Some Matters Related to Bonn in the 1790's
Thanks so much to Peter and all members here for the very interesting discussion/comments/suggestions on Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi at Bonn.
Speaking of early Beethoven at Bonn reminds me of a number of equally curious things that I came across around the same time as the Taboga material. These all have in common links to Bonn chapel in the 1790’s so I submit them here. (Certain aspects of these fragments are still being looked in to by me from archive and other sources in Russia but of course may/may not be of relevance to readers).
Beethoven (as seems generally agreed) was by far the most talented musical pupil at Bonn during the time when Luchesi was Kapellmeister. But there was another student during Kapellmeister Luchesi’s time at Bonn who was greatly gifted in both composition and in performance though far less well known. This was Johann Heinrich Facius (1760-1806). 10 years older than Ludwig van Beethoven, this remarkable composer moved to Russia with his father (who, apparently, was involved in some way in the immigration in to Russia of German artists and craftsmen).
Facius published several works in Germany but is chiefly remembered for a small number of chamber works and several very extraordinary cello concertos. (He was a highly talented cellist by all accounts and even during his time at Bonn was greatly praised by Neefe and others). Many of his compositions have disappeared including several symphonies. He lived after Bonn in Moscow, then in St Petersburg, and finally returned to Moscow around 1806 shortly before his death that same year. We know very little of his last years.
Those who know his music speak of its remarkable beauty and have compared his style to that of late Mozart. (The cello concertos are being more widely appreciated in recent years though his chamber music is already recognised as being of very high quality).
But there are some curious things about the Facius story. One is that this Facius (around 1797) met and worked closely with the Austrian composer Anton Eberl in St Petersburg (Eberl was of course later a Vienna rival to Beethoven in terms of his own keyboard skills and even in terms of his symphonies). Eberl and Facius worked together for a time in Russia for the great promoter of music./opera Count Sheremettov and around 1805 Eberl is described in Russian documents as a ‘Kapellmeister’ to one Count Gouriev.
What are really curious are that days after Mozart’s death in December 1791 it was the tenor of the Bonn choir to whom Constanze Mozart wrote regarding possible sale of musical manuscripts. (She met this man in Vienna in late December 1791, some days before the letter was written). Secondly, the Elector of Bonn, Max Franz, is known from a letter written years later by the publisher Simrock to have received a version of the ‘Magic Flute’ from Mozart himself even before its first performance in September 1791 (this little known). And before he first travelled to Russia Anton Eberl (why him ?) accompanied Constanze Mozart for several months on her tour of German cities to promote Mozart’s music, this some years after the death of Wolfgang Amadeus, and around the same time of the first performance outside of Vienna of ‘Mozart’s’ Requiem.
Curiously, in the late 1790’s the same Anton Eberl had cause to twice post advertisements in German newspapers protesting that various works of his were being published wrongly by music publishers in the name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (This strange experience actually occurred many times with Eberl’s music and it finally culminated in a very curious letter from Russia to a German newspaper in which he specifically blames Constanze Mozart for these errors. Why remains unknown.).
Secondly, there is a surviving Russian police archive file (recently discovered) which speaks of the father of the composer Heinrich Facius in St Petersburg being in some way ‘an active agent of the church authority at Bonn’.
Most puzzling of all is the fact that at the time of the Brabant Revolution in Belgium the Russian envoy to Brussels was also one ‘H. Facius’ (though it is not clear whether he was or was not related to the Bonn composer JH Facius).
It is clear that Facius, cellist and little known composer lived his youth in Bonn and was, like Beethoven some years later, a highly regarded student of the chapel. The fact that Facius and his father seem to have been in correspondence with Bonn (even from Russia) may increase the possibility that lost works by Facius may eventually be found amongst the many unattributed musical works now at Modena, in Italy.
It is not known if Facius and Beethoven met.
Regards
Robert Newman
[This message has been edited by robert newman (edited 08-25-2005).]
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