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Foreword by William and Alexandra Lobkowicz

Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Dvořák – these are just some of the names associated with the Lobkowicz family and the remarkable collection of over 4,500 music manuscripts and prints that comprise the Lobkowicz Music Collection. These musical treasures – restituted in the early 1990s after having been seized twice, first by the Nazis and later by the Communist regime – are now being catalogued and made accessible to scholars and the public. Since the 17th century, each generation of our family has enthusiastically pursued its musical passions. My own interests began in a school choir and later at Harvard University, where I performed in student opera productions. Despite aspirations of becoming an opera singer, I fear my talents did not meet the standards of my forebears! Very happily, though, we have created musical occasions for the public, with over 4,000 concerts performed in Lobkowicz family castles since 1993. Our vision, with the support of the Lobkowicz Palace in Prague, is to establish a Library and Study Center as well as a Dvořák House Museum and Music Academy at Nelahozeves Castle in Nelahozeves, the birthplace of Antonín Dvořák. Our dream is to follow family tradition by creating unique opportunities for musicians to share their gifts and inspire the world. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Dr Kathryn Libin for her years of commitment and exploration in our family archive. We also thank Dr Petr Slouka, curator of the Lobkowicz Music Collection, for his expertise on the Baroque music, as well as Mgr Soňa Černocká, Head of the Lobkowicz Library and Archive, for all her support. Finally, our deepest gratitude goes to the Achelis & Bodman Foundation for their faith and vision in supporting the music cataloguing project and making this publication possible.

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Large salon with Lobkowicz children and family friends at Eisenberg, with grand piano in foreground. Painting by Carl Robert Croll (1842). The Lobkowicz Collections.

FOREWORD

Foreword by William and Alexandra Lobkowicz

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Large salon with Lobkowicz children and family friends at Eisenberg, with grand piano in foreground. Painting by Carl Robert Croll (1842). The Lobkowicz Collections.

FOREWORD

Contents

The earliest printed edition of Beethoven’s Third Symphony, the Eroica, dedicated to Prince Franz Joseph Maximilian Lobkowicz (Vienna, 1806). The Lobkowicz Collections.

Foreword Genealogical Table of Lobkowicz Musicians, Patrons and Collectors

6 8

Lobkowicz Musical Life in the Late Renaissance and Baroque Eras

Lute Playing and Collecting in the Lobkowicz Family

Musical Instruments in the Lobkowicz Collections

Private Academies at Lobkowicz Castles and Palaces

Mozart and Handel’s Messiah

6. Haydn’s The Creation in Vienna and Bohemia 7. String Quartets in the Lobkowicz Household

Beethoven’s New Music in Lobkowicz Concerts

Operas and Opera Singers in Lobkowicz Theatres

10. Salon Music in the Nineteenth Century

11. The Lobkowicz Music Archive 72

Contents

The earliest printed edition of Beethoven’s Third Symphony, the Eroica, dedicated to Prince Franz Joseph Maximilian Lobkowicz (Vienna, 1806). The Lobkowicz Collections.

Foreword Genealogical Table of Lobkowicz Musicians, Patrons and Collectors

6 8

Lobkowicz Musical Life in the Late Renaissance and Baroque Eras

Lute Playing and Collecting in the Lobkowicz Family

Musical Instruments in the Lobkowicz Collections

Private Academies at Lobkowicz Castles and Palaces

Mozart and Handel’s Messiah

6. Haydn’s The Creation in Vienna and Bohemia 7. String Quartets in the Lobkowicz Household

Beethoven’s New Music in Lobkowicz Concerts

Operas and Opera Singers in Lobkowicz Theatres

10. Salon Music in the Nineteenth Century

11. The Lobkowicz Music Archive 72

Genealogical Table of Lobkowicz Musicians, Patrons and Collectors

Zdeněk Vojtěch Popel, 1st Prince (1568–1628) Polyxena, b. Pernštejn (c.1566–1642) Festive music in Prague Václav Eusebius, 2nd Prince (1609–1677) Imperial court opera, Florentine monody Ferdinand August, 3rd Prince (1655–1715) Lutenist and lute music; collector of French opera

ROUDNICE LINE

MĚLNÍK LINE

Philipp Hyacinth, 4th Prince (1680–1734) Georg Christian (1686–1755) Anna Wilhelmina, née Althan (1703–1754) Violinist; patron of Italian opera, Gluck Lutenists and lute music; sponsors of house concerts in Vienna & Prague Joseph Maria Carl (1724–1802) Patron of opera in Vienna Ferdinand Philipp, 6th Prince (1724–1784) Member of Gesellschaft der associierten Cavaliere Keyboard & violinist; music collector August Joseph Anton (1729–1803) Franz Joseph Maximilian, 7th Prince (1772–1816) Sponsor of house concerts in Prague Violinist & cellist, bass singer; opera patron; music collector Commissioned music from Beethoven, Haydn and others Anton Isidor (1773–1819) Member of Gesellschaft der associierten Cavaliere Sponsor of house concerts in Prague Patron/founder of Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna Patron/founder of Gesellschaft Patriotischer Kunstfreunde in Böhmen Ferdinand Joseph, 8th Prince (1797–1868) Patron/founder of Verein zur Violinist, tenor singer; collected opera and Lieder with piano Beförderung der Tonkunst in Böhmen Patron, Verein zur Beförderung der Tonkunst in Böhmen August Longin Joseph (1797–1842) Moriz, 9th Prince (1831–1903) Patron, Verein zur Beförderung der Pianist; collected opera, Lieder and dance music with piano Tonkunst in Böhmen

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Small salon with Lobkowicz family and friends at Eisenberg. Painting by Carl Robert Croll (1842). The Lobkowicz Collections.

GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF LOBKOWICZ MUSICIANS, PATRONS AND COLLECTORS |

Genealogical Table of Lobkowicz Musicians, Patrons and Collectors

ROUDNICE LINE

MĚLNÍK LINE

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Small salon with Lobkowicz family and friends at Eisenberg. Painting by Carl Robert Croll (1842). The Lobkowicz Collections.

GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF LOBKOWICZ MUSICIANS, PATRONS AND COLLECTORS |

Lobkowicz Musical Life in the Late Renaissance and Baroque Eras

From the period of the Renaissance, Bohemian aristocracy demonstrated a decided affinity for music. Musical training in that era, including theoretical studies as well as practical lessons in the playing of musical instruments, grew increasingly commonplace in the formal education of young noblemen and women. This trend was due in part to ‘cavalier travels’, the voyages of aristocratic young men that usually concluded their formal tutelage. During such tours, Bohemian noblemen encountered the intellectually stimulating milieu of European courts, which employed the most distinguished composers and musicians of the day. Also influential was the humanistic view that music, by cultivating eloquent expression, could play a valuable role in developing intelligent and moral citizens. In this regard the Florentine Camerata, a group of aristocrats and artists of the late Renaissance who employed music to elevate the declamation of dramatic texts, offered a potent exemplar. Such novel vocal experimentation provided a compelling alternative to traditional Renaissance polyphony and engendered the development of a new musical form – opera. At the same time, technological innovations that improved musical instruments led to a new flowering of instrumental music, which for the first time became equal in status to vocal music. Zdeněk Vojtěch Popel, 1st Prince Lobkowicz, and his wife Polyxena (b. Pernštejn), who founded the Roudnice line of the Lobkowicz family, witnessed the birth of this new musical era. As connoisseurs of art and music and thanks to their close affiliations

Eisenberg Melnik Raudnitz

Prag

Map showing Lobkowicz territories in Bohemia, with the Roudnice family line situated in Prag, Raudnitz and Eisenberg ; and the Mělník line based in Prag and Melnik. Map by Gilles Robert de Vaugondy, printed in Venice (1777). The Lobkowicz Collections

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LOBKOWICZ MUSICAL LIFE IN THE LATE RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE ERAS |

Lobkowicz Musical Life in the Late Renaissance and Baroque Eras

Eisenberg Melnik Raudnitz

Prag

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LOBKOWICZ MUSICAL LIFE IN THE LATE RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE ERAS |

Operas and Opera Singers in Lobkowicz Theatres Libretto for Antonio Salieri’s opera Axur, re d’Ormus, published privately for Prince Lobkowicz’s theatre by imperial court printer Matthias Andreas Schmidt. The Lobkowicz Collections.

At the turn of the 19th century the 7th Prince Lobkowicz launched a brief but dazzling era of operatic performance in private theatres that he installed in three of his residences, including his palace in central Vienna and two Bohemian castles, Roudnice and Eisenberg. Like many of his aristocratic friends and relations, Lobkowicz avidly attended the opera in both Prague and Vienna, where he held life-long subscriptions to boxes at the court theatres. But his enthusiasm for opera led him to an intense personal cultivation of the art that was unmatched in his time by other patrons outside royal courts. Archival evidence shows that 1799 inaugurated this era of theatrical activity on the Lobkowicz estates in Bohemia. A newly hired theatre painter and designer, Caspar Melchior, took charge of ordering sets, decorations and stage machinery. Musicians and singers were employed from the Estates Theatre in Prague, choristers arrived from Prague’s Loretto Church, and village musicians from the districts around Eisenberg and Roudnice took part. Carriages and horses were deployed to take the many personnel from place to place, new quarters were erected at Roudnice to house them, and many of them were paid in food and beer as well as cash. Antonio Cartellieri (1772– 1807), a composer and violinist in Lobkowicz employ, provided a new opera – Angarda, regina di Boemia – for performances in October at both castles. Prince Lobkowicz’s Kapellmeister, Anton Wranitzky, hired extra musicians and rehearsed the orchestra for these performances, and supervised music copying as well as repairs and transportation for musical instruments. This explosion of activity, which involved hundreds of people and massive expenditure, set a pattern that would develop and expand throughout the next several years.

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overleaf: Roudnice Castle, showing the theatre’s front and side windows in the wing left of the clock tower. Painting by Carl Robert Croll (1841). The Lobkowicz Collections.

The Lobkowicz palace in Vienna also became a site for opera production. In March 1799 an opera by imperial court composer Antonio Salieri, Axur rè d’Ormus, was presented there, though apparently unstaged. But by 1802 special carpentry and furnishings had been ordered to fashion a small theatre within the palace; the distinguished court stage designer, Lorenzo Sacchetti (1759–1836), supplied sets; and a wardrobe manager from the court theatre outfitted one of the lead singers, tenor Antonio Brizzi (1774– 1830), with his costumes. Two works presented that year under these new conditions were Paisiello’s already venerable opera Il barbiere di Siviglia and a more recent creation, La testa riscaldata, by Ferdinando Paer. Account records show that Prince Lobkowicz had hundreds of librettos printed for distribution to his audiences, and the imperial court copyist, Wenzel Sukowaty, was responsible for producing all the music – scores to be used by the director and prompters, and parts for all the singers and

OPERAS AND OPERA SINGERS IN LOBKOWICZ THEATRES |

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overleaf: Roudnice Castle, showing the theatre’s front and side windows in the wing left of the clock tower. Painting by Carl Robert Croll (1841). The Lobkowicz Collections.

OPERAS AND OPERA SINGERS IN LOBKOWICZ THEATRES |

members of the orchestra. Over the next few years Lobkowicz opera production increased in frequency and extravagance, reaching an extraordinary peak in 1805 and 1806, when the prince’s troupe staged 14 different operas during spring, summer and autumn at both Bohemian estates, the palace in Vienna, the summer garden palace that he owned outside Vienna’s centre, and even at the nearby spa of Baden. After this period Prince Lobkowicz’s private operatic endeavours began to decline for a number of reasons – his directorship of the court opera theatre, which diverted his interest and investment; an intensification of the war with Napoleon, which engaged Lobkowicz as leader of a battalion and drew him away from Vienna and his estates for weeks at a time; and eventually the devaluation of Austria’s currency and Lobkowicz’s near-bankruptcy. Around two hundred of the operas preserved in the Lobkowicz Music Archive were collected in the time of the 7th Prince. Of the 30 or so complete operas performed in Lobkowicz house theatres between 1799 and 1815, certain favourites were offered on multiple occasions. These included older masterpieces such as Mozart’s Don Giovanni, La clemenza di Tito and Le nozze di Figaro, as well as Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and Il rè Teodoro in Venezia. But Lobkowicz also supported new music by leading composers, of whom Ferdinando Paer, a court music director at both Dresden and Paris, was perhaps most favored; no fewer than six of his operas were presented on numerous occasions in Lobkowicz theatres. Two composers on the Lobkowicz payroll, Antonio Cartellieri and Joseph Rösler (1771–1813), contributed at least six operas between them that also received private staging. Lobkowicz retained house singers on his staff, including the father and son Lodovico and Giuseppe

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Verri, as well as the celebrated baritone who first sang the role of Don Giovanni, Luigi Bassi (1766–1825). While he hired a great many other singers over the years, it is clear that Prince Lobkowicz and his wife, Princess Caroline, enjoyed the company of favourite artists and regarded them as part of an extended musical family. The young soprano Christianne Gerhardi Frank (b. 1777), who sang in the premiere of Haydn’s The Creation, spent lengthy periods on the Bohemian estates and in the Lobkowicz palace in Prague, where she was provided with her own piano, new dresses and invitations to accompany Caroline on excursions. The tenors Antonio Brizzi and Giuseppe Siboni (1780–1839) received similar treatment and often spent hours alone with Lobkowicz, himself a fine bass, making music far into the night. Just as important as the fully staged operas were the many more casual performances of operatic scenes, duets and ensembles in which singers included family and friends as well as professionals. Princess Caroline’s sister, Theresa von Schwarzenberg, was an excellent soprano who frequently participated in house operatic concerts, and at least two of the Lobkowicz children, Ferdinand and Theresa, also possessed talent as singers. Composer Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752–1814), who visited Vienna in 1808, wrote of reading through one of his operas with Prince Lobkowicz at the piano one afternoon, and later having it performed in his salon by a stellar group of singers, after which all the aristocratic guests and performers sat down together for a festive supper. He wrote that this experience was ‘singular of its kind … what goodness and friendliness in everyone, and without any trace of obligation or rank in the whole company!’ In the Lobkowicz theatres, opera was a democratic arena in which talent outranked birth or social position, and all performers were cherished.

OPERAS AND OPERA SINGERS IN LOBKOWICZ THEATRES |

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OPERAS AND OPERA SINGERS IN LOBKOWICZ THEATRES |

Salon Music in the Nineteenth Century

Following the deaths of the 7th Prince and his wife in 1816, musical practices in the Lobkowicz household adapted to drastically altered circumstances, both within the family and in society at large. Prince Lobkowicz had already disbanded the house ensemble, when the intensifying war with Napoleon and his own straitened finances rendered large-scale musical performances impractical. Though the next and succeeding generations of the family retained a keen interest in music, the days of the aristocratic house orchestra were largely gone. Instead, people attended an increasing number of public events in concert halls and theatres, and domestic music-making centred around the drawing-room piano. Even during the time of the 7th Prince, behind the scenes where lavish operas and grand academies were produced, a realm of private playing and singing quietly flourished; particularly in the schoolroom and the intimate apartments of the princesses, the women and children of the household practiced the piano, guitar, violin, singing and dancing. Much of the music played in the private sphere by that generation has disappeared, perhaps regarded as more ephemeral and less worthy of preservation than the more elevated materials housed in the library. But during the period of the 8th and 9th Princes, Ferdinand Joseph and his son Moriz, this more private, more amateur music-making moved to the foreground. The family withdrew from Vienna and established themselves in Prague and especially on their estates in northern Bohemia. Their music collection continued to expand, but in ways that reflected the personal tastes and pastimes of a family entertaining itself at home. This small, excellent drawing, executed at Eisenberg in 1825 by the 7th Prince’s daughter Theresa, perfectly captures the transformation in musical practice that unfolded in her generation. Preserved in the Lobkowicz Music Archive are dozens of 19th-century operas

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Lobkowicz family musicians sing Rossini at the piano in the drawing room at Eisenberg. Pencil drawing by Princess Theresa Lobkowicz (1825). The Lobkowicz Collections.

in printed arrangements for piano and voice; among these, many of the finales, duets and other ensembles have been copied into parts for the use of individual singers, and many of those who shared in family performances inscribed their names on these parts. In her drawing, Princess Theresa carefully depicts such a performance. In this small salon at Eisenberg, a group of singers has gathered around the piano. According to Theresa’s notes on the sketch, her elder sister Eleonore is seated at the piano, bending her head to read the music on the stand. Standing beside her are two brothers, including Ferdinand, 8th Prince Lobkowitz – whose typical address, ‘Seiner Durchlaucht’ [His Highness], or ‘S.D.’, appears on many tenor parts among the 19th-century operas – as well as a younger

SALON MUSIC IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY |

Salon Music in the Nineteenth Century

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Lobkowicz family musicians sing Rossini at the piano in the drawing room at Eisenberg. Pencil drawing by Princess Theresa Lobkowicz (1825). The Lobkowicz Collections.

SALON MUSIC IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY |

brother, Louis. Their tutor, Karl Peters, is likely the older gentleman with the spectacles and a friend named Sobieslawsky, whose name is frequently abbreviated as ‘Sob.’ on operatic parts in the collection, stands near the door holding a bugle. The performers are reading from a score of Rossini’s opera Mosè in Egitto (1818), which is open on the music desk. Stacked nearby on the piano are other Rossini scores, including Corradino (now known as Mathilde di Shabran, 1821), Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra (1815) and Otello (1816). Each of these operas was published in a piano-vocal arrangement within the five years before this little ensemble convened at Eisenberg to rehearse them. These and many more operas by Italian, German and French composers of the period, survive in the Lobkowicz Library and were clearly used in just the way illustrated in Princess Theresa’s drawing. Along with operas, the family enjoyed singing German Lieder and other song repertoire. The library preserves dozens of songs by Franz Schubert in first editions, many inscribed with the initials of Prince Ferdinand Lobkowicz. The other significant family pastime whose traces remain in the Lobkowicz music collection was dancing. Balls and dances were already popular social events at the end of the 18th century, and both Prince Joseph and his wife Caroline comment in their letters on balls that they attend, or host, at the turn of the 19th century. But after the 1815 Congress of Vienna, where leading politicians conducted business and pleasure at such a relentless series of balls that the Prince de Ligne famously quipped ‘Le Congrès ne marche pas – il danse [the Congress does not walk, it dances]’, dance music became ubiquitous. In particular, the waltz dominated public balls and private parties for much of the 19th century. At the time of the Congress, a young bandmaster named Joseph Wilde (1778–1831) directed the

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80-piece orchestra at the celebrated court ballrooms, or Redoutensäle, in Vienna; his waltzes, published as sheet music directly after they were first publicly performed, are among the first such pieces to be acquired by the Lobkowicz family. All of Joseph and Caroline’s children took dance lessons as part of their training for society and were well prepared to take their places on the dance floor. The huge collection of dance music in the Lobkowicz Library, including not only waltzes but also quadrilles, galops and polkas in piano arrangements, testifies to their interest in dancing at home as well. The most famous dance conductors and composers of their day, Johann Strauss Senior (1804–1849) and Junior (1825–1899), are both well represented in the collection, as are other members of the Strauss dynasty and lesser known figures such as Joseph Lanner (1801–1843). Many pieces of sheet music from the second half of the 19th century are signed by Moriz Lobkowicz, the 9th Prince, an avid pianist who clearly appreciated the latest dance repertoire. Stamped impressions preserved on the paper covers indicate that family members purchased the music from dealers in Prague, and sometimes ordered them directly from important publishers, such as Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig. These publications, with their evocative titles and title page engravings that were often elaborate and frequently whimsical, document the profound social changes that were transforming Central European culture. Often dedicated to the many civic groups, such as doctors, lawyers and engineers, who held their own balls during Carnival season in Vienna and Prague, the dance music reflects the new status in society held by middle class professionals. Dance titles honoured, sometimes humorously, emerging technologies that were shaping day-to-day life, as well as eliciting nostalgia for a simpler, more rustic past.

SALON MUSIC IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY |

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SALON MUSIC IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY |

This edition © Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd, 2019 Text © The Lobkowicz Collections, 2019 Images © The Lobkowicz Collections, 2019 First published in 2019 by Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd 10 Lion Yard Tremadoc Road London sw4 7nq, United Kingdom www.scalapublishers.com In association with The Lobkowicz Collections www.lobkowicz.com isbn 978-1-78551-278-0 Designed by Matthew Wilson at www.mexington.co.uk Photography by Oto Palán for The Lobkowicz Collections Printed and bound in the Czech Republic 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of The Lobkowicz Collections and Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd.

front cover: Baroque guitar, attributed to Giorgio Sellas (c. late 17th century). The Lobkowicz Collections. front cover flap: Manuscript with Mozart’s autograph alterations to Handel’s aria, ‘The Trumpet Shall Sound’, from Messiah (1789). The Lobkowicz Collections. frontispiece: View of Eisenberg, a favourite Lobkowicz retreat in northern Bohemia; home to a theatre and many musical events. Painting by Carl Robert Croll (1843). The Lobkowicz Collections. back cover: Large salon with Lobkowicz children and family friends at Eisenberg, with a grand piano in foreground. Painting by Carl Robert Croll (1842). The Lobkowicz Collections.

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