Heinrich August Matthaei (3 October 1781 – 4 November 1835) was a German violinist and composer. He was for many years

concertmaster The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (U.K.) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (or clarinet in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the second-most signifi ...

of the

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhausorchester; also previously known in German as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) is a German symphony orchestra based in Leipzig, Germany. The orchestra is named after the concert hall in which it is bas ...

Life

Matthaei was born in Dresden in 1781. Little is known of his early life; it is thought he was largely self-taught as a violinist. In 1803 he arrived 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 ...

, and was appointed as a soloist of the

, of which the concertmaster was

Bartolomeo Campagnoli Bartolomeo Campagnoli (September 10, 1751 – November 6, 1827) was an Italian violinist and composer. Campagnoli was a virtuoso violinist who toured Europe propagating the 18th Century Italian violin style. He also has a number of compositions t ...

. Through patrons and friends he had the opportunity to study in Paris, where from 1804 he was a student of

Rodolphe Kreutzer Rodolphe Kreutzer (15 November 1766 – 6 January 1831) was a French violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer of forty French operas, including '' La mort d'Abel'' (1810). He is probably best known as the dedicatee of Beethoven's Violin S ...

. In 1806 he reappeared in public in Leipzig, and became important there in musical activities. With other members of the Gewandhaus Orchestra – Campagnoli,

Johann Georg Hermann Voigt Johann Georg Hermann Voigt (14 May 1769 – 24 February 1811) was a German organist, cellist, violist and composer. Life Born in Osterwieck, Voigt was the son of Stadtmusikus' C. C. Voigt from the town of Osterwieck in the northern Harz fore ...

and Friedrich Dotzauer – he founded in 1808 a string quartet, the

Gewandhaus Quartet The Gewandhaus Quartet (German: Gewandhaus-Quartett) is a string quartet based in Leipzig. It was founded in 1808 by members of the Gewandhaus Orchester, as one of the first professional quartets in the world. In its more than 200-year history, t ...

. (The quartet still exists today.)History
Gewandhaus Quartet. Retrieved 17 March 2018. In 1811 Matthaei performed in Berlin, and in 1816 he toured northwest Germany. In 1818 he replaced Campagnoli as concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra; he held the post until his death in 1835.

Carl Ferdinand Becker Karl Ferdinand Becker (17 July 1804 Leipzig – 26 October 1877 Plagwitz section of Leipzig), was a German writer on music, composer and an organist. Biography Becker was the son of physician and writer Gottfried Wilhelm Becker. He attended t ...

, in an obituary, wrote that he "through word and deed, guided many young musicians so excellently" and "revealed to us

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

's masterpieces". "The Leipzig orchestra was made famous by Matthaei... Beethoven himself bestowed praise on him.""Nekrolog."

. ''

Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 'Die'' (; en, " heNew Journal of Music") is a music magazine, co-founded in Leipzig by Robert Schumann, his teacher and future father-in law Friedrich Wieck, and his close friend Ludwig Schuncke. Its first issue appeared on 3 April 1834. His ...

''. 1835, year 2, volume 3, pages 158–159.

Compositions

His compositions include four violin concertos (op 2, 9, 15 and 20), Fantasy with Variations for violin and orchestra (op 8), and two string quartets (op 6 and 12).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Matthaei, Heinrich August 1781 births 1835 deaths Musicians from Dresden 19th-century classical violinists German classical violinists Male classical violinists German classical composers German male classical composers 19th-century German male musicians