Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy to Heinrich Baermann, 7 July 1834
To Heinrich Baermann
Source GB-Lbl, Add. 41628, fol. 179-180. No digitisation currently available.
Transcription Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix, et al. Sämtliche Briefe. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2008, vol. III p. 473–5.
Summary Mendelssohn write affectionately from Düsseldorf, telling how often he thinks of his friend. He speaks of his disappointment when a local clarinetist played the Weber F minor concerto and did not do it justice.
Mendelssohn speaks of his promise to write a solo piece for basset horn, aking if Carl still needs it, and refers to Carl writing multiple letters to him, full of personal news, and he asks whether Carl is 'still tuning the piano’. He asks and reports after numerous mutual acquaintances in Munich, reports on his favourable working conditions in Düsseldorf, and chides Heinrich for not answering him, asking that he at least get Carl to write and add a postscript.
Excerpt
“…da ritt der Teufel einen hiesigen Clarinettisten öffentlich Webers fmoll Concert zu blasen; ich hatte allen Leuten vorhergesagt, jetzt würden Sie das wunderschönste Stück zu hören bekommen, und alle waren sehr gespannt darauf, und nun kickst und pustet der das Ding zusammen, daß mir angst und bange wurde, und daß die Leute sagten „Hm! eine höchst barocke Composition" und daß ich dachte, wenn der Bärvater doch nur auf eine halbe Stunde zugegen sein, und das Rohr in den Mund nehmen könnte. Auch an das Solo für Bassethorn habe ich oft gedacht – es sollte in bdur gehen – aber nun weiß ich gar nicht einmal ob der „kleine“ Carl es noch brauchen kann und will, oder ob es blos für die Reise sein sollte? Darauf möchte ich mir doch von ihm eine Zeile Antwort erbitten, denn da er mir in seinem letzten Briefe schrieb, ich würde gleich am Thore festgehalten wenn ich ohne ein neues Duett und das Solostück nach München käme, und ich doch sehr gerne wenigstens bis in die Carlstraße gelangte, so möchte ich mich danach richten. Seine Briefe waren übrigens schön toll, und haben mich immer ganze Tagelang zum Frohsinn gebracht…” (473–4)
“…the devil took a local clarinettist to play Weber's F minor concerto in public; I had predicted to everyone that now they would get to hear the most beautiful piece, and everyone was very eager to hear it, and now he kicked and blew the thing together so that I was scared and anxious, and that people said "Hm! a most baroque composition" and that I thought, if only the bear-father could be present for half an hour and take the reed in his mouth. I have also often thought about the solo for basset horn - it should be in B flat major - but now I don't even know whether "little" Carl can and wants to use it, or whether it should only have been for the trip? I would like to ask him for an answer to this question, because he wrote me in his last letter that I would be held up at the gate if I came to Munich without a new duet and the solo piece, and I would very much like to get at least as far as Carlstrasse, so I would like to comply. His letters were great, by the way, and always made me happy for whole days…”
Post-edited Deepl translation
