Walter Damrosch

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Walter Damrosch (1908)

Walter Johannes Damrosch (* the thirtieth January 1862 in Breslau , † 22. December 1950 in New York ) was an US -American conductor and composer of German origin.

Life

Walter Damrosch was the son of the composer and conductor Leopold Damrosch (1832-1885) and was tutored by him. Emigrated to the USA in 1871, he played an important role in New York's musical life at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Due to the illness of his father, who gave him instructions from his sickbed, he conducted Tannhäuser at the Metropolitan Opera on February 11, 1885 . In 1887 he took conducting lessons from Hans von Bülow in Frankfurt am Main . From 1885 to 1891 he was assistant conductor at the Met, from 1885 to 1898 and from 1917 to 1921 he succeeded his father at the New York Oratorio Society . As his father's successor, he took over the management of the New York Symphony Society (later renamed the New York Symphony Orchestra ) from 1885 to 1928 . From 1894 to 1899 he also headed his own opera company (Damrosch Opera Company) with German singers, later the Damrosch-Ellis Company.

In the spring of 1887 Damrosch met Andrew Carnegie on a boat trip from New York to Southampton . They became friends and together developed the idea of Carnegie Hall , construction of which began in 1890. Andrew Carnegie financed the construction of the concert hall and over many years paid for the losses caused by the operation of the house. From the opening concerts of 1891 (when he shared conducting with Tchaikovsky ) to his last performance with the New York Philharmonic on March 27, 1942, Damrosch performed 850 times at Carnegie Hall.

Impressed by the brilliant success of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue , Damrosch commissioned Gershwin to write an orchestral work for the New York Symphony Society. He promised a piano concerto and was guaranteed seven appearances as a soloist in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore. The first performance of the Concerto in F took place on December 3, 1925 in Carnegie Hall with the composer at the piano under the direction of Damrosch. Damrosch also conducted the world premiere of Gershwin's An American in Paris on December 13, 1928.

Damrosch made a name for himself as a Wagner conductor, but also stood up for his American contemporaries such as George Gershwin and Aaron Copland . In 1921 he was a co-founder of the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau .

As a consultant to NBC from 1927 to 1947, he was one of the pioneers of classical music broadcasts. With his greeting “Good morning, my dear children” he introduced an entire generation of Americans to classical music. He also introduced concerts on Sunday afternoons to allow working people to participate.

In 1898 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1939 to the American Philosophical Society .

Damrosch married Margaret Blaine (1867-1949) on May 17, 1890, the daughter of the politician and presidential candidate James G. Blaine . They had four daughters: Alice, Margaret (Gretchen), Leopoldine and Anita.

In 1923 Damrosch wrote an autobiography entitled My Musical Life .

Works

Operas

  • The Scarlet Letter (Boston, February 10, 1896)
  • The Dove of Peace, comic opera (Philadelphia, October 15, 1912)
  • Cyrano (New York, February 27, 1913)
  • The Man without a Country (May 12, 1937)
  • The Opera Cloak (New York, November 3, 1942)

Incidental music

  • Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis (Berkeley, 1915) and Medea (Berkeley, 1915);
  • Sophocles' Electra (New York, 1917)

Different music

  • Manila Te Deum (New York, 1898)
  • An Abraham Lincoln Song for baritone, choir and orchestra (1935)
  • Dunkirk for baritone, male choir and chamber orchestra (NBC, May 2, 1943)
  • Chamber music and songs. Danny Deever from Rudyard Kipling 's Barrack-Room Ballads is one of Damrosch's most famous songs.

literature

  • George Martin: The Damrosch Dynasty. America's First Family of Music. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston MA 1983, ISBN 0-395-34408-5 .
  • Damrosch Historical Cycle. In: Paul Rosenfeld: Musical Chronicle (1917--1923). Harcourt Brace & Co., New York NY 1923, pp. 87-90 .
  • Carsten Schmidt: Walter Damrosch . In: Ludwig Finscher (Ed.): MGG . tape 5 . Bärenreiter Verlag, 2001, Sp. 350-351 .

Web links

Commons : Walter Johannes Damrosch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chronology of the Oratoria Society of New York ( Memento of July 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Damrosch-Ellis Company - Boston Evening November 30, 1897
  3. ^ Carnegie Hall History
  4. ^ Walter Damrosch at Willow Grove Park, Philadelphia
  5. ↑ Members: Walter Damrosch. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed February 25, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Member History: Walter J. Damrosch. American Philosophical Society, accessed July 4, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Damrosch opera composer
personal data
SURNAME Damrosch, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Damrosch, Walter Johannes (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American conductor and composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 30, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 1950
Place of death new York