{"id":50174,"date":"2024-12-03T21:37:13","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T20:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/5b9ccb73-dcf1-4726-9193-15002ca3eaf5"},"modified":"2024-12-03T23:09:24","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T22:09:24","slug":"composers-at-christmas-how-did-classical-musics-great-names-spend-the-festive-season","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/composers-at-christmas-how-did-classical-musics-great-names-spend-the-festive-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Composers at Christmas: how did classical music’s great names spend the festive season?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 03 December 2024 at 20:37 PM<\/p>

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Music is, naturally, an important part of Christmas, but did the composers themselves give a figgy pudding about the festive season? JS Bach<\/a> would no doubt have been overworked writing cantatas in Leipzig (and clearly had no time to jot down his memories) while Beethoven<\/a> all but ignored many a religious festival. So what did our greatest composers think of, or get up to at, Christmas?<\/strong><\/p>

The 50 best Christmas carols of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>
Well, there were several that did mention Christmas in letters and diaries, and we\u2019ve dug up the most colourful and memorable. So did Christmas Eve find Mahler<\/strong><\/a> scribbling symphonies? What did Elgar<\/strong><\/a> get up to between lashings of brandy? And what was on Mendelssohn<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s shopping list? To find out, charge your glass with mulled wine and read on to discover the Christmas musings of music\u2019s \u2018Scrooges\u2019 and \u2018Santas\u2019.<\/p>
The best Christmas classical albums<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>
Composers at Christmas<\/h2>
1. Felix Mendelssohn: a big family Christmas<\/h3>
In November 1843, Mendelssohn moved to Berlin to take up the post of Generalmusikdirector and direct the choir at Berlin Cathedral. Settled into a new home, he celebrated Christmas with his extended family \u2013 his wife C\u00e9cile and their five children were joined by his brother Paul and his sister Fanny. And Mendelssohn didn\u2019t forget to write to his sister Rebecka, who was in Italy.<\/p>
23 December 1843<\/strong><\/em><\/p>
Today is the eve of Christmas Eve, and I will spend it in talking to you, my dear little sister. Our purchases are made, and the arrangements completed. The pair of little pictures which I have been too busy to finish cannot be touched by candlelight, so this is the time for a chat. If only I could have one with you in reality! Christmas Eve is to be kept at our home.<\/p>
Best of Mendelssohn: five essential works<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>

Felix Mendelssohn. Pic: DEA PICTURE LIBRARY\/De Agostini via Getty Images – DEA PICTURE LIBRARY\/De Agostini via Getty Images <\/figcaption> <\/figure>
The candles are just being put into the chandeliers in the blue room, where the Christmas tree is to stand tomorrow. [\u2026] On Christmas Day I have for the first time to conduct the music in the cathedral with orchestra; there is to be a new psalm of mine, \u2018To our Salvation\u2019 from Handel<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Messiah<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, a couple more new trifles of mine, and some chorales with trombone. [\u2026] I must say between ourselves that so far I do not expect much from it, but do not tell anybody!<\/p>
The Mendelssohn Family 1729-1847 \u2013 From Letters and Journals; Ed. Sebastian Hensel; Hamlin Press<\/em><\/p>
2. Gustav Mahler: home alone<\/h3>
Gustav Mahler was in Leipzig for Christmas 1886, at the start of his contract as Leipzig Opera\u2019s junior conductor. He stayed in the post for two years, but then resigned. The historian and archaeologist Friedrich L\u00f6hr, to whom Mahler wrote that Christmas Day, was one of the composer\u2019s closest friends and a lifelong confidant.<\/p>
25 December 1886<\/strong><\/em><\/p>
Last night I spent a sad Christmas Eve once again sitting at home all by myself, gazing out, seeing all the windows opposite aglow with Christmas trees and candles. And then I thought of my poor joyless people at home, sadly sitting in the dark, waiting \u2013 and then again I saw before me yourself and your family, the old congenial circle, now lost to me [\u2026] \u2013 then I no longer saw anything because a veil of moisture moved before my eyes, and the whole world, through which I am destined to wander without rest, was blotted out by a few tear-drops.<\/p>
Which is the best Mahler symphony?<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>
Selected Letters of Gustav Mahler; Ed. Knud Martner; Faber & Faber<\/em><\/p>
3. Johannes Brahms: a letter to Clara<\/h3> The year 1890 found a 57-year-old Johannes Brahms<\/a><\/strong> at home in Vienna, writing to his good friend, the pianist Clara Schumann<\/a><\/strong>. He spent Christmas Eve with his live-in housekeeper, Frau Truxa, and her two sons. But Brahms\u2019s mind was also taken up with romantic matters \u2013 his flirtation with the contralto<\/a><\/strong> Alice Barbi was the talk of Vienna.<\/p>
24 December 1890<\/strong><\/em><\/p>
How could I be better occupied on 24 December than sitting in imagination beside you at your breakfast table and talking and listening [\u2026] and hearing all about the kind and charming things you are preparing. Here next door in my library there also stands a beautiful large tree which will remain concealed until this evening from my hostess\u2019s two darling boys.<\/p>
$\"Johannes$ Johannes Brahms. Pic: Stock Montage\/Getty Images – Pic: Stock Montage\/Getty Images <\/figcaption> <\/figure>
We could not have finer Christmas weather. All the trees and bushes are covered with frost and snow and it is a real joy to go out for a walk in the mild air. It was just as beautiful in Pesth where I was a week ago. [\u2026] Frl Barbi has told everybody here that you made her very happy through your kindness and friendliness. But I will not detain you any longer. [\u2026] Wishing you a very happy Christmas and New Year, Your Johannes.<\/p>

Best of Brahms: 15 incredible works by the great German Romantic<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>
Letters of Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms; Ed. Dr Berthold Litzmann; Vienna House<\/em><\/p>
4. Benjamin Britten: wintry walks and charades<\/h3> As a schoolboy and young adult, Benjamin Britten<\/a><\/strong> kept a diary. In 1932, aged 19, he was two years into his studies at the Royal College of Music<\/a><\/strong>. That year he described a typical Christmas in his family home in Lowestoft, Suffolk, complete with a pantomime performed by himself and his relatives.<\/p>
25 December 1932<\/strong><\/em><\/p>
Church at 8.0 at St Johns with Mum, Beth & Aunt Flo. Walk with Pop in morning. Read in aft. Walk with Pop & Beth before supper. Xmas dinner mid-day. Presents include marvellous Swan \u2018Eternal Pen\u2019 from parents. FB [Frank Bridge<\/a><\/strong>] sends me a score of [Tchaikovsky<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s] Francesca da Rimini<\/em>.<\/p>
26 December 1932<\/strong><\/em><\/p>
Up late by ten. Walk with Pop before lunch. Go to tea at Sewells \u2013 Fernande, Laurence & Teddy & Bobby (son) there \u2013 with Aunt Flo & Beth at 4.15. Christmas dinner at 7.15. Afterwards the maids come up & we act Cinderella<\/em> (Beth, Aunt Flo & I) & various charades.<\/p>
Letters from a Life: Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten; Faber & Faber<\/em><\/p>
More composers at Christmas<\/h2> 5. Edward Elgar: a decent presents haul<\/h3>
Filled with puns, drawings, and cryptic references, Elgar\u2019s letters make for lively reading. He first wrote to August Jaeger when Novello, for whom Jaeger worked, published Elgar\u2019s overture, Froissart<\/em>. The pair became the best of friends and Elgar, who nicknamed his friend \u2018Nimrod<\/a><\/strong>\u2019, made him the subject of the eponymous movement in the Enigma Variations<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. Elgar and his wife Alice lived in Craeg Lea, a large house in the Malverns, from 1899; its name is an anagram of EAC Elgar.<\/p>
21 December 1902, Malvern<\/strong><\/em><\/p>
This is the shortest day so I set forth on the longest letter I ever wrote (to you) a regular Yule-loggy puddingy, Brandy-saucious letter. Christmas, my Boy! Law! Think where we were last year: D\u00fcsseldorf no less \u2013 & we smoked cigars at 15 pfrg pour la Noblesse<\/em> in the streets of that city. [\u2026]<\/p>
Elgar Cello Concerto: six great recordings<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>
We hope you are well & flourishing both businessily & domestically. I\u2019m no hand at writing letters requiring invention. I can only run on and say things weakly: as thus: \u2013 I have had Xmas presents \u2013 all Wagner<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s prose works (translated) 8 vols &&&&&& the Encyc. Brit. & the bookcase!!!! [\u2026]<\/p>
$\"Edward$
Edward Elgar. Pic: Hulton-Deutsch Collection\/CORBIS\/Corbis via Getty Images – Hulton-Deutsch Collection\/CORBIS\/Corbis via Getty Images <\/figcaption> <\/figure>
Much love to you all (I must read up Love in the Ency:). A merry Xmas to all at Curzon Rd (limited to No 37). Your austere & learned friend (34 vols & a bookcase) Paracelsus Elgar. (with a pain in his stomach) Mince Pizon.<\/p>
Letters to Nimrod from Edward Elgar; Ed. Percy M Young; Dennis Dobson<\/em><\/p>
6. Claude Debussy: ‘I worry when you go away’<\/h3> By 1916 the French composer Claude Debussy<\/a><\/strong> was severely ill, debilitated by the cancer that would kill him two years later. Throughout that year Debussy composed very little, plagued by pain that could only be relieved by morphine. And with the First World War raging in France, life outside his Parisian home did little to lift his spirits. Debussy often wrote notes to his wife Emma, with whom he had a daughter Claude-Emma, even though they lived in the same house.<\/p>

The greatest French composers of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>
24 December 1916<\/strong><\/em><\/p>
In this year of 1916 Father Christmas is at the front and communications are so difficult, he hasn\u2019t been able to respond to my requests. I\u2019ve no flowers or music\u2026 Nothing but my poor anxious heart and an urgent desire to see the end of this marking time which is like a premature burial.<\/p>
$\"Claude$ Claude Debussy. Pic: Otto\/Getty Images – Otto\/Getty Images <\/figcaption> <\/figure>
This waiting for better days is enough to drive one crazy and if your courage wasn\u2019t here with me I would long ago have gone off to read the communiqu\u00e9s on another planet. Never has your love been more precious or more necessary to me. I worry when you go away! No\u00ebl! No\u00ebl! The bells are cracked.<\/p>

Why Debussy’s Pr\u00e9lude \u00e0 l’apr\u00e8s-midi d’un faune<\/em> tore up the orchestral rulebook<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>
No\u00ebl! No\u00ebl! They have wept too long! Be patient, I beg you, and let me recover until the times return when we can count our kisses. [\u2026] Forgive me for loving you. Wait for me. Your Claude.<\/p>
Debussy Letters; Ed. Fran\u00e7ois Lesure and Roger Nichols; Transl. Roger Nichols; Faber and Faber<\/em><\/p>
7. Cosima Wagner: the ultimate Christmas gift<\/h3> Richard Wagner married Cosima Liszt in August 1870, just over a year after their third child, Siegfried, was born. That Christmas Wagner wrote an orchestral work, the Siegfried Idyll<\/a><\/strong><\/em> \u2013 first known as the Tribschen Idyll <\/em>after their home \u2013 for Cosima\u2019s birthday.<\/p>
Greed, lust and corruption: why Wagner\u2019s epic Ring Cycle is still the greatest show on earth<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>
25 December 1870<\/strong><\/em><\/p>
When I woke up I heard a sound, it grew even louder, I could no longer imagine myself in a dream, music was sounding, and what music! After it had died away, R came in to me with the five children and put into my hands the score of his \u2018Symphonic Birthday Greeting\u2019.<\/p>

<\/div> <\/figure> I was in tears, but so, too, was the whole household; R had set up his orchestra on the stairs and thus consecrated our Tribschen forever! [\u2026] After breakfast the orchestra again assembled, and now once again the Idyll<\/em> was heard in the lower apartment, moving us all profoundly; [\u2026] Now I understood all R\u2019s working in secret.<\/p> Cosima Wagner\u2019s Diaries:1869 to 1877; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich<\/em><\/p> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">8. Sergey Prokofiev: a skilled skater<\/h3> A gifted and enthusiastic writer, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/sergey-prokofiev\">Prokofiev<\/a><\/strong> began his diary in 1907 when he was 16. He studied at the St Petersburg Conservatory from 1904-14, and lived in the city in an apartment with his mother. Prokofiev notes in his diary for 1912 that he set himself the challenge of skating around the ponds he often visited a certain number of times without stopping.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/did-prokofiev-and-stalin-die-on-the-same-day\">Did Prokofiev and Stalin die on the same day?<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> 25 December 1912<\/strong><\/em><\/p> Christmas Day, also Mama\u2019s birthday, but she does not like to talk about it. Because it was a holiday I rose at midday. Mama gave me some scent, and a gold ten-rouble piece. I did not feel like composing, so played through [The Stone<\/em>] Guest<\/em> to the end. Interesting.<\/p> The use of whole tones to suggest horror is absurdly trite, but up to a point it does produce an effect of some kind. And how daring it must have seemed at the time!<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/tv-and-film-music\/six-best-horror-film-scores\">The 13 most terrifying horror film scores of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> In the afternoon I went for a solitary skate. Today I completed sixteen circuits, a veritable feat. A colonel with a young cadet and some ladies stood watching my patient circumnavigation. A light drizzle came on; the ice gleamed, producing a watery reflection of the trees, the sky and my flying figure.<\/p> Sergey Prokofiev: Diaries 1915-1923: Behind the Mask; Trans. Anthony Phillips; Faber & Faber<\/em><\/p> Illustrations: Alan McGowen<\/em><\/p> This article originally appeared in the December 2008<\/strong> issue of BBC Music Magazine<\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Published: Tuesday, 03 December 2024 at 20:37 PM Music is, naturally, an important part of Christmas, but did the composers themselves give a figgy pudding about the festive season? 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