Being asked, at a party given by the Danish composer Niels Gade in his
and Stockhausen's honour, if he had visited and admired the great
Thorwaldsen Museum, of which the citizens of Copenhagen are so justly
proud, he replied in the affirmative, and added that the building and
its collection were so fine it was to be regretted they were not in
Berlin. This unfortunate remark, made in a circle representative of
educated Danish society, where the remembrance of the recent Prussian
occupation of Schleswig-Holstein was still sore, produced an effect
which the speaker had been far from intending. It was regarded as a
deliberate insult to the country in which Brahms had been a fêted guest,
and was resented so strongly as to make the composer's reappearance on a
Copenhagen platform impossible. Pursuing the wisest course open, he
embarked on the next boat for Kiel, leaving Stockhausen to make such
arrangements as he could for the third advertised concert, and to pursue
his success further by associating himself with Joachim, who was about
to pay a short visit to the Danish capital.
Arriving at Kiel at a very early hour in the morning, Brahms proceeded
to the house of Claus Groth, whose guest he had been on his outward
journey, and, walking in the garden until the inmates were astir, was
presently greeted by his friend from an upper window. 'Be quick and come
out; I have made a heap of money,' he cried in answer, slapping his
pocket. Coffee was soon served and a lively talk ensued, but, as no
explanation was offered by Brahms of his sudden reappearance, Groth at
length began to question him. 'What have you been about that you have,
so to say, run away? Stockhausen has not returned, and you have had
great success?' And thus brought to the point, the delinquent was
obliged to relate his indiscretion. 'Brahms! how could you have said
such a thing in a company of Danes!' cried Groth. 'I only meant,'
replied Brahms, 'that it would be better if so fine a work, so many
beautiful objects, were in a great centre where many people could see
them.' 'But you might have supposed Danes would not put up with such a
remark.' 'It did not occur to me,' answered Brahms. 'However,' he added
after a moment, 'I have earned so much money I shall not want more for a
long time; so the matter is indifferent to me.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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