Lecture-Recital: Two Heavenly Messengers: Fanny Davies and Richard Mühlfeld

TY - CONF

T1 - Lecture-Recital: Two Heavenly Messengers: Fanny Davies and Richard Mühlfeld

AU - Worthington, Emily Claire

AU - Granero, Laura

PY - 2024/2/5

Y1 - 2024/2/5

N2 - Fanny Davies (1861-1934) was one of the most celebrated English pianists towards the turn of the 20th century. Born in Guernsey in 1861, she moved at an early age to Birmingham, which she considered her “native town”. Later she went to study in Germany with some of the most important exponents of the so-called ‘German conservative school’, Carl Reinecke and Clara Schumann. She was also given the possibility of meeting Johannes Brahms and closely working with him. Regarded as “a personal messenger for Schumann and Brahms”, Davies’s recordings and written documents are fundamental when studying the performing practices around these two composers.With this lecture-recital, we aim to explore her style of interpretationand her collaboration with the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld (1856–1907),a central member of Brahms’s circle. For the first part of this lecture- recital, the studyof Davies’s recording of the Davidsbündler inspired Laura’s interpretation. Davies’srecording will be contextualised by comparing it with those of other pianists born inthe 19th century.Between 1892 and 1907, Davies collaborated in at least 15 concerts with Mühlfeld,principal clarinettist of the Meiningen Hofkapelle and the inspiration for JohannesBrahms’s chamber works with clarinet. Upon Mühlfeld’s untimely death in May 1907,Davies wrote: “We will never meet one of his kind again. You cannot imagine how weall mourn the terrible loss; we loved him eternally. – There is a great feast of music upin heaven: Brahms has just written some music and now he needs his Mühlfeld. Hewas too good to remain on earth.” (Goltz and Müller, 2007: 113).The scores Davies and Mühlfeld used for early performances of the Sonatas Op.120and, preserved in the Royal College of Music library, feature a range of workingannotations that offer a tantalising clue to their rehearsal process. The clarinets usedfor this performance are a direct copy of Mühlfeld’s own 1875 Baermann-Ottensteinerinstruments, now held in the Meiningen Museum. The stylistic approach is informedby Emily’s ongoing research into 19th century performance practices as conveyed bythe writings and works of the clarinettist Carl Baermann (1811–1885), the designer ofMühlfeld’s instruments, with a particular focus on extra- musical references,declamatory style, and how rubato may be encoded in articulation and phrasingmarks. Princess Marie-Elisabeth von Sachsen- Meiningen’s Romance was performedby Davies and Mühlfeld in 1895.

AB - Fanny Davies (1861-1934) was one of the most celebrated English pianists towards the turn of the 20th century. Born in Guernsey in 1861, she moved at an early age to Birmingham, which she considered her “native town”. Later she went to study in Germany with some of the most important exponents of the so-called ‘German conservative school’, Carl Reinecke and Clara Schumann. She was also given the possibility of meeting Johannes Brahms and closely working with him. Regarded as “a personal messenger for Schumann and Brahms”, Davies’s recordings and written documents are fundamental when studying the performing practices around these two composers.With this lecture-recital, we aim to explore her style of interpretationand her collaboration with the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld (1856–1907),a central member of Brahms’s circle. For the first part of this lecture- recital, the studyof Davies’s recording of the Davidsbündler inspired Laura’s interpretation. Davies’srecording will be contextualised by comparing it with those of other pianists born inthe 19th century.Between 1892 and 1907, Davies collaborated in at least 15 concerts with Mühlfeld,principal clarinettist of the Meiningen Hofkapelle and the inspiration for JohannesBrahms’s chamber works with clarinet. Upon Mühlfeld’s untimely death in May 1907,Davies wrote: “We will never meet one of his kind again. You cannot imagine how weall mourn the terrible loss; we loved him eternally. – There is a great feast of music upin heaven: Brahms has just written some music and now he needs his Mühlfeld. Hewas too good to remain on earth.” (Goltz and Müller, 2007: 113).The scores Davies and Mühlfeld used for early performances of the Sonatas Op.120and, preserved in the Royal College of Music library, feature a range of workingannotations that offer a tantalising clue to their rehearsal process. The clarinets usedfor this performance are a direct copy of Mühlfeld’s own 1875 Baermann-Ottensteinerinstruments, now held in the Meiningen Museum. The stylistic approach is informedby Emily’s ongoing research into 19th century performance practices as conveyed bythe writings and works of the clarinettist Carl Baermann (1811–1885), the designer ofMühlfeld’s instruments, with a particular focus on extra- musical references,declamatory style, and how rubato may be encoded in articulation and phrasingmarks. Princess Marie-Elisabeth von Sachsen- Meiningen’s Romance was performedby Davies and Mühlfeld in 1895.

M3 - Other

T2 - Piano Playing Styles of the 19th Century

Y2 - 4 February 2024 through 8 February 2024

ER -