Eduard Lassen
* 13.04.1830 in Kopenhagen; ✝ 15.01.1904 in Kopenhagen
Pianist, Conductor, Composer
Biography
After his parents had moved from Copenhagen to Brussels, Eduard Lassen attended the Brussels Conservatory from the age of twelve. Having received various prizes for his achievements in piano and harmony he was in 1851 rewarded for his Balthasar cantata with his first prize for composition, which made it possible for him to live abroad for many years. So it was that he came, amongst other places, to Weimar, where he met Franz Liszt, who had a profound influence on his compositions.
Liszt encouraged Lassen to rework his opera Le roi Edgar (1855), which had failed miserably in Belgium, and the result was that a new version, with the title Landgraf Ludwigs Brautfahrt, appeared on the Weimar stage in 1857 – after which Lassen was given the permanent post of Weimar musical director by the Archduke of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach. Though his compositional flair is not regarded as exceptional, he enjoyed success as pianist, conductor and chamber-music accompanist. Furthermore, Eduard Lassen managed to sustain Weimar’s musical life at such an elevated pitch that the city was still attracting important musical personalities at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Shakespeare Adaptations
- König Heinrich der Fünfte. Collaboration for orchestra with Heinrich Rötsch [first performed: Großherzogliches Hof-Theater in Weimar, 30.12.1863].
- König Richard der Zweite. Collaboration for orchestra with Heinrich Rötsch and Carl Stör [first performed: Großherzogliches Hof-Theater in Weimar, 28.03.1863].
- König Heinrich der Sechste. Three parts. Collaboration for orchestra with Heinrich Rötsch and Carl Stör [first performed: Großherzogliches Hof-Theater in Weimar, 28. and 29.04.1864].
- Lied aus Heinrich VIII. In: Sechs Lieder, op. 61. Also known as Orpheus‘ Laute; song for voice and piano [1877].
- Sieben Ophelia Lieder aus Hamlet, op. 74 [1883].
Literature
Secondary Literature
- Gooch/Thatcher: Vol. I 3707, 3741, 3746, 3765, 3836, 3869, 3882, 4734, 4758, 4854, 4864, 4896, 4905, 4939, 4947, 5125. Vol. II 12676, 12711.
- Karg-Elert, Sigfrid: ‘Dr. Eduard Lassen. Ein Nekrolog’. In: Die Musikwoche, 4 (1904). Pp. 26-28.
- Stahl, Ernst Leopold: Shakespeare und das deutsche Theater. Stuttgart, 1947. P. 402.
Album pages with this person
Citation and Licence
Lassen, Eduard, in: The Digital Shakespeare Memorial Album. Edited by Christa Jansohn. URI: http://www.shakespearealbum.de/uri/gnd/118975773. (Accessed on 14.10.2024)
This text is published under the following licence: CC BY-ND 3.0 DE. Digitzed media reproduced with the permission of the library of Birmingham.