Lvov А.F. (1798-1870), composer

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
LVOV Alexey Fedorovich (1798-1870), military engineer, violinist, composer, conductor, and musician, major general (1843), privy counsellor (1853), and senator (1855). He was a son of F. P. Lvov, the director of the Court Chapel in 1826-36, owned a huge music library and a valuable collection of musical instruments, including violins of Stradivari, Amati, Guarneri, and Maggini. After graduating from the Institute of Railway Engineers Corps in 1818, he served in the department of military settlements, appointed aide-de-camp to A. K. Benckendorff from late 1825. An aide-de-camp to Emperor Nicholas I, he accompanied him on his trips in Russia and abroad, as well as on military campaigns. He set music to V. A. Zhukovsky"s God Save the Tsar to compose a national anthem in 1833. He had his own music salon situated in Baron Ferederiks" house at the present-day 15 Vladimirsky Avenue in 1835-44 and in his own house at 22 Karavannaya Street in 1844-68. He was director of the Court Chapel in 1837-61, he arranged choral and instrumental classes, acting also as an education reformer. Lvov was renowned in St. Petersburg and Europe as a remarkable violinist rivalling H. Vieuxtemps and C. Berios. He enjoyed playing quartets and often played with famous musicians during his trips to Europe and arranged quartet parties regularly when at home. He wrote music for violin, his violin concerto was a success, and composed three operas, including Undina in 1848, and up to 40 choral compositions, including four concertos. He played the key role in the composition of Court Life in 1857, a model book of motets harmonised for a four-part choir. He founded a Concert Society in 1850, which gave Lenten concerts together with the chapel, devoted to music of his favourite composer, L. Beethoven, and other European classics. He conducted a choir of 1100 singers during the dedication of St. Isaac"s Cathedral in 1858. The chapel arranged a festival concert in his honour in 1862, which became the last triumph of Lvov as a composer. Lvov"s Notes were published in Russky Arkhiv, volumes 2 and 3, in 1884.

Reference: Золотницкая Л. М. А. Ф. Львов // Россия - Европа: Контакты муз. культур. СПб., 1994. С. 116-156.

A. L. Porfiryeva. Amati Nicolo
Beethoven Ludwig van
Benckendorff Alexander Krristoforovich
Berios Charles Auguste
Frederiks Boris Andreevich, Baron
Guarneri
Lvov Alexey Fedorovich
Lvov Fedor Petrovich
Maggini Giovanni
Nicholas I, Emperor
Stradivari Antonio
Vieuxtemps Henri
Zhukovskaya V.A.
Karavannaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 22
Vladimirsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 13
Золотницкая Л. М. А. Ф. Львов // Россия - Европа: Контакты муз. культур. СПб., 1994 St. Isaac's Cathedral