VIRTUAL EXHIBITION
Join us on a journey of discovery, explore the musical heritage and experience the interconnected cultural roots of Europe.
Portraits
VI. THE IMMIGRANT MUSICIANS
During this golden period of music and migration, the paths of many musicians crossed in the Slovenian lands. They brought their musical knowledge and experience, music scores, the latest trends in performance styles and personal relationships with renowned musicians and patrons to our land, thus writing an important part of Slovenian music history and bringing forth a new generation of artists. Sometimes matters of the heart and resulting marriages convinced musicians to start a new chapter in their lives and settle in the often musically still quite dormant Slovenian lands.
Violinist, Orchestral director and Composer
FRANZ DUSSEK
Franz Benedikt Dussek (František Dusík; 1765–1817) was born in Čáslav in Bohemia. He received music lessons from his father Jan Dussek, in the Cistercian monastery in Žd’ár nad Sázavou, and in the Prague Benedictine monastery of Emauzy (taught by Fr. Augustin Šenkýř and Schenkitz). Later he went to Italy, where he performed as a violinist, cellist and pianist in theaters in Mortara, Venice and Milan. In 1790 he joined the bishop’s chapel in Ljubljana, where he spent the next 10 years as violinist, organist, and Kapellmeister. Shortly after the foundation of the Philharmonic Society he became a member and one of its leading musical figures. He wrote five symphonies and several serenades for the society. Because of his collaboration with Georg Schantroch’s theatrical company (as a répétiteur, singer, and composer), Dussek lost his position at Ljubljana Cathedral. After that he was a Kapellmeister and “klaviermeister” in Gorizia, where he worked as a private piano teacher, musical director, pianist and cellist in the following years. He also performed in various northern Italian theaters. According to some sources, after 1806 he performed as military Kapellmeister of the infantry regiments in Venice and of Infantry Davidovich No. 34. The copy of the overture to Dussek’s opera Il Bruto ossia Roma, made intentionally in Ljubljana, may be evidence of his probable return to Carniola in 1817. On the only surviving concert program of the Philharmonic Society of Ljubljana in November, there is a handwritten note that Dusík performed a piano fantasia. After this date, we lose track of him. Dussek wrote a number of farces, serious and comic operas, an oratorio, masses, symphonies and overtures, piano and violin concertos, and several chamber works.
Kapellmeister and Composer
FERDINAND SCHWERDT
Leopold Ferdinand Schwerdt (1773–1854) probably came to Ljubljana after 1800. In 1806 and 1807 he toured with traveling theater companies as a cellist, singer and actor. He wrote music for J.A. Gleich’s play Der Mohr von Segemonda and Treitschke’s comedy Die wandernden Komödianten. In 1807 he became a cathedral chapel singer and a teacher at the cathedral’s music school. From 1812 to 1820 he was Kapellmeister of St. Jacob’s Church in Ljubljana, where the music school was founded in 1812. During this time he also conducted (e.g. Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons in 1818). In 1826 he was still in Ljubljana, earning his living by teaching and selling his own compositions. In the following years he worked in various parts of Slovenia and Croatia (in 1828 at Kostanjevica Monastery near Nova Gorica, Slovenia; in 1836 in Karlovac, Croatia; in 1837 in Novo mesto, Slovenia). In 1848 he played in the chapel of the Ljubljana National Guard and later in the Franciscan Church. He wrote some orchestral works, dance music (Deutsche Tänze), many sacred vocal-instrumental works, most of which are masses.
Teacher and Composer
JOSEPH MIKSCH
Joseph Miksch (Jožef Mikš; 1778–1866) was born in Nové Město in Moravia. He first worked as a tutor for Baron Hallerstein and then as an assistant in Langenau for four years. In 1806 he moved to Kranj, where he taught at the main school for the next eight years. After the French occupation, he entered the French Gymnasium in 1811 and taught Italian and mathematics. In 1814 he accepted a position at the Normal School in Ljubljana, where he taught penmanship and music to prospective teachers. He was one of the applicants for a teaching position at the newly established public music school, but withdrew his application. For a short time he taught at the Philharmonic Society School in Ljubljana, where he occasionally participated and was a member of the Philharmonic Society Orchestra and the Estates Theater. He performed as a singer, Kapellmeister, and bassoonist. In 1817 he was appointed director of the Normal School in Koper and became regional school inspector for the schools of the Littoral (except those in Gorizia) in Trieste. He spent his retirement in Ljubljana, where he participated in performances of secular and church music. He wrote several German and Latin masses, graduals and offertories, Tantum ergo, Te deum, etc.
Singer
AMALIE MASCHEK
Amalie Maschek (1792–1936) was born in Valtice, Moravia. She probably made her debut at the Leopoldstadt Theater in Vienna around 1812 and remained there until 1815. She then appeared at the Theater in Klagenfirt (1816–1818), and in 1819 she came from Bratislava to Graz to become an opera singer at the Estates Theater. It is not clear weather she met Caspar Maschek in Bratislava or Graz but they married on 6 May in 1820 in Graz. After moving to Ljubljana she performed as an opera singer at the Estates Theater and was also active as a teacher and as a performer on the stage of the Philharmonic Society. From 1826 to 1827 and 1934 to 1935, she and her husband founded two amateur opera companies in Ljubljana, with which they organized musical performances. However, due to financial difficulties, the two companies were not successful. She died one year later due tuberculosis. Their son Camillo Maschek (Kamilo Mašek; 1831–1859) became an important Slovenian musician.
Pianist and Composer
ANSELM HÜTTENBRENNER
Anselm Hüttenbrenner (1794-1868) was born in Graz, studied law and, as a pupil of Antonio Salieri in Vienna, made friends with a number of important musical figures. In 1821 he settled in Graz and soon became director of the Musikverein für Steiermark (Musikverein for Steiermark). After his wife’s death in 1848, he withdrew completely from public life for a time. He did not start composing again until 1852, when he was staying in Radgona, where he had been invited by friends. In the autumn of the same year, he moved to Maribor as a guest of the prominent and wealthy Baron Ferdinand von Rast and lived there intermittently until the autumn of 1858. He spent his time in nature, devoted himself to teaching piano and, above all, to composing. The musical oeuvre produced during this period is unusually extensive. Hüttenbrenner initially composed mainly Lieds and set to music in particular the poems of Baron Rast, better known as a poet under the pseudonym Hilarius. This was followed by a number of piano pieces, including works for four-hand piano, which the composer used primarily for pedagogical purposes. Among his most talented pupils, he specifically mentions Emma von Rast, the daughter of his host, and Erna Gasteiger, the daughter of a prominent citizen of Maribor. At the end of 1857 Hüttenbrenner devoted himself to composing orchestral overtures for theatrical performances in the Graz theatre, and during the Maribor period he also composed several works for church use, among which his Missa solemnis in F minor is prominent. A series of compositions with programme titles testifies to Hüttenbrenner’s personal affection for the city and its surroundings. In the self-penned Marburg (Maribor), Mein Steierland (My Styria), St. Urban (St. Urban) or Erinnerung an Kranichsfeld (Remembrance of Rače) this connection is already indicated by the setting. Similar thematic titles can also be found in the piano pieces, for example Erinnerung an die Besteigung des Pacher (Remembrance of the Ascent of Pohorje), Empfindung an der St. Joseph’s Quelle (Feelings at St. Joseph’s Spring), Die Draumühle (The Drava Mill) or, last but not least, Abschied von Marburg (Farewell from Maribor). Discover more
Kapellmeister and Composer
CASPAR MASCHEK
Caspar Maschek (1794–1873) was born in Prague. He received his musical education from his father, the well-known composer Vinzenz Maschek. He studied violoncello at the Prague Conservatory between 1811 and 1815 with the first generation of students. During his studies he was military bandmaster and assistant to his father at St. Nicholas Church in Prague. In 1819 he was musical director of the Estates Theater in Bratislava, then in Graz, where he married the singer Amalie Horný (1792–1836). A year later he moved to Ljubljana and became Kapellmeister at the Estates Theater and the Philharmonic Society, where he also founded a singing school. At the school he founded a choir and conducted numerous premieres of vocal-instrumental works in Ljubljana. During the 1821 Congress in Ljubljana, he directed the Italian and German opera groups. Later, he incorporated motifs from Rossini’s arias performed during the Congress into German dances (Deutsche) and wrote several arrangements of Italian opera melodies for various instruments. From 1826 to 1827 and 1934 to 1935, he and his wife founded two amateur opera companies in Ljubljana, with which they organized musical performances. However, due to financial difficulties, the two companies were not successful. In the period 1822–1854 he worked as a music teacher at the public music school. He wrote works for the stage (the operas, the operetta), several cantatas, solo songs and church works, as well as works for piano and organ and chamber music works.
Pianist and Composer
PAUL MICHELI
Paul Micheli (Paul Michl; 1795–?) was born in Jedlová in Bohemia, where he received his first musical training and then spent twelve years in Milan. He continued his studies in Vienna with Ignaz Xsaver Ritter von Seyfried (1776–1841) and Joseph Dreschler (1782–1852). He came to Ljubljana before 1830 and worked as a military Kapellmeister of the 17th Infantry Regiment between 1833 and 1849. He participated with the military band in several concerts of the Philharmonic Society and performed symphonic and operatic repertoire. His daughter, Josephine Micheli, was a pianist and honorary member of the Philharmonic Society and performed in several concerts. Probably for his daughter, Micheli composed Walzer nach motiven der Oper Crispino e la Comare für Pianoforte and Lucrezia Borgia Quadrille für Piano Forte.
Violinist, Orchestral director and Composer
JOSEPH BENESCH
Joseph Benesch grew up in a musically stimulating environment in Bohemia and Moravia. He studied music in Vienna and in 1819 embarked on a musical journey through Italy. In 1820 he gave his first concert in Ljubljana and then four more times during the Ljubljana Congress. Soon after the tour, he visited Wiener Neustadt, where he met the Proch family and began teaching their son Heinrich. Benesch’s relations with the Proch family and their kinship with the important Ljubljana musician Caspar Maschek certainly contributed to his move to Ljubljana. In August 1822 he applied to the Ljubljana governorate for permission to open a private violin school, and that same year he married the pianist and niece of Mascek, Friedrika Proch. From 1823 to 1828 he was orchestral director of the Philharmonic Society in Ljubljana, and from 1826 he was also violin teacher at the school there. He occasionally performed in more than ninety concerts in Ljubljana and participated as orchestral director of the Estates Theater as well as soloist and orchestral director. When the Philharmonic Society closed its music school in 1828, Benesch returned to Vienna, where he found financial security as a member of the orchestra of the prestigious Vienna Court Chapel and Court Theatre (Hofburgtheater), which he later directed. He wrote more than 50 works, mostly for violin, later also for guitar and string quartet. Among the violin works he performed as part of his personal repertoire in more than a hundred concerts, variations or “transcriptions” of well-known operas, polonaises and other highly virtuosic pieces stand out, written in a brilliant style and reflecting the spirit of Paganini’s time. Discover more
Double bass player and Composer
CARL FRANZ RAFAEL
Carl Franz Raphael (c. 1795–1864) was probably born in Žambrek, Bohemia. According to some information, he studied double bass at the Prague Conservatory, but he is not documented in the alumni lists there. His first job as a double bass player was apparently in the theater orchestra in Brno, where he also performed publicly as a singer-bassist between 1814 and 1815, but he certainly changed his place of residence and work frequently. From 1816 to 1818 he was a singer in Opava, and the years 1818-1835 he spent as a singer and singing teacher in Wrocław. In 1835 he moved to Brno, where he worked as a choirmaster of the theater choir, and then again as a conductor in Wrocław and Opava. With the traveling theater group of Stephan and Eugenie Mayrhofer, probably in the second half of 1842, he traveled to Maribor, where he founded a string quartet. From Maribor he traveled with the theater group to Ptuj, where he first worked as a conductor at the theater, but from 1845 he earned his living mainly as a private music teacher. He was an experienced composer and author of at least eight surviving contrafactures preserved in Ptuj, as well as a copyist.
Jew’s Harp player, Guitarist and Composer
KARL EULENSTEIN
Eulenstein was born in Heilbronn. He was interested in music at an early age and learned to play the violin. Later he got in touch with the Jew’s harp and gave several concerts, but at first he could not make a living from his music. With letters of recommendation from Justinus Kerner, he played for Gustav Schwab, Ludwig Uhland, Wilhelm Hauff and other personalities, who in turn recommended him to others, so that he quickly earned a good income with numerous performances for private societies and became known in the press for the first time. On his travels he learned to play the guitar and the French language. In late 1825, Eulenstein arrived in Paris, where he made the acquaintance of composer and harpist Franz Stockhausen and attracted the attention of Gioacchino Rossini and Ferdinando Paër, gaining access to the French royal court. Not all performances were rewarded with money, so the musician was often threatened by existential hardships. In 1826, Eulenstein traveled to England and gave a concert before the British King George IV, which received great acclaim. After a brief stay in his hometown of Heilbronn, Eulenstein returned to London in 1827, where he performed as a guitar soloist. He later moved to Bath, where he worked as a German and guitar teacher between concert tours. Here he also wrote a German practice book and a grammar book. By 1830 he was considered the best Jew’s harp player of his time. Due to dental problems, he then performed only as a guitarist and worked as a music teacher. After the death of his wife in 1879, he moved and lived with his daughter (Franziska Henriette) in Celje until his death. He was also active as a composer and wrote several works for violin, among others. The composition Farewell (Abschied) was performed on the stage of the Music Society in Celje in 1883.
Pianist and Composer
FRIEDERIKE BENESCH
Friederike Benesch (née Proch; 1805–1872) was born in Wiener Neustadt. She was the granddaughter of the famous composer Vinzenz Maschek from Prague. Friederike received her first music lessons from her mother, Vinzenzia Maschek (1782–1849), then from the regens chori and headmaster Anton Herzog. She continued her piano and composition studies privately in Vienna with Simon Sechter. In 1822 she met the violinist Joseph Benesch, who was a teacher of her brother Heinrich Proch. In April 1832 she married Benesch and moved with him to Ljubljana, where her uncle Caspar Maschek was one of the leading musicians. In Ljubljana she gave private piano lessons and between 1823 and 1826 appeared seven times on the stage of the Philharmonic Society as soloist and accompanist to her husband. She later continued her career in Vienna, composing several piano pieces.
Organist, Regens chori, Copyist and Composer
PEREGRIN MANICH
Peregrin Manich (1812–1897) was born in Úpice, Bohemia. He was educated as a teacher in Hradec Králove. He then worked as a teacher in Bohemia, then for several years as a teacher and monastery organist in Admont, Austria, and as a cathedral organist in Sankt Andrä. From 1847 he worked with Bishop Anton Slomšek (1800–1862), advising him in the field of music. With the transfer of the seat of the diocese, he moved with him to Maribor, where he worked in the cathedral as organist and regens chori until 1892. He also worked in the Maribor Musical Society (Marburger Philharmonischer Verein), at the the Institute of the School Sisters (Zavod šolskih sester), and as an assistant teacher taught instrumental subjects, and for a time directed the choir of the Reading Society. He composed ecclesiastical and secular works, most of which have been lost. He wrote an organ part as an appendix to Slomšek’s theological poems Drobtinice (1861). He also worked as a copyist and is the author of about 85 manuscript copies preserved in the Maribor Cathedral.
Violinist and Composer
JOSEF CZASTKA
Josef Czastka (Giuseppe Czastka; 1818-1884) was born in Brno, Bohemia. After fifteen years of military service, he came to Primorska, where he was kapellmeister of the military band for five years. In the early 1860s he became a music teacher in Poreč. From 1865 to 1874 he worked as conductor and music teacher of the Philharmonic Society in Koper. According to the society’s regulations, in addition to teaching at the local music school, he had to conduct the orchestra, the choir and the municipal brass band. At the same time, the teacher was also responsible for accompanying the festive church services on the organ in the Koper Cathedral. During the two years of his activity, he built up a forty-member brass band, as well as a thirty-member orchestra and choir. From 1874 to 1883, with an interruption in the 1877/1878 school year, he taught voice and violin as a teacher in all departments of the Koper Teacher Training College, and from 1876 at the Gymnasium in Koper. His teaching at the Teacher Training College was of great importance, as he trained a number of later important musicians, including Hrabroslav Volaric. He also performed as a violinist, for example at a school concert of the Gymnasium in Koper (1880), where he played the Fantasia by Charles Auguste de Bériot and conducted his own work Coro di studenti (Student Choir). His composition Il Sestetto di Perugia had already been performed at an earlier concert (1876).
Kapellmeister and Composer
HEINRICH WEIDT
Heinrich Wilhelm Weidt (1824-1901) was born in Coburg. He received his musical education from Heinrich Panofka and J. K. Pišek. In 1845/1846 he was a music teacher in Wertheim, then lived in Hamburg, where he performed first as an actor, then as a singer and composer. He worked in at least 24 places in Europe as an actor, singer, bandmaster, choirmaster, composer or pedagogue. Weidt moved to Celje in 1887 and became artistic director and director of the Celje Music Society (Cillier Musikverein). He taught piano, theory, and strings at the school and also gave private lessons in voice, piano, violin, and harmony. In 1888 he took over the direction of the chapel. Due to disagreements with the association, Weidt left Celje in 1890. In Celje, he wrote several works that were performed on the stage of the Celje Music Society. Among them was the work Die Bergkraxler von Cilli. Marsch zur Erinnerung an die Regional-Ausstellung in Cilli 1888, op. 144. From Celje he moved to Banat in 1893, where he worked in various places as a choirmaster, music director and piano teacher. In 1899 he settled in Graz, where he died in 1901.
Pianist, Choirmaster and Composer
ALFRED KHOM
Alfred Khom (1825–1893) was born in Linz and studied at the Vienna Conservatoire. He interrupted his studies to become the conductor (Theaterkapellmeister) of the theater in Klagenfurt. At the same time he took over the local Men’s Singing Society (Männergesangverein). During the revolution of 1848, he went to Ljubljana, where he accepted the position of singing teacher and leader of the male choir of the Philharmonic Society. In addition, he offered private lessons in piano, singing, physharmonica, figured bass, harmony and composition. In the concerts of Philharmonic Society he regularly participated as a performer and composer. He performed symphonic and chamber works, choral and sacred compositions and numerous arrangements of works by other composers. He was the first person to perform works of J. S. Bach (in his own arrangements) in Ljubljana. He was also an organist at one of the Ljubljana’s churches, and for a longish period a singing teacher at the Catholic Journeymen’s Association (Katolischer Gesellenverein). In the late 1850s he started work as as an assistant music teacher at the public music school. He later supplemented his music with arragements of folk tunes. In 1861 he moved to Graz and died in 1893 in Simmering near Vienna. Discover more
Choirmaster, Conductor and Composer
ANTON NEDVĚD
Anton Nedved (1828–1896) was born in Hořovice in Bohemia, where he got his first music lessons. He then studied privately in Prague with professors from the Prague Conservatory (Moritz Mildner), but he was never officially enrolled. For a short time he worked at the opera house in Brno. In 1856 he applied for a vacant position as teacher of voice and violin at the Philharmonic Society (Philharmonische Gesellschaft) in Ljubljana, where he remained until his death in 1896. He was director of the Philharmonic Society and its teacher for four years, but devoted himself mainly to the Society’s performances and artistic activities. He performed in more than 180 concerts, mainly as a conductor. He revived the men’s choir, with which he performed as a soloist, founded the women’s choir and acted as conductor of the orchestra. With his repertoire he overcame provincialism and promoted Slavic and Slovenian compositions. In 1861 he introduced regular chamber concerts. He was a versatile pedagogue and worked at the public music school, the gymnasium, the seminary and the teachers’ college. His didactic manual A Short Teaching of Music (Kratek nauk o glasbi; 1863), based on the systematics of music teaching, is the first work of Slovenian music didactics. Among the highlights of his didactic work are the manuals Lessons for Beginners on Singing for Elementary Schools (Početni nauk o petji za ljudske šole; 1894) and Exercises in Singing (Vaje v petju; 1894). For twenty years he devoted himself to songbooks and collections of school songs and published a number of useful literature. More than 200 of his compositions, mostly vocal works (choruses and songs), are preserved in Ljubljana. He was the most performed local composer in Slovenia. More than 150 of his works were performed in more than 50 concerts in Ljubljana alone. His works were also performed in reading societies all over Slovenia, by Musical Matica and its branches, and many other societies.
Violinist and Composer
THEODOR ELZE
Theodor Clemens Elze (1830–1895) was born in Oranienbaum in Germany and received his first violin and piano lessons from his father. He then continued his studies at the Leipzig Conservatory, where he studied piano with Bohemian composer and piano virtuoso Ignaz Moscheles (1794–1870) and Louis Plaidy (1810–1874), violin with Ferdinand David (1810–1873) and Prague violinist Raimund Dreyschock (1824–1869), and composition with Moritz Hauptmann (1792–1868). In 1852, at the age of twenty-two, he moved to Ljubljana, probably at the invitation of his cousin Theodor Ludwig Elze (1823–1900), the pastor of the Ljubljana Lutheran Church since 1851. He contributed to Ljubljana musical life for over forty years as an organist at the Lutheran Church, music teacher, and composer until his death in 1895. He wrote symphonies, string quartets, violin sonatas, vocal and vocal instrumental works, and at least twelve of his compositions, mainly vocal, were performed on the Philharmonic Society stage.
Organist, Choirmaster and Composer
ANTON FOERSTER
Anton Foerster (1837-1926) was born in Osenice, Bohemia. He first studied music with his father, then entered a Cistercian monastery and completed his law studies in Prague. There he met Bedřich Smetana, among others, and then devoted himself exclusively to music. In 1865 he became cathedral organist and choirmaster in Senj, and two years later he moved to Ljubljana, where he first worked as Kapellmeister of the Dramatic Society (Dramatično društvo) and as choirmaster of the National Reading Society. From 1868 he directed the music at Ljubljana Cathedral, where he reorganized church music according to church regulations. He founded the organ school of the Cecilia Society (Cecilijino društvo), which he directed from 1877 to 1908 and where more than 150 organists were trained. He was the editor of the journal Cerkveni glasbenik. He also taught at other institutions in Ljubljana. He wrote numerous ecclesiastical and secular works and authored several theoretical works: Singing School (Pevska šola), Teaching of Harmony and Counterpoint (Nauk o harmoniji in kontrapunktu), Theoretical and Practical Piano School (Teoretično praktična klavirska šola). Discover more
Pianist, Conductor and Composer
JOSEF ZÖHRER
Josef Zöhrer (1841–1916) was born in Vienna, where he studied piano and composition. He gave his first concert in Ljubljana on 14 November 1862, after which he was a theater conductor in Trieste. In the fall of 1865 he became a piano teacher at the music school of the Philharmonic Society of Ljubljana (he also taught cello, singing, and harmony), and at the same time took over the direction of the choir. In Ljubljana he made a particularly important contribution as a pianist and conductor at more than 350 concerts of the Philharmonic Society (about 160 as a performer and about 190 as a conductor). As a soloist, he distinguished himself primarily by performing demanding piano concertos by renowned composers, and he also appeared regularly in chamber music ensembles. Zöhrer has only exceptionally appeared as a soloist without an orchestra, and only in concerts of mixed repertoire, not in solo recitals. He made his first appearance as a conductor in Ljubljana in 1868, when he replaced ailing A. Nedved. In 1883 he took up his post as musical director of the Philharmonic Society. He regularly conducted symphonic, choral and vocal-instrumental concerts. Discover more
Violinist and Composer
ADOLF BINDER
Adolf Binder (1845–1901) was born in Buškovice, Bohemia. He completed his elementary education in Litomerice and trained as a teacher. From 1866 to 1867 he attended the organ school in Prague. He learned to play the violin and trained in music theory and composition. After graduation, he went to the theater and toured with acting troupes in southeastern Europe as far as Istanbul. For a time he worked at the theater in Osijek and taught music to the noble families there. He settled in Helenenthal near Baden, near Vienna, as organist and Regens Chor. In the fall of 1884 he moved to Maribor and began working at the music school of the Philharmonic Society, where he remained until 1901. He was a prolific composer. His works include symphonies, overtures, numerous chamber works, and other sacred and secular works. Many of his works were printed and performed in Maribor, Ljubljana, Salzburg and throughout Germany and Switzerland.
Violinist and Composer
OSKAR RIEDING
Oskar Friedrich Rieding (1846–1916) was born in Prussian town of Bahn (now Banie in Poland), where his father Gottfried Friedrich Rieding was a town doctor. It remains unknown where he acquired his first musical knowledge, but according to the sources he studied violin, piano and composition at the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst in Berlin in the late 1850s, where his violin teacher was Adolf Grünwald . He then continued his musical studies at the Leipzig Conservatory between 1862 and 1864 in the class of the Prague violinist Raimund Dreyschock, who was the second concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. After his studies, Rieding visited Vienna and Munich, but we have no detailed information about this period, and sources indicate he was also a member of the theater orchestra in Baden near Vienna. He first appeared in the Slovene Lands in 1870 in Ljubljana where he gave two performances on the stage of the Estates Theater and the Philharmonic Society and one more in 1871. In the same year Rieding moved to Pest (part of today’s Budapest), where he spent 32 years as first violinist of the National Theater Orchestra (which later became the Royal Opera Orchestra). There he wrote his first instructive violin pieces that were followed by today famous series of “easy” Concertos and Concertinos for violin and piano. Following the retirenment in 1903, Rieding moved to Celje where he continued working as composer, private violin teacher and participated in concerts of the local Evangelical Church. Most of his famous works were written in Celje and were already performed as part of school perfoemances of the Celje Music Society (Cillier Musikverein). In addition to the Celje Music Society, the Celje Evangelical Church concerts also featured some of Rieding’s now completely unknown works, such as compositions for violin and organ and the Hungarian Rhapsody for violin and orchestra. Before the war he wrote in Celje four concert miniatures: Tenderness, Confession, Departure and Desire. The latter composition Rieding dedicated to his Celje pupil Elisabeth Matič. He died in 1916 in Celje. Discover more.
Flutist and Composer
GUSTAV WAGNER
Rudolf Wagner (1851–1915) was born in Vienna to factory owner Johann Wagner. He attended elementary school in Vienna and enrolled at the Konservatorium der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, where he studied flute, counterpoint and composition (1863–1869). From 1870 to 1873 he served in the army with a military band and excelled in playing the flute, being a solo flautist with the Burgtheater orchestra (1874). He toured a dozen cities of the empire, including Budapest, Olomouc, Sibiu (then Hermannstadt) and Arad (Romania), Jihlava (then Iglau, Czech Republic), Bucharest (Romania) and Bolzano (Italy). Wagner then served as a military chaplain in Trento (Italy), Mostar (BiH), Pljevlja (Montenegro) and Trieste (Italy). Those turbulent years ended in 1881 at Maribor, where he became the conductor of the theatre orchestra besides being permanently employed as an organist at the city’s cathedral and as an assistant music teacher at the college for male teachers (1883−1885). After passing the examination for giving music lessons at secondary schools (Vienna, 1895), Wagner taught at the Maribor Classical Gymnasium from 1896 until his death. He was also the choirmaster of the Männergesangsverein. His oeuvre is quite extensive, numberin around 300 works. Apart from a small number of printed works published by various German publishing houses in Vienna, Graz and Leipzig, most of his compositions are preserved in unpublished manuscripts. A cursory glance at the composer’s oeuvre reveals a bias towards lighter genres that were less demanding in terms of composition, execution and reception. Among these are numerous works for wind band (overtures, marches, dances), three operettas (Marietta, Das Blümchen Wunderhold, and Bramabarsetto) and many choruses with or without accompaniment written for various occasions. Wagner probably produced his most important works in the domain of church music: notably Masses, organ works and choral pieces. It is much less well known that he created most of his compositional oeuvre in Maribor. Discover more.
Violinist, Concertmaster and Teacher
HANS GERSTNER
Hans Gerstner (1851-1939) was born in Žlutice in Bohemia. He studied violin at the Prague Conservatory with Moritz Mildner and Antonín Bennewitz between 1864 and 1870. In 1870 he was a member of the German Theater Orchestra and the Bennewitz String Quartet in Prague. In 1871 he moved to Ljubljana, where he became an orchestral dircetor of the Provincial Theater Orchestra and rose to become one of the most important musicians of the Philharmonic Society in Ljubljana. During his career of more than forty years as concertmaster of the Philharmonic Society, soloist and conductor of the Philharmonic in chamber concerts and at various charity events, Gerstner performed in nearly six hundred concerts. As a soloist and chamber musician, he participated in more than two hundred concerts of the Society. During his long career as a violin teacher at the Philharmonic Society, he taught numerous brilliant violinists who later worked in Slovenia and abroad. He performed violin concertos by Bazzini, Mendelssohn, Spohr, Bruch, Beethoven, Beriot and Lipinski in Ljubljana. With his most prominent students, Gerstner premiered numerous violin compositions and raised violin playing to a whole new level. In Ljubljana he played for the first time the violin sonata by C. Frank (1902), the violin concerto in E major by J. S. Bach (1904) and the violin sonata op. 45 by E. Grieg (1908). During his life he established contacts with famous musicians (B. Smetana, A. Dvořák, A. Rosé, F. Laub, J. Brahms, G. Mahler, R. Strauss, etc.).
Singer
MILKA GERBIČ
Milka Gerbič (née Daneš; 1855–1933) was born in Tuchoměřice, Bohemia. She attended a girls’ college in Prague and in 1871 took up singing at the famous Czech singing school of František Pivoda. In 1875 she made her debut at the Croatian National Theater Opera in Zagreb, where she remained for three and a half years. There she met the tenor Fran Gerbič (1840–1917) and married him in 1876 in Děpoltovice near Karlovy Vary. Due to health problems, the couple left Zagreb in 1878 and moved to Cerknica for two years and then to Ulm, Germany, where they worked at the local opera. Despite their stay abroad, they regularly participated in the recitals (bésede) of the National Reading Society of Ljubljana and the German Provincial Theater in Ljubljana. They moved to Lviv, where they worked at the Lviv Opera and also regularly toured various European cities. In 1886 they moved to Ljubljana, where they began to plough the field in the theatrical domain and, with exceptional self-sacrifice by today’s standards, and profoundly affected the development of Slovenian musical culture. Milka and Fran Gerbič and Milka’s sister Luiza Daneš (1863–1918, married name Trstenjak) were during 1886–1893 the centre and driving force for laying the foundations of Slovenian theatrical art. More precisely, Gerbič was an official theatre superintendent and cautiously started staging operas and operettas, while his wife Milka became an operatic prima donna, and his sister-in-law Luiza, a young dramatic singer. With his arrival, the planned renewal of the programme and the gradual creation of the Slovenian Provinical Theatre began. Moreover, this was the right time for the professionalization of Slovenian Opera. Milka was an active member of the Narodna čitalnica (National Reading Society) of Ljubljana and a renowned operatic soloist, very popular with audiences. We can boldly assert that Milka Gerbič was the second prima donna of Slovenian opera in Ljubljana, one with a more significant and weightier repertoire, after the Croatian Dragojila Odijeva. Discover more
Violinist, Kapellmeister and Composer
LOVRENC KUBIŠTA
Lovrenc Kubišta (Lovro Kubishta; 1863–1931) was born to Czech parents near Bratislava. After studying at the Paulis Military Music School in Prague, where he was a violin student of Bennewitz, he worked as a composer, violinist, assistant to the music director of the military band, and as a member of the Kolo Singing Society in Zagreb. In 1900 he moved to Postojna, where he directed an orchestra, a brass band and 2 choirs, and taught piano, violin and all string and wind instruments. In 1909 he moved to Gorizia, where he was a teacher at the music society and directed several bands in the area. In 1915 he fled from Gorizia to Celje to work first in the German music society (Cillier Musikverein) and then until 1922/1923 in the Slovenian music society (Glasbena matica). There he was also bandmaster and wrote numerous arrangements of folk songs until his death in 1933.
Cellist and Composer
EMERICH BERAN
Emerich Beran (1868–1940) was born in Brno in Moravia. He received his first education in Olomouc, where he studied piano, violin and cello privately. He continued playing the cello at the Brno Music Society School (1884–85) and in 1885 began studies at the Brno Organ School, where he took composition and instrumentation lessons with Leoš Janáček. He graduated with honors in 1888 and passed the state examination in Vienna in 1892. From 1889 to 1890 he was a cellist in the opera orchestra of the Brno City Theater. From 1890 to 1898 he taught music at the Czech Men’s College of Education in Brno and was a teaching assistant at the Brno Organ School. In Brno he wrote most of his compositions. For financial reasons, he moved to Maribor in 1898, where he worked as a music teacher at the State Teacher Training College for Men (1898–1928), as choirmaster of the choir of the National Slavic Reading Society (1898–1906), and as a cello teacher at the Glasbena Matica Music School (1919–25). From 1928 to 1936 he was honorary professor of cello at the Ljubljana Conservatory, where he trained several Slovenian cellists. Beran maintained close and friendly contact with Leoš Janáček through personal correspondence (1890–1928). He published his works in the magazine Novi akordi. He wrote opera, orchestral works, chamber music works (piano and organ), choral works and solo songs.
Pianist and Composer
KAREL HOFFMEISTER
Karel Hoffmeister (1868–1952) was born in Liblice, Bohemia. After Gymnasium he studied philosophy, art history and esthetics at the Czech University of Prague and music at the German University of Prague. At the same time he studied piano with the virtuoso and composer Henrik von Kàan, composition and organ at the Prague Organ School with professors Karl Stecker, Josef Klička and Karl Knittel. In 1891 he moved to Ljubljana, where he taught piano and gave concerts at the Music Society School (Glasbena matica). In the fall of 1898 he was appointed professor of piano at the Prague Conservatory, where he later also taught theory, harmony, and music history. He was a member of the Czech piano trio. In Ljubljana he wrote piano works and vocal works on texts by Simon Jenk, Vida Jeraj and Josip Freuensfeld.
Violinist and Kapellmeister
PETR TEPLÝ
Petr Teplý (1871–1964; Pietro Caldo) was born in Prague. He studied violin with Bennewitz at the Prague Conservatory between 1882 and 1888. After his studies he was a music teacher in Kroměříž and Přerov, military Kapellmeister in several towns. Between 1896 and 1899 he was a violinist at the German Theater in Prague. As a retired military Kapellmeister, he was active in Trieste between 1902 and 1912 and taught at the Slovenian Music Society (Glasbena matica) between 1913 and 1914. In Trieste he was also a promoter of Ševčík’s violin method. In the 1914/1915 season he was conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra in Ljubljana. After his return to Prague, he was military Kapellmeister and violinist in the German theater orchestra until the end of World War I, then in Vysoké Mýto and director of the Military Music School in Prague.
Violinist and Composer
JOSEF VEDRAL
Josef Vedral (Josip Vedral; 1872-1929) was born in Stavropol, Russia, to Czech parents. He completed six grades of an elementary school. In 1885 he entered the Prague Conservatory in the class of Antonín Bennewitz. He then served for three years in the military band of Infantry Regiment No. 74 and in the Kovařovíć Symphony Orchestra in Prague. In 1895 he succeeded violin teacher Karel Jeraj at the Ljubljana Music School and began teaching violin and piano. For thirty-four years he taught violin and music theory at the Music Society School and directed the choir and orchestra. From 1912 he taught music at the Organ School in Ljubljana and singing at the First State Gymnasium. Especially at the beginning of his teaching career, he was active in the concert field. Among his students were Ivan Trost, Anton Bajda, Vinko Šušteršič, Albin Fakin and many others. He was also active as a composer, his oeuvre consisting mainly of violin works.
Pianist and Composer
JOSEF PROCHÁZKA
Josef Procházka (1873–1956) was born in Slaný, Bohemia. He studied piano at the Prague Conservatory with Josef Jiránek and composition with Antonin Dvořák. On the recommendation of the board of the Music Society (Glasbena matica), he began teaching in 1898, where he taught piano and composition for more than a decade, eventually being appointed to the Prague Conservatory. With a series of piano compositions and songs published in the journals Glasbena zora and Novi akordi between 1899 and 1908, he elevated Slovenian chamber music to a previously unknown level.
Violinists and Composers
LUDWIG AND MORITZ SCHACHNEHOFER
Ludwig Schachenhofer (1871-?) was born in Scheibss. He received his first violin lessons from his father, Michael Schachenhofer, who ran a private music school. He continued his violin studies at the Vienna Conservatory with Joseph Hellmesberger. He continued his musical career in the town of Brody in Galicia (present-day Ukraine). From there he went to Ptuj, where in 1897-1901 he taught violin and piano at the school of the Ptuj Musical Society and directed the town’s brass band. In the 1901/1902 school year he taught at the school of the Philharmonic Society in Maribor, and from 1902 he led the orchestra of the Celje Music Society and occasionally taught violin at the society’s school. He also performed as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles. He wrote numerous works, among which the piano works occupy a central place. His younger brother, Moritz Michael Schachenhofer (1878-1909), was also a violinist and a graduate of the Vienna Conservatory. From 1902 to 1909 he worked as a violin and flute teacher at the music school of the Musikverein (Cillier Musikverein) in Celje. During his time in Celje, he was a leading figure at the Celje Music Concerts and was also a member of the Chamber Music Association (Kammermusikvereinigung).
Violinist and Composer
ZIKMUND POLÁŠEK
Zikmund Pokášek (Siegmund, Žiga Polášek; 1877–1933) was born in Holešov, Bohemia. His father, Franz Polášek, was a military Kapellmeister. He attended the Brno Organ School from 1892-1895 and the Prague Conservatory under Otakár Ševčík from 1895-1899. In 1899-1902 he worked in Kraków, and in 1902-1912 he was a member of the orchestras in Lviv, Warsaw, the National Theater and the Czech Philharmonic in Prague, and worked as a violin teacher at the Carinthian Music School in Klagenfurt, and in 1910–1912 at the Music Society in Kranj. From 1912 until his death he was the director of the music school in Slany, Bohemia. Together with another Prague violinist, Josef Vedral, Polášek arranged Slovenian folk songs for violin lessons, and his Lullaby for Violin and Piano was published in Novi akordi.
Violinist, Kapellmeister and Composer
KARL PAUL SEIFERT
Karl Paul Seifert (1881–after 1966) was born in Teplice, Bohemia. He attended high school in Graz and received his music lessons at the Styrian Music Society with Erich Wolf Degner and Karl Krehnan. From 1903 to 1905 he was a violin teacher at the Music Society in Ptuj (Pettauer Musikverein) and from 1910 to 1911 a Kapellmeister at the Music Society in Celje (Cillier Musikverein). From 1911 to 1914 he worked as music director in Leoben, and in 1915 he taught piano and violin at the Philharmonic Society in Ljubljana. In 1922 he continued his violin studies with Joseph Joachin and his theory studies with Engelbert Humperdinck in Berlin. From 1949 to 1955 Seifert taught at the College of Music in Weimar (Hochschule für Musik).
Trombonist and Kapellmeister
VÁCLAV ENGERER
Václav Engerer (1880–?) was born in Zbraslav, Bohemia. He studied trombone at the Prague Conservatory between 1894 and 1900. After graduation, he worked as a military Kapellmeister and private music teacher in Zagreb. In 1912 he moved to Celje, where he worked at the Music Society (Glasbena matica) until 1919, and then to Ptuj until 1923, where he worked as a Kapellmeister, violin, voice and piano teacher, and director of the music school.
Violinist and Conductor
VÁCLAV TALICH
Václav Talich (1883–1961) was born in Kroměříž, Moravia. He received his first violin lessons in Klatovy (until 1896) from his father Jan Talich (1851–1915), who was regens chori. He then studied violin at the Prague Conservatory with Jan Mařák and Otakar Ševčík between 1897 and 1903. In the fall of 1903 he became concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Arthur Nikisch. In Berlin, his desire to become a conductor was awakened. In 1904 he was briefly a conductor in Klatovy and then became concertmaster of a city theater in Odessa, where he occasionally conducted the orchestra. Due to political instability, he left Odessa for Tbilisi, where he was a violin professor at the music conservatory and primarius of a string quartet. After spending some time in Prague, in 1908 he became the first conductor of the newly founded Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra in Ljubljana, where he remained until 1912. In the 1908/1909 season, he founded a string quartet in Ljubljana whose members were graduates of the Prague Conservatory (Jan Rezek, Karel Kučera, Edvard Bílek). In the 1909/1910 season he conducted a large part of the operetta performances in the Provincial Theater in Ljubljana. In 1910 he went to Leipzig and Milan for study purposes, and after his return to Ljubljana he became first Kapellmeister of the opera and conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra (1911/1912). In 1912 he left Ljubljana and moved to Plzen to conduct the opera orchestra. Between 1915 and 1918 he was violist of the Bohemian Quartet (later called the Czech Quartet), and between 1919 and 1941 he conducted the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1946 he founded the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra in Bratislava, where he remained until 1952. Discover more
Violinist and Pianist
ALFRED KLIETMANN
Alfred Klietmann (1884–1931) was born in Linz. He first studied music at the Dresden Conservatory, then violin at the Vienna Conservatory with Otakár Ševčík and at the Royal academy of Music in Berlin with Joseph Joachim. After his studies he worked as a concertmaster in Plaun, Karlovy Vary, , and Merano. From 1907 to 1917 he worked as a violin and piano teacher at the School of the Philharmonic Society in Maribor. He worked as a concertmaster in Vienna, Stockholm and Dresden. In 1923 he became the director of the Musikverein and the Sängerbund Frohsinn in Linz. Among his Slovenian pupils were Franika Brandl and Dr. Roman Klasinc.
Violinist
JAN ŠLAIS
Jan Šlais (1893-1975) was born in Prague, where he attended secondary school. In 1907 he entered the Prague Conservatory to study violin with Štěpán Suchý. After completing his studies, Šlais was appointed second concertmaster at the theater in Moscow (Svobodnyj těatr) and a year later at the private Zimin Opera. From 1917 he was deputy concertmaster of the Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Union of Musicians. In early 1919 he returned to his homeland and became a member of the orchestra of the National Theater in Prague, with which he went on a promotional tour to Paris, London, Geneva, Bern, and Zurich. In the fall of the same year he took over the position at the newly founded music school (Glasbena matica) in Maribor. In 1920 he returned to Prague to continue his violin studies at the famous Ševčík’s Violin Master School, where he remained until June 1921. During this time he gave concerts in Prague and in the region. On 15 September 1921, Šlais accepted a position as violin teacher at the Ljubljana Music Conservatory, and at the end of the year, he married in Prague the pianist Růžená Deylová (1888–?), whom he had met in Maribor. In 1939 he became a teacher and head of the violin and cello department at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. Seven years later he returned to his homeland to become a teacher at the Prague Conservatory, a position he held until 1952, and from then on at the Janaček Academy of Music in Brno. During his long stay of more than twenty years, he contributed significantly to the development of violin playing in Slovenia. He founded the Ljubljana String Quartet and trained the most important generation of Slovenian violinists, such as: Karlo Rupel , Leon Pfeifer , Albert (Ali) Dermelj , Vida Jeraj Hribar , Uroš Prevoršek (, Kajetan Burger, Fran Stanič , Jelka Stanič , Vinko Šušteršič, and Francka Ornik Rojc. For this reason, today he is considered the founder of the “Violin School of Ljubljana”. At the Conservatory and later at the Academy of Music he taught violin based on Ševčík’s violin system. He also initiated a “master class” for violin and chamber music and created curricula for violin lessons. He was also very active as an artist. From 1920 until the 1940s he gave regular concerts in Slovenia, usually accompanied by Růža Deylová, Janko Ravnik and Anton Trost (as the “Ljubljana Duo”) on the piano. Discover more
