Sándor Erkel (2 January 1846 – 14 October 1900) (Hungarian: Erkel Sándor) was a Hungarian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, conductor and director of the

Hungarian State Opera The Hungarian State Opera is the national opera company of Hungary. Located in Budapest, it is a busy institution, with over 200 operas each calendar year, on top of extensive educational programs, ballet, and musical theatre. The company employs ...

Biography

Born in

Buda Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...

, Erkel was the youngest son of the famous Hungarian composer,

Ferenc Erkel Ferenc Erkel ( hu, Erkel Ferenc , german: link=no, Franz Erkel; November 7, 1810June 15, 1893) was a Hungarian composer, conductor and pianist. He was the father of Hungarian grand opera, written mainly on historical themes, which are still o ...

. He first studied music with his father; later his teacher was another Hungarian composer,

Mihály Mosonyi Mihály Mosonyi (4 September 1815 in Boldogasszony, Austria-Hungary – 31 October 1870 in Budapest) was a Hungarian composer. Born Michael Brand, he changed his name to ''Mosonyi'' in honor of the district of Moson (where his place of birt ...

. He started his career just as an orchestra musician of the National Theatre in Pest playing

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...

; he was also the

dulcimer The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

soloist at the premiere of his father's opera, the ''

Bánk bán ''Bánk bán'' is an opera in 3 acts by composer Ferenc Erkel. The work uses a Hungarian-language libretto by Béni Egressy which is based on a stage play of the same name by József Katona. (''Bán'' is ban in English, similar to a viceroy, a ...

''. Later he became the conductor of the theatre's orchestra, and at the age of thirty in 1876, he was appointed the music director of the ensemble. In 1884, Erkel became the music director of the newly established Hungarian State Opera (1884–1886), – its founding director was his father, Ferenc – premiering Hungarian and foreign operas. Erkel accepted the chairman-conductor position of the

Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra The Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra ( Hungarian: ''Budapesti Filharmóniai Társaság Zenekara'') is Hungary's oldest extant orchestra. It was founded in 1853 by Ferenc Erkel under the auspices of the Budapest Philharmonic Society. For many years i ...

in 1875, a post he held until 1900.

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

premiered his ''Piano concerto no. 2.'' with the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra on 9 November 1881 in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, with Erkel as conductor. GOING OUT GUIDE by Richard F. Shepard, November 11, 1981, ''The New York Times''
Erkel died unexpectedly in

Békéscsaba Békéscsaba (; sk, Békešská Čaba; see also #Name, other alternative names) is a City with county rights, city with county rights in southeast Hungary, the capital of Békés County. Geography Békéscsaba is located in the Great Hungarian ...

on 14 October 1900. As a composer his oeuvre is relatively small, including orchestral and choral works. His only opera, ''Csobánc'', was premiered on 13 December 1865.

References

Sources

* Szabolcsi Bence - Tóth Aladár: ''Zenei lexikon'', Zeneműkiadó Vállalat, 1965. I. p. 576.
GOING OUT GUIDE by Richard F. Shepard , November 11, 1981, ''The New York Times''
*Vasárnapi Ujság, 1900/42 Hungarian conductors (music) Male conductors (music) Hungarian composers Hungarian male composers 19th-century composers People from Buda 1846 births 1900 deaths 19th-century male musicians Burials at Kerepesi Cemetery {{Hungary-composer-stub