Ludwig Schuncke

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Ludwig Schuncke on the death bed
The only surviving portrait

Ludwig Schuncke , French also Louis Schunke , (born December 21, 1810 in Kassel , † December 7, 1834 in Leipzig ) was a German pianist and composer .

Life

Memorial stone for Ludwig Schunke on the old Johannisfriedhof in Leipzig

Ludwig (also Louis) Schuncke received musical support from his family at an early age. The musical family also came from some of the most important horn players of the 19th century, such as his father Johann Gottfried Schuncke and his uncle Johann Michael Schuncke . At the age of 10 he was celebrated as a pianist at his first appearances.

In 1827 Schuncke went to Paris , where he studied harmony, counterpoint and fugue with Anton Reicha and made friends with important contemporaries such as Friedrich Kalkbrenner , Johann Peter Pixis and Hector Berlioz . He earned his living there by performing pianos for the piano manufacturer Duport.

In 1830 he returned to Germany. He found accommodation in Stuttgart , where his father and brother Ernst Schuncke worked as horn players in the court orchestra. There he made the acquaintance of Frédéric Chopin , who was traveling through , and who played him his Piano Concerto in E minor, Op. 11.

After concert tours as a piano virtuoso, he settled in Leipzig in 1833 , where he founded the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik together with Robert Schumann , with whom he was close friends . In gratitude for the dedication of his Grande Sonate op. 3 ("dédiée à son ami R. Schumann"), Schumann dedicated his Toccata in C major op. 7 ("dédiée à son ami Louis Schuncke" ) to him a few months later, in May 1834 ).

Schuncke fell seriously ill in the autumn of 1834 and was looked after in her household by Henriette Voigt . On November 20, 1834, Robert Schumann wrote from Zwickau to Hauptmann v. Fricken:

“ Schunken's advanced illness also drove me away from Leipzig, which has something terribly quiet about me. There they bury a great man. Mrs. v. Fricken would want to turn a blind eye to such a friend - I can hardly master my illness, which is a very depressed melancholy. ... "

Ludwig Schuncke died of “consumption” (pulmonary tuberculosis) at the age of 23.
His grave cross was marked on the back

“ What has passed will not return;
But if it went down shining, it shines
back for a long time. "

(Beginning of the poem "Memory and Hope" by Karl Förster )

Works

His few piano works, which Robert Schumann held in high esteem, are among the best that piano music has survived from the first half of the 19th century.

Friends Ludwig Schuncke and Robert Schumann influenced and inspired each other. This even applies to individual thematic phrases and their processing.
For comparison, a few bars from two works by the two composers:
(The two examples can be put together without a break)

Schumann piano concerto
bars 402–405
Schuncke piano sonata
bars 78–81

In the new magazine for music, Schumann wrote in 1835:

“ … What else he would have achieved, oh, who knows? But death could never extinguish a genius torch earlier and more painfully than this. Just listen to his wise men, and you will crown the young burial mound, even if you did not know that with the great artist an even higher man separated from the earth, whom he loved so unspeakably ... "

Piano solo

the years refer to the first print

  • Scherzo capriccioso op.1
  • Variations quasi Fantaisie brillantes sur une thème originale in D minor / D major op.2 (1829)
  • Great Sonata in G minor op.3 (1832, dedicated to Robert Schumann )
  • (op. 4 unknown)
  • Fantasia brilliant in E major op.5 (1833)
  • Allegro passionato in A minor op.6 (1833)
  • Divertissement brilliant op.7
  • 1st Caprice in C major op.9 à Mademoiselle Clara Wieck (ca.1836)
  • 2de Caprice in C minor op.10 ( dedicated to Frédéric Chopin ) ( ca.1836 )
  • Rondeau brilliant in E flat major op.11 (1834)
  • Divertissement brillant sur des Aires Allemandes in B flat major op.12 (1834)
  • Variations brilliant sur la Valse funèbre de F. Schubert in A flat major op.14 (also with orchestra, 1834)
  • Rondeau en d major in D major op.15 (1847)
  • Air suisse varié (before 1844)
  • Six Preludes
  • 3 waltzes
  • Rondino précédé d'une Introduction
  • 2 Rondinos in C major and A minor
  • Adagio and Rondo in G major
  • Cappriccio (sic)
  • Due divertimenti
  • fantasy
  • Marcia funebre
  • VII Variations
  • Fast waltz

Piano four hands

  • Petit Rondeau in C major
  • Rondo brilliant in G major
  • Deux Pièces caractéristiques op.13 pour piano à quatre mains (published 1834):
    No. 1 Andante con moto in B flat minor
    No. 2 Presto in C minor

Piano and orchestra

  • Variations brilliant sur la Valse funèbre de F. Schubert A flat major op.14
  • (Piano concerto, lost)

Chamber music

  • Duo concertant for piano and horn
  • Easy little variations (on "Ah, vous dirai-je maman") for piano and violin in C major

Vocal works

  • Mother's love - for voice and piano
  • With golden strings full of tones - for 3 voices and piano
  • Love asleep - for voice and piano
  • Four songs
  1. Spring song - for voice and piano
  2. Der Jüngling am Bache - for voice and piano
  3. The child's wish - for voice and piano
  4. Gretchen's song - for voice and piano
  • Seven songs
  1. Lullaby
  2. Song of the shepherdess
  3. The longing
  4. The Bethenden
  5. First loss
  6. Elf king
  7. Goodbye
  • Five songs op.8
  1. Gretchen's song
  2. The expectation
  3. The arbor
  4. I would like to tell you
  5. The boy by the brook

swell

  • Ruskin King Cooper, Robert Schumann's closest childhood friend: LUDWIG SCHUNCKE (1810–1834) AND HIS PIANO MUSIC, 1997, Fischer & Partner Hamburg, ISBN 3-926435-16-X .
  • Joachim Draheim in the booklet for CD ARS 38465
  • Gregor Weichert in the booklet for CD Accord 149083
  • Peter Hollfelder : history of piano music. Wilhelmshaven Volume 1 1989, ISBN 3-7959-0435-8 .
  • Renato Principe, Ludwig Schuncke, l'alter ego di Schumann. Per il bicentenario della nascita di Robert Schumann , “Civiltà Musicale” 63–65
  • Joachim Draheim: Ludwig Schuncke . In: Ludwig Finscher (Ed.): MGG . tape 15 . Bärenreiter Verlag, 2006, Sp. 341-342 .

Sound recordings

  • Gregor Weichert plays Louis Schuncke : Grande sonate op. 3, Allegro op. 6, Das Heimweh, Capriccio nº 1 and nº 2; rec .: 1984; Accord 149083
  • Music from Stuttgart: Chamber music and songs by Ludwig Schuncke and Johann Joseph Abert ; rec .: SWR 2004; ARS production 38465 - Performers: Piano duo Ljiljana Borota & Christian Knebel , Roswitha Sicca (soprano), Martin Nagy (tenor), Claus Temps (baritone), Thomas Pfeiffer (baritone), Joachim Draheim (song accompaniment), Abert Quartet Stuttgart - content : Schuncke: Rondo brilliant in G major for piano four hands, Petit Rondeau in C major for piano four hands, Erlkönig (1827), Der Jüngling am Bache , spring song , first loss (1827), Gretchen am Spinnrad (published in 1840 in NZfM), Deux Pièces caractéristiques op.13 for piano 4 hands (published 1834). Abert: Six songs for a voice and piano (published 1879), Des Glasers Töchterlein (published 1879), String Quartet in A major op.25 (1862)
  • Ludwig Schuncke, piano works; Jozef de Beenhouwer, piano; rec. SWR 2000; SAR 01 ( Schuncke Archive eV Baden-Baden)
  • Piano works by Schuncke, Schumann, Burgmüller; Megumi Sano, piano ARS 38499 ( details )

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schuncke, Ludwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schunke, Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH kassel
DATE OF DEATH December 7, 1834
Place of death Leipzig