Mikhail Vielgorsky composed romances, symphonies, an opera and was an amateur singer, violinist, and patron of the arts.
18 Facts About Mikhail Vielgorsky
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Mikhail Vielgorsky is considered to be one of the major influences on the musical arts in Russia during the 19th-century because of his salons, responsible with bringing the string quartet to Russia.
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Mikhail Vielgorsky was a friend of Ludwig van Beethoven and an admirer of his music; the Russian premiere of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony took place at Mikhail Vielgorsky's home in Saint Petersburg in 1836.
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Mikhail Vielgorsky presided over his salons with remarkable informality, donning simple garments and entertaining various different classes of guests in expert ease.
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Mikhail Vielgorsky was the son of Polish szlachcic [envoy] Jerzy Wielhorski, and the brother of Maciej Wielhorski, an amateur cellist who founded the Society of Lovers of Music with Prince Nikolai Borisovich Galitzin in 1828.
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Mikhail Vielgorsky's mother was Countess Sophia Dmitrievna Matyushkina, lady in waiting to Catherine the Great.
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Back in 1804, when the whole family lived in Riga, Mikhail Vielgorsky took part in family music-making in the evenings: the part of the first violin was performed by his father, the viola - by himself, and the cello part - by his brother Matvey, another outstanding musician-performer.
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Not limiting himself to the knowledge he had acquired, Mikhail Vielgorsky continued his studies of composition in Paris with Luigi Cherubini, the famous Italian composer and Music Theorist.
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Mikhail Vielgorsky was one of the first in Russia to master large sonata-symphonic forms, writing two symphonies, a string quartet, and two overtures.
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Mikhail Vielgorsky created variations for Cello and Orchestra, pieces for piano, romances, vocal ensembles, as well as a number of choral works.
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Mikhail Vielgorsky managed to attract many musicians to his Luizino estate in the Kursk province, far from the life of the capital.
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Mikhail Vielgorsky highly appreciated Glinka's music and considered his opera Ivan Susanin, later more commonly named A Life for the Tsar, a masterpiece.
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Mikhail Vielgorsky's son-in-law Count V Sollogub made an account of his mild and unassuming personality:.
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Mikhail Vielgorsky did not seek fame, shied away from the struggle and, despite the fact - or, perhaps, precisely because, - he was an extraordinary person: a philosopher, critic, linguist, physician, theologian, hermeticist, honorary member of all Masonic lodges, the soul of all societies, a family man, epicurean, courtier, dignitary, artist, musician, comrade, judge, he was a living encyclopedia of the deepest knowledge, an example of the most tender feelings and the most playful mind.
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Mikhail Vielgorsky is buried in the Lazarevskoye Cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St Petersburg.
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Mikhail Vielgorsky knew Maria Sergeyevna Durnovo, skilled piano performer and sister of famous Russian writer Alexander Griboyedov.
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The first wife of Mikhail Vielgorsky was the maid of honor the Empress of Russia, Princess Catherine Biron von Courland, the niece of the last Duke of Courland.
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In 1816, Mikhail Vielgorsky secretly married the elder sister of his first wife Princess Louise Biron von Courland, the maid of honor of the Empress Maria.