Heinrich August Matthäi

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Heinrich August Matthäi (around 1820)

Heinrich August Matthäi (born October 3, 1781 in Dresden , † November 4, 1835 in Leipzig ) was a German violinist and composer . He was concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra for eighteen years .

Life

Little is known about Heinrich August Matthäi's initial musical training. Much self-taught is assumed. In 1803 he came to Leipzig and was accepted into the Gewandhaus Orchestra, having performed here as a soloist on December 3rd.

Encouraged by the Gewandhaus management, patrons and sponsors enabled him to study in Paris , which he began in 1804. Here he perfected his skills at the Paris Conservatory with Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766–1831), returned to Leipzig in the autumn of 1805 and now had a major influence on Leipzig's musical life.

In 1808 he began together with Bartolomeo Campagnoli (1751-1827), Johann Georg Hermann Voigt (1769-1811) and Friedrich Dotzauer (1783-1860) with the regular performance of string quartets , which is considered to be the birth of the Gewandhaus Quartet . It is noteworthy that it was not the concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra Campagnoli who sat at the first desk, but Matthäi. Works by Haydn (1732–1809), Mozart (1756–1791) and increasingly also by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) were performed.

After Campagnoli left, Matthäi became concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1817. He proved to be an excellent orchestra teacher who succeeded in making orchestral playing more secure and more strict. It was above all the Beethoven symphonies on which the orchestra proved its worth. In the Nekrolog für Matthäi, the music writer Carl Ferdinand Becker wrote : "Leipzig's orchestra became famous through Matthäi, ... and Beethoven himself gave it praises."

Title page to his string quartet op.6

Among other things, Matthäi composed violin concertos and string quartets. He also appeared as a singer, for example in the 1812 Leipzig performance of the oratorio The Last Judgment by Louis Spohr (1784-1859).

From 1806 Matthäi was a member of the Masonic Lodge Minerva to the three palms .

Works (selection)

  • 4 violin concertos (op. 2, 9, 15 and 20),
  • 2 string quartets (op. 6 and 12),
  • Fantasy with variations for violin with orchestra (op.8),
  • 3 concert duets for two violins (op. 3) and
  • some monophonic and polyphonic chants.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Carl Ferdinand Becker: Nekrolog. In Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 1835 vol. 2 vol. 3 p. 158/159 (online)
  2. ↑ Horst Riedel, Thomas Nabert (ed.): Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z . 1st edition. Pro Leipzig, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 , pp. 385 .
  3. ^ Johannes Forner: The Gewandhaus Concerts in Leipzig . VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1981, p. 62
  4. ↑ Performance report : Oratorio “The Last Judgment” by Louis Spohr in Leipzig (October 20, 1812). Retrieved February 24, 2018 .
  5. ↑ List of members of the Minerva Lodge on the Three Palms. Retrieved February 24, 2018 .
  6. ^ Moritz Fürstenau:  Matthäi, Heinrich August . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, p. 607.
personal data
SURNAME Matthai, Heinrich August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Matthaei, Heinrich August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German violinist
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1781
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH November 4, 1835
Place of death Leipzig