thoughts to the impossibility of ever
seeing again this commanding personality leading an orchestra —
we shall find it a difficult task to do full justice to the work he
has done here, and to define the position he will hold in the
musical history of this country. One thing, however, is sure ;
the remembrance of his work will never be wiped out among us,
and it will also bear fruit in generations to come.
Anton Seidl came to us as the prophet of a new art of
musical interpretation, and therefore his American career has not
149
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
been unlike that of a conquering hero. His successes were like
victories — partly over the conservatism, partly over the indif-
ference of the musical masses. And it was comparatively easier
for him to stir up the indifferent ones than to convince those
who had built up for themselves a certain taste and judgment
as to musical matters, and who had worshipped as best they
knew how at the altar of Apollo for many years. To them An-
ton Seidl would appear at first as a revolutionist that tried to
throw over the eternal laws of the beautiful in art ; that endeav-
ored to smash with his barbarian emotionality the cast-iron
traditions sanctioned by the very disciples of the great classic
masters. And so, in a lesser degree, Anton Seidl had to over-
come similar obstacles as his great master, Richard Wagner, ran
against when, in his works, he defied all traditions. Of course,
Seidl's struggle was so much less trying, as a reproductive artist
is essentially smaller than a productive one. And, furthermore,
the American public was not wholly unprepared for the genius
of Wagner at the time Seidl arrived here, while the German
public knew almost nothing about Wagner and his style when
Lohengrin was given the first performance through Franz Liszt
in Weimar.
The first impressions Seidl made upon the New York
public as a conductor were more of the startling than of the con-
vincing order. It did not take the larger part of the critics^and
a goodly portion of the general public very long to grow enthu-
siastic over his wonderful accomplishments as a leader, and some
of them saw in him at once a sort of demigod. There were
three factions in musical New York. The first one claimed
Seidl's superiority to all living conductors and declared him infal-
lible ; another faction was ready to acknowledge his interpreta-
tion of Wagner's dramatic works as unparalleled, but denied him
ISO
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
that universal superiority as a leader ; the third faction, however,
labored hard to find fault with all his readings and occasionally
went even so far as to belittle Wagner because Seidl was the
prophet of the master of Bayreuth. It is gratifying to state that
in the course of years the views of all of them have broadened
in the same degree as Seidl found occasion to display his talents
and at the same time to show the limits of his versatility ; and
at the present time there are probably few that are still inclined
to over- or under-rate the services he has lent to the develop-
ment of our musical life.
As the sage Solon said, nobody should be called happy
before his death. Whether a premature and unexpected death
is to be considered as the gift of a benevolent God might
remain a question to be answered only by individual opinion.
But aside from this Anton Seidl's life can safely be called from
nearly every point of human view a happy one. It is irrelevant
to argue that still greater things might have been expected from
this man if circumstances had been more favorable and his life
had been a longer one. Fate allowed him to make his mark,
and it is after all less lamentable to bury some unfulfilled hopes
with the deceased than to see him die after all hope of usefulness
has vanished. The loss of Anton Seidl was a great one, but
there is a good deal of consolation in the work he has done
among us. He has not lived in vain.
Anton Seidl was still more fortunate in gaining access to
Wahnfried and becoming his master's personal friend. It was
a great time at Bayreuth, those four years of preparation for the
first performances on the wonderful and unique stage of the Fest-
spielhaus. It certainly was a time full of excitement and en-
thusiasm for the fight pro and contra ; the principle of the new
music-drama was just on the point of its culmination. No
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
wonder, therefore, that the Impressions Seidl received in those
years proved to be enduring with him. Not only that he was
every day under the constant influence of so overpowering a
personality as Richard Wagner ; that he became familiar with all
the details of the miraculous scores of the Nibelungen ; that
he gained an insight of the mystical manner in which his master
formed and developed the ideas given him by divine inspiration,
a process ordinarily termed composing ; he had, also, an oppor-
tunity to meet, in Wagner's house, scores of renowned artists —
painters, poets, musicians, singers, instrumentalists — who all
gathered there to pay homage to the great reformer of dramatic
music.
It is indeed not to be wondered at that, under such con-
ditions, Anton Seidl finally began to Wagnerize all and every-
thing. We all have to pay for it when we live too near the gods.
Even up to his very last appearances in public, Anton Seidl was
censured by some critics for his reading of classical symphonies ;
and, while there might have been some reason for it to a certain
extent, it cannot detract the least little bit from his reputation as
one of the greatest orchestral leaders we have ever had.
Wagner and Liszt had fairly revolutionized the art of con-
ducting. It is well to remember that, in the orchestra of former
days, it was the leader of the first violinists who took upon him-
self to guide his fellow-musicians safely through an intricate
rhythm, or some other difficulty that might arise in the score, by
occasionally beating the time with his bow. By-and-by, as orches-
tral scores became more varied and complicated in rhythm and
otherwise,itwas found necessary to have this leader do nothing else
but beat the time. And as soon as beating the time had become
his only occupation, the leader gradually grew more anxious to
control not only the rhythm and the tempo, but the light and
152
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
shade also, and finally held himself, and was held responsible,
for the whole performance. This was the first step to an eman-
cipation of the rigid rules of tradition, but it did not lead to that
immediately. Up to the time of Wagner and Liszt, in fact,
nobody dared to enter through the door that was, practically,
thrown open to the development of individuality in reproductive
art ; and nearly all that has been accomplished by the conductors
of the elder school never went beyond correctness, smoothness
and delicacy of execution. One cannot be better enlightened
upon this subject than through reading Wagner's book " Ueber
das Dirigiren."
Wagner taught that not only the demands of post-classical
composition involved a different, that is, a more subjective, style
of interpretation than the older conductors had indulged in, but
he insisted that the Beethoven interpreter also had to go to
work with more individual freedom. To bring out the charac-
teristic spirit of a composition in the most characteristic way
became the fundamental principle of a thoroughly satisfying
reproduction in the modern sense. It was also part of this
demand to pay the closest attention to the smallest details, and
how much this had been neglected — even by the most con-
scientious conductors of the old school — was clearly proved
when Hans von Biilow, with that mediocre and comparatively
small Meiningen orchestra, started on a musical campaign
through the principal cities of Germany. Their success was
overwhelming.
It appears only natural, under these altered conditions, that
most of the new orchestra leaders were less good all-around
conductors than specialists, and Anton Seidl was no exception to
them. However, the range of his ability was by no means so
limited as some of his critics would make us believe. When
IS3
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
he Started, a very young man, as Kapellmeister at the Leipsic
Stadt-Theater, he felt certainly inclined to conduct everything
in the Wagnerian mood, no matter whether an opera by Mozart
or by Lortzing was concerned. But his natural musicianship
helped him greatly to broaden in his taste, and whoever has
heard the French Faust performance under his baton at the
Metropolitan Opera House, toward the close of the season '95-
'96, will readily admit that Seidl's conception showed his perfect
familiarity with the style of the great French master. It would
have been very different at the time of Seidl's engagement in
Leipsic.
It did not take our public long to recognize Seidl as the
coming man. We had grown tired of the old traditional Italian
opera and the enthusiastic and energetic Dr. Leopold Damrosch
had just succeeded in clearing the field for the German, and
more especially for the Wagner opera. Henceforth the public
was not wholly unprepared but rather willing to follow the right
leader into a new world of dramatic art. Every means were gen-
erously furnished to make the performances most brilliant and
even gorgeous as to the scenic arrangements. The success was
most gratifying and highly remarkable, and foreigners coming to
New York were greatly surprised to find an English-speaking
audience crowding the vast Metropolitan Opera House night
after night and attentively listening to the strange and partly
superhuman word and tone pictures inspired by the German
mythology. Not the splendid ensemble of singers nor the mag-
nificent scenic display could alone accomplish such a result :
it was more than anything else the eloquent way in which the
conductor disclosed the mysteries of the scores. His baton
made the music talk : the musical phrases became a language of
human feelings and passions universally understood. His influ-
»S4
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
ence upon the musicians in the orchestra was indescribably mag-
netic, and as to color and climacteric effects nothing like them
had been heard here before.
And this was exactly what we needed the most. The
public had not been deaf to the sensuous charm of tone color,
but it was accustomed to look upon the tonal beauty as a mere
decorative though very desirable thing. Now it began to realize
the inseparability of sound and thought, and willingly it bent
its knees to the spontaneity of the genius of Wagner. Other
conductors before Seidl had given us very acceptable renderings
of some of Wagner's works, but now one became aware that in
spite of their artistic qualities something had been missing.
Though our progress in music had been rapid we were
deficient in the appreciation of the emotional elements of tonal
art. In his habit of approaching everything at first with his
brain and never allowing his feelings to get the better of his judg-
ment our level-headed American had long made a scientific
study of music. There is hardly a city of 100,000 and more
inhabitants even in the far West where not at least half a dozen
baccalaureates and doctors of music dwell and flourish And as
to the technical details of execution in all the different musical
branches, there can hardly be found a race more fit to master
them than the American. Knowledge and execution, however,
do not offer everything necessary to become a real musical being,
and if truth goes before politeness one should not hesitate to state
that so far the American people have generally been found want-
ing in those emotional qualities which are the genuine sources of
artistic fancy. It is from this point of view that the work Seidl
has been doing here should bejudged. He was able to arouse
enthusiasm even among those who were not particularly musical,
for he appealed to them through his tremendous temperament.
155
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Human nature is always touched most vigorously by the dis-
play of those qualities in which it is lacking itself.
It was under Seidl's direction that works like Die Meister-
singer, Tristan and Isolde, Siegfried, Gotterdammerung and Das
Rheingold were introduced to the American public, and it is to
his credit that those stupendous works, so novel and so extraor-
dinary in every way, gained almost instant success in the metrop-
olis. Even in Germany it had taken years before the country-
men of Wagner were ready and able to fully appreciate the
intrinsic grandeur of these dramas, while the fickle and blase
audience of our Metropolitan Opera House was conquered in a
comparatively short space of time. All the lectures on Wag-
nerian subjects, all the explanatory programmes and the musical
guides could not have brought about this result. Anton Seidl,
with his keen and energetic beat and with his tremendous temper-
ament, did it.
In spite of its indisputable success, however, German opera
went out of existence in New York after Seidl had carried it
from victory to victory during six years. The remaining seven
years of his life he devoted mainly to concert work.
Symphonies that did not appeal to his artistic temperament
were naturally treated by him with less care and enthusiasm than
others ; it is, however, very fortunate that it was the most impor-
tant works of modern composers that were benefited by his
efforts. In the Philharmonic concerts, as well as in those of the
Brooklyn Seidl Society, he achieved great results with the inter-
pretation of Liszt's, Berlioz's, Tschaikowsky's, and other modern
composers' creations. And who will ever forget his conducting
of Liszt's Faust, Dvorak's New World, and Tschaikowsky's
Pathetic Symphonies ?
Furthermore a vast amount of reformatory work was done
156
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
by him in the numerous Sunday concerts and in the popu-
lar summer concerts at Brighton Beach. The programmes of
the latter were unequaled here or abroad as to their rich-
ness and variety. If the best modern orchestral music has
become popular here it is safe to say that Seidl has done more
than any other conductor to make it so.
Anton Seidl did not live among us as a stranger. Unlike
most European artists that come to visit us he did not try to make
as much money as possible in as short a time as possible and
then go back to Europe and enjoy his riches there. No, he went
through the necessary process of acclimatization rather quickly
and became a real American in thought and life. Even adverse
circumstances here and flattering offers from the other side could
not induce him to give up his work here. He believed
strongly in the musical future of this country and he did
whatever he could to encourage young American composers in
their sincere endeavors. The money-makers among them, how-
ever, could not rely upon his support. The American composi-
tions Seidl performed during the thirteen years of his work would
make a long list. But he was not always influential enough to
have his own way, and during his last season the Philharmonic
Society stubbornly refused to put Harry Roe Shelley's Second
Symphony on its programme although Seidl recommended it
highly.
Even if Seidl's work had been confined to the city of
New York his influence would have been felt all over the United
States, but many excursions with his orchestra, with vocal and
instrumental soloists and with the Metropolitan Opera company
brought him into direct contact with the western world. So
New York did not grieve alone over the loss of this great and
unique conductor. He made thousands of friends and admirers
IS7
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
and the few he left unconquered were powerless ; they could not
interfere with the formidable influence he exercised on the music
of this country. And history will be just to him. It will not
overlook his shortcomings, which were few, and it will not be-
little his merits, which were wonderful and numerous.
BY CHARLES D. LANIER
THIS writer believes, with thousands of others, that Anton
Seidl was the greatest interpreter of music that the nine-
teenth century has produced. It is more generally admitted that
he was the first of Wagnerian conductors and that he, more than
any other, gave America what it has of the noblest music. This
he did with no fury of argument, with no skill in business organ-
ization, but merely by virtue of his genius in compelling, inspir-
ing, the sincerest efforts of the musicians beneath his baton.
The hearts of the multitude were moved ; they saw and felt what
Wagner, what Beethoven, saw and felt.
The few who had appreciated Wagner's greatness found
him vastly greater than they had ever before suspected ; and
with this noble, contained figure leading and inspiring the or-
chestra to the very heights of passion and tenderness, of love
and despair, real music found its way to the hearts of thousands
whom the works of Beethoven and Mozart, great as they were,
had failed to move. When the emotional side of his audience
had been once stirred, the fine poetic figure of Anton Seidl
added to the charm. Not tall, but of commanding presence,
with masterly, sure gestures, most noble in their simplicity and
reserve ; his strongly chiseled features firm set in grave beauty ;
a magnificent mane of silky hair like that of Liszt — his face and
158
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
form were in such rare keeping with the music of the gods that
the appeal of his reserve was more powerful than any effect at-
tained by those conductors who are intoxicated into a fury of
gesture. To have heard his orchestra in the Vorspiel of Tristan
is to have at hand for one's lifetime a world of poetry to which
the gate is opened at the thought of Seidl's uplifted hand and
brow. It is strange enough to observe the variety of minds who
were captivated by him. The most cynical of men, to whom
music, before they knew Seidl, meant merely a plaything for
women and womanish men, repaired night after night to the
Metropolitan and spent ecstatic hours. He was, on the other
hand, worshipped of women, notwithstanding his exceeding re-
serve ; the most sentimental school-girl and the largest and
finest mind alike accepted him as a hero, because he appealed
to the truth in both of them. The musicians, too, adored him.
He was modest and, in his quiet, unprotesting way, most kindly.
He seemed undeniably one of the elder men, one who could
" speak and be silent." His worth was best recognized by the
very greatest of his peers, Wagner, Liszt, and Richter, and de
Reszke, Lehmann and Alvary. De Reszke refused to sing
Tristan unless Seidl was the conductor.
Aside from his activities as leader of the Philharmonic
Seidl conducted a regular series of concerts under the manage-
ment of the Seidl Society of Brooklyn, and of an evening in the
hot season led his musicians in a large pavilion at Brighton
Beach, where the thunder of the Valkyrie and of Walhalla was
mingled with the roar of the waves which dashed against the
walls of the concert hall. His earnings from these many engage-
ments were not large. The perfect outlines of a perfect artist's
life were not broken in Seidl's career by the cares of building up
a fortune. Indeed, he would scarcely have made a " business
'59
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
success ; " it is said that more than once he returned his check
to a manager who had not realized a fair profit.
The total effect of Seidl's work in America was to arouse
here such an enthusiasm for dramatic music as was utterly
unknown before him. He became the hero of the music-
loving people of the country. The inspiration he gave was not
at all confined to New York City and Brooklyn, for it became
the fashion for persons of musical tastes in the West and South
to come to New York or Chicago for the opera season. People
of all classes in the country seized on any holiday or other
opportunity to come to the city during the opera and concert
season, and carried back to their homes an enduring recollection
of the great orchestral leader and a new capacity for the high-
est enjoyment of music.
BY HENRY T. FINCK
THE SECRET OF SEIDL S SUCCESS
TWENTY thousand persons, it is said, attended the funeral
of Beethoven. Wagner, Brahms and other modern com-
posers had great honors paid to them when they lay in their
coffins ; but it is doubtful if any musician who was not a creator
of new works, but simply an interpreter, ever was so imposingly
honored in his death as Anton Seidl. For nearly a week every
metropolitan journal devoted a column a day, and, on the Sun-
day following his death, a whole page to the great conductor and
his sudden death. More than ten thousand applications were
made for tickets to the memorial services at the Metropolitan
Opera House, though only four thousand had room in it ; and
while the services were in progress Broadway, for half a dozen
1 60
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
blocks or more, was one surging mass of people. No statesman
or general could have been more lamented, no poet or philan-
thropist more wept over, than was Anton Seidl. " His funeral
was more impressive than any music drama I ever saw or heard
at Bayreuth," wrote my friend, James Huneker ; and that was
my feeling too. I have never seen so many men and women
weep in public as on this occasion, when Tschaikowsky's Adagio
Lamentoso and Siegfried's Death from Die Gotterddmmerung
were played, and all eyes were riveted on the flower-decked
coffin.
Why did Anton Seidl's death thus stir the musical multi-
tude ? Why did so many weep over him ? For a man of his
eminence he had not many personal friends. He was not affa-
ble, he shunned society, he was taciturn and shy in the presence
of all but his most intimate friends. The great public knew his
personality only through his art, but through that art they knew
that it was a great personality. As an interpreter he always laid
bare the heart of an art-work, and he always reached the heart ot
the hearers. Not many weeks before he died, at an Astoria
concert, he played the same Adagio Lamentoso that was selected
for his funeral, and played it with such heartrending pathos that
half the audience was in tears. I mentioned this fact to an ac-
quaintance who rarely goes to a concert. He smiled incredu-
lously and said he did not believe that anyone ever wept at a
concert. His curiosity, however, was aroused, and he secured
seats for the next Seidl concert. I did not see him, but he
frankly confessed afterwards that while Mr. Seidl was conducting
the slow movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony his
companion wiped away her tears, and that his own eyes had a
film over them. Several members of the orchestra have told
me that on such occasions Mr. Seidl himself used to be so
i6i
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
deeply affected that tears rolled down his cheeks. The usual
expression on his face during a performance was what Colonel
Ingersoll has finely called " impassioned serenit\'."
Czerny wrote concerning Beethoven's playing that " fre-
quently not an eye remained dry, while many would break out
into loud sobs ; for there was something wonderful in his ex-
pression." Anton Seidl had this gift of expression, this power
of evoking tears, which usually belongs only to creative geniuses ;
and therein lay the secret of his popularity. He had his dry
half-hours as a matter of course. An antiquated work like
some of Mozart's symphonies, or the first two of Beethoven's,
did not arouse his sympathy, wherefore his performance of it left
the audience cold ; but if he had before him music that stirred
him, he always stirred the audience with it. I have heard nearly
all the great conductors of our time perform Beethoven's sym-
phonies, but I have never heard the seventh and the ninth
played with such marvelous clearness of detail, such depth and
variety of expression, as under his baton. The third Leonore
overture was another of his Beethoven specialties. He made of
it what Wagner called it — a drama complete in itself; and I
have heard him conduct it at the Metropolitan Opera House
with such fire and dramatic passion that even the box-holders,
who seldom paid any attention to the orchestra, burst out
into prolonged applause.
Among the tributes telegraphed from abroad none was more
significant than that of Jean de Reszke, which spoke of Anton
Seidl as " the greatest of all Wagner conductors " — doubly sig-
nificant because that great tenor had just been singing Wagner
under Hans Richter at St. Petersburg. It was owing to this
same tenor — the greatest of our time — that Anton Seidl was re-
stored to the Metropolitan Opera House after the temporary
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
eclipse of Wagner. He made this restoration a condition of his
appearing in certain roles. He studied these roles with Seidl,
just as Niemann, the greatest dramatic tenor of his time, studied
them with him when he came to America. He had had a much
longer experience with some of these roles than his conductor
had, but he felt that Seidl had a knowledge of the scores which
he could have obtained only at first hand from the composer.
Wagner himself, as we have seen, commended Anton Seidl
for having learned preeminently to conduct the orchestra with
special reference not only to the singers, but to every minute
detail of the action and mise-en-scene. Nothing escaped his eye ;
he took half the responsibility off the shoulders of the singers,
enabling them to feel at ease in the most difficult places. Both
Niemann and Jean de Reszke told me in succession two things
about Seidl almost in the same words. " When I am in the
least doubt about a bar I look at Seidl ; he always sees me and
the word I want is on his lips." " In the third act of Tristan I
have sometimes almost forgotten to sing on, so absorbed was
I by Mr. Seidl's wonderful orchestral eloquence." Lilli Leh-
mann, Marianne Brandt, Mme. Nordicaand many other eminent
dramatic singers always spoke of Seidl as their favorite con-
ductor.
As a climax builder Anton Seidl has probably never had an
equal. He knew how to thrill even those who did not under-
stand the music in its harmonic details. Col. Robert Ingersoll's
great admiration of Seidl was chiefly based on this dynamic fac-
ulty. He has told me himself more than once that he is not
able to follow the intricacies of a Wagnerian score, yet he never
missed a chance to hear a Wagner opera under Seidl, whose
dynamic eloquence and art of climaxing stirred every fibre of his
soul. Anton Seidl never made a speech in his life, yet he had
163
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
the oratorical faculty of Robert IngersoU, who, indeed, at a
Lotos Club dinner once referred to him as " a great orator."
No one who has ever heard him build up the climax in the
finales of Lohengrin (acts first and second), or the love duo in
Tristan, or Siegfried's departure from Brvinnhilde in the second
Vorspiel of Die Gdtterddmmerung, or the finale of that drama, can
ever hope to hear anything like it again. Yet, dearly as Seidl
loved a climax, he was equally admirable in pathetic music — like
Briinnhilde's pleading in the last act of Die WalkUre — or serene
music like the forest scene in Siegfried. He had indeed a special
liking for delicate, dainty music, and when he was able to have
sufficient rehearsals, nothing could have been finer than his
performances of modern French music. But he was a Hun-
garian, and what appealed to him particularly was passion, im-
petuosity, lawless irregularity of tempo, such as prevails in Liszt's
music. With him died the greatest of Liszt interpreters ; and
it is hardly necessary to add that this same Hungarian instinct
for change of pace, in accordance with the emotional character
of the music, helped to make him the greatest of Wagnerian
conductors, for modification of tempo is the soul of Wagnerian
interpretation.
Anton Seidl understood the remarkably rare art of pausing
at the proper place — an art with which he produced some of his
superb oratorical effects. He had no use for a metronome.
His sense of tempo — in music that he cared for — was almost
infallible. It is well known that Dvorak had the slow movement
of the New World Symphony marked andante in the manu-
script, but changed it to largo when he heard Seidl, led by a cor-
rect instinct, conduct it in that tempo at a rehearsal. A greater
compliment has never been paid to any interpreter.
One of the current errors which Anton Seidl swept awa)
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
for all time was the notion that Wagner's orchestration is too
heavy and drowns the singers. One of Wagner's favorite re-
marks at the Bayreuth festivals was that " the orchestra
should always bear the singer as the agitated sea bears a boat,
but without ever putting it in danger of capsizing or sinking."
That was the way Anton Seidl treated his orchestra. It never
swallowed up the singer's boat, but now lifted it up high on the
waves of sound, and again merely lapped the boat with gentle
ripples. That was another reason why the singers loved him,
and were so eager to have him share the honors of the applause.
Time and again the de Reszkes and other great singers hurried
behind the scenes to search for the great conductor and drag
him on the stage as if to say, " We could not have done half so
well had it not been for him." But the audience did not need
to be told that. It often continued applauding until Seidl, too,
had come on the stage ; and when he appeared at his stand he
was always greeted with several rounds of applause.
Singers do not like, any more than audiences, to have
operas last too long. Anton Seidl had a remarkable faculty of
shortening Wagner's operas, not by the reprehensible process of
making cuts (though he adopted such as seemed necessary), but
by making the music compact, and by accelerating the move-
ment in proper places. He conducted with animation instead
of with animosity, like some of his Italian predecessors in Maple-
son's days. Lohengrin, which others either mutilated mercilessly
or prolonged to four hours and a half, he conducted in three hours
and a half. Yet he never unduly hurried the tempi ; he simply
whipped up his team in the proper places, thus gaining time to
dwell broadly and lovingly on the slow, stately or tender parts.
Siegfried he often conducted in three hours and forty minutes,
without sacrificing essential parts to the blue pencil.
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Of the Wagnerian " rubato," or frequent modification of
tempo, Anton Seidl was a consummate master. To it he owed
much of his emotional sway over his audiences. It might be
said that he applied to the Wagner operas the spirit of Gipsy
music, so far as emotional abandon and freedom from artificial
metronomic fetters are concerned ; and it was by this same
method that he achieved such wonderful results with Liszt's
music. How important is this principle of incessant modifica-
tion of tempo may be inferred from the fact that when Richard
Wagner personally conducted the first performance ever given
in Leipsic of his new Meistersinger Prelude, the audience, which
had not come in a friendly spirit (it had not even greeted him
when he stepped on the stage !) absolutely insisted on a repeti-
tion of it, whereas some time later when a conductor of the old
school repeated this overture, with the same orchestra, but in a
metronomic tempo, it was hissed. Apply this to a whole opera,
and you will see of what importance it was to the Wagnerian
cause in America to have such a master of the dramatic rubato
as Seidl.
Another secret of his success lay in his ability to bring out
the various themes or melodies in the complicated web of orches-
tral scores with what might be called stereoscopic clearness and
vividness. Nothing was ever blurred, every detail had its due
importance. Of his unequaled art of climax-building I have
already spoken. And what a keen ear he had for tone-coloring !
I pity every reader of these pages who never had a chance to
hear him conduct the Siegfried Idyl. It is a composition which,
carelessly played, can be made positively monotonous. Mr. Seidl
made it a perfect kaleidoscope of colors, though it is written only
for strings, woodwind and horn, and he dwelt on its delightful
miniature work with the joy of a Japanese artist over his cloisonne.
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
It was a combination of all these qualities that made him
the ideal Wagner conductor and that enabled Niemann to
express his surprise at the enthusiastic reception of Tristan and
other Wagner operas in New York. I have before me several
letters dated June, 1883, written in Vienna, to urge Mr. Seidl
to give another Wagner concert. One of them, written " in the
name of a great number of Seidl admirers," begs him, above all
things, to conduct once more the Meistersinger Prelude and the
Prelude and Finale of 'Tristan because " these pieces can be
heard to perfection only whenjyo« and your musicians give them."
The last time he conducted those Tristan numbers was at the
fifth Philharmonic concert in New York. I cannot refrain from
quoting what I wrote at that time :
" For the close Mr. Seidl had reserved one of those exhibi-
tions of interpretative genius with which, like Paderewski, he
loves to amaze even his most enthusiastic admirers. Tristan and
Isolde is one of his specialties in which no living conductor
equals him, but even he never conducted the Introduction and
Finale as he did yesterday. What is the witchery which enables
a great conductor to make loi orchestral musicians play as if
each were a consummate artist and world-famed soloist ? What-
ever it may be — and it is as great a mystery as all manifestations
of genius — Mr. Seidl has it, and he never revealed this gift more
thrillingly than yesterday. There was a glow of passion, an
uplifting of feeling, an ecstasy of emotion, a richness of color, a
gradual approach to, and final consummation of, the climax that
were simply overwhelming. For a person with heart disease it
would be dangerous to hear such a performance. During the
protracted pause between the two parts there was a stillness in
the house so remarkable that it seemed as it everybody had
stopped breathing. It was like the absolute silence on top of
a great mountain, and as a token of pleasure it was infinitely
167
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
more eloquent than the outburst of applause at the end."
New Yorkers who became familiar with Wagner's operas
through the interpretations of the late Anton Seidl, and afterwards
heard Hans Richter in the same operas in Vienna or Bayreuth,
were always struck by the remarkable resemblance in their ver-
sions. This was not a mere coincidence : Seidl was a pupil of
Richter, and both were pupils of Wagner, who handed down
through them the correct traditions. The main difference
between these conductors lay in this, that Seidl, the younger
of the two, was more passionate, more emotional. He was,
perhaps, the most emotional conductor that ever lived, especially
in the dramatic sphere. Music appealed to him in proportion
as it appealed to the feelings. He was sometimes criticised
for infusing dramatic feeling into symphonies which had no picto-
rial programme attached to them, but in doing this he merely
followed the spirit of the times, and the musical public was in
thorough sympathy with him.
At the end of his splendid essay " On Conducting" (re-
printed in this volume) Mr. Seidl says : " One must have heard
a Beethoven symphony as interpreted by Wagner to learn how
much there is hidden away among the notes of that classic giant,
and how much can be conjured out of them." He himself gave
Americans many glimpses of these unrevealed secrets. In my
account of the first Wagner-Beethoven concert he conducted in
New York — for the benefit of the Bayreuth Festival Fund —
I find it recorded that " not only was Mr. Seidl called back
several times whenever he left the stage, but he had to bow his
thanks repeatedly after every movement of the ' Eroica ' sym-
phony ; and after the great 'Leonore ' overture the applause was
overwhelming. Indeed, it seemed even more enthusiastic after
the Beethoven than after the Wagner numbers."
i6g
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Why was he so warmly applauded ?
It is well known that Beethoven, like Wagner after him,
found the metronome a useless encumbrance. He twice pro-
vided his Ninth Symphony with metronome marks, but quite
differently in the two cases. When his attention was called to
this inconsistency he exclaimed : " No metronome ! A man who
has the right feeling does not need it, the man who has not
finds it useless ; he and the whole orchestra run away from it."
There is also abundant testimony that Beethoven approved of
frequent modification of tempo. Seyfried wrote that " he
was most particular about expression, the small nuances, the
numerous alternations of light and shade, and the frequent pas-
sages in tempo rubato." And Schindler said : " What I heard
Beethoven play was, with few exceptions, free from all restraint in
tempo; it was a tempo rubato in the most proper sense of the word,
as conditioned by context and situation." For a long time, how-
ever, Beethoven was played in a monotonous, metronomic manner
until this method became accepted as the correct " tradition."
Wagner knocked that notion in the head with a sledge-hammer,
and his pupils, including Anton Seidl, followed his example.
Therein lay the secret of his success as a Beethoven conductor.
When it was announced that Mr. Theodore Thomas was
going to Chicago, Mr. Seidl's name was naturallv suggested first
as that of the best available successor as conductor of the Phil-
harmonic Orchestra. A few of its members at first opposed
him from fear that he might " Wagnerize " all the music ; but
they were voted down and the election was made unanimous.
Mr. Seidl soon showed that he respected all the great masters
and their way, but at the same time he made it clear that the
process of " Wagnerizing " any symphony consists in eliminating,
as far as possible, the consciousness that the symphony is
169
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
descended from dance music, and in substituting a poetic mode of
interpretation, which recognizes the fact that strictly metronomic
conducting is as inartistic as it would be for an actor to read all
the lines of a Shakespeare monologue in exactly the same time.
When Wagner conducted Weber's Freischiitz overture in Dresden,
the critics accused him of " Wagnerizing " that; but the testi-
mony of the older members of the orchestra, and of Weber's
widow, was that " that was the way Weber used to play it."
With the first two of Beethoven's symphonies, as I have
said before, Mr. Seidl was not specially in sympathy. They are
doubtless antiquated, and he probably felt like Wagner, who ex-
claimed, " Compare the Eighth symphony with the Second and
you will be astounded at the entirely new world which faces us
in the later work." Yet I have heard him conduct the Second in
the serene, unruffled " classical " spirit that becomes it. In his
interpretation of the Eroica the funeral march was the most
effective part. In the Sixth, or Pastoral, he revealed the fact that
the storm is not so primitive, compared with Wagner's and Rubin-
stein's storm music, as many had fancied. He made it surprisingly
tempestuous and stirring. The Seventh he played in a way to
almost convince a Wagnerite that Beethoven was as great a master
of orchestration as Wagner himself, and he brought out its " deli-
rium of joy " in the last movement in a way to stir the pulse of
the most phlegmatic listeners. As for the Eighth, I care not
whether Mr. Seidl was right in following Wagner's suggestions
as to tempi or not. Coming between two such giants as the
Seventh and the Ninth, it seems to me a comparatively weak work,
hardly worth all the angry discussion it has given rise to in New
York and elsewhere. Of the Ninth I need not speak again.
In that Mr. Seidl was acknowledged even by his detractors to be
as great as in Tristan or Siegfried. In this symphony Beethoven
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
belongs more than half to the romantic school and few would be
so obtuse as to deny that to it, at any rate, we must apply Wag-
ner's maxim which might be summed up in these words : " The
fact that a piece is marked allegro at the beginning does not
mean that it must be played allegro throughout, but if a few bars
occur of a pathetic, adagio-like character, the tempo must be re-
tarded momentarily — as an actor or orator retards his speech if
the words suggest a modification of the dominant emotion."
One of Mr. Seidl's Wagnerian readings of Beethoven
startled even his warmest champions, though they could not help
being stirred by it. Near the close of the great Leonore overture
he brought out an overwhelming brass climax that suggested the
swelling, throbbing chords in the Tristan Vorspiel. When I
heard this for the first time I said to myself, " A splendid climax,
but is it Beethoven ? " But when I consulted the score I found
that Beethoven had marked this place not with the ordinary
fortissimo, but whhfff, which certainly called for as big a
climax as an orchestra can produce. All other conductors had
overlooked that.
In reading the " Bear " Symphony, or other works of Papa
Haydn, Seidl knew how to reveal the irresistible dance swing
and bright humor of that composer. Bach was one of his idols.
He transcribed some of his works for modern orchestra and
interpreted them with as much zeal as he ever bestowed on
Wagner or Liszt. Mozart's operas, especially Don Juan, he
conducted con amore. With Schubert and Schumann he
did not appear to be in sympathy when he first came to
New York ; possibly Wagner's undervaluation of those com-
posers inclined him to carelessness. In later years his attitude
changed, and while he seldom equaled Theodore Thomas or
Arthur Nikisch in those two masters, I remember one performance
171
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
in which he surpassed them. It was Schubert's Variations on
" Death and the Maiden," in which, played by the strings of the
Philharmonic, he conjured almost as astounding a variety and
dazzling beauty of colors as in his favorite Siegfried Idyl. He also
knew how, when in the mood for it, to interpret a Schumann
symphony with rhythmic vigor and the proper romantic spirit.
Of Brahms he was not a great admirer. Alfred Veit relates
this story :
" One day a lady was introduced to Seidl, and begged him
to hear her daughter play, as the girl desired to appear in public
with the cooperation of the eminent conductor and his orchestra.
Seidl listened very graciously to the eulogies which the lady
bestowed upon her daughter, and said in his kindest way :
" Very well, Madame, I shall be pleased to hear your daughter.
What does she play ? " " She plays a concerto by Brahms,"
the lady replied, " and another one by, let me see — ," she hesi-
tatingly continued, trying to remember the composer's name.
" Well, then, I will hear her play the other one" the great con-
ductor replied in his most caustic style, lighting another cigar."
Nevertheless I have heard him interpret Brahms's best
work, the second symphony, with the same conscientious care
that he bestowed on his favorites and with results that Brahms's
special champions do not always attain. Beside Schumann and
Brahms there was another composer antagonistic to Wagner, but
to whom nevertheless Mr. Seidl always strove to do justice. I
have seldom heard anything more stirring than his performances
of those two neglected master works, Rubinstein's Dramatic and
Ocean Symphonies.
For the Norwegian Grieg he had a special liking, and
it was always a delight to hear him play the " Peer Gynt," or
other weird, or sad, or sprightly works of that quaintly original
17a
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
composer. He was so eager to make the public share his de-
light in certain of Grieg's compositions that he arranged them
for orchestra. I remember especially one of these arrangements,
a composition entitled " Sounds of Bells," in which the various
orchestral groups appear to play in absolutely unrelated keys,
producing a peculiar dissonance of harmonics like the overtones
of bells loudly rung, but with a deep, musical boom coming in
again and again.
He also had a great admiration for the original and
romantic American MacDowell, whom he pronounced a greater
composer than Brahms. He was always in quest of orches-
tral novelties. Among the letters addressed to him I have
found some from friends whom he had asked to hunt up
Spanish or other exotic works for him. In this line his
library is unique ; and when he could not find what he
wanted he would orchestrate piano pieces. To his predilection
for the modern French school I have already alluded. The
light, airy, delicate nature of this music were specially suited
for his small Metropolitan orchestra, and the only objections to
his performances of Delibes, Massenet, Berlioz and other
French masters was that the audiences so often insisted on
encores, which he did not like as a rule. His interpretation of
Bizet's U Arlesienne at the Broadway Theatre, a few years ago,
was one of the finest things ever heard in New York. The
delicate, sentimental and graceful passages in this inspired music
were as ideally reproduced by him as the several passionate out-
bursts that reveal the composer's dramatic power.
That he did not neglect contemporary German music goes
without saying. When he produced Humperdinck's Hansel
und Gretel at Daly's Theatre, he was hampered by insufficient
singers and too small an orchestra. But in his subsequent inter-
'73
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
pretation of the best numbers of the score in the concert hall,
there was something ineffably touching in the ethereal delicacy
of the dream music which brought tears to many eyes, while the
imposing sonority of the climax was overwhelming. With
many conductors a climax means simply noise ; with him it was a
thrilling effect of cumulative emotion, like that which makes
a reader's heart stop beating in the climax of an intensely
absorbing story. It was wonderful, often, to see Mr. Seidl com-
municate his strong emotion, his virility, as well as his delicacy,
to an orchestra of a hundred players.
Humperdinck had shared with him the task of teaching
Siegfried Wagner, and one of Mr. Seidl's last deeds was to in-
troduce his pupil's symphonic poem " Sehnsucht " to an American
audience. He was censured for this on the ground that this
work was too juvenile for performance at a Philharmonic concert.
Perhaps it was, but if the artistic interest was not specially
great, it was a matter of scientific and aesthetic curiosity to know
how the son of Wagner and grandson of Liszt would write
music. Should he make as great strides in art as his father
did — which is not at all impossible — that Philharmonic concert
will some day have historic interest.
Under Anton Seidl's baton Weber's Euryanthe had a
series of superb performances. It was also his privilege to
make America acquainted with the funeral march which Wagner
arranged from Euryanthe motives at the obsequies of Weber.
Wagner thought he had lost the parts of this arrangement, but
Seidl found them among his old papers, and it was only just
that Frau Wagner should have allowed him to produce this
composition at a Philharmonic concert previous to its publica-
tion in Germany.
Anton Seid' also contributed his share in helping Gold-
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ANTON S E 1 D L A MEMORIAL
marck to a great temporary success by the way in which he
rendered the ^een of Sheba (fifteen performances in one season)
and Merlin. For ItaHan " prima-donna operas " he natu-
rally did not care, but he admired the later Verdi ; and when
he conducted Boito's Mefistofele, it was the unanimous opinion of
the New York critics, even of those not usually friendly to him,
that he conducted it as admirably as he did Wagner's works.
But enough has been said to illustrate his cosmopolitan gift of
interpretation.
In the last years of his life the Hungarian, Slavic, and
Scandinavian schools of music seemed to interest him more and
more. His last love may be said to have been Tschaikowsky's
Pathetic Symphony, which he conducted with more overwhelm-
ing passion at every repetition and the poetry of which no
other conductor revealed as he did. The last time he played it
was at a morning concert in the Astoria Hotel — a performance
concerning which I wrote at the time :
" Usually after a concert there are almost as many opinions
as there are hearers, but after yesterday's concert there was but
one sentiment, summed up in the words, ' Oh, that all my
friends had been here ! ' Mr. Seidl and his men played the
Pathetic Symphony of Tschaikowsky as it has never been played,
and probably never will be played again, with a heartrending
pathos that made many of the ladies in the audience give free
vent to their tears, and affected Mr. Seidl himself so deeply that
friends who called on him after the performance found him so
overcome with emotion as to be almost unable to speak. The
orchestra has played that symphony several times lately, and the
result showed what Mr. Seidl can do, and what he would do
every week if he could have things his own way."
The creation of the Pathetic Symphony was ominous of
•75
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Tschaikowsky's death ; its performance foreshadowed Anton
Seidl's death. The Adagio Lamentoso was also played at his
funeral by the Philharmonic Society. The master could no longer
conduct it; he lay in his bier in the spot where he used to sway
all hearts, but that agonizing fact added the poignancy of grief
to the music which his genius used to press on it, and made
the tears flow even more freely than if he were conducting.
None of his friends will ever again hear that music without
recalling that sad hour in the Metropolitan Opera House.
Anton Seidl's funeral will be forever associated with that Adagio
Lamentoso, which Mr. Arthur Mees has described in these
words :
" The movement begins with a cry of agony. Again
and again it is repeated, rising to an intensity which tells of grief
almost too great to be borne. At first moments of calmness
seem to bring passing relief, but they are of short duration.
The throes of agony return, and as they rack the heart they
seem to extinguish the last sparks of energy and hope, one by
one, until all is gloom — life has fled. The final measures of this
movement, as their tones vanish in the lowest registers of the
'cellos and bases — can they mean anything but death, the dark-
ness of the grave ? "
176
LETTERS TO SEIDL
FROM
RICHARD WAGNER
AND OTHERS
LETTERS TO ANTON SEIDL
IT is related of Chopin that he would take a cab and drive
from one end of Paris to another rather than write a letter.
Schumann, Liszt and Wagner, on the contrary, were busy letter
writers, and of Hans von Biilow's writings, mostly epistolary,
three volumes have appeared at this date (February, 1899), with
thirty more years to be heard from.
Anton Seidl was one of those who wrote letters only under
compulsion or to please a friend. During the thirteen years I
knew him, I did not receive more than half a dozen letters from
him. One of them, it is true, was quite long — about twelve
pages. I had been asked to send cable dispatches about the
Bayreuth Festival of 189 1 to a syndicate of American newspa-
pers, but as I wished to remain in London till the last moment
and knew that he was at Bayreuth during the time of the re-
hearsals I asked him to send me a brief resume of the situation
for a preliminary dispatch, which he promptly did.
From hints in Frau Cosima Wagner's letters I infer that
Anton Seidl must have written her some long and interesting
letters about the musical situation in America, which will prob-
ably be printed some day. On the whole, however, as episto-
179
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
lary correspondence made up so insignificant a part of his
activity, I have decided not to print any of his letters, and also
to select only a few from among those written to him. Promi-
nent among these are twelve letters from Wagner. As was
mentioned on a preceding page many of his letters from Wag-
ner were lost in Italy by the breaking of one of his trunks. I
find among the letters which Mrs. Seidl has placed at my dis-
posal a number from friends and strangers praising and thanking
him for some particularly fine performance. Among these is an
amusing one from a Scotchman who, though he had not met the
great conductor personally, addressed him as " My Dear Herr
Anton Seidl. For you are dear to me by virtue of your kindly,
sympathetic face and by your genius. I have heard most
everything musical, dramatic and literary since I was carried on
my father's shoulder to hear Jenny Lind sing in Glasgow, but I
have heard no music in America previous to seeing you. Long
life, good health and good luck to you. I don't like this coun-
try, but when I see you control an American audience of 3,000
persons into absolute silence for two hours, I feel there is hope
for the country, and that they are likely to become civilized
some time. Accept my heartfelt thanks for all the happiness
your orchestra and yourself have given and will give me."
Another grateful listener writes : " I have just returned
from a beautiful concert. You will, I trust, not think it rude in
me to write at once to tell you how superb I found the music. The
Schubert works were played, truly, far, far better than they ever
were before in this city." There are many of these letters, and
they doubtless pleased their modest recipient, who was sensitive
to praise and over-sensitive to censure even when he knew it was
undeserved and ignorant or obviously malicious. He should
have borne in mind that no man who honestly and stubbornly
180
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Stands up for what is pure and good can escape the mudslingers
who would fain have everything in the world as unclean and
dishonest as they are.
Among the letters at my disposal is one from an admirer
who wrote to Mr. Seidl to express his thanks for a particularly
fine performance, and Mr. Seidl's reply to him, as follows : " I
am glad with all my heart to hear that 'T'ristan moved you so
deeply. If a warm heart is so much impressed by a musical
performance as yours was, according to your letter, the perform-
ance must have been lucid indeed ; to hear which gives me great
pleasure. The enormous amount of work before me makes
it impossible to name a date for meeting you, but be assured
that your letter will ensure you a place among my pleasant
reminiscences."
Among; the letters is one from Paderewski commendino-
Mile. Melanie Wienzkowski to Mr. Seidl's attention, and signed
" Your cordially devoted and sincere admirer, I. J. Paderewski."
It is well known that when these two great musicians played
together the first time, they disagreed in regard to some detail
of interpretation and were not on the best of terms for a time.
But that soon passed away, and when Paderewski played with
Seidl (in Brooklyn) the last time, and I asked him afterwards
how Seidl conducted, he replied, " Divinely ! "
The following letters are printed entire.
FROM ROBERT I N G E R S O L L
My Dear Mr. Seidl:
We all congratulate you on your great triumph.
We were not surprised. We all knew it — knew it long
ago. We knew that you were the King of Leaders, the greatest
interpreter of the greatest music.
iSi
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
When we read the accounts of your success we all applauded,
we clapped our hands. We shouted " Bravo ! " — we, the
Browns, the Farrells, the IngersoUs, raised the roof.
We kept our eyes on you in London, at Bayreuth ; we
kept our ears open, we listened, and we heard the marvelous
melodies — the divine harmonies, the floods and tempests, the
tides and cataracts of passion — and we saw the many-colored
domes rising in the heaven of sound, as you played Parsifal and
Tristan.
We envied those who really saw and heard. We all glory
in your great success. We are glad for ourselves — glad for
Mrs. Seidl, glad for you, glad for Wagner.
And so we congratulate you and Mrs. Seidl, and we all
send our love to both, and we all say. Come back as soon
as you can.
Walston, Dobbs' Ferry-on-Hudson.
August I, 1897.
FROM TEMPLETON STRONG
My Dear Good Herr Capellmeister :
You must pardon my not having written to you several
days ago, but I have not been at all well lately and am still un-
well, suffering much from my head. Yet, I must write you a
line just to tell you how deeply grateful I am to you for having
taken so much trouble on my account and for the honor you
i8s
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
have done me. I thank you right heartily and I would give
much to be able to give your hand a good, hearty shake. Your
performing my symphony has been the only bright event of this
winter for me. All here has been very, very dreary and full of
trouble. Your interest in me has done much to give me cour-
age to go on working, so I am again grateful to you. From the
very beginning you have shown me one continuous kindness,
and I do so wish I could express here in writing how keenly,
very keenly, I appreciate it ! My one regret about it all is, that
I cannot think of anything / can do (or you. You have been a
kind and loyal friend to me and you have kept up my courage
at a time when, God knows, my courage and desire to go on
living were fast leaving me.
I shall be curious to see the criticisms ! I hope the critics
have not blamed you for producing the work of an American !
And now let me thank you for the telegram ! I was in bed
when it came, little expecting so pleasant a surprise. Again, ich
danke.
With my very best compliments to your good wife (ah,
how well I remember the excellent dinners !) believe me ever
sincerely and most gratefully,
Vevey. March 9, 1893.
FROM JULES MASSENET
Dear Colleague:
Having talked much about you, your great talents and
your successes with my friend, Jean de Reszke, I feel the neces-
sity of writing to you not only to thank you for your flattering
sympathy toward some of my own works, but to tell you that
.83
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
you have in me (since the performance of the Tetralogy in
Brussels) a very earnest admirer. It was at London that I
again met Jean and Edouard de Reszlce.
At present I am in the country, and it is from my summer
retreat that I write to express my grateful feelings.
FROM EUGENE YSAYE
Mv Dear Friend :
I did not have the pleasure of seeing you before my de-
parture. I should have been glad to, however, for I wanted
to tell you how grateful I am that you gave me the opportunity
to appear in the great concerts of America — how much I
appreciate in you the amiable man, the witty talker and the
masterly conductor that you are all in one. Whether or not
I return to America you may be sure, my dear Seidl, that I shall
always keep the remembrance of your kindly and cordial welcome.
We certainly have thoughts in common about art and that,
joined to the admiration that I feel toward you as a great mu-
sician, bind me to you with an affection that I shall endeavor
to keep unchanged in the future. Tell your dear wife for me
and for Madame Ysaye, how grateful we are for the amiable way
in which she received me. I shall remember our artistic con-
versations, and I shall not fail to profit by your precious advice
with regard to my performance of the Wagner-Wilhelmj ar-
184.
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
rangements. For next winter I have recommended to Johnston,
who has engaged him, the violinist Rivarde. Johnston and I
both desire that this meritorious artist should make his debut
under your protection at the first Philharmonic concert.
Rivarde has just made a great success in London at the Nilcisch
concerts, with Beethoven's Concerto and Lalo's Spanish Sym-
phony. This is the programme he will offer you. Rivarde
is in every way worthy of your concerts, and I hope you will be
willing to give him a place at the first.
Your devoted friend who embraces vou,
FROM ANTONIN DVORAK
My Dear Friend :
Your letter reached me quite well and was a great joy to me.
Many, many thanks for it. You ask me about my symphonic
poems.
O, my dear, they are ready, and just two weeks ago Simrock
made it public. You can get them any time, and you have only
to apply to Schirmer. In case you would like to put them
on the programme, I should advise you to give it separated.
The Wassermann takes about eighteen minutes in per-
formance, the Midnoonwitch (Mittagshexe) thirteen, but the
Golden Spinning-wheel twenty-five to thirty minutes. And so,
I think, it would be too much all three at one concert.
i8S
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
The best you could do is to give the Wassermann and
Midnoonwitch in one concert and the Spinning-wheel in the
next. I am very anxious to hear your opinion of my new
efforts.
I should be happv if they would please you. I am writ-
ing a new series of symphony poems, and just now I have finished
one. It is called The Pigeon (Die Taube).
All the poems are made after Erben Ballads (the author
of the " Spectre's Bride," you know), and I am just delighted of
it. As those poems express really our national feelings, so I
endeavored to keep those. We all prize the national form,
what fits us so nicely, as the people say. Don't laugh !
Some features you will perhaps find very funny, but this is
just what I like. Don't laugh. For instance in the Hexe : The
little child is crying immensely ; the mother tries to make it
quiet and calm, but the little one does not care, is crying again ;
the mother gets in rage and calls the witch (she really appears).
And now the horrible story between mother and witch is going
on, which you find in the printed score. There is, of course,
only the extract of the original poem.
If this letter reaches you send me afterward a line more.
I will be always happy to hear from my good friend Seidl.
With best regards to Mrs. Seidl and you.
Don't forget to remember me to all my friends in America.
But it would take too much time for you, don't you think ?
Prague, i8 \\ 96.
186
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
FROM RICHARD WAGNER
"li/fR. ANTON SEIDL, of Pest, has during the last five
It J. years been at my side helping me as an expert musician
in the preparations for my Festival Play and at the performances.
He has proved himself eminently capable at the rehearsals as
well as at the performances, so that in case of necessity I should
have considered it possible at any moment to put the director-
ship entirely in his hands, all the more because his leader-
ship of orchestral concerts during several years has conclusively
proven his qualifications as an energetic and careful conductor.
Richard Wagner.*
Bayreuth, September 7, 1877.
Dearest Friend and Comrade :
You know that I write only when the water is up to my
neck.
Many thanks for your two letters ! Keep it up.
Accordingly — !
Herewith a letter for Angelo, which you could best for-
ward — perhaps through the local mail — because I don't know
when the gentleman will be in Leipsic.
In this letter I have proposed and advised everything.
Your engagement (to begin with, for the Nibelungen) as well as
a definite arrangement with Jaeger, to whom please give our
regards.
We are as fond of you as ever and are passably well. A
few days ago I resumed my composing.
Best regards from R. "W_
Bayreuth, June 29 (30), 1878.
*See facsimile of the origrinal of this testimonial, on opposite page.
187
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
My Dear Friend Seidl :
Your excellent letter from Leipsic seems to have exhausted
you completely. As you remain silent I will at least tell you
what has happened of late in regard to a position for you.
Long and detailed correspondence with Braunschweig ; too late,
Riedel sent the contract already signed. In reference to Triest
I remained for a long time without a reply ; finally the offer was
declined because the strength of the Italian sentiment made the
engagement of a German leader appear dangerous. Jauner, on
the other hand, accepted by wire. It is well that you quickly
responded to my request. This at present unimportant position
will bring good results. In the first place, you will greatly ad-
vance the cause (vide Jaeger), and particularly as coach for the
singers you will make up in the quickest and most practical
way what you are lacking : thorough knowledge of the repertory
of our theatres. After that it will be no trouble at all to
conduct all those things. I earnestly hope that you will make
rapid progress from now on, but a beginning had to be made.
I had to look for a piano teacher for my oldest daughter,
because Daniela especially received such instruction in London.
Liszt recommended a pianist by name of Kellermann, who has
been educated in his school. He is quite a finished piano player,
but to my regret very backward as regards music in general,
because he had to practice piano technique fourteen hours a day.
He is of no use at all to me. He has been studying your
transcription of the first act of Parsifal for a month, as if it were
a piece for the piano. He is otherwise well educated and mod-
est. I have now commenced the third act and don't care what
happens after this. Everybody in Wahnfried sends heartiest
greetings. Give my regards to Richter, whom I don't " con-
gratulate" any more ! (Foolish stuflF!)
i88
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Write me and may you reap joy with Jaeger — your creation.
You can advise him better than anybody else, for you have
assisted at Unger's instruction.
Therefore, God be with you !
Your always devoted Richard Wagner.
Bayreuth, November 2, 1878.
Dear Friend :
Here I have once more received a strange letter to which I
do not reply because it tells me nothing. Acting on the infor-
mation you sent me I wrote to Director Neumann and told him
not to produce Tristan as a star performance but as part of his
regular repertory. In doing this I had the idea in my mind to
arrange for Jaeger's engagement after all. As you told me that
it was impossible to produce Tristan during the summer
months, because the singer you have picked out for Isolde is
enceinte, I replied to Mr. Neumann that this delay was quite
agreeable to me, because I intended to pass the summer at
Naples on account of the bathing. Here is the Director's reply :
Not one word about Jaeger or the delay until I can come. But
I will not give my consent to the production of Tristan if I can-
not attend the rehearsals and — in accordance with my promise —
arrange the work myself with reference to the ensemble that can
be procured at Leipsic. This must be done because I want
Leipsic to accomplish an unqualified success.
Be kind enough to inform the proper persons of this.
I am passably well and hope at last to get over the conse-
quences of Bayreuth's climatic conditions entirely.
Everybody sends regards with true affection.
Your good old R. Wagner.
March 5, 1880, Villa d'Angri, Naples.
189
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Dear Friend :
That is a nasty affair, that story of the " lost" letter. Only
once before a similar thing happened to me, when Director Jau-
ner of Vienna claimed that he had not received a letter which de-
manded a decisive answer. All other letters have always arrived
promptly. It is very unpleasant to me that Director Neumann
was in no way disturbed when he received no reply to his last
letter — not even through you — and calmly continued his prepa-
rations for the production of 'Tristan during the summer.
In short: I have to bathe in the sea here all summer and
cannot return to Bayreuth before December. Of this I informed
Neumann in that "lost letter" two months ago. I shall not
permit the production of Tristan without my cooperation, for good
and sufficient reasons, which unfortunately are lost. I must
arrange this work first in order to make the production possible,
and I cannot leave this arrangement to anybody else, certainly
not to you, dear Seidl, because you show by your action in this
affair that you don't know what it is about. I have no more to
say about this.
Either Mr. Neumann acts with the consideration due to
me and puts off the production of Tristan until it is possible for
me to assist, or I must publicly and — if possible — with the help
of the courts protest and remonstrate.*
* For once Richard Wagner lost patience with Anton Seidl. He had come
to the conclusion that Tristan and Isolde needed revision before it could be produced
successfully at Leipsic, whereas Seidl, with his enthusiasm for the opera, and his con-
fidence in the master's genius and the singers, made up his mind to go ahead regardless
of remonstrance and threats of appeals to the courts. It was a case of the egg being
really wiser than the hen, to use a homely German comparison. As we saw in the
biographic chapter, this Leipsic performance of Tristan was such a brilliant success
that Wagner wrote to Neumann, the manager : "Now it has succeeded without my
cooperation, and that astonishes me ! Well, good luck ! I certainly discover in Seidl
hidden faculties which only require a fostering warmth to surprise even myself."
190
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
I have nothing to add to this, except the demand to inform
me of the decision of the Leipsic management within eight days
or not later than April 30th.
Farewell and be sure of our best regards. Yours,
R. Wagner.
Villa d'Angri, April i6, i88o, Naples.
Pray tell me, dear SeidI, whether you have received my
letter containing a note from Mr. A. Neumann, which I sent
you at least five weeks ago.
That you did not answer at all did not cause me any serious
apprehension for C. J., but it perplexes me if I continually find
in the newspapers reports of my visit to Leipsic this summer,
and of other matters in connection with such a trip. I wrote you
that I am going to stay here all summer on account of the sea-
bathing, and that I will not return to Bayreuth before the be-
ginning of winter, and that I would then come to L. if a good
Tristan was there.
Now please let me have some news.
You — bad fellow !
Yours,
Wagner.
Naples, Villa d'Angri Posilipo, April 6, iSSo.
My Dear Seidl :
W^hat shall I write you ? Neumann evades me just as he
did in regard to Jaeger, and it is entirely impossible to continue
advising him. I am compelled to let everything at Leipsic go
as it pleases. The worst thing is that affair with Sucher ; if
I wanted to interfere there I would at least have to go to L.
Highly as he esteemed his pupil, he had underrated his ability. From that Leipsic
performance under Seidl dates the triumphant career of Tristan and hoLU.
191
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
myself, which would cause indescribable confusion. The best
thing would be if you would give Sucher a piece of your mind,
mentioning me directly as your authority. Don't be insulting,
but very decided. As I said, I cannot say another word to Neu-
mann ; but whatever may happen do, in any case, try to get a
position — no matter what kind — at a theatre. This is indis-
pensable for your whole life. Everybody must make a be-
ginning — think of me ! In a certain sense your long stay at
Bayreuth has really handicapped you. Should you personally
suffer want let me know it ; you can rely on my assistance.
Jaeger I don't understand either. He has evidently no
inspiration; all he wants is an extra good engagement. God
knows how it will work with Unger ! But, as I said, it is im-
possible for me to talk to or advise Neumann ; he acts as if he
didn't understand me.
Therefore —
We have always visitors I am always working a little but
slowly.
Everybody remembers you with affection and the memorv
of the "uncle" is still green.
Heartiest greetings.
[Date line and signature given away by Mr. Seidl.]
Many Thanks, Dear Seidl :
I wish you luck for everything good in which you assist.
But now be good enough to get Mr. Rosenheim to show
you my receipt for the November royalties for the Walkiire. I
cannot at all recall having received any money from Leipsic
during December — /. f., for November.
This may not amount to much, but it worries me and I
192
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
can't get rid of the idea that people might consider me forgetful.
Now then, good luck to you.
Yours,
Wagner.
Bayreuth, January 24, 1881.
Dear Friend :
Will you kindly give my best regards to Mrs. Sachse-Hof-
meister and also thank her in my name for her well-meant
proposals.
I am now always at home and request you two to come
just as it pleases you.
At all events, however, be sure to combine your visit with
that of Mr. Winkelmann.
I also thank you for the information you sent me ; I have
taken the necessary steps.
May we soon meet again ! Your
Richard Wagner.
Bayreuth, June 17, 1881.
Dear Friend :
I came here with my wife, Eva and Fidie to consult a
dentist, and intend to return Monday afternoon by way of
Leipsic to avoid a night trip from Dresden. Be kind enough
to engage rooms for us in the Hotel Hauff. If there is any-
thing interesting to be seen in the theatre we may go there.
It is also of importance to hear something definite about
Neumann's plans for Dresden. I have not spoken about this
to anybody connected with the theatre, but Dr. Hartmann
assures me that Neumann has told him, before starting on his
193
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
last trip to Hungary, that the production of the Ring des Nibel-
ungen by the ensemble of the Court Theatre was a settled fact.
This would mean that Neumann could sell his exclusive right of
producing the Ring to others for so and so much.
In this case Neumann had better look out, as he would be
in a decidedly uncomfortable position and I would be com-
pelled to cancel the whole contract.
Please send me one word about this at once. I will notify
you by wire of the time of our arrival. Your,
R. W.
Dresden, Hotel Bellevue, September lo, 1881.
My Dear Seidl :
It was impossible to let you have the Parsifal prelude be-
cause I had already referred it to Richter, who, as you know,
originally gave concerts only. While the competition between
Neumann's enterprise and Richter-Pollini is very disagreeable
to me, I gave my consent only because I was almost forced to
do it. It is impossible to hurt Richter by giving you something
that I have refused to him. Now you also know my experience
with Albert Hall ; it worries me that Neumann expects to
realize large profits there. I can account for this idea only on
the assumption that somebody believes that a great many people
have not the means and the time to attend the complete per-
formances of the Nibelungen, and that they could be served by
giving them fragments in a summary way in one evening. It is
possible that in this way that terrible space can be filled. But
in that case success depends solelv on those parts of the Nibelun-
gen which the public desires to hear.
I am thankful to Mr. Neumann for his prompt telegraphic
reports of the results of the first performance of every part. Of
194
AKTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
the second performance I have heard nothing ; has it taken
place ?
I hope you will believe that I rejoice in your success. You
know that I rely on you above all others.
How is it? Can I have Schelper for Bayreuth to alternate
from time to time with Hill as Klingsor ? I am not helpless in
this case, but I believe I am doing right if I give Schelper the
chance to show his aptitude for impassioned characterization.
Well, the dear God in heaven bless you all ! Give my best
regards to my old and new Nibelungs, and let us see you again at
our house where you are always welcome, as you know well
enough.
With all my heart, yours, Rich. Wagner.
Bayreuth, May i6, 1882.
Dear Seidl:
I presume that you have returned to Leipsic and thank you,
in the first place, for your pleasant letter from London. There
will be much to say about the character of the execution of this
difficult enterprise ; especially the error in regard to the respons-
iveness of the London public will have to be corrected. That
PoUini affair has been very unpleasant, but in my present con-
dition I cannot attend to these matters as closely as might be
desirable, and I am — in order to get the rest I absolutely need —
often compelled to let matters drift along. Director Neumann
has also of late given me almost too much work with the grant-
ing of all kinds of concessions, and my head is sometimes quite
dizzy. In addition to all this we have new complications :
for instance, at present with Berlin about Lohengrin. I can't find
my old contract with Hulsen, and don't know whether I have
given him the exclusive right to produce the opera in Berlin.
19s
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
I don't believe it, for such arrangements were not made at that
time. If he claims that right now he should show his proof, but
he will probably simply attempt to rely on old privileges which
are no longer in force since the old laws have ceased to be in
force. Director Neumann must, in any case, arrange this matter
with Voltz and Baltz, as this opera {Lohengrin) was at the time
given over so far as Germany is concerned to those gentlemen.
In regard to Tristan and Isolde, I am settling the matter
in such a way that those gentlemen will have nothing more
to do with the sale of that work.
There is great uncertainty about N's relations to Staege-
mann. The latter is said to have ordered from Bruckner, of
Coburg, the decorations for the Nibelungenring for Leipsic.
Please drop that affair about Schelper. Levi has already
engaged Kindermann to alternate as Klingsor. I will not dis-
turb this arrangement and don't need Schelper.
Let us see you soon again here and continue to like
Your old,
R. Wagner.
June 4, 1882.
Bravo, Dear Seidl:
Do not fail to insist upon the vacation and come to me as
quickly as possible. You can stay with us. You must help
me again; on the 25th of December I intend to have my sym-
phony, which will be just fifty years old on that day, played for
my wife. I have been promised that a fairly good orchestra will
be formed from the pupils of the conservatory and you will have
to manage the rehearsals. A few new arrangements will also be
necessary. Therefore, go ahead !
196
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Your telegram has delighted all Venice. My best regards
to Neumann and his Nibelung Heroes ! Favorable news is
always very welcome, etc.
Adieu ! Your very old R. W.
Venice, Palazzo Vendramin, Canal Grande, December 2, 1882.
Dear Seidl :
Your last letter has delighted and touched us very much
and I should reply to it more fully — but just now I have not
the time and must confine myself to ask a favor of minor
importance.
If Scaria is with you I wish to ask him to have a letter
forwarded which I just now sent to his address in Vienna.
About Neumann's enterprise, which I consider extremely
difficult, I must hear at last something definite. It worries me
that he does not want to give me at least an estimate of his re-
ceipts in order to enable me to form an idea. I am afraid that
he has involved himself in such terrible expenses that he does
not want to consider at this moment under what obligations he
is to me. I would like very much to receive some reassuring
news on this point and you might be able to procure them by
talking the matter over confidentially.
Bremer with his 4^^ violin does not please me either. It
is hard for me to interfere with his affairs as long as he does not
ask for my opinion, God knows !
Well ! You remain always dear to me, even if I do not
need an orchestra this time. Newspaper gossip !
Everything remains as it was ! Best regards from vours.
Rich. Wagner.
Venice, January i, 1S83.
197
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Dedication on fly-leaf of Parj//^/ text-book.
Dear Seidl :
I return your fine copy, turned into elegant type, and
hope that it will please you as much as those splendid amateur
concerts of last winter.
Many thanks,
Rich. Wagner.
Wagner was much given to punning — like Shakespeare,
Beethoven and other great men. When he presented the score of
Die G'dtterd'dmmerung to Seidl, he wrote into it " Auf der Welt ist
alles Seidl " — " everything in this world is Seidl " (instead of
" eitel," vanity). On the Rheingold score he wrote these lines,
dated Christmas, 1874:
Auf der Welt ist alles eitel :
Wer kein Maass hat, trinkt sein Seidl.
Anton nur Ist's ganz gelungen :
Von der Sohle bis zum Scheitel,
Hat er sich hineingesungen
In den Ring des Nibelungen.
Which, perhaps, may be thus translated, with the explana-
tion that Maass (mug) and Seidl mean the same thing.
In this world all things are idle.
Hast no mug ? then take your Seidl.
Anton only has succeeded :
From the head down to his lung
He alone himself has sung
Into the Ring of the Nibelung.
198
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
The letters from Frau Cosima Wagner I do not feel at liberty
to print entire on account of some personal allusions. A few ex-
tracts, however, are permissible.
FROM COSIMA WAGNER
My Dear Friend:
On the morning of June 6th, just on Siegfried's birthday,
we received your entertaining and newsy letter, and you could
not have sent us a more welcome gift than all this information.
Every item was of value to us in confirming and enlarging our
impressions. I am sorry we cannot have you among us this
summer, but I rejoice greatly at the thought of seeing you again
next summer, and so do my children.
Your Tristan performance must have been very fine, and
I wish I could hear it again sung beautifully — as I once did by
Schnorr.
You are quite right : the theatre-hero mask (Theater-Heros
Fratze) is of small account, and I believe that whoever sings and
speaks these works with real beauty of voice finds the proper
physiognomic expression and gestures spontaneously.
I am glad to hear from you so many good things about
Madame Nordica. The hours devoted to her studying of the
role of Elsa with me are among my pleasant reminiscences.
Did Jean de Reszke tell you he studied the part of Tristan with
Kniese ?
I am dreadfully sorry not to be able to have these two
great artists, Jean and Edouard, with me. I have done all I
could to secure them.
We are working busily amid the difficult circumstances cre-
ated by the present-day theater ! Alas, our art is in a dreadful
condition. Everything is going to ruin.
'99
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Siegfried will give you pleasure : he is entirely genuine ! and
to me an indispensable aid.
Of the '76 singers we shall have Lilli Lehmann and Vogl.
Also Mottl and Kranich. Richter as a matter of course. So
that I can rely on having plenty of assistance in refreshing my
reminiscences. For ten days we have been trying the new
swimming machines (not carts).
Of what you know, dear friend, you can never tell me too
much. I was much entertained by your story of the dragon and
the sacrificed garment ! That was a merry state of affairs. I
also laughed much over the ritardando in the Walkiire Vorspiel.
I could tell you similar stories — others, too, of another kind.
All these things may be deferred till we can talk them over
in a happy hour ! Farewell, dear friend, accept once more my
thanks, with the most cordial greetings from all of us.
C. Wagner.
Bayreuth, Wahnfried, June 6, 1896.
In the spring of 1897 Mr. Seidl received the following
despatch from Bayreuth :
" Is your coming to Europe certain ? If so I offer you
conductorship of Parsifal. Silence for the present desirable."
Wahnfried.
This despatch was followed soon by Mme. Wagner's
letter :
Wahnfried, March 9, 1897.
My Dear Friend :
All Wahnfried thanks you in advance for your consent,
which has given us great joy.
WALTHER'S SONG IN " TANNHAUSER "
In December, i88g, Anton Seidl allowed the New York Figaro to
print a version of Walther's song in the second act of Tannhduser
in Wagner's own handwriting which was made for the Paris Grand
Opera, and a facsimile of which is incorporated in this volume. Mr.
Seidl appended the following explanation :
" I believe I am offering the musical public and my colleagues
something worth knowing in making them acquainted with one of the
master's compositions of which few seem to know the existence. In
i860, at the recommendation of the Princess of Metternich, Napoleon
III gave the order that Tannhduser should be produced at the Grand
Opera, and for this occasion Wagner made important changes in the
score. The Venusberg scene, in particular, was so much enlarged that
Venus is brought up almost to the level of a Briinnhilde or an Isolde. The
orchestration of the opera was subjected almost throughout to a thorough
revision. The contest of singers in the second act also suffered many-
changes. To accelerate the action, Walther's song was omitted entirely.
But that the master did not make up his mind to this cut without a
struggle is proved by the careful revision of Walther's song which he
made for the French score, changing the four-four time of the original
version to three-four, in deference to the foreign tongue. If we compare
the two readings of this song, we note, at once, the subtle intelligence
the master displayed in the way in which he changed the melody to the
more flowing three-four rhythm without omitting a detail of the original.
The Paris version of this song has not appeared in print, for the master
omitted it from the later complete edition which Fiirstenau, of Berlin,
published with the object of not retarding the action of the second act
unnecessarily — a proceeding which I am sure is regretted by many who
now miss the peculiarly German sentimental personality of Walther von
der Vogelweide. So far as I know there exists no other copy of the
French version of this song.
o
c
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
I enclose the dates of rehearsals. Please telegraph me one
word (" agreed "), so I shall know it is all right, then we can go
into details. I hope the plan will suit you, a*d Mr. Grau too.
You would rehearse Parsifal on June 30th and July ist, and
would then be free to fly (to London) till July 12th, whereafter
you would remain with us.
Siegfried sends very special greetings. He is delighted
that you are coming and I thank you for your warm words
about him. . . .
You see, my dear friend, I am getting garrulous. This
will prove to vou my genuine delight over your letter. Let me
press your hand while I say auf Wiedersehen.
You were always a favorite at Wahnfried and always will
remain so. We shall have many things to tell one another.
You have your experiences, I mine. With kindest greetings
from all of us. C. Wagner.
Richard Wagner and his family indeed loved and treated
Anton Seidl as if he had been one of them, and among the
many letters of condolence there was one from this family
expressing the deepest sorrow — a sorrow brightened only by the
fact that it had been his privilege before his death to conduct
the work at the creation of which he had assisted at Bayreuth.
Mme. Danlela Thode (nee von Biilow) wrote that she regarded
it as a blessed omen that one of the last functions by which he
showed his devotion to his cause and his goodness of heart was
the production in America of her brother Siegfried's symphonic
poem, " Sehnsucht."
In the Bayreuther Blatter for 1898 (V, VI) Hans von
Wolzogen printed the German originals of Wagner's letters to
Seidl contained in this volume (except those dated September
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
lo, 1881, May 16, 1882, June 4, 1882,) and an obituary notice
from which I gather a few interesting facts not previously
alluded to. Seidl put together the orchestral score of Parsifal
which was always in use at Wagner's house, up to about the
middle of the second act. In Bayreuth, where he remained as a
regular member of the Wagner family until 1878, he conducted
the amateur orchestra and Wagner repeatedly attended the con-
certs as he at once recognized Seidl as a born conductor. As
early as 1884, Frau Wagner had intended to ask him to con-
duct Parsifal, with Levi as colleague ; but Seidl could not leave
America. He had great faith in the musical ability of Siegfried
Wagner, who looked up to him as his master ; but Seidl, with
characteristic modesty, did not like this and wanted to invert
the relation. "In London," Herr von Wolzogen concludes,
" where Seidl was to conduct the Covent Garden performances
again, his young friend Siegfried intended to visit him and take
him back to Bayreuth for a long visit. Seidl had also spoken
of his plan of buying a house in Bayreuth and making it his
home."
ANTON SEIDL'S LITERARY WORK
ANTON SEIDL'S LITERARY WORK
ANTON SEIDL was too busy with rehearsals and perform-
ances to have much time for literary work. Of the few
articles he wrote, the most important are the two on Conducting
which he contributed to the sumptuous subscription work of
which he was the editor-in-chief, The Music of the Modern World,
published by D. Appleton & Co., who have very kindly allowed
their reprint in this volume. They were translated by Mr.
Krehbiel, and, as I have said before, they rank second only to
Wagner's famous essay "On Conducting." In 1897 I had the
privilege of translating a most interesting article of his on the
Tannhduser Overture for a subscription book. But as this is
not yet in print it was of course impossible to secure permis-
sion to incorporate it in this volume. It takes the witty form
of a lecture to a late-comer at the opera, telling him of all the
fine things he has missed.
At the conclusion of the German opera season, 1887-8, a
souvenir was issued by the New York Figaro Publishing Co.,
which included, among other things, a series of reflections on
the past season by Mr. Seidl. These I have had translated for
this volume. I also insert a few paragraphs from an article on
205
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
the Development of Music in America, which appeared in the
Forum for May, 1892, and which Dr. Rice has kindly allowed
me to use. The greater part of it refers to temporary conditions
which existed after the expulsion of German opera, but the fol-
lowing pages are worth reproducing.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUSIC IN AMERICA
" I have been accused of being a blind devotee of German
opera, but I believe that this charge is undeserved. It is true
that I adhere to the new school of music as opposed to the old,
and I support any good music written after the new forms, whether
it comes from a German, French, an Italian, or an English com-
poser. The Germans are not the only composers who follow
the new school of musical composition, though inasmuch as
this school was founded by a German, they naturally have
become identified with it on account of the enthusiastic support
which they have given it. It is a mistake, however, to say
that the new forms of music are due wholly to Wagner.
Wagner created them, but he was himself the creation of his
time. We had grown away from the old methods, and the
conditions were ripe for a new and higher development. Wag-
ner saw in the opera the possibilities which it afforded for the
expression of the profoundest emotions and the noblest sentiments
of man, and he developed them as no one before or no one since
has done. He saw clearly the folly of attempting to foster
incompleteness in art, and maintained that no art deserved the
name of art unless it was perfectly rounded ; so he made opera
the vehicle not merely for pretty voices, but for the highest
forms of music. Wagner is to music what Shakespeare is
to the drama. His theories have now been widely accepted,
his example followed by many imitators, and there is no doubt
ao6
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
that the future development of music will be on the lines he
has laid down.
" The Americans, notwithstanding all that has been said
to the contrary, are a musical people. Their taste is still un-
formed, but it is naturally a good one and is sure to grow in
the right direction. But in order to grow in the right direction
it must be properly cultivated. It has thus far been sufficiently
developed to enable them to appreciate the superiority of the
new methods in music over the old. What has already been
achieved is remarkable when one considers the disadvantages
which retard the progress of music in this country. Whenever
operas have been given they have been almost invariably sung
in an alien tongue. This is of course a great obstacle to their
appreciation. No satisfactory artistic results can be achieved
here, nor can America produce any national music, until opera
is given in English. I look forward to the time when American
composers shall produce great operatic wori^s of a distinctly
original character written in the vernacular ; but until that time
comes I believe that such foreign works as are performed here
should be translated into English. The achievements of such
American composers as Professor J. K. Paine, who has done
admirable work, of E. A. McDowell, whose compositions seem
to me to be superior to those of Brahms, of G. W. Chadwick,
Templeton Strong, and others, augur well for the future produc-
tions of American composers. The unsatisfactory condition of
our musical culture is due chiefly to the intermittent opportuni-
ties which are given here for musical education. It would be
folly to expect people to form a healthy musical taste simply by
hearing operas occasionally produced and almost always in an
inadequate manner. Besides, such operas as we hear are gener-
ally given under alien conditions, which make them foreign to
207
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
the American mind. The singers whom America imports in
such large numbers from abroad do undoubtedly a great deal of
good, but they also do harm, for they bring influences which are
essentially un-American.
" What we need is American opera given under American
influences. This can be brought about only by an elaborate
and well-organized system of musical education. We have
plenty of good material for the making of musicians, but this
material is buried beneath the army of foreign artists who come
annually to our shores, and whom Americans have formed the
habit of encouraging — often simply because they are foreigners.
In order to bring out this latent material, a school for opera
should be established here. If conducted on the best principles,
it would be of inestimable advantage. It would keep at home
those young musicians who annually go abroad to study, some-
times under the greatest disadvantages, and would encourage
those to undertake a musical education who are deterred from it
by the expense which they would incur by European training.
The school should not only train singers, but also young men
ambitious to become orchestra-players and orchestra-leaders.
There should be in connection with it a theatre in which operas
might be produced. The institution would thus be a practical
school for opera. The first year after its establishment should
be spent in fundamental training. Private performances of
opera should be given, but no public ones until the artists had
been thoroughly disciplined. As soon as this was accomplished,
three or four operas might be publicly produced each year.
Native singers would thus have the advantage of being heard
under the most favorable conditions, and native instrumentalists
would display their talent in the orchestra ; we need, especially,
' a better training in this country for orchestra-leaders. American
20g
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
composers, too, would be greatly helped, for the school should
endeavor to encourage them, not by ignoring works written by
foreigners, but by giving preference to operas written by Ameri-
cans. If it were possible to raise a guarantee fund for such an
establishment, splendid results might be obtained in a very short
time.
" Such a plan as I have suggested may seem impracticable,
but I am convinced that if it were carried out under the best
auspices, that is, controlled by persons who had the interest of
music at heart, it would surely be a success. But if it were con-
trolled simply by the rich who regarded music as a mere diver-
sion, it would surely be a failure. America is a great country
but it has as yet done very little in the arts. Nevertheless,
there is no reason why it should not develop an individual
musical art which should compare favorably with that of Ger-
many or France or Italy. Such an institution would be of
immense benefit if it only taught us to cease aping the French
and Italian peculiarities and to work on individual lines. Let
us, by all means, assimilate what is best in German, French, and
Italian art, but we can do this without being enslaved by any
one of them ; and let us endeavor to express our own natures,
which is, after all, the only means of attaining that highest and
best of qualities, originality."
CUTS IN THE NIBELUNG TRILOGY
" Much has been said lately about cuts and about the ex-
cessive length of the Wagner operas. Although I was willing
to meet the wishes of the public by reducing these operas to four
hours, I did this really with a heavy heart. The public may
believe me when I say that any cut, no matter how short, does
not save as much time as will compensate for the less thorough
209
ANTON SEIDI. A MEMORIAL
understanding of the opera therefrom resulting. Taking as an
example in the second act of the Walkure, the much-decried nar-
rative of Wotan, I declare that the spectators who hear nothing,
or only a part of this narrative, cannot get at the very kernel of
the whole opera, which lies in that narrative. The public can
in that case appreciate the beauty of the music alone. The
action is unfolded before its eyes, but the " why " of the plot is
not made clear. I know a good many highly cultured friends
of music, musicians themselves, who were unable to narrate to
me correctly the plot of the Walkure. And yet here come per-
sons who ask me to reduce the evenings to three hours each.
To such a request no answer is possible."
A SCENE IN THE GOTTERUAMMERUNG
" I have heard that various persons have expressed the
opinion that the two scenes in the last act of the Gdtterddmmer-
ung representing Walhalla with Wotan and the Gods who are
expecting their end and the all-reconciling Briinnhilde are not in
the Wagnerian style. I agree that the figures by themselves do
not present the situation as correctly as does the music of the
orchestra, but as an explanation of the music they are quite in
their proper place. The text-book used at the Metropolitan
contains, besides other errors, only the laconic phrase: " A north-
ern light appears in the sky," but in the orchestral and vocal
scores Wagner's scenic directions are printed too.
" The omission of these directions has led some persons into
the error of declaring things to be un- Wagnerian that were pre-
scribed by Wagner himself.
" Briinnhilde's address to the men, which was said to have
been ' cut ' here, was, as a matter of fact, never composed for
the public."
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
FAFNER S DEATH
"Every time that the dragon scene is enacted on the stage I
see, in different parts of the house, smiles of contempt or expres-
sions of surprise at the childishness of the idea of making a
dragon sing. These people I should like to take to Munich
where the part of Fafner is sung by the veteran Kindermann ;
seldom have I heard anything more pathetic on the stage than
the song of the dying dragon. Not only I, who might be ac-
cused of partiality, but the whole audience were carried away by
sympathy and pity to such an extent that I saw tears rolling
down many cheeks. I never saw the death of Fafner, the last of
his race, enacted more pathetically than by this artist."
Siegfried's narrative
" I often heard, to cite another example, that many do not
realize the import of Siegfried's narrative in the third act of the
Gbtterd'dmmerung, and that the singer's method seems to be the
source of the misunderstanding. In this scene Siegfried relates
reminiscences of his childhood days. He also mentions the
most remarkable occurrence of his life when, in consequence of
having moistened his lips with dragon's blood, he learned to
understand the speech of the birds. Now it is of course quite
unnatural for Siegfried here to imitate the voice of the bird.
He merely tells the men what the bird sang. What can have
induced certain singers when they come t» this most serious part
of the narrative relating to the language •f the bird, t» make use
of an utterly unnatural comic falsetto t«ne, as if t« make it seem
as if a bird's voice might be imitated by a ten«r ? Many people
are, perhaps, pleased with such a trick which brings the singer to
the foreground improperly at the expense of the hero Siegfried,
who did not twitter the words of the bird to the men, but told
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
them in a simple manner what the bird had sung. The accom-
panying music conveys plainly enough the meaning of the song.
By his treatment of this narrative Niemann proved in New York
not only how great he is as singer and as actor, but how much
he is ahead of other artists in his comprehension of Wagner's
works. His is a narrative worthy of a hero ! "
ORCHESTRA AND SINGER
" As a proof that the singer's voice need not always be tied
up with the orchestra, I will cite the well-known love song in the
first act of Die IValkure which ends in the orchestra pianissimo but
is sung by the vocalist with exuberant joy and vernal vivacity. I
might similarly indicate many things which are in no wise noted
in the score and can only be read between the lines by such as
have penetrated the nature of these mysteries. What must here
be read between the lines is what I call style. The Nibelung Cycle
is now produced in every land. Its measure of success is in exact
ratio with the style in which it is produced.
" I believe that I am not talking pro domo in asserting that
the New York public has reason to be more than satisfied with
the local production of the Nibelung's Ring. Here and there a
part might possibly have a stronger impersonator, a scenic effect
be more clearly produced, a change of scenery more promptly
made, but as a whole no one will be able to assert that the pro-
ductions were not strictly in accordance with the master's inten-
tion. So when any one asserts that in "Tristan., for example, I
allow the orchestra to drown the voices of the singers, he is
guilty of malicious misrepresentation, which may have been
originated by a spectator who sat in a front seat of the parquet
immediately behind the trombones. As I cannot let the men
play pianissimo during the whole evening, and the orchestra is
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
not played for the benefit of certain seats, I can only advise
said spectators to sit a few seats further back. That the covered
orchestra at Bayreuth obviates all such objections anybody who
has been present at the performances in that place knows as well
as I do."
SCHUMANN AND WAGNER
Before we pass on to the great essay on Conducting, I wish
to cite part of a letter which Mr. Seidl wrote to me under date
of January 2, 1894. It throws light on a much-discussed inci-
dent. Wagner was bitterly censured, because, as his enemies
alleged, he had inspired, or even written, the attack on Schu-
mann's music which appeared in the Bayreuther Blatter, under
the name of Joseph Rubinstein. In reply to a question of mine
as to whether there was any truth in this accusation, Mr. Seidl
wrote as follows :
" If Wagner had not considered it beneath his dignity to
answer the contemptible accusations or insinuations made at the
time, he would have done so. I was at Bayreuth, in Wagner's
house, shortly before the notorious article of Joseph Rubinstein
appeared in the Bayreuther Blatter. And previous to that time,
on many occasions, Wagner had expressed himself in the most
appreciative terms in regard to Schumann's Manfred, and even
the opera Genoveva ; he spoke of Manfred as the product of a
genuinely creative mind, which, however, like Mendelssohn's
Midsummer-Night' s Dream music, was unfortunately not equaled
by the later works of these composers — an opinion which, I
need not say, is shared by many. On the other hand, it is self-
evident that Wagner, the energetic, the hero whose mind was
strengthened by the steel rhythms of Beethoven's symphonies,
could not sympathize with the dreamy character of Schumann's
213
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
symphonies. I remember his speaking one day to a group of
friends about the so-called Rhenish symphony, which was based
on a definite idea — particularly the solemn section relating to
the cathedral — and also about the transition to the last move-
ment of the D minor symphony. This proves once more that
Wagner, as is well known, always searched for the idea under-
lying a composition, and naturally, therefore — and rightly, from
his point of view — spoke only of works, or parts of works, in
which he found such an underlying idea. He had been led by
Beethoven to do that — can anyone blame him for that ? Or is
not Wagner a genius, in whom one must pardon such a weak-
ness — if it were a weakness, which it is not ? Have not all
composers their weak points ?
" And now let me add, that it often happened with refer-
ence to the articles sent to Hans von Wolzogen, the editor of
the Bayreuther Blatter, that Wagner did not see them till after
they had appeared in print, and was taken by surprise. In the
case of the Schumann article, likewise, he did not take the initi-
ative. Joseph Rubinstein, who was pursuing his studies in
Bayreuth at that time (and who is not related to the two great
Rubinsteins), occasionally picked up stray remarks that Wagner
dropped in conversation, and which he only half understood.
These undigested remarks he worked up into an article which
Wagner found to be as indigestible as others did. Bismarck
exclaimed once that a German fears no one but God. Well,
was not Wagner, too, a man who might have said that every day
in his life ? If he had entertained the ideas on Schumann which
are embodied in that article he would most certainly have put
them down in his own name, without borrowing the pen of a
dyspeptic musician.""'
* I have also a letter from Hans von Wolzogen, vfhich confirms the substance of
Anton Seidl's letter.
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY EUGENE
Anton Seidl Conducting
1895
ANTON SEIDL — A MEMORIAL
ON CONDUCTING^
BY ANTON SEIDL
CONDUCTING ! A subject, truly, concerning which much
might be written, yet scarcely anything of real importance
is to be found in books. Urged by the misconception of his works
by conductors, Richard Wagner once took up the pen to expose
some of the most grievous offences against his intentions. Berlioz
also gave a few hints. A few guides, or " Complete Conductors,"
have appeared in print, but these, it is to be hoped, are no longer
taken seriously. The explanation of the fact that so little has
been written about conducting is exceedingly simple and natural.
The ability to conduct is a gift of God with which few have been
endowed in full measure. Those who possess only a little of
the gift cannot write about it, and those who have it in abund-
ance do not wish to write, for to them the talent seems so natural
a thing that they cannot see the need of discussing it. This is
the kernel of the whole matter. If you have the divine gift within
you, you can conduct ; and if you have it not, you will never be
able to acquire it. Those who have been endowed with the gift
are conductors, the others are time-beaters.
Happy were the composers who were in a position to bring
their own works forward, as did Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven,
Berlioz, Mendelssohn, and, on occasion, Wagner and Liszt in
Dresden, Weimar, and Bayreuth. Later, when theatres, concert
rooms, and orchestras sprang up like mushrooms, when the cul-
tivation of music became more and more general, the importance
of conductors grew to dimensions never before dreamed of.
The composers could no longer direct all performances in per-
* From The Music of the Modern IVorld. Edited by Anton Seidl, Fannie Morris
Smith, H. E. Krehbiel and W. S. Howard. Copyrighted, 1895, by D. Appleton & Co.
215
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
son, and so the responsibility of interpreting their works in the
spirit in which they had been conceived was placed upon con-
ductors. But music went forward with such gigantic strides,
great composers followed one after the other so rapidly, that it
became obvious that there was a lack of men to whom had been
given the conductor's gift. There was not even time thoroughly
to assimilate the great compositions, and the traditional manner
of performing them was lost. Tradition, that confessed screen
of ignorance and impotence, became a myth and served as an
excuse for time-beaters who lacked the gift. There are still
time-beaters of this description who have survived the earlier
period, but their screen is worn threadbare.
Now we see approach a younger generation free from preju-
dice, innocent of tradition, thrown upon their own resources, but
conscious of the divine spark within them. The young men
plunge joyfully into the whirlpool of study, pry deeply into the
mysteries of the gigantic works reserved for them, plunge into
the spectral world inhabited by music's heroes, receive the con-
secrating greetings of the masters, and give new life to the things
which they have found and felt. They have made their influ-
ence tell ; a refreshing, invigorating breeze blows through the
corridors of music. Among the apostles of the Church each had
his own wav of teaching, his own way of proclaiming the gospel,
but all brought blessings to mankind. Up then, young men —
up to your great task ! Have you looked upon the faces of our
teachers ? Proclaim it ! Have you grasped their Titanic
thoughts, deciphered their mystic hieroglyphs ? Proclaim the
fact ! Have you received God's gift of conducting ? How
many time-beaters are there among you ? Away with them !
for Edison could, if he would, invent an apparatus that would
be much more precise.
zi6
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Let me direct your attention, young men with the divine
gift, to a thing which most of you seem* to ignore, or to have
never dreamed of. You may know Wagner's work never so well
by heart, you may have studied and conducted Berlioz, the other
Frenchmen, and modern Italians (not excepting the classic Verdi)
never so successfully, your model performances shall still be in-
complete if you do not understand the art of blending the scenic
action with the music and song. Most of you are too exclusively
musicians. You direct your efforts almost wholly to the work-
ing out of details. The result is a good musical performance,
but frequently, nevertheless, one that breeds constant misunder-
standings and confusion, because it is not in harmony with the
scenic action. The public hears one thing and sees another.
The secret of a performance correct in style and perfectly under-
stood — the only proper performance, in short — is a complete
blending of stage, orchestra, machinery, light effects, singers, con-
ductor, stage hands, chorus — of everything that contributes to
the representation. It is, therefore, my own belief, based upon
experience, that he is the most successful and effective conductor
— in other words, he is the real conductor from the composer's
point of view — who is as thoroughly versed in the technical
science of the stage as he is in music. Long before the stage
rehearsals began at Bayreuth the master, Wagner, said to me :
" My boy, you must help me on the stage, behind the scenes.
You and your colleague Fischer (now Hofkapellmeister in
Munich) must assume responsibility on the stage for everything
that has anything to do with the music — that is, you must act as
a sort of musical stage-manager. You will see the importance
of this yourself, and you will find that it will be of infinite effect
upon your future as a conductor." Later we were joined by
MottI (now director of the Court Opera at Carlsruhe), and
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
naturally we undertook the unique work with tremendous en-
thusiasm. Wagner was wont playfully to call us his three
Rhine-daughters, for the first rehearsal under his care was de-
voted to the first scene of Das Rheingold. I was in charge of the
first wagon which carried Lilli Lehmann who sang the part of
Woglinde. Little did I suspect that in after years Lilli would sing
the part of Brunnhilde under my direction. Mottl managed the
second wagon with Marie Lehmann, and Fischer the third with
Fraulein Lammert, of Berlin. These machines we were obliged
to drag hither and thither, raising and lowering the singers mean-
while for six hours the first rehearsal. The master was tired out
and we three could scarcely move leg or arm ; but the one re-
hearsal sufficed to make me understand what Wagner had said
to me, and its bearing on my future. I learned to know the
meaning of every phrase, every violin figure, every sixteenth
note. I learned, too, how it was possible with the help of the
picture and action to transform an apparently insignificant violin
passage into an incident, and to lift a simple horn call into a
thing of stupendous significance by means of scenic emphasis.
But, it will be urged, all this is indicated in the score ; all
that is necessary is to carry out the printed directions. But
they are not carried out, and if, perchance, there comes a stage
manager of the better class — who understands and respects the
wishes of the composer — it happens only too often that he is
not musical enough to bring about the union of picture and
music at the right time and place. The swimming of the
Rhine-daughters is carried out very well at most of the larger
theatres, but the movements of the nixies do not illustrate the
accompanying music. Frequently the fair one rises while a
descending violin passage is playing, and again to the music of
hurried upward passages she sinks gently to the bottom of the
2lS
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
river. Neither is it a matter of indifference whether the move-
ments of the Rhine-daughters be fast or slow. At a majority
of the theatres this is treated as a matter of no consequence,
regardless of the fact that the public are utterly bewildered by
such contradictions between what they see and what they hear.
Wagner often said to me, "My dear friend, give your attention
to the stage, following my scenic directions, and you will hit
the right thing in the music without a question." This, you will
observe, is the very opposite of what you young conductors
are doing to-day. I remember on one occasion hearing the
break of a lightning flash ritardando in the orchestra, while on
the stage the bolt was indicated surprisingly well. This was in the
beginning of Die Walkiire. The musician (or better, perhaps,
the educated time-beater) aimed to meddle with Nature's per-
formance of her own trade by introducing his nicely-executed
ritardando, but succeeded only in proving that the stage hand
who manipulated the lightning had more intelligence than he.
If the musician had kept his eyes on the stage instead of on the
score he would have seen his blunder, he would have become a
more careful observer of natural phenomena.
Another case: In the first scene oi Die Walkiire httw&en
Siegmund, Sieglinde and afterwards Hunding, there are a great
number of little interludes — dainty, simple, and melodic in
manner. Now, if the conductor is unable to explain the meaning
of these little interludes to the singers, he cannot associate them
with the requisite gestures, changes of facial expression and even
steps, and the scene is bound to make a painfully monotonous
impression. No effect is possible here with the music alone.
Let me also moot a question of the greatest importance to all
performances in their external effect — the question of tempi. It
is simple nonsense to speak of the fixed tempo of any particular
219
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
vocal phrase. Each voice has its pecuHarities. One singer has
a soft, flexible voice to which distinct enunciation is easy ; another
has a heavy, metallic voice which sometimes requires a longer
period for its full development, or is compelled to sing a phrase
slower than the other, in order to achieve the same dramatic
effect and distinctness. It was Wagner's habit to study and test
the voices placed at his disposal, so as to discover the means
which must be employed to make them reach the purpose
designed. His tempo marks, so far as they refer to the voice, are
warnings against absolutely false conceptions — not rigid pre-
scriptions — for time-beaters who follow them would be obliged
to force the most varied organs into one unyielding mold. Of
course, the liberty thus given must not be abused, but used with
wisdom and discretion for the securing of distinctness. The
admonition which Wagner gave over and over again was, " Be
distinct ; speak and sing clearly ; the little notes are the most
important ones, the big ones will take care of themselves ; always
be distinct and the rest will follow of its own accord." These
are golden words which every conductor ought always to keep
in view, even while conducting orchestral compositions.
Another thing : Do not let your singers scream. This
everlasting forcing of the voice seems to have become almost
the second nature of German singers. We scarcely ever hear
on the stage nowadays, Blick ich umher in diesem edlen Kreise in
a dreamy, restrained tone, or a poetical, ethereal O du mien holder
Abendstern ! or a whispered Lass ich's verlauten Ids ich dann nicht
meines Willen's haltenden Haft (Wotan), or a playful Du h'drst
nicht drauf, so sprich doch jetzt, hast mir's ja selbst in den Kopf
gesetzt murmured into the ear of Eva. All this is sung with
full voice, as if the purpose were to sing everybody else to death.
Listen to the representations of Wotan if you want to hear how
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
they ignore Wagner's frequent injunction, " To be sung in almost
totally suppressed tone," or to the Walther von Stolzings and
hear them scream the wondrous passages in the Prize Song,
Dort unter einem Wunderbaum, or T)ort unter einem Lorbeerbaum,
which are marked " As if in a complete ecstacy " and " piano."
Nor does it occur to them to retard the tempo a trifle. Every-
thing is sung as if it were made over one and the same last.
Moreover, our Briinnhildes utilize the passage tVar es so
schmdhlich was ich verbrach for exhibition purposes as if to re-
buke, as early as possible, Wagner's injunction, " To be begun
timidly." The manner in which the scene of the Nornir is
given, if at all, is simply laughable and scandalous. Similar
offences against Wagner might be adduced by the bookful.
The scenic arrangements, or rather disarrangements, are so out-
rageous that one asks whether it is manifold stupidity or culpable
carelessness with which one is called on to deal. As matters
stand at present help is only to be expected from conductors
who have the divine gift. Stage managers will not become more
musical, and hence conductors must devote themselves
more to the stage that the purposes of the composers may
be better realized. Conductors who successfully study the
stage will be able to do something more for the singers than
to drum the notes of their parts into their heads. Moreover,
it would seem to be the duty of conductors to acquire a better
and more refined taste in phrasing. Of course, there must exist
a natural talent for this also, but one may benefit very much by
frequent hearing of really great singers and by persistent study.
The German singers of to-day have no idea how much they mis-
lead and bore people when they persist in singing " straight
from the shoulder," as is their favorite fashion. Unless the
conductor wisely interferes here the notion — not altogether false —
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
that the Germans do not know how to sing will take long-
enduring root to the great injury of the German dramatic art.
I have often heard the statement made by foreign singers, as
a demonstrated fact, that the German artists are artists in feeling
indeed, and serious in their devotion, but that their singing is
crude. I am almost forced to agree to this view. On the other
hand, I have heard from a German colleague of Jean de Reszke
derogatory remarks concerning that tenor. I give the assur-
ance that there was much for the German to learn from the great
Jean, especially his wonderful art of phrasing and his tasteful
declamation. The criticism of his colleague only proved that he
had no ear for phrasing. All who were closely associated with
Wagner remember how impressively and with what a variety of
voices he was able to sing the different roles for those who had
been chosen to interpret them, and how marvelously he phrased
them all. It is also known, alas ! how few artists are able to imi-
tate him. It always makes me sad when I think of how I saw
Wagner wasting his vitality, not only by singing their parts
to some of his artists, but acting out the smallest details, and of
how few they were who were responsive to his wishes. Those
who can recall the rehearsals for The Ring of the Nibelung and
afterwards Parsifal, at Bayreuth, will agree with me that much
was afterwards forgotten which had laboriously to be thought
out in part later, in which work Madame Cosima Wagner
was wonderfully helpful. But only the few initiated know how
many of Wagner's days were wasted in useless study with dif-
ferent Siegfrieds, Hagens, Hundings, Sieglindes, etc. I also wish
to recall the rehearsals for Tannhduser and Lohengrin, in Vienna,
in 1875. Then his was the task of creating a Tannhauser out
of a bad Raoul, of forming a Telramund out of a singer to whom
had never been assigned a half-important role ; and yet when.
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
after a fair degree of success, Wagner asked for consideration
on the ground that he had had to do the best he could with ex-
isting material, the critics fell upon him like a flock of wolves and
dogs as a mark of gratitude for his self-sacrificing exertions.
But how about conducting ? some may ask. As I said
before, it is a gift of God. A talented man can learn the tech-
nics of the art in a few days ; one without talent, never ! Men
like Biilow and Tausig took the stand and conducted without
having made any technical studies ; they had the gift. Hans
Richter was a horn player in the orchestra of the Vienna Opera
House when he came to Wagner to copy scores and rehearse
their parts with the singers. Wagner sent him to Munich to
drill the chorus in Die Meistersinger ; then, after the departure
of Von Biilow, he undertook the production of Das Rhein-
gold, but a disagreement with the management prevented the
performance. Enough ; he conducted without previous lessons
in conducting. I myself, though I made earnest studies of
Beethoven and Wagner with Richter never was troubled with
technical practice in conducting. I went to Leipsic as Kapell-
meister, and out of hand conducted Der Freischiitz, 'Titus, The
Flying Dutchman, Tannhduser, and The Ring of the Nibelung.
Thus Sucher, Mottl,Weingartner, Strauss, Mahler, and others be-
gan, and in greater or less degree they all possess the divine gift.
Of course, experience strengthens one later. For instance, once
in Munich I saw Levi conduct recitatives so admirably, with
such remarkable precision, that I at once adopted his method
of beating in similar passages. This may seem a small matter
at first blush, as the difference between it and the methods of
others is scarcely noticeable, but it is a great help to precision
and at the same time it promotes elasticity in the orchestra.
The conductor's gift does not always go hand in hand with
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
that of composition ; indeed, the union is found much more
seldom than is popularly believed. Nor is it associated always
with general musical learning. Composers are not all good
conductors. Saint-Saens is one of the best of musicians ; there
is no orchestral score that he cannot read at the pianoforte with
ease ; but as a conductor he has difficulty in making himself
intelligible to the orchestra. Massenet, admirable as an orches-
tral technician and master of the larger forms in music, is noth-
ing as conductor. Schumann, as is generally known, played a
mournful part when he stood before an orchestra. Berlioz was
a marvellous conductor of his own works, but nil as an inter-
preter of the compositions of others. Liszt and his musicians
were frequently in entirely different regions while he was con-
ducting. On the other hand, Mendelssohn was a fine — perhaps
a too fine — conductor ; but RaflF was frightful. Tschaikowsky
discovered himself here in New York as a fiery, inspiring con-
ductor of his own music. But many composers — Verdi, for
example — would do well to leave the performance of their works
wholly in the hands of capable conductors.
It is not the purpose of this article to teach conducting,
but only to make some general observations on the subject.
Musical practice is too young an art in America to warrant a
search for men with a conductor's gift. The art will have to
become much more stable before such talents can arise. But
when music shall be generally considered a real public necessity
there will be no need to worry about conductors of the right
kind ; on the contrary, we shall be amazed at the sound appre-
ciation, the natural talent which America will disclose. The
musical bent of the Americans is retarded in its development
partly by social conditions, partly by the need of premature
money-earning. Here is a field of activity for wealthy philan-
224
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
thropists. America does not need gorgeous halls and concert
rooms for its musical development, but music schools with com-
petent teachers, and many, very many, free scholarships for
talented young disciples who are unable to pay the expense of
study. To this subject I shall again recur.
II
WE are unable to say with exactitude when and by whom
the baton was introduced in the conducting of musical
performances. It is held by some that it was Mendelssohn,
in Leipsic, and by others that it was Carl Maria von Weber, in
Dresden, who first conducted with a baton and therebv caused
something of a sensation. Before then it was the principal
violin, or so-called Concertmeister^ who gave the signal with a vio-
lin bow to begin, and in the course of a performance kept the
players together by occasional gestures or a few raps upon his
desk. In choral performances the organist or pianoforte player
was the conductor of the choir, and the principal violin the con-
ductor of the orchestra. In Vienna it was the custom to have
even a third conductor who, at choral performances of magni-
tude, beat time with a roll of paper. It can easily be imagined
that with such a triumvirate things were frequently at sixes and
sevens.
It may safely be assumed that as soon as musical composi-
tions grew in depth, in boldness and grandeur, the necessity
was felt of enlisting a single individual who should be responsible
for the correct interpretation of the work and the proper conduct
of the whole. This was but the natural logic of the case. The
art of music differs greatly from all other arts. The painter con-
ceives an idea and executes it on canvas ; there it is embodied
for long periods of time ; everyone can admire it in the original
225
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
just as the painter himself created it. The sculptor conceives
an idea and executes it in marble ; everyone can admire it in the
original, just as the sculptor himself created it. The poet is
already in a worse plight ; he conceives an idea, puts it upon
paper, and leaves it to posterity ; his creation is now either re-
created in the intelligent mind of the reader, or it takes posses-
sion of the elocutionist, in which case it depends entirely upon
his capacity, or want of capacity, whether or not it shall achieve
the effect contemplated. In a third case it must be turned over
to a group of actors, who give it life under the direction of a
stage manager ; in what a variety of phases this life may dis-
close itself we can learn by attending performances of the same
drama in different cities ortheatres. Howmany readings are there
of Hamlet's " To be, or not to be " ? Perhaps as many as there
are actors who play Hamlet. Where, then, shall we look for the
original meaning of a poem, for that which the poet conceived
and executed? Only to the paper. We must discern the spirit
of the poem and bring it back to life.
Now take the case of the musician. He conceives his idea
and records it. But how much larger is the apparatus which
he requires for the production of his work than that of the other
creative artists ! Singers who are also actors (if possible), and
who must have musical training (which is not always the case) ;
musicians who can play the necessary instruments ; stage
machinists ; painters for the scenery ; perhaps a comely young
ballet (an arduous requirement, indeed !) ; a capable choir (one
that ought to sing in tune) ; a stage manager to direct all the
doings behind the scenes ; finally, a conductor who really ought
to be as musical as the composer himself (that is surely asking
a good deal !).
To recur to the history of the baton, it may be asserted
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
that as the difficulties connected with performances increased, as
compositions grew in magnitude, and matters went more and more
awry under the direction of the principal violin (aided by his
assistant with the paper roll), the plan was gradually evolved of
putting everything in the care of one man and holding him
responsible for the results. And thus the modern conductor
came into office, armed at first with the old roll of paper but later
with a baton. Some of the old violin-players, like Spohr in Cassel
and Habeneck in Paris, clung to the violin bow ; but as has
already been said, the modern concert conductor is found wielding
a baton, in the case of Mendelssohn, the modern theatre conductor
in that of Weber ; and so it remains to-day.
The art-work created by the composer must be reanimated,
inspired with new life by the conductor's intellectual abilities, his
technical powers, and his recreative capacity. How much self-
criticism, how much energy, how much love for the work, how
much study, how much mental exertion are necessary to enable
him satisfactorily to fill his reproductive office ! The conductor
stands in the stead of the composer. A gifted conductor brings
it to pass through the medium of rehearsals that every partici-
pant, be he singer or player, feels that he too is a recreative
artist, that he too is leading and directing, though he is but fol-
lowing the baton. It is this unconscious reproduction, appar-
ently from original impulse on the part of the performer, which
is the secret agency whose influence the conductor must exert
by the force of his personality. A true conductor will effect all
this at the rehearsals, and keep himself as inconspicuous as pos-
sible at the performances ; in this lies the difference between a
time-beater and a conductor. There are time-beaters who wave
wildly with their hands and stamp loudly with their feet, yet
they accomplish little or nothing. Of course, the temperament
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
and other individual characteristics of a conductor have much to
do with the case. Years ago, before the opera had taken on so
much of an international character, its repertory was more re-
stricted, and the conductor had to struggle with a much smaller
variety of styles. Proch, in Vienna, was a famous Meyerbeer
conductor ; Esser, in the same city, a respected Mozart and
Gluck conductor. For their stagione the Italians sent out their
best maestri ; thus Spontini came to Berlin, and was long the
supreme power at the opera in that city. His best achieve-
ments were made, naturally enough, in his own operas. He
used two batons in conducting — a short one for the arias, duets,
etc., and a very long one for the big choruses and pageants with
stagehands. It is only natural, of course, that Italians should
be the best conductors of Italian opera, Germans of German,
and Frenchmen of French. Of late years much more than used
to be wont is asked of our conductors. Theatres whose means
do not allow the luxury of more than one conductor, demand
of their musical director that he work to-day in the Lortzing
smithy, mount the funeral pyre to-morrow with Siegfried,
and be incarcerated in a madhouse with Lucia the next
day. I do not believe in such versatility ; conductors are only
human, and either Lucia or Siegfried will have to suffer. It is
an unhealthy state of affairs, and in the best of cases the public
will be the loser.
Let us now consider the concert conductor. He, too, has
a great deal of intellectual and physical work to do while prepar-
ing a performance. The majority of the public have no idea of
the extent of this work, for they assume that the better the or-
chestra the lighter the labor. To an extent this is indeed true;
but to evolve a picture of magnitude and completeness out of an
overture or symphony requires nevertheless a vast intellectual
228
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
effort. There are conductors who seek to bewilder by finished
elaboration of detail, leaving the picture as a whole without pro-
portion or perspective. Their accomplishment is like that of a
painter who lays stress upon a magnificent piece of drapery, a
single figure, or a particular light effect, to the injury of the
general impression. The elaboration of detail is felt to be un-
essential, but it distracts attention from the main theme. How
often does a conductor err in the gradation of colors ! Very
often it is the size of the room and its acoustic qualities
that are to blame for the fact that the means adopted to carry
out his idea, the means in which his orchestra has been drilled,
produce an effect almost diametrically opposite to his intentions.
The larger the room the broader must be his tempi to be under-
stood in all parts of the house. The better the acoustics of the
room the easier will be the conductor's task, the more pliant the
orchestra. To illustrate : I brought forward Tristan und Isolde
in New York in the season of 1895-96, after the most careful
preparation. The orchestral colors were adjusted for Jean and
Edouard de Reszke and Madame Nordica, whose voices were
always heard through the instrumental surge, as ought to be the
case in every respectable performance of a Wagnerian drama.
At the Auditorium in Chicago I was obliged to tone down the
volume of the same admirable orchestra nearly one-half, because
I discovered that the acoustics of the Auditorium were so excel-
lent that the dynamic volume employed in New York would
have drowned the singers beyond hope of rescue. The orchestra
sounded magical, and the performance revolutionized the ideas
of all the artists. In order to make clear the precarious position
in which a conductor sometimes finds himself, I must add that
I called the orchestra together on the morning of the day of per-
formance, in order to explain the acoustic conditions of the
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
room. I rehearsed nothing; had I begun, I should have been
obliged to play all the music. The men understood my explana-
tion, and in the evening played with an insinuating delicacy, with
such a nice adjustment of tone that to hear them was a marvel,
and one would have thought that they had spent years of study
in the Auditorium. Now it is true that this was an exhibition
of a high degree of intelligence on the part of the orchestra, but
without the quick recognition of conditions on the part of the
conductor the performance would nevertheless have resulted
differently.
I must now reiterate that since musical compositions, whether
through the influence of Wagner or any other master, have
grown to be more homogeneous and profound in their content —
have, in a word, gained in delineative purpose — the relation of
the conductor toward the orchestra has also grown more signifi-
cant. The best orchestra in the world will make but a fleeting
if not an utterly insignificant impression in the hands of an in-
efficient conductor. The period of orchestral virtuosity, in
which the whole aim was daintiness, refinement, and precision of
execution, is past. Already in his day Weber declared war
against metronomical orchestra playing. After long and thor-
ough study I am profoundly convinced that had Beethoven not
become deaf he would have demonstrated by his conducting how
insufficient his tempo and expression marks are for the correct
interpretation of his symphonies. Weber said that there was no
composition throughout which one measure was to be played
like the other. True, otherwise it would be but machine work.
Is it possible to conceive of a Beethoven who wished to have the
works of his second and third creative periods performed with-
out a bit of freedom in melody or change of mood ? Naturally,
there must be no dissection on the part of the conductor, and
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
the freedom of movement which is exercised must not be per-
mitted to disarrange the picture as a whole. Any man who
found it possible to conduct the " Pastoral " or Fifth Symphony
in strict metronomic time, or the Ninth without variation in
the tempo, ought to put down his baton at once and become a
traveling salesman for the ^olian or electric pianos.
If it is difficult for the concert conductor, who has only
the one agency — the orchestra — to control, to carry out the
aims of the composer, it is much more difficult for the opera
conductor, who must manage the many solo singers and the
chorus with all their difficult tasks, collective and individual,
mutual and independent. It is the gigantic task of the conduc-
tor to inform all these varied agents with the intentions of the
composer, to interweave the orchestral part with theirs, and to
graduate the instrumental sounds so that the action may present
itself clearly and easily to the listener. Here let me say, from
the conductor's point of view, that it is surely the purpose of
the composer to have his stage-folk understood by the public.
It follows, then, that the orchestra must never shriek and drown
the voices of the singers, but support them. The orchestra
ought always to bear in mind that on the stage above there is a
man with something to say, which the sixty or eighty men below
must support so that every tone and word shall be heard and
understood. The composer did not write an orchestra part in
order that it might drown the words sung on the stage. Wag-
ner, even when conducting excerpts from his operas, was pain-
fully anxious that every syllable of the singer should be heard.
Frequently at the close of a vocal phrase he would arrest the
sound of the orchestra for a moment, in order that the final
syllable should not be covered up. How often did he call out
angrily, " Kinder, you are killing my poetry ! "
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How discouraging must be the effect upon an intelligent
singer to feel that, in spite of every exertion, he is being drowned
by the orchestra ! Thoughtless musicians, speaking of mv
production of Tristan und Isolde one year, expressed the
opinion that I had supplied the work with more delicate tints
than usual, only for the sake of Jean de Reszke and Nordica.
This only proves how many musicians there are who still cannot
understand the chief thing in an opera. In rehearsing Tristan I
did not change a single note or expression mark, but only carried
out what the composer had written down, and gave effect to the
vocal and orchestral parts in their true complementary values.
I am flattered to know that I achieved the desired and pre-
scribed success, for it was the general verdict that every word
was understood from beginning to end ; that was my wish, and
that should be the wish and the accomplishment of every
conductor.
A conductor must impress strongly upon his orchestra that
there are different kinds of fortes. A forte from the strings
differs from a trombone or trumpet /or/^. Now the/or/^ of the
singer is always the same, but the accompaniment varies. It
follows of necessity that a trombone forte in an accompaniment
cannot have the same intensity as a viola forte. Is not that
obvious i" Consequently there is a vocal /(?r/^ and an instrumen-
tal forte. Take, for instance, Isolde's death scene in Tristan, or
the great love duet in the second act of the same drama ; if the
conductor does not differentiate there between the fortes of the
orchestra and the fortes of the singers, the latter will be hope-
lessly lost, and the listeners will say, and rightly : " Wagner is
a barbarian ; he ruins the human voice." But what they ought
to say is, " The conductor had better take to the road and sell
electric pianos." A Chicago critic essayed to rebuke me by
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
saying that in Berlin, when I was younger, I had permitted the
orchestra to play much louder in 'The Ring of the Nibelung.
Now that I had grown older and made the orchestra play more
softly, he concluded that I had lost my youthful vigor. I am glad
that I have come to my present insight into Wagner's music, and
if it would redound to the advantage of that music I should
wish every conductor my own decrepitude. One thing, how-
ever, I know, and that is, that my performances seldom lacked
clearness and distinctness, though I willingly admit that I have
gained experience with years, and feel that I could afford to
yield up some of my senility for the refreshment of younger
colleagues.
But we must continue to prove by examples the im-
portance of the conductor in the musical life of to-day. Look
for a moment at the prelude to Die Meister singer, which Wagner
himself conducted long years ago at a Gewandhaus concert in
Leipsic, winning great success. Immediately afterward Reinecke
conducted a performance of the same work by the same orches-
tra. It was rejected, but won appreciation later when directed
by others. In Vienna, Wagner conducted the overture to Tier
FreischUtz and evoked frantic applause. Then came DessotF,
and gave the overture with the same orchestra, remarking before-
hand, " Now we will play the overture in the Wagnerian style."
And yet it was not at all the same thing. Last year one and
the same symphony was played in New York by three different
orchestras under three different conductors. I do not wish to
discuss the relative value of the instrumental bodies, but simply
to remind those who heard the concerts of the difference between
the performances of the conductors — a difference which lay in
the nature of the case, for each conductor had a conception of
his own. But the question is. Which of the three came nearest
»33
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
to the idea of the composer ? — for he who did made beyond ail
peradventure the best effect with the symphony. This attitude
of the conductor to the composition is daily becoming more sig-
nificant, for the composers of to-day are more and more putting
thought into their compositions ; the conviction is growing
steadily that the proper order of things is first to think, then to
compose, and then to perform.
Even operas are being more carefully thought out than
formerly. Look at the Italians now, and see how they strive to
adapt their music to the original text ! For this, thanks are due
to that grand old man Verdi, who pointed out the way to his
young colleagues, and set them an example in his Otello and
Fahtaff.
When Wagner calls out to the conductor, " Recognize first
of all the idea : the meaning of a phrase and the relation of the
phrase or motive to the action, and the proper reading and
tempo will disclose themselves of their own accord," he goes
straight to the very root of the matter. Look again to "Tristan
und Isolde for an example. A large space of time in the first act
is occupied by Isolde and Brangaene, who are alone in the tent.
A few motives are continually developed, but with what a variety
must they be treated — surging up now stormily, impetuously ;
sinking back sadly, exhausted, anon threatening, then timid, now
in eager haste, now reassuring ! For such a variety of expres-
sion the few indications, ritardando, accelerando, and a tempo do
not suffice ; it is necessary to live through the action of the
drama in order to make it all plain. The composer says, " With
variety" — a meagre injunction for the conductor. Therefore I
add, " Feel with the characters, ponder with them, experience
with them all the devious outbursts of passion, but remain dis-
tinct always ! " That is the duty of a conductor. If in addition
»34
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
the conductor is able to grasp and hold the play in its totality,
to combine all the singers into a single striking picture, he will
not need to wait till the next day for a recompense of praise ; he
may have the reward of satisfaction with himself at once. It is
his artistic achievement to have lived through, to have himself
experienced the drama. In the third act of the same work he
must suffer with Tristan, feel his pains, follow him step for step
through his delirious wanderings.
That conductor is an offender who ruins the picture by
blurring its outlines by playing too loudly, or destroys its pliancy
by an unyielding beat. Think of the exciting task presented
by the scene of Tristan on his deathbed ! The conductor must
be ever at his heels. Every measure, every cry must agree with
the orchestra. If the singer one day sings a measure only a
shade differently than usual, or begins or ends a rallentando or
accelerando one measure earlier or later — an entirely natural thing
to do — the conductor must be on hand with his orchestra, that
the picture may not be distorted or blurred. He must have the
brush of the composer and his colors always ready — in a word,
he must live, suffer, and die with the singer, else he is an
offender against art.
Here let me call attention to a singular phenomenon, which
seems somewhat startling at first blush but which cannot be gain-
said. The performances of conductors are frequently criticised
in great haste and with much harshness. Take, for instance, an
overture or symphony by Beethoven and have it conducted by
three or four really great conductors. Immediately comparisons
will be made : one will be preferred and the others condemned
without mercy. This is all wrong, for it is possible that one
and the same subject shall be treated differently by different
masters, yet each treatment have an effective and an individual
135
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
physiognomy in its way. Different painters and poets can use
the same material, each in his own manner, and each produce an
art-work of value. How many pictures of Christ are there in
existence ? Each Christ head painted by a great master differs
from all others ; yet each is a classic for all that. In a musical
performance I should first inquire whether or not the conductor
has anything to say, whether there is definite meaning in his
proclamation, especially if it should produce a different effect
upon me from a reading based on an entirely different concep-
tion, and give a plain exposition of the conductor's purposes
and ideas. If the variations consist of empty external details,
then away with them, no matter how prettily empty they
may sound. There is less likelihood of such a state of things,
since action and train of thought are prescribed ; and the in-
stances are not many even in symphonic music, but they may
occur.
In conclusion, I wish to make a few observations on three
great musicians who were pioneers in their art and frequently
appeared in the capacity of conductors. They are Berlioz,
Liszt, and Wagner. Berlioz was a keen observer ; he frequently
wrote music so appropriate to the dramatic or poetical idea as to
be obvious to everybody — as, for instance, the storm scene in
Les Troyens, the ^ball and execution scenes in the " Fantastic
Symphony," the march of pilgrims in the " Harold Symphony,"
the Mephistopheles scenes and the Ride to Hell in " La Damna-
tion de Faust," and many other pieces. Only a real genius
could have done these things. It is true that these startlingly
accurate delineations sprang from his enormous knowledge of
orchestral technique rather than from his soul, though it is not
to be denied that Berlioz often invented strangely beautiful and
effective melodies. His musical pyrotechnics are frequently of
236
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
the most dazzling order. As conductor of his own compositions
he was incomparable. Cosima Wagner has often related that he
brought to his rehearsals a tremendous command of the minutiae
of orchestral technics, a wonderful ear for delicate effects and
tonal beauty, and an irresistible power of command. Upon all
who heard or played under him he exerted an ineradicable influ-
ence. His music, frequently rugged in contrasts and daring
leaps, is also insinuating and suave at times, and so, too, was his
conducting : one moment he would be high in air, the next
crouched under his desk ; one moment he would menace the
bass drummer, and the next flatter the flutist ; now he would
draw long threads of sound out of the violinists, and anon lunge
through the air at the double basses, or with some daring remark
help the violoncellists to draw a cantilena full of love-longing
out of their thick-bellied instruments. His musicians feared
him and his demoniac, sarcastic face, and wriggled to escape un-
scathed from his talons.
Liszt, the founder of the Symphonic Poem, was differently
organized. The dashing, energetic Hungarian, who had devel-
oped into a man of the world in the salons of Paris, was always
lofty and noble in his undertakings. He was singularly good-
hearted, excessively charitable, unselfish, and ready with aid, in-
trepid, sometimes to his own harm, persistent in the prosecution
of his aims, quickly and enthusiastically responsive to all beauti-
ful things, and ready at once to fight for them through thick and
thin. Thus we see him in Weimar, the first to throw down the
gage to envy and stupidity in behalf of the Wagnerian art-drama,
and never growing weary. He was the first Wagnerian conductor,
and battled with baton and pen for the musical drama at a time
when few believed in it. He was the first to recognize Wagner's
genius and bow to the reforming force of the new musical dispen-
237
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
sation. His recognition of the new era gave him the idea of the
Symphonic Poem, and so he became in the concert room what
Wagner was on the stage. Liszt also introduced the reforms
into his sacred and secular oratorios, and their influence disclosed
itself as well in the conductor's office. His Jovian countenance
filled everybody with a sort of holy dread ; his colabourers were
lifted to the top of a lofty pedestal ; all were profoundly, majes-
tically moved, inspired, and made conscious of a high mission.
Liszt radiated an exalted magic on singers as well as instrumen-
talists. He felt himself to be an apostle of art, whose duty and
privilege it was to preach love, faith, and respect eternal in all his
deeds as conductor, and his feelings were shared with him by
performers and listeners. By means of his priestly appearance
and dignity, and his consuming enthusiasm for everything noble,
he carried with him irresistibly all who came into contact with
him. He compelled all to love and believe in the composition
he brought forward. If Berlioz left behind him a demoniac im-
pression, Liszt disseminated light and celestial consecration ; one
felt himself in a better world.
Wagner was a union of the other two. To him both
heaven and hell were open. He delineated the sense-distracting
pleasures of the realm of Venus in glowing colors, plunged into
the most awful depths of the sea, and brought up ghostly ships ;
he opened to us vistas of the legendary and misty land of the
Holy Grail ; now he draws us with him on a nocturnal promen-
ade through the streets of Nuremberg, and buflfets the master
singers and the petty town clerk ; anon he discloses the nameless
suffering and endless longing of two lovers who are being drawn
unconsciously by the power of magic into the land of eternal
darkness and night, there to be united in bliss everlasting. Next
he plays in the Rhine with its nixies, calls up the lumbering
238
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
giants, the nimble dwarfs, the stately gods, rides into battle with
the daughters of Wotan, rambles through forests to the twitter-
ings of birds, till he reaches the cavern smithy, forges swords,
strides through the flickering flame to awaken a heroic maiden,
returns to the Rhine, overwhelms the race of gods, and predicts
the coming of that which shall endure forever — the love of
woman. At the close of his glorious life and labor he leaves us
the most precious of treasures — the Holy Grail and Holy
Lance — as tokens of Faith, Love, and Hope. Did ever a
human intellect bequeath to the world such a wealth of ideas,
suggestions, and teachings before ? We cannot imagine the time
when knowledge of these things shall be complete and closed,
for the more they are studied the greater are the treasures dis-
covered.
As a conductor Wagner was a man of iron energy. Almost
small of stature, he seemed to grow to gigantic size when before
his orchestra. His powerful head, with its sharply defined
features, his wonderfully penetrating eyes, his mobile face, which
gave expression to every emotion, every thought, can never be
forgotten. His body stood motionless, but his eyes glittered,
glowed, pierced ; his fingers worked nervously, and electric cur-
rents seemed to pass through the air to each individual musician ;
an invisible force entered the hearts of all ; every man thrilled
with him, for he could not escape the glance of this great man.
Wagner held everybody bound to him as by a magical chain ;
the musicians had to perform wonders, for they could not do
otherwise. At first things went topsy-turvy at rehearsals, be-
cause of the impatience of the master, who wanted everything
to be good at once ; the strange, illustrative movements of his
long baton startled and puzzled the musicians until they learned
that the musical bars were not dominant, but the phrase, the
239
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
melody, or the expression ; but soon the glance caught the atten-
tion of the men, they became infused with the magical fluid, and
the master had them all in his hands. Then the meanest orches-
tra grew and played gloriously, the tones became imbued with
life and expression, the most rigorous rhythm and the loftiest
emotional expression ruled, and everything was reflected in the
face of Wagner. All hung on his glance, and he seemed to see
them all at once. Once I sat beside a great actor who for the
first time saw Wagner exercise this potency of look and facial
expression. He stared at Wagner as if he had been an appari-
tion from beyond the grave, and could not take his eyes off him.
Afterward he told me that Wagner's face was more eloquent
than all the actors in the world with all their powers of expres-
sion combined. Whoever saw Wagner, and came into contact
with him in Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg, Budapest, Russia, or
Switzerland, will certainly never forget this influence. He sel-
dom conducted, but one must have seen him conduct a sym-
phony by Beethoven in order to learn how much there is hidden
away among the notes of that classic giant, and how much can
be conjured out of them. To my thinking, Wagner is not only
the mightiest of all musical geniuses, but also the greatest con-
ductor that ever lived.
140
TRIBUTES FROM GREAT SINGERS
BY LILLI LE H M A N N-K ALI SC H
A LARGE part of my musical existence died with Anton
Seidl and only a sweet memory remains where I always
quietly hoped to see new blossoms spring up in profusion.
Our joint work belongs to the most sacred memories of my
career. It comprises not only the time we spent together at
Bayreuth, where young Seidl assisted in moving the Rhine
Daughters, but also a period of equal importance to both of us
the German opera at New York.
There are few managers who could lay claim to one thing
which the artist singer so often must dispense with : that an
artist and a leader of singers, who felt and breathed with them,
stood in the orchestra.
That complete devotion which seemed to flow from his
baton, the earnestness of his personality, when he stood at his
desk — for he did not sit down like so many others, whom
I consider in the wrong, because the leader, when erect,
always secures greater attention and does not tempt people to
take things easily, at the same time exacting from the orchestra
increased esteem for art itself and the work in hand — influenced
everybody upon the stage and inspired us to do our best.
243
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
All this Still lives in my heart and sounds in my ear and I
remember with deepest gratitude the glorious time when we
were permitted to work with Albert Niemann, Marianne Brandt,
Emil Fischer and others who may never return, where those
sacred ties, which do not always unite all the artists accidentally
thrown together upon the same stage, firmly united us all. Seidl
said little, but we felt everything without hearing his words, and
the heavenly contentment with which the performances of
Euryanthe, Fidelia, Tristan and the Ring filled our hearts can be
compared with nothing in this world.
All our work was chastened by the devotion which seemed
to flow from him — a musical-electrical current connected him
with us and flowed back from us to him — as it tnust be if per-
fection is to be attained.
He was always at the opera house an hour before the time
set for the performance ; he looked after everything, watched
everybody, to make sure that nothing was missing, that every-
thing was in its place. Many leaders might learn from his
wise way of taking care of everything.
I saw him for the last time at his house, where he gave
well-meant and very good advice to young artists, in his kind
and quiet way. He went to Chicago and left us in his charm-
ing, hospitable home to the kind care of his dear wife.
I never saw him again ! When the dreadful news came
I trembled for hours ; I could not believe it. Still it was
true ! He too is gone and with him the hope that we should
once more feel together, again unite and give to the people what
inspired us and filled us with ecstasy : noble art ! All those
who really feel, who possess a rich and grand soul, understand
it, and this ability to feel and to appreciate is the only gratitude
that nobody can decline, and he least of all.
244
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
For this reason Seidl will live as long as one of all those
souls remains, which have felt with him what he has given to us all.
>^.
BY MARIANNE BRANDT
I MET Anton Seidl for the first time at Bayreuth in 1876.
I am not quite certain whether he was one of the two de-
votees of Wagner who acted as prompters while I sang Waltraute,
after studying the part during the night because Madame Jaide
had suddenly become hoarse, and the Siegfried performance was
thereby threatened ; but I believe the two were Seidl and
Mottl. Standing in the wings behind artificial rocks, they
helped me not only with the libretto, but also by calling out
words of encouragement, which was quite necessary, for I was
half dead from fright and excitement.
I became better acquainted with Seidl in the summer of
1 88 1. Wagner had sent for me and asked me to sing Kundry.
At that time Wagner was going over the Parsifal score with
Seidl, who was the favorite of the whole family. With Seidl I
studied Kundry's narrative at Wahnfried, and he played the
accompaniment when I sang before Wagner. It was the first
time that Wagner heard this part sung by a female voice ; his
eyes were full of tears. He ran out of the room and called
" Cosima, Cosima, come quickly ; you must hear it." I had
^45
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
to sing the part again tor Mrs. Wagner, and when I had finished
Wagner said, " What I have done there is not so bad, after all."
Wagner was at that time in very good humor, and we often
made music after supper. One evening, while Seidl played the
piano, Wagner ran suddenly into his library and brought a
big book, which he opened and placed on the piano. What
was it ? Rossini's Othello. Wagner turned the leaves for
a while, told Seidl to play this or that air, softly humming the
tune. When he found a trio for soprano, tenor and bass, he
cried, " We must sing this ! " and we started at once. Wagner
sang bass, Seidl the tenor part, and I, Desdemona, soprano.
It was a very florid air, where one after the other sings his
passages until all three voices are joined together, and we let
them roll out just as they came, of course almost bursting with
laughter. I never again saw Wagner and Seidl so merry as
they were that evening.
Later, in 1882, came Angelo Neumann's tour with Seidl.
I had accepted an engagement with Neumann for the few months
during which the Vogls were not at liberty, and sang for the first
time under Seidl's leadership in December, 1882, in the Victoria
Theatre at Berlin, the part of Briinnhilde in Die JValkure. Here
I made the acquaintance of Auguste Kraus, the lovely Sieglinde,
for whom I felt warm friendship from the first moment and ever
afterwards.
That tour was a continuous triumph for Seidl, and brought
him besides his greatest treasure, his dear wife. But I had
a little clash with him. In March, 1883, in Darmstadt, I
had to sing Brunnhilde in the Gotterdammerung. Seidl, who was
as much overworked as the whole orchestra, could not hold a re-
hearsal, and all I could do was to arrange a superficial rehearsal
of this gigantic part with the assistant leader and the piano
246
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
transcription, while Seidl led at the performance in the evening.
Anybody who knows the difficulties of the part will under-
stand what that means. I suppose there was considerable lack
of steadiness, but everything went off pretty well. But during
the finale I was completely entranced and probably dragged the
tempi a little, for suddenly my exaltation was rudely broken
by several sharp raps of the baton, while Seidl's eyes were flash-
ing fire at me. I was naturally angry with him because he had
corrected me so conspicuously before the audience ; but when,
later on, he told me that my Briinnhilde was very good, the old
friendship was renewed.
Then followed, in 1884, my first trip to America. Seidl
was newly married and brought his Gustl on board, whom he rec-
ommended to me most warmly. We occupied adjoining state-
rooms, and while the storms were raging I often heard the young
bride, who almost never slept, sob pitifully : " My poor hus-
band, poor Toni, I shall never see you again ! " We had a ter-
rible passage and I was so seasick myself that I could not cheer
up the dear woman as I wished to do, and she had to bear her
sorrow all alone.
Everybody still remembers the time I spent in New York
and the work that Seidl did there Is a part of history. We re-
mained intimate friends until my farewell season and when I left,
Seidl gave me his portrait with the words Lene sings in the
Meistersinger :
" 'T were fine, if we should often meet again ! A. Seidl."
Alas ! it was otherwise ordained. I never met Seidl again !
I cannot describe how deeply his sudden death has affected me !
247
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
BY LILLIAN NORDICA DOME
TIME makes the more unreconcilable the loss of Anton
Seidl. His life was one with his art which was the
moving inspiration of that life itself, and his enthusiasm was a
forceful influence upon those about him.
His rare knowledge and musicianship, dedicated first of all
to the works of Wagner, made him a powerful factor in their
advancement, and in the personality of the man was the ability
to get great work alike out of artists and orchestra quietly.
Mr. Seidl was the first to bring out the degrees of shading
exactly as Wagner wrote them, and how many pianos and
pianissimos he placed in his scores — and how many conductors
have said that it was impossible to give them ! Yet there was
always the example of Anton Seidl to quote in silencing these
assertions of impossibility.
His learning was so profound and extended to all channels
bearing on Wagnerian subjects, particularly, with such thorough-
ness that his reasons were irrefutable. He could act out every
part in the music dramas and his exactness extended to the
multitude of details accepted as minor, but of such import-
ance. One day after devoting three hours of his time to me,
going over the score of 'Tristan, we went to a Broadway store to
buy a veil for Isolde in the second act. He asked for samples
of various kinds of tulle, and, when they came, he seized one
after another at one end and flirted the other rapidly through the
air, to the great astonishment of the shoppers and shop-girls,
who were not quite sure whether he was in his right mind. But
he knew just what he wanted.
With the quenching of the torch he was just as insistent
248
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
that it should be thrust into water and not sand to prevent the
spreading of the flames from escaping alcohol. His devotion to his
work in these details was inexhaustible. When matters of im-
portance claimed his attention there seemed room in his mind for
nothing else. In encouragement he was always ready with those
earnest in their strivings and his knowledge was at their disposal,
a knowledge that meant to so many a help to advancement in
their art. Even in the days when my voice was light he used
often to say to me: "Wait, you will sing Wagner one of these days."
When I did, and began to study the role of Venus it was
Mr. Seidl who taught it to me. Again it was Mr. Seidl who
aided me in the first study of Elsa for Bayreuth, an aid of
such authority, enthusiasm and assurance that it laid a foundation
of future purpose and determination. The summer of Mr.
Seidl's conductorship at Covent Garden I saw him oftener than
had been my privilege at any time. He would sit on my bal-
cony at the Savoy Hotel for hours at a time, thinking and
smoking and smoking and thinking, his eyes wandering some-
times to the scene below on the embankment or the barges float-
ing in the sunshine on the Thames.
He was homesick for his wife, his dogs and the mountains,
and things perhaps were not always going as he wished. Those
meditations seemed a genuine comfort to him, and when they
were done he was ready for a conversation in which his gentle-
ness and his devotion to his work always shone out.
The modesty that characterized him was notable, but woe
to the individual who imposed upon that modesty. It was an
imposition not likely to be repeated.
No rehearsal was long enough to exhaust his patience, and
he seemed at such times to have efi^aced all thoughts of his own
feelings in the one desire for a complete interpretation.
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ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
Homage has been granted to other authorities who have
gone out into the world armed with original Bayreuth tradition,
but surely to none can it be more sincerely given than to Anton
Seidl. It was his mission and the dominant thought of his life,
not obtrusively but with a straightforward forcefulness that made
itself felt, that encouraged and cultivated a reflection of the same
high qualities in those about him and engaged in the presenta-
tions. To have sung under his baton was to have been im-
pressed with all these things, and yet in sustaining his ideals by
untiring effort there never seemed with Mr. Seidl any thought that
he was doing more than the humblest would have done to secure
a proper standard of performance. His sincerity, like his enthu-
siasm, was infectious ; if the one aroused those engaged to more
vital interest the other helped make that interest of the enduring
kind. When a man of such high purpose comes into the world
he impresses an influence extending so far beyond his time that
it is not given to us to estimate it. We can only feel that the
best appreciation that we had to give him was far short of his
high value. To a great cause in music he brought all his strength
and self-effacement. He was content to rest in the shadow of
his work, claiming nothing for himself but that he sustained his
duty, and that with a simplicity belonging only to the truly great.
While the name of Wagner lives the name of Anton Seidl
will live. The conductor took up the message of the composer,
establishing tradition, implanting high motives and making his
life a lesson that must live until the end with those of us who
were associated with him or who knew his work.
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
BY EMMA EAMES-STORY
A REGRET too deep for words fills my heart at my home-
coming this year. Regret for the loss of one whom it
was a privilege to have known — Anton Seidl. We, the artists
who sang under his direction, must feel his absence even more
keenly than his public.
He was a leader in truth — never a martinet. With all his
knowledge and his perfect taste, we always felt that he had our
interests at heart, that when leading an opera he forgot himself
in his desire to bring out the best in us, realizing that only by
so doing could he bring out the best in the work. I can onlv
with hopeless reiteration say that his loss as a leader cannot
be made good. He had too personal and too distinct a place in
our hearts.
As a man, unfortunately, I did not know him as well. My
opportunities for knowing him were, with one or two exceptions,
found only when my work threw me with him. His geniality
always impressed me, and one thing in his character appealed
most particularly to me — his love of dogs. One night during
my last winter here — the winter of 1896-97 — he dined with me
and enchanted me the whole evening with stories of his delightful
Dachshunds. His feeling for our dumb friends and his attitude
towards them indicated what a wealth of heart he had. That
evening I was drawn toward him more nearly than ever before,
as I too love and understand as he did the dog as an individuality.
The last time I saw him was when he went with me in
Bayreuth to call on Frau Wagner, in August, 1 897. I shall
always remember him at that time and the little twinkle of
amusement that would come unbidden into his eyes. I did not
251
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
wish to sing and had only gone to make a friendly visit with the
keen intention of not allowing myself to be persuaded to do so.
Mr. Seidl wheedled me into doing so, so gently that before I
knew it I was singing.
When the news of his death came I could not accept it.
Even now the numbness of the blow again comes over me when
I think of our loss. A sense of loss that overwhelms me in
spite of the fact that I have no right to feel it as strongly and as
personally as I do.
He it was that urged me to study the role of Sieglinde.
He said that it was a "good bridge" between Wagner's lyric
and his heavier dramatic roles. Alas ! that after all I should not
have sung it with him !
BY ANTON SCHOTT
WHEN Richard Wagner wrote these lines on a score,
which he dedicated to his pupil,
" For Seidl alone himself has sung
Into the Ring of the Nibelung"
he knew exactly what he was saying. I had the great good
fortune — I cannotcall it anything else — of studying this work with
Seidl, and singing it under his baton in half the cities of
Europe. I mav say that I learned to know Wagner — and
through him Seidl — thoroughly. Yet I did not fully realize how
252
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
great Seidl was till I afterwards sang for, and came in conflict
with other eminent " Wagner conductors " of the time in various
cities. I became convinced that he was, indeed, the only one
who had penetrated into the innermost secrets of the Tetralogy,
and that no other conductor would have succeeded in what he
accomplished so surprisingly — arousing the enthusiasm (above
all peoples) of the Italians, who had never heard a note of the ma-
ture Wagner. It was the very spirit of Wagner that was im-
parted to all of us, through the medium of Anton Seidl ; it
inspired us to deeds of enthusiasm, and the public responded
cordially. In view of our limited number of players and other
insufficient resources for such places as the Apollo Theatre
in Rome, for example, the results achieved were little short of
marvelous. Such difficulties are usually withheld from the
knowledge of the public ; but we, who were behind the scenes,
knew them. We knew that it was a most audacious thing
on the manager's part, to subject this work of genius to such a
test. But he had Anton Seidl.
So thoroughly was Anton Seidl imbued with the spirit of
Wagner's art that he did not hesitate, on at least one occasion
that I know of, to sacrifice the letter to it. I studied the part of
Siegmund with him. At the place, " Ha, who passed, who
entered here ? " before the love song, Wagner prescribes, " Sieg-
mund gently leads Sieglinde to the bench, so that she sits beside
him." When, at the first performance (Auguste Kraus was
the Sieglinde), I tried to follow these directions, it seemed
unnatural that at this moment, when Siegmund stands with his
arm round her, while the moonlight from the opened door floods
the room, there should be the slightest motion — which must
infallibly break the charm and bring her to a realizing sense of
the situation — even the gentlest leading of Sieglinde seemed to me
^53
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
rude violence in a situation where the dropping of a needle
might have destroyed the spell, whereas the prescribed action
is afterwards brought about naturally by the course of the poem
and the music, and there still remain twenty-five minutes for them
to sit on the bench. In brief, I was unable to follow the direc-
tions ; my legs refused to move. Seidl declared, " Hm ! in reality
you are right, but you must not — we must follow Wagner's
own directions." I did so for a time, but one evening — it was at
Bologna — I informed Sieglinde that she must be prepared for a
change. I refused to budge ; whereat there was great excitement
behind the scenes, stage manager and impressario running about
whispering directions to me, but I did not move till I thought
the time had arrived.
When the curtain fell the public applauded frantically, but
the impresario and stage manager greeted me with a cold
douche of censure. A moment later Seidl came on the stage,
embraced me with a laugh, and exclaimed, " Never do it any
other way as long as you live. Had Wagner lived to see it
he would have given you his blessing." I followed his advice,
with the result of angering other conductors to whom the letter was
more sacred than the spirit. There you have a picture of Anton
Seidl and of other conductors. He was liberal, they pedantic.
It was interesting to hear Seidl's observations regarding the
differences in the reception of the Nibelungs Ring in different
countries. Often he remarked how it would have pleased
Wagner if he could have lived to hear how instantly the Italians,
above all others, appreciated the best things in his operas — things
that had been overlooked by the public in Berlin and even at
Bayreuth. In Rheingold, for instance, the Italians singled out
for applause precisely the four situations which Wagner himself
had often referred to as the most effective. They went so far
254
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
as to Stop the performance and compel Seidl to repeat what was
wanted. He did so most unwilHngly, of course, and yet
he felt it was a great triumph for Wagner. " Oh, that he
could have lived to witness this ! " (The four places thus
singled out were the Erda scene, introduction to Nibelung cave,
Mime's narrative, Rhine daughters at the close.) Seidl some-
times said, " Perhaps, if Wagner had lived, he would have
changed his mind in regard to what he wrote concerning
applause."
In conclusion I cannot refrain from expressing the pride I
feel in having been instrumental in bringing Anton Seidl to
America. Having been with him so long I knew his value, and
after the death of Dr. Leopold Damrosch I kept recommending
him as the one man to appoint in his place. He was consequently
engaged and brought over ; but I had broken my own neck, for
what I had done was never forgiven me in certain quarters.
My plans and proposals were accepted, but I myself was left out
in the cold. Anton Schott.
BY GIUSEPPE CAMPANARI
PREVIOUS to 1894 Anton Seidl was merely an acquaint-
ance of mine, but when, during this year, he toured
the eastern States with his orchestra, with me as a soloist,
we were together constantly for three weeks and our acquaint-
ance ripened into friendship. This trip I remember as one of
the most enjoyable episodes in my artistic career, though there
were plenty of hardships and the profits were mostly swallowed
up by the traveling expenses, as is usually the case when an or-
chestra goes on the road.
25s
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
It was during this trip that on one occasion an accident befell
the engine, making further travel impossible for the time being,
but, as luck would have it, we were just at the outskirts of a vil-
lage. It being nearly noon the disgusted musicians tramped
into town to its one hotel. This proved to be the usual thing
in the line of country hotels, with the distinction that it boasted
a piano, and on it were some piano duets, the quality of which it
would not be polite to discuss in music circles.
Mr. Seidl pounced upon these, and pressing me into service
proceeded to break the monotony of that particular hotel. The
ubiquitous loungers and village philosophers straggled in and
soon there was an audience. The amusement that this incident
afforded the performers cannot be described and several times
did the accumulating humor of the situation interfere seriously
with Mr. Seidl's technique. The redeeming feature about the
questionable music was its quantity, as there was enough to
enable us to gorge our listeners with music until the dinner bell
rang.
After a meal, the memory of which still haunts me, word
was received that the engine had been repaired and was ready to
proceed, when the hotel proprietor begged, as a favor, that some
more music be made before we departed. "Certainly," re-
sponded Mr. Seidl, and collaring me on his way to the parlor,
dragged me to the piano while the train was held until' the last
song had been rendered. We left immediately afterward, carry-
ing with us the profuse thanks of the assembly for our " tunes."
Mr. Seidl was a great lover of humor ; he occasionally in-
dulged this propensity by writing funny letters to his friends. I
have found one of these among my papers. It was written on
the same trip at Pittsfield, Mass., in purposely ludicrous Italian,
and was intended to be a compliment to my voice and an invita-
256
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
tion to dine In his room, No. 138 (thirteen eight) at the hotel.
It reads as follows :
Caro mio Campanari !
Tuo voce e splendido ; domani notte tu cantare brillante, e
mangare in numero tredeci otto. A rivederci, tuo amico.
Antonio Seidlino.
Pittsfeldo, Mass., 1894.
The last time that Mr. Seidl conducted Die Meistersinger
(in Italian) at the Metropolitan, I had been entrusted with the
part of Kothner. After a scene in the first act, this char-
acter does not appear again until the last act when only the waving
of a flag and the singing of a few words fall to its lot, so that this
intermission meant several hours of waiting, and my '* make-up "
naturally prevented me from sitting in the auditorium and en-
joying the opera. I begged Mr. Seidl to excuse me after the
first act and allow the flag to be waved by one of the chorus.
" No," he replied ; " remain for the master's sake ! Go to
your dressing room and I will send you something to keep you
company." I did as he had bidden, and soon after the boy
brought a bottle of champagne, two cigars and Seidl's compli-
ments. At the proper moment, during the last act, the original
Kothner appeared and thus Wagner's dignity was upheld at
the expense of Mr. Seidl's purse.
'.*s:2f^^^^^^^^^>
aS7
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
BY JEAN AND EDOUARD DE
R E SZ K E
THE death of Anton Seidl was felt very deeply not only by
those who, like ourselves, were privileged to call them-
selves his friends, but by the whole musical world at large. It
would indeed be difficult to overestimate what his loss means to
all lovers of opera.
Nowadays so much is expected of a first-rate conductor that
it is no marvel if he be a rara avis. The purely technical knowl-
edge which is required for a leader to master the intricacies of a
modern orchestral score well enough to secure merely a correct
and smooth performance of it is in itself considerable, and yet
this is but the A B C of the conductor's art. At the perform-
ance of any orchestral work, whether ancient or modern, the
conductor alone represents the composer and it is he who must
put into the interpretation not only the spirit and atmosphere of
the work as a whole, but all those thousand and one subtle
nuances which it would be well-nigh impossible for the com-
poser to indicate in black and white in his score, and which nev-
ertheless contribute so greatly to the life of the performance.
And in the case of an operatic work even this is not all that is
required of the ideal conductor. Here he must be in sympathy
with the singers, he must understand their individual interpreta-
tion of their respective parts and help to give it its full expres-
sion without, however, detracting in any way from the unity of the
whole performance. And it was just in this that Seidl was so
wonderful. He was thoroughly imbued, from his boyhood, with
the spirit of the works he was destined to interpret, and he added
to this an instinct which is indeed rare among orchestral con-
258
ANTON SEIDL A MEMORIAL
ductors of the modern school ; he understood singing, seemed
to know by intuition exactly what the singer would do in every
case and always helped him to do it well. But he did not accom-
plish this by following the singer slavishly. There are many
conductors who can follow a singer in a ritardando such as singers
love to make at the close of a musical phrase, but there are few
who know exactly how to catch up the rhythm again and restore
the equilibrium, as Seidl did, without apparently affecting the
shape of the musical period in the least.
And how dear Seidl's whole heart was in his work !
What trouble he took over every detail ! At rehearsals he was
conductor, stage-manager, mechanician, electrician — all in one ;
and when it came to the performance the artists had only to look
at his authoritative glance and inspiring beat to gain absolute
confidence, and feel that they would be ably steered through
any difficulty that might arise. In the course of our work with
Seidl our admiration for him soon grew to warm affection,
and we lose in him not only an incomparable artist, who always
gave us invaluable assistance and support in all our work, but
also a very dear friend, who enlivened many an otherwise
weary hour for us with his genial companionship. We shall
never forget him.
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