Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky

Prince Karl Alois Johann Nepomuk Vinzenz Leonhard Lichnowsky (* June 21, 1761 in Vienna, † April 15, 1814 ibid ) was the second Prince Lichnowsky and chamberlain at the Imperial Court in Vienna. He is known primarily as a music patron and due to its relationship with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Biography

Karl Lichnowsky Alois was born as the eldest son of the Earl and 1773 raised to the rank of prince Johann Friedrich Carl Lichnowsky Amadeus ( 1720-1788 ) and his wife Countess Carolina of Althann. Although he spent most of his life in Vienna, he and his family the main part of their property in Gratz in the Habsburg Moravia and in the last few decades, Prussian and previously also Habsburg Silesia.

From 1776 to 1782 he studied in Leipzig and Göttingen Jura. In Göttingen, he had contact with Johann Nikolaus Forkel, who later became known as the first biographer Johann Sebastian Bach. Lichnowsky itself began at this time to collect manuscripts of Bach compositions. He also operated as a musician and composer.

Karl Lichnowsky was married twice. He completed his first marriage in Vienna on 25 November 1788 Christine Wilhelmine, Countess of Thun and Hohenstein ( born July 25, 1765 in Vienna, † April 11, 1841 ), daughter of František de Paula Jan Josef, Count of Thun and Hohenstein and Marie Wilhelmine, Countess of Ulfeldt, a second marriage to Catherine Leinböck ( born May 27, 1793 in Vienna, † June 23, 1840 ibid ). He had only one son from his first marriage, Edward (1789-1845), who was also the heir of the princely title.

Karl Lichnowsky died on April 15, 1814 in Vienna after a stroke.

Relationship with Mozart

Lichnowsky was a Freemason and belonged to the same lodge as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When he left in 1789 to travel to Berlin, he offered his lodge brother, to accompany him on his ( Lichnowsky ) costs. They broke on the morning of April 8, 1789 by Vienna and reached Potsdam on April 25, where Mozart was received by King Frederick William.

Also borrowed Lichnowsky Mozart money, but that this could not repay, so that Lichnowsky sued him. On November 9, 1791 a few weeks before Mozart's death, the action in favor Lichnowsky was decided according to the judgment a sum of 1435 florins and 32 Kreuzer state - the court instructed the eunuchs of the Imperial Court as an employer Mozart, half of Mozart's content to seize 800 guilders a year.

Relationship with Beethoven

Shortly after Mozart's death was Lichnowsky one of the main supporters of Ludwig van Beethoven. In a letter on the 1805 Beethoven calls him one of his most loyal friends and supporters of his art. 1796 accompanied the composer Prince on a trip to Prague, from where Beethoven traveled on to Berlin.

In 1800, Lichnowsky Beethoven approved an assistance of 600 florins, to be paid annually until Beethoven should obtain a permanent job as a musician - but that never happened. The scholarship was until 1806 paid until a dispute between Beethoven and Lichnowsky ensued, which ended their friendship: Beethoven, who was on one of Lichnowsky country seats, had refused to make music for French officers who were with the prince to visit. After his return to Vienna Beethoven destroyed then a bust of the prince.

In 1809, although still in dispute with the composer to Lichnowsky joined two other aristocrats, Archduke Rudolf and Prince Kinsky, who donated a further scholarship for Beethoven. Due to the political turmoil of the time ( Napoleon's army had just occupied Vienna ), the stipend was not paid, so that Beethoven so against Lichnowsky and Kinsky strained a process later.

Beethoven's dedications

From before the break with seven compositions come Lichnowsky Beethoven, which he has devoted Lichnowsky:

• The Piano Trio Op 1 No 1-3 ( 1793)
• The Piano Variations on ' più bello Quant'è ' from Giovanni Paisiello's opera La Molinara ( work without opus number 69, 1795)
• The Piano Sonata in C Minor, Opus 13, " Pathetique " (1798 )
• The Piano Sonata in A-flat major, op 26 (1801 )
• The Symphony No. 2, in D major, op 36 (1802 )