Rudolph Ganz

Rudolph Ganz

Rudolph Ganz (born February 24, 1877 in Zurich , † August 2, 1972 in Chicago ) was a Swiss composer , pianist and conductor .

Life

Hans Ganz was the son of the portrait photographer Rudolf Ganz and his wife Sophie Henriette, née Bartenfeld. His siblings were the photographer and film pioneer Emil Ganz , the art historian Paul Ganz and the writer, painter and musician Hans Ganz . He received his first musical training in Zurich in the subjects of piano and cello and at the " Institut de musique de Lausanne ", where he took the subjects of piano (with his uncle Carl Eschmann-Dumur ) and organ. From 1899 he also studied composition in Berlin with Ferruccio Busoni .

After completing his studies, he went to the USA at the beginning of the 20th century . In Chicago he worked as a piano teacher for several years. From 1905 he toured America and Europe as a concert pianist. From 1921 to 1927 he was the conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra . Returned to Chicago, he worked at the musical college there from 1929. Between 1934 and 1954, Rudolph Ganz held the position of director at this college. Between 1938 and 1949 he also worked as a conductor in New York .

Rudolph Ganz's compositional work mainly includes symphonies and other instrumental works. In addition, he set hundreds of texts to music, primarily texts by artists from his Swiss homeland. In his adopted country of America, he was also involved in the performances of contemporary European composers such as Maurice Ravel , Béla Bartók , Claude Debussy and Anton von Webern . In 1923 he was awarded the French Legion of Honor for this.

Works (selection)

• Piano concerto op.32
• "Animal pictures"
• Sonata No. 2 op. 50
• Suite op.38

Web link

• Jean-Louis Matthey / AA: Quite, Rudolph. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .