Dr. Sanna Pederson, University of Oklahoma
When Brahms composed his last orchestral work, the Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, Op. 102, he wrote the solo parts specifically for Hausmann and Joachim, which he sent to them before they first tried it out together. The October 18, 1887 premiere in Cologne was followed by performances in Wiesbaden on November 17th, Frankfurt … Read more
In 1908The Musical Courier declared: “When Joachim died there was virtually an end to the string quartet, confessedly the highest form of abstract music.” The issue of the “death” of the string quartet had been raised before by the English press. In 1902 the Musical News had fretted: Is the interest in chamber music really … Read more
Image: The Quartet at the 1907 Beethoven-Haus Bonn Festival [su_heading size=”23″ margin=”30″]The final year of the Quartet: Reconstructing the last concerts from newspaper and music journal reports[/su_heading] On January 10 the Quartet played an all Beethoven program: op. 135, op. 59 #3, op. 18 #5. The Quartet then traveled to Königsberg, where they played the … Read more
Contemporary reviews Reviews in the musical press for the Quartet’s concerts outside of Berlin are quite consistent in the 1880s, and bear out the points made by Moser’s biography. The Quartet’s concerts in Leipzig were in 1881, 1883, 1884, 1885, 1896, 1898, and 1899. The first visit to the Leipzig Gewandhaus on November 26, 1881 made … Read more
This is the big question. Since there are no recordings, we must rely on the account of witnesses, which are subjective. First, though, there are some relevant facts that should be taken into account: The many years that they played regularly together. Three of the four played together for 28 years, from 1879-1907. The turnover was … Read more
Not only were the cousins Georg and Robert Hausmann both professional cellists who played the same cello with some of the same people in the same places, Robert’s sister Marie was a singer who had a cousin Marie who was also a singer. Robert’s sister Marie was born in 1847. She studied singing with Julius … Read more
Joachim was a friend, mentor, teacher, role model, and more. His role in Hausmann’s life was so all-encompassing that is almost seems that Joachim consciously set out to take this youth, a next-generation version of one of his first collaborators, and fast-track his training so that he could serve in various capacities to suit Joachim’s … Read more