Joachim, Reményi… and Brahms

Robert W. EshbachUniversity of New Hampshire

reshbach@unh.edu

American Brahms Society ConferenceBrahms in the New Century

Brook Center for Music ResearchCity University of New York

March 21, 2012.

— Handout —

Three valuable sources of information on Reményi:

1) Gwendolyn Dunlevy Kelley and George P. Upton, Edouard Remenyi, Musician, Litterateur and Man; An Appreciation, Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1906. As the title states, this is “an appreciation,” and not a scholarly work, but Upton was a well-respected writer on music, and I have found it to be generally quite reliable and informative. Available online through Google Books.

2) Adam Gellen, “Eduard Reményis Jugendjahre und seine Beziehungen zu Johannes Brahms — Eine biographische Skizze,” Studia Musicologica vol. 49, nos. 3–4, September 2008, pp. 295–319. Perhaps the only article on Reményi that is up to modern standards of scholarship. Well-researched, with much valuable information, and a thoughtful evaluation of facts. The best currently available source.

3) A. Vandermeulen (ed.), Enthüllungen aus der höheren Region der politischen Spionage, Berlin: Reinhold Schlingmann, 1862. Contains most of Hanover Police Commissioner Wermuth’s report on Reményi’s detention and interrogation (1853), as well as reports on his brother Antál and other associates. Available online through Google Books

Henry W. DePuy, Kossuth and His Generals, Buffalo: Phinney and Co., 1852, pp. 275-276.

“When body after body of the Hungarian troops, at Vilagos, drew up before the Russians, and silently laid down their arms without any surmise of treachery Gorgey noticed at his side, young Remenyi, scarcely eighteen years old, and a virtuoso on the violin. This youth had always been at the head-quarters of Gorgey, and often on the eve of a battle, or on the morn after the combat, had enlivened with his

sweet melodies the heart of many an officer, and, as a new David, dispelled the gloomy thoughts of the Hungarian chief. Gorgey now called him, and inquired what he was going to do, and whether he was provided with money? Remenyi replied, with the carelessness of youth, “that with his violin he would fight his way through the world, but as to money he had none.” Gorgey emptied his pocket, gave all his gold to Remenyi, untied some golden toys which were hanging on the chain of his watch, and said: “Take this, my boy, in remembrance of me!” As Remenyi noticed among these trifling jewels a small silver key, he returned it to the General with the observation: “but this key you got of your wife; I can not take it; my lady would be displeased if you gave away what you received from her as a keepsake.” “Take it —” said Gorgey, “for after what I have done to-day, my wife will never smile any more upon me!”

“Zur Geschichte des ungarischen Krieges,” Blätter für literarische Unterhaltung, Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, vol. II, no. 108, July 5, 1851, p. 621.

“Remenyi, The Violinist,” The New York Times, New York: June 30, 1895, p. 28.

“When I first came to New-York […] I was an exile. At that time the people of this country knew such enthusiasm for Kossuth and the Hungarian cause as you of to-day can never know for anything — not even for yourselves. […] [Such hospitality as this city gave to the Hungarians then was never known before.] Citizens of the town came down to the ships to welcome the exiles and to provide for them. They were taken into the New-York families when they landed. It so

happened that I became the guest of John Keeze Bailey, a Knickerbocker. In that family Washington was spoken of as familiarly by the mother and older members as we at this table would speak of each other. […] The name of Washington by us at home was worshipped. What then did it mean to me to be a member of a household where his past visits were spoken of, his words quoted trivially, as would be the expressions of any intimate friend! Ah! it seems that I could almost touch the hem of the garment of the hero worshipped in Hungary! […] The Baileys lived at 9 Sixteenth Street, Union Square. […] John Keeze Bailey’s father had given Union Square to the city in order to enhance the value of his property in Sixteenth Street, which was hopelessly far from town.”

"The Hungarian Exiles in Philadelphia." Illustrated London News [London, England] 9 Feb. 1850: 84.

“Hungarian Refugees in Leith,” Illustrated London News, London: December 15 1849, pg. 394.

“A Twenty-Five Years’ Secret. Revelations That Will Stir the Musical World. Remenyi and Johannes Brahms,” The New York Herald, New York: January 18, 1879, p. 10.

On the young Reményi. Karl Formes, The Autobiography of Karl Formes, San Francisco: Jas. H. Barry, 1891, pp. 184-185.

“One day we took a walk on the shore. Notwithstanding my warning, Remenyi went out on the boulders until he was a great distance from the land. I called to him to return, as the tide was rising. In vain! In his Hungarian-German dialect, he cried, “The tide will wait!” which it did not do. There he stood on the top of the rock, every few minutes calling: “How beautiful! how beautiful! you come up here!” By six o’clock the tide was so high that there was no thought of the violinist’s return; he had no prospect but that of passing the night up there, unless a boat could be got. Anschütz and I returned to the hotel for aid. The wind had risen; a thunder-storm was evidently approaching; by the time we reached home, the lightning began to flash; in a little while, the storm was at its height; no boat could live in the turbulent breakers, and poor Remenyi had to pass the night out there. At

daybreak we went to his aid; but the boat could not approach the rock; the waves were too wild. There he had to remain until six in the morning, when the tide was low. Half frozen and half drowned, we got him down from his too elevated position. It is needless to remark that his ardent admiration for the fine view was considerably cooled.”

Ede Reményi on Brahms. Gwendolyn Dunlevy Kelley and George P. Upton, Edouard Remenyi, Musician, Litterateur and Man; An Appreciation, Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1906, p. 15.

“Taking a broad view of him, Brahms was a man; a manly nature in contrast to the degenerate effemination of present-day art; a sturdy North German, sound to the roots, detesting pretences and mannerisms, an enemy of empty phrases; distinguished, forcible in character, strong in will and sentiment; a man possessing under a hard and rough exterior a warm and throbbing heart. Thus in Brahms the requirements for a true artist are an inseparable unit. Equipped with the highest artistic endowments, genius, and originality, having the power which can create and need not borrow, endowed with artistic culture in all its ramifications, he has created masterpieces, long secure in the sacred shrine of German music; treasures wrought of precious metal, remaining untarnished forever. Brahms’s systematic development reminds one forcibly of the evolution of Beethoven; a healthy instinct conjoined with imperturbable self-criticism always guarded him against mistake; and, although a born lyrist, he withstood the alluring voice of the stage, and never was faithless to his mission.”