Elisabeth von Herzogenbergaus romantic

Elisabeth von Herzogenberg (* 13 April 1847 in Paris as Elisabeth Stockhausen; † 7 January 1892 in Sanremo) was a German pianist, composer, singer and patron of the arts.

Life

Elisabeth von Stockhausen was born in Paris as the third child of the Hanoverian diplomat Bodo Albrecht von Stockhausen (1810-1885) and Countess Clotilde von Baudissin (1818-1891). Bodo Albrecht von Stockhausen had received piano lessons from Frédéric Chopin in Paris. When Elisabeth was five years old, the family moved to Vienna. There she received piano lessons first from Theodor Dirzka, organist of the Protestant congregation. Later, the pianist Julius Epstein taught her piano playing and harmony, and she also received singing lessons. Her vocal range covered three octaves, and her voice is described as extraordinarily clear.

Stockhausen’s piano playing was praised for its expression, touch, technique and sensitivity and inspired Paul Heyse, Clara Schumann, Adolf von Hildebrand and Johannes Brahms, among others. The latter accepted her as a pupil in 1863, but referred her back to Julius Epstein after a short time. There are different speculations about the possible reasons – consideration for Epstein or withdrawal in view of a budding love affair. Nevertheless, Elisabeth later became a close confidante of Brahms, who sent him detailed reviews of his works in the course of letter-writing consultations, as well as of Clara Schumann. The composer dedicated the two Rhapsodies op. 79 to her in 1880 and discarded pieces that displeased her. The correspondence between Brahms and the Herzogenberg couple, edited in two volumes by Max Kalbeck, is an important source for Brahms research.

Elisabeth von Stockhausen met the composer and conductor Heinrich von Herzogenberg in Vienna in 1865, and they married on 26 November 1868. The couple lived first in Graz, then from 1872 in Leipzig and from 1885 in Berlin, where Heinrich von Herzogenberg taught composition at the Royal Academy of Music.

Elisabeth von Herzogenberg, although always integrated into the musical scene together with her husband, performed mainly in private circles as a pianist and singer and was active as a musical advisor and patron of artists. She supported her husband in the direction of the Leipzig Bach Society, which he had founded in 1875 together with Philipp Spitta, Franz von Holstein and Alfred Volkland. Occasionally she took part in concerts of the association as a pianist. In 1878 she met the music student Ethel Smyth, whom she intensively supported and with whom she had a love affair. Smyth dedicated an entire chapter (XX) in her memoirs to her.

Their marriage remained childless. Her husband fell ill between 1887 and 1889, soon after which her own heart condition worsened. During this period until her death, the couple travelled through various European health resorts. In January 1892, Elisabeth von Herzogenberg, not yet 45, succumbed to her heart condition in Sanremo, which she had visited with her husband in November 1891 because of the warmer climate. Her husband’s String Quintet op. 77, written immediately afterwards, varies in its slow movement a song composed by Elisabeth to a text by Friedrich Rückert, “Du bist vergangen eh ich’s gedacht”. The cantata “Todtenfeier” op. 80 for solos, choir and orchestra was also composed under the impression of her death.

Although some of Elisabeth von Herzogenberg’s compositions have survived, a large number have been lost unpublished. In 1889, Rieter-Biedermann in Leipzig published “24 Volkskinderlieder für eine Singstimme mit Begleitung des Pianoforte” (text author and date of composition unknown). After her death, her husband published “Acht Clavierstücke” from her pen (also with Rieter-Biedermann), which he dedicated individually to friends of the deceased. A recording of the “Acht Clavierstücke” by Nataša Veljković appeared in 2014 as part of a complete recording of the piano works of Heinrich v. Herzogenberg on the cpo label. In 2019, the Andante from the “Clavierstücke” was performed in a concert at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna as part of Europride, which was dedicated to the composer Ethel Smyth and her “queer contemporaries”.

Source Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_von_Herzogenberg