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Ivan Karlovich Tscherlitzky (Composer, Arranger) |
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Born: November 20, 1799 - Kazan, Russian Empire
Died: November 2, 1867 - Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
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Ivan Karlovich Tscherlitzky [also: Johann Heinrich Cherlitsky, Jean Cherlitsky or Cherlitsky, Czerlitsky, Sherlitsky, Tscherlitzky; Russian: Иван Карлович Черлицкий, Ivan Karlovič Čerlickij], was a Russian organist, pianist and music educator and composer. He came from a musical Lutheran family from Gdansk. He received his first lessons from his father Karl Ferdinand Tscherlitzky (1773-1841), who worked as a music teacher in various cities in Russia. In 1818 the family came to St Petersburg, where he was instructed in composition by J.H. Müller (1780-1826) a great contrapuntalist. According to autobiographical accounts, between 1820 and 1823 he helped out his uncle Otto Ferdinand Tscherlitzky (1777-1833) as an organist in the Lutheran Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in St Petersburg. From 1819 to 1822 he performed there J.S. Bach organ concertos with great success. According to contemporary reports, his J.S. Bach playing evoked great admiration. He worked from 1820 to 1829, then again from 1845 to 1853, as a music and piano teacher at the Imperial Educational Institution for Aristocratic Maidens (Smolny Institute), as did his brother Alexander Karlovich Tscherlitzky (1804-1878). According to his autobiographical account, he perfected his piano playing in 1831 with John Field (1782-1837) in Moscow. He was undoubtedly a piano virtuoso: in 1848, the renowned St. Petersburg piano journal Le Nouvelliste ranked him alongside A.L. Henselt (1814-1889) and Anton G. Rubinstein (1829-1894) as one of the best St. Petersburg pianists.
Franz Liszt may have performed his J.S. Bach transcriptions at his Petersburg concerts in 1842-1843. Probably inspired by this, Ivan Tscherlitzky began to make piano transcriptions of J.S. Bach's organ works and then to publish them by subscription from 1844. Some local music journals reviewed the publication and praised it as an exceptional contribution to the dissemination of J.S. Bach's music. The first cycle comprised five booklets, which were delivered between 1844 and 1845. The second cycle was delivered in six booklets between 1845 and 1846, with the last three booklets containing 50 chorale preludes. Unfortunately, little is known about the third cycle. All in all Tscherlitzky published piano transcriptions of 35 large Bach organ pieces and 50 choral preludes. He was not only the first musician in world music practice to publish piano transcriptions of J.S. Bach's organ music, but also made a significant contribution to J.S. Bach's reception in Russia. Unfortunately, there was never a reprint later, so that the booklets soon became a bibliographical rarity.
In addition to his J.S. Bach transcriptions, his name today is still associated with some chorales he contributed to the Sammlung auserlesener Lieder von der erlösenden Liebe und den Liedern im Schatzkästchen by J.E. Gossner (1773-1858). He also produced piano transcriptions of some chamber works by Felix Mendelssohn, which he published under the French pseudonym Jean Tscherlitzky.
Ivan Tscherlitzky had many musician relatives playing a leading role in St. Petersburg music life during the first half of the 19th century. In addition to his brother Alexander Karlovich, who succeeded their father Karl Ferdinand as organist at the Lutheran church of St. Catherine from 1837-1849, their cousin Otto Tscherlitzky (1810-1850), who served as organist from 1833 to 1845 at the main Lutheran church of St. Peter and Paul, was considered a great organ and piano virtuoso. |
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Sources (October 2011):
1. Biografical notes by the eminent Russian organist and harpsichordist Leonid Rojizman
2. Biografical notes in a Russian <Music Encyclopedia> 1973-1982
3. Biografical notes <The Music Encyclopedic Dictionary>, 1990
4. Blog by Prof. Thomas Labé
5. Schanz, Arthur; J.S.Bach in der Klaviertranskription, Eisenach 2000, ISBN 3-88979-082-8, p. 693
Tscherlitzky, Iwan Karlowitsch: 1799 in Kasau [sic!] – 1865 Petersburg. Organist, Pianist, Komponist und Pädagoge. Schüler von Karl T., Musiklehrer u. Organist der Lutheranischen Kirche in St. Petersburg 1820-31. Lehrtätigkeit am Smolny-Institut Moskau [sic!] (1845–53). Klavierwerke (Konzert, Variationen über russische Lieder); Verfasser einer Klavierschule (1852); musiktheoretische Werke; überträgt wohl als erster umfänglich Bachs Orgelwerke für Klavier.
6. Some entries in an interesting database about foreign people in Russia. Please note the sources in the entries!
<Erik-Amburger-Datenbank, Ausländer im vorrevolutionären Russland>
Ivan Karlovič Czerlitzky (1799-1867)
Karl Czerlitzky?
Alexander Czerlitzky (1804-78)
Karl Otto Czerlitzky?
7. The front page of Mendelssohns <Otteto> transcribed by Jean Tscherlitzky
8. Chorale Prelude Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verdebt, BWV 705, transcribed for piano [Obrabotka I. Cherliskogo / J.S. Bach Moskva 1971: Muzyka (included in collection: Fortepiannye transkriptsii russkikh i sovetskikh kompozitorov. Vypusk 6 / L. I. Roizman (ed.))]
9. Chorale Prelude Wer nur den lieben Gott laebt walten (IV), BWV 691
Chorale Prelude Nun komm der Heiden Heiland (VI), BWV 699
published in Notnaja papka pianista No. 4 Tetrad No. 2
More sources (July 2023):
Чинаев, В. П. & Толстых, Н. (2016). Фортепианная культура России: история и современность: сборник статей и материалов : музыкальные эпохи и стили : эстетика, поэтика, исполнительская интерпретация. Научно-издательский центр „Московская консерватория“.[Činaev, V. P. & Tolstych, N. (2016). Piano culture of Russia : history and modernity : collection of articles and materials : musical epochs and styles : aesthetics, poetics, interpretation. Scientific and Publishing Centre "Moscow Conservatory".]
Bach J.S. 50 Chorale Preludes: Sheet music / J.S. Bach; I.K. Tscherlitzky (transcriptions for piano). — 4th edition, ster. — Saint Petersburg: Lan: The Planet of Music, 2022. — 184 pages. — Text: direct.
Roisman, L. (2001). Die Orgel in der Geschichte der russischen Musik-Kultur (N. Balz, Übers.). 157. Veröffentlichung der Gesellschaft der Orgelfreunde, Martin Balz.
Schanz, A. (2000). Johann Sebastian Bach in der Klaviertranskription.
Contributed by Stephan Rusconi (October 2011, July 2023) |
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Ivan Karlovitch
Tscherlitzky : Short Biography | Piano Transcriptions: Works as I. Cherlitski | Works as Jean Tscherlitzky | Recordings |
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Links to other Sites |
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See sources above |
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Bibliography |
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See sources above |
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