Count Nikolaus Zmeskall von Domanovecz (20 November 1759,

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(present day

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

) – 23 June 1833,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

) was an official in the Hungarian Court Chancellery, living in Vienna. He was a musician and friend of

Ludwig van 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 classical ...

Friend of Beethoven

Zmeskall was a civil servant at the Hungarian Court Chancellery in Vienna. He played the cello, and there were regular sessions on Sundays of chamber music at his house in the Bürgerspital part of the city.Paul Nettl. "Zmeskall, Nikolaus von Domanowitz (Domanowetz)". ''Beethoven Encyclopedia''. Philosophical Library, New York. 1956. Beethoven first met him in the 1790s, probably in the house of the composer's patron

Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky (german: Karl Alois Johann-Nepomuk Vinzenz Leonhard, Fürst Lichnowsky, also known as ''Carl Alois, Fürst von Lichnowsky-Woschütz''; 21 June 1761 – 15 April 1814) was the second Prince Lichnowsky and a chamberla ...

. He was one of Beethoven's earliest friends in Vienna, and remained so for the rest of the composer's life. From 1806, when Beethoven broke relations with Prince Lichnowsky, most of his chamber music was first played in Zmeskall's house. There are more than 100 letters and notes from Beethoven to Zmeskall, the last written a month before the composer's death. They often met in the tavern ''Zum Schwan'' near Bürgerspital; Zmeskall gave minor help to Beethoven, such as providing him with pens, a watch, and loaning books.Nikolaus Zmeskall
Beethovenhaus Bonn, accessed 26 October 2016. A work by Beethoven written in 1796 or 1797, for viola and cello,

WoO Woo, WoO, WOO, W.O.O. and variants may refer to: People Woo or Wu, romanization of several East Asian names: * Hu (surname): 胡, 瓠, 護, 戶, 扈, 虎, 呼, 忽, 斛 * Wu (surname): 吳, 伍, 武, 仵, 烏, 鄔, 巫 * Ng (name): 吳, 伍 * Woo ...

32, entitled "Duet mit zwei obligaten Augengläsern" ("Duet with two ''

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 indica ...

'' eyeglasses"), was dedicated to Zmeskall; it was written for Beethoven and Zmeskall, who both wore spectacles, to play together.Nikolaus Zmeskall (1759–1833) and Beethoven: life in Vienna
Classic FM, accessed 26 October 2016. Beethoven also dedicated his String Quartet No. 11 in F minor (published in 1816) to Zmeskall. During the winter of 1819–1820 Zmeskall was ill, and afterwards suffered from rheumatism, which hampered his musical activities and limited his association with Beethoven. However, he was present at the first performance of

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is a choral symphony, the final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824. The symphony is regarded by many critics and music ...

on 7 May 1824. Zmeskall died in Vienna in 1833.

Compositions

Zmeskall's compositions include two

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

s, a piano

rondo The rondo is an instrumental musical form introduced in the Classical period. Etymology The English word ''rondo'' comes from the Italian form of the French ''rondeau'', which means "a little round". Despite the common etymological root, rondo ...

and several

cello sonata A cello sonata is usually a sonata written for solo cello with piano accompaniment. The most famous Romantic-era cello sonatas are those written by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven. Some of the earliest cello sonatas were written in the 1 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zmeskall, Nikolaus 1759 births 1833 deaths 18th-century Hungarian people 19th-century Hungarian people Hungarian male classical composers