Polish violinist Karol Lipiński, first violinist 1839-58
Dresden’s strong chamber music tradition in the 19th century owes much to Karol Józef Lipiński (30 October 1790 – 16 December 1861), a great virtuoso who had a passion for string quartet playing. Despite his fame during his lifetime, the violins his owned are probably what keep his name alive.1 Growing up in what is today Lviv, Ukraine, he was taught by his father, himself an autodidact. As a young man he traveled to Vienna to meet Louis Spohr, who inspired him to dedicate two years to intense practice. Thereafter he led the life of a traveling virtuoso, and encountered the famous musical personalities in every major city. He met Paganini during his first tour, and they put on a performance in Piacenza, Italy on 17 April 1818. They played together again more than a decade later in Warsaw in 1829, with Chopin among others in the audience. In 1835 at age 45 he took a long tour through Germany, also playing to great acclaim in Paris and London. He traveled with his family this time, and was apparently looking for a position. He had two performances at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1835, where Mendelssohn had recently become conductor, and may have applied to be concertmaster. After Ferdinand David was chosen, he refused to ever play again in the Gewandhaus. He then spent two years negotiating before taking the concertmaster position in Dresden. He and his family moved from Lviv for good and settled down in Dresden in the summer of 1839.
Mahaim has presented evidence for Lipinski’s advocacy of Beethoven’s late quartets: first, he played first violin in Galitzin’s quartet for the first performance of Op. 127 in St. Petersburg on 20 June 1825. Thirteen years later Lipinski was again in St. Petersburg, with performances of Opp. 127, 131, and 135 in March and April of 1838.2 Although these concerts exist only anecdotally, they represent the tip of the iceberg of the informal opportunities to hear these works that we will never know about.
The programs of Lipinski’s chamber music concerts in Dresden are not easily accessed. Based on a small sample that I have found, I can say he favored a program of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, with multiple performances of the late quartets, and no works with piano–which would also be Joachim’s policy.
Lipinski’s Dresden colleagues were long term members of the Königliche Kapelle: his protegé Ferdinand Hüllweck (1824-87) played second violin and filled in as first violin during the transition to a new leader. Ludwig Göring (1828-98) was the violist starting in 1853 and continued after Lipinski’s retirement with the next leader Lauterbach. The older August Kummer (1797-1879) was the cellist from 1847-60. He was replaced by Friedrich Grützmacher (1832-1903), one of the era’s great cellists up to his death.
Johann Christoph Lauterbach, first violinist, 1861-89
Photo from about 1870 of Lauterbach, Hüllweck, Göring and Grützmacher, with portrait of Beethoven.
Johann Christoph Lauterbach (1832-1918) became a member of the Dresden K.K. in 1861 and subsequently took over the quartet after Lipinski’s retirement. It may be that Lauterbach’s name is little known today because he is not easily assigned to any “school” of violin playing: he was German but not a student of David or Spohr. He was a child prodigy who seems to have acquired his technique from his father and local teachers while attending Gymnasium in Würzburg. At 18 he went to the Brussels Conservatory to study with Charles de Bériot, but this seems to have been for acquiring “finish”; after just one year he won the gold medal and was made an instructor. He left to be concertmaster in Munich, where he led a quartet. His programs there in the 1850s were similar to Joachim’s: Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, especially the late quartets. Eight years later he won the position In Dresden to replace Lipinski. He was highly appreciated during the important time of Ernst von Schuch‘s first years as conductor, and they were personal friends as well. Here is my summary of a report in multiple outlets from the summer of 1877:
Lauterbach, Schuch, and the actor Maximilian Ludwig were climbing the Morteratsch glacier in the Swiss Alps near Ponteresina. As their horrified wives looked on from a safe distance, they were caught by an avalanche of falling rocks. Schuch and Ludwig were unhurt, but Lauterbach’s foot had been crushed. A famous surgeon happened to be hiking by and administered first aid. The King of Saxony, who was in St. Moritz, was contacted about a doctor. He came over himself with some of his entourage to help, and facilitated the services of another famous surgeon from Geneva, who was able to save Lauterbach’s foot, so that he only had to have the toes amputated.3
After this exciting adventure, Lauterbach was able to return to his duties, but had to retire in 1889 because of cataracts. A profile of Lauterbach in 1890 concluded:
“And indeed, in Lauterbach we have to admire one of the most accomplished interpreters of the compositions of Beethoven, Bach, Mendelssohn and especially Spohr. In the performance of Mozart’s quartets, however, Lauterbach’s playing can be described as the consummate achievement in this genre in his sensitive manner, accompanied by individual feeling and captivating humor. In addition to all these excellent artistic qualities, Lauterbach combined the personal qualities of a truly educated, amiable and also universally popular and highly honored person.” 4
The 1868-69 season in Dresden
During the 1868-69 season, there was a work by Beethoven on each concert, and the late Beethoven Quartet Op. 130 was performed on two different concerts. (The rarely heard Grosse Fuge Op. 133 was on a concert on 3 December 1870.) Other works included the Mozart Quintet K. 516 and Schumann’s Piano Quintet. The latter work apparently caused some objections because it broke with the tradition of performing strings-only pieces.
My next post will report on the illustrious tradition of chamber music at Cologne.
Notes
- The most extensive information about Lipinski online is about the Lipinski Strad, called “A Violin’s Life.” This is the source of the details here about Lipinski’s career; conflicting information abounds in other reference sources. https://aviolinslife.org/lipinski/ ↩︎
- Ivan Mahaim, Beethoven: Naissance et Renaissance des Derniers Quatuors (Paris: Desclée De Brouwer, 1964), 443-44. ↩︎
- Allgemeine Deutsche Musik-Zeitung 4 (1877): 241. ↩︎
- “Und tatsächlich müssen wir in Lauterbach einen der berufensten Interpreten der Kompositionen eines Beethoven, Bach, Mendelssohn und insbesondere Spohr verehren. Im Vortrage der Mozart’schen Quartette aber kann Lauterbach’s Spiel in seiner gefühlsinnigen, von individueller Nachempfindung und bestrickend seinem Humor begleiteten Weise als die vollendete Leistung in dieser Gattung bezeichnet werden. Mit allen diesen vortrefflichen künstlerischen Eigenschaften vereinigte Lauterbach noch die persönlichen Vorzüge eines wahrhaft gebildeten, liebenswürdigen und auch allenthalben in Wirklichkeit beliebten und hochgeehrten Menschen.” Hamburger Signale 3.3 (5 November 1890): 29-30 ↩︎
