Wilhelm Gericke

Wilhelm Gericke

Wilhelm Gericke (born May 18, 1845 in Schwanberg (Styria) , † October 27, 1925 in Vienna ) was an Austrian conductor and composer . His parents were Friedrich Gericke (* 1810), who had settled in Schwanberg as a trader, and Katharina Spitzi from Leutschach, a lover of his father. The place of birth is the place of residence of the family of his father Schwanberg, but also Graz.

Life

Wilhelm Gericke studied in Vienna and took lessons from 1862–1865 with Otto von Desoff, the conductor of the Vienna Court Opera, before working at the opera houses in Linz and Vienna. After he was appointed Kapellmeister of the Vienna Court Opera in 1874 , he directed a. a. the Viennese premiere of Richard Wagner's opera Tannhäuser . In addition to his enthusiasm for Wagner, he made a name for himself in Vienna for his performances of French and Italian operas. From 1880 he directed the Vienna Society Concerts.

He later worked for two periods in the United States , where he was music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1884 to 1889 and 1898 to 1906 . His work there found much greater recognition than in Vienna, where he had been controversial. The philanthropist Henry Lee Higginson made it possible for him to employ a whole group of European musicians and financed the purchase of the orchestra's equipment with violins from Vienna.

He composed an operetta, songs, a requiem and chamber music. These compositions were unsuccessful.

In 1884 Gericke became an honorary member of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna . In 1926 a bridge over the Spree was named after him in Berlin .

A plaque commemorates him at his home in Schwanberg, Hauptplatz 13.

Compositions

• Schön Hannchen (operetta, premiered in Linz 1865)
• lily of the valley
• Muntrer Bach, what are you rustling like?
• Wake up, you beautiful dreamer

literature

• Ernst Waeltner:  Gericke, Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 291 ( digitized version ).
• Gericke Wilhelm. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 1, Publishing House of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1957, p. 425 f. (Direct links on p. 425 , p. 426 ).
• Wolfgang Suppan : Styrian Music Lexicon. 2nd Edition. Academic Printing and Publishing House Graz 2009. ISBN 978-3-201-01888-3 . Pp. 205-206.
• Herbert Kriegl: History and present of church music in the area of ​​the Dean's office in Deutschlandsberg. Diploma thesis at the University of Graz, Institute for Ethnic Music 1984. pp. 28–29.
• Christa Höller: Wilhelm Gericke - a Styrian conductor in America. In: Journal of the Historisches Verein für Steiermark (ZHV). Volume 103, year 2012. ISSN  0437-5890 ZDB -ID 200440-9 . Page 205–223.
• From Schwanberg's story: Wilhelm Gericke - a Styrian conductor in America. In: Weststeirische Rundschau. No. 29, year 2013 (July 19, 2013), 86th year, ZDB -ID 2303595-X . Simadruck Aigner u. Weisi, Deutschlandsberg 2013, p. 14. (summary of the article signed by Ch. H. in the ZHV).
• Maria Komorn: Johannes Brahms as choir conductor in Vienna and his successors up to the Schubert year 1928. Universal-Edition Wien-Leipzig 1928, p. 66.
• Roderich Mojsisovics : From the musical life of the Steirerland. History and biographical sketches of Styrian music history. Leykam, Graz 1924. p. 110.
• Elsa Bienenfeld : G. Mahler and W. Gericke. In: Neues Wiener Tagblatt . ZDB ID 821335-5 . April 11, 1926.
• Elsa Bienenfeld: Anton Bruckner and Wilhelm Gericke. Unpublished letters from the Master of St. Florian. In: New Free Press . June 13, 1936. ZDB ID 972630-5 p. 11.

Web links

• Entry on Wilhelm Gericke in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Works by Wilhelm Gericke in the archive of the Wiener Singverein

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Schönaugasse 235 (today no. 26), with the first name "Guglielmo": Weststeirische Rundschau, p. 14.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Weststeirische Rundschau, p. 14.
3. ↑ Wolfgang Suppan: Styrian Music Lexicon. P. 205.