Selmar Meyrowitz

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Selmar Meyrowitz (1922). Etching by Michel Fingesten

Selmar Meyrowitz (born April 18, 1875 in Bartenstein , East Prussia, † March 25, 1941 in Toulouse ; actually Salomon Reinmar Meyrowitz ) was a German conductor .

Life

After attending grammar school in Stolp (Pomerania), Meyrowitz studied at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1894 to 1896 with Carl Reinecke and Salomon Jadassohn and from 1896 to 1898 with Max Bruch at the academic master school in Berlin. As assistant to Felix Mottl , he worked as a solo repetitor at the Hoftheater Karlsruhe from 1898–1901 and at the Metropolitan Opera New York from 1901–1902 . As a piano accompanist for the soprano Johanna Gadski , he then completed tours all over the USA.

After returning to Europe, Selmar Meyrowitz worked again as a solo coach from 1905–1907 at the State Theater in Prague . As a theater conductor he worked 1907–1909 at the Stadttheater Danzig , 1909–1910 at the (old) Komische Oper Berlin (Friedrichstrasse near Weidendammer Brücke), 1911–1912 at the Kurfürsten-Oper Berlin, 1912–1913 at the Munich Court Theater and 1913– 1918 as chief conductor at the Hamburg State Opera , interrupted by participation in the First World War . From 1917 to 1922 he regularly conducted concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker , from 1919 to 1924 he was mainly a concert conductor , and from 1920 to 1921 he directed the Blüthner Orchestra . Tours took him to Holland, Italy and Sweden. 1924–1927 he was, along with Erich Kleiber and George Szell , conductor at the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden . He then turned to radio and record: from 1928 to 1933 he was a frequent guest conductor of the Funk-Hour Berlin and directed the Berliner Funk-Orchester , from 1929 to 1932 he worked as the house conductor of the newly founded record company Ultraphon (later Telefunkenplatte ).

Selmar Meyrowitz conducted on 23 December 1911 at the Elector's opera the premiere of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's opera The jewelry of the Madonna , on 31 March 1913, the Hamburg premiere of the opera The distant sound of Franz Schreker and on 27 January 1922 in Berlin the world premiere of the Eichendorff cantata Von deutscher Seele by Hans Pfitzner . As the designated director of the Berlin State Opera, he had to flee to Paris in 1933. There he made the first complete recording of the Faust Symphony by Franz Liszt for Pathé in 1935 , and in 1937 he conducted the first French production of the Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill .

After the occupation of Paris by the German Wehrmacht in May 1940, Meyrowitz fled to southern France. He died in Toulouse of the privations of flight and exile. The exact date of death is controversial, various sources cite March 23, 24 or 25, 1941.

Meyrowitz was married to Margarete Neumann and had a son, Peter (* 1912).

Appreciations

“He [Meyrowitz] is one of the last of those conductors of the Bayreuth School who were co-founders of the newer German musical life reformed by Richard Wagner. As a student, colleague and friend of Felix Mottl , he took over the legacy of the great German master from his most valuable apostle. […] More and more he turned to the powerfully emerging microphone arts, conducting for radio and record. Soon he dominated this new area like no other; He knew how to meet the cultural requirements of broadcasting through interesting arrangements of old, lost music and he did justice to the peculiarities of transmission technology, especially the record, to such an extent that it took the place of Stokowsky for the German record . "( P. Walter Jacob : . ... to the sixtieth birthday ) International Meyrowitz came mostly as a conductor of light music on. In a description of a concert he directed with several short pieces in Berlin, the following statement, both praising and critical, is found: “The program was stylish, but a suite of suites is not for everyone. Meyrowitz was at work with a light wrist and a light courage and put again convincing samples of his finely differentiated conducting skills. The Philharmonic Orchestra gave him devoted support. "

Works

Discography

Released on CD:

  • Legendary Wagner Singers of the 1930s (Teldec Telefunken Legacy , 8573-83022-2, 2 CDs)
  • Joseph Schmidt - The Ultraphon Recordings (Teldec Telefunken Legacy , 0927-42665-2, 2 CDs)
  • Franz Liszt : A Faust Symphony / Franz Schubert : Symphony No. 8 (Pristine Classical)
  • Edward Kilenyi - The Pathé Recordings 1937-39 (APR 7037, 2 CDs)
  • Hildegarde Ranczak (Preiser Living Past PR89639)

Texts

Translations

essay

  • Art and microphone. A lecture . In: German freedom. The only independent German daily newspaper (Saarbrücken), February 22, 1934.

literature

  • Meyrowitz. In: Erich H. Müller (Ed.): German Musicians Lexicon. Limpert, Dresden 1929.
  • P. Walter Jacob : Selmar Meyrowitz. For the sixtieth birthday. In: Pariser Tageblatt. No. 492 of April 18, 1935.
  • P. Walter Jacob: The microphone conductor. In memoriam Selmar Meyrowitz. In: Argentinisches Tageblatt. April 8, 1941.
  • Silent voices. Catalog for the exhibition at the Hamburg State Opera, 2007.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert and Molly Friedman Jewish Music Online Catalog of the University of Pennsylvania Library
  2. ↑ Photographers Direct image database and Frank / Altmann : succinct Musicians lexicon, part 2.2. Wilhelmshaven 1978
  3. ↑ Exhibition catalog, Silent Voices , Hamburg 2007
  4. ^ Concerts In: Vossische Zeitung . January 5, 1921.
personal data
SURNAME Meyrowitz, Selmar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meyrowitz, Salomon Reinmar (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German conductor
DATE OF BIRTH April 18, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Bartenstein , East Prussia
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 1941
Place of death Toulouse