Ferdinand Löwe

Ferdinand Löwe ( born February 19, 1865 in Vienna, † January 6, 1925 ) was an Austrian conductor.

Life and work

Lion in 1898 appointed Hofopernkapellmeister. 1897/1898 (and later from 1908 to 1914 ) he was chief conductor of the Kaim Orchestra, now the Munich Philharmonic. In 1900 he founded the Wiener Concert Verein Orchestra ( Wiener Symphoniker since 1933 ), over which he presided as chief conductor in the sequence. Lion was next employed as a teacher at the Conservatory of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna, conducted from 1905 to 1919 the workers concerts and led from 1918 to 1922 the Vienna Academy of Music.

He was a pupil of Anton Bruckner and gained special services to the performances of his symphonies. However, a controversial chapter in the history of music is his handling of the scores of his teacher dar. Together with the brothers Franz and Joseph Schalk edited Leo Bruckner's works, to make the audience of that time more pleasing. The content of the compositions was greatly changed frequently so that the edits still rather contributed to the lack of understanding Bruckner'schen music.

Leo instrumented eg Bruckner's 9th symphony completely around and even intervened in the musical text. In this version, the work of Leo was premiered on 11 February 1903, published in the same year. It was not until 29 years later, on April 2, 1932 was held the first performance of Bruckner's original version under Sigismund of Hausegger. The conductor had Bruckner's composition preceded by the Lion version. The vote of the audience and musicology clearly decided against editing. Very few conductors such as Hans Knappertsbusch, still clung to Lion version.

Lion Honorary dedicated grave site is at the Central Cemetery of Vienna ( 31B -13 -9). In 1936 favorites ( 10th district ), the Ferdinand Lion street named after him in Vienna.