Wilhelm von Lenz

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Christian Wilhelm von Lenz ( Russian Вильгельм Фёдорович Ленц / Wilhelm Fedorovich Lenz , also under the name Василий / Vasily ; born June 1 . Jul / 13. June  1808 greg. In Riga ; † 19 jul. / 31 January  1883 greg. in Petersburg ) was a German-Baltic music writer and member of the Imperial Russian State Council . He dealt in particular with Beethoven .

Life

After Christian Wilhelm von Lenz, son of court attorney August Wilhelm von Lenz, had attended grammar school in Riga until 1827, he went to Geneva to learn the newer languages. On the trip there, he made the acquaintance of Ferdinand Ries , Beethoven's student and first biographer, in Frankfurt am Main , who inspired the musically educated Lenz for the great master. Promoted in music theory in Geneva, Lenz went to Paris in the autumn of 1828 , where he took lessons from Franz Liszt . In the spring of 1829 he traveled to London , where he met Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Ignaz Moscheles , and in the autumn returned via Holland to study law in Dorpat at the request of his father ; He devoted his free time to music.

In 1831 Lenz left Dorpat as a legal candidate and went to Moscow to perfect himself in the Russian language and in Russian law. A chance acquaintance brought him into the higher circles of the Russian aristocracy and in the house of General von Witte in the winter of 1831/32 he met the English harpist and composer Elias Parish Alvars , with whom he went on a trip to Constantinople in May 1832 . A colorful description of this trip and his stay on the Golden Horn has been preserved in his diary of a Livonian (Vienna 1850). With successful recommendations, Lenz came to Vienna , where he stayed for the winter of 1832/33 to tackle his source studies in the birthplace of almost all of Beethoven's masterpieces, but had to return to Saint Petersburg in the spring of 1833, where his high-ranking friends gave him an advantageous one Office as an official for special assignments in the Ministry of Justice. He also served as a member of the censorship committee.

During his long stay in Saint Petersburg, Lenz associated with all the musical greats who came there, and learned from them. In his ingenious feature articles Fate of a Livonian in St. Petersburg, 1839-77 (in the German St. Petersburger Zeitung , 1878, no. 23-107) he vividly described the musical life of the royal seat. With his essays in the Neue Berliner Musikzeitung (1870–75) you make an excellent contribution to the musical history of Russia.

In 1842 Lenz visited Vienna and other cities to promote his Beethoven research, and finally Paris again, where he stayed for five months and took lessons from Chopin , who, alongside Beethoven, had the greatest influence on his compositional talent. In his work The Great Pianoforte Virtuosos: Liszt, Chopin, Tausig and Henselt from Personal Acquaintance (Berlin 1872), he placed a beautiful monument especially to his teacher Chopin. After returning to Saint Petersburg, he began to work on the Beethoven material he had collected. An illness prevented him from completing his work. He left Saint Petersburg in the summer of 1845 and went to Paris for the third time, where he made the acquaintance of Hector Berlioz and also studied music with him. From Paris he went to Spain, of which country he made a faithful description in the second part of his diary ; in particular his descriptions of Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez , the Raphael of Spain, are of art historical value.

Lenz returned from Gibraltar via Rome to Saint Petersburg, where he was mentally refreshed and began his Beethoven work, which was finally published in 1852 in two volumes under the title Beethoven et ses trois styles. Analyzes of the sonates de piano suivis de l'essai d'un catalog critique, chronologique et anectodique de l'œuvre de Beethoven was published. Lenz himself describes this work as “his immature, but well-intentioned first book about Beethoven”, whereas he viewed Beethoven with pride in his work, which was written in German . An art study (Vol. 1–2, Kassel 1855; Vol. 3–5, Hamburg 1860), especially on the “Critical Catalog of all of Ludwig van Beethoven's works with analysis of the same”, which alone comprises four large volumes and caused a sensation. He was less successful in Beethoven's biography contained in the first volume, which, however, had several editions.

Since 1868, after 35 years of Russian civil service, Lenz had been a true State Councilor and worked as a skilled journalist in Saint Petersburg until March 1879, when he got sicker and withdrew completely from the public service. Towards the end of his life he went blind and died on January 19th July. / January 31,  1883 greg. at the age of 73 in Saint Petersburg.

Works

  • Beethoven et ses trois styles , 2 volumes, Brussels 1852–1855
  • Beethoven. An Art Study , Volume 1, Kassel 1855 (biography) (digitized version)
  • Beethoven. An Art Study , Volume 2, Kassel 1855 (digitized version)
  • Beethoven. An Art Study , Volume 3, Hamburg 1860 (digitized version)
  • The Russian music writer and composer Alex. Sérow . Sketch of scientific-artistic life from Petersburg , in: Neue Berliner Musikzeitung , vol. 25, no. 21 of May 24, 1871, pp. 161–163, no. 22 of May 31, 1871, pp. 169f., No. 23 of June 7, 1871, pp. 177-179 and No. 24 of June 14, 1871, pp. 185f. ( Digitized version )
  • The great pianoforte virtuosos of our time from personal acquaintance. Liszt. - Chopin - Tausig. - Henselt , Berlin: Behr 1872 ( digitized version )
  • Josef Joachim in Petersburg . Position of the artist in Russia , in: Neue Berliner Musikzeitung , vol. 26, no. 29 of July 17, 1872, p. 228 and no. 30 of July 24, 1872, p. 233f.
  • Clear assessment of Chopin's pianoforte compositions , as the prodom of a critical catalog of all his works , in: Neue Berliner Musikzeitung , vol. 26, no. 36 of September 4, 1872, pp. 282f., No. 37 of September 11, 1872 , Pp. 289-292 and No. 38, September 18, 1872, pp. 297-299

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lenz, Wilhelm von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lenz, Christian Wilhelm von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Music writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1883
Place of death Petersburg