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Thursday, December 31, 2015

Birthdays

Max Fiedler

In 1859 Max Fiedler was born in Zittau, Germany. He first studied the piano with his father, who conducted the accompanying orchestra when Max made his first public appearance at the age of ten in 1870, playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A, K.488. Continuing his musical studies in Zittau with the organist Gustav Albrecht, who had been a pupil of Mendelssohn, Fiedler then entered the Leipzig Conservatory in 1877, where the director, Carl Reinecke, was his piano teacher. He graduated in 1882, with exceptional honours, alongside his friend and colleague Karl Muck. Fiedler also studied composition and was active in the city’s musical life, developing a close relationship with Julius Spengel, a friend of Brahms. Fiedler himself knew Brahms sufficiently well for the composer to ask him to substitute for him in a performance of his Piano Concerto No. 2, an invitation which Fiedler politely declined. He almost certainly heard Brahms conduct the first Leipzig performances of his Symphony No. 2 early in 1878 (though Ethel Smyth later wrote that Brahms “had the knack of rubbing orchestras the wrong way… Moreover, the Gewandhaus musicians were antagonistic to his music”) and his Violin Concerto on New Year’s Day, 1879, with the dedicatee, Joseph Joachim, as soloist, though Jan Swafford writes that it “turned out a scrambling affair, with Joachim unnerved by all the last-minute revisions and Brahms even more tense on the podium than usual.” As a young man he conducted Brahms’ symphonies in the presence of the composer who, not given to reticence when expressing himself, does not appear to have complained of Fiedler’s interpretations. Having found work teaching at the Hamburg Conservatory Fiedler was soon much in demand as a pianist, winning high praise for his ‘soft tone’. His first appearance on the conductor’s podium came during the 1885–1886 season in a performance of his own composition (a symphony), and his first complete concert in late 1886. Encouraged to persevere by his first wife, he soon became one of the most popular conductors active in Hamburg, alongside Hans von Bülow, whose musicianship he admired and whose baton technique he adopted. While it was not to be until 1903 that he took over the direction of the Hamburg Conservatory, and 1904 that of the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, from 1898 onwards Fiedler was active abroad as a guest conductor, appearing in Russia, where he was compared to Artur Nikisch and Felix Weingartner, Madrid (1899), Paris (1901), Turin (1904), Rome (1906, 1908) and London (1907, 1908). Throughout this period he developed a reputation as a major interpreter of the music of Brahms, as well as a conductor with ‘complete mastery’ of the orchestra. In 1908 Karl Muck, then the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, recommended Fiedler as his successor as conductor of the orchestra, and he was duly appointed, having already appeared in the United States during 1905, when he had conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra alongside Willem Mengelberg and a year before the guest appearance of a German conductor noted for his Brahms, Fritz Steinbach. Although he spent four years at the helm in Boston, his conducting attracted some criticism, especially for his volatility as an interpreter, which was viewed as pleasing ‘the general public’ rather than ‘connoisseurs’. Among his achievements there, he conducted the world premiere of Paderewski’s massive Symphony in B minor “Polonia in 1909. Fiedler returned to Hamburg in 1912, where Siegmund von Hausegger was now in charge of the Philharmonic Orchestra; and since co-residence was likely to be difficult, given his own status as a former conductor of this orchestra, Fiedler withdrew to Berlin, where he became an active guest conductor of the city’s various orchestras. In 1916 a Berlin critic hailed him as ‘the greatest Brahms conductor of the present day’, and during the same year he accepted the position of conductor of the Essen Orchestra, in succession to Hermann Abendroth, who was moving to Cologne to replace Steinbach. At Essen, Fiedler consolidated his reputation as a major figure in German musical life, conducting a wide repertoire that included contemporary composers such as Walter Braunfels, Karol Szymanowski and Arthur Honegger, as well as each year organising a festival devoted to a major single composer. In addition he guest-conducted the Berlin Philharmonic occasionally, and from 1927 was co-conductor of the Essen Folkwangschule. In 1929 he married for the second time and in 1934 gave up his position in Essen, returning once more to Berlin where he conducted the Berlin Radio Orchestra, as well as that of Hamburg. During 1939 he made a series of farewell appearances in Berlin and Essen, but towards the end of the year he became fatally ill, dying in Stockholm, Sweden just a few weeks short of his eightieth birthday. 1

Stephen Cleobury

Happy 67th birthday Stephen Cleobury! Born on this day in 1948 in Bromley, England. He was organ scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge under the musical directorship of George Guest, and sub-organist of Westminster Abbey before becoming Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral in 1979. He was also the President of the Royal College of Organists from 1990 to 1992. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music, and an Honorary Doctor of Music at Anglia Ruskin University. In 1982 he took up the position of Director of Music for the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, where he also teaches music. He was conductor of Cambridge University Musical Society (CUMS) from 1983 to 2009, and made many recordings with that group, including Verdi’s Quattro Pezzi Sacri and Goehr’s The Death of Moses. As part of the celebrations of the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University, he premiered Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Sorcerer’s Mirror. He was also Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers from 1995 to 2007, and has been Conductor Laureate since 2007. Cleobury served as Visiting Fellow at the Louisiana State University School of Music, for 2013-2014. 2

Premiers

In 1775 George Frideric Handle’s Messiah was premiered in German in Hamburg, with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach conducting.

On This Day in Classical Music

In 1782 it is reported that Mozart completed the first of his ‘Haydn’ String Quartets.

In 1895 Jules Massenet was appointed a Commandeur de la Légion d’honneur.

In 1899 the Italy Government – by royal decree – founds a retirement home for ailing musicians. The home is entirely funded by Giuseppe Verdi.

In 1908 Serge Prokofiev performed in public for the first time in St. Petersburg. He was 17 years old.

In 1963 the South African government bans the performance of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific, due to its message of racial harmony and equality.

In 1980 a special concert is put on for the seriously ill Samuel Barber at University Hospital in New York. One of the pieces performed was his own Adagio for Strings.

In 1986 Peter Maxwell Davies was knighted as part of the New Year’s Honours.

In 1992 Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau gave his final performance at the National Theatre in Munich, Germany.

  1. Wikipedia contributors, “Max Fiedler,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Max_Fiedler&oldid=660281608 (accessed December 30, 2015).
  2. Wikipedia contributors, “Stephen Cleobury,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stephen_Cleobury&oldid=682288710(accessed December 30, 2015).