Carl (or Karl) Schlesinger (19 August 1813 – 18 January 1871) was an Austrian cellist.
He was a founder member of the Hellmesberger Quartet, and a Professor at the Vienna Conservatory.
His great-uncle Martin Schlesinger (1751–1818), a violinist, was from 1783 a member of the Tonkünstler-Societät in Vienna, and from 1793 a chamber musician of the Hungarian court chancellor Count József Erdődy, who was resident in Pressburg (now Bratislava), Vienna and Freistadtl (now Hlohovec)..[1][2] Carl received violin lessons from the age of nine, but aged twelve he turned to the cello.
In 1837 he was a soloist in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, and from 1838 to 1845 he was soloist in the National Theatre of Pesth; he returned to Vienna, where he was in the orchestra of the Court Opera Theatre[1][3][4] He was a member of the Hellmesberger Quartet from its formation in 1849, until 1855.
[1][3][4] He died in Vienna in 1871, after several years suffering from a chest ailment.