Julie von Asten

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Julie von Asten (* 1841 in Vienna ; † 1923 in Berlin ), born Julie Schmuttermayer von Asten , was an Austrian - German pianist and piano teacher . She has performed as a soloist and as an accompanist to well-known singers and musicians.

Life

Julie von Asten grew up with her two sisters Anna (1848–1903) and Marie in the Gundelhof on the fire site in Vienna. It is not known from whom Julie von Asten received her initial musical lessons.

In 1854/55 she attended the composition class at the Vienna Conservatory . Her apprenticeship with Clara Schumann began in the late 1850s. "The famous pianist stopped there at the Gundelhof whenever she gave concerts in Vienna, and Julie became her student on this occasion." Clara Schumann's appreciation for her student was evident as early as 1859 when she first saw the young Julie von Asten on one of her Concerts as a duo partner: “This lady was Frau Schumann's performance of the second piano part of Robert's famous wonderful Variations for a pair of grand pianos [op. 46] not only worthy of the side, but she even knew how to emphasize the identical passages of this tone direction more pithily, but at least warmer, than the generally celebrated bearer and mediator of those beautiful music festivals just described. ”In the winter season 1858/59, Julie von Asten received continuous Piano lessons while Clara Schumann was in Vienna; this seems to have continued in Berlin in the 1870s.

When Johannes Brahms moved to Vienna in 1862, he took over the training of Julie von Asten. On July 23, 1863, she gave her first own concert in Bad Ischl . She played the Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven , Variations and a Moment Musical of Schubert , a waltz in A flat major by Chopin and a Nocturne, Op. 23 by Schumann . Her debut in the Leipzig Gewandhaus took place on December 1, 1864 as part of the 8th subscription concert. She played the Piano Concerto no. 1 in C Major by Beethoven, the Novellette B minor by Schumann and the Scherzo in E minor by Mendelssohn .

As a musician, she was certified as having an “almost male” touch, which at the time could definitely be a compliment. The piano was considered an instrument suitable for the fair sex , but it was believed that certain compositions could not be mastered by the “weaker sex” due to a lack of strength. The Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung took the concert as an opportunity to characterize the 23-year-olds' playing style in detail: “The impression of their playing is, if not virtuoso in the sense of impressive skill and complete confidence in coping with every task, but a harmonious and musical one she cleverly avoids wanting to do what is beyond her strength, but carries out the chosen works cleanly and with correct expression. Your plot is definite, almost masculine; the passages come out clearly; the lecture is not devoid of meaning, but is free of pathological or artificial sentimentality. "

On a concert tour on February 18, 1865, Julie von Asten played the violin sonatas in A minor by Schumann and E minor by Mozart and the Rondo in B minor by Schubert , together with Joseph Joachim , who valued her skills as a piano accompanist very much . Julie von Asten contributed a scherzo by Mendelssohn and a waltz in A flat major by Chopin to her solo compositions . Concerts in Bremen and in the Leipzig Gewandhaus followed. In 1866, in Vienna, Julie von Asten accompanied Joseph Hellmesberger in sonatas by Johann Sebastian Bach . In November 1867 she traveled to Graz with Johannes Brahms to give two concerts with him at the Landschaftliches Theater and the Thalia Theater .

Together with her sister Anna, who was seven years younger than her , the later well-known soprano who performed under the stage name Anna Schultzen von Asten , Julie von Asten moved to Berlin in 1869 , where Anna von Asten received an engagement at the Court Opera . She married the doctor Otto Schultzen in 1871 and went to Dorpat with her husband that same year , where Julie von Asten also lived in 1873/74. After that, Berlin remained her permanent residence until her death.

On November 27, 1871, Clara Schumann played the Hungarian dances for four hands with Julie von Asten in Berlin. The subsequent collaboration with singers such as Anna Schultzen von Asten, Julius Stockhausen , Amalie Joachim , Hermine Spies , the violinist Joseph Joachim and his students Marie Soldat-Röger and Gabriele Wietrowetz showed an increasing specialization and appreciation of Julie von Asten as a piano accompanist. Furthermore, Clara Schumann was one of her regular music partners.

Julie von Asten cultivated close friendships with Clara Schumann, Julius von Stockhausen and the married couple Amalie and Joseph Joachim. In 1876 Julie von Asten accompanied Amalie Joachim to a spa stay in Merano.

Julie von Asten's mother and her youngest sister Marie relocated from Vienna to Berlin in October 1873. Julie von Asten and her sister Marie gave piano lessons. The sister Anna Schultzen von Asten got a job as a singing teacher at the Royal University of Music in 1874 and was appointed professor in 1902. Apart from appearances in Barmen and London , the latter with Joseph Joachim in March 1878 in the Monday Popular Concert , no other concert tours by Julie von Asten are documented during her time in Berlin.

Until 1897, Julie von Asten performed every year, sometimes several times, in the capital Berlin, most recently in concerts organized together with her sister Anna Schultzen von Asten. The performances of Julie von Asten and Anna Schultzen von Asten became a ritual since 1875 at the end of the year at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin .

1892 Performance of the concert of the piano trio in D minor op. 63 by Schumann with Joseph Joachim (violin) and Robert Hausmann (cello). The criticism no longer certified the pianist's “almost masculine” touch, but different qualities: “If the piano part in the work, which was glowing with passion, did not come into its own everywhere and, at the end of it, a more energetic and powerful intervention was sometimes desired, so For this purpose, other passages, especially in the Scherzo, were executed with such poetic sensitivity and clean accuracy that the whole work, in this cleared and partially completed execution, gave the listener a great deal of pleasure. "( 1892, p. 696 )

Chamber music partners were Joseph Hellmesberger, Joseph Joachim, Emanuel Wirth , Robert Hausmann and Andreas Moser .

Anna Schultzen von Asten died in 1903 as a result of a traffic accident. Julie von Asten survived them by about two decades. In 1923 there was a final entry in the Berlin address book with the job title “music teacher” and the address Kurfürstenstrasse 97.

family

Julie von Asten was the daughter of Moritz Schmuttermayer, Knight von Asten († 1866), a lawyer and section councilor in the Vienna State Chancellery in the Ministry of the Imperial House and Foreign Affairs, from his marriage to Ludovica Sommer von Sonnenschild († 1892). Julie von Asten had two sisters: Anna (1848–1903) and Marie.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Max Kalbeck , Johannes Brahms , Volume 2, Berlin 1908, p. 12 ( digitized version )
  2. ↑ Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , Volume 50, No. 21 of May 20, 1859, p. 233 ( digitized version )
  3. ↑ Allgemeine Musical Zeitung , 1864, Col. 829
  4. ↑ Schultzen, Anna; born von Asten, artist name Schultzen von Asten (1836–1903), singer In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950, Institute for Modern and Contemporary History Research
  5. ↑ mugi.hfmt-hamburg.de
  6. ↑ Asten, Julie . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1923, Part I, p. 67. “Music teacher, Kurfürstenstrasse 97”.
personal data
SURNAME Asten, Julie from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmuttermayer von Asten, Julie (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-German pianist and piano teacher
DATE OF BIRTH 1841
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 1923
Place of death Berlin