Baron Raimund von zur-Mühlen (sometimes "Raymond", "Raimund von Zur Mühlen") (10 November 1854 in

Uusna Uusna is a village in Viljandi Parish, Viljandi County, in southern Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by t ...

Manor (''Neu-Tennasilm''), Viljandi Parish (now in

Viiratsi Parish Viiratsi Parish () was a rural Municipalities of Estonia, municipality of Estonia, in Viljandi County. After the 2013 Estonian municipal elections, municipal elections held on 20 October 2013, Viiratsi Parish was merged with Paistu Parish, Paist ...

Viljandi County Viljandi County ( or ''Viljandimaa''; ) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is located in southern Estonia bordering Pärnu, Järva, Jõgeva, Tartu and Valga counties as well as Latvia. History Viljandimaa, under the German name of ''Krei ...

Governorate of Livonia The Governorate of Livonia, also known as the Livonia Governorate, was a province (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire, Baltic Governorate-General until 1876. Governorate of Livonia bordered Governorate of E ...

– 11 December 1931 in Wiston, near

Steyning Steyning ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Horsham District, Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, north of the coastal town of Shoreha ...

, England) was a celebrated

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

Lieder singer who also became a famous teacher of singing, instructing many famous artists. His Lieder-interpretations are legendary.

Life and career

He was a student of Auguste Hohenschildt, Felix Schmidt,

Adolf Schulze Adolf Schulze (13 April 1835 – April 1920) was a German baritone and music educator. Life Schulze was born in Panten, Duchy of Holstein. Schulze initially worked as an elementary school teacher in Hamburg. There, he also received his first v ...

Julius Stockhausen Julius Christian Stockhausen (22 July 1826 in Paris – 22 September 1906 in Frankfurt) was a German singer and singer master. Life Stockhausen's parents, Franz Stockhausen Sr. (1792–1868), harpist and composer, and Margarethe Stockhausen n ...

and

Clara Schumann Clara Josephine Schumann (; ; née Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic music, Romantic era, she exerted her influence o ...

. He made his debut in 1878, together with Hans Schmidt, in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

. He then continued working on his capabilities as a singer, above all with Manuel Garcia,

Beniamino Carelli Beniamino Carelli (9 May 1833 – 14 February 1921) was an Italian singing teacher and composer. Carelli was born and died in Naples, where he spent many years teaching at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella. One of the most sought afte ...

and

Pauline Viardot Pauline Viardot (; 18 July 1821 – 18 May 1910) was a French dramatic mezzo-soprano, composer and pedagogue of Spanish descent. Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García,FitzLyon, p. 15, referring to the baptismal name. Thbirth recorddigitized a ...

.This paragraph derived from German wikipedia. He is recognised as the founder of the Lieder-abend or evening recital of the German concert Lieder as a distinct performance entity. His interpretation of Lieder and his specialist study of Lieder interpretation were of the utmost importance in the evolution of the Lieder genre itself. He gave Schumann Lieder-recitals with Clara Schumann. She set him on the path to London, where he gave his first concert in 1883. At one of his concerts,

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period (music), Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, oft ...

shouted out, "Endlich, endlich habe ich meinen Sänger gefunden!" ("At last, at last, I have found my singer!") Thereafter, he spent much time in London. In 1907, he emigrated to England, with homes in London and Steyning. His last stay in Germany must have been in 1913–1914 in Berlin, where he gave a course of masterclasses. He lived in England for the remainder of his life. Here he met for the last time Monika Hunnius, author and singing teacher, who had regularly studied with him from 1904 to 1911 at the Schloss Fellin or at Neuhausen, and developed a deep friendship with him. In his younger days, he usually appeared with his habitual accompanist, Hans Schmidt. Among his later accompanists were

Victor Beigel Victor Beigel (19 May 1870 – 7 November 1930) was an English pianist and singing teacher of Hungarian descent. Beigel was an internationally renowned vocal pedagogue. Friendships connected him with the painter John Singer Sargent, the interio ...

and Coenraad V. Bos. Bos mentions him in his book: the singer gave his young accompanist no encouragement but criticized him severely. After their fifth concert together, he was told, "You must have played well today, ''for I did not notice you''." He was the teacher of

Lula Mysz-Gmeiner Lula Mysz-Gmeiner (born Julie Sophie Gmeiner; 15 August 1876 – 7 August 1948) was a German concert contralto and mezzo-soprano born in Transylvania, who performed lieder recitals in Europe and the United States. She was an academic voice teacher ...

(who taught

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf, (; 9 December 1915 – 3 August 2006) was a German-born Austro-British lyric soprano. She was among the foremost singers of lieder, and is renowned for her performances of Viennese operetta, as w ...

), of Mark Raphael, Hans Lissman, Eva Jekelius-Lissman, Rose Walter,

Eidé Norena Karoline "Kaja" Eide Hansen, known professionally as Eidé Norena (April 26, 1884 – November 13, 1968) was a Norwegian soprano. Born in Horten, Norena studied in Oslo, Weimar, London, and Paris; her teachers included Ellen Gulbranson and Raim ...

, Georg A. Walter,

Fanny Opfer Fanny Opfer (24 September 1870 – 28 March 1944) was a German soprano and singing teacher. Life Born in Berlin, Opfer was a student of Etelka Gerster, Selma Nicklass-Kempner, and Raimund von Zur Mühlen. She made her debut as a concert singer ...

Naima Wifstrand Naima Wifstrand (; 4 September 1890 – 23 October 1968) was a Swedish film actress, operetta singer, troubadour, List of opera directors, director and composer. In her later years, she was cast in several supporting roles in Ingmar Bergman fil ...

, and

Hermann Weißenborn Hermann Weißenborn (10 September 1876 – 20 November 1959) was a German operatic baritone and voice teacher. Born in Berlin, Weißenborn was trained musically mostly by Raimund von Zur Mühlen. He began a career as a concert and oratorio singe ...

, among many others. He was considered an ideal Lieder singer. He is also described as an eccentric. He was born into an

aristocratic Aristocracy (; ) is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. Across Europe, the aristocracy exercised immense economic, political, and social influence. In Western Christian co ...

family. His valuable collection of documents and musical and artistic papers was destroyed in 1930 in a great fire at his house near Steyning.German wikipedia.

Sources

* Dorothea von zur-Mühlen, ''Der Sänger Raimund von zur-Mühlen'' (Hannover, 1969). * Monika Hunnius, ''Mein Weg zur Kunst''. * W. and R. Elwes, ''Gervase Elwes, The Story of His Life'' (Grayson and Grayson, London 1935). *

Gerald Moore Gerald Moore (30 July 1899 – 13 March 1987) was an English classical pianist best known for his career as a collaborative pianist for many distinguished musicians. Among those with whom he was closely associated were Dietrich Fischer-Diesk ...

, ''Am I Too Loud'' (Harmondsworth 1966). * H. Arnold Smith, 'Baron Raimund von zur-Mühlen: The Passing of a Great Artist', ''Musical Times'' Vol 73 no 107 (1 April 1932), 316–320. * Obituary, in ''Music and Letters'' 1932, .

External links

* Biographical essay, in Germa

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zur-Muhlen, Raimund Von 1854 births 1931 deaths People from Viljandi Parish People from Kreis Fellin Livonian nobility Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire 19th-century male opera singers from the Russian Empire 20th-century German male opera singers Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom 20th-century British male opera singers