The Hector Berlioz Website - Berlioz photos and portraits 13

The Hector Berlioz Website

Berlioz Photo Album : Colleagues, friends and others (5)

Colleagues and other people associated with Berlioz

Asger Hamerik (1843-1923)

Danish composer who studied orchestration with Berlioz in Paris from 1864-69, enjoying a close relationship with le maître in his difficult last years. Portrait by the painter David Jacobsen (1829-71), a Dane and student of Pissarro, working in Paris; dated 1867, the painting was commissioned by Berlioz as a gift to mark his protégé’s successful début in Paris. The work hangs today in the Musical History Museum in Copenhagen, an establishment whose first director was Asger Hamerik’s brother Angul, a distinguished musicologist in his own right.

This painting is in the Musical History Museum, Copenhagen. We are most grateful to Mr Christopher Follett for sending us an electronic image of the painting, with the museum’s permission, and the accompanying information.

See also on this site The Danish composer Asger Hamerik and Berlioz by Christopher Follett.

Sir Charles Hallé (1819-1895)

Charles Hallé, an English pianist and conductor of German birth, was born in Hagen, Westphalia on 11 April 1819; his name was originally Carl Halle. He studied at Darmstadt and in Paris, where he became friendly with Berlioz. He was a passionate devotee of Berlioz, and attended the rehearsals and first performances of several of his works, including the Requiem and Roméo et Juliette. In Berlioz’s concert on 19 January 1845 at the Cirque Olympique, Hallé was the soloist in Beethoven’s 4th piano concerto. In the revolutionary year of 1848 he decided to leave Paris and go to London with his wife and two children. Later he settled in Manchester. Berlioz saw him in London as well. Hallé founded the famous Hallé Orchestra in Manchester in 1858; the orchestra gave its first concert in the city’s Free Trade Hall that year. He died in Manchester on 25 October 1895.

Joseph Joachim (1831-1907)

The great Austro-Hungarian violinist was much admired by Berlioz who considered him as a ‘... leading violinist in Germany, perhaps in Europe, and an all-round artist’ (Memoirs). He played in some of Berlioz’s concerts in Germany – a violin concerto and a Paganini caprice in his second concert in Brunswick in October 1853, the solo viola part in Harold in Italy in Bremen in November of the same year, Rêverie et caprice in Hanover in 1854.

This photo was published in Alfred Stieglitz, Camera Work, issue number XLI, in January 1913.

Zacharie Astruc (1835-1907)

The French sculptor and art critic was a friend and admirer of Berlioz. He included a mask of Berlioz in his Le Marchand de masques, created in 1883, which is located in Jardin du Luxembourg.
The above portrait by Edouard Manet dates from 1866.

Ferdinand David (1810-1873)

David was the leader of the orchestra at the Gewandhaus under Mendelssohn many years before Berlioz’s first visit to Leipzig. According to the Memoirs, the ‘eminent musician, composer of merit and distinguished violinist, spoke perfect French and was very helpful’ to Berlioz during both his visits in 1843 and 1853. He also played ‘superbly’ the solo violin in Rêverie et caprice ‘to the audience’s grand applause’ (Memoirs) at Berlioz’s first concert at the Gewandhaus on 4 February 1843.

Eduard Hanslick (1825-1904)

Hanslick was a music critic, aesthetician, musicologist and civil servant; he was born in Prague but his parental ancestors were German. According to Eric Sams, his ‘critical and biographical writings, spanning half a century, are still valuable for their shrewd judgement, their fluent prose and their informed commentary’ (New Grove Dictionary, 1980, volume 8, p. 151). As a young man Hanslick was enthusiastic about Berlioz’s music, and during his visits to Prague in 1846 was in frequent contact with him. Hanslick later became critical of Berlioz, but he never ceased to acknowledge his artistic integrity.

Photo Album main page