Elisabeth and Heinrich von Herzogenberg

The Herzogenbergs, both coming from noble families, met in Vienna in 1865 and married in 1868. Elisabeth von Stockhausen (1847-1892), whose parents belonged to Chopin’s circle of friends, was taught the piano in Vienna by Julius Epstein and Johannes Brahms. At the age of thirteen, she came into contact with Schumann’s Song Cycle, Op. 39. Although trained to a high level, she only very rarely performed in public as a singer or a pianist. Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900) studied law from 1862 and, in parallel, also composition at the Conservatoire of the Society of the Friends of Music in Vienna. In the 1860s, Heinrich von Herzogenberg met Brahms, and it was probably through him that the contact of the couple with Clara Schumann came about, whilst Clara must already have met Elisabeth’s mother, Clotilde Countess von Baudissin, born in 1818, in Dresden in the 1830s.

A first meeting between Clara Schumann and the Herzogenbergs took place in 1870, when Clara Schumann gave a concert in Graz on 11th January. Heinrich von Herzogenberg had lived in Graz as a freelance composer and conductor since 1867, but then the couple moved to Leipzig in 1872, where Heinrich von Herzogenberg founded the Bach Society in Leipzig in 1875, together with Philipp Spitta, Franz von Holstein and Alfred Volkland. Elisabeth von Herzogenberg performed a few times as a pianist in the concerts of the Bach Society and helped her husband in the direction of the choir. In private circles, she performed works by her husband or by Brahms with whom she maintained a regular correspondence and exchanged views on his compositions. From 1885, Heinrich von Herzogenberg taught composition at the Royal Conservatoire in Berlin, and from 1887/88, the couple lived in Munich but also spent time at various health resorts. After Elisabeth’s early death, Heinrich von Herzogenberg lived in Berlin again, where he became a Member of the Royal Academy of Arts and also ran an edition of “Urtext-Ausgaben classischer Musikwerke [Original Editions of Classical Music]”, mainly for violin and piano. In the middle of the 1880s, Heinrich von Herzogenberg helped Clara Schumann look through and select letters by Robert Schumann for publication. He assisted her in this extensive undertaking with active advice, so that the publication of Jugendbriefe Robert Schumann [Robert Schumann’s Youth Letters] could be brought about in 1885. At the beginning of the 1880s, the Herzogenbergs also helped Clara Schumann with details relating to the edition of Robert Schumann’s works.

Cf. Antje Ruhbaum: “Ein Talent, ‘als Sängerin, Pianistin, vielleicht sogar als Komponistin in der Öffentlichkeit zu glänzen…’ Elisabeth von Herzogenberg (1847‒1892) als Musikförderin”, in: Rebecca Grotjahn and Freia Hoffmann (eds), Geschlechterpolaritäten in der Musikgeschichte des 18. und 20. Jahrhunderts, Herbolzheim, 2002, pp. 197‒207.

Cf. Schumann-Briefedition, Series II, Vol. 15: Briefwechsel mit Freunden und Künstlerkollegen (Briefwechsel Robert und Clara Schumanns mit den Familien Voigt, Preußer, Herzogenberg und anderen Korrespondenten in Leipzig), edited by Annegret Rosenmüller and Ekaterina Smyka, Cologne, 2016, pp. 393‒402.

for further information: Antje Ruhbaum: Elisabeth von Herzogenberg: Salon – Mäzenatentum – Musikförderung (= Beiträge zur Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte der Musik 7), Kenzingen, 2009, especially pp. 210‒235.

(Theresa Schlegel, 2020, translated by Thomas Henninger, 2020)