Franz Beyer

Franz Beyer was born on 26 February 1922 in Weingarten (Germany). His father, Otto Paul Beyer, worked as a musician and band leader and introduced his children to music from an early age. Franz received his first instruction in violin playing directly from his father at the age of five. After his school years, Beyer studied at the Music Academy in Trossingen, although his studies were interrupted by World War II. During the war, Franz Beyer was taken prisoner by French forces and spent time in captivity near Dijon. Even under these circumstances, he remained musically active, organizing and directing a chamber orchestra inside the camp. After the end of the war and his release, Franz Beyer continued his studies, during which he switched from violin to viola.
After completing his studies, he became a member of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra under conductor Karl Münchinger and established himself as a chamber musician. He also performed with the Strub Quartet, first from 1951 to 1953 and later again from 1962 to 1965, and appeared regularly as a guest with the Melos Quartet. At the same time, he became active in historically informed performance through collaborations with ensembles devoted to early music, including Collegium Aureum and Cappella Coloniensis. His reputation as a refined violist led to frequent participation in performances of Mozart’s string quintets, where he often served as the additional violist.
In 1962, Beyer was appointed Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, a position he held until 1995.
Parallel to his career as a performer and teacher, Beyer became internationally known for his work as a composer, editor, arranger, and musicologist. His compositional output included original works, songs, cadenzas for viola concertos, arrangements, and numerous reconstructions of incomplete historical compositions. His most influential achievement was his revision and restoration of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s unfinished Requiem, KV 626, completed in the early 1970s.
In 1983, he received the Cultural Prize of the cities of Ravensburg and Weingarten. In 2002, he was awarded the Munich civic distinction München leuchtet, and in 2003 he received the Federal Cross of Merit, First Class, of the Federal Republic of Germany. He was also named an honorary citizen of his hometown of Weingarten.
Franz Beyer died on 29 June 2018 in Munich (Germany).

In my possession are two autograph manuscripts of original compositions by Franz Beyer:

• Variationen über ein Thema von W. A. Mozart, for piano op. 1 (1937)
  
• 5 deutsche Walzer, for piano op. 7

Both works are dedicated to the pianist Elly Ney and formed part of her musical estate. It appears that the young Franz Beyer - he was only 15 years old when he composed op. 1, and op. 7 cannot have been written much later - sent these works to Elly Ney around 1940.