August Wilhelm Julius Rietz (28 December 1812 – 12 September 1877) was a German composer, conductor, cellist, and teacher. His students included

Woldemar Bargiel Woldemar Bargiel (3 October 182823 February 1897) was a German composer. Life Bargiel was born in Berlin, and was the younger maternal half-brother of Clara Schumann. Bargiel’s father Adolph was a well-known piano and voice teacher while his m ...

, Salomon Jadassohn, Arthur O'Leary, and (by far the most celebrated) Sir Arthur Sullivan. He also edited many works by Felix Mendelssohn for publication.

Biography

Rietz was born in Berlin, and studied the cello under

Bernhard Romberg Bernhard Heinrich Romberg (November 13, 1767 – August 13, 1841) was a German cellist and composer. Life Romberg was born in Dinklage. His father, Anton Romberg, played the bassoon and cello and gave Bernhard his first cello lessons. He f ...

. At 16, he joined the orchestra of Berlin's Königstädter Theater, for which he wrote the music to Karl Eduard von Holtei's play ''Lorbeerbaum und Bettelstab''. In 1834, he was appointed assistant conductor at the

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

Opera under Mendelssohn, whom he succeeded the following year. He moved in 1847 to

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, where he served as kapellmeister and conductor of the Singakademie. During 1848, a year after Mendelssohn's death, Rietz took over Mendelssohn's former role as conductor of the

Gewandhaus Gewandhaus is a concert hall in Leipzig, the home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. History The first Gewandhaus (''Altes Gewandhaus'') The f ...

concerts in the same city, and as teacher of composition at the conservatoire there. He was called to

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

in 1860 to succeed

Carl Gottlieb Reissiger Carl Gottlieb Reißiger (also ''Karl Reissiger'', ''Carl Reissiger'', ''Karl Reißiger'') (31 January 1798 – 7 November 1859) was a German Kapellmeister and composer. Biography Born in Belzig, Reissiger attended the Thomasschule zu Leipzig an ...

as court kapellmeister. Here he spent the rest of his life, frequently appearing as an opera conductor, and also undertaking the direction of the royal conservatoire.

Compositions

In terms of his own composing, Rietz belonged to the classically inclined school (Mendelssohn's output, as might be expected, had a big influence upon him) and he was strongly opposed to the musical radicalism of

Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

and

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 ...

. Among his works are the operas, three symphonies, several overtures to plays, flute sonatas, violin sonatas, motets, masses, psalms, and a quantity of other church music.

Operas

* ''Jery und Bätely'' (1839) * ''Das Mädchen aus der Fremde'' (1839) * ''Der Korsar'' (1850) * ''Georg Neumann und die Gambe'' (1859)

Symphonies

* Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13 (1843) * Symphony No. 2 in A major, Op. 23 (1846?) * Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 31 (1855)

Overtures

* Concert Overture in A major, Op. 7 * ''Hero und Leander'', Op. 11 * ''Lustspielouvertüre'', Op. 53

Concertos

* Clarinet Concerto, Op. 29 * Concert Piece for Oboe and Orchestra, Op. 33 * Cello Concerto, Op. 16

Legacy

The

Louisville Orchestra The Louisville Orchestra is the primary orchestra in Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1937 by Robert Whitney (1904–1986) and Charles Farnsley, Mayor of Louisville. The Louisville Orchestra employs salaried musicians, and offers a wide ...

First Edition series contained, besides many works mostly by modern composers (usually American), Rietz' ''Concert Overture,'' opus 7 (coupled with the second symphony of

Max Bruch Max Bruch (6 January 1838 – 2 October 1920) was a German Romantic composer, violinist, teacher, and conductor who wrote more than 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a prominent staple of the standard ...

), and recorded around 1970. This may have been the same concert overture commissioned by the

Lower Rhenish Music Festival The Lower Rhenish Music Festival (German: Das Niederrheinische Musikfest) was one of the most important festivals of classical music, which happened every year between 1818 and 1958, with few exceptions, at Pentecost for 112 times. History In t ...

to commemorate an anniversary .

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rietz, Julius 1812 births 1877 deaths 19th-century German composers 19th-century classical composers 19th-century conductors (music) German Romantic composers German male classical composers German conductors (music) German male conductors (music) German classical cellists Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society Musicians from Berlin 20th-century cellists