Issuu

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

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.

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS

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

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS

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

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

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS

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

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS

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

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS

LOBKOWICZ MUSICAL LIFE IN THE LATE RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE ERAS |

Lobkowicz Musical Life in the Late Renaissance and Baroque Eras

Eisenberg Melnik Raudnitz

Prag

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS

LOBKOWICZ MUSICAL LIFE IN THE LATE RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE ERAS |

with Italy and Spain, they were particularly well informed about novelties being introduced in the musical centres of southern Europe. Evidence of the couple’s interest in music is preserved in their mutual correspondence, in which hardly any news escaped their notice. In a letter dated 23 May 1626, for instance, Polyxena informs her husband about a scandalous love affair at the imperial court that resulted in the flight of court Kapellmeister (music director) Giovanni Priulli (c.1575–1626). It is also known that they supported a group of musicians to accompany various festive occasions, though we have no information on the size or instrumentation of this ensemble. Polyxena was certainly accustomed to hearing first-class musicians, as her first husband, Vilém of Rožmberk, employed a renowned ensemble at his residence in Český Krumlov. She would surely have been equally demanding in regard to the quality of musicians working for the Lobkowicz family. The 2nd Prince and only son of Polyxena and Zdeněk Vojtěch, Václav Eusebius, received an intensive musical education. Though he focused most of his energies on his diplomatic and military career, he was nonetheless in frequent contact with music. In 1665, upon his appointment as Hofmeister (court master) to Emperor Leopold I, Václav Eusebius’s responsibilities included the organisation of imperial court opera performances. The Emperor was a great opera lover and talented composer, so it is no wonder that nearly all imperial festivities were accompanied by opera performances. For important occasions, the court printed beautifully engraved libretti – which served as programmes or playbills – and distributed them. Václav Eusebius collected a number of these impressive prints, which often include detailed illustrations of stage sets. It was probably also the 2nd Prince who acquired for the library a rare manuscript entitled Ariette

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS

Scene from the opera Il pomo d’oro by Antonio Cesti (music) and Francesco Sbarra (libretto). Set design by Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini, engraved by Matthäus Küsel (Vienna, 1668). The Lobkowicz Collections.

in musica da diversi maestri, containing a collection of early Italian monodies. This volume, referred to also as the ‘Florentine manuscript’, includes canzonette and arias of the very first operatic works by Jacopo Peri, Orazio Michi, Settimia Caccini and other composers of the Medici court circle.

LOBKOWICZ MUSICAL LIFE IN THE LATE RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE ERAS |

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS

LOBKOWICZ MUSICAL LIFE IN THE LATE RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE ERAS |

During his diplomatic career, Václav Eusebius aimed to strengthen the alliance between the Habsburg monarchy and France. His inclination towards French lands and culture was reflected in the education of his children. Thus the cavalier voyage of his eldest son, Ferdinand August, 3rd Prince Lobkowicz, took the young man to Italy and France. There he became a devotee of the lute, an instrument very popular in France at that time, and continued his study of this difficult instrument even after his return home. Archival documents attest that he did not hesitate to send a courier from Vienna to Roudnice to bring him his favourite instrument. Accounting documents also record his generous gifts to an itinerant guitar player and a needy student, who pleased him with their brilliant performing. It was quite possibly Ferdinand August, or alternatively, his son the 4th Prince, Philipp Hyacinth, who brought back from his travels numerous collections of French lute tablatures. Philipp’s younger half-brother, Prince Georg Christian of the Mělník line of the family, was an outstanding violin player, and is known to have taken part with other Austrian nobles in a 1724 performance of Caldara’s opera Euristeo in Vienna. Other notable acquisitions from this period include rare calligraphic manuscript volumes of instrumental and vocal-instrumental music from French tragédies lyriques, the ballets and comedy-ballets composed by Louis XIV’s court composer JeanBaptiste Lully (1632–1687). The volumes also include compositions by Lully’s son, Louis Lully (1664–1734), and by Pascal Collase (1649– 1709). These splendid manuscript copies were most likely prepared on commission for the 3rd or 4th Prince Lobkowicz. Though the collection of 17th-century music in the Lobkowicz Music Archive is not extensive, it nevertheless offers numerous rare and remarkable materials for both performing and research.

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS

Manuscript copy of overture from Molière’s Le bourgeois gentilhomme, a comedy-ballet with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully (1670). The Lobkowicz Collections.

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS

Manuscript copy of overture from Molière’s Le bourgeois gentilhomme, a comedy-ballet with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully (1670). The Lobkowicz Collections.

find its way into his new symphony, which also explores the nature of heroism. Originally Beethoven thought to dedicate the Third Symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte, who was at first a hero to many who held democratic ideals. Beethoven was deeply disillusioned, however, when in 1804 Napoleon declared himself Emperor. He scratched out Napoleon’s name on his title page and instead dedicated it to his sympathetic and generous patron, Prince Lobkowicz. All the Lobkowicz resources of space, money and personnel were put at Beethoven’s disposal when it came time to prepare his unprecedentedly massive, difficult new symphony for performance. The Lobkowicz palace became Beethoven’s workshop as he directed the first rehearsals of what would eventually become known as the Eroica Symphony. A surviving account record dated June 1804 shows the hiring of 22 extra musicians, including the third horn player necessary for the Eroica, added to the six string players already on the Lobkowicz payroll. After private performances of the work in Lobkowicz’s Bohemian castles that fall, the symphony was offered in a January 1805 academy in the splendid hall of the Vienna palace. In 1806 Beethoven completed a staggering amount of important new music: the Fourth Piano Concerto, the three ‘Razumovsky’ Quartets, the Violin Concerto and the Fourth Symphony all came

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS

Account of expenses for extra musicians, including third horn required for Beethoven’s Third Symphony, approved by Prince Lobkowicz on 11 June 1804. The Lobkowicz Collections.

to fruition that year. In late summer, Beethoven visited the Silesian castle of Count Franz von Oppersdorff. An enthusiastic amateur, Oppersdorff kept a private orchestra that played the composer’s Second Symphony during his stay. Oppersdorff commissioned a new symphony from him, and Beethoven obliged with the Symphony in B flat. Though dedicated to Oppersdorff, the Fourth Symphony received its first Viennese performance in a concert hosted by Prince Lobkowicz. Contemporary reviews mention that in March 1807 two concerts devoted entirely to Beethoven’s music were held in the Lobkowicz palace; included were all four of his symphonies, a freshly composed overture for Heinrich von Collin’s tragedy Coriolan, the newly completed Fourth Piano Concerto and selections from his opera Fidelio. The Lobkowicz music collection preserves the parts for the Fourth Symphony that were used by the orchestra in those first rehearsals and performances. The manuscript parts were produced a month or two ahead of the concerts by court theatre copyist Wenzel Sukowaty (1746–1810), and Beethoven’s hand also appears in them, making corrections and adjustments for various instruments in the orchestra. Given the historic nature of the events, a few players even recorded their names on their parts. For example, the names of flautist Karl Scholl, a member of the court orchestra, as well as that of contrabassist Anton Grams from the orchestra of the Theater an der Wien – both musicians liked and trusted by the composer – appear. The extraordinary character of these concerts, presenting so much new music by a single composer, and music that posed so many unusual physical, intellectual and emotional challenges to player and listener alike, cannot be overstated. The role of Prince Lobkowicz and his ensemble in facilitating these performances was no doubt recognised by Beethoven, who within the next few years

BEETHOVEN’S NEW MUSIC IN LOBKOWICZ CONCERTS |

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS

Account of expenses for extra musicians, including third horn required for Beethoven’s Third Symphony, approved by Prince Lobkowicz on 11 June 1804. The Lobkowicz Collections.

BEETHOVEN’S NEW MUSIC IN LOBKOWICZ CONCERTS |

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.

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS

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 |

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS

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 |

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.

| THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS MUSIC SERIES: HIGHLIGHTS