Ferdinand Leitner
Ferdinand Leitner ( born March 4, 1912 in Berlin, † June 3, 1996 in Zurich ) was a German conductor.
Life
Leitner, who has already directed a choir at age 18, studied at the Academy of Music in Berlin with Franz Schreker and Julius Prüwer, and later with Artur Schnabel and Karl Muck. He began his career first as a pianist, especially as a companion of George Kulenkampff and Ludwig Hoelscher, then rose by Fritz Busch in the thirties as a conductor, and was, although in the Third Reich put on hold by the trend-setting film in cultural life, 1943-1945 Conductor the theater at Nollendorfplatz in Berlin. 1945-1946 in Hamburg, from 1946 to 1947 in Munich, he resigned in 1947 as General Music Director in Stuttgart, a job he - showed how the strong interest of foreign countries to guest appearances - very successfully filled and in which he remained until 1969, when he ans Zurich Opera House went, he left again in 1984. At the same time he was active from 1976 to 1980 in The Hague.
In Stuttgart, is a pedestrian and cyclist bridge after named him ( Ferdinand Leitner - web ), of the upper part of the Stuttgart palace garden, in which the State Theatre is located, connects to the central part of the Castle Gardens, where currently a construction site is for Stuttgart 21.
Work
He is known primarily as an opera conductor ( favorite composers: Wagner, Richard Strauss, Mozart), who is also the 20th century opera is assumed (Carl Orff, Othmar Schoeck, Karl Amadeus Hartmann). As such he was by Erich Kleiber in 1956 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires at the performance of German operas. 1950 and 1980 he conducted the premiere of stage works Hermann Reutter.
Leitner was also known for his collaboration with the Cappella Coloniensis that in 1959 on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the death of George Frideric Handel conducted for the first time. This cooperation Leitner also established as a serious conductor in the field of historical performance practice.
But his more than 300 recordings include the symphonies of romance.