Wiesengrund: The Jewish Heritage 21concerts given at home, the frequent guests and the lively discussions
on such topics as the current productions in the city theatre, the ‘rather
questionable performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto’ in the con-
cert series put on by the Museumsgesellschaft in the Saalbau, or the
current programme in the famous opera house. His precocious son took
an active part in these discussions as he grew older and his curiosity
increased. In his devotion to music, his love of art and his youthful
curiosity he could rely on his mother’s support, and such interests also
found a ready listener in his beloved aunt.
Following her marriage, Maria Calvelli-Adorno found that she had
moved a step upwards in society, and this success strengthened her self-
confidence. With her half-Italian, half-French Catholicism, she repres-
ented a combination of romanticism and idealist devotion. As a former
singer in the Imperial Viennese metropolis and also in Riga, she seemed
to stand for an insecure world of art that may well have had bohemian
overtones. The house in Seeheimer Straße was one in which visitors
were welcome and to which they frequently came (partly because of the
culinary skills of Anna, the maid). It was natural to have a gramophone
in the living room, even though the educated classes tended to look
down their noses at such innovations.^25
From the very outset Maria’s sister Agathe was a member of the
inner circle of the family. Adorno always spoke of her as his ‘second
mother’. She made a major contribution to the musical life of the house-
hold, which echoed from morning to night with singing, and with key-
board sonatas by Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. It was thought natural
for the ten-year-old boy to go to concerts, and the adult always had
fond memories of his first encounters with Mozart, Beethoven or
Mahler.^26 Agathe Calvelli played an important part in Adorno’s literary
education, as well as his musical upbringing. The few surviving letters
between the two show very clearly how close they were and how their
relationship was based on complete trust. Adorno admired both his
mother and his aunt. He remembered how as a small boy he ‘went
to hear his mother sing at a charity concert. Because he identified with
her so completely, he clambered up uninvited onto the stage after
the applause and began to recite poems. He describes his precocious
fluency as a mark of his ability to concentrate, the urge to speak as
exhibitionism.’^27
We may regard Adorno’s basic sense of emotional and material secur-
ity, together with the way he was surrounded by music, as of crucial
importance for his personality. Music was the primary medium through
which the intensity of his feeling for the two women was created. At the
same time, his intensive preoccupation with music was an early source
of highly personal experiences of achievement.
The child who thinks he is composing when he plays around
on the piano endows every chord, every dissonance and every