Nicolas Robles
Badajoz, Spain

Von den Bergen sacht hernieder,
Weckend die uralten Lieder,
Steigt die wunderbare Nacht,
Und die Gründe glänzen wieder,
Wie du’s oft im Traum gedacht.

Gently down from the mountains,
Waking the ancient songs,
Rises the wonderful night,
And the grounds shine again,
As you often thought in your dreams.

—“Nachtzauber”, Gedichte, von Joseph, Freiherr von Eichendorf

Hugo Wolf, reputed as the wild man of late nineteenth-century song, was born on March 13, 1860, in Windischgraz, Styria, then part of the Austrian Empire (currently Slovenia). He was taught the piano and violin by his father at an early age and continued to study piano at the local primary school. His secondary education was unsuccessful; he left a  school in Graz after one term, and then the Benedictine abbey school in St. Paul after two years for failing Latin. When in 1875 his lack of interest in all subjects other than music led to him leave his next school in Marburg after another two years, it was decided that he should live with his aunt in Vienna and study at the conservatory. He made many friends, including the young Gustav Mahler, but he was expelled from the conservatory because of his confrontations with teachers and fits of anger.

Hugo Wolf had what is euphemistically called “a strong character”; in fact, he was called “Der wilde Wolf.” He was arrogant and irascible, his fits of rage were famous, and as a music critic it is said that his criticisms were fierce (puns were made with his surname, Wolf), as harsh as those of Brahms but vitriolic.

Wolf’s early songs (1878) include settings of poems by Joseph von Eichendorff and, afterwards, by Goethe and Heine. But Wolf seems to have contracted syphilis in the late 1870s. In repeated relapses of the illness, he developed deep depressions and was unable to compose for long periods of time.

Gustav Mahler became the new director of the Vienna State Opera in May 1897. Although their paths had diverged after Wolf left the conservatory, they maintained a friendly relationship, which is why Wolf was so encouraged by Mahler’s appointment as conductor of the Vienna State Opera. Moreover, he believed his first opera, Der Corregidor, was finally going to premiere in Vienna. One day in September 1897, the two composers met in Mahler’s office to talk about Wolf’s opera. Wolf wanted it to premiere immediately, at the beginning of 1898, but Mahler dismissed this idea because he had a schedule to keep. Wolf took Mahler’s arguments as excuses, made a terrible scene in his office, and had to be forcibly removed by two men.

In the following days, Wolf told several friends that he was the new director of the Vienna Opera, not Mahler. Confused, they took it as a joke at first but soon realized that Wolf was serious. One of them, Walter Bockmayer, had organized a musical evening at his home on September 18. That night, Wolf played and sang normally, but continued to insist that he was the conductor of the Vienna Opera and threatened to fire his staff, starting with the singer Hermann Winkelmann, conspiratorially saying that he was “already rid of him.”

A doctor advised that Wolf should be hospitalized immediately. The next day, dressed in his best clothes and believing he was attending a ceremony where he would be appointed as opera director, Wolf’s friends took him to the private clinic of Dr. Svetlin, where he was admitted. He believed himself to be the director of the institution, as well as the god Jupiter. In a few months he improved enough to leave the clinic, but his syphilis was still raging. He tried to compose but could barely revise a few songs. In October 1898, he attempted suicide by throwing himself into the river; after that, he asked to be admitted to a sanatorium again. This time the admission was definitive, as leaving the sanatorium was too upsetting for him.

His last years were very hard. On good days, he played the piano in his room with a nurse; most of the time he did not remember who he was, nor his friends. He became ever more confused and suffered progressive paralysis from neurosyphilis. He died in a demented state one month before his forty-third birthday. Gustav Mahler then fulfilled his promise to premiere Der Corregidor as a tribute to his former friend on February 12, 1904.