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"Music: Breath of the statues. Perhaps: Silence of images. Your language where languages end" - Rainer Maria Rilke

The striking Dutch composer Leander Schlegel was born on 2 February 1844 in Oegstgeest as the third child of the zoologist Hermann Schlegel. He already composed short pieces for the piano at the age of six, but only began to distinguish himself as a composer when he was almost forty. His opus 1, Drei Clavierstücke, dates from 1881. Previously, he travelled through Europe as a keyboard virtuoso and was violin teacher at the Leidse Muziekschool. In 1871 he was appointed as director of the Toonkunst Muziekschool in Haarlem. As a composer and master pianist, Schlegel was loved and admired as far as Vienna. His small oeuvre consists mainly of piano works and songs and is a continuation of Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms. It was mainly performed outside the Netherlands, especially in Berlin and Vienna.