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.
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.)

- 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.
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.

- 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.
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.
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.

- 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

Strümpel leaves Germany and makes Paris his residence, the city he knows and loves since his various visits there. He associates with several of the many Russian emigrants living there, attends concerts and opera performances. His quite substantial financial means allow him a life in safe circumstances. He continues to make revisions of some of his compositions and additionally writes a couple of Sonatinas -- some of them very short pieces -- which clearly show a neo-classicistic attitude.

- 1927  Death in Paris ( 6 November )