August Labitzky

August Labitzky ( born October 22, 1832 in Petschau; † August 28, 1903 in Bad Reichenhall ) was a composer and conductor in Carlsbad.

Life and achievements

August Labitzky was sent by his father Joseph Labitzky in 1845 to further musical education to the Prague Conservatory, where his older brother William was trained for two years. Both remained there until 1849 and then entered in a register kept by her father orchestra in Carlsbad, but began to enter in 1850 also own concerts and a first private orchestra had only two years later together with which they were able to go to great tour abroad and others occurred in a state ball at Buckingham Palace, where they performed the compositions of her father. August Labitzky was not at that time quite 20 years old. In the following years he consolidated his reputation as a musician in Karlovy Vary, but also carried further concert tours.

In 1868 he took over the management of the Carlsbad orchestra of his father, where he prevailed by his good qualities against his older brother, who had also hoped to be entrusted with the management of the orchestra. His brother William emigrated then to America.

While his father Joseph had done as practitioners of the Carlsbad orchestra as a spa orchestra mainly on quality dance music, taught August Labitzky as conservation educated musician his attention to other genres, and brought a new spirit in the orchestra, with which he is also on the performance symphonic works prepared. He expanded the repertoire of the orchestra's first Carlsbad to pieces by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Wagner, and later to music by Schubert, Bach, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Liszt, Dvorak, Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Bruckner. He also enlarged the orchestra and took over in addition to performing as a Kurorchester also the musical service at Carlsbad theater.