Michael Balling

Michael Joseph Balling ( born August 27, 1866 in Heidingsfeld, † September 1, 1925 in Darmstadt ) was a German violist and conductor.

Life and work

The son of a lithographer grew up as the youngest of six children in a poor family. He should learn the profession of a shoemaker, however, studied after receiving singing lessons at the Musikhochschule Würzburg with Hermann Ritter viola.

As a violist, he was offered a contract at the Bayreuth Festival, where it Felix Mottl "discovered". In 1896 he got a job as an assistant in Bayreuth and led from 1906 to 1909 there Parsifal performances.

After working as a violist and a conductor of various orchestras (Hamburg, Lübeck, Breslau), he was the successor of Felix Mottl in 1904 as Kapellmeister to the court orchestra Grand Ducal Baden Karlsruhe, where he worked until 1907.

1912 Balling was the successor of Hans Richter as Director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester and finally received in 1919 a reputation as music director of the State Theatre Darmstadt.

Balling has the merit of having established the works of Richard Wagner in England and as a guest conductor in Spain, Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand he founded, inter alia, the Conservatory in Nelson ( New Zealand).

However, the works of Richard Wagner were only one focus of his interpretations, he led among other things to the Bach Passions and the Bruckner Fairs in F minor and D minor. He also had Pfitzner From German soul and the Stabat Mater by Dvorak in the repertoire. On January 26, 1923, he headed to the premiere of Schreker The distant sound in Darmstadt.

Balling, was married in first marriage with Mary Levi born Meyer, the conductor Hermann Levi widow.