Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski
Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski ( born June 17, 1822 in United Leesen in Gdansk, † December 13, 1896 in Special Hausen ) was a German violinist, conductor and musicologist.
Life
Was Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski on June 17, 1822 in United Leesen in Gdansk as the eighth of eleven children of the landowner and later Rector of Gdansk Convent School St. Brigitta, Joseph Thaddeus Wasielewski ( 1785-1850 ) and his wife Henriette Christina Piwko (1788 - 1850) was born.
His father gave him his first lessons in the game of violin that his favorite instrument was soon. At the age of ten years, the father of the higher educational establishment of St. Peter and Paul in Gdansk handed him.
On April 2, 1843 Wasielewski was incorporated into the newly founded Leipzig Conservatory, which led Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy ( 1809-1847 ). He learned here with renowned teachers such as Felix Mendelssohn- Bartholdy, Robert Schumann (1810-1856), Moritz Hauptmann (1792-1868) and Ferdinand David ( 1810-1873 ). In 1846 he was violinist at the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Student Wilhelm Joseph took advantage of the opportunities offered to him with success. Rector Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was able to confirm in a letter to his father Joseph Thaddeus Wasielewski on September 17, 1849 My son has come through a pattern compulsive behaviors, through diligent and persistent, unremitting zeal in front of the pupils of the institution awarded from the beginning on most advantageous. His proficient, solid essence is free of dryness or affection of compulsion, and his musical talent and his true love for art on the other hand does not lead him to freedom and disorder. It is the same with him the careful proper education true that you inflict upon, which would also have been insufficient without such good natural plants alone him. From neither side has become loud ever the slightest complaint, the slightest accusation about your son. On the contrary, his progress, such as the violin, so significant that the concert master David me recently said, your son is already a brave proficient musicians call, because if he remained otherwise healthy, so nothing could prevent him from acting in any place to the benefit of the arts and to their own honor, to exist and to gain recognition for its achievements
1850 he was appointed Robert Schumann as concertmaster at the Municipal Music Club Dusseldorf. During this time developed close and friendly relations with the couple Schumann, which found their expression in communal public and private chamber music
1852 went Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski as a choral conductor to Bonn. In addition, he made at that time, together with Julius Tausch and Christian Reimers a successful piano trio for chamber music performances. Later the lines of the male choir Liedertafel Concordia and the orchestra of the Beethoven Association were offered to him.
In the same year Wasielewski married a native of Freiberg / Saxony pianist Alma Beyer (1827 1871), which also as Clara Schumann had enjoyed with their father Friedrich Wieck their education. The two sons of this union, Wolfgang (1853-1873) and Sebastian (1855-1857), died at an early age. The family tomb at the old cemetery in Bonn is still preserved.
Existed also in the following years until the death of Robert Schumann in 1856 between the two families friendly relations, of which the intense correspondence with Clara and Robert Schumann bears witness. Schumann dedicated Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski his fairy tale images, Op 113 ( Four compositions for piano and viola) and his wife Alma, the " album leaves ", Op 124 (20 Piano Pieces )
As he, however, a permanent job in Bonn was initially denied, the family decided in 1855 to relocate to Dresden. Here they lived during the next fourteen years. William Joseph devoted himself to the concertante participation in the orchestras of Dresden and Leipzig, gave music lessons and continued his literary work continued. In these years also fall personal relationships to the piano virtuoso Franz Liszt (1811-1886), the Wilhelm Joseph also invited to be on the Altenburg in Weimar.
The first Schumann 's biography, published in 1858, found wide recognition and reached as a result several editions, both at home and abroad.
In Dresden, where the royal music library with major collections of music manuscripts and copies held that the idea of a scientific study of the historical development of the violin and violin playing in consideration of the various styles in European countries was at Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski.
The 1868 was publication of the basic work of the violin and its master is clearly the highlight of the literary work of Wasielewski dar. This standard work reached a total of nine editions, the last of which after the death of the author, as it did in other works, from his son Waldemar issued by Wasielewski in revised form.
In 1869 Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski received a call to the Municipal Director of Music in Bonn. Died in 1871 his first wife Alma, who, like her two sons buried in the old cemetery in Bonn.
1873 was appointed by Wasielewski the Royal Music Director.
With the composer Johannes Brahms (1833 1897) and Max Bruch (1838 1920) used Wilhelm Joseph also good relations, as well as the extensive correspondence occupied.
With a music festival 1874 the funds for a worthy monument to Robert Schumann's resting place should be applied. The management of performances, at which Clara Schumann also participated, took Wasielewski and close friends with him violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim (1831 1907). The inauguration of Adolf Donndorf (1835 1916) designed grave monument at the old cemetery in Bonn took place on 2 May 1880.
In December of 1874 graduated Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski his second marriage with the North German pastor's daughter Hedwig Schueck ( 1843-1920 ).
1878, he was awarded honorary membership of the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna.
Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski ended his long career as music director in Royal Bonn with 61 years. He retired from public life and moved with his family in the Thuringian town residence Sondershausen. Also during this period of life, he continued his musical literary works. Results of this period were mainly the publication of a biography of Beethoven and a work on the history of the cello.
At the age of 74 years died Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski on December 13, 1896 in Special Hausen and found after one of artistic and scientific activity rich fulfilled life on 17 December on the local main cemetery his final resting place, where in 1920 his second wife Hedwig buried been.
His memoirs For 70 years, appeared in 1897 in the German publishing house Stuttgart and Leipzig. In addition to numerous musical and historical works of William Joseph has published Wasielewski also some compositions, of which two deserve mention: Notturno, Op 21, and autumn flowers, Op 30 (9 Intermediate Pieces for violin / viola and piano; publisher Zimmermann, Boston) and a Sedan song, which also experienced a short personal Findings of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.
Lecturer writer Waldemar von Wasielewski (1875 1959), first at the University of Rostock in botany, and later with a focus on music history and the Occult: From the union with his second wife Hedwig three sons were born. Wilhelm von Wasielewski ( 1878-1956 ), painter and sculptor in Rome and Munich, Felix von Wasielewski (1880 1945), actor, director and playwright at the theater in Gotha and Munich.
Works
Complete List of Publications
- Robert Schumann, Dresden ( 1858)
- The violin and its master, Leipzig ( 1869)
- The violin in the 17th century and the beginnings of instrumental composition, Bonn (1874 )
- History of instrumental music in the XVI. Century, Berlin ( 1878)
- Goethe's relationship to music, Leipzig ( 1880)
- Schumanniana, Bonn (1883 )
- Ludwig van Beethoven, Berlin ( 1888)
- The violoncello and its history, Leipzig ( 1889)
- Carl Reinecke, Leipzig ( 1892)
- For seventy years - memoirs, Leipzig ( 1897)