XXXVI
During the early 1920s, an increasing number of L.’s compositions find their first performances, though mostly with modest success. Z. learns that a mysterious Hungarian noblewoman named Frau von Tolna is behind some of these performances; a number of clues suggest that she may be identical with the prostitute Esmeralda. The year 1924 sees the world premiere in Vienna of a violin concerto that Rudi Schwerdtfeger commissioned from L. After the triumphant performance, Rudi and L. embark on a vacation to the Hungarian estates of Frau von Tolna. When they return, they are on familiar terms of address with one another, a fact that suggests sexual intimacy as well.
Time of composition: June 29–July 15, 1946. Time of narration: In or after July 1944. Narrated time: 1920–1924.
| | The term sans-culottes (French: “those without knee-breeches”) referred to non-aristocratic people during the time of the French Revolution and quickly became synonymous with “revolutionary rabble.” |
| a shift of cultural focus from France to Germany | It is not entirely clear what Z. has in mind, though it is true that the second half of the 1920s are generally regarded as the cultural glory days of the Weimar Republic, following upon the trauma of the 1918 Revolution and the inflationary period of 1922–1923. |
| first complete production […] took place | |
| | “Cultural Bolshevism” and “musical Bolshevism” were common derogatory epithets during the 1920s, applied by reactionary critics to avant-garde works. |
| Festival of Composers in Weimar […] first music festival at Donaueschingen | Actual music festivals. The Donaueschingen festival in particular continues to enjoy renown as perhaps the most important venue for the premiere of contemporary classical music. |
| | Important conductor (1876–1962) and a close friend and neighbor of TM’s in both Munich and Pacific Palisades. In Germany he conducted both the Munich Royal Opera and the Salzburg Festival; in Los Angeles he was a frequent guest conductor of the L.A. Philharmonic. |
| | An actual music publishing house, though the name of its director is fictitious. |
| The Anbruch, a radically progressive Viennese music periodical | An actual publication, which published early essays by Adorno and was well-disposed towards Schoenberg. The name “Desiderius Féher” is fictive, however. |
| | A reference to the closing lines of Goethe’s Faust, Part II. |
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| | The eastern half of the city of Budapest, separated from Buda and Óbuda by the Danube. The fact that Frau von Tolna lives east of the Danube and maintains a country house in the Hungarian steppes marks her as exotic within the cultural geography of DF. It is notable that the only other major Hungarian character in the novel is Esmeralda. Frau von Tolna has often been interpreted as another manifestation of this succubus-like figure, now sent to advance L.’s fame throughout the world. |
| Frau Schweigestill […] without having been seen | This passage emphasizes the similar roles as “mother figures” played by Signora Manardi and Frau Schweigestill in DF. The fact that Frau von Tolna did not reveal herself also implies an opposition between von Tolna’s possibly demonic presence and Frau Schweigestill’s position as a redeemer-figure. |
| the gem, a large-faceted emerald | A possible clue pointing towards Hetaera Esmeralda. |
| Apollo’s sacred laurel tree | Another clue, since Apollo is associated (as the following paragraph reiterates) with both arrows and infection. TM’s letters prove that he consciously played with these connotations when he wrote the passage. |
| | The Greek hero Philoctetes suffered from a festering wound, the stench of which forced him to isolate himself on a desert island. L. also (albeit voluntarily) withdraws into solitude due to the effects of his syphilitic infection. |
| Old French rendition in verse of the Vision of St. Paul | |
| | Like almost all locations and institutions connected to the performance history of L.’s compositions, this is a real place. |