A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Oulibicheff, Alexander von

OULIBICHEFF, Alexander von, Russian nobleman, and enthusiastic amateur, born 1795 at Dresden, where his father was Russian ambassador. From his earliest years he was devoted to music, and studied the violin sufficiently to become a good quartet-player. He served first in the army, and then as a diplomatist, but retired on the accession of the Emperor Nicholas, and lived on his estates near Nijni-Novgorod till his death on January, 24, 1858. Mozart was his idol, and he re-awakened attention to his works at a time when Germany at least was entirely pre-occupied with Meyerbeer and Spontini. Oulibicheff's great work 'Nouvelle biographie de Mozart,' 3 vols. (Moscow, 1844), contains much valuable matter, biographical and æsthetical, and has been largely used by Otto Jahn. His admiration for Mozart however led him to depreciate Beethoven, and for this he was attacked by Lenz. In his reply, 'Beethoven, ses critiques et ses glossateurs' (Leipzig and Paris, 1857), he expressed with even greater vehemence his opinion on the extravagance of Beethoven's later works, and drew down a storm of abuse and controversy with which he was little fitted to cope, and which is said to have hastened his end. It is but just to admit that his views, less caustically expressed, were held by many eminent musicians, including Ries and Spohr.

[ F. G. ]