Max Rudolf (conductor)

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Max Rudolf (born June 15, 1902 in Frankfurt am Main ; † February 28, 1995 in Philadelphia ) was an American conductor , music teacher and scholar from Germany .

Life

Max Rudolf was born in Frankfurt in 1902 as the son of a Jewish lawyer and attended Goethe-Gymnasium . From 1920 to 1923 he studied cello with Maurits Frank , piano with Eduard Jung and composition with Bernhard Sekles at the Frankfurt University of Music and at the Dr. Hoch's Conservatory . After a year of study at the University of Frankfurt , he became a répétiteur at the Freiburg Opera in 1922. Here he made his debut as a conductor the following year. After a time as a repetitor at the Darmstadt Opera, he became Principal Conductor at the Freiburg Opera in 1927. In the same year he married Liese Ederheimer, with whom he was to have a daughter. He also worked under Karl Böhm in Darmstadt. From 1929 to 1935 he conducted at the Deutsches Theater in Prague , where he worked with the conductor George Szell . In addition, he was guest conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1929 to 1930 . Because of the unstable situation in Germany, he moved to Sweden in 1935. There he conducted the Symphony Orchestra and the Radio Orchestra in Gothenburg.

After brief visits to Cleveland and Chicago, he emigrated with his family to the USA in 1943, and in 1945 he became an American citizen. He lived in New York and occasionally conducted the New Opera Company and Broadway performances. He also wrote his textbook The Grammar of Conducting: A Comprehensive Guide to Baton Technique and Interpretation (published 1950), which became a standard work for conducting. From 1945 he was second conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He brought u. a. The Warrior by Bernard Rogers for the world premiere. From 1950 to 1958 he was assistant manager.

From 1958 to 1969, he was Thor Johnson's successor as music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra , with whom he toured the world in 1966 and toured Europe in 1969. He also secured a contract with Decca Records for the orchestra . From 1970 to 1973 he led the conducting and opera class at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In 1971 he was a juror at the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Music Competition in New York. In the 1973/74 season he served briefly as principal conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and in 1976/77 as artistic advisor to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra . He also worked with the Concerto Soloists Ensembles Philadelphia.

Awards

literature

  • Rudolf, Max . In: John L. Holmes: Conductors on Record. Greenwood Press, Westport 1982, ISBN 0-575-02781-9 , pp. 562-563.
  • Rudolf, Max . In: Stefan Jaeger (Ed.): The Atlantis Book of Conductors. An encyclopedia . Atlantis, Zurich 1985, ISBN 3-254-00106-0 , p. 324.
  • Michael Stern (Ed.): Max Rudolf. A musical life . Pendragon Press, Hillsdale 2001, ISBN 1-57647-038-5 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rudolf, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American conductor, music educator, and musicologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1995
Place of death Philadelphia