Background
Max (Wilhelm Carl) Vogrich was born on January 24, 1852, in Hermannstadt (Nagy-Szeben), Transylvania. He was the son of Tobias Wogritsch and Therese Wogritsch.
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Max Wilhelm Karl Vogrich
Edit ProfileEducation
From 1866 to 1869, Vogrich was a pupil at the Leipzig Conservatory, studied piano with Ignaz Moscheles, Ernst Wenzel, and Carl Reinecke, and theory and composition with Moritz Hauptmann, Ernst Richter, and Reinecke.
Career
Vogrich started his career as a musical prodigy, and at the age of five began to study piano. At the age of seven, he made his first public appearance.
Vogrich started in earnest on his career as a pianist. He toured Europe, Mexico, and South America from 1870 to 1878, and then came to the United States for the first time. He gave several recitals in New York and toured the country as accompanist to the celebrated violinist August Wilhelmj. He was also associated with Eduard Remenyi, for George P. Upton, in his Musical Memories, mentions Vogrich as Remenyi's "protege, a young musician of extraordinary talent, who has since become a lost Pleiad. "
The young Vogrich was, however, not entirely lost, for, although he did not continue to appear publicly as a pianist, and left America to live in Australia from 1882 to 1886, he returned to New York in 1886 and stayed there for sixteen years, busying himself with composition and music editing. From 1902 to 1908, he lived in Weimar, and in 1908 moved to London, where he stayed until the outbreak of the World War in 1914. He spent the last two years of his life in New York City, acting during this time as an adviser to the music publishing firm of G. Schirmer. Vogrich was a prolific composer, and many of his works were widely used in their day. He composed three operas, all to his own librettos: "Vanda, " produced in Florence, 1875; Konig Arthur, " Leipzig, 1893; and "Der Buddha, " Weimar, 1904.
He was the composer of incidental music to Ernst von Wildenbruch's "Die Lieder des Euripides", and of a dramatic scene, "The Highland Widow. " His oratorio, "The Captivity", was performed at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, in 1891, and his "Memento Mori" (1910), for violin and orchestra, was played in Berlin in 1912 and in New York the season preceding his death. His violin concerto, "E pur si muove" (1913), was dedicated to Mischa Elman, who performed it in Berlin in 1913 and in New York in 1917. Others of his works were: two cantatas, "The Diver", and "Der junge Konig und die Scheferin"; a "Missa Solemnis"; two symphonies, in E minor and A minor; an andante and Intermezzo for violin and orchestra; a concerto in E minor for piano; as well as many pieces for piano, and for violin and piano, songs, and shorter choruses.
He died following a surgical operation.
Achievements
Personality
A year before his death, Vogrich came into newspaper prominence when he sued the estate of the widow of Theodore Havemeyer, the sugar magnate, for thirty thousand dollars. Vogrich claimed that Mrs. Havemeyer had promised to bequeath him this sum, and when the will was published he was the beneficiary of only ten thousand dollars.
It was currently understood in musical circles that Vogrich had been Havemeyer's protege. When Havemeyer was living, Vogrich had charge of the music in his household and had benefited so largely from Havemeyer's generosity that he was enabled to give up his routine work in New York and settle in Europe, where he could devote himself entirely to composition.
Connections
Max Vogrich was married Alice Rees, formerly an English singer, whom he had met in Australia.
- Father:
- Tobias Wogritsch
- Mother:
- Therese Wogritsch
- mentor:
- Moritz Hauptmann
- mentor:
- Hans Richter (János Richter)
- mentor:
- Carl Reinecke
- mentor:
- (Isaac) Ignaz Moscheles
- Wife:
- Alice Rees
13 October 1792 – 3 January 1868 Was a German music theorist, teacher and composer.
4 April 1843 – 5 December 1916 Was an Austrian–Hungarian orchestral and operatic conductor.
23 June 1824 – 10 March 1910 Was a German composer, conductor, and pianist.
23 May 1794 – 10 March 1870 Was a Bohemian composer and piano virtuoso, whose career after his early years was based initially in London, and later at Leipzig.
