Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart--Paul Hirsch | The autograph guest books and chamber-music diaries of Paul Hirsch, 1897-1967

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart--Paul Hirsch (collector, bibliophile and Mozartian, 1881-1951)

The Frankfurt and Cambridge autograph guest books and chamber-music notebooks of Paul Hirsch

THE FRANKFURT GUEST BOOK, containing autograph inscriptions and musical quotations signed by around 400 composers, musicians, writers, musicologists, philosophers and artists, 1919-1936

including by Igor Stravinsky ("Im ausserordentligen Fernügen zeichne ich Igor Strawinsky..."), Paul Hindemith, Richard Strauss, (signature, 18 October 1930), Arthur Honegger (autograph musical quotation signed from Le Roi David, 2 bars, 10 June 1926), Franz Schreker (autograph musical quotation signed from his opera Die Gezeichneten, 3 bars, 21 November 1919), Artur Schnabel, Bruno Walter, Emil Orlik, Carl Flesch, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Egon Wellesz (autograph musical quotation from his opera Die Prinzessin Girnara, 2 bars, 15 November 1920), Emmy Wellesz, Edwin Fischer (autograph musical quotation from the slow movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto no.5, op.73, 3 bars, 19 December 1920), Max Unger, Adolf Busch and other members of the Busch Quartet (twice, with drawings and autograph musical quotations), Johannes Wolf, Fedor von Zobeltitz, Hermann Erpf, Wilibald Gurlitt, Hermann Scherchen, Henri Hinrichsen, Edward Dent, Alois Hába, Martin Breslauer, Marya Freund, Ernst Toch, Alma Moodie, Ludwig Rottenberg, Martin Kessel, Alfredo and Yvonne Casella, Julius Weismann, Günther and Charlotte Ramin, Raymond Petit, Serge Koussevitsky, Henry Prunières, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Guido Adler (and ten other members of the directorate of the Internationale Gesellschaft für Musikwissenschaft; and also a loose letter of thanks signed by the same, 4 September 1928), Karl Straube, Wanda Landowska, Agi Jambor, Ernest Ansermet, Gian Francesco Malipiero (twice, including with an autograph musical quotation from his opera San Francesco d'Assisi, 8 bars, 28 October 1930), George Antheil (autograph musical quotation signed, from the overture to his opera Transatlantic, premiered in Frankfurt on the day of this entry, 2 bars, 25 May 1930), Florent Schmitt (autograph musical quotation from his choral masterpiece Psalm XLVII, 2 bars, 23 October 1930), Nathan Milstein, Hans Pfitzner, Igor Markevitch, Rudolf Koch (and other designers at his Offenbach workshop), Erich Kleiber, and Anthony van Hoboken

86 leaves, plus blanks, large 4to (26.3 x 19.3cm), mostly written on the rectos only, with two loose postcard photographs showing back and front views of Neue Mainzerstrasse 57 (Paul and Olga Hirsch's residence between December 1918 and May 1936), original tan morocco gilt binding by Dora Thormählen, gilt monogram device of Paul Hirsch ("PH") to upper cover, Frankfurt, 1919-1936

THE CAMBRIDGE GUEST BOOK containing autograph inscriptions, musical quotations, poems and drawings by around 400 musicians, musicologists, librarians, friends and members of the Hirsch family, 1936-1967

including by Roberto Gerhard (autograph musical quotation from Soirées de Barcelone, 2 bars, 25 July 1939), Rudolf Serkin, Boris Ord, Mark Hambourg, Kathi Mayer-Baer (inscribed watercolour, 20 May-20 July 1937), Georg and Petronella Witkowski, Egon Wellesz (autograph musical quotation from Prosperos Beschwörungen, op.53, 20 May 1938), Carl Flesch, Anthony and Eva van Hoboken, Edward J. Dent, Max Rostal, Reginald Jacques, Kurt Jooss, Marjorie Trevelyan, Antonio Brosa, Walter Naumburg, Christopher Peto, Samuel Kutcher, Peter Schidlof ("...and many thanks for the loan of the Guadagnini Viola..."), Laurence Picken, Donald Gowing, Frederic Lamond, Dolf Polak, Rosemary Hughes, Edith B. Schnapper, Alfred Loewenberg, Paul Henry Lang, Robin Orr, Jill Vlasto, Sydney Smith, Alec Hyatt King, C.B. Oldman, Albi and Maud Rosenthal, Philip Radcliffe, O.E. Deutsch ("In dankbarer Erinnerung an viele schöne Stunden im Cambridger Heim vom July 1939 bis zum September 1952..."), Helmut Federhofer, Manfred Bukofzer, Susanne Lachmann, Geoffrey Sharp, Cecil Hopkinson, O.W. Neighbour, H.A. Feisenberger, Alfred Mann, Raymond Leppard, Robert Thurston Dart, Robert Anderson, Charles Cudworth, Rudolf Elvers, Eberhard Hopf, Elisabeth Friedlander, and Michael Tunstall-Behrens

58 leaves, plus blanks, large 4to (31 x 24cm), written on the rectos only, red morocco binding by J. Niederhöfer of Frankfurt, with four loose autograph letters by Thurston Dart and Edward J. Dent, gilt monogram device of Paul Hirsch ("PH") to upper cover, Cambridge, 1936-1967

THE CHAMBER-MUSIC NOTEBOOKS, comprising four autograph manuscript volumes by Paul Hirsch, recording over 600 chamber music evenings at which Hirsch and other members of his quartet, as well as other occasional guest musicians, performed between 1897 and 1950

1) documenting chamber-music evenings between 10 November 1897 and 11 September 1901, numbered '1'-'65', headed on the first page "Verzeichnis der ab 10. Novbr. 1897 gespielten Kammermusik-Werke", with details of works performed, participating performers, locations of the performances, with other annotations and humorous commentaries, and a manuscript index of composers' works at end, 36 pages in all, plus blanks, 8vo (20.6 x 14.2cm), stamped "Paul Hirsch" on front free endpaper, original cloth

2) documenting chamber-music evenings between 10 May 1910 and 31 March 1919, numbered 'I'-'VI' (10 May to 29 June 1910) and '1'-'200' (11 May 1911 to 31 March 1919), the members of the regular quartet listed at the head of the volume ("Dr. R[ichard] Stern, P[aul] H[irsch], L. Natterer, G. Wallau"), with additional performers also recorded, 54 pages, small 8vo (16.3 x 10.5cm), original blue wrappers, manuscript label to upper cover ("Quartette"), creasing and browning to upper cover

3) documenting chamber-music evenings between 8 May 1919 and 23 December 1932, numbered '201' to '376', with autograph title-page ("Verzeichnis der ab Mai 1919 (201. Abend) gespielten Kammermusik-Werke...Normale Besetzung des Streichquartettes: / Dr. Richard Stern / Paul Hirsch 1. & 2. Geige abwechselnd / Aug. Allekotte Bratsche / Ary Schuyer Cello..."), 45 pages, plus blanks, small 8vo (16.5 x 10.5cm), with a loose autograph postcard by Richard Hirsch addressed to "das Hausquartett von Paul Hirsch" (Leipzig, 29 October 1931), original blue wrappers, manuscript label to upper cover ("Quartette / II / Mai 1919 bis Decbr. 1932"), corners of upper cover torn with loss

4) documenting chamber-music evenings between 3 January 1933 and 13 January 1950, numbered '377'-'463' (3 January 1933 to 18 May 1936; the Cambridge evenings unnumbered), title-page dedication ("Quartett-Buch von Puhli...Meinem lieben Pühli zur Erinnerung, daß er recht oft mit 'holden Tönen kommen' möge und damit sich und andern viel Freude macht. Weihnachten 1932 von Irene."), the details of the first quartet evening prefaced by an introductory remark by Hirsch ("Begonnen Januar 1933 / Wenn nicht anderes vermerkt ist, spielt das Quartett in folgender Zusammensetzung: 1. Violine Paul Hirsch / 2. [ditto] Willa Weigle / Bratsche Aenni Rosenthal / Cello Ary Schuyer"), 64 pages, small 4to ( 17.2 x 13.5cm), plus blanks, with a number of separate, loose leaves (9 numbered pages) detailing chamber-music evenings in England that took place elsewhere than at 10 Adams Road, and 5 other loose handwritten or typed lists, including one detailing the number of performances of Mozart's mature string quartets between 1936 and 1942, and with a loose printed concert programme of the Cambridge University Musical Club on 6 March 1943, gilt edges, original roan gilt

...Das Programme des 50. Abends sowie der folgenden mindestens 10 Abende wurde durch die geradezu unglaubliche Nachlässigkeit des p. p. Hirsch nicht niedergeschrieben - ein geradezu unersetzlicher Verlust für die Nachwelt...350. Abend 30. October 1931 Wegen der schlimmen Zeit keine Feier, aber gemütlichen Abend mit Lanckoronskis & 1911 Rüdersheimer!...463. Abend 18. Mai 1936...letzter Abend in Deutschland. Am 22 Mai 1936 Ausreise nach England...In Cambridge / Adams Road 10 / 2. October 1937...

together with: a printed programme of the 200th chamber-music evening on 31 March 1919, 1 page, 24.2 x cm, splitting along horizontal fold; 5 typed lists indexing and summarising the works performed and the participating musicians during the first 400 chamber-music evenings in Germany, between May 1911 and November 1933, and in Cambridge between 10-19 April 1945, 19 pages, various sizes, with some manuscript annotations, some splitting along folds, rusty paper-clip stains; and a manuscript note in Olga Hirsch's hand ("Chamber Music played by Paul Hirsch in Germany, in England"), 1 page, no date, laid down on thin card, browning, small tears

A WHOLE WORLD OF EUROPEAN MUSICAL CULTURE LIVES IN THESE SIX VOLUMES.

Not only were the Frankfurt residences of the industrialist and bibliophile Paul Hirsch (1881-1951), at first in the Beethovenstrasse and, from December 1918 to May 1936, at Neue Mainzerstrasse 57, the homes of what became the largest private music library ever amassed in Europe, they were also the settings for a remarkable series of over 450 chamber-music concerts given by Hirsch's "house quartet", in which he regularly featured as violinist.

The earlier, Frankfurt, guest book documents not only visitors to his library and events connected with it, such as a 1924 exhibition of opera scores, as part of the 54th Music Festival of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein, and a 1932 meeting of the Gesellschaft der Bibliophilen, of which he was the founder, but also numerous musical occasions (the library had its own concert hall), including a performance on 1 June 1924 of Stravinsky's Octet for Winds conducted by Hermann Scherchen. One particular highlight of the volume is a collection of signatures of over fifty of the world's leading musicians attending a reception held in connection with the 1925 Stravinsky Festival (the entries include a fine idiosyncratic German inscription by Stravinsky himself).

The rise of the National Socialists in the 1930s rendered Hirsch's position impossible, on account of his Jewish heritage, and on 22 May 1936 he and his family fled to Great Britain, having been able to arrange the export out of Germany of nearly all the music library, which would be purchased ten years later by the British Museum. A poignant couple of pages in the last of the four chamber-music notebooks records the last chamber-music evening in Frankfurt (number 463, on 18 May 1936), and the first musical gathering in Cambridge at the Hirsch's new home at 10 Adams Road (on 2 October 1937). On both occasions music by Mozart, Hirsch's favourite composer, was played (the String Quartet in D minor, K.421, and the Piano Quartet in G minor, K.478).

One remarkable page in the Cambridge guest book, which also documents concert participants as well as other visitors, is that recording the party held on 16 July 1946 in the lovely garden of 10 Adams Road on the occasion of the seventieth birthday of Edward J. Dent, Professor of Music at Cambridge from 1926-1941, a party which also served as a thank-you to him for his invaluable services in securing Hirsch's music library for the nation. Sixty distinguished musicians, musicologists and friends of Paul Hirsch signed the book that day - a roll call of the musical great and good.

Following Paul Hirsch's death in November 1951 the Cambridge book continued to be used by his widow Olga, who in addition to being a bibliophile was also a noted collector of decorated papers used in bookbinding.

The character of Hirsch's dedicated and sustained work as collector, scholar and musician was movingly summed up in an address given by Laurence Picken at his funeral, on 28 November 1951:

I have said little of the place of music in his life. Properly speaking, it filled his life. He was not a bibliographer strayed into the domain of music, but a musician who found that he could best serve the art which had absorbed him from youth onwards through the pursuit of musicology - of musical bibliography. It was not the material basis of music which was his primary concern, but music itself. Music was for him a perfecting correlative of life.

The illustrated photograph showing Paul Hirsch in his study at 10 Adams Road is not included with this lot.

See lots 5, 6, 147 and 149.

PROVENANCE: By descent from Paul Hirsch to the present owner

LITERATURE:

Alec Hyatt King, 'Paul Hirsch and his music library', The British Library Journal, vol.7 no.1 (1981), pp.1-11; David Josephson, ' "Why then all the difficulties!": a life of Kathi-Meyer-Baer', Notes, 2nd series, vol.65 no.2 (2008), pp.227-267