1832–1875 · Austria · Romantic
Ferdinand Laub (1832–1875) was a Czech violinist, composer and teacher, born in Prague. He gave concerts in the major cities of Europe and in Russia, and from 1866 he taught at the Moscow Conservatory. The site has his Romanze für Violine und Klavier, Op. 7, for violin and piano.
Ferdinand Laub was born in Prague on 19 January 1832. He was the eldest of four children in the family of a violinist and music teacher, and his father taught him to play the violin. Still a child, he played Bériot's variations at a private concert, and later he performed many times in Bohemia, Moravia and Austria.
In 1841 the Norwegian violinist Ole Bull heard Laub in Prague and was impressed by the boy. Later Moritz Mildner heard him at one of his Prague appearances, took an interest in him and agreed to teach him for free. From 1843 to 1846 Laub studied with Mildner at the Prague Conservatory.
In the spring of 1846 Laub played, together with other graduates, before Hector Berlioz and Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst. They invited him to Paris. He also gave concerts in several other European cities.
In 1848, after the Prague uprising, Laub had to leave Bohemia. He settled in Vienna, where he appeared as a soloist and took lessons in music theory and counterpoint from Simon Sechter. He was celebrated at many concerts and also played before the Emperor Ferdinand.
From 1853 to 1855 Laub worked in Weimar, where he led the orchestra. There he took the place of the violinist Joseph Joachim, and Franz Liszt had supported his appointment. Laub spent a great deal of time with Liszt and often played with him. He also met Bedřich Smetana, with whom he shared an interest in the Czech national movement. In Weimar he married the singer Anna Marsh.
After Weimar, Laub settled in Berlin. He taught at the Stern Conservatory and at Theodor Kullak's New Academy of Music, appeared as a chamber virtuoso, played in a trio and a quartet and gave solo concerts. There he also founded a well-known string quartet.
From 1859 Laub toured constantly and gave concerts in all the major cities of Europe. He performed in Russia in 1859 and 1865, and his playing caused a sensation there. The countries he visited on concert tours included Denmark, Belgium, France, Holland, Norway and Sweden; in Gothenburg in 1860 he played together with Smetana.
In the early 1860s Laub spent long periods in Bohemia and took an active part in its musical life. He was a prominent member of the Czech artists' society Umělecká beseda. He often spent the summer months in his homeland.
In 1866 Laub visited Russia for the third time and was very popular there. In early March he signed a contract to work for the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society, and in the autumn, at the invitation of Nikolai Rubinstein, he became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. He taught there until 1874, in the violin and orchestra classes.
Taneyev, Barcewicz, Kotek, Willoine and Wonsowska studied with Laub. Besides teaching, he led a chamber ensemble of the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society.
Laub played first violin in the first performances of Tchaikovsky's First and Second String Quartets. In January 1868, during Hector Berlioz's second visit to Moscow, he played the solo viola part in Harold en Italie at the conservatory, under the composer's baton.
In the summer of 1874 Laub went to Karlovy Vary for treatment, but it did not help. Illness forced him to stop work, and Jan Hřímalý succeeded him at the Moscow Conservatory. He then travelled to South Tyrol, where he died in March 1875.
Tchaikovsky dedicated his Third String Quartet, in E-flat minor, to Laub's memory. In Prague there is a monument to Laub, a memorial plaque on the house where he was born, and a street that bears his name. Laub's son Váša was also a violinist and composer.
Laub's playing was marked by technical command and expressiveness. Alexander Serov, Vladimir Odoyevsky and Pyotr Tchaikovsky all spoke well of it. Tchaikovsky believed that, in the performance of classical works, only Joseph Joachim could rival Laub anywhere in the world.
His solo repertoire included the concertos of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Spohr and Vieuxtemps, Bach's sonatas and chaconne, and works by Brahms, Tartini, Paganini and other composers.
Laub composed as well. His works include a violin concerto in A minor with orchestra, a work Tchaikovsky spoke of kindly, first played in 1874, and a string quartet in C-sharp minor. He wrote cadenzas for Beethoven's Violin Concerto and also made violin transcriptions of Tchaikovsky's First String Quartet.
His works for violin and piano include Elegie, Op. 3, sets of short pieces, Op. 4 and Op. 12, Rondo scherzoso, Op. 6, Romance and Impromptu, Op. 7, and Polonaise, Op. 8. For solo violin he wrote three concert studies, Op. 13. His vocal works include songs to Czech folk texts, Op. 2 and Op. 9.
The site has one of his works, the Romanze für Violine und Klavier, Op. 7, for violin and piano. Its difficulty level is given as "Intermediate+".