Rodolphe Kreutzer
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Rodolphe Kreutzer (15 November 1766[1] – 6 January 1831) was a French violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer of forty French operas, including La mort d'Abel (1810).
He is probably best known as the dedicatee of Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 9, Op. 47 (1803), known as the Kreutzer Sonata, though he never played the work. Kreutzer made the acquaintance of Beethoven in 1798, when at Vienna in the service of the French ambassador, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (later King of Sweden and Norway).[2] Beethoven originally dedicated the sonata to George Bridgetower, the violinist at its first performance, but after a quarrel he revised the dedication in favour of Kreutzer.
Biography[]
Kreutzer was born in Versailles, and was initially taught by his German father, who was a musician in the royal chapel,[3] with later lessons from Anton Stamitz.[4] He became one of the foremost violin virtuosos of his day, appearing as a soloist until 1810. He was a violin professor at the Conservatoire de Paris from its foundation in 1795 until 1826. He was co-author of the Conservatoire's violin method with Pierre Rode and Pierre Baillot, and the three are considered the founding trinity of the French school of violin playing. For a time, Kreutzer was leader of the Paris Opera, and from 1817 he conducted there, too. He died in Geneva[3] and is buried in Paris at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Work[]
Kreutzer was well known for his style of bowing, his splendid tone, and the clearness of his execution. His compositions include nineteen violin concertos and forty operas. His best-known works, however, are the 42 études ou caprices (42 études or capricci, 1796) which are fundamental pedagogic studies.
References[]
- ^ J. Hardy (Académie de Versailles, des Yvelines et de l'Ile-de-France) (1909). "Rodolphe Kreutzer – sa jeunesse à Verailles". Revue de l'histoire de Versailles et de Seine-Et-Oise (in French). L. Bernard (Versailles); H. Champion (Paris); Bibliothèque nationale de France (online): 264 (257–284). ISSN 1158-2677.
- ^ Schwarz, Boris (1958). "Beethoven and the French Violin School". The Musical Quarterly. XLIV (4): 431–447. doi:10.1093/mq/XLIV.4.431.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 925.
- ^ Rodolphe Kreutzer at the Encyclopædia Britannica
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rodolphe Kreutzer. |
- Free scores by Rodolphe Kreutzer at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- Keith Johnson. Rodolphe Kreutzer at AllMusic
- Rodolphe Kreutzer at Find a Grave
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- 1766 births
- 1831 deaths
- 18th-century classical composers
- 18th-century conductors (music)
- 18th-century French people
- 18th-century violinists
- French male violinists
- 19th-century classical composers
- 19th-century male conductors (music)
- 19th-century conductors (music)
- 19th-century French people
- 19th-century classical violinists
- Conservatoire de Paris faculty
- Burials at Cimetière des Rois
- French classical composers
- French male classical composers
- French classical violinists
- French male conductors (music)
- French conductors (music)
- French educators
- French people of German descent
- French opera composers
- Male opera composers
- People from Versailles
- French Romantic composers
- Violin pedagogues
- 19th-century French composers
- 18th-century French composers
- 18th-century male musicians
- Male classical violinists