Albert Hermann Dietrich (28 August 182920 November 1908), was a German

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

and conductor. In addition to his work, he is remembered for his friendship with

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

. Dietrich was born at Golk, near

Meissen Meissen (in German orthography: ''Meißen'', ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albre ...

. From 1851 he studied composition with

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

, where in October 1853 he first met Brahms and collaborated with Schumann and Brahms on the ''

'F-A-E' Sonata The ''F-A-E Sonata'', a four-movement work for violin and piano, is a collaborative musical work by three composers: Robert Schumann, the young Johannes Brahms, and Schumann's pupil Albert Dietrich. It was composed in Düsseldorf in October 1853 ...

'' for

Joseph Joachim Joseph Joachim (28 June 1831 – 15 August 1907) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of t ...

(Dietrich composed the substantial first movement). From 1861 until 1890 he was the musical director at the court of Oldenburg, where Brahms often visited him and where he introduced many of Brahms's works. It was in Dietrich's library that Brahms discovered the volume of poetry by Hölderlin that furnished him with the text for his '' Schicksalslied'', which he began composing while visiting

Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsh ...

dockyard in Dietrich's company. Dietrich was also instrumental in arranging for the premiere of Brahms's '' German Requiem'' at Bremen in 1868. Dietrich's own works include an opera ''Robin Hood'', a Symphony in D minor (1869, dedicated to Brahms),, page 159 contains a review of the first (?) English performance of the symphony. A recent broadcast was on DLR Kultur, Germany on 17 April 2007. a Violin Concerto in the same key (composed for

but premiered in 1874 by Johann Lauterbach), a Cello Concerto, Horn Concerto, choral works and several chamber compositions including two piano trios. Dietrich's ''Recollections of Brahms'', published in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

in 1898, was translated into English the following year and remains an important biographical source. The Brahms scholar David Brodbeck has theorized ('' The Cambridge Companion to Brahms'', 1999) that Dietrich is the most likely author of the anonymous Piano Trio in A major, discovered in 1924, which some scholars have attributed to Brahms; but Malcolm MacDonald (''Brahms'', 2nd ed, 2001) has maintained that, if any specific composer is to be sought for this work, Dietrich remains the more likely candidate on balance of stylistic probabilities. Albert Dietrich died in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

. One of his students was Ernst Eduard Taubert.

Compositions

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dietrich, Albert 1829 births 1908 deaths People from the Kingdom of Saxony German Romantic composers German male classical composers 19th-century German musicians 20th-century German male musicians 19th-century German male musicians