27 Facts About Ludwig Minkus

Ludwig Minkus, known as Leon Fyodorovich Minkus, was an Austrian composer of ballet music, a violin virtuoso and teacher.

Ludwig Minkus wrote supplemental material for insertion into already existing ballets, among them the Grand Pas classique from the ballet Paquita, which was added by Marius Petipa for a revival of the ballet in 1881.

Today, Ludwig Minkus's music is some of the most performed in all of ballet, and is a most integral part of the traditional classical ballet repertory.

Ludwig Minkus was born Aloysius Bernhard Philipp Minkus on 23 March 1826, in the Innere Stadt district of Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire.

Ludwig Minkus's father was a wholesale merchant of wine in Moravia, Austria and Hungary.

Ludwig Minkus opened a restaurant in the Innere Stadt district of Vienna that featured its own small orchestra.

Ludwig Minkus made his public debut at a recital in Vienna at the age of eight.

Ludwig Minkus began composing for his instrument while he was still a student.

In 1852 Ludwig Minkus accepted the position of principal violinist to the Vienna Court Opera, but because this meant that he had to fulfill the usual duties this position demanded, he resigned that same year to take up an important musical assignment abroad that would change his life forever.

In 1853 Ludwig Minkus emigrated to Saint Petersburg, Russia to serve as conductor of the Serf orchestra of Prince Nikolai Yusupov, a post which Minkus occupied until 1855.

That same year, Ludwig Minkus married Maria Antoinette Schwarz at the Catholic Church of St Catherine in St Petersburg.

From 1856 until 1861 Ludwig Minkus served as principal violinist and concert master to the orchestra of the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow as well as conductor of the Italian Opera of that theatre.

In late 1862 Ludwig Minkus was called upon to compose an entr'acte for solo violin to be added to Adolphe Adam's score for Jean Coralli's ballet Orfa.

Ludwig Minkus later accompanied Saint-Leon to mount the ballet for Muravieva at the Theatre Imperial de l'Opera in Paris.

Ludwig Minkus wrote the whole of Act I and the second tableau of Act III, while Delibes wrote the whole of Act II and the first tableau of Act III.

Ludwig Minkus's score featured several traditional Russian folk melodies, as well as virtuoso passages for solo flute written especially for the renowned Italian flautist Cesare Ciardi.

The ballet featured a score by Ludwig Minkus that was derived from the composer's work on La Source.

Petipa staged a new version of his Don Quixote for the Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg, and for this production Ludwig Minkus completely reworked and expanded his score.

Ludwig Minkus's scores featured violin cadenzas written especially for the great Leopold Auer.

In 1883 Ludwig Minkus composed the music for Petipa's Nuit et Jour, a sumptuous piece d'occasion staged especially for the celebrations held at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow in honor of the coronation of Emperor Alexander III.

Ludwig Minkus naturally supplied the music for Petipa's danced passages in three fantastical tableaux.

Ludwig Minkus's music was hailed as a masterwork of ballet music by contemporary critics.

In light of this, the director of the Imperial Theatres Ivan Vsevolozhsky felt that the time had come for Ludwig Minkus's long held post of official ballet composer to be abolished in an effort to diversify the music supplied for the ballet.

Ludwig Minkus then composed Die Dryaden for the Viennese stage in 1899, a ballet in one act.

Ludwig Minkus later relocated to an apartment in the Gentzgasse where he spent his final years alone and in utter poverty, his wife having died in 1895, and the events of World War I having cut off his pension from Russia.

Ludwig Minkus was interred at the Dobling Cemetery in Vienna.

In 1939 Ludwig Minkus's grave fell victim to the national fascist policies of the time when all cemeteries were systematically "cleansed" by the invading Nazi regime.