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WEIMAR
, a See also:city of See also:Germany, the See also:capital of the See also:grand-duchy of See also:Saxe-Weimar-See also:Eisenach
.
It is situated in a fertile valley on the Ilm, a small tributary of the See also:Saale, 5o m
.
S.W. of See also:Leipzig and 141 m
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S.W. of See also:Berlin, on the See also:main See also:line of railway to Bebra and See also:Frankfort-on-Main, and at the junction of three lines to See also:Jena, See also:Gera and See also:Berka and Rastenberg
.
Pop
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(1885) 21,565, (1905) 31,1 21
.
Weimar owes its importance not to any See also:industrial development, which the grand-See also:dukes discourage within the limits of their Residenz, but to its intimate association with the classical See also:period of See also:German literature, which earned for it the See also:title of the " poets' city " and " the German See also:Athens." The See also:golden See also:age of Weimar, covered by the reign of See also: The picture is regarded as the masterpiece of See also:Lucas See also:Cranach (q.v.), who lived for a See also:time at Weimar, in the Bri ck'sches Haus on the market-place . In front of the church is a statue of Herder, whose house still serves as the parsonage . The other church, the Jakobs- or Hofkirche (See also:court church)" is also See also:ancient; its disused See also:churchyard containsthe See also:graves of Lucas Cranach and See also:Musaeus . The most important building in Weimar, is the See also:palace, a huge structure forming three sides of a quadrangle, erected (1789—1803) under the superintendence of See also:Goethe, on the site of one burned down in 1774 . A remnant of the old palace, with a See also:tower, survives . The interior is very See also:fine, and in one of the wings is a See also:series of rooms dedicated to the poets Goethe, See also:Schiller, Herder and See also:Wieland, with appropriate mural paintings . Of more See also:interest, however, is the house in which Goethe himself lived from 1782 to 1832 . It was built by the duke as a surprise See also:present for the poet on his return from his See also:Italian tour, and was regarded at the time as a palace of See also:art and luxury . It has therefore a See also:double interest, as the See also:home of the poet, and as a See also:complete example of a German nobleman's house at the beginning of the 19th See also:century, the See also:furniture and fittings (in Goethe's study and bedroom down to the smallest details) remaining as they were when the poet died ? The house is built See also:round a quadrangle, in which is the See also:coach-house with Goethe's coach, and has a beautiful, old-fashioned See also:garden . The interior, apart from the scientific and art collections made by Goethe, is mainly remarkable for the extreme simplicity of its furnishing . The Goethe-Schiller Museum, as it is now called, stands isolated, the adjoining houses having been pulled down to avoid See also:risk of See also:fire .
Of more pathetic interest is the Schillerhaus, in the Schillerstrasse, containing the humble rooms in which Schiller lived and died
.
The See also:atmosphere of the whole town is, indeed, dominated by the memory of Goethe and Schiller, whose See also:bronze statues, by See also:Rietschel, grouped on one See also:pedestal (unveiled in 1857) stand in front of the See also:theatre
.
The theatre, built under Goethe's superintendence in 1825, memorable in the See also:history of art not only for its associations with the golden age of German See also:drama, but as having witnessed the first performances of many of See also:Wagner's operas and other notable See also:stage pieces, was pulled down and replaced by a new building in 1907
.
The most beautiful See also:monument of Goethe's See also:genius in the town is, however, the See also:park, laid out in the informal " See also:English " See also:style, without enclosure of any See also:kind
.
Of Goethe's classic " conceits " which it contains, the See also: 
1 and natural See also:science collections and the Liszt Museum (in the gardener's house in the park, for many years the musician's home) . Among the educational establishments are a gymnasium, and Realschule, the Sophienstift (a large school for girls of the better cless, founded by the grand-duchess See also:Sophia), the grand-ducal school of art, See also:geographical institutes, a technical school, commercial school, See also:music school, teachers' seminaries, and See also:deaf and dumb and See also:blind asylums . An English church was opened in 1899 . There are a few See also:industries, See also:printing, tanning and See also:cloth-See also:weaving . Various points ih the environs of Weimar are also interestingfrom their associations . A broad See also:avenue of chestnuts, about 2 m. in length, leads southwards from the town to the grand-ducal See also:chateau 1 To be strictly accurate, they thus remained until the See also:death of Goethe's last descendant in 1884 . The house, which had been left to the grand-duke for the nation, was then found to be so structurally rotten that the interior had to be largely reconstructed . Everything was, however, replaced in the exact position it had previously occupied . of See also:Belvedere, in the gardens of which the open-See also:air theatre, used in Goethe's See also:day, still exists . To the See also:north-See also:east, at about the same distance from the town, are the tiny chateau and park of Tiefurt, on the See also:banks of the IIm, the See also:scene of many See also:pastoral court See also:revels in the past . To the north-See also:west is the Ettersberg, with the Ettersburg, a chateau which was another favourite resort of Charles Augustus and his See also:friends . The history of Weimar, apart from its association with Charles Augustus and his court, is of little See also:general interest .
The town is said to have existed so See also:early as the 9th century
.
Till 1140 it belonged to the See also:counts of Orlamunde; it then See also:fell to See also:Albert the See also:Bear and the descendants of his second son
.
In 1247 Otto III. founded a See also:separate Weimar line of counts
.
In 1345 it became a See also:fief of the landgraves of Thuringia, to whom it escheated in 1385 with the extinction of the line of Otto III
.
At the See also:partition of See also:Saxony in 1485 Weimar, with Thuringia, fell to the See also:elder, Ernestine, See also:branch of the Saxon house of See also:Wettin, and has been the continuous See also:residence of the See also:senior branch of the dukes of this line since 1572
.
Under Charles Augustus Weimar became a centre of Liberalism as well as of art
.
It had previously narrowly escaped absorption by See also:Napoleon, who passed through the town during the pursuit of the Prussians after the See also:battle of Jena in 18o6, and was only dissuaded from abolishing the duchy by the tact and courage of the duchess Louisa
.
The traditions of Charles Augustus were well maintained by his See also:grandson, the grand-duke Charles See also: Weimar theatre See also:orchestra were Eduard See also:Lassen and See also:Richard See also:Strauss . See See also:Scholl, Weimar's Merkwiirdigkeiten einst and jetzt (Weimar, 1857) ; See also:Springer, Weimar's klassische Stdtten (Berlin, 1868) ; Ruland, See also:Die Schdtze See also:des Goethe See also:National-Museums in Weimar (Weimar and Leipzig, 1887) ; See also:Francke, Weimar and Umgebungen (3rd ed., Weimar, 1900); See also:Kuhn, Weimar in Wort and Bild (4th ed., Jena, 1905) . |
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Additional information and Comments
HURRAH FOR HUMMEL! Mozart’s most famous pupil, Haydn’s successor at the Esterhazy court, a friend (and rival) of Beethoven, a ‘father-figure’ to Chopin and teacher of several other young romantic virtuosi including Mendelssohn, Johann Nepomuk Hummel was born in Bratislava in 1778 and died in Weimar in 1837. A child prodigy, he became one of the most brilliant virtuoso pianist-composers of the early nineteenth century. Schubert wished to dedicate his last three sonatas to Hummel whose music links the classical and romantic periods. A dazzling performer, Hummel was regarded by Chopin - whose style he influenced - as the equal of Mozart and Beethoven. Despite being taught by the latter, Czerny rushed to get lessons from Hummel after hearing him play. Greatly admired by Berlioz and Liszt (who succeeded him at Weimar), Spohr considered him to be the greatest improviser of the time. Together with his friend, the famous Goethe, he became Weimar’s star attraction. Besides the well-known Trumpet Concerto in E, S. 49, and the Septet in D Minor, Opus 74, more of Hummel’s music is currently enjoying a long-overdue revival. His little-known piano concertos – ten in all including the Double Concerto for piano and violin, Opus 17 and the Concertino, Opus 73 – are now attracting the attention they deserve. Recordings of these by Stephen Hough and Howard Shelley (Chandos) reveal to the modern listener the combination of brilliance and beauty that made them once so popular. Contrary to his image as a conventional, end-of-era classicist, Hough’s recent recording of Hummel’s F sharp minor Sonata, Opus 81 (Hyperion) reveals a composer of striking individuality. Shelley’s exquisite rendering of his Rondo Brillant in B flat, Opus 98 shows Hummel’s genius as a proto-romantic composer of unique emotionality and virtuosity. The seven piano trios played by the Trio Parnassus (Dabringhaus und Grimm) and Triangulus (Meridian) well repay renewed attention, especially the mature Opus 83. The idea that Hummel’s creativity was declining by the 1830s may be dismissed on hearing Danielle Laval’s performance of his 24 Etudes, Opus 125 (Naïve). If Hummel’s keyboard skills are very evident in the concertos in A minor, Opus 85 and B minor, Op 89, and the F sharp minor Sonata, Opus 81 (described by Schumann as ‘an epic, titanic work’), his choral accomplishments are of no mean order. The five symphonic Masses date from 1804 when Hummel succeeded Haydn at the Esterhazy court. Owing much to Mozart and Haydn, Hummel remains his own man. His part writing reveals a rare poetic sensitivity and his stylistic individuality is soon apparent. His lyricism anticipates the melodic flow of Schubert. Currently being rescued from unjust oblivion, his refreshing works deserve a more prominent place in the classical repertoire. Hummel uses the traditional Mass text of biblical and credal material set by other composers of the period. This form of concert oratorio mass actually followed the Protestant treatment inaugurated by J. S. Bach, a practice which was eventually forbidden to Roman Catholic composers by Pope Pius X in 1903. This Protestant text omits the unbiblical prayer for the dead used in the requiem mass (‘dona eis requiem’) in favour of a prayer for the living (‘dona nobis pacem’). Chandos are engaged on the Hummel mass series with Richard Hickox and Collegium Musicum 90. The D major, Opus 111, B flat major, Opus 77 and E flat major, Opus 80 works have already been released. The D minor Mass, S. 67 has been recently issued. Two years ago Naxos issued the Missa Solemnis in C major, S. 74 and the Te Deum in D major, S. 70, works calculated to arouse further interest in this long-neglected composer. A recent CD from Weimar makes further fascinating listening. ‘Hummel Variationen & Fantasien’ (Deutsche Schallplatten) includes the Fantasie für Klavier und Orchester, Opus 116, ‘Oberons Zauberhorn’. This striking yet charming five-movement work includes a vivid musical depiction of a storm at sea. For drama and tension - one might say tsunami-like hysteria - Hummel more than matches Beethoven here! Clearly the composer had the ability to be highly unconventional despite his ill-deserved reputation for superficial salon music. The Overture ‘Mathilde von Guise’, Opus 100 provides another specimen of Hummel’s purely orchestral compositions, all the more interesting in view of the absence of the symphony from his works. Yet Hummel’s reputation is chiefly maintained by his works for piano and orchestra. Not to forget the brilliant and charming final Concerto in F, Opus post 1, performed superbly by Maestro Shelley (Chandos), the final example in this genre published in Hummel’s lifetime is the Rondo Brillant in F minor, ‘Le Retour à Londres’, Opus 127. Shelley’s recent premiere recording of this delightful and scintillating work is as ‘brillant’ as the piece demands. Along with the early A major 'Florentine' concerto, it surely merits a place in a ‘prom’ concert at the earliest opportunity! Naxos are to be thanked for Madoka Inui’s superb rendition of Hummel’s fantastic fantasies. This CD irrefutably justifies the status Hummel achieved during his lifetime as improviser ‘par excellence’. The recording conveys the very sense of immediacy that Hummel’s sensational playing must have regularly produced. Here we have dynamism and delicacy, poetry and power, ravishing sensitivity and rich sonority in perfect proportions. The early Fantasy in E flat, Opus 18 looks way beyond classicism and, in some passages, even romanticism. It is no wonder that Chopin placed Hummel next to Mozart and that Liszt placed him among the immortals. While comparisons can be odious, now we can understand why Beethoven felt threatened by Hummel. Surely, the Hummel resurgence of recent decades has now reached its peak. Madoka Inui’s wonderful Bösendorfer aids her in disposing of the myth that Hummel was lulled into mediocrity during his last Weimar years. The late G minor and C major fantasies are a revelation. If Messrs Hough and Shelley are occupied elsewhere these days, let us hope Madoka Inui is working on the amazing Rondo Brillant in B minor, Op. 109 and the magnificent Etudes, Op 125. May the Hummel revival long continue! Dr Alan C. Clifford
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