Hans von Bülow photo Breitkopf & Härtel pianist conductor

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For sale I have a period postcard photo of the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow.  "Copyright by E Bieber Berlin u. Hamburg, photographer to the court."  Unused.  Excellent condition.  3.5 x 5.5 inches.  USPS Priority Mail insured.
I have been a professional violinist for 20 years. I currently teach violin at University of California, Berkeley, and play Concertmaster for the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera. I've been buying and selling music memorabilia on eBay since it was invented and I've been buying antique art from European and American auction houses for a decade. All pieces for sale are guaranteed authentic and come from my personal collection, which numbers in the thousands.
To learn more about me before buying, visit danflanaganviolin dot com.
Hans Guido Freiherr
[1]
von Bülow
(January 8, 1830 – February 12, 1894) was a German
conductor
,
virtuoso
pianist
, and
composer
of the
Romantic era
. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, especially
Richard Wagner
and
Johannes Brahms
. Alongside
Carl Tausig
, Bülow was perhaps the most prominent of the early students of the Hungarian virtuoso pianist, conductor and composer
Franz Liszt
; he gave the first public performance of Liszt's
Sonata in B minor
in 1857. He became acquainted with, fell in love with and eventually married Liszt's daughter
Cosima
, who later left him for Wagner. Noted for his interpretation of the works of
Ludwig van Beethoven
, he was one of the earliest European musicians to tour the
United States
. Bülow was born in
Dresden
, to members of the prominent
Bülow family
. From the age of nine, he was a student of Professor
Friedrich Wieck
(the father of
Clara Schumann
). However, his parents insisted that he study law instead of music, and they sent him to
Leipzig
. There he met
Franz Liszt
, and on hearing some music of
Richard Wagner
—specifically, the premiere of
Lohengrin
in 1850—he decided to ignore the dictates of his parents and make himself a career in music instead. He studied the piano in Leipzig with the famous pedagogue
Louis Plaidy
. He obtained his first conducting job in
Zurich
, on Wagner's recommendation, in 1850.
Bülow had a strongly acerbic personality and a loose tongue; this alienated many musicians whom he worked with. He was dismissed from his Zurich job for this reason, but at the same time he was beginning to win renown for his ability to conduct new and complex works without a score. In 1851, he became a student of Liszt, marrying his daughter
Cosima
in 1857. They had two daughters: Daniela, born in 1860 and Blandina, born in 1863. During the 1850s and early 1860s he was active as a pianist, conductor, and writer, and became well known throughout Germany as well as Russia. In 1857, he premiered Liszt's
Piano Sonata in B minor
in Berlin.
In 1864 he became the Hofkapellmeister in Munich, and it was at this post he achieved his principal renown. He conducted the premieres of two Wagner operas,
Tristan und Isolde
and
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
, in 1865 and 1868 respectively; both were immensely successful. Meanwhile, however, Cosima had been carrying on an affair with Richard Wagner and gave birth to their daughter Isolde in 1865. Two years later, they had another daughter, Eva. Although Cosima and Wagner's affair was now open knowledge, Bülow still refused to grant his wife a divorce. Finally, she gave birth to one final child––a son, Siegfried––and it was only then that the conductor at last relented. Their divorce was finalized in 1870, after which Cosima and Wagner married. Bülow never spoke to Wagner again and he did not see his former wife for 11 years afterwards, although he apparently continued to respect the composer on a professional level, as he still conducted his works and mourned Wagner's death in 1883. In July 1882 he married the actress
Marie Schanzer
.
[
citation needed
]
In 1867 Bülow became director of the newly reopened
Königliche Musikschule
in Munich. He taught piano there in the manner of Liszt. He remained as director of the Conservatory until 1869. Bülow's students in Berlin included
Asger Hamerik
and
Joseph Pache
.
In addition to championing the music of Wagner, Bülow was a supporter of the music of both
Brahms
and
Tchaikovsky
. He was the soloist in the world premiere of the Tchaikovsky
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor
in
Boston
in 1875. He was also a devotee of
Frédéric Chopin
's music; he came up with epithets for all of Chopin's
Opus 28 Preludes
,
[2]
but these have generally fallen into disuse. On the other hand, the D-flat major Prelude No. 15 is widely known by his title, the "Raindrop."
[3]
He was the first to perform (from memory) the complete cycle of
Beethoven's piano sonatas
,
[4]
and with
Sigmund Lebert
, he co-produced an edition of the sonatas.
For the winter season of 1877–1878 he was appointed as conductor of the orchestral subscription concerts presented at the newly opened St Andrew's Hall in
Glasgow
by Glasgow Choral Union, touring with their orchestra to repeat these programmes in other Scottish cities. Among the works he conducted there was the recently revised version of
Brahms Symphony No 1
.
From 1878 to 1880 he was Hofkapellmeister in
Hanover
but was forced to leave after fighting with a tenor singing the "Knight of the Swan [
Schwan
]" role in
Lohengrin
; Bülow had called him the "Knight of the Swine [
Schwein
]". In 1880 he moved to
Meiningen
where he took the equivalent post, and where he built the
Meiningen Court Orchestra
into one of the finest in Germany; among his other demands, he insisted that the musicians learn to play all their parts from memory.
It was during his five years in Meiningen that he met
Richard Strauss
(though the meeting actually took place in Berlin). His first opinion of the young composer was not favorable, but he changed his mind when he was confronted with a sample of Strauss's "Serenade". Later on, he used his influence to give Strauss his first regular employment as a conductor.
[5]
Like Strauss, Bülow was attracted to the ideas of
Max Stirner
, whom he reputedly had known personally. In April 1892 Bülow closed his final performance with the
Berlin Philharmonic
(where he had been serving as Principal Conductor since 1887) with a speech "exalting" the ideas of Stirner. Together with
John Henry Mackay
, Stirner's biographer, he placed a memorial plaque at Stirner's last residence in Berlin.
[6]
Some of his orchestral innovations included the addition of the five-string
bass
and the pedal
timpani
; the pedal timpani have since become standard instruments in the symphony orchestra. His accurate, sensitive, and profoundly musical interpretations established him as the prototype of the virtuoso conductors who flourished at a later date. He was also an astute and witty musical journalist.
In the late 1880s he settled in
Hamburg
, but continued to tour, both conducting and performing on the piano.
Bülow suffered from chronic neuralgiforme headaches, which were caused by a tumor of the cervical radicular nerves.
[7]
After about 1890 his mental and physical health began to fail, and he sought a warmer, drier climate for recovery; he died in a hotel in
Cairo
,
Egypt
at the age of 64, only ten months after his final concert performance.