J. Brahms. Autograph letter to Elisabet von Herzogenberg, about the op.76 piano pieces and Ethel Smyth, [1878]

BRAHMS, JOHANNES

Autograph letter on a postcard signed ("J. Br.") to Elisabet von Herzogenberg, about some music he had sent her, and about Ethel Smyth, Vienna [December 1878]

gently enquiring why Elisabet has not acknowledged receiving a music manuscript he had sent her [the Clavierstücke op.76], hoping that he might soon have it back, teasing her by suggesting that the reason she has not written was that "die kleinen Engländerinnen" had used up all her stationery by composing music on it, advising her to put a stop to this and enquiring about the Bach-Verein in Leipzig (which her husband Heinrich conducted) 

1 page, on a correspondence card, oblong 8vo (c.8.3 x 13.5cm), autograph address panel, postmarked, Vienna [before 13 December 1878]. Overall browning. Some wear to right-hand margin (where formerly mounted) affecting a few letters, professionally repaired.  

UNPUBLISHED. This is a hitherto unknown letter by Brahms to one of his most important correspondents; it is not in the Brahms Briefwechsel edition (1908), nor in the Brahms Brief-Verzeichnis. Brahms's published correspondence with Elisabet and her husband Heinrich runs to some 281 items, but we have traced none at auction since 1956.

Elisabet von Herzogenberg (1847-1892) was Brahms's closest female friend after Clara Schumann, a fine pianist and a noted beauty. Brahms apparently refers to a draft of some music that he was still working on, possibly seeking her opinion of it. This "Correspondenz-Karte" accords with examples used by Brahms around 1878, the year that he composed the eight Clavierstücke op.76. The pieces were not published until March 1879, and not performed publicly before October.

Elisabet replied to this letter on 13 December 1878, apologising for not acknowledging the manuscript and explaining that she was holding back her favourite number, the B-minor Capriccio op.76 no.2, which she was having a "kleine Engländerin" copy out for her (the autograph manuscript is now lost). She also points out that she only has one English girl ("daß ich nur eine kleine und sehr liebe Engländerin besitze"), whereas Brahms here implies more than one. This was the young Ethel Smyth (1858-1944), who met Brahms through Elisabet and her husband Heinrich von Herzogenberg, her composition teacher in Leipzig. Ethel quickly became very close to "Lisl"--by all accounts her first love--and was practically part of the Herzogenberg household at this time. Elisabet accorded Ethel the informal "du" and habitually referred to her as "meine kleine Engländerin" in her letters to Brahms. 

Brahms later dedicated the Two Rhapsodies for piano op.79 to Elisabet, having similarly sent her a pre-publication manuscript beforehand, This time she thanked him in a letter of 4 February 1880, but here too the autograph is now lost. Whereas Elisabet was fourteen years younger than Brahms, Clara Schumann was fourteen years older. She quickly became jealous of Brahms's friendship with the bewitching and aristocratic Elisabet, especially when he began to ask her opinion on his compositions before he had told Clara about them. Later, in November 1888, Brahms was embarrassed when Elisabet kept hold of his Violin Sonata no.3 op.108 longer than expected and asked Elisabet to relinquish the manuscript immediately, much to her amusement. Clara also became upset when Elisabet got precedence regarding the String Quintet in G op.111; see her letter to Brahms of 1 February 1891 (Sotheby's sale 21 May 1998, lot 345).

LITERATURE:

For Elisabet's reply to this letter, see Johannes Brahms im Briefwechsel mit Heinrich und Elisabet von Herzogenberg. edited by Max Kalbeck (1908), volume one, pp.81-82. Also see Ethel Smyth, Impressions that Remained (1948), chapters 21 & 23 (pp.219-233).

PROVENANCE:

From the album of Adela Wodehouse (née Bagot) (1854-1921), a friend of Clara Schumann and the wife of Edmond Wodehouse, MP for Bath.

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