Dr. Sanna Pederson, University of Oklahoma
I was gratified to read among the headlines of the Berliner Morgenpost for 11 May 2023 news about correspondence between Joseph Joachim and Bernhard Hausmann, Robert Hausmann’s great-uncle. Seven letters were given by a member of the Hausmann family as a gift to the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche Stiftung, in honor of the church’s cemetery, where … Read more
The centennial of Joachim’s birth in 1931 was observed in Berlin and elsewhere with tributes recalling the important part he had played in so many aspects of musical life. Only a few years later the Nazi re-writing of Germany history began, in which Jewish artists and intellectuals were purged from the German culture they helped … Read more
Yesterday I came upon a review that sheds light on the popularity of Ludwig Spohr’s violin music, which was the question I was left with after researching the repertoire of violin soloists at the Leipzig Gewandhaus over the nineteenth century. The reception history of Spohr isn’t a topic simply to google or look up on … Read more
Joachim and the Gewandhaus: a sixty-year symbiosis Among the lore of this historic institution is Joachim’s debut as a twelve-year-old at the Gewandhaus in 1843. (Robert Eshbach has documented this event on his website). The Gewandhaus’s conductor Felix Mendelssohn and concertmaster Ferdinand David oversaw Joachim’s development as the child prodigy went through his teenage years. … Read more
March 23rd is not only the birthday of Johann Kruse, but also of Ernst Schiever and Hugo Olk. March has seemed to me to be a popular month for this cohort, and a quick analysis of the birth dates I have indicates that, indeed, more of these students were born in March than in any … Read more
“Do you hear anything of Kruse? He never writes, and I long to know something about him.”–11 June 1900 In Joachim’s letters to his London brother Henry and his wife Ellen, Johann Kruse comes up over twenty times, far more than any other former student. (These letters are transcribed and available online on the Brahms … Read more
Johann Kruse (1859-1927) was one of Joachim’s more important students: he taught at the Hochschule and was a member of the Joachim Quartet for five years. My preparation for writing up a short profile has stretched out into months, and this post has grown tentacles that need to be hacked off. These are the role … Read more