Josef Reitler

Josef Reitler (born December 25, 1883 in Vienna , † March 12, 1948 in New York City ) was an Austrian music critic and music teacher .

Life

Josef Reitler was the son of the banker Robert Reitler (1854–1902) and his wife Eugenie (1858–?), B. Spitzer, and the brother of the Viennese banker Emil Reitler (1886–1949). After studying violin and piano in Vienna as well as music theory with Arnold Schönberg in Berlin (1902–1905), he initially worked as a music and theater correspondent for the Berliner Vossische Zeitung in Paris (1905–1907). He then worked as an editor and music critic for the Neue Freie Presse in Vienna, after the “farewell” of Julius Korngold (1934), who hastily left Vienna shortly before Hitler's invasion , as their main music advisor (until 1936). He also wrote as a correspondent for various foreign newspapers and wrote some libretti . In 1915 he was appointed director of the New Vienna Conservatory . With many years of commitment and skill, he helped this to an upswing, a high level and a broad reputation .

In 1920 Josef Reitler was one of the founders of the Salzburg Festival together with Hugo von Hofmannsthal , Max Reinhardt and Richard Strauss .

Because of his Jewish origins, he was dismissed as head of the conservatory after Austria's “Anschluss” in March 1938, the music school closed a few months later and his life's work destroyed. In the same year Reitler had to emigrate to the USA , where he headed the Opera Department of the New York College of Music from 1940 to 1945. At the New York Hunter College, where he taught harmony and counterpoint , he finally founded an opera workshop in 1945 together with Fritz Stiedry and Lothar Wallerstein .

Josef Reitler, friend of Lotte Lehmann , Gustav Mahler , Elisabeth Schumann and Bruno Walter , died at the age of 65 in March 1948 in New York.

Works

Libretti :

• Matteo Testi . Musical comedy. Music: Karl Auderieth
• The silver flute . Comic opera in three acts. Text together with Ignaz Michael Welleminsky . Music: Max von Oberleithner .

Fonts

• 25 years of the New Vienna Conservatory 1909–1934 . New Vienna Conservatory, Vienna 1934.

literature

• Christa Harten:  Reitler Josef. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 9, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7001-1483-4 , p. 69 f. (Direct links on p. 69 , p. 70 ).
• Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (lead): Biographical manual of German-speaking emigration after 1933 . Volume 2 LZ. Saur, Munich 1980–1983, ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 960.
• Eveline Möller: The music schools of the City of Vienna and their predecessors in the first half of the 20th century . Dissertation, University of Vienna 1994.
• Walter Pass , Gerhard Scheit , Wilhelm Svoboda : Orpheus in exile. The expulsion of Austrian music 1938–1945 . Publishing house for social criticism, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-85115-200-X .
• Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna . Volume 4. Verlag Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-218-00546-9 , p. 657.
• Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin from the 18th to the 20th century . Volume 2: J-R. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 , p. 1115.
• Uwe Harten : Reitler, Josef. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 4, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7001-3046-5 .

Web links

• Josef Reitler: In memory of Anton Bruckner. In:  Neue Freie Presse , September 4, 1924, p. 10 (online at ANNO ).