Johann Vesque von Püttlingen

He was born in the Lubomirski Palace (pl:Pałac Lubomirskich) in Opole Lubelskie (at the time located in West Galicia, a province of the Holy Roman Empire in eastern Poland, now in Lublin Voivodship).

Jean Vesque had to leave in a hurry after the French invasion of the Low Countries in 1793, but found himself banned (with the other Belgian officials of the late Brussels administration) from Vienna, where there were enough civil servants already; having rejected a French offer of citizenship of the new greater France - now including southern Belgium and Luxembourg - his estates were confiscated and he found himself stateless.

He then became a civil servant, entering the Lower Austrian legal service (or magistracy) as an 'Auscultant' or probationer (Anwärter auf das Richteramt), rising to become chief administrative officer of Salzburg by 1872.

[3] Aged 13, he had started piano lessons with de:Maximilian Josef Leidesdorf, a well-known pianist who was a friend (and publisher) of Schubert and Beethoven.

[3] The critic Eduard Hanslick described his well-trained tenor voice: "The witty, lightly emphasised, almost French 'breathy' tone, which Vesque - especially in his recital of his humoristic lieder - was aware of putting on, was quite unique.

Among his contacts were numbered Robert and Clara Schumann, Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Carl Loewe, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Felix Mendelssohn and Otto Nicolai.