Martha Remmert

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Martha Remmert around 1891

Martha Remmert (born August 4, 1853 in Gross-Schwein (near Glogau , Lower Silesia); † January 24, 1941 in Neuses near Coburg ) was a German pianist , music teacher , conductor , music festival manager and music writer .

Origin and family

Martha Remmert was the daughter of Otto Remmert (1824-1883), royal chief bailiff on a royal estate in Groß-Schwein near Glogau in Silesia, and his wife Elwine nee Wegener (1832-1919) from Lebus . She had at least three siblings: Margarethe (1856–1940), Gertrud Remmert (1863–1944), musician, painter and poet, and Adalbert Remmert (1869–1936), personal physician to Kaiser Wilhelm II. Martha Remmert was related through her aunt Franziska Otto née Wegner (1838–1892) with Berthold Otto . She was in close contact with his family.

Live and act

Childhood and adolescence

Martha Remmert grew up in the castle in Groß-Schwein and received her first piano lessons from her mother Elwine and a tutor of the family. From 1860 to 1865 she received piano lessons from Ludwig Meinardus in Glogau ; 1865 and 1866 by Wilhelm Tappert . She then went to Berlin, where she lived with her grandmother Friederike Remmert, to attend a girls' school there, but instead took up piano studies in 1867 against her parents' will and without her parents' knowledge. From 1867 to 1870 she studied with Theodor Kullak . After the death of her grandmother, Anton Rubinstein made sure that she received financial support from Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna for her further education. Remmert received private lessons from Carl Tausig until his death in 1871.

Student of Franz Liszt in Weimar

Remmert probably met Franz Liszt during Carl Tausig's last stay in Leipzig . She visited Liszt in Weimar in his apartment in the court gardener's house and met him there shortly before he left for Rome and Budapest on August 8, 1871. Impressed by her pianistic skills, Liszt devoted a lot of time to her and played with her on August 13. August four-handed at a matinee. From 1872 Remmert lived in Weimar and became Liszt's longest-standing student. By 1886 she received over 1,000 hours of instruction. She got to know Liszt's way of playing the piano, his understanding of the appropriate interpretation of his and other compositions, and learned a lot about Liszt as a teacher, about his ideology and him as a person. Over the years Remmert also got to know many of his approximately 260 pupils during the summer months in Weimar during his recurring stays with Liszt, experienced the social get-together of the Lisztians in Weimar and with Liszt and finally the last year of his life as well as Liszt's last hours in Bayreuth with a few of his closest pupils.

Concert tours and fame as a Liszt student

While Remmert and Liszt met in Weimar to study music and piano in the summer months, they were traveling separately for the concert season. From 1873 to around 1886 Remmert built up an international career as a soloist. She organized her concert tours herself and traveled unaccompanied. At first she was helped by a few letters of recommendation from Liszt, later she used her own contacts to influential patrons from aristocratic circles. The friendships with Elisabeth von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach , Marie von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach and Louise von Hessen , Queen of Denmark, were helpful.

Remmert gave over 510 concerts on her concert tours between 1872 and 1932, with which she earned her living. She performed in 80 predominantly Central and East German and 55 foreign cities such as Athens, Alexandria, Basel, Bern, Brussels, Budapest, Bucharest, The Hague, Geneva, Helsinki, Istanbul, Cairo, Constantinople, Copenhagen, London, Lausanne, Prague, Vienna, Riga, St. Petersburg, Stockholm and Warsaw. She played on her grand piano provided by the piano manufacturer Julius Blüthner . In Europe she was considered one of the three best pianists of her time. She gave additional concerts in many places. She mastered over 100,000 uncomfortable kilometers of travel, mostly with horse-drawn carriages on unpaved roads or the first railways. She wrote some exciting travelogues about it.

From Weimar to Berlin

Between 1871 and 1890, when she lived in Weimar, Remmert performed more than 60 times in the city in musical events with Liszt, the Stahr sisters, the royal family in the palace and at court concerts. After Liszt's death, she moved to Berlin in 1890 and undertook concert tours within Germany from 1891 to 1900, as well as to Copenhagen, Stockholm and a special tour to the Ottoman Empire in 1894/95 as far as Cairo. From 1894 to 1900 she began to make a name for herself with trio and Beethoven evenings. She also campaigned for the performance of the works of the still unknown Max Reger , who dedicated two of his works to her. Then Martha Remmert devoted herself to the institutionalized musical life. In 1900 she founded the Franz Liszt Academy in Berlin and in 1905 the Franz Liszt Society . Remmert had her last public concerts with Hermine Princess of Prussia at Saabor Palace on July 31, 1928 and on December 17, 1928 on the occasion of the princess's birthday in Berlin.

Foundation of the Franz Liszt Academy and the Franz Liszt Society

Remmert founded the Franz Liszt Academy in Berlin (FLA) in 1900, whose training was based on Franz Liszt. In the FLA, lessons were given in all subjects of music. Remmert offered a thorough, broad-based musical education. The training comprised preparatory classes with elementary, intermediate and transitional levels, in which music history, chord theory, analysis, ensemble and prima vista playing as well as technical exercises were taught. Women in particular should be taught to read and play scores, to conduct and to compose.

She also founded a Franz Liszt Society (FLG) in Berlin in 1905 , which was the first of its kind, and headed the society as director. The main reason for the establishment was that the memory of Franz Liszt and his oeuvre was not in good order about 20 years after his death. With an FLG she not only wanted to counter a general oblivion of Liszt's person and his compositions, but also, in Liszt's charitable spirit, to counteract the latest accompanying phenomena of modern music reception, i.e. the deteriorating social conditions of many musicians. She gave lectures about Liszt and organized music afternoons in his memory until, with the rise of National Socialism in 1933, at the age of 80, she withdrew from the public to Neuses near Coburg .

Last years in Neuses near Coburg

Remmert was no longer active as a musician in Neuses. She devoted herself to caring for her sick sister Margarethe Benda and wrote a screenplay for a silent film about Franz Liszt in 1929/30. The script was reportedly lost in Hungary in 1934. She also did the translation of Patrick Carnegie Simpson's book The Fact of Christ . Four weeks after her sister Margarethe, Martha Remmert died on January 24, 1941 at the age of 87 in Coburg.

In 1944, her sister Gertrud Remmert sent a selection of Martha Remmert's professional documents to the Liszt House Museum in Weimar, where they were rediscovered and evaluated in the Goethe and Schiller Archives after 70 years.

Martha Remmert's grave in the Coburg-Neuses cemetery no longer exists. In her honor, however, a plaque was placed on the cemetery chapel in 2014.

Liszt repertoire

Martha Remmert's repertoire included numerous works by Franz Liszt. From 1871 to 1900 she played the following works and arrangements by Liszt most frequently: Mendelssohn / Liszt: concert paraphrase on Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream , Weber / Liszt: Polonaise brilliant , Liszt: Fantasy on motifs from Beethoven's ruins of Athens , Liszt: 1st Piano Concerto in E flat major , Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 and No. 15 Schubert / Liszt: Twelve Songs , No. 4 Erlkönig , Wagner / Liszt: Isoldens Liebestod , Liszt: Fantasy on Hungarian Folk Melodies , Liszt: Consolations - six pensées poétiques , Liszt: Dance of Death , Schubert / Liszt: Mélodies hongroises d'après Franz Schubert No. 2, Liszt: Elégie No. 1 , Liszt: Liebestraum No. 3 , Liszt: Études d 'exécution transcendante No. 9 and Liszt: Tarantelle .

Working as a composer

Remmert worked as a composer during an extensive concert tour in the Ottoman Empire . There were four pieces for piano (Gondola song, slumber song, Andante espressivo and Valse) under the title Memory of San Stephano (musical sketches) . The cover sheet bears the handwritten title Memories of San Stephano, Musikalische Scitzen [sic] , courtesy of Martha Remmert for Mr. and Mrs. Tamrácos . The composition was published around 1905 with the title page of His Imperial Majesty, reverently dedicated to Sultan Hamid Khan II by Martha Remmert, Grand Ducal Saxon Court pianist . The pianist Aydin Karlibel recorded two piano pieces by Martha Remmert in 2016 on a CD under the title Dogu Masallari - Tales from the Orient .

Working as a conductor

On the occasion of Liszt's 100th birthday, the Franz Liszt Society held a concert in the hall of the Berlin Singakademie , in which only works from the composer's lieder that had hardly been heard before were heard. The press particularly praised the performance of the Martha Remmert Soloist Ensemble . Remmert founded the association with Berlin concert and oratorio singers and, as the first German female conductor, caused a sensation in 1910. With this ensemble she performed as a conductor at the music festivals of the Franz Liszt Society in 1912 in Sondershausen and in 1914 in Altenburg and at a devotional concert in 1915. 39 Liszt songs were performed, which up until then and until the 1980s had hardly been appreciated. The press praised Remmert as a conductor and for making the Liszt songs known.

Awards

In 1881 Martha Remmerts was appointed court pianist by Sophie von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach . In 1882 she became an honorary member of the Circolo Promotore Partenopeo Giambattista Vico and in 1883 received a medal from the Royal Italian Bellini Academy in Catania , which she made an honorary member, for her services to the dissemination of Liszt's compositions. In Copenhagen in 1883 she received the Dannebrogden and was appointed Royal Danish Chamber Virtuoso . She was appointed Royal Romanian Chamber Virtuoso by the Romanian Queen Carmen Sylva . Tsar Alexander III gave her in 1887 a brooch adorned with diamonds and a certificate of honor. In 1892 she received the Medal of Merit for Art and Science from Duke Ernst of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and the Gold Medal of Merit for Art and Science from Ernst I. von Sachsen-Altenburg . Johann Albrecht Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin presented Remmert with a gold medal of merit in 1893. Several laurel wreaths have been presented to her over the years in Hungary, such as in 1895 by members of the Budapest Music Lovers' Association, and in Berlin in 1900 for the Beethoven evenings. In 1914, Duke Ernst II of Saxony-Altenburg awarded her the Gold Medal of Merit for Art and Science with a crown.

Exhibition 2021

On the occasion of the Liszt Biennale “Festklänge” 2021, the special exhibition Life for Liszt: Martha Remmert will take place in cooperation with the Klassik Stiftung Weimar in the Weimar Goethe and Schiller Archive from May 20 to August 28, 2021 , with around 50 selected original documents and numerous concert posters can be seen.

literature

  • German biography: Martha Remmert. Retrieved December 8, 2018 .
  • Dieter Nolden: Remmert, Martha . In: European female instrumentalists of the 18th and 19th centuries . 2015. Online encyclopedia of the Sophie Drinker Institute, ed. by Freia Hoffmann, accessed October 8, 2018.
  • Dieter Nolden: Martha Remmert in Russia. In: Freia Hoffmann (ed.), Travel reports from female musicians of the 19th century, Olms, Hildesheim 2011, pp. 280–295.
  • Dieter Nolden: The Nederlandsch-Indische Liszt-Vereeniging (1932–1945) by Martha Remmert (1853) and her student Johanna van der Wissel (1867–1945). In: Liszt News. News from the German Liszt Society No. 18, Weimar 2013, pp. 26–28
  • Dieter Nolden: Max Reger and Martha Remmert. The story of a dedication. In: Internationale Max Reger Gesellschaft IMRG, Mitteilungen 34, Karlsruhe 2018, pp. 13–22.
  • Dieter Nolden: The Berlin Franz Liszt Academy from 1900 to 1914. In: The Bear of Berlin , Yearbook of the Association for the History of Berlin, Berlin 2018, pp. 101–122
  • Dieter Nolden: The pianist Martha Remmert. A master student of Franz Liszt. Florian Noetzel Verlag, Wilhelmshaven 2020, Volume 1 ISBN 978-3-7959-1040-2 and Volume 2 ISBN 978-3-7959-1041-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Duża Wólka
  2. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The pianist Martha Remmert . 2020, p. 18-21 .
  3. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 22-25 .
  4. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 25-32 .
  5. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 44-51 .
  6. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 51-55 .
  7. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 66-72, 88-91, 116-120, 145-153, 164-167 and 188 .
  8. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 162 f .
  9. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 374 f .
  10. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 60 f., 72-76, 80 f., 85-87, 93-102, 110-113, 120-123, 126-134, 140-145, 154-161, 168-172, 176-186 .
  11. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 211-245 .
  12. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 440-445 .
  13. ↑ Dieter Nolden: Max Reger and Martha Remmert . In: Internationale Max Reger Gesellschaft (Ed.): IMRG . tape 34 . Karlsruhe 2018, p. 13-21 .
  14. ↑ German Liszt Society V .: Life for Liszt - Martha Remmert. Retrieved May 14, 2021 .
  15. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 343-345 .
  16. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 339-355 .
  17. ^ Dieter Nolden: The pianist . 2020, p. 339-384 .
  18. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 371 f. and 554-618 .
  19. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 365-371 .
  20. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 187 f. and 655-672 .
  21. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 280 ff., 378, 627, 629-63 .
  22. ↑ Dieter Nolden: The Pianist ... 2020, p. 237-240, 375 and 462-469 .
  23. ^ Weimar Classic Foundation: Life for Liszt: Martha Remmert. Retrieved May 14, 2021 .
personal data
SURNAME Remmert, Martha
SHORT DESCRIPTION German classical pianist, music teacher, conductor and music writer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Big pig (near Glogau , Lower Silesia)
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1941
PLACE OF DEATH Neuses near Coburg