Johann Wilhelm Häßler

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Johann Wilhelm Häßler (1786)

Johann Wilhelm Häßler (born March 29, 1747 in Erfurt , † March 29, 1822 in Moscow ) was a German composer and organist .

Life

Erfurt time

In addition to his training as a stocking knitter, he received musical training from his uncle Johann Christian Kittel , a student of Johann Sebastian Bach . At the age of 15 he first worked as an organist at the Erfurt Barfüßerkirche , succeeding his uncle in this position. Concert tours followed, on which he made a name for himself as a piano virtuoso.

In 1780, with the support of the governor of Erfurt, Karl Theodor von Dalberg , he introduced the so-called winter concerts as a permanent institution. As part of this series of events, he also made the acquaintance of Goethe .

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart did not judge Häßler's organ playing positively. In a letter of April 16, 1789 to his wife Constanze , when hemet Johann Wilhelm Häßlerat the Silbermann organ in the Dresden court church, he said: [...] Now people here believe, because I come from Vienna, that I don't even know this taste and this way of playing. - So I sat down at the organ and played. - Prince Lichnowskÿ (because he knows Häßler well) persuades him to play with great difficulty; - the force of this Häßler consists on the organ in feet, which, because the pedals go step by step, is not so great an art; Incidentally, he only learned harmony and modulations from old Sebastian Bach by heart, and is not able to properly execute a fugue - and has no solid game - so he is by no means an Albrechtsberger . [...]

In 1790 Häßler went to London , where he gave concerts with Joseph Haydn .

Russia

After a concert in Riga in September 1792, he traveled on to St. Petersburg , where Tsarina Catherine the Great appointed him Imperial Russian court conductor . Here he gave concerts and helped found a music publisher whose aim was to publish the works of German classics and at the same time to encourage contemporary Russian composers to make their works known to the general public in this way.

In 1794 he and his family moved to Moscow . There he gained great recognition and enthusiasm for his organ and piano concertos. The poet Ivan Ivanovich Dmitrijew praised him in a poem: O Hässler, where did you get your magical art from? You make mortals feel what it is. (...) Hässler made Johann Sebastian Bach popular in Russia and influenced the musical tastes of musicians and listeners. His music pedagogical and didactic work as a piano teacher was of great importance. After thirty years of activity, he died in Russia.

His compositional work includes sonatas , cantatas , études and instrumental compositions, especially for piano.

His daughter was the opera singer Henriette Eberwein , his son-in-law Franz Carl Adelbert Eberwein .

Works

  • Character piece op.27 No. 2
  • “50 pieces for beginners” op. 38
  • 360 preludes in all keys op.47 (1817)
  • “Etudes en Vingt-quatre Valses” op. 49
  • “Grand concerto” op. 50
  • "Six Easy Sonatas"
  • Cantata "Erfurt"
  • Sonata for Harpsichord No. 3 in D minor

literature

Web links

Commons : Johann Wilhelm Häßler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Mozart meant chromatic and not like with the short octave ' .
  2. ↑ See: [1] , accessed on March 11, 2017.
  3. ↑ History of organ music in Russia (Russian)
  4. ↑ О Гесслер! Где ты взял волшебное искусство? Ты смертному даешь какое хочешь чувство! Иль гений над тобой невидимо парит. И с каждою струной твоею говорит. (...)
personal data
SURNAME Häßler, Johann Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and organist
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1747
PLACE OF BIRTH Erfurt
DATE OF DEATH March 29, 1822
Place of death Moscow