Robert von Hornstein
Robert Freiherr von Hornstein (born December 5, 1833 in Donaueschingen , † July 19, 1890 in Munich ) was a German nobleman and composer .
Life
Robert von Hornstein came from the Swabian noble family von Hornstein and inherited the possessions on Hohenstoffeln from his father Ferdinand von Hornstein in 1861 . His mother Emilie geb. Kirsner was a sister of the pharmacist and Baden politician Ludwig Kirsner .
Robert von Hornstein grew up mainly in Donaueschingen. His musical talent was nourished early on by the musical life maintained there by Karl Egon II zu Fürstenberg . Freed from working life due to his origins, he completed his musical training through years of study in Stuttgart, Dresden and Frankfurt until he finally settled in Munich. He made a name for himself as a prolific composer of songs, ballet music, operettas and operas and as an original and valued guest at societies. In addition to his popular songs, which reached seven editions during his lifetime, the operetta Adam and Eve (1870), text by Paul Heyse and the ballet Der Blumen Rache (1871) based on a poem by Ferdinand Freiligrath were successful.
Hornstein married Charlotte born in 1860. Lehne and lived with her, alternating with the Munich town house, her family seat in Winkel on the Middle Rhine . Among the authors of his librettos counted Paul Heyse , who temporarily lived in Munich in the House of chert.
Hornstein's son Ferdinand von Hornstein published Richard Wagner's two letters of appeal to his father in 1911 , to which the latter had answered negatively, which earned him an immensely derogatory account in Wagner's autobiography Mein Leben . He also edited Robert von Hornstein's memoirs (Munich, Süddeutsche Monatshefte , 1908)
Hornstein's daughter Charlotte (1861–1941) married the painter Franz von Lenbach in 1896 , who portrayed his father-in-law.
Hornstein's daughter Marion (1870–1948) married the art collector Giorgio Gioacchino Franchetti (1865–1922), who came from a banking family in 1890.
Quote
“I was acquainted with the young composer just mentioned, Freiherr Robert von Hornstein, from Vienna, where he had staged a rather graceful operetta, The Pages of Versailles, without success. "I failed!" He shouted, laughing, in his honest Swabian dialect, as he went into our guest room after the performance, where we looked somewhat embarrassed about his arrival. He sat down happily at the table and picked up a roast chicken with all ten fingers, his little eyes almost disappearing into the young, broad face of Socrates. His appearance and his formless, wild manners did not easily reveal neither the baron nor the man of spirit. He brought me a few books of melodious, fresh songs that struck me because of the now so rare quality of naivety and natural singability. Why was Hornstein never really successful? Did he have too little talent or too much money? I believe the latter. Hornstein was of a comfortable nature and inherently very wealthy. He soon dropped his wings and does not seem to have published anything in the last thirty years of his life. He was very entertaining when he talked about his dealings with R. Wagner in Zurich. When Wagner got tired of his stay with Wesendonk in Zurich, he wrote to Hornstein that he wished to work on his "Nibelungen" at leisure on his estate. Hornstein had not only heard, like Gregorovius in Zurich, talk about Wagner's "heroic deeds of egoism", he knew them firsthand. He did not want to inflict the honor of hosting such an expensive and explosive guest on his family and apologized in the most polite manner. Wagner replied to him in a short, irritated letter that Hornstein would still bitterly regret that he had missed this opportunity to become famous through Wagner's stay. "
literature
- Ernst-Jürgen Dreyer : Two letters from Richard Wagner to the composer Robert von Hornstein in the EW Bonsels publishing house. With a monograph on Robert von Hornstein and an appendix on Robert Gund. Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-447-04294-X
Web links
- Friedrich von Weech : Hornstein, Robert Freiherr von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 50, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1905, p. 477.
- Sheet music and audio files by Robert von Hornstein in the International Music Score Library Project
- Badische Biographien IV, pp. 194–196
- List of works (lieder.net)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The house was later - until 2005 - the town hall ( oestrich-winkel.de ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link accordingly Instructions and then remove this notice. ).
- ↑ Hanslick
- ↑ amazon.de
- ↑ oestrich-winkel.de ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Portrait of Marion Franchetti
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hornstein, Robert von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hornstein, Robert Freiherr von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 5, 1833 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Donaueschingen |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 19, 1890 |
| Place of death | Munich |