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Happy Birthday, Litolff (Who?)
By Jeffrey Engel, West Cornwall
February is a banner month for composers' birthdays. Victor Herbert and Mendelssohn open it; Chopin, Handel and Rossini bring it to a close. Oh, but what about Litolff?
Who?
Henry Charles Litolff was born in London in 1818. His father was a dance violinist from Alsace, that eastern region of France that was on and off under German control prior to 1918. During the Peninsula Wars of 1807-08, Litolff Sr. fought for Napoleon against Spain and Great Britain. He was taken prisoner to London where he eventually settled and married a Scotswoman. Henry Charles was born to them on February 6.
Litolff received initial musical instruction from his father. At age twelve he played for Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870), an eminent pianist. Moscheles was so impressed by the boy's talent that he taught him without charge for several years. Litolff lived up to expectations, and when only fourteen began to give concerts.
Four years later he entered a long peripatetic period. Because his parents disapproved of their now seventeen-year-old son's intention to marry a girl of sixteen, the young lovers eloped to France. An extended stay in Paris enabled him to interact with numerous influential musicians. One, the Belgian music critic and historian Fétis, advised him to go to Brussels. He concertized there for two years and also left his wife. A visit to Warsaw came next, where he turned to conducting before moving on to Germany. In Dresden he befriended the Von Bulows and taught their young son Hans, the future great pianist, conductor and first husband of Cosima Wagner.
Litolff was lured back to London in 1845 by his in-laws, who promised him a divorce. Instead, he was slapped with a lawsuit, lost the litigation and was obliged to pay an enormous sum of money. Unable to do so, Litolff was hauled off to debtor's prison, languishing in it for several months. He managed to escape, thanks to the jailer's daughter, and fled to Holland.
Around 1846 Litolff became acquainted with Gottfried Meyer, a music publisher in Brunswick in north-central Germany. After finally obtaining a divorce he married the now-widow Meyer, took over her deceased husband's business and changed its name to his own. The good musical contacts made over the years helped him to prosper as a publisher. In 1860 he handed over the firm to his adopted stepson Theodor, who turned it into an even greater success with his "Litolff's Bibliothek Classischer Compositionen." Inaugurated in 1864, these inexpensive and accurate editions of classical music served as a model for other publishers. The company was bought by Peters of Leipzig in 1940.
While in Brunswick, Litolff organized major music festivals, engaging friends like Berlioz, Liszt and Von Bulow. In 1858 he divorced the widow Meyer and settled permanently in Paris, ending nearly a quarter of a century of peregrinations. Two years later he wed Louise de La Rochefoucauld, the daughter of a count. Following her death in 1873, he married a seventeen-year-old who had nursed him through poor health the previous year.
Litolff was one of the early international musicians. Only Liszt could compare in territory traversed. Between 1839 and 1847 that extraordinary pianist became the first to concertize across the entire European continent—the British Isles to Constantinople and St. Petersburg to Italy and the Iberian Peninsula. Liszt may have covered more ground during a shorter span of time, but in total frequent-carriage miles, Litolff was not far behind.
During his itinerant years, Litolff concentrated on a virtuoso career playing primarily his own works. Once back in Paris, he devoted himself to conducting and composition. At his death in 1891, despite having been involved in sundry activities, he left a catalogue of some 115 oeuvres including twelve operas, six concerti, songs, chamber music and solo piano pieces. He was the first composer to use the piccolo and triangle in a piano concerto.
There was an enigmatic side to Litolff's life. He was frequently plagued by mysterious maladies and rumors of a "flamboyant life" style which led to scandal and perhaps some undesired migrations. His memory is kept alive by a single movement from the piano concerto symphonique #4 in d minor, op. 102. It is a jaunty, catchy scherzo easily mistaken for Saint-Saens. One wonders why for just a brief moment he was so inspired by his Muse.
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