Klindworth, Karl

CONDUCTOR, COMPOSER, VIOLINIST, PIANO TEACHER (GERMANY)
BORN 25 Sep 1830, Hannover, Niedersachsen - DIED 27 Jul 1916, Stolpe (near Oranienburg), Brandenburg
GRAVE LOCATION Bayreuth, Bayern: Stadtfriedhof (A 1b/889-890)

Karl Klindworth was the son of the mechanician and business man Carl August Klindworth (1791-1862). As a child he took lessons on the violin and taught himself to play the piano. He was a pupil of Franz Liszt in Weimar from 1852 to 1854. He worked from 1854 until 1868 as a piano teacher in London and Moscow. Then he moved to Berlin to work as a conductor. His critical edition of the works of Chopin was famous.

In 1855 he had met Richard Wagner in London and in later years he would play Wagner's "Ring" on the piano. He was a friend of Wagner until the composer died and he kept on visiting the family afterwards. In 1883 he founded a piano school that became a music school and merged with Xaver Scharwenka school in 1893.

In 1907 Wagner's son Siegfried dedicated his opera "Sternengebot" to Klindwordth. In the same year he and his wife Henriette Karrop adopted a young English orphan, Winnifred Williams. In 1915, when she was eighteen years old, Winifred married Siegfried Wagner. The next year Klindworth died. Although he had lived in Berlin he was buried in Bayreuth. His grave is close to that of Winnifred and Siegfried.

Related persons
• knew Bülow, Hans von
• was pupil of Liszt, Franz
• was a friend of Wagner, Richard
• adopted Wagner-Williams, Winnifred

Events
0/7/1860Act Two of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde is performed at the house of Pauline Viardot. It was performed by Pauline Viardot, Richard Wagner himself and Karl Klindworth. Hector Berlioz and Marie Kalergis, in whose honour the event was organised, were present. [Berlioz, Hector][Viardot-Garcia, Pauline][Wagner, Richard]

Images

The grave of Karl Klindworth at the Stadtfriedhof, Bayreuth.
Picture by Androom (24 Jan 2006)

 

The grave of Karl Klindworth at the Stadtfriedhof, Bayreuth.
Picture by Androom (24 Jan 2006)

 

Sources
• Hamann, Brigitte, Winifred Wagner oder Hitlers Bayreuth, Piper, München, 2003
The Hector Berlioz Website: Berlioz and Wagner


Klinger, Max

Published: 08 Apr 2006
Last update: 18 Jan 2022