Sophia Maria Westenholzaus classic

Eleonora Maria Sophia Westenholz (* 10 July 1759 in Neubrandenburg; † 4 October 1838 in Ludwigslust) was a German singer, pianist and composer.

Life

Sophia Maria Westenholz, née Fritsch, was the daughter of the Neubrandenburg organist Ferdinand Fritsch and his wife Christina Sophia, née Lilie.

When her father died in 1764, Sophie was barely five years old. The rest of her life, which apparently led her to Schwerin, initially remains a mystery. As a child, her talent attracted the attention of Hereditary Prince Ludwig of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He arranged for her to be educated by his court music director Johann Wilhelm Hertel. At the age of 17, she was accepted into the court chapel of the hereditary prince in Ludwigslust in 1775. On 12 September 1777, she became the second wife of Carl August Friedrich Westenholz (1736-1789), Kapellmeister and tenor of the Ludwigslust court chapel. His first wife, the Italian singer Lucietta Affabili, had died a year earlier. In the twelve years of their marriage, she became the mother of eight children. Her husband bought a glass harmonica for her so that she would have a position in the court chapel even after her voice had deteriorated.

Sophie Westenholz was appointed court singer in 1779. She enjoyed considerable success as a stage and concert singer in Schwerin and Ludwigslust. At the same time, she became a widely acclaimed pianist and glass harmonica player. In 1783, her piano playing ‘in the Bachian manner’ was emphasised in the Magazin der Musik. After the death of her husband, she continued her career at the court of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She gave music lessons to the daughters of the ducal family. The Weimar court conductor Ernst Wilhelm Wolf dedicated six sonatinas to her.

Concert tours took her to Berlin (1791, 1804), Lübeck (1793), Rostock (1798), Copenhagen (before 1799), Leipzig (1799), Hamburg (1802, 1803) and Stettin (1804). At least occasionally, and regularly since the death of Antonio Rosetti in 1792, she conducted concerts of the court orchestra from the piano as Kapellmeister, until Louis Massonneau insisted in 1811 that she conduct from the podium. She retired with a pension in 1821.

Her son Friedrich (1778-1840) became oboist at the Berlin court orchestra and composed concert symphonies, songs and piano music. Their son Carl Ludwig Cornelius (1788-1854) became a violinist in the Schwerin court orchestra, pianist and composer.

In 2019, the Schwerin music publisher Edition Massonneau published her complete surviving works for piano for the first time, with the support of the Mecklenburg Foundation in cooperation with the Förderverein Schloss Ludwigslust.

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