Lenz, Wilhelm von
Lenz, Wilhelm von
Lenz, Wilhelm von, Russian government official and writer on music of German descent; b. Riga, June 1, 1809; d. St. Petersburg, Jan. 31, 1883. He studied in Riga, then with Liszt in Paris (1828) and Moscheles in London (1829). He became a government councillor in St. Petersburg (1842). Although Fétis first suggested the division of Beethoven’s output into 3 stylistic periods, it was Lenz who fully explored the idea in his study Beethoven et ses trois styles: Analyses des sonates de piano suivies de l’essai d’un catalogue critique chronologique et anecdotique de l’oeuvre de Beethoven (2 vols., St. Petersburg, 1852; 3rd ed., 1855; new ed. by M.D. Calvocoressi, Paris, 1909). This arbitrary division held sway for many decades until it was tempered by modern critical analysis. He also wrote Beethoven: Eiue Kunststudie, I-II (Kassel, 1855); III/1-2, IV-V: Kritische Katalog sämtlicher Werke Ludwig van Beethovens mit Analysen derselben (Hamburg, 1860; ed. by A. Kalischer, Berlin, 1908; 3rd ed., 1921); Die grossen Pianoforte-Virtuosen unserer Zeit aus persönlicher Bekanntschaft: Liszt, Chopin, Tausig, Henselt (Berlin, 1872; Eng. ed., N.Y., 1899).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire