R. Schumann. Conducting baton belonging to the composer, c. 1840s-1850s

Schumann, Robert

Conducting baton belonging to the composer

length 38cm, slightly tapered, fruitwood, the ends with ebonized tips, the composer's name incised into the wood at the base ("Robert Schumann"), c. 1840s-1850s, old repair to leading tip

A fine assocation item, from the collection of the Berlin pianist and teacher Ernst Rudorff (1840-1916). Schumann was, however, by all accounts an indifferent conductor. According to Harold C. Schonberg, "[t]he great composer was impossible on the platform...There is something heartrending about poor Schumann's epochal inefficiency as a conductor."

LITERATURE

Harold C. Schonberg, The Great Conductors (1967), p. 126