Richard Sahla (composer)

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Richard Sahla (born September 17, 1855 in Graz , † April 30, 1931 in Bückeburg ) was an Austrian violin virtuoso , conductor and composer .

Life

Growing up in his native Graz, he soon had the reputation of a musical child prodigy . He played the violin and piano very well. At the age of 13 he began his violin studies as a pupil of Ferdinand David at the Leipzig Conservatory , which he finished as one of the most excellent pupils at the institution. He made his debut at the age of eighteen in Leipzig in a Gewandhaus concert and received enthusiastic applause for his technically mature and musically stimulating playing. His further résumé can be derived from the autobiography of his friend Wilhelm Kienzl . Both studied composition with WA Rémy , whose students also included composersFerruccio Busoni , Josef Gauby , Richard Heuberger , Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek and Felix Weingartner belonged.

With the diploma of the Leipzig Conservatory, the Mecca of violinists , in his pocket, he started an impressive career as a violin virtuoso at the age of 18. He quickly gained a reputation for being one of the most talented violin virtuosos. He elicits unearthly sounds from his Stradivarius. Golden purity is paired with the scent of sweet poetry , enthused a critic in 1880 after a performance in the Vienna Court Opera .

On October 1st, 1875, the twenty-year-old Sahla joined the Schaumburg-Lippische Hofkapelle as solo violinist for eight months . He then took a position as concertmaster in Gothenburg, Sweden , and was a member of the Vienna Court Opera Orchestra from 1878 to 1880, where he appeared as a celebrated soloist and was equated by the Viennese press with the Spanish miracle violinist Pablo de Sarasate . Sahla's compositions for violin and piano: Spanish Dance , Nocturno No. 1 (B flat major) and Nocturno No. 2 (E major) are “dedicated to Pablo de Sarasate in admiration” .

In the autumn of 1881 he went on a 66-concert tour with Wilhelm Kienzl and the singer Aglaja Orgeni through the whole of Hungary, Croatia, Central and Northern Germany, which was temporarily adventurous because the impresario ran off with the box office. Sahla dedicated the Romanian Rhapsody , which was created on this trip, to his friend, Princess Amalie Hügel-Teck, daughter of the Duke of Württemberg and niece of Queen Victoria of Great Britain .

From 1882 to the beginning of 1888, Richard Sahla was the first concertmaster at the Royal Court Opera in Hanover, where he made many friends. These included the Liszt student Ingeborg von Bronsart , an internationally successful pianist and composer, and her husband Hans Bronsart von Schellendorf , director of the Royal Theater of Hanover from 1867 to 1887. Sahla's ballad for violin and piano, published in 1904, is “Ingeborg von Bronsart's gift” .

On April 1, 1888, he took up the post of court conductor in Bückeburg . He expanded the court orchestra and gave guest concerts with it in Hanover, Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin. With the 38-strong ensemble, he increasingly attracted national attention. Composers such as Max Reger in 1911 performed their works in Bückeburg as soloists under Sahla's direction. As a violin soloist, he continued to perform successfully, particularly with Paganini's first violin concerto and the Beethoven violin concerto. As a conductor, he paid particular attention to composers who were largely unknown at the time, including Berlioz , Brahms , Bruckner , Debussy , Liszt , Mahler , Sibelius , and Richard Strauss and Wagner . Many guest conductors led Sahla to the Berliner Philharmoniker, and he conducted the world premieres of all six violin concertos by Henri Marteau , with whom he and Max Reger were close friends. Arthur Nikisch judged Sahla in 1917: "He is a god-gifted, exquisite artist" .

After the First World War , hard times began for Sahla. At times he had to earn his living as a coffeehouse violinist in Hanover . He stayed temporarily in America with his wife, the court singer Anna-Ruth Sahla, a native of America. His last major appearance was in Bückeburg in 1925 at a concert to celebrate his 70th birthday.

There are autographs of his compositions. a. in the state archive in Bückeburg .

The violinist David-F. As a result of his research on his written dissertation on the subject of Richard Sahla - violin virtuoso, maestro and forgotten composer (submitted in 2012 to Professor Thomas Schipperges at the State University for Music and Performing Arts Mannheim ), Tebbe came across several other printed compositions by Sahla, including his grandson , the television editor and book author Peter Sahla, made a large number of unprinted compositions from his possession available that still need to be published, including a complete Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor.

Works

  • Transcriptions ( studies ) of the songs Du bist die Ruh , Der Lindenbaum and Am Meer for violin solo (1874/1887) by Franz Schubert (FEC Leuckart, Leipzig)
  • Romanian Rhapsody for violin and pianoforte (Verlag Paul Vogt)
  • Love affection after Emanuel Geibel (1892)
  • Mourning based on a poem by Nikolaus Lenau (1892)
  • Reverie R.Sahla (Publisher: Nagel / Hannover)
  • Little slumber song for violin and piano (Schweers & Haake 1899)
  • Lullaby for violin solo (for Richarda and Richard)
  • Menuetto for violin with pianoforte in A major, My dear wife for Richard on April 8, 1900 (Gries & Schornnagel)
  • I heard one sing - poem by Ms. Rückert set to music for a voice with pianoforte Bückeburg December 23, 1891 (Adolf Nagel)
  • Ballade - Your Excellency Mrs. Ingeborg v. Approved for Bronsart. Bückeburg, November 1891 (CF Kahnt, Leipzig)
  • Compositions for violin and piano Composition for violin with piano: Spanish dance, Nocturno No.1 Nocturno No 2, (CF Kahnt 1904)
  • Four songs based on poems by Martha Grosse for voice and piano (1925): Lullaby , Ein Karte , Ein Ich , Traumvergessenheit (Ries & Erler)
  • George Frideric Handel - Siciliano. For violin with accompaniment of the pianoforte (Arr .: RS, FEC Leuckart)
  • Two chants for alto voice with viola and pianoforte by Johannes Brahms; arr.Richard Sahla (N. Simrock)
  • Various arrangements by Svenska Folkvisor

literature

  • Wilhelm Kienzl, My migration through life. Experienced and seen. Stuttgart: J. Engelhorns Nachf. (1926)
  • Anna Creuzinger, From the musical life of Bückeburg: Professor Richard Sahla. Biographical and personal memories. In: Schaumburg-Lippische Heimatblätter 13 (1962) No. 2 ff.
  • Helene Hillmann, Professor Richard Sahla. In: Schaumburg-Lippische Heimatblätter 20 (1969) No. 3 ff.
  • I. Fuchs:  Sahla Richard. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 9, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7001-1483-4 , p. 379.
  • Eva Rademacher, In memory of Richard Sahla. Schaumburg-Lippische Heimatblätter 32 (1981) No. 4
  • Lower Saxony. State Archive Bückeburg, u. a. Sheet music and correspondence with Wilhelm Berger and Max Reger

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wulf Konold (Ges.-Red.), Klaus-Jürgen Etzold (co-author) and a .: Sahla, Richard , in this .: The Lower Saxony State Orchestra Hanover 1636 - 1986 , ed. from the Lower Saxony State Orchestra Hanover, Hanover: Schlueter, 1986, ISBN 3-87706-041-2 , p. 188
  2. ↑ Published on Youtube: You are calm (David Tebbe plays Richard Sahla)
  3. ↑ Published on Youtube: Liebeseligkeit (Kieu Trang Pham sings Richard Sahla Liebeseligkeit)
  4. ↑ on CD Eine kleine Nachtmusik eamm-Records published (David Tebbe, violin and Winfried Hummel, harp)
personal data
SURNAME Sahla, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-German violin virtuoso, conductor
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Graz
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 1931
Place of death Buckeburg