right
Felix Josef von Mottl (between 29 July/29 August 1856 – 2 July 1911) was an
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n
conductor and composer. He was regarded as one of the most brilliant conductors of his day.
He composed three operas, of which ''Agnes Bernauer'' (
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
, 1880) was the most successful, as well as a string quartet and numerous songs and other music.
His orchestration of
Richard Wagner's "
Wesendonck Lieder
, WWV 91, is the common name of a set of five songs for female voice and piano by Richard Wagner, (''Five Poems for a Female Voice''). He set five poems by Mathilde Wesendonck while he was working on his opera ''Tristan und Isolde''. The songs, ...
" is still the most commonly performed version. He was also a teacher, and
his pupils included
Ernest van Dyck
Ernest Van Dyck (2 April 1861 – 31 August 1923) was a Belgian dramatic tenor who was closely identified with the Wagnerian repertoire. Forbes, Elizabeth. Ernest arie HubertVan Dyck. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.'' Macmillan, London ...
and
Wilhelm Petersen.
Career
Mottl was born in
Unter Sankt Veit
Hietzing () is the 13th municipal District of Vienna (german: 13. Bezirk, Hietzing). It is located west of the central districts, west of Meidling. Hietzing is a heavily populated urban area with many residential buildings, but also contains lar ...
, today
Hietzing
Hietzing () is the 13th municipal District of Vienna (german: 13. Bezirk, Hietzing). It is located west of the central districts, west of Meidling. Hietzing is a heavily populated urban area with many residential buildings, but also contains lar ...
,
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
in 1856. His date of birth has been reported variously as 29 July,
24 August,
and 29 August.
After early voice training at the Löwenburg Konvikt, a training school for the Imperial Court Chapel, he had a successful career at the Vienna Conservatory.
He was soon recognized as a gifted conductor of
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 ...
's music, assisted
Hans Richter in preparing the first complete
Ring Cycle
(''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelun ...
at Bayreuth in 1876, and himself conducted ''
Tristan und Isolde
''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was comp ...
'' at Bayreuth in 1886. The best-known version of Wagner's "
Wesendonck Lieder
, WWV 91, is the common name of a set of five songs for female voice and piano by Richard Wagner, (''Five Poems for a Female Voice''). He set five poems by Mathilde Wesendonck while he was working on his opera ''Tristan und Isolde''. The songs, ...
" is an orchestration by Mottl.
From 1881 to 1903 he was chief conductor at the
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
Opera and was widely renowned for his work there, particularly in Wagner,
Berlioz and
Chabrier
Alexis-Emmanuel Chabrier (; 18 January 184113 September 1894) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer and pianist. His Bourgeoisie, bourgeois family did not approve of a musical career for him, and he studied law in Paris and then worked ...
, whose operas he championed. In 1903 he conducted the premier of
Friederich Klose's opera Ilsebill there to great acclaim.
He also orchestrated Chabrier's ''
Bourrée fantasque'' and ''
Trois valses romantiques'', and arranged a popular suite of orchestral excerpts from
Christoph Willibald Gluck's operas. In later years, as a conductor of Wagner especially, he visited Amsterdam, London and New York, guest-conducting the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...
in 1903. He was made a director of the
Academy of Arts, Berlin
The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany.
The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...
in 1904.
![Fritz Behn – Felix Mottl](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Fritz_Behn_%E2%80%93_Felix_Mottl.jpg)
In June 1907 he cut some
player piano
A player piano (also known as a pianola) is a self-playing piano containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism, that operates the piano action via programmed music recorded on perforated paper or metallic rolls, with more modern im ...
rolls with
Welte-Mignon
M. Welte & Sons, Freiburg and New York was a manufacturer of orchestrions, organs and reproducing pianos, established in Vöhrenbach by Michael Welte (1807–1880) in 1832.
Overview
From 1832 until 1932, the firm produced mechanical musi ...
, including his own piano transcription of the Prelude, the Love Duet and Brangäne's Warning from ''Tristan''. He suffered a heart attack on 21 June 1911 while conducting his 100th performance of ''Tristan'' in Munich. He was taken to a hospital where he died 11 days later on 2 July, aged 54, but not before marrying his longtime mistress, the soprano
Zdenka Faßbender.
His grave monument was made by
Fritz Behn
Fritz originated as a German nickname for Friedrich, or Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Frederick II of Prussia and Frederick III, German Emperor) as well as for similar names including Fridoli ...
.
References
Bibliography
*
Frithjof Haas
Friðþjófur (variations: Fritiof, Frithiof, Fritjof, Frithjof, and Fridtjof) is a Scandinavian masculine given name derived from Old Norse friðr (“peace”) + þjófr (“thief”). Maybe a kenning (a metaphorical phrase used in Old Norse poe ...
: ''Der Magier am Dirigentenpult. Felix Mottl''. Karlsruhe: Hoepfner-Bibliothek. Info Verlag, 2006,
Recordings
Felix Mottl today playing his 1907 interpretations. Selected works by Richard Wagner, The Welte-Mignon Mystery Vol. II
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mottl, Felix
1856 births
1911 deaths
19th-century Austrian people
19th-century classical composers
20th-century classical composers
Male conductors (music)
Austrian Romantic composers
Austrian untitled nobility
Austrian expatriates in Germany
People from Hietzing
Conductors (music) who died while conducting
Austrian male classical composers
20th-century Austrian conductors (music)
20th-century Austrian male musicians
19th-century male musicians