Georges Augustus Polgree Bridgetower (1778-1860)

Introduction
The Beethoven Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 9 in A Minor, Op. 47, now called the Kreutzer Sonata, was originally dedicated to the Black violin virtuoso George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower. Beethoven accompanied him on piano at the work's premiere in Vienna in 1803. Before the sonata could be published, a personal disagreement with Bridgetower led Beethoven to substitute the name of another violinist, Rodolphe Kreutzer.George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower, 1778-1860[1] by Dominique-René de Lerma, Professor, Lawrence UniversityBridgetower (dubbed “the Abyssinian Prince”) was born in Biala, Poland to John Frederick Bridgetower (employed, like Haydn, in the Austro-Hungarian court) who is thought to have come from the Caribbean, possibly a slave who escaped from Barbados,[2] although of Abyssinian heritage. His father, in turn, was an educated polyglot (like his son) who worked for a Dutch owner and was then sold in Jamaica. The violinist’s mother, Marie Ann [Sovinki?], was from Poland. She died in 1807 in Dresden. There was a younger son, Friedrich Bridgetower, according to Hare 1936 (p299), a cellist. By 1780, Frederick Bridgetower[3] was employed as valet to Prince Nicholas Esterházy at Eisenstadt, living for a period at the back of the opera house with the court’s musicians. This was the same time that Haydn was in the Esterházy service and it seems quite likely that the Bridgetowers would have come to know the composer and his music. It has even been asserted that young Bridgetower was a student of Haydn. The father and son moved to Paris by 1789. The child prodigy, said to be 9 years old (he would turn 11 in October), made his debut as soloist with the Concert Spirituel on 11 or 13 April 1789, appearing twice more that season. It was during this time, it is speculated, he studied with Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755-1824), with whom he established a friendly relationship. That fall he was then introduced to England,[4] performing for the British royalty at Windsor Castle, Brighton Pavilion, the Pump Rooms at Bath,[5] and in London. Bridgetower had already studied perhaps with Haydn (1732-1809) and now under the patronage of the Prince, he studied violin with Giovanni Giornovichi (c1735-1804) and with François-Hippolyte Barthélémon (1741-1808), and composition with a former Mozart student, Thomas Attwood (1765-1838).[6] On 19 February 1790 he was first heard in London, playing a concerto by Giornovichi between parts of the Messiah at Drury Lane Theatre. At the Hanover Square rooms, 2 June 1790, he joined his Austrian contemporary, Franz Clement[7] (1780-1842); he presented a concert under the patronage of the Prince of Wales (the future George IV), performing a symphonie concertante by Jean-Baptiste Davaux (1742-1822) and, with F.[?] Ware and Attwood, a Haydn quartet. In 1791, Bridgetower joined another former Mozart student, Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837), pulling stops for the organist Joah Bates at the Handel Commemoration. It was also that year when he joined with Clement in a string quartet performance (2 June) at Hanover Square, and entered the Prince’s service at Brighton in 1795, playing violin in the orchestra until 1809. He also served in the first violin section in his pre-teen years of London’s Solomon concerts (starting on 16 May), thereby involved in the premières of the Haydn symphonies, commisioned by Johann Peter Solomon, and conducted by Haydn. During the remainder of this season, Bridgetower appeared as concerto soloist in each of the remaining five programs at the Hanover Square Rooms. In 1794 he was playing at the Covent Garden lenten oratorios and about 1799 was with the Italian Opera at Haymarket (Domenico Dragonetti, to whom he had been introduced by Viotti, already had engaged him as concerto soloist for a benefit concert there on 8 June 1796).Starting by 1797 and continuing at least to 1815, Bridgetower developed a friendship with the organist Samuel Wesley (1766-1837)[8], who played a major role in the introduction of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach to England. It was through this contact that Bridgetower, by about 1812, encountered the solo sonata and partitas of Bach.On leave from the Prince’s service, he went to Europe in 1802 to visit his mother and brother in Dresden. Although the Prince of Wales had granted her an annual pension, she had been living in poverty since at least 1792. He gave two concerts while there (24 July 1802 and 18 March 1803). On the first was performed the first symphony by Beethoven, the violinist’s own concerto (not extant?) and a cello concerto by his brother (also not located). The second concert included a concerto by Mozart and one by Viotti, directed by [Johann Philipp?] Schulz. He also performed in Tepliz and Carlsbad during this time.He went to Vienna in the spring of 1803, already celebrated, where he met Beethoven. At the Augarten Theater on 24 May 1803, in a concert series managed by Ignaz Schuppanzigh, the two gave the première of Beethoven’s penultimate violin sonata (opus 47), much to Beethoven’s delight.[9] Despite the fact that the concert took place at 8 in the morning, it was well attended, including the presence of Prince Karl Lichnowsky (who had introduced the two at his home), Prince Josef Johann Schwarzenberg, the British Ambassador, and Prince Josef Marx Lobkowitz. When “Brischdauer” inserted an improvised flourish – arpeggiated C major chord[10] -- Beethoven left the piano and said to Bridgetower, “Noch einmal, mein lieber Bursch!” There had been no time for a rehearsal, even though Beethoven had awakened Ferdinand Ries at 4:30 that morning to make a copy for the violinist. The second movement, which Bridgetower had to read from the piano part, looking over Beethoven’s shoulder, so pleased the audience that it was immediately repeated. He made friends in Vienna, including the physician, Prof. Johann Th. Helm of Prague and Count Prichnowsky. He and Dr. Helm met Beethoven on the street and the pair were taken to the home of Schuppanzigh for the rehearsal of a Beethoven quartet. Present were violinists Ignaz Krumbholz, Christian Schrieber, Karl Moser of Berlin, and cellist Anton Kraft. He also met Alexander Wetzler (to whom Beethoven had recommended Bridgetower in 1803), Count Moritz Fries (a banker), Count Deym (owner of the Kunstgallerie) and Theresa Schonfeld.Warm relationships with Beethoven were however ephemeral. They parted ways over an argument,[11] and Beethoven withdrew the sonata, dedicating it to Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766-1831),[12] never a Beethoven enthusiast, who refused to perform it since the première had already been given, but also saying the work was “outrageously unintelligible” (according to Berlioz in his Voyage musical en Allemagne et en Italie). The work, originally titled by Beethoven as Sonata mulattica per il mulatto Brischdauer, gran pazzo e conpositore mulattico, and in his 1803 sketchbook, as a Sonata per il Pianoforte ed uno violino obligato in uno stile molto concertante come d’un concerto, [13] is nonetheless now known as the Kreutzer sonata. Before the rupture in their relationhip, Beethoven gave Bridgetower his tuning fork, which later passed on to Uktsses Bolton, Paul Waddington, John H. Balderstone, Gustav Holst, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. It is now held by the British Library.On his return to London, Bridgetower was heard at the New Rooms, Hanover Square, in the sextet (op. 20. in E-flat) by Beethoven, joined by his brother (who also played a cello concerto by Romberg) and Dragonetti on double bass.He became a respected piano teacher and contributed to the pedagogical literature for the instrument, being also an early member of the Royal Philharmonic Society (founded in 1813), with which he performed chamber works of Beethoven and Mozart, and the Professional Music Society, perfoming in a Mozart quartet, with fellow violinist François Cramer (1772-1848), violist Johann Wilhelm Moralt (1774-c1842), and Robert Lindley (1776-1855), cellist-friend of Dragonetti. On 28 June 1811, he secured his B.M. degree from the University of Cambridge. The “exercise” for this occasion has not been located. It was a setting of a text by F. A. Rawdon, “By faith sublime fair Passiflora steers”, scored for chorus and an instrumental ensemble and performed at St. Mary’s Church on 30 June.He lived in Rome in both 1825 and 1827, and resided for a long time also in Paris. He visited London in 1843, before later returning there for the remainder of his life, but for an 1845 visit to Vienna, reported by MacArdle in Schindler 1966 (p191).He seemingly outlived his wife. Her sister, a Miss Drake, was the beneficiary of his estate, although he died in poverty. He had a daughter, resident in Italy. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery (Compartment 9, Vault 39, Catacomb B. 15,780). It has been rumored that his violin is now owned by a collector in California.James Harding http://www.pluto.no/OFO/CD/SaintSaëns_No.3.html states that Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) knew Bridgetower and owes to him the interest the French composer developed for the instrument.The Bridgetower String Quartet (violinists Bruce Mack and Harriette G. Hurd, violist Leon D. Neal, and cellist Jerome Wright) was established in 1973, affiliated with Boston’s Concerts in Black and White and had at least one event taped for telecast by WGBH. In addition to a year’s residency in Brazil, it toured the United States and participated in Howard University’s Andrew W. Mellon Recital Series in the 1980s. It disbanded when Bruce Mack returned to Brazil.[14]A second (?) ensemble of the same name included violinists Carlos Baptiste and Duane James, violist Raycurt Johnson, and cellist Melvin Greenwich. Johnson also was a member of the Trio de Saint Georges and was actor and co-producer of “George P. Bridgetower”, a video made for television by Continental Cable, of Los Angeles.