Wilhelmine von Bayreuth (1709-1758)
- Concerto (g-moll) â Cembalo Obligato
Performers: Hilde Langfort (cembalo); Austrian Tonkuenstler Orchestra;
Dietfried Bernet (1940-2011, conductor)
---
German princess and composer. She was the eldest daughter of Frederick
William I of Prussia and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, and granddaughter
of George I of Great Britain. Born in Berlin, she shared the unhappy
childhood of her brother, Frederick the Great, whose friend and
confidante she remained all her life, with the exception of one short
interval. She was fiercely beaten and abused by her governess during her
childhood. Wilhelmine later wrote: "Not a day passed that she [the
governess] did not prove upon me the fearful power of her fists." The
mistreatment continued until the prince's governess finally said to
their mother, who had been oblivious to the abuse, that she would not be
surprised if Wilhelmine was eventually beaten until she was crippled.
After this, the governess was promptly replaced. Being the eldest
daughter in her family, she was early the target of discussions about
political marriages. Her mother, Queen Sophia Dorothea, wished her to
marry her nephew Frederick, Prince of Wales, but on the British side
there was no inclination to make an offer of marriage except in exchange
for substantial concessions that Wilhelmine's father would not accept.
The fruitless intrigues carried on by Sophia Dorothea to bring about
this match played a large part in Wilhelmine's early life. Her father,
on the other hand, preferred a match with the House of Habsburg.
Wilhelmine was eventually married in 1731 to her Hohenzollern kinsman,
Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. Frederick had been engaged
to Wilhelmine's younger sister, Sophie, but at the last moment King
Frederick William I decided to replace her with Wilhelmine. The groom
was not consulted in this decision. When Wilhelmine's spouse came into
his inheritance in 1735, the pair set about making Bayreuth a miniature
Versailles. The so-called Bayreuth Rococo style of architecture is
renowned even today.
The pair also founded the University of Erlangen. All of these ambitious
undertakings pushed the court to the verge of bankruptcy. The
margravine made Bayreuth one of the chief intellectual centers of the
Holy Roman Empire, surrounding herself with a court of wits and artists
that accrued added prestige from the occasional visits of Voltaire and
Frederick the Great. Wilhelmine's brother Frederick granted her an
allowance in exchange for troops, following the same procedure with her
sisters. With the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, Wilhelmine's
interests shifted from dilettantism to diplomacy. Austrian diplomats
were trying to influence the court of Bayreuth to take their side
against Prussia. In September 1745, during the Silesian war, Wilhelmine
met with Maria Theresa of Austria. This almost destroyed her intimate
relationship with her brother. In 1750 Wilhelmine visited the Prussian
court for several weeks and met famous contemporaries such as Voltaire,
Maupertuis and La Mettrie. In June 1754, the siblings met for the last
time, after which Frederick swore her his eternal loyalty. She acted as
eyes and ears for her brother in southern Germany until her death at
Bayreuth on 14 October 1758, the day of Frederick's defeat by the
Austrian forces of Leopold Josef Graf Daun at the Battle of Hochkirch.
Although Frederick had lost many friends and family to death throughout
his life, Wilhelmine's hit him the hardest. He suffered from severe
illness for a week following news of Wilhelmine's death and fell into a
depression from which he never fully recovered. On the tenth anniversary
of her death, her devastated brother had the Temple of Friendship built
at Sanssouci in her memory. In addition to her other accomplishments,
Wilhelmine was also a gifted composer and supporter of music. She was a
lutenist, a student of Sylvius Leopold Weiss, and the employer of
Bernhard Joachim Hagen.
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