Katherine Syer, Setting the Record Straight: Wendelin Weißheimer and the Wagners

July 2018, Volume 12, Number 2, 19–33.

An active choral director and composer from the Rhine-Hessian region, Wendelin Weißheimer (1838–1910) remains on the horizon of Wagner studies, mainly due to his 1898 book Erlebnisse mit Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt und vielen anderen Zeitgenossen, nebst deren Briefen (Experiences with Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt and many other Contemporaries, alongside their Letters). Brisk sales triggered two further editions that same year. Wagner had been dead for fifteen years, Liszt for twelve, and Weißheimer promised his readers a fresh, honest perspective. While his friendship with Liszt had endured, Weißheimer had not had personal contact with Wagner for three decades when he published his memoirs. His Erlebnisse ends with an account of his last encounter with Wagner, in 1868, before an afterword touches on ensuing professional activities and concludes with excerpts from letters from Liszt written in 1880. Weißheimer was keenly disappointed that his connection to Wagner ended as it did, but it was a break of his own choosing. Still, he continued to champion Wagner’s music and admiration colours much of his published reminiscences alongside revelations of Wagner’s sometimes audacious and appalling behaviour.