Henri Charles Litolff

Born Feb. 6, 1818, in London; died Aug. 6, 1891, in Bois-Colombes, near Paris. French composer, pianist, and conductor.

Litolff studied with the German musician I. Moscheles from 1831 to 1837. He began giving piano recitals in 1832 in London and Paris and performed in many European countries. He wrote operas, operettas, concertos, oratorios, and other compositions. Litolff’s orchestral overtures Robespierre and The Girondists, using motifs from French revolutionary songs, were extremely well known in the 19th century. From 1851 to 1860, Litolff headed a music publishing house in Braunschweig, which printed cheap serial editions of the sonatas of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, as well as other works, and played an important role in popularizing classical music. Litolff also wrote a book about the composer Berlioz.