Henry Charles Litolff (6 February 1818 – 5 August 1891) was a French and British

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'', or ; Late Latin ''virtuosus''; Latin ''virtus''; 'virtue', 'excellence' or 'skill') is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as fine arts, ...

pianist, composer of

Romantic music Romantic music is a stylistic movement in Western Classical music associated with the period of the 19th century commonly referred to as the Romantic era (or Romantic period). It is closely related to the broader concept of Romanticism—the ...

, and music publisher born in London. A prolific composer, he is today known mainly for a single brief work – the

scherzo A scherzo (, , ; plural scherzos or scherzi), in western classical music, is a short composition – sometimes a movement from a larger work such as a symphony or a sonata. The precise definition has varied over the years, but scherzo often r ...

from his Concerto Symphonique No. 4 in D minor – and remembered as the founder of the ''Collection Litolff'' (today part of

Edition Peters Edition Peters is a classical music publisher founded in Leipzig, Germany in 1800. History The company came into being on 1 December 1800 when the Viennese composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754–1812) and the local organist Ambrosius Kühn ...

), a highly regarded publishing imprint of classical music scores.

Biography

Litolff was born in London in 1818 to a Scottish mother, Sophie (''née'' Hayes), and a father, Martin Louis Litolff, from

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

. The father, a

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist, had been previously taken prisoner of war while serving as a band musician in the

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

ic army during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...

. His father taught the boy Henry the rudiments of music, and in 1830, when he was twelve, he played for the renowned virtuoso pianist

Ignaz Moscheles Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 179410 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later at Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano in the Co ...

, who was so impressed that he gave him free lessons starting that same year. Litolff began to concertize when he was fourteen. His lessons with Moscheles continued until in 1835, at the age of 17, Litolff abruptly married 16-year-old Elisabeth Etherington. The couple moved to

Melun Melun () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region, north-central France. It is located on the southeastern outskirts of Paris, about from the centre of the capital. Melun is the prefecture of Seine-et-Marne, ...

, and then to Paris. He separated from Elisabeth in 1839 and moved to Brussels. Around 1841, Litolff moved to Warsaw, where he is believed to have conducted the

Teatr Narodowy The National Theatre () in Warsaw, Poland, was founded in 1765, during the Polish Enlightenment, by that country's List of Polish monarchs, monarch, Stanisław August Poniatowski. The theatre shares the Grand Theatre, Warsaw, Grand Theatre compl ...

(National Theatre) orchestra. In 1844 he travelled to Germany, gave concerts, and taught the future pianist-conductor

Hans von Bülow Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow (; 8 January 1830 – 12 February 1894) was a German conductor, pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for establishi ...

. The following year, Litolff returned to England with the idea of finally divorcing Elisabeth; but the plan backfired and he ended up not only heavily fined but imprisoned. He managed to escape and flee to the Netherlands – the escape said to have been accomplished with the assistance of the jailer's daughter.Jeffrey Engel. The Voice News; Winsted, Connecticut; 7 February 2003 ''(archived)''
"Happy Birthday, Litolff (Who?)"
Retrieved 4 January 2016. Litolff became friends with the music publisher Gottfried Meyer of

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( ; from Low German , local dialect: ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

(English: Brunswick), Germany; and, after Meyer's death, he married the widow Julie in 1851 (having finally been granted a divorce from Elisabeth as a new citizen of Brunswick). Whilst married to Julie, the publishing firm G. M. Meyer (which she had been running successfully, and which was to become Litolff) grew substantially. This second marriage lasted until 1858, when he divorced her and once again moved to Paris. After the divorce, the publishing firm was run by Litolff's adoptive son, (1839–1912). In Paris he found a third wife, Louise de La Rochefoucauld; and, upon her death in 1873, a fourth (who had previously nursed him through an illness). Litolff died at

Bois-Colombes Bois-Colombes () is a commune in the Hauts-de-Seine department, in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. International companies such as Colgate-Palmolive, IBM and Aviva have their French headquart ...

, near Paris, in 1891, just short of his seventy-third birthday.

Works

His most notable works were the five ''concertos symphoniques'', essentially

symphonies A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning c ...

with piano

obbligato In Western classical music, ''obbligato'' (, also spelled ''obligato'') usually describes a musical line that is in some way indispensable in performance. Its opposite is the marking '' ad libitum''. It can also be used, more specifically, to ind ...

. The first one, in D minor, is lost; the others (not in the concert repertoire, but available in modern recordings) are: * Concerto Symphonique No. 2 in B minor, Op. 22 (1844) * Concerto Symphonique No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 45 (c. 1846) * Concerto Symphonique No. 4 in D minor, Op. 102 (c. 1852) * Concerto Symphonique No. 5 in C minor, Op. 123 (c. 1867) The only one of Litolff's compositions still performed at all regularly is the somewhat Mendelssohnian

from the Fourth Concerto Symphonique, although his music was admired by

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

and he was the dedicatee of Liszt's own First Piano Concerto. Tingyue Jiang began recording some of his solo piano music in 2023. Litolff's ''Drame symphonique'' No. 1 ''Maximilien Robespierre'', Op. 55, was one of the works conducted on Christmas Eve 1925 by Yuri Fayer at the

Bolshoi Theatre The Bolshoi Theatre ( rus, Большо́й теа́тр, r=Bol'shoy teatr, p=bɐlʲˈʂoj tʲɪˈat(ə)r, t=Grand Theater) is a historic opera house in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové. Before the October Revolutio ...

in Moscow to accompany the world's first showing of

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...

's film ''

Battleship Potemkin '' Battleship Potemkin'' (, ), sometimes rendered as ''Battleship Potyomkin'', is a 1925 Soviet silent epic film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by Sergei Eisenstein, it presents a dramatization of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 ...

''.. Retrieved 4 January 2016.

References

Sources * Blair, Ted M., Cooper, Thomas: "Litolff, Henry (Charles)" in

Grove Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...

, ed. L. Macy

External links

Henry Litolff
on data.bnf.fr *
Henry Litolff Piano Trio No.1 in d minor, Op.47
Soundbites and discussion of work * (with score) * * * William Melton
''Henry Litolff: Piano Music''
notes to Toccata CD TOCC0666 (2023) {{DEFAULTSORT:Litolff, Henry Charles 1818 births 1891 deaths 19th-century British composers 19th-century French classical composers 19th-century British classical composers 19th-century classical pianists British classical pianists British male classical composers British male pianists British Romantic composers Male classical pianists Musicians from London