Hugo Wolf (Wolf Hugo)

(1860-1903)
Hugo Philipp Jakob Wolf, born March 13, 1860 in Vindishgratse in South Styria (nowadays Slovengradets, Slovenia). Early demonstrated musical ability and the first lessons he took from his father, the owner of the leather factory and a gifted amateur musician. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory (1875-1877). Earning a living, gave piano lessons and in 1884-1887 was a music columnist 'Wiener zalonblatt'.
In opera Corregidor (Der Corregidor, 1895, premiere in Mannheim in 1896), Wolff, starting from 1888 is almost exclusively composed songs in his legacy of nearly 250. Building on the tradition of Schubert and Schumann, Wolf united in song cycles. Among the most significant cycles: Poems Eyhendorfa (Gedichte von Eichendorff; 20 songs, . 1880-1888), . Poems by Edward Merike (Gedichte von Eduard Mrike; 53 songs, . 1888), . Goethe's poems (Gedichte von Goethe; 51 song, . 1888-1890), . Spanish book of songs (Spanisches Liederbuch; 44 songs; 1889-1890) and the Italian book of songs (Italienisches Liederbuch; first part, . 22 songs, . 1890-1891, the second part, . 24 songs, . 1896),
.

Wolf carefully selected texts for their songs and choruses, for his songs are characterized by a subtle play atmosphere favorite poems - tender love lyrics, humor, satire, the grotesque, dramatic realism. Melodic vocal line exactly follows the metric verse and seamlessly interacts with the developed and harmonically rich piano party. The symphonic poem Penthesilea (Penthesilea, 1883-1885) the drama G.fon Kleist modeled on the program poems of Liszt. In chamber music genres, Wolf created a string quartet in D minor (1878-1884, . with an epigraph from Goethe's Faust: 'Entbehren sollst du, . sollst entbehren '-' humbled himself! - Is the wisdom of a capital '), . Intermezzo in E flat major (1886) and Serenade in G major (1887), . which in 1892 was transferred to them for small orchestra,
. Among choral compositions Wolf - Night of Christmas (Christnacht, 1886-1889), Song of Elf (Elfenlied, 1889-1891), Fiery Horseman (Der Feuerreiter, 1892) and six spiritual songs (1881).

In 1897 Wolfe wrote a cycle of three poems by Michelangelo (Drei Gedichte von Michelangelo) and began work on the opera Manuel Venegas (Manuel Venegas). She was left unfinished: the composer showed symptoms of mental illness, and in September 1897 he was admitted to hospital. In February 1898 came a temporary respite, and Wolf went to Italy, but after a suicide attempt in October, he, at his own request, was admitted to hospital in Vienna, where he died from progressive paralysis, February 22, 1903.