Franz Xaver Neruda

Franz Xaver Neruda ( born December 3, 1843 in Brno, Austria - Hungary, † March 19, 1915 in Copenhagen) was a Danish romantic composer of Moravian origin.

Biography

Franz Xaver Neruda was the fifth child of the cathedral organist of the Cathedral of Brno, Josef Neruda ( born January 16, 1807 in Mohelenská, District Trebitsch, † February 18, 1875 in Brno ). Franz Xaver grew up with his musically talented siblings in Vienna, first learned violin from his father, from 1852, after the death of his brother Viktor Neruda, who had learned the cello, autodidactic also this. The father and four siblings, he joined a successful violin cellist in Europe Neruda quartet and as a soloist. In 1859 he studied for six months Adrien -François Servais cello with. His sister Wilhelmina Neruda (1839-1911) was an important violinist.

1864-1869 Franz Xaver Neruda was a member of the Chapel Royal in Copenhagen. On 3 December 1868, he founded there the Chamber Music Association, and was appointed the following year to the royal chamber musician. In 1869 he married the ballet dancer Camilla Cetti, lived from 1869 to 1879 as a freelance virtuoso in England, then again as the head and founder of the string quartet, from 1889 to 1891 in Copenhagen - appointed by Anton Rubinstein as a successor of Karl Yulievich Davydov - as professor of cello at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. It was built in 1891 conductor of the Musical Society in Stockholm, 1892 the music Foreningen in Copenhagen as successor by Niels Wilhelm Gade. In 1893 he became Professor of Cello ( Royal Danish Conservatory of Music ) in Copenhagen. After Franz Xaver Neruda's death in 1915, Carl Nielsen, his successor in the line of the Copenhagen Musical Society and wrote a prologue for recitation and orchestra "In memoriam Franz Neruda ". Its now little-known compositions combine successfully Bohemian- Moravian and North European music traditions.

Works

Among the compositions of Franz Xaver Neruda next five cello concertos, four quartets and three orchestral works are mainly smaller pieces for piano, organ, cello and violin as well as songs.

• The Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 2 in D minor (Op. 59 ) was one of the older editions of music in past and present, according to the repertoire of any cellist.

• Concerts for Cello and Orchestra No. 1 in E minor (op. 57), No. 3 in A major (Op. 60 ) and No. 5 in G major (Op. 66) were presented in May 2005 by the Dessau Anhalt Philharmonic premiered Golo Berg with cellist Beate Altenburg. The recorded on this occasion double CD Cello concertos is currently the only generally available recordings of works by the composer.