Eduard Lassen

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Eduard Lassen (13 April 1830 – 15 January 1904) was a

choral works among others. His most successful pieces were his fine vocal art songs for solo voice and piano which often used elements of German and Belgian folk music
.

Biography

He was born in

Staatskapelle Weimar) and the work premiered in Weimar in 1857. The following year, Liszt recommended Lassen as his replacement as the court music director in Weimar, which involved conducting both the opera and the court orchestra. He happily took the job and remained in that role until his retirement in 1895. While there he conducted several world premieres including the first performance of Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila in 1877. He also conducted the first performance in Weimar, and the first outside Munich, of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (1874).[3]

He remained in Weimar after his retirement and died there in 1904, shortly after receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Jena.[4]

Works

A moderately prolific composer, Lassen produced four

lieder, and art songs for voice and piano.[4]

Lassen's operas, Landgraf Ludwig's Brautfahrt (1857), Frauenlob (1861), and Le Captif (1868), did not have lasting success, though his music to Goethe's Faust (1876) gained popularity and was praised by Franz Liszt. His incidental music to Hebbel's Die Nibelungen (1873) was also well known. In 1878–79, Liszt combined excerpts from both these works in a single piano transcription, Aus der Musik zu Hebbels Nibelungen und Goethes Faust (S.496).

Lassen's solo songs and duets show a variety of treatment from the folklike Sei nur ruhig, lieber Robin or the songs with dance rhythms to the through-composed Abendlandschaft (with its more interesting modulations and accompaniment) to the rhapsodic and improvisatory Ich hab im Traum geweinet. Many of his songs, for instance Vöglein wohin so schnell, were translated into both English and French and were popular at the end of the 19th century.[4]

References

  1. JewishEncyclopedia.com
    .
  2. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lassen, Eduard" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 237.
  3. ^ Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. V (5th ed.). 1954. p. 58.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0
    . Retrieved 29 October 2010. (subscription required)
  5. ^ Sonneck, Oscar George Theodore and Library of Congress. Orchestral Music (class M 1000-1268) Catalogue: scores at Google Books, page 581.
  6. ^ Hofmeister Monatsbericht - 1868, page 182 for symphony 1, 1884, page 18 for symphony 2. A performance of symphony 1 was noted in the 16 February 1867 issue of the Niederrheinische Musik-Zeitung für Kunstfreunde und Künstler, Volume 15, page 55, so the work dates to 1867 or earlier.

External links

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