Wilhelm Fitzenhagen
Encyclopedia
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and instructor
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
, best known today as the dedicatee of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's Variations on a Rococo Theme
Variations on a Rococo Theme
The Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33, for cello and orchestra was the closest Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ever came to writing a full concerto for cello and orchestra. The style was inspired by Mozart, Tchaikovsky's role model, and makes it clear that Tchaikovsky admired the Classical style very...
.
Life
Fitzenhagen was born in SeesenSeesen
Seesen is a town and municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the northwestern edge of the Harz mountain range, approx...
in the Duchy of Brunswick
Duchy of Brunswick
Brunswick was a historical state in Germany. Originally the territory of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in the Holy Roman Empire, it was established as an independent duchy by the Congress of Vienna in 1815...
, where his father served as music director. Beginning at age five, he received lessons on the piano, the cello and the violin. Many times, he had to substitute for wind players absent due to various emergencies. At 14, Fitzenhagen began advanced study of the cello with Theodore Müller. Three years later Fitzenhagen played for the Duke of Brunswick, who released him from all military service. In 1867 some noble patrons enabled him to study for a year with Friedrich Grützmacher
Friedrich Grützmacher
Friedrich Wilhelm Grützmacher was a noted German cellist in the second half of the 19th century.Grützmacher was born in Dessau, Anhalt, and was first taught by his father...
in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, A year later he was appointed to the Dresden Hofkapelle, where he started his career as soloist.
Fitzenhagen's playing at the 1870 Beethoven Festival in Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
attracted the attention of Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, who had formerly served as music director there. Liszt attempted to talk Fitzenhagen into joining the court orchestra. Fitzenhagen, however, had already accepted a professorship at the Moscow Conservatory
Moscow Conservatory
The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...
. Fitzenhagen became regarded as the premiere cello instructor in Russia and equally well-known as a soloist and chamber music performer. He was appointed solo cellist to the Russian Musical Society
Russian Musical Society
The Russian Musical Society was an organisation founded in 1859 by the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna and her protégé, pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein, with the intent of raising the standard of music in the country and disseminating musical education.Rubinstein and the Grand Duchess's...
and director of the Moscow Music and Orchestral Union. It was through this union that he made many concert appearances as a soloist. He formed a friendship with Tchaikovsky, giving the first performances of all three of that composer's string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
s as well as the Piano Trio
Piano Trio (Tchaikovsky)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50, was written in Rome between December 1881 and late January 1882. It is subtitled In memory of a great artist, in reference to Nikolai Rubinstein, his close friend and mentor, who had died on 23 March 1881...
as a member of the Russian Music Society's quartet.
Fitzenhagen trained a number of excellent cellists, including Joseph Adamowski, who went to America in 1889 to join the newly-formed Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
and helped found the orchestra's pension program. Adamowski also formed a string quartet named after him and taught at the New England Conservatory in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
.
Fitzenhagen died in Moscow.
Fitzenhagen and the Rococo Variations
Fitzenhagen gave the first performance of Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo ThemeVariations on a Rococo Theme
The Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33, for cello and orchestra was the closest Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ever came to writing a full concerto for cello and orchestra. The style was inspired by Mozart, Tchaikovsky's role model, and makes it clear that Tchaikovsky admired the Classical style very...
, which was dedicated to him, on November 30, 1877. The composer had already allowed his soloist a great deal of freedom in modifying the solo part, but Fitzenhagen chose additionally to alter the sequence of variations, possibly for the opportunity of soloistic display. The D minor variation which had been third in Tchaikovsky's original order was switched with the seventh and an eighth varition dropped altogether. Fitzenhagen may have felt justified by these efforts by the audience reaction after a performance at the Wiesbaden Festival in June 1879, writing to Tchaikovsky, "I produced a furore with your variations. I pleased so greatly that I was recalled three times, and after the Andante variation (D minor) there was stormy applause. [Composer Franz] Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
said to me, 'You carried me away! You played splendidly,' and regarding your piece he observed: 'Now there, at least, is real music.'"
How seriously Tchaikovsky may have viewed Fitzenhagen's more radical alterations is difficult to say. After the cello and piano arrangement appeared in Fitzenhagen's ordering of variations in 1878, Tchaikovsky complained to his publisher Jurgenson that Fitzenhagen had proofread the piece badly. Later, however, he may have come to regret Fitzenhagen's license with the piece more negatively. When cellist Anatoly Brandukov approached Tchaikovsky just before the full score was published in 1889, he found the composer "very upset, looking as though he was ill. When I asked: 'What's the matter with you?' Pyotr Ilyich, pointing to the writing table, said: 'That idiot Fitzenhagen's been here. Look what he's done to my piece—he's altered everything!' When I asked what action he was going to take concerning this composition, Pyotr Ilyich replied: 'The devil take it! Let it stand as it is!'"
Fitzenhagen's 1878 order was retained and the work became part of the standard repertoire. The varitions are still played in Fitzenhagen's sequence to the present day, despite the subsequent discovery and restoration of the composer's original order.
Selected compositions
Fitzenhagen wrote more than 60 works for the cello. These include four concertos, a suite for cello and orchestra, a string quartet and numerous salon pieces. He won an award from the St. Petersburg Chamber Musical Union for his string quartet. However, few of these works have survived.- Op. 1 – Romance
- Op. 2 – Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 1, in B minor
- Op. 3 – Two Songs Without Words for Cello & Piano
- Op. 4 – Concerto Fantastique, for Cello and Orchestra No. 2, in A minor
- Op. 5 – Tarantella
- Op. 6 – Nocturne, for Piano and Harp
- Op. 8 – Resignation, Sacred Song Without Words, for Cello and Organ or Piano, in E-flat major
- Op. 10 – Ballad, for Cello and Orchestra or Piano
- Op. 13 – Impromptu
- Op. 14 – Concert Mazurka
- Op. 15 – Consolation, for Cello and Organ or Piano
- Op. 16 – Three Easy Pieces, for Cello
- Op. 20 – Two Morceaux de Salon, for Cello
- Op. 21 – Elegy
- Op. 22 – Three Small Pieces for a Young Cellist
- Op. 23 – String Quartet
- Op. 24 – Perpetual Motion Machine for Cello and Piano
- Op. 25 – Light Variations in G Major on an Original Theme for Cello and Orchestra
- Arrangement 1: for piano, BreitkopfBreitkopf & HärtelBreitkopf & Härtel is the world's oldest music publishing house. The firm was founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf . The catalogue currently contains over 1000 composers, 8000 works and 15,000 music editions or books on music. The name "Härtel" was added when Gottfried...
(Edition Breitkopf No. 3280) - Arrangement 2: for piano, edited by G. Bostrem (Г. Бострема)
- Op. 26 – Album Leaf
- Op. 27 – Three Morceaux de Salon, for Cello
- Op. 28 – 40 Exercises & Technical Studies for the Cello
- Op. 29 – Three Easy Pieces in the First Position
- Op. 31 – Concert Waltzes for Four Cellos
- Op. 32 – Funeral March
- Op. 33 – Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra
- Op. 34 – Fantasy on Motifs from the Opera "The DemonThe Demon (opera)The Demon is an opera in three acts by Russian composer Anton Rubinstein. The work was composed in 1871. The libretto was by Pavel Viskovatov, based on the poem of the same name by Mikhail Lermontov.-Background:...
" by Anton RubinsteinAnton RubinsteinAnton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos... - Op. 35 – Serenade, for Solo Cello, in G major
- Op. 36 – Gavotte, in A major
- Op. 40 – Capriccio
- Op. 41 – Ave Maria for Four Cellos
- Op. 42 – Gavotte No. 2 for Cello and Piano
- Op. 43 – Impromptu
- Op. 44 – Nocturne
- Op. 45 – Minuet
- Op. 59 – The Spinnerin for Four Cellos
- Op. 62 – Suite for Cello, Orchestra, and Piano
- Op. 63 – Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 3, in A minor