Friedrich Gernsheim

Friedrich Gernsheim (July 17, 1839 – September 10, 1916) was a German composer, conductor and pianist.

Gernsheim was born in Worms. He was given his first musical training at home under his mother's care, then starting from the age of seven under Worms' musical director, Louis Liebe, a former pupil of Louis Spohr. His father, a prominent Jewish physician, moved the family to Frankfurt am Main in the aftermath of the year of revolutions, 1848, where he studied with Edward Rosenhain, brother of Jakob Rosenhain.[1] He made his first public appearance as a concert pianist in 1850 and toured for two seasons, then settled with his family in Leipzig, where he studied piano with Ignaz Moscheles from 1852. He spent the years 1855–1860 in Paris, meeting Gioacchino Rossini, Édouard Lalo and Camille Saint-Saëns.

His travels afterwards took him to Saarbrücken, where in 1861 he took the conductor post vacated by Hermann Levi; to Cologne, where in 1865 Ferdinand Hiller appointed him to the staff of the Conservatory (one of his pupils was Engelbert Humperdinck); he then served as musical director of the Philharmonic Society of Rotterdam, 1874-1890. In the latter year he became a teacher at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, and in 1897 moved there to teach at the Academy of Arts, where he was elected to the senate in 1897.

Gernsheim was a prolific composer, especially of orchestral, chamber and instrumental music, and songs. Some of his works tend to Jewish subject-matter, notably the Third Symphony on the legend of the Song of Miriam. His earlier works show the influence of Schumann, and from 1868, when he first became friendly with Brahms, a Brahmsian influence is very palpable. Gernsheim's four symphonies (the first of which was written before the publication of Brahms' First Symphony) are an interesting example of the reception of Brahmsian style by a sympathetic and talented contemporary. Gernsheim's last works, most notably his Zu einem Drama (1902), show him moving away from that into something more personal. He died in Berlin.

Contents

Selected works (excerpted from worklist)

Of these works, the symphonies, the cello concerto, the first cello sonata, the piano trios, two of the piano quartets, the two piano quintets, and the second string quartet have to date been recorded.

References

  1. ^ Pitt, Lavender. The Musical World at Google Books. August 1, 1874 issue. J. Novello. v.52, p.512.
  2. ^ Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung at Google Books. Ser. 3 v. 17, 1882. p. 190 notice of Rotterdam early performance of Symphony no. 2.
  3. ^ [1] at home.wanadoo.nl
  4. ^ Hyperion Records at www.hyperion-records.co.uk
  5. ^ http://www.swr.de/imperia/md/content/swr2/programm/2005/swr2woche11.rtf
  6. ^ a b Willkommen bei Klassik Heute at www.klassik-heute.de
  7. ^ Ursprach, Anton (October 27, 1898). Musikalisches Wochenblatt. 29. E.W. Fritzsch. pp. 617–9. doi:10.1525/. OCLC 297294425. http://books.google.com/?id=l1wvAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA617&dq=gernsheim+quintett. 
  8. ^ This opus number differs from that under Gernsheim on List of compositions for cello and piano, which bases its information on Muller-Reuter's Lexicon , not the discography referred to in the external link (also on this concert-series description from 2003 in which that work among others was played. However, ultimately a score of the work should be sought to resolve the issue. Note that op. 87 is the opus no. given for the cello sonata no. 2 given in the worklist at the warmaisa.de link.
  9. ^ a b c "Dreilanderkatalog im Gateway Bayern OPAC". http://bvba2.bib-bvb.de/V. Retrieved 25 August 2007. 

External links

Literature