Mikhail Vielgorsky

Mikhail Yuryevich Vielgorsky
Михаил Юрьевич Виельгорский
Artist Sokolov, Pyoter Fyordovich (1840-е.)
Born22 November 1788
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died21 September 1856
Moscow
NationalityRussian
Occupation(s)Chamberlain and Musician
Spouses
  1. с 1812 Princess Katharina Biron of Courland (1793-1813)
  2. с 1816 Princess Louise Biron of Courland (1791-1853)
Children2 sons and 4 daughters
Parents
  • Yuri Mikhailovich Vielgorsky (1753-1807) (father)
  • Sophia Dmitryevna Matyushkina (1755-1796) (mother)
Mikhail's mother, Countess Sophia Dmitrievna Matyushkina (1755-1796), later lady in waiting to Catherine the Great
Vielgorsky palace, Saint Petersburg

Count[1] Mikhail Vielgorsky[2] (Polish: Michał Wielhorski, Russian: Михаил Юрьевич Виельгорский) (1788-1856) was a Russian official and composer of Polish descent. He composed romances, symphonies, an opera and was an amateur singer, violinist, and patron of the arts.[1] He is considered to be one of the major influences on the musical arts in Russia during the 19th-century[3] because of his salons, responsible with bringing the string quartet to Russia.[citation needed] Along with his brother Matvey Vielgorsky, they were considered the "brothers of harmony" for their intrepid and comprehensive patronage of the musical arts.[4]

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 Vielgorsky's home in Saint Petersburg in 1836. The same year, Mikhail Glinka rehearsed parts of his new opera A Life for the Tsar at Vielgorsky's home, accompanied by the enserfed orchestra of Prince Yusupov. In the 1830s and 1840s, as Richard Stites notes, Vielgorsky's salon "played host to the most celebrated musical visitors to mid-century Russia: Liszt, Berlioz, the Schumanns, and Pauline Viardot among others ... Because of the attendance of Gogol, Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Lermontov, Odoevsky, Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, and Bryullov, a contemporary dubbed Vielgorsky's home "a lively and original multifaceted academy of the arts.' Berlioz called it 'a little ministry of fine arts.'"[1]

Vielgorsky presided over his salons with remarkable informality, donning simple garments and entertaining various different classes of guests in expert ease.[1]

  1. ^ a b c d Stites, Richard (2005). Serfdom, Society, and the Arts in Imperial Russia: The Pleasure and the Power. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
  2. ^ "Биография Михаила Юрьевича Виельгорского". www.c-cafe.ru. Retrieved 2021-07-07.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).