Eduard Rappoldi

Eduard Rappoldi was an Austrian violinist, conductor, and composer born on February 21, 1839, in Vienna. Showing early musical promise, he studied both piano and violin during childhood and gave his first concert on both instruments at the age of seven. In addition to these early performances, he also presented some of his own childhood compositions at that age. Although initially active as a performer on multiple instruments, he eventually focused on the violin, studying with Leopold Jansa, Joseph Böhme, and later with Georg Hellmesberger at the conservatory of the Vienna Society of Friends of Music. He later expanded his musical education by studying composition and theory under Simon Sechter and Ferdinand Hiller. He was born with the surname Rappold, later adopting the name Rappoldi.

Rappoldi performed in the orchestra of the Vienna Court Opera from 1854 to 1861 and toured extensively through Austria-Hungary, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Beginning in 1861, he held the position of concertmaster at the German Opera in Rotterdam, where he worked closely with Hermann Levi and led a string quartet that included Jan Hřímalý. In the following years he served in several conducting posts, including the opera houses of Lübeck, Stettin, Braunschweig, and the German Theatre in Prague.

From 1871 to 1877 Rappoldi lived in Berlin, teaching at the Royal Academy of Music under the direction of Joseph Joachim. He frequently substituted for Joachim and played viola in the Joachim Quartet, participating in premieres such as the 1873 premiere of Johannes Brahms’s Second String Quartet. In 1876 he became a professor. His distinguished performing and teaching career continued when he became concertmaster of the Saxon Court Orchestra in Dresden, a position he held from 1877 to 1898. In Dresden he was admired for his chamber concerts, particularly his performances of solo violin works by Johann Sebastian Bach, and frequently performed duo concerts with his wife, pianist Laura Rappoldi-Carcer, including a notable tour of Britain in 1881.

During his Dresden years he also held the title of königlichen-sächsischen Professor at the Dresden Conservatory. His prominence as a quartet leader continued, and with his Dresden quartet he performed a complete Beethoven cycle, including the Grosse Fuge, during the 1888–89 and 1892–93 seasons—an achievement that predated the Joachim Quartet’s first Beethoven cycle by fifteen years.

Rappoldi taught at the Kranze Conservatory, where his students included Maurice Sons and Hugo Kaulso. As a composer he wrote two symphonies, several string quartets, two violin sonatas, a piano sonata, and around thirty songs. He met the pianist Laura Kahrer in 1870, marrying her four years later; the couple had five children, including the violinist Adrian Rappoldi. He died on May 16, 1903, in Dresden.

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