Schlesinger, Adolph Martin
Schlesinger, Adolph Martin
Schlesinger, Adolph Martin, German musk publisher, father of Maurice (Moritz) Adolphe Schlesinger ; b. Sulz, Silesia, Oct. 4, 1769; d. Berlin, Nov. 11, 1838. He was active as a book dealer in Berlin before 1795. He founded his own music publ. firm in 1810, which became Schlesinger’sche Buch- und Musikalienhandlung in 1821. He was one of Beethoven’s German publishers. In 1831 his son, Heinrich Schlesinger (b. Berlin, 1810; d. there, Dec. 14, 1879), took charge of the firm; after his father’s death, his mother shared control of the business (1838–44); thereafter he resumed sole charge. The firm publ. the influential journal Echo (1851–65). In 1864 the business was sold to R. Lienau (1838–1920), whose sons took it over after his death. The firm was further enlarged and enriched by the acquisition of several other music publ. firms, among them Haslinger of Vienna (1875), Krentzlin of Berlin (1919), Vernthal of Berlin (1925), and Köster of Berlin (1928). Schlesinger was the original publisher of Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber, Beethoven’s opp. 108–11, 132, 135, and also works by Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, and Berlioz.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire