Ferdinand Hiller

Ferdinand Hiller was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main, where his father Justus (originally Isaac Hildesheim, a name that he changed late in the 18th century to conceal his Jewish origins)[1] was a merchant in English textiles – a business eventually continued by Ferdinand's brother Joseph.

Hiller's talent was discovered early and he was taught piano by the leading Frankfurt musician Alois Schmitt, violin by Jörg Hofmann, and harmony and counterpoint by Georg Jacob Vollweiler; at 10 he performed a Mozart concerto in public; and two years later, he produced his first composition.

This lock is now at the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University, after having been sold at Sotheby's in 1994.

[2] In addition to Mendelssohn, he attracted the attention of Gioachino Rossini, who assisted him to launch his first opera, Romilda (which was a failure), at Milan.

After a year of study in Church music at Rome, Hiller returned to Leipzig, and during the season of 1843–44 conducted the Gewandhaus concerts.

[2] During Hiller's long reign in Cologne, which earned him a 'von' to precede his surname, his star pupil was Max Bruch, the composer of the cello elegy Kol Nidrei, based on the synagogue hymn sung at Yom Kippur.

Bruch was not Jewish; his knowledge of the theme of Kol Nidrei came through Hiller, who introduced him to the Berlin chazan, Lichtenstein.

Hiller's regime at Cologne was strongly marked by his conservative tastes, which he attempted to prolong by recommending, as his successor in 1884, either Brahms or Bruch.

The appointment went however to a "modernist", Franz Wüllner, who, according to Grove "initiated his term [...] with concerts of works by Wagner, Liszt and Richard Strauss, all of whom Hiller had avoided.

"[6] Hiller was elected a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1849, and in 1868 received the title of doctor from the University of Bonn.

Hiller's affability was one of his strongest assets; he made innumerable friends, such as Charles-Valentin Alkan,[7] and his very extensive correspondence with all the leading musicians in Europe, still only partly published, is an important source for the musical history of his era.

Yet another asset was his wife Antonka, by profession a singer, whom he married in Italy in 1840, and who made their home a magnet for the intelligentsia wherever they settled.

In his autobiography, written during 1865–70 when he was settling scores, real and imaginary, following the death of Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner is typically patronising about Hiller at this period, who, we are told, "behaved in a particularly charming and agreeable manner during those days."

He composed among other works six operas between 1839 and 1865, a violin concerto, and incidental music to Karl August Görner's five-act play Prinz Papagei.

Part of his vast correspondence with other musicians and artists of his period, which is in itself an important historical archive, has been published in seven volumes.