Georg Lennart Schnéevoigt (8 November 1872 – 28 November 1947) was a Finnish conductor and

cellist The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

, born in

Vyborg Vyborg (; , ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of St. Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital H ...

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed from 1809 to 1917 as an Autonomous region, autonomous state within the Russian Empire. Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the Monarc ...

, which is now in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, to Ernst Schnéevoigt and Rosa Willandt.

Career

Schnéevoigt began his career as a cellist performing throughout

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

in the 1890s. He was principal cellist of the

Helsinki Philharmonic The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (; ; literal English translation: Helsinki City Orchestra; commonly abbreviated as HPO) is an orchestra based in Helsinki, Finland. Founded in 1882 by Robert Kajanus, the Philharmonic Orchestra was the first pe ...

from 1896 to 1902. After this, he conducted many orchestras including the Kaim Orchestra (now the

Munich Philharmonic The Munich Philharmonic () is a German symphony orchestra located in the city of Munich. It is one of Munich's four principal orchestras, along with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Radio Orchestra and the Bavarian State Orche ...

Orchestra), Riga Philharmonic Orchestra which he founded, Oslo Philharmonic (1919–1921), the Stockholm Concert Society (later the

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra ( or , literal translations, "Royal Philharmonic" or "Royal Philharmonic Orchestra") is a Swedish orchestra based in Stockholm. Its principal venue is the Konserthuset. History The orchestra was foun ...

), the Sydney Symphony, and the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. The orchestra holds a regular concert season from October until June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from ...

. From 1930 until his death in 1947, Schnéevoigt was chief conductor of the

Malmö Symphony Orchestra The Malmö Symphony Orchestra () is a Swedish orchestra, based in Malmö. Since 2015, it has been resident at the Malmö Live Concert Hall. The orchestra has a complement of 94 musicians. History The orchestra was founded in 1925 with Walther ...

. In Europe young Schnéevoigt was considered skilled, but by an accounting of the

, Schnéevoigt's conducting style was characterised as "flaccid", "paunchy", "phlegmatic", and "plodding", with "little or no sense of direction so far as discipline was concerned". This notwithstanding, his passion for the music of Sibelius was such that he cried when conducting his works. The accounting by Los Angeles Philharmonic is not in accordance with the contemporary critique of Schnéevoigt's conducting. The critiques published in the papers of Los Angeles during 1927–1929 were mainly positive and especially Schnéevoigt's Mahler interpretations were applauded. A reason for Schnéevoigt's apparent loss of reputation, may be that he was succeeded by two legendary conductors (

Artur Rodziński Artur Rodziński (2 January 1892 – 27 November 1958) was a Polish and American conductor of orchestral music and opera. He began his career after World War I in Poland, where he was discovered by Leopold Stokowski, who invited him to be his ass ...

and

Otto Klemperer Otto Nossan Klemperer (; 14 May 18856 July 1973) was a German conductor and composer, originally based in Germany, and then the United States, Hungary and finally, Great Britain. He began his career as an opera conductor, but he was later bet ...

) and so his achievements were forgotten.

Life

Schnéevoigt's married pianist

Sigrid Sundgren-Schnéevoigt Sigrid is a Scandinavian given name for women from Old Norse ''Sigríðr'', composed of the elements ''sigr'' "victory" and ''fríðr'' "beautiful". Common short forms include Siri, Sigga, Sig, and Sigi. An Estonian and Finnish variant is Siir ...

in 1907, she and Schnéevoigt would often perform together. Schnéevoigt died in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in 1947 at the age of 75, he was buried at Hietaniemi Cemetery.

Schnéevoigt and Sibelius

Schnéevoigt was a close friend of composer

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius (; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic music, Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his countr ...

and often performed Sibelius's orchestral music. He conducted the first performance in Finland of '' Luonnotar'' in January 1914. He discovered the manuscripts of Sibelius's tone poems "Lemminkäinen and the Maidens" and "Lemminkäinen in Tuonela" (from the '' Lemminkäinen Suite''), which had been thought lost, and gave their first performance since 1894. On 3 June 1934, Schnéevoigt and the Finnish National Orchestra traveled to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, there Schnéevoigt made the first recording of Sibelius's Symphony No 6. It was originally planned for Robert Kajanus, a close friend of Sibelius, to record the symphony, but because of his death in 1933 it was instead done by Schnéevoigt.

References

External links

Georg Schnéevoigt biography.
Divine Art Recordings Group. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schneevoigt, Georg 1872 births 1947 deaths Musicians from Vyborg People from Viipuri Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Finnish people of German descent Finnish classical cellists Finnish conductors (music) Cellists from the Russian Empire Conductors (music) from the Russian Empire Principal conductors of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra Music directors of the Oslo Philharmonic Music directors of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chief conductors of the Munich Philharmonic