Carl Moeser

Carl Moeser, lithograph by W. Beise after a drawing by Franz Krüger , 1824

Carl Moeser (born January 24, 1774 in Berlin , † January 27, 1851 there ), also Karl Möser or Carl Möser, was a German violinist and conductor .

Life

Moeser's father was a Hautboist (military musician) in the Ziethen Hussar Regiment. He also gave his son Carl his first music lessons. He later received violin lessons from the chamber musician Johann Böttcher and gave his first concert in April 1784. In 1788 King Friedrich Wilhelm II recommended him to Margrave Friedrich Heinrich von Schwedt , who accepted him into his chapel, but died shortly afterwards. Moeser returned to Berlin, found a wealthy patron in the Baron Bague from Paris and received further training from the concertmaster Carl Haack in order to finally become a member of the Royal Orchestra on January 1, 1792. Due to his outstanding skills, the king drew him in to his private string quartet evenings, in which he played the cello himself .

Several love affairs, some with members of the nobility, led to Moeser being banished from Prussia and taking up residence in Hamburg . There he made the acquaintance of Ignaz Fränzl , Pierre Rode and Giovanni Battista Viotti . Guest performances took him to Copenhagen and London , where Johann Peter Salomon wanted to hire him. This did not happen, however, because Moeser entered into a love affair with an Italian and left London with her.

In 1797, after the death of Friedrich Wilhelm II, Moeser was allowed to return to Berlin and received his previous position in the Royal Chapel. Prince Louis Ferdinand , with whom he often played music, soon became one of his closest friends .

In 1803/04 he took a long trip to Vienna and was able to inspire Haydn and Beethoven with his playing . There he also met the violinists Ignaz Schuppanzigh and George Polgreen Bridgetower , and on April 26, 1803, he performed in a private concert by Prince Joseph Lobkowitz - together with the harpist François-Joseph Naderman and Ferdinando Paër on the piano.

When the war required a reduction in the chapel in 1806, he left Berlin again and traveled to St. Petersburg via Warsaw . In 1811 he returned to Berlin. In 1813 he founded his own string quartet, with which he performed the works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven in particular. On April 22, 1813, he married the Italian harpist Caroline Delphine Longhi. The marriage does not seem to have been a happy one, because she left Berlin again in 1825, probably after a previous divorce. His second wife became the singer Louise Moeser. With her he had the son August Moeser, who was born on December 25, 1825.

Moeser was appointed Royal Music Director and first concertmaster in 1825 and took over the direction of the instrumental class of the Royal Band. In 1842 he celebrated his 50th anniversary with the company and was retired, but kept the leadership of the instrumental class.

Moeser's students include his son August Moeser, Karl Müller and August Zimmermann.

Trivia

In the story The Baron von B. von ETA Hoffmann , which appeared in the collection Die Serapionsbrüder in 1820 , Moeser appears in the form of the young violin virtuoso Carl.

literature

Ernst Friedländer: Möser, Karl . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, p. 390.
Carl von Ledebur: Tonkünstler-Lexicon Berlin's from the oldest times to the present . Berlin 1861, pp. 379-381
Robert and Clara Schumann's correspondence with correspondents in Berlin 1832 to 1883 , ed. by Klaus Martin Kopitz , Eva Katharina Klein and Thomas Synofzik (= Schumann-Briefedition , Series II, Volume 17), Cologne: Dohr 2015, pp. 445–551, ISBN 978-3-86846-028-5

Individual evidence

↑ Klaus Martin Kopitz , Rainer Cadenbach (Ed.) U. a .: Beethoven from the point of view of his contemporaries in diaries, letters, poems and memories. Volume 1: Adamberger - Kuffner. Edited by the Beethoven Research Center at the Berlin University of the Arts. Henle, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-87328-120-2 , p. 430.

personal data
SURNAME	Moeser, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Möser, Carl (alternative spelling); Möser, Karl (alternative spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German violinist and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH	January 24, 1774
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berlin
DATE OF DEATH	January 27, 1851
Place of death	Berlin

[1] Klaus Martin Kopitz , Rainer Cadenbach (Ed.) U. a .: Beethoven from the point of view of his contemporaries in diaries, letters, poems and memories. Volume 1: Adamberger - Kuffner. Edited by the Beethoven Research Center at the Berlin University of the Arts. Henle, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-87328-120-2 , p. 430.