Anton Bennewitz

Anton Bennewitz

Anton Bennewitz , also Antonín Bennewitz (* 26. March 1833 in Přívrat , Bohemia ; † 29. May 1926 in Doksy , Czechoslovakia ) was a Czech violinist, conductor and music teacher, who was standing in the tradition of violin virtuosos who with Giovanni Battista Viotti began and later continued until Jan Kubelík and Wolfgang Schneiderhan .

Live and act

Although Bennewitz is said to have been entered in the birth register as Antonín Benevic , his family name is also generally found in Czech literature in the German form Bennewitz , because on his father's side he was of Prussian origin. His grandfather in Berlin had already entered the service of the Bohemian Counts Waldstein or Wallenstein, and Bennewitz was born as the third child of the Countess Waldstein forest administrator in the forester's house in Přívrat; his Czech mother was the daughter of Castle Director Keppert at Litomyšl Castle .

After attending the Piarist high school in Leitomischl, he studied violin at the Prague Conservatory from 1846 to 1852 with Moritz Mildner (1812–1865), then was first violinist at the Prague Estates Theater (“Stavovské divadlo”), which was first performed by two Mozart Operas went down in music history, and then engaged as concertmaster in Salzburg and Stuttgart . In 1859 he gave concerts in Paris and Brussels . His participation in the unsuccessful world premiere of Smetana's Piano Trio in G, op. 153 in December 1855 in Prague with the cellist Johann August Julius Goltermann and with Smetana himself on the piano fell during this period. A year earlier he had already formed a trio with Goltermann in a matinee at Smetana's music school with Smetana's most talented pupil, 11-year-old Augusta Kolářova, and played Beethoven's piano trio in G major (op. 1 No. 2). This girl, a cousin of Smetana's wife, was later granted a brilliant career under the name Auguste Auspitz-Kolár (1843-1878).

In 1866 Bennewitz received a professorship for violin at the Prague Conservatory. In 1876 he followed Mildner as first violin in Friedrich Wilhelm Pixis ' string quartet, which later became well known as the Bennewitz Quartet . In 1882 he was given the direction of the Prague Conservatory, which he held until 1901, although he wanted to retire in 1895, and in which position he was later succeeded by Antonín Dvořák . Under the direction of Bennewitz, his institute experienced its “golden age”. Even of mixed German-Czech origins, he acted as a mediator in the flare-up nationality dispute, valued his Czech students no less than those of German nationality, ensured equal opportunities in the music theory subjects by introducing Czech-language lessons, and looked for musical talents among the Czech population , fought for the provision of public funds for gifted but poorly funded students.

Program of the gala concert on the occasion of the inauguration of the Rudolfinum in Prague in 1885.
Conductor “A. Bennewitz "

The opening of the Rudolfinum fell during his management period , which was very much in keeping with his efforts to promote Czech musicians as well. He brought many of her works to the programs of the Conservatory concerts, also liked to conduct such works himself and was also one of the founders of the Prague Chamber Music Association, whose national ideals inspired Smetana to write his 1st String Quartet in E minor “From my life” .

Bennewitz's pupils made the Prague violin school famous. These included František Ondříček , the Dvorak Violin Concerto brought the premiere, and Karel Halíř , the Sibelius, the world premiere of the revised version of his violin concerto entrusted, composer and music teacher Hans (Hanuš) Sitt , Jiří Herold (from 1875 to 1934), the violinist Johann (Hans ) Gerstner (1851–1939), three members of the Bohemian and later the Czech String Quartet - the two violinists Karl Hoffmann (1872–1936) and Josef Suk and, as a violist, the composer and conductor Oskar Nedbal - but also Otakar Ševčík and Franz Lehár who, at the age of twelve, was a student at the Prague Conservatory with a major in violin under Anton Bennewitz, but Dvořák advised him to concentrate more on composing.

In February 1895 Bennewitz conducted the first complete performance of Josef Suk's String Serenade in E flat op. 6 with the Prague Conservatory Orchestra with great success , after two movements had already been heard under Suk himself 14 months earlier. In June 1896 Bennewitz also premiered Dvořák's "Symphonic Poems" The Midday Witch , The Aquarius and The Golden Spinning Wheel with the Conservatory Orchestra in semi-public concerts .

In 1901 Bennewitz retired after 35 years at the Prague Conservatory. The minutes of the 7th session of the Bohemian state parliament on June 26, 1902 reported under number 96: “Report of the state committee on the request of the board of the Association for the Promotion of Music in Bohemia for a special subsidy to cover the pension for the director of the Prague Anton Bennewitz Conservatory ”.

After retiring, the almost seventy year old moved in with his wife Emilie, née Miková, an opera singer who was once the first Milada in Smetana's Dalibor , returned to northern Bohemia, where he stayed until the end of his life.

Appreciation

In 1998 a new Bennewitz Quartet was founded in Prague in honor of Anton Bennewitz with Jiří Němeček and Štěpán Ježek, violins, Jiří Pinkas, viola, and Štěpán Deležal, violoncello, the music school in Česká Třebová was named after him, but it burned down in 1875 In 1959, a memorial plaque was installed and a memorial for the conservatory professor Bennewitz was ceremoniously unveiled in the village in April 2008. His name is also kept alive by the Antonín Bennewitz International Music Festival in Třebová, which was established in 1999, with a concert in his village where he was born.

literature

• Stanley Sadie (Ed.): Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, (The New Grove). 2nd Edition. Macmillan, London 2001, ISBN 0-333-60800-3 .

Web links

Commons : Antonín Bennewitz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Přívraty Chronicle (Czech; Google Translation)
• Music Festival "Antonín Bennewitz" , official website (accessed November 11, 2009)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Minori Nakaune: Otakar Ševčík: The Enduring Legacy. ( Memento of the original from July 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 2005. (PDF; 73 kB) 
2. ↑ The German form of his first name is sometimes used in Czech sources, see: “Ve dvanácti letech pak Franz přišel na pražskou konzervatoř. Jeho učiteli nebyli nikdo menší než Anton Bennewitz and Josef Förster. Skladbu studoval soukromě u Zdeňka Fibicha a jeho vzorem byl Antonín Dvořák “ Městské divadlo Brno / Brno City Theater ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Přívrat, local history: "Antonín Josef Václav Bennewitz" (Czech; Google translation)
4. ↑ ^{a b} Gracián Černušák et al. (Ed.): Československý hudební slovník. Volume 1: AL. Státní hudební vydavatelství, Prague 1963, p. 83.
5. ↑ Goltermann is mostly as Julius Goltermann , but also sometimes referred to as August Goltermann (PDF 98 kB) , or as directed by Wilhelm Josef von Wasielewski as Johann August Goltermann led
6. ↑ Sierra Chamber Society Program Notes ( Memento of the original from February 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Altenberg Trio, 3rd paragraph , from October 21, 2008.
8. ↑ MUGI Music and Gender on the Internet
9. ^ Prague Conservatory, Homepage: Brief History of the Prague Conservatory
10. ^ M1 Robin Stowell: The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet
11. ↑ Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon (ÖLB) 1815–1950, (PDF; 63 kB) Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 12 volumes, Vienna 2003–2009, ISBN 978-3-7001-3213-4 volume 12, online edition
12. ↑ ÖBL, p. 289. (PDF; 185 kB)
13. ↑ Hanuš Wihan
14. ↑ Austrian Music Lexicon Online
15. ↑ Answers.com
16. ^ Chandos program notes
17. ↑ Prague Symphony Orchestra ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
18. ^ Digital Czech and Slovak Parliamentary Libraries: The Dream of the Kingdom of Bohemia 1901–1907 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
19. ↑ Jitka Melšová: Ústecké Kalendárium : “29. On May 1926, the Czech violin teacher Antonin Bennewitz died in Doksy. "
20. ↑ Bennewitz Quartet Homepage ( Memento of the original from October 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
21. ↑ Přívrat: "A monument to A. Bennewitz" ( Memento of the original from January 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
22. ↑ Website of the festival ( Memento of the original from October 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.