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0:00 Intro
2:50 Valse Serenade Op. 4 - Ernest Lachmund
Ernest Lachmund’s Valse Serenade
Last year, Geoffrey Dean–a researcher, cellist and founding music faculty member at the American University in Bulgaria–asked Matinee Musicale about a score for cello: the Valse Serenade by Duluth composer Ernest Lachmund (1865-1954). Although Lachmund was familiar to us, the work itself was not.
A history of Matinee Musicale (2000) written by Sr. Mary Richard Boo–former Professor of History and President of Duluth’s College of St. Scholastica–mentions that Ernest Lachmund was known at the end of his decades-long career in the city as “The Dean of Duluth Music Teachers.” Lachmund is indeed a fascinating figure with close connections to Matinee Musicale: his wife Winifred Lachmund was president of our organization (1920-1922) as was his granddaughter, Ann Lachmund Mars (1993-1995).
Lachmund grew up in Iowa, the son of German immigrants. As a young man, he studied music in Berlin, Leipzig and Cologne. During his time in Germany, Lachmund met Grieg and attended concerts of Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Mahler conducting their own works. He also attended the Weimar masterclass of Franz Liszt with special permission from the composer.
Ernest’s older brother, Carl Lachmund, is regarded as the most well-known American student of Franz Liszt. His reminiscences of the composer, Living with Liszt, were edited for publication in 1994 by Liszt scholar Alan Walker who also used the texts as a source for his acclaimed 3-volume biography of the composer. Carl Lachmund was a frequent visitor to Duluth and even performed a concert here in 1890 with Ernest and their sister, Emma Schmied, who was also a resident of the city.
Ernest Lachmund’s Valse Serenade, which is brilliantly played here by cellist Ifetayo Ali-Landing, was published by Verlag Albert Stahl in Berlin in 1901. There were early performances of a version of the work with orchestra by the Berlin Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestra with prominent cellists of the time (Anton Hekking in Berlin; Bruno Steindel in Chicago). The version of the work for cello and piano heard in this recording was also performed on a Matinee Musicale program for Duluth composers on January 10, 1917.
Despite its impressive performance history, the score for the Valse Serenade was a challenge to locate. No holdings for the work appear in WorldCat (an international catalog of library holdings used by libraries and researchers). After several months of searching last year, the College of St. Scholastica Library was able to locate a copy at the Library of Congress which is used in this recording.
With this video of the exceptionally talented Ms. Ali-Landing, Matinee Musicale is delighted to honor Ernest Lachmund and our past president Ann Mars for their lasting contributions to the musical life and culture of Duluth.
Brad Snelling
Assistant Professor, College of St. Scholastica Library
Historian, Matinee Musicale
