Rodolphe Kreutzer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766–1831)

Rodolphe Kreutzer (born November 16, 1766 in Versailles , † January 6, 1831 in Geneva ) was a French violinist , conductor and composer .

Life

Gravestone of Rodolphe Kreutzer on the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris

Kreutzer received his first music lessons from his father, later Kreutzer studied with Anton Stamitz . At the age of 16 he was appointed principal violinist of the Royal Chapel. He then got the position as solo violinist at the Théatre Italy, which prompted him to compose an opera. In 1797 he visited Italy and Germany on concert tours and then became professor of violin playing at the Paris Conservatory . He also worked as solo violinist at the Grand Opera and in the private orchestra of Napoleon I from 1801 onwards. Over the next thirty years he wrote forty operas, which he also directed. From 1816 he was the royal conductor and in 1817 he was appointed director of the Paris Opera , of which he was director between 1824 and 1826.

From the foundation of the Paris Conservatory in 1795, Kreutzer was professor of violin until 1826. After Ludwig van Beethoven had heard him in Vienna in 1803, he dedicated the violin sonata No. 9 op. 47, the famous Kreutzer sonata , to him, which he never played in public because he thought the sonata was a torture for the instrument.

With colleagues Pierre Rode and Pierre Baillot , he developed the Conservatory's violin method. The trio can be described as the founder of the French violin school. Kreutzer died in Geneva in 1831. His remains found their final resting place in the Père Lachaise cemetery (Division 13).

Kreutzer was the brother of the violinist and composer Jean Nicolas Auguste Kreutzer (1778–1832) and an uncle of the composer Léon Charles François Kreutzer (1817–1868).

Works

  • 1 orchestral symphony
  • 1 oboe concerto
  • 3 concert symphonies
  • 19 violin concerts
  • Chamber music
  • 40 operas, including Joan of Arc in Orléans in 1790, Paul and Virginie in 1791, Lodoïska in 1791
  • 42 Etudes and Caprices from 1796, his still well-known educational work for budding violinists.
  • Overture Journée de Marathon for wind orchestra
  • Ballet music, Les Amours d'Antoine et de Cléopâtre (Choreography: Jean-Pierre Aumer )

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g h i j Wilibald Gurlitt: Rodolphe Kreutzer. In: Riemann Musiklexikon.