by Adams, Byron
Perhaps the most important and most unacknowledged figure in this private world of music was not only German and Jewish but further set apart by his homosexuality. Leo Francis Schuster (1852–1927), known as Frank (or Frankie), was undoubtedly prominent in British musical society and in Elgar’s life and career. Yet, with the exception of Byron Adams, writers on Elgar have curiously downplayed the importance of Schuster’s role both in Elgar’s life and in the musical world of which the composer became a part. The most often quoted pen portrait of Schuster, used by both Jerrold Northrop Moore and Michael Kennedy, is the unpleasant one found in the diary of the poet Siegfried Sassoon:
Unable to create anything himself, he loved and longed to assist in the creation of music… . He was something more than a patron of music, because he loved music as much as it is humanly possible to do. In the presence of great musicians he was humble, bowing before them in his Semitic way, and flattering them over effusively… . He lacked essential good-breeding and was always the Frankfurt Jew among aristocrats.77
Sassoon, himself a Roman Catholic convert of Jewish origin (on his father’s side) and a man deeply troubled by his own homosexuality, had a somewhat uncomfortable friendship with Schuster, with whom he traveled in Europe and at whose various houses he was a frequent guest. When Schuster died he left Sassoon his collection of poetry books. Sassoon commented in his diary: “A meagre little collection: I wish he had left me a better feeling about his character. What I learnt from him was mostly negative. How not to live on £8,000 a year.”78 One of the aspects of Schuster’s character that Sassoon may have found difficult to bear was Schuster’s gentle teasing about the poet’s sexual relationships with men.79
But Sassoon’s uncharitable description of Schuster has persisted among Elgar scholars. Percy Young, for example, dismissed Schuster as “one of Edward’s wealthy friends, a homosexual dilettante whom Alice did not like,” and few commentators go beyond pointing out that Schuster was homosexual, of Jewish and German background, and a musical patron who gave Elgar financial help. Re-creating Schuster’s life or character is difficult.80 Few letters either to or from him (other than those written by and to Elgar) have survived and few other documents or records trace his activities.81 But it is known that Schuster’s family settled in England in the mid-nineteenth century, presumably before or not long after he was born, and that he was educated at Eton. He inherited considerable wealth and decided not to work in the family business but to live off that wealth and use it to promote the arts, with music being his particular passion. Young writes that he had a “deformed foot” as the result of a childhood accident.82
The remembrances of other friends provide a more generous picture than that given by Sassoon. Maude Valérie White, in her 1914 memoirs, wrote:
Mr. Frank Schuster is so very well known as one of the most ardent music lovers in London, that it is hardly necessary to explain who he is. But he is the kindest and most constant of friends, and a most congenial comrade into the bargain, for his happy sense of humour is absolutely unique, and surrounds him as the sea surrounds Sicily! … His lovely little house in Great Queen Street, Westminster, has been for years and years one of the chief centres of musical London, and few indeed are the artists of distinction, both English and foreign, who have not at some time or other enjoyed the hospitality of this kindest of hosts.83
In 1883 Schuster had found White somewhere to stay when she went to study in Vienna, and in 1889 invited her to stay at Casa Wolkoff in Venice.84 Due to the last minute cancellation of Lady Gladys de Grey, White was the only woman in the house party, somewhat to Schuster’s, although not White’s, consternation.85 He also, of course, provided a venue for performance of her songs. A letter survives from baritone Charles Santley to Schuster, written in 1887, in which Santley agrees, presumably at one of Schuster’s parties, to sing White’s “The Devout Lover.”86 Other letters, as well as Elgar’s travel diary, attest that Schuster was himself a proficient pianist. In 1886 Jacques Blumenthal reminded Schuster that he had accompanied the “Preislied” from Wagner’s Meistersinger publicly in St. James’s Hall “better than any professional.”87 Elgar’s travel diary records an evening in Teraphia while on a cruise in the Mediterranean in the autumn of 1905 when “Lady M. [Maud Warrender] sang many songs & Frank accompanied beautifully.”88 He was certainly enough of a musician to be a valued recipient (as both reader and listener) of Elgar’s latest scores and music.
Schuster’s obituary in the Times was provided by two correspondents. The first described Schuster’s “wonderful music parties” and added that he “was an admirable pianist himself… . He was an artist, too, and had a remarkable fair for distinguishing and encouraging the best in all that work.” The second talked of
that enthusiasm which was most astonishing as it was one of the most delightful of his characteristics. It was communicative; his joys he gave to others, his sorrows he kept to himself… . In the depths of that singular heart, at once so simple, so odd, and so willing to pass for what it was not, there were hidden three jewels—humility, patience, and love.89
Besides his renowned musical parties, which frequently showcased Elgar’s music, Schuster was involved in more public music-related activities and institutions. He was closely involved with the Royal Academy of Music for many years and appears to have been a member of the committee of management.90 In 1882 he was present at a meeting convened by the Lord Mayor of London to discuss establishing a Royal College of Music and in 1891 he was involved in the Dramatic and Musical Benevolent Fund.91 In 1899 he served on the council of the Sunday Concert Society, together with Hubert Parry, and later that same year, with the Hon. Alexander Yorke and Paolo Tosti, organized a concert under the patronage of the Queen and the Duke of Wales at Grosvenor House in aid of the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital in Margate.92
In 1911 Schuster was named, together with Leonard Borwick, Fanny Davies, Percy Grainger, Irene Scharrer, Emil Sauer, Alice Stuart-Wortley, three members of the Verne family and others, as a supporter of a scheme to endow a “Chopin Bed” for professional pianists in a sanatorium or convalescent home.93 Shortly before his death he demonstrated his awareness of the possibilities of new technology by serving on the advisory body for a scheme to popularize Beethoven’s music “by means of the gramophone.”94
But it was through private music making that Schuster made the most significant impact on the British musical world of his day. He was only too aware of the limitations of British public musical events, writing to Adrian Boult in 1906:
I received yesterday another precious installment from Ed Elgar of first proofs of his “Kingdom” this is a work of extraordinary subtlety and delicacy & of more than usual ‘intimacy’ of atmosphere. Heaven help it when produced in the respectable stodgy manner of a Birmingham Festival!—but of course I can’t resist going for all that.95
Schuster clearly adored Elgar’s music and devoted much of his considerable energy to promoting it and to supporting the composer through his bouts of depression. His first party for Elgar and his music appears to have been a reception after the performance of the “Meditation” from The Light of Life conducted by Henry Wood at Queen’s Hall on May 9, 1899.96 This was before the success of the Enigma Variations at its first performance on June 19 that year. By autumn, Elgar was sitting for a life-sized bronze bust by Percival Hedley for Schuster’s music room.97
Elgar’s letters to Schuster show his deep gratitude to the man who promoted his work to influential musical figures, provided financial backing, and opened both his London home and his country retreat, The Hut, near Maidenhead, as venues for exciting musical evenings. Schuster introduced Elgar to a wide variety of interesting cultural and society figures, from art critic Claude Phillips and painter John Singer Sargent to the other composer whose music he was so instrumental in promoting in England—Gabriel Fauré.98 Music patron Winaretta Singer, the Princesse de Polignac, recalled an early Fauré appearance in London:
He first came to London
with me in 1896 to give a concert in Frank Schuster’s new music room in Old Queen Street, which was to be inaugurated by an orchestral and vocal concert entirely devoted to Fauré’s music. It was an unforgettable evening, for the music had been well rehearsed and the greatest artists had gathered together to sing or play.99
At The Hut, Schuster also provided an important composing refuge for Elgar, and significant parts of the First Symphony, Violin Concerto, and Falstaff were composed there. As early in their relationship as 1901, Schuster had written to Elgar from Dresden:
Anything you do—or think of doing—will always interest me—and I shall do what I can to further your interests, the moment I get back and go amongst people again. It can only be done by talking—and when I run against the right person—as I hope to do—I shall talk no end!100
Elgar’s letters show that Schuster soon became a valued friend. During 1903 the form of address changes from “My dear Schuster” (signing off “Ever yours, Edward Elgar”) to “My dear Frank” (signing off “Yours always, Edward”).101 In 1904 Elgar dedicated the overture In the South to Schuster, writing to him: “You will find sunshine & romance &, … light-hearted gaiety mixed up in an orchestral dish which with my ordinary orchestral flavouring, cunningly blent, I have put in a warm cordial spice of love for you.”102 In 1904 Schuster came to stay with the Elgars at Plas Gwyn and gave them a sundial. Elgar wrote to thank him: “I love having it & am really happy; coming from you makes it perfect… . Also it is feminine, & only beams & smiles in sunshine.”103
Schuster traveled all over England to hear performances of Elgar’s music as well as organizing them himself. He also specialized in lavish parties to celebrate premieres. The day before the opening of the Covent Garden Elgar Festival in 1904, for which Schuster acted not only as instigator but also as guarantor, he threw a dinner party and decorated the walls of his dining room with Elgar’s initials and the names of his works spelled out in flowers.104 After the premiere of the Violin Concerto in 1910, Schuster gave a dinner party complete with menus headed with a theme from each of the three movements of the concerto at each of the three tables.105
With just as much thought, Schuster also arranged for important private hearings of Elgar’s music. It was at his suggestion that W. H. Reed gave a private performance of the Violin Concerto (before Kreisler’s London premiere) at the Gloucester festival of 1910. Of this event, Reed recalled, “Nearly all the prominent musicians engaged at the Festival were there… . The room was full; and all the lights were turned out except for some device arranged by Frank Schuster for lighting the piano and the violin stand.”106 Other notable performances included a concert at Schuster’s London home in 1919 in which Albert Sammons, W. H. Reed, Raymond Jeremy, Felix Salmond, and William Murdoch played Elgar’s string quartet, the quintet, and the slow movement from the violin sonata, with Adrian Boult turning the pages. This concert was repeated in public at the Wigmore Hall a month later.107 At Alice Elgar’s funeral it was Schuster who suggested and organized W. H. Reed’s quartet to play the slow movement from the string quartet—a touching gesture of friendship for which Elgar was deeply grateful.108 To celebrate Elgar’s seventieth birthday in 1927, Schuster presented an “Homage to Elgar” in the form of a chamber music concert at The Hut. This was the occasion famously described by Osbert Sitwell, one of several members of the younger generation who were present, as a ghostly gathering of relics of the Edwardian age, with Elgar himself as “a personification of Colonel Bogey.”109
Schuster was clearly extremely important to Elgar, and not just for his money and contacts. After Schuster’s death in 1927, Elgar wrote to Frank’s sister Adela:
I have said in music, as well as I was permitted, what I felt long ago,—in F[rank]’s own overture “In the South” & again in the final section of the second symphony—both in the key he loved most I believe (E flat)—warm & joyous with a grave & radiating serenity: this was my feeling when the overture was dedicated to him 24 years ago & is only intensified now.110
Elgar’s occasional discomfort in Schuster’s world of high society and his embarrassment at the loud behavior of some of Schuster’s more outrageous young friends has also been documented. Henry Wood described Elgar being “very silent and stand-offish” at the party Schuster gave before the 1904 Elgar Festival.111 However, most of Elgar’s discomfort and rudeness seems to have started in the early 1920s.112 This was a time when Schuster, like many hitherto wealthy people, found himself in reduced financial circumstances, possibly due to the economic aftermath of the world war. An emotional letter to Boult, written on September 3, 1921, describes Schuster’s last moments at his London home: “It is 9.25, and in five minutes the Juggernaut vans will be here to tear my household goods from my arms.” The letter ends: “22 Old Queen St. bids farewell to its dear schoolboy [illegible] friend.”113 A couple of years later Elgar wrote to Alice Stuart-Wortley:
Frank called one day—he is at the Hut—Bankrupt he says & very vague: this afternoon he was sitting in the back of a smart car—the young man was driving with an odd looking—I hate to say it—”bit of fluff”!! in flamboyant PINK on the front seat, all laughing loudly; they did not see me & I was glad for I shd. have been thoroughly ashamed.114
Would a less wealthy Schuster perhaps have become a less attractive friend to Elgar? Schuster remained a loyal supporter to the end and his financial situation seems to have improved gradually. He was certainly able to leave Elgar a considerable sum of money. In 1928 Schuster’s sister Adela wrote to Elgar to tell him about one of the clauses of Schuster’s will: “To my friend, Sir Edward Elgar O.M. who has saved my country from the reproach of having produced no composer worthy to rank with the Great Masters, the sum of £7,000.”115
Immersed in a private musical world that occasionally overlapped with the public world of the big choral festivals, clearly homosexual and continually perceived as “not English” (despite the Eton education), Schuster is a central figure of the feminized and overlooked space that was so supportive and vital to Elgar’s musical career. Adams suggests that it was Schuster’s homosexuality that made Elgar so ambivalent toward him.116 Given the late-nineteenth-Century preoccupation with establishing the general manliness of British musicians, Schuster’s remarkable yet discomfiting influence thus begins to raise many important questions about Elgar’s relationship to the private musical world over time.
Perhaps Elgar’s discomfort was a reaction not only to Schuster’s camp behavior and what it signified but also to the general frivolity sometimes apparent in Schuster’s upper-class friends. Did Elgar feel that this private musical world was one in which he—the self-made, hardworking son of a shopkeeper—never really belonged, despite all attempts to welcome him? It is also possible that Elgar’s behavior toward Schuster reflects establishment unease at a musical world so different from the official world of British music. As Elgar himself became a fixture of the British musical establishment—as his works were widely performed at important public venues and he received official honors and recognition—so he may have taken on more of those conventional beliefs and attitudes.
There is a distinct discomfort, not just from Elgar but from later commentators and scholars as well, in acknowledging the importance of a world that was not obsessed with finding manly qualities in its musicians or their music. This was a world that opened its doors to women, to lesbians and gay men, to foreigners, to Catholics and Jews—to all those who were different and faced exclusion from the Anglican, patriarchal mainstream.
In 1907 Ernest Walker published his History of Music in England. He described Elgar as a composer who has “preferred to live outside the whirl of the recognized musical circles, and has held no official position of any importance.”117 Walker continued by dismissing the private musical world in ways that were echoed throughout the twentieth century by other commentators:
Elgar, till he was considerably over thirty years of age, was known chiefly by, so to speak, “smart society” music—th
e Salut d’amour kind of production that seeks and finds its reward in the West End drawing room, clever and shallow and artistically quite unpromising; and even in the days of his high fame, he has had … the heavy millstone of aristocratic fashionableness hanging round his neck, and may over and over again well have prayed to be delivered from his friends.118
With this paragraph, the misunderstanding of the West End drawing room, as well as the attempts to distance Elgar from the musical salons—surely the most nurturing of the musical worlds that he inhabited—had begun in earnest.
On the current British 20–pound note Elgar is depicted not only by an angel representing one of his works and a venue representing his public triumphs but also by the reclining figure of St. Cecilia, female patron saint of music. Probably unwittingly, the Bank of England designers have acknowledged that beyond the military moustache, music itself is perhaps best and most immediately symbolized by a feminine image. And despite himself, did Elgar ever acknowledge that he might have been lost without a world that gave him a space in which he could drop the mask of manly grit and vigor, and which gave his music such an appreciative, knowledgeable, and supportive audience?
NOTES
1. See www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/about/withdrawn_notes.htm.
2. The Bank of England has claimed that Elgar’s bushy moustache acts as a useful deterrent to forgers. Wulstan Atkins remarked: “He would be the first to appreciate that the complexity of that would be very difficult to copy, and it would have given him real pleasure to know that.” See BBC News, 22 June 1999. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/the_economy/375091.stm.
