Fritz Scheel

Fritz Scheel

At the world exhibition in Chicago Scheel conducted the so-called "Hans von Bülow Orchestra"

Johann Friedrich ( Fritz ) Ludwig Scheel (born November 7, 1852 in Fackenburg , † March 13, 1907 in Philadelphia ) was a German-American conductor . He founded the Philadelphia Orchestra .

Life

origin

Scheel came from a poor family in which, however, a musical talent was evidently inherited, because several professional musicians emerged from it, of which Fritz Scheel was the most outstanding and is therefore also the most famous. From childhood he learned to play various instruments, most of all the violin, and later also the piano under Ferdinand David . In the 1870s he became an orchestral musician in Chemnitz and Schwerin, then in 1880 music director of the Chemnitz City Orchestra. His musical achievements were recognized, but due to differences with the city administration and parts of the orchestra , he was fired at the end of March 1889. From Chemnitz, Scheel went to Hamburg, where he worked with the famous conductor Hans von Bülow in a way that was not entirely clear . Because of these ambiguities, it cannot be decided whether there is a connection between Bülow's illness-related departure from the concert business in the fall of 1892 and Scheel's emigration to the USA in the spring of 1893.

Emigration to the USA

In April 1893, Scheel embarked with an orchestra composed of almost 50 musicians in Bremen to perform at the great “ World's Columbian Exposition ” in Chicago (one of the most outstanding world exhibitions). After its end, the orchestra disbanded, but some of its members probably belonged to the “Imperial Vienna Prater Orchestra”, with which Scheel then played at the winter fairs in San Francisco in 1894/95. His success there encouraged Scheel to form a standing orchestra of around 65 people, which he directed as the "San Francisco Symphony Orchestra" until the orchestra was dissolved for economic reasons in 1899 and with which he performed regularly.

Foundation of the Philadelphia Orchestra

In 1899 Scheel was still conducting an orchestra called "The New York Orchestra" within a summer concert series in Philadelphia. The quality of the concerts meant that music-loving citizens of Philadelphia organized themselves into a Philadelphia Orchestra Association and commissioned Scheel to found an orchestra. On November 16, 1900, Scheel conducted the first appearance of the newly formed Philadelphia Orchestra. In the following years he built up the first such professional orchestra in a city that at that time already had more than a million inhabitants and was mainly culturally influenced by German influences. On two trips to Europe in 1901 and 1902, Scheel recruited capable musicians for the new orchestra, including his brother Julius, with whom he had already given the first concert (together with the solo pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch, later known mainly in the USA ). With this recruiting practice, Scheel made enemies of the resident musicians, some of whom were already quasi-unionized. The quality of his orchestral work and the success of his concerts with audiences kept the orchestra's patrons on his side. The conductor, portrayed as attractive and whose wife had stayed behind with the children in Germany, found particular support from the influential upper-class ladies' wreaths.

Rise and early death

In the period that followed, Scheel's orchestra quickly rose to become an ensemble recognized by the demanding New York critics and made guest appearances in surrounding cities as well as in New York. Scheel felt it was a special honor that he was allowed to play with part of the orchestra on an official occasion in the White House in Washington with President Theodore Roosevelt . Since Scheel's orchestras were largely of German origin, and German was therefore also used as a rehearsal language, it is not unreasonable to assume that it was not by chance Roosevelt under whom this orchestra was invited: he was, compared to his predecessors and successors, the “most German-friendly” of the American presidents of that time.

Scheel's rise came to an end in 1907 when his behavior showed signs of mental illness; His suffering was attributed to an overworking of the restlessly active, but it was evidently an organic brain disease that led to death in the same year, i.e. before he was 55 years old.

Act

Scheel may well be regarded as a typical representative of the German music director tradition (as he was also referred to by Arthur Rubinstein , who had made his American debut in New York under him in 1906), who was a good orchestra teacher and mastered his "craft". His programming was musically demanding, preferred the German repertoire and made only minor concessions to popular taste. Well-known soloists such as Fritz Kreisler and the pianist and composer Edward MacDowell performed under him, and the fact that Richard Strauss conducted four concerts of his own works in 1904 is testament to the orchestra's reputation which it quickly acquired .

Scheel is almost completely unknown in German music historiography, and the only article in a more recent music lexicon makes some misleading statements. In American works on the history of American orchestras, however, he is not unmentioned, and in Philadelphia he is remembered as the founding conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, one of the top American orchestras, which also has an orchestra hall named after him and one in the "Academy of Music" preserved, in 1908 elaborately designed bronze relief is kept alive.

Scheel wrote orchestral arrangements that were customary for the time, but so far only one print is known.

literature

• Hartwig Molzow, [Article Fritz Scheel], in: Biographisches Lexikon für Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck , Vol. 12, Neumünster: Wachholtz 2006, pp. 354–359, ISBN 3-529-02560-7 . (only more recent and detailed description, with further references to sources and literature; additions and corrections to this in vol. 13, 2011)