![Bruno seidler-winkler](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Bruno_seidler-winkler.jpg)
Karl Ludwig Bruno Seidler-Winkler (18 July 1880 – 19 October 1960) was a German conductor, pianist and
music arranger
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...
.
Life
Seidler-Winkler was born in Berlin as the son of a musician and already made his musical appearance in his youth. He received his first training at the
Stern Conservatory The Stern Conservatory (''Stern'sches Konservatorium'') was a private music school in Berlin with many distinguished tutors and alumni. The school is now part of Berlin University of the Arts.
History
It was founded in 1850 as the ''Berliner Musi ...
at the piano with Ernst Jedliczka.
[Biographie und Beispielaufnahmen](_blank)
beim ''Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music'' (CHARM) by King’s College London
King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...
, retrieved 1 December 2019. He sang in the choir of the
Berliner Dom
The Berlin Cathedral (german: link=yes, Berliner Dom), also known as the Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church, is a monumental German Evangelical church and dynastic tomb (House of Hohenzollern) on the Museum Island in central ...
.
At the age of ten he also played the violin and was considered a gifted pianist; four years later he conducted in a small theatre in Berlin. As the artistic recording director of the German
Edison company, he became acquainted with and mastered the possibilities of sound recording as early as the 1890s.
He was then able to contribute his experience to the newly founded
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...
label. From 1903 to 1923 he was their
artistic director
An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the ...
and responsible for a large number of sound recordings. He directed recordings of the opera ensembles of Berlin, Dresden, Munich, and Vienna and organized the necessary recording facilities and rooms. The acoustic recording technique used in the first years of recording was associated with many technical problems and limitations. Bruno Seidler-Winkler's arrangements, however, were already extraordinarily effective in achieving the desired effect for the individual composers. He was one of the first house conductors to lead the Deutsche Grammophon Orchestra. Thus, in 1908, the first complete recording of the opera ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'' by
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', whi ...
was made under his direction (with
Ema Destinová in the leading role) and in 1923, when he left Deutsche Grammophon, the first complete recording of the
9th Symphony by Beethoven.
He was also active as a conductor from 1903 to 1932. From 1923 to 1925 he worked as an orchestra leader in Chicago and from 1926 to September 1932, as a predecessor of
Eugen Jochum
Eugen Jochum (; 1 November 1902 – 26 March 1987) was a German conductor, best known for his interpretations of the music of Anton Bruckner, Carl Orff, and Johannes Brahms, among others.
Biography
Jochum was born to a Roman Catholic family in ...
, conducted the
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (''Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin'') is a German symphony orchestra based in Berlin. In Berlin, the orchestra gives concerts at the Konzerthaus Berlin and at the Berliner Philharmonie. The orchestra has also ...
of the .
He also accompanied recordings of well-known artists - singers and instrumentalists - as a pianist. Numerous recordings have been preserved that were made with the singer
Otto Reutter
Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity".
The name is recorded fr ...
, from 1902 until shortly after the First World War; as well as with
Váša Příhoda
Váša Příhoda (22 August 1900Nicolas Slonimsky, ed. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed.26 July 1960) was a Czech violinist and minor composer. Considered a Paganini specialist, his recording of the Violin Concerto in A minor ...
. From the beginning of the 1930s he was engaged at the
Universität der Künste Berlin
The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...
in the training of young artists for the musical design of radio programmes.
[Dietmar Schenk: ''Die Hochschule für Musik zu Berlin: Preußens Konservatorium zwischen romantischem Klassizismus und neuer Musik, 1869–1932/33'', Franz Steiner Verlag, Berlin 2004, ]
online
auf books.google.com, called on 1 December 2019. He worked as an arranger in the middle of the 1930s for the . In 1938 he was involved in a first electric recording of the opera ''
Die Walküre
(; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...
'' by
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
, which had been planned since the beginning of the 1930s and then begun in 1935 in Vienna by
Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter (born Bruno Schlesinger, September 15, 1876February 17, 1962) was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French citizen in 1938, and settled in the Un ...
and the
Wiener Symphoniker
The Vienna Symphony (Vienna Symphony Orchestra, german: Wiener Symphoniker) is an Austrian orchestra based in Vienna. Its primary concert venue is the Vienna Konzerthaus. In Vienna, the orchestra also performs at the Musikverein and at the Thea ...
. The missing parts of the second act were recorded under his direction in Berlin for
Electrola
Electrola is a German record label and subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Based in Munich, its roster has included Chumbawamba, Matthias Reim, Helene Fischer, Brings, Höhner and Santiano.
History
On 8 May 1925 the British Gramophone Company ...
(
His Master's Voice
His Master's Voice (HMV) was the name of a major British record label created in 1901 by The Gramophone Co. Ltd. The phrase was coined in the late 1890s from the title of a painting by English artist Francis Barraud, which depicted a Jack Russ ...
).
[Beschreibung](_blank)
der Aufnahme von 1938 der Oper ''Die Walküre'' on naxos.com, by Mark Obert-Thorn. Also in 1938 he accompanied the young French violinist
Ginette Neveu
Ginette Neveu (11 August 191928 October 1949) was a French classical violinist. She was killed in a plane crash at the age of 30.
Early life
Neveu was born on 11 August 1919 in Paris into a musical family. Her brother Jean-Paul became a class ...
on her first recordings.
His repertoire included classical music as well as light music such as
operetta
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...
s, chansons, and hits. He arranged the recording of the song "
Lili Marleen
"Lili Marleen" (also spelled "Lili Marlen'", "Lilli Marlene", "Lily Marlene", "Lili Marlène" among others; ) is a German love song that became popular during World War II throughout Europe and the Mediterranean among both Axis and Allied troop ...
" with
Lale Andersen
Lale Andersen (23 March 1905 – 29 August 1972) was a German chanson singer-songwriter and actress born in Lehe (now part of Bremerhaven). She is best known for her interpretation of the song ''Lili Marleen'' in 1939, which by 1941 transcend ...
in 1939. He also conducted the instrumental ensemble that accompanied the recording.
In 1913 he became a member of the Berlin
masonic lodge
A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...
''Zum Widder''. The
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
Brigitta Seidler-Winkler, born in 1936, is his daughter.
A few months before his death he was awarded the
Bundesverdienstkreuz
The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...
in 1960.
Seidler-Winkler died in Berlin at age 80. He was buried in the state-owned cemetery in
Spandau
Spandau () is the westernmost of the 12 boroughs () of Berlin, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and extending along the western bank of the Havel. It is the smallest borough by population, but the fourth largest by land ...
(Berlin).
References
External links
*
Bruno Seidler-Winkleron Allmusic
*
Seidler-Winkleron Filmportal
Bruno Seidler-Winkleron Allmusic
* PODIUM LEGENA (www.podium-wendel.de) POL-1018 und POL-1026 with recordings and documentaries about Váša Příhoda and Seidler-Winkler.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:SeidlerWinkler, Bruno
German male conductors (music)
German classical pianists
Male classical pianists
German music arrangers
Recipients of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
German Freemasons
1880 births
1960 deaths
Musicians from Berlin
20th-century German male musicians