- Felix Weingartner
Paul Felix von Weingartner,
Edler ["Edler " was until 1919 a title of nobility inAustria-Hungary andGermany . The female form is "Edle ".] von Münzberg (June 2 1863 –May 7 1942 ) was anAustria n conductor,composer andpianist .Biography
Weingartner was born in
Zara ,Dalmatia , today'sZadar ,Croatia , to Austrian parents, and the family moved toGraz in 1868. His father died that same year. He studied withWilhelm Mayer (who used the pseudonym of W. A. Rémy and also taughtFerruccio Busoni ) and in 1881 went toLeipzig to study philosophy, but soon devoted himself entirely to music, entering the Conservatory in 1883 and also studying underFranz Liszt inWeimar : he was among Liszt's later pupils. Liszt helped produce Weingartner's opera "Sakuntala" for its world premiere in 1884 with theWeimar orchestra. According to the Liszt biographer Alan Walker, the Weimar orchestra of the 1880s was far from its peak of a few decades earlier—and the opera performance ended with orchestra going one way and chorus another. Walker sources this to Weingartner's autobiography, published inZürich andLeipzig in 1928-1929. The same year, 1884, he became the director of theKönigsberg Opera. From 1885-1887 he wasKapellmeister inDanzig , then until 1889 in Hamburg, and until 1891 inMannheim . From 1891 he was Kapellmeister of the Royal Opera and conductor of symphony concerts inBerlin ; he resigned from the Opera, though continuing to conduct the Symphony concerts, and settled inMunich , where he incurred the enmity ofRudolf Louis andLudwig Thuille .In 1902, at the Festival of
Mainz , Weingartner conducted the complete symphonies of Beethoven. From 1908 to 1911 he was the principal conductor of theVienna Hofoper succeedingGustav Mahler ; he retained the conductorship of theVienna Philharmonic until 1927. From 1912 he was again Kapellmeister in Hamburg, but resigned in 1914 and went toDarmstadt as general music director. In 1919-20 he was conductor of theVienna Volksoper . In 1920 he was Professor of the Franz Liszt Academy inBudapest . From 1927 to 1934 he was music director of theSinfonieorchester Basel . He gave his last concert inLondon in 1940 and died inWinterthur , Switzerland two years later.As a conductor Weingartner recorded perhaps the first complete cycle of
Beethoven symphonies. In 1935 he conducted the world premiere ofGeorges Bizet 's "Symphony in C".Among his students as a conductor were
Paul Sacher ,Georg Tintner andJosef Krips .Weingartner was married four times, to Marie Juillerat (in 1891), Baroness Feodora von Dreifus (1903), the mezzo-soprano Lucille Marcel (1912; she died in 1921) and the actress Roxo Betty Kalisch (1922).
As Composer and Editor
Despite his lifelong career as a conductor Weingartner regarded himself as equally if not more importantly a composer. Besides numerous other operas, Weingartner wrote seven symphonies which are being recorded, with his other orchestral music, by "cpo - classic production osnabrück",
Osnabrück ,Germany , a sinfonietta,violin concerto ,cello concerto , orchestral works, at least fourstring quartet s,quintet s for strings and for piano with clarinet and other pieces including a great many lieder for voice and piano, one of which, "Liebesfeier" (text: Lenau) achieved a status as his most famous short work, in effect a "hit". Weingartner's choice of verse for his songs mirrors that of his contemporary composers: Max Reger, Joseph Marx, Richard Trunk and Richard Strauss.His musical style, notably very generous, indeed rather valuable in its melodic interest, is of its time: an amalgam of late Romanticism and early Modernism, comparable with those of his contemporaries
Richard Strauss , Mahler,Franz Schreker andAlexander von Zemlinsky . His idiom left some marks onErich Wolfgang Korngold , whose precocious "Sinfonietta" is dedicated to Weingartner, who conducted its first performance. His Third Symphony was intended both as a message of love to Lucille Marcel and a reply to the many critical attacks on him in Vienna; the finale reaches a climax in a parody of the waltz fromJohann Strauss II 's "Die Fledermaus". Similarly, he managed to finish his Fifth Symphony in time for Roxo Betty's birthday, a trend in romantic attachment which may attract at least passing notice, for he was thus a very dedicated bridegroom in his deployment of manuscript paper.Weingartner edited the complete works of
Berlioz (he once called Berlioz the "creator of the modern orchestra") as well as the opera "Joseph" byMéhul , "Oberon" by Weber, and individual works of Christoph Gluck,Richard Wagner and others. He also made an orchestral version of Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata. BeforeBrian Newbould 's more recent work he reconstructedSchubert 's "Symphony in E major", D. 729 in a version that received some performances and recordings; he also arranged works by a number of early Romantic masters for orchestral performance.Writings and interests
Weingartner was early interested in the occult,
astrology , and Easternmysticism , which influenced his personal philosophy and his music to some extent. He was himself a prolific writer who published a poetical drama, "Golgotha" in 1908. He wrote copiously on music drama, on conducting, on the symphony sinceBeethoven , on the symphonies of Beethoven,Schubert and Schumann as well as on art and esoteric subjects. Two collections of essays were "Musikalische Walpurgisnacht" (1907) and "Akkorde" (1912). He also published an autobiography, "Lebenserinnerungen" in 1923.Works
ymphonies
* Symphony No. 1 in G, op. 23 (1898)cite journal|title=Felix Weingartner. A Biographical Sketch (contains worklist up to opus 37)|journal=The Musical Times|publisher=Novello|location=London; New York|oclc=7700123|url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0027-4666%2819040501%2945%3A735%3C289%3AFWABS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D
volume=45|issue=735|pages=292|date=May 1, 1904|doi=10.2307/905069|accessdate=2007-12-14]
* Symphony No. 2 in E-flat, op. 29 (ded. Dr. Franz. Wüllner)
* Symphony No. 3 in E, op. 49 with organ (1908-10)
* Symphony No. 4 in F, op. 61
* Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 71
* Symphony No. 6 in B minor, op. 74, 'in Gedenken des 19. November 1828' (also "Tragica". The second movement is based on sketches apparently meant for the scherzo or minuet movement of Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony", the B minor D759.)
* Sinfonietta in D major, op. 83, for string trio and small orchestracite web|title=Bayern OPAC|url=http://bvba2.bib-bvb.de/|accessdate=2007-11-07]
* Symphony No. 7 in C, "Choral" op. 87 (1935–7) (in manuscript?)Other Orchestral Works
* Serenade for string orchestra, op. 6
* "König Lear", symphonic poem afterShakespeare , op. 20 (1895)
* "Das Gefilde der Seligen" (The Elysian Fields), symphonic poem after the painting byArnold Böcklin , op. 21 (1897)
* Violin Concerto in G major, op. 52
* "Lustige Ouvertüre", op. 53
* "Aus erster Zeit", overture, op. 56 (published 1914)
* Music to Goethe's "Faust" (1908)
* Cello Concerto in A minor, op. 60
* Music to "The Tempest" of Shakespeare, op. 61Choral Music
* "Traumnacht und Sturmmythus" for chorus and orchestra, op. 38
* "Die Auferstehung", op. 69 (after the ode by Klopstock)Chamber Works
* String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, op. 24 (ded. to the Halir Quartet)
* String Quartet No. 2 in F minor, op. 26 (ded. to the Bohemian Quartet)
* Sextet in E minor for piano and string quintet, op. 33
* String Quartet No. 3 in F major, op. 34 (ded. to Frau Feo Weingartner)
* Quintet for 2 violins, 2 violas and cello, op. 40
* Quintet in G minor for clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano, op. 50
* String Quartet No. 4, in D major, op. 62(63)cite web|title=Library of Congress OPAC|url=http://catalog.loc.gov|accessdate=2007-01-07] cite web|title=List of Works in Preparation|url=http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/catalogue-works-in-progress.htm|publisher=Edition Silvertrust|accessdate=2007-11-07]
* Octet in G major for clarinet, horn, bassoon, string quartet and piano, op. 73Operas
* "Sakuntala", op. 9, 1884
* "Malawika und Agnimitra" (after Kalidasa), op. 10, 1885
* "Genesius", op. 14, 1892
* Trilogy "Orestes", op. 30, 1901 (afterAeschylus )
* "Spring Fairy-Play" (Weimar, 1908)
* "Kain und Abel", op. 54, 1914
* "Dame Kobold" (afterPedro Calderón de la Barca ; the same play inspired a concert overture byCarl Reinecke and an opera byJoachim Raff ), op. 57, 1916
* "Terakoya (Die Dorfschule)", op. 64, 1920
* "Meister Andrea ", op. 66, 1919
* "Der Apostat", op. 72 (unpublished; libretto by Weingartner, about the Roman EmperorJulian the Apostate )References
Bibliography
*cite book | last=Dyment | first=Christopher | coauthors=Dyment, Christopher | title=Felix Weingartner: Recollections & Recordings | location=Rickmansworth, England | publisher=Triad press | year=1976 | isbn=0902070177
*cite book | last=Holden | first=Raymond | coauthors= | title=The Virtuoso Conductors: The Central European Tradition from Wagner to Karajan | location=New Haven, CT | publisher=Yale University Press | year=2005 | isbn=0300093268
*cite book | last=Weingartner | first=Felix | title=On the Performance of Beethoven's Symphonies and Other Essays | location=Mineola, NY | publisher=Dover Publications | year=2004 | isbn=0486439666
*cite book | last=Weingartner | first=Felix | coauthors=Arthur Bles | title=The Symphony Writers Since Beethoven | location=London | publisher=William Reeves | origyear=1907 | year=1971 | isbn=0837143691
*cite book | last=Weingartner | first=Felix | coauthors=Wolff, Marguerite | title=Buffets and Rewards: A Musician's Reminiscences | location=London | publisher=Hutchinson & Co | year=1937 | oclc=3288646External links
*allmusic|41:8526
* [http://www.geocities.com/perofoslo/Weingartner/index.html Felix Weingartner biography]
* [http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/music-books-s-to-z.htm Felix Weingartner String Quartet Nos.1 & 3, Opp.24 & 34 sound-bites and discussion of works]
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