Presents
Wenzel Heinrich Veit & Charles Vollweiler
Variations for String Quartet on Alexei Lvov's God Save the Tsar
Alexei
Lvov(1798-1870) was the son of the Director of the Imperial Chapel in St Petersburg.
He began violin lessons at a very young age and performed regularly in concerts
given at his home. He studied composition formally under the supervision of I.
G. Miller, one of Glinka’s teachers. In 1828, he was appointed Aide-de-camp to
Tsar Nicholas I. Lvov formed a string quartet in St Petersburg, and organized
weekly concerts at his private residence, which were attended by members of high
society. At these concerts, it was quite usual for there to be guest performances
by distinguished musicians who were visiting the Russian capital; among these
were Liszt, Robert and Clara Schumann, and Berlioz. His quartet undertook a
number of tours in Europe, where Lvov was able to perform to public audiences.
In Russia, he was able to play only to private audiences owing to his being a
member of the Russian nobility. Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer and Spontini were all
personal friends. In 1837, Lvov succeeded his father as Director of the Imperial
Chapel, remaining in the position until 1861. In 1850, he founded the Russian
Concert Society. His music combines Russian melody with strong Italian and
German influences. His most famous work, the only one for which he is remembered,
is the melody of the song God Save the Tsar which became the Russian national anthem.
God Save the Tsar! was a song chosen from a competition held in 1833 and was first performed in December 1833. It was composed by the violinist Alexei Lvov, with lyrics written by the court poet Vasily Zhukovsky. The words to the song are as follows:
God, save the Tsar!, Strong, sovereign,
Reign for glory, for our glory!
Reign to make foes fear,
Orthodox Tsar! God, save the Tsar!
Many composers made use of the theme in their compositions, most notably Tchaikovsky, who quoted it in the 1812 Overture, and also in the Marche Slave and it has appeared in several arrangements. Lvov himself never made a version for string quartet, which is perhaps surprising since he was the leader of a well-known string quartet. But two other composers—the Austrian Wenzel Heinrich Veit and the German Charles Vollweiler did.
There
is very little information available about the German composer Charles (also
known as Carl and Karl) Vollweiler (1813-1848) He was born in in the town of
Offenbach. His father, who was a distinguished musician, was his only teacher.
After completing his musical instruction he moved to St. Petersburg, where he
resided for a few years as a teacher, which is perhaps how he came to compose
his concert variations on Lvov’s theme. The title page to the work illustrated
on the left shows that he dedicated it not Lvov but to the Müller Brothers
String Quartet, then one of the first and most famous touring string quartets of
the day. His setting of the theme is followed by five contrasting variations. It
dates from 1846.
Wenzel
Heinrich Veit (1806-1864) was born in Repnitz, at the time a German town in the
Bohemian part of the Habsburg Empire. Until recently, he was ignored by the
Czechs who have suddenly claimed him as one of theirs and have "baptized" him
with the Czech version of his name Vaclav Jindrich Veit. Veit attended Charles
University in Prague and studied law. He pursued a dual career of lawyer and
judge as well as composer, mostly in Prague, although for a short time he held
musical directorships in Aachen and Augsburg. Although he wrote a symphony,
most of his works are either for voice or chamber ensembles, including 4 string
quartets and 5 string quintets which were highly praised by Robert Schumann. Veit's variations first appeared as the third movement of his String Quartet No.1
in d minor dating from 1834, the year after Lvov's song first appeared. The
theme is followed by four attractive and contrasting variations.
We have included both sets of variations. They are not the same but both are extremely effective. Our soundbite is of the Veit version.
Parts to both sets of variations: $24.95
