Alexander Ulybyshev


Alexander Dmitryevich Ulybyshev or Alexandre Oulibicheff was a wealthy landowner, an influential biographer of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the most important early patron of Mily Balakirev.

Life

Ulybyshev was born in Dresden, the son of the Russian ambassador to the Electorate of Saxony. From 1816 to 1830 he served in the Russian Foreign Ministry, where his duties from 1825 to 1830 included editing the Journal de St.-Pétersbourg. He retired in 1830, with the rank of State Councillor.
He died at his estate in Lukino, near Nizhny Novgorod, on 24 January 1858.

Writings

Ulybyshev's three-volume Nouvelle biographie de Mozart was influential on nineteenth-century perceptions of the composer. It was later translated into German, and into Russian by Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
His views were attacked by Wilhelm von Lenz in Beethoven et ses trois styles, to which Ulybyshev retaliated with Beethoven, ses critiques et ses glossateurs.
He also wrote a number of articles on music for the Journal de St.-Pétersbourg.