Hans von bulow biography templates

Hans Guido Freiherr von Bülow (January 8, 1830 – February 12, 1894) was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. He was one of the most famous conductors of the 19th century, and his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, including Richard Wagner.

Biography

Bülow was born in Dresden, and from the age of nine he was a student of Friedrich Wieck (the father of Clara Schumann). However, his parents insisted that he study law instead of music, and sent him to Leipzig. There he met Franz Liszt, and on hearing some music of Richard Wagner—specifically, the premiere of Lohengrin in 1850—he decided to ignore the dictates of his parents and make himself a career in music instead. He studied the piano in Leipzig with the famous pedagogue Louis Plaidy. He obtained his first conducting job in Zurich, on Wagner's recommendation, in 1850.

Notoriously tactless, Bülow alienated many musicians with whom he worked. He was dismissed from his Zurich job for this reason, but at the same time he was beginning to win renown for his ability to conduct new and complex works without a score. In 1851 he became a student of Liszt, marrying Liszt's daughter Cosima in 1857. They had two daughters: Daniela, born in 1860 and Blandine, born in 1863. During the 1850s and early 1860s he was active as a pianist, conductor, and writer, and became well-known throughout Germany as well as Russia. In 1857 he premiered Liszt's great Piano Sonata in B minor in Berlin.

In 1864 he became the Hofkapellmeister in Munich, and it was at this post he achieved his principal renown. He conducted the premieres of two Wagner operas, Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, in 1865 and 1868 respectively; both were immensely successful. However, his wife Cosima, who had been carrying on an extramarital affair with Richard Wagner for some time, left him in 1868, taking with her two of their fo

German conductor and pianist (1830–1894)

For the general, see Hans von Bülow (general).

FreiherrHans Guido von Bülow (German:[ˌhansfɔnˈbyːlo]; 8 January 1830 – 12 February 1894) was a German conductor, pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, especially Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms. Alongside Carl Tausig, Bülow was perhaps the most prominent of the early students of the Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor Franz Liszt; he gave the first public performance of Liszt's Sonata in B minor in 1857. He became acquainted with, fell in love with and eventually married Liszt's daughter Cosima, who later left him for Wagner. Noted for his interpretation of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven, he was one of the earliest European musicians to tour the United States.

Life and career

Bülow was born in Dresden into the old and prominent House of Bülow. He was the son of novelist Karl Eduard von Bülow [de] (1803–1853) and his wife, Franziska Elisabeth Stoll von Berneck (1800–1888). From the age of nine, he was a student of Professor Friedrich Wieck (the father of Clara Schumann). However, his parents insisted that he study law instead of music, and they sent him to Leipzig. There he met Franz Liszt, and on hearing some music of Richard Wagner—specifically, the premiere of Lohengrin in 1850—he decided to ignore the dictates of his parents and make himself a career in music instead. He studied the piano in Leipzig with the famous pedagogue Louis Plaidy. He obtained his first conducting job in Zürich, on Wagner's recommendation, in 1850.

Bülow had a strongly acerbic personality and a sharp tongue; this alienated many musicians whom he worked with. He was dismissed from his Zurich job for this reason, but at the same time he was b

​BÜLOW, Hans Guido von, born Jan. 8, 1830, at Dresden. The foremost pianist of that most advanced school of pianoforte playing, founded by Chopin and developed by Liszt. A first-rate conductor, and a musician whose technical attainments and complete knowledge of the art from its germs to its very latest development can be rivalled by few contemporaries and surpassed by none. As a pianist his repertoire comprehends the master-works of all styles and schools, from the early Italians to the present day; it would in fact be difficult to mention a work of any importance by any composer for the pianoforte which he has not played in public, and by heart. His prodigious musical memory has enabled him also as a conductor to perform feats which have never before been attempted, and will in all likelihood not be imitated. The distinctive peculiarity of both his playing and conducting may be set down as a passionate intellectuality. One notices at every step that all details have been thought about and mastered down to the minutest particle; one feels that all effects have been analysed and calculated with the utmost subtlety, and yet the whole leaves an impression of warm spontaneity. This is the highest praise which can be awarded to an executant. It does not, perhaps, apply to all of Bülow's appearances in public, but it applies strictly to his performances at their best; and it is but bare justice to measure the achievements of a great artist as one measures a mountain chain, by the peaks rather than by the valleys. The analytical and reconstructive powers just emphasised render his editions of classical pianoforte works, such as those of Beethoven's sonatas, variations, and bagatelles, from op. 53 upwards, of Cramer's studies, of selections from Sebastian and Emanuel Bach, from Handel, Scarlatti, etc.—in which he has indicated the most refined phrasing and ​fingering, as well as the most minute nuan

Hans von Bülow, 1855 [i]

            In early June, 1851, Hans von Bülow arrived in Weimar to begin his studies with Liszt. [ii] At twenty, Baron Hans Guido von Bülow (1830-1894) was already a brilliant and accomplished musician and person of deep culture. Neither his precocious talent for music, nor his taste for the musical avant-garde were fully understood or appreciated by his family, however, and it would take all of Liszt’s tactful personal involvement and moral support, as well as his musical and professional mentorship, to pave the way for Bülow to become one of the 19 century’s greatest pianists and conductors. The von Bülows were a noble family that traced their heritage to the 12 century. Hans’s grandfather, Ernst Heinrich Adolf von Bülow, was a major in Napoleon’s army (Saxony fought on the side of the French). His father, (Carl) Eduard von Bülow, was a writer. Beginning in 1828, Eduard had published numerous works, including stories and novellas, and an abundant array of translations and editions of standard authors. His knowledge of French, English and Italian literature was immense. Eduard von Bülow was a friend and colleague of the canonic Romantic writer Ludwig Tieck, with whom he edited Novalis’s works. In 1851, at the time that Hans made his way to Weimar, he published Tieck’s Die Sommernacht. Ein dramatisches Fragment.

Hans’s mother, Franziska Elisabeth Stoll von Bülow, also came from old nobility. She grew up in the house of her sister Henriette, who was twelve years older, and married to Leipzig Geheimkammerrat, Stadthauptmann Christian Gottlob Frege, one of the patricians of Leipzig society. [1] Franziska was musically gifted, and thoroughly au fait with the excellences of gesellige Bildung. The Frege houshold was a center of Leipzig geselligkeit, and through their acquaintances Franziska and Henriette learned to converse, not only in French and Italian, but in Russian and Polish as well. Goet