Wasielewski, Joseph W. von

1822-1896

Violinist, conductor and writer on musical subjects; born at GrossLeeson, near Dantzic. His parents were both good musicians and gave him his first instruction, then he was sent to Leipsic in 1843, where he had private instruction of David and at the Conservatory was under the personal direction of Mendelssohn and also studied with Hauptmann, until Easter of 1845. He joined the Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Euterpe concerts, playing with these two bodies until 1850, when he was invited by Schumann to Düsseldorf. He remained there two years, then removed to Bonn, where for three years he conducted the Beethovenverein, Gesangverein and Concordia. At the end of this time he went to Dresden, where he greatly distinguished himself as a writer on musical subjects, but was recalled to Bonn to become town music-director, receiving the title of Royal musicdirector in 1873. He retired to Sondershausen in 1884, and died there twelve years later. He was noted for his excellent violin-playing and for his great number of writings on musical subjects. During his residence in Leipsic he was critic on the Signale, and in 1858 he published a biography of Schumann. Other writings are History of Instrumental Music in the Sixteenth Century; The Violin in the Seventeenth Century; The Violin and its Masters; Beethoven; Carl Reinecke, His Life, Work, and Compositions, and many other articles, some of them contributions to musical periodicals.