Wilhelm Kuhe
Encyclopedia
Wilhelm Kuhe was a German pianist, pianoforte player and teacher, composer and administrator born in the city of Prague
(modern-day Czech Republic
), in the first half of the nineteenth-century.
, having Erwin Schulhoff
as a fellow student. He lived in Upper Austria
in 1843-44, studying music and preparing for a concert tour with great success in 1844 at Linz
, Salzburg
, Innsbruck
, Augsburg
, Munich
, and then at Stuttgart
. During his stay in Stuttgart in 1845 he made the acquaintance of a singer possessed of one of the most beautiful baritone voices he had ever had the pleasure to hear called Pischek. They both visited London
on the morning of May 1 that year and the following year he played with great success at Mr. Ella's Musical Union in Mayseder's trio. His first concert in London was arranged by Moscheles
at the Beethoven Rooms on Harley street. In 1847, at the age of 24, he settled in England
, dividing his time between London and Brighton
, where he attained popularity as a pianoforte teacher, performer and promoter of concerts.
With remarkable enterprise and spirit, Kuhe showed great enterprise by establishing the annual festival at Brighton which was held by him as a joint conductor from 1870 to 1882, wherein he encouraged native talent by the new works composed at his instance and produced by him, among which, Virginia Gabriel's Evangeline in 1873; Barnett's cantata, The Good Shepherd, in 1876; Clay's Lalla Rookh in 1877 and 1878; Cowen's Deluge, and Cellier's Suite Symphonique in 1878; Walter Macfarren's overture, Hero and Leander, Gadsby's Lord of the Isles, Wingham
's Concert Overture in A, and Sloper's suite in 1879; Leslie's cantata, First Christmas Morn, A. H. Jackson's Ballet Suite and W. Macfarren's Symphony in B♭ in 1880: W. Macfarren's Concertsttick in B♭, played by Miss Kuhe, in 1881; Corder's orchestral Nocturne in 1882, in addition to The Woman of Samaria and The Martyr of Antioch
, under the respective direction of their composers. He occasionally appeared in London, where he gave an annual concert in 1846. He was appointed a Professor of the Royal Academy of Music
in 1886, position which he held until 1904. His numerous compositions include many drawing-room pieces, fantasias, and studies. He published also many transcriptions and songs.
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
(modern-day Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
), in the first half of the nineteenth-century.
Life
He exhibited a precocious taste for music, and at the age of four picked out Paganini's melodies on the pianoforte from memory. He was taught music by Václav TomášekVáclav Tomášek
Václav Jan Křtitel Tomášek, was a Czech composer and music teacher.-Life:As a pianist, he was an autodidact, becoming one of the most important piano teachers of Prague for a century. Until 1824 he worked as a piano teacher in aristocratic families...
, having Erwin Schulhoff
Erwin Schulhoff
Erwin Schulhoff was a Czech composer and pianist.-Life:Born in Prague of Jewish-German origin, Schulhoff was one of the brightest figures in a generation of European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany...
as a fellow student. He lived in Upper Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
in 1843-44, studying music and preparing for a concert tour with great success in 1844 at Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
, Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
, Innsbruck
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...
, Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, and then at Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
. During his stay in Stuttgart in 1845 he made the acquaintance of a singer possessed of one of the most beautiful baritone voices he had ever had the pleasure to hear called Pischek. They both visited London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on the morning of May 1 that year and the following year he played with great success at Mr. Ella's Musical Union in Mayseder's trio. His first concert in London was arranged by Moscheles
Ignaz Moscheles
Ignaz Moscheles was a Bohemian composer and piano virtuoso, whose career after his early years was based initially in London, and later at Leipzig, where he succeeded his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as head of the Conservatoire.-Sources:Much of what we know about Moscheles's life...
at the Beethoven Rooms on Harley street. In 1847, at the age of 24, he settled in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, dividing his time between London and Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, where he attained popularity as a pianoforte teacher, performer and promoter of concerts.
With remarkable enterprise and spirit, Kuhe showed great enterprise by establishing the annual festival at Brighton which was held by him as a joint conductor from 1870 to 1882, wherein he encouraged native talent by the new works composed at his instance and produced by him, among which, Virginia Gabriel's Evangeline in 1873; Barnett's cantata, The Good Shepherd, in 1876; Clay's Lalla Rookh in 1877 and 1878; Cowen's Deluge, and Cellier's Suite Symphonique in 1878; Walter Macfarren's overture, Hero and Leander, Gadsby's Lord of the Isles, Wingham
Thomas Wingham
Thomas Wingham was an English musician, known as a teacher and for his time at Brompton Oratory....
's Concert Overture in A, and Sloper's suite in 1879; Leslie's cantata, First Christmas Morn, A. H. Jackson's Ballet Suite and W. Macfarren's Symphony in B♭ in 1880: W. Macfarren's Concertsttick in B♭, played by Miss Kuhe, in 1881; Corder's orchestral Nocturne in 1882, in addition to The Woman of Samaria and The Martyr of Antioch
The Martyr of Antioch
The Martyr of Antioch is an oratorio by the English composer Arthur Sullivan. It was first performed on 15 October 1880 at the triennial Leeds Music Festival, having been composed specifically for that event...
, under the respective direction of their composers. He occasionally appeared in London, where he gave an annual concert in 1846. He was appointed a Professor of the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
in 1886, position which he held until 1904. His numerous compositions include many drawing-room pieces, fantasias, and studies. He published also many transcriptions and songs.
Fantasias
- Fantasie on Sir Arthur Sullivan’s opera The ChieftainThe ChieftainThe Chieftain is a two-act comic opera by Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand based on their 1867 opera, The Contrabandista. It consists of substantially the same first act as the 1867 work with a completely new second act...
- Fantasie brilliante on motifs from Bizet's Carmem
- Fantasie on motifs from Verdi's La Forza del DestinoLa forza del destinoLa forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
- Fantasie on Verdi's opera La TraviataLa traviataLa traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
- Grande fantasie de concert on Flotow's MarthaMartha (opera)Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond is a 'romantic comic' opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow, set to a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese and based on a story by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges....
- Fantasia on Austrian Anthem
- Victoria Fantasia on National Anthem
- Fantasie on Meyerbeer's DinorahDinorahDinorah, originally Le pardon de Ploërmel , is an 1859 French opéra comique in three acts with music by Giacomo Meyerbeer and a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré...
- Fantasia on Rule Britannia
Études
- Andante and etude Op. 14
- Casta Diva, study in the cantabile from BelliniBellini-People:*Vincenzo Bellini , opera composer*a family of Italian painters:**Jacopo Bellini , father of Gentile and Giovanni**Gentile Bellini **Giovanni Bellini , the most famous of the three...
’s NormaNorma (opera)Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition... - Charlie is my darling, study in octaves
- Silvery Shower, caprice étude Op. 78
- Étude de concert
Salon music
- Three Songs without words Op. 12
- Le Carillon Op. 13
- Chanson d'Amour
- Romance sans Paroles Op. 17
- Le Feu Follet, scherzo capriccioso Op. 38
- Gondola
- Rosée du soir
Other works
- Lieder ohne Worte Op. 12
- Galop di Bravura from Howard Glover’s opera Ruy BlasRuy BlasRuy Blas is a tragic drama by Victor Hugo. It was the first play presented at the Théâtre de la Renaissance and opened on November 8, 1838. Though considered by many to be Hugo’s best drama, the play initially met with only average success....
- The Gipsies Revel
- Graziella, Op.60
- Scène bohémienne, Op.138
- Corbeille de Fleurs Valse
Further reading
- My musical recollections, Rinsland Press (2008), ISBN 1443743437.
- Royal Wedding March, Chappell & Co. London (1869). Pictorial colour lithograph with music by lithographic artist G. DesMaison
- Come Back to Erin (Words and music by ClaribelCharlotte Alington BarnardCharlotte Alington Pye Barnard was an English poet and composer of ballads and hymns, who often wrote under the pseudonym Claribel.-Life:...
), Ditson, Boston. Music score. - Sparkling Shower. Caprice étude pour Piano. Music score.
- Slumber-Song and Tarantella from Auber's MasanielloMasanielloMasaniello was a Neapolitan fisherman, who became leader of the revolt against Spanish Habsburg rule in Naples in 1647.-Name and place of birth:...
. Music score.
External links
- The Henselt Library at European-American University Public domain scores of rare nineteenth-century piano music.
- IMSLP - Petrucci Music Library The free public domain music library.