Walter Fyodorowitsch Nouvel

Walter Nouvel (painted by Léon Bakst )

Walter Fjodorowitsch Nouvel ( Russian Вальтер Фёдорович Нувель ; Walter Fjodorowitsch Nuwel * 1871 ; † 1949 ) was a Russian author .

Life

Nouvel was descended from French refugees who emigrated from France to Germany at the end of the 17th century . His father was a businessman who took care of finances. His German mother Matilda Andrejewna was assigned a French soul . His eldest brother Richard sang abroad for a while under the pseudonym Ricardo Nordi and was then a singing teacher . The second brother Fedor died not yet 40 years old. The third brother Eduard died in adolescence. His sister Matilda married the Dutch diplomat Baron Van Heeckeren , relative of Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès , who fought with Pushkin in the fatal duel for Pushkin .

After attending the renowned private high school run by Karl Ivanovich May (1820–1895), Nouvel began studying at the University of St. Petersburg in 1890 with Alexander Nikolajewitsch Benois , Sergei Pavlovich Djagilew and Dmitri Wladimirowitsch Filossofow . He then became an official for special tasks in the Chancellery of the Ministry for the Imperial Court . As a co-founder and member of the editorial board of Mir Iskusstwa magazine , he represented the left wing and was responsible for the music section. Around 1900, under his leadership, extensive articles were written about Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin and his new music. Together with Alfred. P. Nurok organized the popular evenings of contemporary music in St. Petersburg with new Russian and foreign music.

With Djagilew, Nouvel became enthusiastic about music, so they often played four hands . Subsequently, he was Djagilev's right-hand man in the organization of the Ballets Russes in Paris . After the October Revolution he emigrated to France in 1919 .

With Arnold Haskell, Nouvel wrote Djagilew's biography Diaghileff: His Artistic and Private Life (1935), and he was the ghostwriter for Stravinsky's autobiography Chronique de ma Vie .

Nouvel found his grave in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois .

literature

• Ilja Samoilowitsch Silberschtein, Wladimir Alexejewitsch Samkow (Ed.): Sergei Diagilev i russkoe iskusstvo ( Sergei Djagilew and Russian Art) . Iskusstvo, Moscow 1982, Volume 2, pp. 342-343.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Maria Deppermann: Russia around 1900: Wealth and Crisis of an Era in Transition . In: Alkesandr Scriabin and the Scriabinists II . Music Concepts 37/38 (Eds. Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn ), edition text + kritik , Munich 1984, pp. 61-106. ISBN 3-88377-171-6 .