Preface
Robert Avery was, I think, the only good friend I lost to Covid. He was one of its early victims and even in the unfamiliar world of the pandemic his death was unexpected. His ebullient and life-enhancing character, his gift for sharing his many passions and his profound knowledge of Central European culture were great blessings to which none of us was in any way prepared to bid farewell. As the founder of Habsburg Heritage, he led countless tours to the concert halls, opera houses, museums, galleries and restaurants of his favourite countries, among which Germany, Austria and Hungary took pride of place. In a superb address at his funeral, one of his daughters conveyed his special personality with this story. A vicar, a priest and a rabbi are discussing what they’d like said about them at their funerals. The vicar says, ‘I’d like them to say he was a good man, he left the world a better place’. The priest says, ‘I’d like them to say that my actions showed my beliefs, that I lived true to my word’. The rabbi says, ‘At my funeral I hope they’re going to say ‘Wait! My God – it’s a miracle! Look! He’s moving!!!’’
When I sent her this essay, Robert’s widow Jane said that he would be bemused to be mentioned in such august company – with JS Bach and the greatest of the Electors of Saxony. In part, this was a humorous incongruity that I intended. But the juxtaposition was also suggested by the fact that the last of our many trips together was to Dresden to hear the Ring cycle which I wrote about in another essay on this site (“Was Wagner a feminist?”) Covid and Dresden made me think of Bach’s great Trauer-Ode, the cantata BWV198, written for Christiane Eberhardine, the wife of Augustus II the Strong who had created on the banks of the Elbe such a spectacular city.