Gustav Hanns Strümpel
Biographical Overview
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- March 20th (April, 1st) 1855 birth of Gustav Hanns Strümpel in Tomilino near Moscow
His father Johannes Theodor Strümpel (1815 - 1885) had emigrated from Prussia to Russia after the revolution of 1848. He founded a factory for hardware, which products soon were delivered also to the Tsar's army. His quick social rise favoured also his marriage with Tatjana Sergejewna Meyerholt (1820 - 1904), daughter of a high official in the Ministery of War.
- 1876 Begin of studies at the Faculty for Physics and Mechanics of the Moscow University
Besides a vivid interest in the city's musical life, he also travels to musical events in St. Petersburg. Private musical studies. Strümpel makes friends with Pyotr Adamovitch Shostakovsky (1853 - 1917), who had returned to Moscow after his piano studies in Germany (with Dreyschock, Kullak and Liszt). First compositional attempts.
- 1880 First travel to Germany
Strümpel lives at the home of his father's relatives in Saxonia. Besides other things, this travel serves to broaden his knowledge in engineering science, but leads also to various experiences in the realm of music. In Dresden he makes the acquaintance of Jean Louis Nicodé (1853 - 1919) who teaches as professor for piano at the Dresden conservatory. Sketches of some works for piano. At a private performance he gets to know Brahms' Liebesliederwalzer, Op. 52, and starts to make a transcription for piano two hands of a selection of them, adding his own "Ausklang" as the final piece.
- 1881 Acquaintance with Edmund Neupert.
Edmund Neupert (1842 - 1888) teaches
at the Moscow Conservatory from 1881 - 1883. Neupert, the dedicatee and soloist of the
première of the Piano Concerto in A Minor of his fellow countryman
Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907),
introduces Strümpel to some of the Norwegian composer's piano works. Strümpel begins
with sketches for a Piano Fantasy ,
which he will carry out completely and dedicate to Grieg only years later.
As an "echo" of his transcriptions of the Brahms waltzes he begins to compose the first
of his three waltz collections, titled "Ein Walzerstrauss".
- 1883 Second
travel to Germany This sojourn is basically
dedicated again to broadening the knowledge in
engineering science. This time, Strümpel lives at the home of
relatives in Berlin. He visits an iron work and several other
factories, among these the factory for lokomotive engines of
August Borsig in Berlin. - 1884 End of
studies and diploma Strümpel
graduates with distinction. For about one year he devotes himself to more intensive
private studies of piano and composition.
- 1885 Death of
his father. He takes over the management of the factory
till 1886.
Strümpel takes over the management of the factory for some time, but he can cede this unloved
task to a maternal cousin after one year. At the end of the year he joins the state service.
- 1889 Travel to the Paris World
Exhibition Strümpel has the official
order to study meticulously the technical achievements. He is enormously impressed by the
recently finished Eiffel Tower and Edison's presentation of the phonograph. - 1891 Begin of his employment
at the Imperial Railway Services Strümpel's outstanding
knowledge and his successful work make him raise within a short time to a leading position at
the
Transsibirian Railway. In a feeling of elation considering the new assignment he composes the
"Marche du Transsibérien"
for brass band, a casual piece which he transcribes for piano some time later.
- 1899 Attends the concerts given
by Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860 - 1941) in Moscow Strümpel is filled with
enthusiasm for Paderewski's
playing, in particular of his account of the "Polish Fantasy", which the
pianist stages with the Moscow Orchestra under
Vassily Ilyitch Safonov (1852 - 1918).
Strümpel plans to write a Polonaise for piano and to dedicate it
to Paderewski. He finishes the work, his opus 12, within a short time and arranges for a private
print. Any reaction from Paderewski is not documented.
During a masked ball at the Russian attaché's residence
he gathers impressions for his Waltz
"Au bal masqué". In a
letter to his mother he writes
in detail about this event.
Back in Russia, he makes the acquaintance of the already long admired
Pyotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky and
maintains a casual friendship till the composer's sudden death in 1893. (This event, leaving
Strümpel in deep sorrow, moves him to write his
"Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovksy" ,
using the motto theme from the Fifth Symphony.)
Despite
the demanding work as a railway engineer, which moreover keeps him far away from the musical centres
of the country, he continues to devote himself to serious composing, finishing a larger work in
1894, the Sonate-Fantaisie in E-flat
Minor. This work is premièred in 1895 by his friend Pyotr Adamovitch
Shostakovsky in Moscow. The concert is a disaster. (In an acerbic review the critic of the
newspaper "Entr'act", writing under the pseudonym "Unknown",
reports on the event - see review ).
The death of
Anton Rubinstein on November 20th, 1894, in Peterhof, prompts Strümpel to compose a
Funeral March for piano. Some time later he
decides to use this work as the third movement of a new sonata for piano, the "Sonata eroica"
in E Minor, op. 7, written from 1895 to early 1897 and dedicated to the memory of Anton Rubinstein.
Strümpel also begins to compose his 24 Préludes in all keys, a somewhat loose
sequence of small pieces, which he will work on and put into a final order at a later stage.
To greet the millenium he writes the Prélude in B-flat Major, "Giubiloso, con impeto",
which is to become the number fourteen of the collection.
- 1904 Death of his mother
Strümpel receives the sad news at the end of August in far-away Siberia and travels back to
Moscow. On this journey he makes the acquaintance of a member of the mensheviki whose
account of the living conditions of the simple people in the country and the industrial workers
rouses Strümpel's doubts about the just reign of Tsar Nikolai and his prime minister,
Count Witte. - 1905 Upheaval in St. Petersburg
Strümpel, who happens to be in St. Petersburg on that historical 22nd January,
is appalled at the brutality with which the tsarist police take action against demonstraters
who want to hand over a petition to the Tsar. He joins a note of protest, addressed to the Tsar. The
consequence of this move becomes apparent some time later: the state of generous temporary
leave he is still in, is turned into a temporary removal from his post at the Transsibirian
Railway. He spends some time in Moscow where he fills his time of decreed inactivity in his
profession by concentrating on working and revising his compositions. Among other
things, he finishes his two collections of Mazurkas.
One of these pieces uses the theme
known as "Promenade" from Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an
Exhibition" in a slightly altered shape.
- 1907 Another journey to Paris
- 1908 Re-employement at the Tsar's Railway Services
Strümpel is appointed inspector of the Minsk District Railways. This administrative
activity leaves him ample time for a revision of his earlier compositions and for working out
new ones. He writes his third piano sonata, subtitled
"Sonata semplice"
and a first sketch of a scherzo, the scène fantasque
"Les ombres de minuit".
He writes the first pieces of his second collection of nine waltzes, titled "Neuer
Walzerstrauss" and dedicated to his friend Hermans Banauskas.
- 1914 - 1918 The first World War
The years of war mean a lot of trouble for Strümpel. It is likely that the outbreak of the
war is mirrored in his Prélude in C sharp Minor (Op. 16 No. 23), where the medieval theme
of the dies irae is used as the basis of a sinister march.
- 1919 Flight
from Minsk via Poland to Germany. Sojourn in Dresden till 1921
Not without risk, Strümpel prepares his flight from revolutionary Russia and manages to
escape via the Minsk
railway station. After a couple of days he arrives in Dresden, where he settles for a while.
Last meeting with Jean Louis Nicodé who is severely ill and dies on 18th October in
Langbrück near Dresden.
Further revisions of his compositions and start of work on his third waltz collection
("Ein letzter Walzerstrauss"). His efforts to interest German music publishers
in some of his works result in nothing. Strümpel's nephew, Dr. Georg Kayser, starts
working on his uncle's biography which he is not to finish as he commits suicide in 1920.
Isidor Meyer takes over and finishes the task. The small volume was published in
1924 in Leipzig as a private print.
- 1922 Emigration
to Paris
- 1927 Death in
Paris ( 6 November )
Being granted a generous special leave, he can remain in Moscow for some time to have a couple of
matters arranged. He sells his father's factory and the
mansion in Tomilino to his cousin,
keeping only the Moscow appartment for himself.