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Hello and welcome to the Insights and Sounds podcast, a podcast centered around classical music. Join Dr. John Sinclair, and explore composers past and present, their works, and an occasional classical music informational episode.
Bach Valentine's EP
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[00:00:00] Hello, good people. Thank you for joining us again. Today's podcast is a little different, , than our usual topic. And rather than explain that, I think we're going to just jump right into it. You'll figure it out as we go. I've always found that human nature sure is interesting. We seem to be fascinated by how the rich and famous live or lived.
And we music addicts seem to be fascinated by the lives of famous composers. Many of the master musicians we will be discussing today lived on the edge. And what we would consider traditional norms of today were kind of abandoned. So along the way of telling you a bit about their lives, let's also talk a bit about their wives and their loves.
. So let's get started with a favorite [00:01:00] Venetian Baroque composer. None other than
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Antonio Vivaldi. Everyone knows Vivaldi was fast with his pen, composing 760 works, which comprised 53 operas and 39 cantatas, 60 sacred works, , 478 known instrumental works or concerti, dozens also believed to be lost.
But it was not only his pen that was fast. Antonio started life rather sickly, being baptized at birth because he was not expected to make it. until he could be taken to the church. And when he was 15, he decided to be a priest. But it took him 10 full years to get around to the various orders of the church before he could be ordained.
One of his assignments as a priest was at the parish called Aspidele della Piata, which was a school for orphaned girls. It was where newborn babies were often dropped off with no questions [00:02:00] asked. Became a home for girls and young women, many of whom were offsprings of mistresses or wealthy people.
The population also included the abandoned young war widows, prostitutes, and the daughters of wealthy families when they were in the family way. It was at this school slash orphanage for these children of unfortunate background that Vivaldi taught violin and composed. Vivaldi received much of his musical training from his father, who was a barber turned violinist.
But his immediate family were kind of a group of ruffians, often in trouble. For instance, his brothers were banished from Venice for making faces and obscene gestures to the government officials. And Vivaldi himself became famous not only for his compositions, but for his all girl orchestra he conducted.
People travel from near and far to hear them, and the English music connoisseur Charles Burney, who travels Europe [00:03:00] listening to concerts and writing about them, called this group, quote, one of the best in all of Europe. The philosopher Rousseau went to hear and describe them as quote, angels of loveliness. They were usually seated before the audience was led in to disguise the pregnant organist, orchestra members. The chest condition that kept Vivaldi from officiating during mass was probably asthma.
His long red hair was dramatic, but not as much as his highly unorthodox lifestyle, which is believed to include a menage a trois with his past pupil, opera singer, Anna Ghiro and her sister, Paolina. Anna was a quote, secretary and mistress. Appellina was supposedly quote nurse .
The best news is for all of our story today is these were grown women and not children. Well the Vatican sent spies to investigate the issue and when [00:04:00] Vivaldi retired his hope was to tour throughout Europe with his music. But Cardinal Ruffo who lived near Naples refused to let Vivaldi come to his area.
after knowing the contents of this report. Vivaldi then retired from the priesthood and moved to Vienna where he thought he could get a position with an admirer, Charles VI, but the emperor died shortly after his arrival. Leaving Vivaldi, working in the back room of a saddle maker. He was penniless. What a true, sad ending for a brilliant talent.
One interesting fact is the boys choir at St. Stephen's Church in Vienna sang his funeral with a nine year old member by the name of Joseph Haydn.
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Now, speaking of Haydn, he was so admired by his fellow musicians that they affectionately nicknamed him Papa Haydn. He was a bit of a prankster in [00:05:00] school, eventually got kicked out of St. Stephen's, worked a variety of jobs for a while before he landed his career job with the Ezerházy's. Like other musicians of his day, he was considered a servant, but a very skilled and important servant, and he seemed to thrive musically there.
But he was in a very unhappy marriage. You see, he wanted to marry the sister of a woman he eventually married. His wife seemed to have little respect for his work.
She was known to take his musical manuscripts and use them as rollers for her hair. He found distraction or love through other means. He once hired an older violinist who happened to have a young wife. She was 19, Haydn was 47. He and Luigia Poselli quickly became an item when she arrived in 1779. And interestingly, Prince Ezerhazy tried to release her husband, the violinist, but somehow Haydn got them reinstated.
You see, Poselli [00:06:00] turned out not to be a particularly able singer, and her husband had difficulties in fulfilling his duties as he was dealing with the initial stages of the long drawn out demise. from Tuberculosis. A letter to her from Haydn read, quote, My heart is full of tenderness for you, but no language can express half the love and affection I feel for you.
You are dear to me every day of my life. I shall be very happy to see you on Sunday, and then again on Tuesday for dinner, my dear love, and then the rest of the night. It is believed that he fathered a child of Lugia's because he financially took care of her son.
Her husband died in 1790 and when Haydn's wife died in 1800. She tried, but couldn't convince him to marry her. Now, that is not quite all the adventures. Before he left for London after retirement, he had a dalliance with his physician's wife and several other singers. One, Katerina, and one, Katherine. And [00:07:00] when he arrived in London, he was treated like a rock star.
And he had several loves. Rebecca Schroeder, and Miss Hodges, and Mrs. Shaw. who he called the loveliest woman I have ever Well, you can finish the rest of that sentence. , Haydn lost his head, literally lost his head after his death in 1809. Enter the scientific study of the bumps on the head.
It is called phrenology and is considered a pseudoscience, and it involves the belief that the shape and bumps on a person's skull can reveal their, their personality traits or their abilities, a theory that has long been debunked in modern science. Upon his death, people feared Grave Roberts would want to take his skull.
So they kept it from the rest of his body. Finally landing in the home of Joseph Carl Rosenbaum, where he kept it in a wooden cabinet modeled like a Roman sarcophagus. He kept it in a mausoleum in his yard for visitors to see. And then his son Peter [00:08:00] inherited it in 1829. Then Carl Heller received the skull from Peter.
Then it went to Professor Rokotansky. who in, finally in 1895 gave the skull to the Society of the Friends of Music in Vienna. The Society displayed the skull in a glass case on a piano for visitors to see. The skull was eventually transferred from the Society to Agenstadt, where it was reunited with the rest of his body.
But not until 1952, over 140 years later. A little sidebar here. Brahms was known to visit the skull and hold it in his hand for inspiration when it was in Vienna. You see, not only did Haydn lose his head, but eventually he was beside himself.
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Once while enjoying a party, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart met and became infatuated with Alicia Weber, sister of [00:09:00] Constance, whom he eventually married. As you can see here, there seems to be a pattern of musicians being left. With the other sister, his friend, Peter von Venter, tried to get him to have a mistress rather than marry Constance saying marrying for the sake of religion was not a good idea,
the marriage was believed to have been a happy one with six children and a lot of spice. He wrote many letters to Constance when he was on the road. And I found it difficult to quote any that would keep this a PG rating. Well, the only accusations of an affair was by a female mourner who showing up at his funeral was brutally attacked by her husband with a knife, creating severely scarred face, followed her the rest of her life. The husband believed that she had [00:10:00] had
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Let's jump over to Felix Mendelssohn for a while. We've always thought of him as kind of the goody two shoes of classical music. We don't know much about any of his personal relationship before marrying his wife Cecile, at age 28. Mendelsohn's family was wealthy. He was a true prodigy, much like Mozart, but different than Mozart. He was raised with a silver spoon, and his education was extensive and diverse, reflecting the climate of his time. His father, Abraham Mendelsohn was a banker. His grandfather, Moses Mendelsohn was a philosopher and a key figure in the Jewish enlightenment.
But Felix was raised in a rather secular intellectual environment that encouraged a broad education.
His family converted to Christianity when he was young, and his upbringing was in a highly cosmopolitan setting, which included exposure to the arts and classical education. [00:11:00] Mendelssohn's education was not limited to music alone.
He studied Greek and Latin. He was a keen reader of German, French, and English literature. His education included teachers such as Grimm Brothers of Grimm's Fairy Tales, plus they had physical activity and painting as part of their regular routine. He traveled often to England. Became friends with Prince Albert and Queen Victoria where it's believed he accompanied their sing a longs. Language is no barrier. Given in addition to his native German, he spoke English, Italian, and French fluidly.
There was a rumor that he'd been chased by the Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lynn, perhaps the most famous singer of the day. Jenny Lynn was a singer brought to America by . P. T. Barnum, where she sang to hundreds of thousands and made a fortune in doing so. As a result of an affidavit after Lynn's husband, Otto Goldschmidt, died, we [00:12:00] know the squeaky clean composer was not so innocent and that Jenny was not the only aggressor.
The correspondence was held for 100 years after Goldschmidt's death in the archives of the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation. At the Royal Academy of Music in London, the letter reportedly describes Mendelssohn's 1847 request for Lynn, who was then not married to elope with him to America. I suspect more of this will come forward in a few years and we will know more about Mendelssohn's writings, but one thing he ended a letter with was he couldn't possibly live without her.
Now the rest of the story, after the death of Mendelssohn, Jenny Lynn established a scholarship. And in addition to his brilliant compositions, a large part of Mendelssohn's legacy [00:13:00] is his deep affection for Bach's music and the revival of the St. Matthew Passion, which inspired performances of Bach's music throughout Europe and is in part why all of us now revere the music of J.
S. Bach. Thank you.
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Let's switch countries for a minute and go over to the great pianist Frederic Chopin, who was like other composers, found inspiration from romantic encounters, but Chopin believed it took away from his creativity, but nevertheless, it didn't seem to alter his behavior. You see, in his early twenties he met Countess Delphina Potaka, to whom he dedicated several works. In his words, she took him from a novice to an expert in the ways of love. Delphina was the mother of five, who had just left her husband. Chopin was smitten, describing her as quote dazzling white shoulders and other attributes including dark blue eyes, golden hair worn in ringlets.
In a letter [00:14:00] to her in 1833, he wrote how disastrous she was for his creativity. Quote, I have made an important discovery. Inspiration and creativity only come to me when I have not seen you for a while. The energy collected in my system will not go to my brain when I am with you. Think of it, sweetest, of how many ballads, polonaises, even whole concerti I've lost by you forever.
And when I see you, my dear, I must kiss you. After all. Your most talented pupil has now mastered the art of love. Well, later in his life, he became involved in the art scenes in Paris and ended up spending his last nine years of life in a romantic relationship with Georges Sand. While his relationship did not seem as steamy as that with Delphinia, it was at times tumultuous and had both conflict and passion.
As a couple's relationship grew more serious and they spent a significant amount of time together, At San's country home, a [00:15:00] chateau located in central France, this is where Chopin composed most of his most famous works, including his Nocturnes, Mazurkas, and Polonaises. The tranquil and rural environment allowed him to focus on his music while San took care of him during his frequent bouts of illness.
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And additionally, Chopin's deteriorating health put immense pressure on the relationship. He probably suffered from tuberculosis. Their eventual separation was also a painful one.
Though she continued her literary career and maintained a strong public presence, she wrote about the relationship in her memoirs in The Story of My Life, but it was partially romanticized story, but it was also tinged with bitterness. Chopin died at age 39. And despite their personal struggles, the partnership remains one of the most fascinating and complex in the history of art and literature, blending music, Literature and the personal lives of two [00:16:00] towering figures of the 19th century Europe.
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Under article 995 of the civil laws of Moscow quote, homosexuals were punished by the loss of civil rights and exiled to Siberia. Well, Peter Tchaikovsky spent his life trying to keep his lifestyle secret. Modest Tchaikovsky, Peter's brother, was also gay, and they wrote to each other in code to avoid being found out.
. Peter was pursued by several ladies, but finally Antonia Ivanova wrote him saying, quote, she did not make a habit of pursuing strange men, that she was no groupie. I assure you that I'm a respectable and an honorable woman in full sense of the word, and that I have nothing that I would wish to conceal from you.
He married her, but shortly after he would not be seen with her and she wrote quote, he's ashamed of me and that wounds me mortally. [00:17:00] But she refused to give him a divorce. He wrote quote, she physically, my wife has become totally repugnant to me. Well, years later he wrote, my wife deserves to be pitied.
And indeed, she deserves our pity because she ended up dying in an insane asylum after spending 20 years there. The wealthy widow, Naja Von Meck. He learned of his financial woes and after commissioning several works, arranged to be his benefactor.
With money worries resolved, he resigned his Moscow Conservatory teaching position to devote himself to composition. Steady correspondence between Tchaikovsky and von Meck and the annual annuity continued for 13 years, yet they never met in person at Tchaikovsky's request. Madame von Meck had 11 children and was 46 years old.
At the time of their old, at the time [00:18:00] of her agreement. It was clear she had feelings for him when she wrote, quote, Do you know that when you married it was terribly hard for me? As if you had broken my heart. You will never understand how jealous I am of you. In spite of the fact that we have never met, never had even personal contact.
I am jealous of you in the most unforgivable ways. Just like any woman who is jealous of the man she loves. Well, suddenly her support for him stopped with a letter saying she was having financial troubles, and she would not correspond with him. However, it's known that shortly after she dropped Tchaikovsky, she befriended a person she called, quote, her little Frenchman, and started funding a young upstart composer named Debussy.
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One of my favorite romantic era Italian composers Is to use that be fair to you. He married his childhood, sweetheart, Margarita Barresi. In 1832, [00:19:00] and they had a daughter and a son together and moved from a little town of Busetto to Milan. But in 1839, shortly before they moved, his daughter Virginia died. And then their son died shortly after arriving in Milan.
And one year later, his wife passed away. In two years, he lost his entire immediate family. And he was understandably inconsolable. So to distract himself, the next 10 years were all about work. But he finally started a relationship with a singer from La Scala, in Milan, Giuseppina Straponi. She was scandalous, having taken the stage four times while pregnant and not married.
And Verdi wanted to move back to his hometown of Preseto, and had built an estate there, and took her [00:20:00] with him. Now it's one thing to shack up with a notorious soprano in Milan and yet another thing in a little town where everyone knew each other's business. So when he arrived back home, he was approached by his brother in law saying, Don't you dare bring this prostitute to town.
And the other members of the community oftentimes threw rocks at the house. Verdi was so enraged by the behavior of his hometown folks that he chose not to tell them that they had actually been married for years.
He was a national hero. After he had suffered a stroke while visiting Milan, the streets around the hotel were covered with hay so as to keep it quiet for him. And a telegraph was placed in the hotel lobby so the rest of the world could be informed of his condition.
Verdi had a fair amount of disdain for the church and refused to attend services, although his wife did. There's a story that kind of explains this.
Supposedly, [00:21:00] Verdi was helping as an altar boy in a church and got so mesmerized with listening to the organ that he forgot to pay attention to the priest. The preacher reached over and gave him a kick, knocked him down some steps. And he, made some comment, not wishing the priest well. And interesting, not too much time passed before the priest was struck by lightning and died.
Well, Verdi was complex in both life and death. By his request, his funeral had no music, but hundreds of people lined the streets. An interesting bit of trivia is that the Graveside Choir had over 10, 000 singers and was led by a young upstart conductor by the name of Toscanini. And in addition to his music, it did leave a lasting legacy for the musicians of Milan.
You see, all of Verdi's royalties from his operas went to the construction and administration. Of a [00:22:00] luxurious retreat for retired musicians. It was completed in 1899, Casa Verde. Still to this day serves elderly musicians up to 60 at a time. Residents include famous musicians from the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, and competition for residential slots is stiff.
To qualify, one must have been a professional musician or music teacher. And those who are lucky enough to get selected. Have room, board, and medical treatment for the rest of their lives. In addition to having 15 pianos, and organs, and harps, and drum sets, and a company of all these other peers, musical programming is as constant at Casa Verde as is his gravesite they can see from the window.
All the dining tables are named in honor of Verde's various works, and those inclined to worship do so in a chapel named Saint Cecilia, who is a patron saint of musicians. It is reported that the [00:23:00] practice rooms are alive with sounds of music and lots of criticism. Well, for me, his request tells me all I need to know.
About his true character and his heart.
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Speaking of heart, Franz Liszt stole a lot of them. He was a prodigy and a young man. He was handsome, tall, dramatically long flowing hair, blue eyes, a true virtuoso who knew how to work an audience, velvet gloves, capes, staring way into space for dramatic effect. He was a great performer. And his first love, Caroline de Sontkrijk's father, was a minister of commerce for Charles X.
They were teenagers, and in his memoirs he wrote, quote, I love you with all the power of my soul, and I wish for you the happiness that I myself shall no [00:24:00] longer know. You are the single shining star of my life. And that's because the father would have nothing to do with his daughter, marrying a piano player.
So she quickly was married off through list into somewhat of a mental breakdown. But after Caroline, he met Countess Adele at a fashionable salon in Paris. She was vivacious and beautiful with an aging and disinterested husband. He even followed her to the Swiss Alps where his correspondence and her correspondence separately speak of menage a trois after Adele in quick succession was Madame Marie, Mrs.
Horton. And all this before the age of 21. One person who fell hard for him was Countess Marie Dagu, an aristocrat, an impressive family tree. For a while, Marie was content with not so discreet affair in Paris. And now Liszt was a touring player, constantly on the road and rumors of Liszt's flirtations throughout Europe made Marie [00:25:00] jealous.
So she up and left her husband, asked for Franz to join her in Geneva. And when he joined her, Liszt discovered that Maria was pregnant. Their first daughter was born in 1835, and the second daughter was born in 1837, whose name was Cosima. Cosima grew up and eventually married the famous conductor Hans von Bülow, and then left him for Richard Wagner.
Now back to Liszt and Maria, who moved back to Paris, and were set up in a posh hotel where important folks were allowed to visit them. Berlioz. Chopin. Victor Hugo, Heinrich Hein, they all came to visit the famous couple. Now, Marie knew her husband was a musical genius. But interestingly, she did not like his performances, and she had no interest in his career.
She just had an interest in him. The next nine years he toured Europe [00:26:00] in what is referred to in music history as Listomania. He was a huge star. People charged him in the streets, stole his handkerchiefs. Women threw room keys on the stage.
Tried to clip locks of his hair, fought over the butts of the cigars he had, and placed him in their cleavage. He was not a predator, said the princess. Quote, he is merely weak, and when a woman wants to have possession of him, he cannot resist her. Well, rumors of his escapades made their way to Paris, and frankly, most of them seemed plausible.
One such story was a fling with the courtesan Lola Montez, who forced her way into a men's only dinner, jumped on the table, and danced a fandango for a list.. And in 1844, Marito listed she never wanted to see him again, and he gladly complied because, in part, he had a new lover, Princess Caroline Wittgenstein. She was not so [00:27:00] beautiful but like Chopin with Georges Saint. She was an intellect and rather outrageous, eccentric, smoked cigars and was outspoken.
They unofficially lived together, but they could not get married because she was Catholic. She'd asked for an annulment and finally got one in 1860, but by then List had moved on. Now, he had moved on to Rome and wanted to become a priest. Yes, you heard me right. He now wanted to be a celibate priest.
Perhaps he was either worn out or needed to repent, but he did become a priest. But no surprise, he eventually denounced his priesthood. It is guessed that List had nearly a hundred lovers. And different than Gluck, or Rossini, or Paganini, or Donizetti, or Schumann, or Schubert, or Hugo Wolff, because it's believed he [00:28:00] never contracted a venereal disease, which was common of the day.
In his words, he believed that was because he, quote, only affiliated himself with top drawer high society women. Well, if you think we've reached lows so far, you have nothing yet. .
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Let's make our way to Ricard Wagner. He had many admirers. He seemed to have the ability to attract wealthy young women who enjoyed wearing fine silk undergarments, as much as he enjoyed wearing fine silk undergarments.
. His publisher described him by saying, quote, he started a new love affair in every town he happened to visit. That's his business. Perhaps he is incapable of resisting eccentric, enthusiastic ladies who throw themselves at him. With all my heart, I wish him joy in the soft embraces of those gentle arms.
His publisher also said, quote, [00:29:00] both times he married for love, but by the marriage at age 57, he finally retrieved his brain. We know of 12 long term relationships, but biographers believe that there were many, many one night stands and Cosmas turned her head to most of his indiscretions.
It was not only women that loved him. The 19 year old King Ludwig II was an adoring groupie. Back to Kazuma. Who was hesitant to ask her first husband, Hans von Bülow, back to Cosima, who was hesitant to ask her first husband, Hans von Bülow, for a divorce, so as to not hurt him and her father, Franz Liszt. When she bore Wagner's son, Siegfried, the divorce became inevitable. The sad note from von Bülow that follows read, quote, You have preferred to devote your life and your incomparable mind and affection to [00:30:00] one.
Who is my superior and can't blaming you I approve of your actions from every point of view and admit that you are perfectly right. May God protect and bless the mother of the happy children to whom she will continually devote herself. Buelow even contributed large sums of money to keep the Bayreuth Festival going after Wagner's death.
Quite an interesting turn of events.
If his personal life was not scandalous enough, perhaps this will be for you. Hitler was a great admirer of Wagner's music, considered him a precursor to Nazi ideology, and Wagner's music was appropriate by the Nazis for their propaganda.
Wagner's anti Semitic writings and nationalist ideas were aligned with the racial and cultural ideals that the Nazis would later promote.
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Now we know a bit about some of these famous musicians and I promise you that you have only seen [00:31:00] but a small glimpse into the complicated lives of these brilliant musicians. Now that you've heard a bit about the loves and lives of some of our favorite composers. I hope that Cupid finds you. with this Valentine Days podcast, and I hope your lives are not as complex as theirs. And if your romantic lives are this complicated, well, I would suggest, well, nevermind. Who am I to judge?
Thank you again for joining us and for this special podcast. We'll return to our normal format and I'm always grateful that you are spending time with us and for the privilege of your time. Signing off for now, reminding you that the power of music belongs to all of us, and wishing you all the best in listening to great music and in life.
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