Béla Kéler
Albert's siblings were Frederika, Stefan, Emilia, Antonia, Matilda, Augusta, Apollonia, Ferdinand, Viktor, Josefina, and Amalia.
Kéler's musical education starts with Franz Schiffer a choirmaster at the Bardejov Basilica of St. Giles, who taught him the basics of the violin and piano.
While studying law and philosophy in Prešov, Béla Kéler led the school orchestra and wrote smaller compositions, however his parents preferred that he would continue in the family legal profession tradition.
The difference between the vision of Béla Kéler and that of his parents led to a situation where, at their wish, he started, on July 1, 1840, one year of practical training in agriculture at the estate of the Counts Schönborn-Buchheim in Mukačevo.
After the end of his one-year engagement in Mukačevo, Kéler left to work at the farms of his brother-in-law Ferdinand Medwey, the husband of his sister Amalia, in Galicia in Beskids.
In March 1857, Kéler appeared with his orchestra at the Debrecen theater, housed in the granary belonging to town counsellor Gábor Nánássy.
[3] In January 1863, Béla Kéler took over the post of the court bandmaster of the 45-member orchestra of the 2nd Duke of Nassau Regiment in Wiesbaden (1817–1905) after Benedict Stadtfeld (1788–1878) who retired at the age of 75.
The programme of Kéler's concerts consisted not only of his own compositions and dance pieces by some of his contemporaries, but also symphonic creations by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Schubert, Berlioz, and others.
Kéler remained in the position of bandmaster of the 2nd Regiment Orchestra until November 1866, when the Duchy of Nassau was annexed by Prussia after the defeat of the Austrian Empire in the Prussian-Austrian War.
In January and February 1867, Kéler conducted the Wiesbaden spa orchestra at carnival concerts in the historical Frankfurter Hof Hall in Mainz.
On August 4, he organized, in cooperation with Count Ferencz Szirmay (1838–1871), a benefit concert in Bardejovské Kúpele in the aid of victims of a June fire in Bardejov, during which tens of houses burned down.
Because the bandmaster Josef Kaschte (1821–1878) was also leaving, Béla Kéler accepted an offer by the spa society board to organize and lead a new orchestra as of July 25, 1870.
It probably had to do with a new law in Prussia, which ordered the closure of all casinos by the end of that year at latest, and which brought with it an expectation of dramatic losses of visitors to the spa.
In the spring, Kéler stayed in Berlin, and at the beginning of summer went to London, where he most likely held talks about his tour in September of the following year.
In July 1873 he appeared as a violinist with a piano accompaniment at a charity concert near Bardejov, in the spa Starý Smokovec, where he performed his own compositions.
During his London engagement, Kéler learned that King Oskar II of Sweden, had bestowed a gold medal Litteris et Artibus upon him for his contributions to science and arts.
Kéler entertained the idea of moving permanently from Wiesbaden to London, especially since his intended overseas engagement in which he has been showing his interest for two years did not materialize.
Kéler in Berlin, just like in London, was unable to secure the post of a permanent conductor with one of the local orchestras, and so he returned to Wiesbaden during October.
For the purposes of the 10th World's Fair, which took place in Paris from May 1 to October 31, an 80-member orchestra was organized and led by Jean-Baptiste Arban (1825–1889) in the Orangerie building, together with other renowned conductors.
Kéler's concerts in Copenhagen were held between August 24 and September 11 in Tivoli, which still exists to this day and at the same time is the second oldest entertainment park in the world.
Kéler valued a lot a congratulatory letter from his brother-in-law Andrej Vandrák in Prešov, to whom he assigned a major part in his artistic development.
“I praise my fate that it allowed me to live this day with the knowledge that I am a creative artist and I have reached so much, that the greater part of the musical world in both hemispheres, is noticing me and my composing work.
However, may the profession of a creative artist be beautiful, the road to the goal is at the same time far and thorny, and most of the time you reach it only when your hair is turning grey.” (Kéler, 1879)[3] Kéler's work obligations did not allow him to enjoy the rest of his celebrations, and already on May 9, he left for three concerts in Hannover which were held from May 11 to 13 at the local entertainment center Tivoli where he had already performed at concerts the previous year.
To stand up to this misbelief, which is widely spread throughout the musical world, and in order to protect my copyright, I am forced to declare that I composed this Hungarian dance in 1858 and also first performed it at that time in Debrecen.
[3] For the entire summer season 1881, that is from May to the end of September, Kéler was approached by the owner of the Kroll Opera House Jakob Engel regarding guest appearance in Berlin.
The no more existing Kroll Opera House was located during 1844–1951 in the vicinity of the Brandenburg Gate on today's Berlin Platz der Republik, at that time Königsplatz.
He was fully conscious until the last moment, and with the greatest care, he authorized his close friend and at the same time his legal attorney to make the arrangements of all the details of his funeral and the settlement of his property.
[4]Anton Bruckner copied the instrumentation and form (but not the harmony) of Kéler's Mazzuchelli-Marsch (also called Apollo-Marsch) exactly for his own March in E-flat major.
[citation needed] Although the title of the almost an hour-long composition refers to the Carpathian Mountains, the composer was exclusively inspired by the surroundings of the High Tatras, which is near his birthplace.
Parts include "Overture", "Introduction", and five musical pictures, in the order "The Lomnica Peak" (Lomnický štít), "The Poprad Lake" (Popradské pleso), "The Iron Hammers", "The Hunt", "The Arrival" and "Life in the Carpathian Spa".
