J. Joachim. Collection of nine letters signed, to Friedrich Chrysander, 1870-1885

Joseph Joachim

Collection of nine letters signed ("J.J."; Joseph Joachim"), to Friedrich Chrysander

comprising six autograph letters signed and three scribal letters signed, one with a two-page autograph postscript

discussing Handel, Schütz and Bach, and celebrations for them in the bicentenary year of 1885, decrying aspects of musical taste regarding the performance of Handel's music in Leipzig, expressing the view that Mendelssohn would angrily reject current practice, discussing his concerts, concerning the founding of a music school at Berlin, stressing the need to counterbalance the growing influence of Wagner's music, mentioning Spitta, Hiller, Bruch, Beethoven's quartets, and other matters

...geradezu ein Unglück wäre es, wenn nun Wagner (dem ich ja Originalität der Erfindung und geistreiches Detail der Orchester-Malerei bei aller Manierirtheit nicht abspreche) immer mehr Boden gewänne...

18 autograph pages, and 7 scribal pages, various sizes, two letters on postcards, one letter signed (30 April 1900) used by Chrysander to draft a letter of his own to Joachim, with a 1-page autograph letter by Joachim's sister-in-law Elly enclosed with Joachim's of 9 May 1885, Berlin, where indicated, 1870-1885, some browning to the scribal letters

An important group of letters from two musical Titans of the nineteenth century, including some remarkable insights into Joachim's musically conservative view of Wagner.