Andrey Razumovsky

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Count Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky

Count (later Prince) Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky (Russian: Андре́й Кири́ллович Разумо́вский, Rasumovsky; Ukrainian: Андрі́й Кири́лович Розумо́вський, Andriy Kyrylovych Rozumovskyi; 2 November 1752 – 23 September 1836) was a Russian diplomat who spent many years of his life in Vienna. His name is transliterated differently in different English sources, including spellings Razumovsky, Rasoumoffsky, and Rasoumoffsky, the last of which being used by the British Government for its official translation from the French of the Paris peace treaty of 1815 and the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna.

Life

Razumovsky was the son of Kirill Razumovsky, the last Hetman of Zaporizhian Host and Catherine Naryshkina, a cousine of Tsarin Elizabeth of Russia. He was also a nephew of Aleksey Grigorievich Razumovsky, called the "Night Emperor". The elder Rasumovsky's late Baroque palace on the Nevsky Prospekt is a minor landmark in Saint Petersburg. In 1792 Andres Kyrillovitch was appointed the Tsar's diplomatic representative to the Habsburg court in Vienna, one of the crucial diplomatic posts during the Napoleonic era. He was a chief negotiator during the Congress of Vienna that resettled Europe in 1814, and asserted Russian rights in Poland. In 1808 he established a house string quartet consisting of Ignaz Schuppanzigh, Louis Sina, Franz Weiss, and Joseph Linke. Razumovsky was an accomplished amateur violinist, and also known as a competent torban (Ukrainian theorbo) player. Of four torbans known to have been in his possession one is preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. His commissioning three string quartets from Beethoven in 1806 was the act that has made his name familiar. He asked Beethoven to include a "Russian" theme in each quartet: Beethoven included Ukrainian themes in the first two. Razumovsky was the brother-in-law of another of Beethoven's patrons, Prince Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz. His first wife, Countess Elisabeth von Thun was a sister in law of Count Carl von Lichnowsky.

The Palais Rasumofsky

He built a magnificent Neoclassic palace worthy of the representative of Alexander I, at his own expense and to the designs of Louis Montoyer, on the Landstraße, quite close to the city, and filled it with antiquities and modern works of art. In the morning of 31 December 1814, during the preparation of a ball with the Tsar Alexander I as guest of honor, a fire broke out in a temporary ballroom extension, setting the ballroom ablaze and burning out roomfuls of art in the back wing of the palace. Even though he was raised to prince the following year, Razumovsky was never the same. He lived in seclusion in Vienna until his death in 1836. In 1862 the street on which Razumovsky's palace is located was named Rasumofskygasse.

Andriy Rozumovskyi Regional musical festival-competition of young performers

On October 22 2015 a long-awaited musical event - Andriy Rozumovskyi IV Regional musical festival-competition of young performers took place in Hetman Rozumovskyi Palace (Baturyn, Ukraine). This good tradition started in 2012 in Baturyn palace when we celebrated the 260 birthday anniversary of Andriy Rozumovskyi - the most favourite son of Hetman Kyrylo Rozumovskyi, plenipotentiary ambassador in Vienna in the years of the Congress 1814-1815, famous patron of musicians. He is world- known for his role as patron of Ludwig van Beethoven who dedicated three String Quartets, Op.59 1, 2 and 3, as well as the 5th and 6th Symphonies to him. In such difficult time for Ukraine we all found the strength not only to continue what we started four years ago - the tradition to hold a festival, but also to increase it — both quantitatively and qualitatively. The amount of contestants was a record in the history of our festival — 56 ! The musical competitions were held in 2 categories: vocal and piano. The age of young competitors was from 9 to 15 years. The highlight of this year's festival and innovation was the invitation of participants to come to the festival in the Ukrainian national clothes. The vast majority of children were dressed in clothes with elements of Ukrainian embroidery. Thus, the popularity of the contest grows. Young talents who came to the competition is not just our future, but the cultural elite of the nation which we are proud of. Their participation in the event is a small fraction of the fight for a strong, prosperous, spiritual life of Ukraine!

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Andriy Rozumovskyi Regional musical festival-competition of young performers

See also

• Razumovsky, about his family
• Galitzine, about another Russian prince and patron of Beethoven

External links

• Zerkalo Nedeli (Mirror Weekly) № 38, 1996 (in Russian)
• Portrait of Andrey Kyrillovich Razumovsky, aged 24, in the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia) The evolution of the three Partitions of Poland during the end of the 18th century, leading to some 125 years of polish political eclipse of the formerly secular powerful Lithuanian-Polish Kingdom until 1918 can be seen in the well informed page:
• website of NHCP "Hetman's capital" (in Ukrainian)