Ferdinand Manns

Ferdinand Manns (born August 27, 1844 in Witzenhausen , † July 26, 1922 in Oldenburg ) was a German composer and conductor and court music director of the Oldenburg Grand Ducal .

Life

Manns was the son of a customs officer in Witzenhausen and received piano lessons from an early age and, after his family moved to Kassel, violin lessons at the age of about ten. In addition, he trained in composition technology. From the age of 17 he was active as a violinist in several orchestras, most recently, from 1866, in the Bremen theater orchestra. He composed numerous stage music for the Bremen City Theater . Manns also wrote three symphonies in Bremen, of which the second in A major was premiered on April 22, 1887 in Oldenburg under his direction. The Manns became known in his time through a wealth of other orchestral works and through his chamber music. In 1888 he was appointed concertmaster in the Oldenburg court orchestra. This gave him an important application advantage when the director of the court orchestra, Hofkapellmeister Albert Dietrich , retired in 1891 for health reasons. In the following application process, Manns was able to prevail against strong competition, for example against a nephew of Max Bruch and a Hamburg choir conductor recommended by Johannes Brahms . For his part, when he was appointed concertmaster, Manns had been recommended by Hans von Bülow , under whom he had played several times in Bremen.

Like Dietrich before him, Manns was called to Oldenburg primarily because of his achievements as a composer. He faced the difficult task of consolidating and expanding the level of the court orchestra that his predecessor had achieved. According to his biographer Ernst Hinrichs, who refers to contemporary press reports, he did not succeed in this, although he was able to set new, more contemporary accents compared to the concert practice of his predecessor, which was based on Schumann and Brahms, and above all opened the way to Oldenburg for Bruckner and Tchaikovsky . Manns' problems, however, lay in the actual orchestral work, since, according to Hinrichs, he was not in a position to meet the reform efforts of the time, which became particularly evident after the turn of the century and aimed at "stylistic unity" and "stylistic purity" in concert practice . Like his predecessor, Manns still represented the typical combination of composer and conductor of the 19th century and was not only an exclusive conductor, as Hans von Bülow played a decisive role in his time. In addition, the furnishings of the court orchestra at the beginning of the 20th century no longer met the demands made by the new compositions (e.g. Anton Bruckner, Richard Strauss, etc.) in terms of orchestra size, orchestral discipline and performance practice.

In 1913 Manns retired and was awarded the title of professor by Grand Duke Friedrich August for his services to the Oldenburg musical life .

literature

• Ernst Hinrichs: Manns, Ferdinand. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , pp. 434-435 ( online ).

Web links

• Sheet music and audio files by Ferdinand Manns in the International Music Score Library Project