Forgotten conductors, Eduard Morike

 

 Eduard Mörike

The son of a businessman and a music-loving mother, the great-nephew of the poet of the same name grew up with seven siblings in Stuttgart . When he was ten years old, the family moved to Leipzig . There he attended the Royal High School from Easter 1888 to September 1894 . On the advice of Felix Weingartner he decided to let his musical talent to train instead of Medicine study. At the Leipzig Conservatory he studied piano with Adolf Ruthardt , Karl Piutti and Hans Sitt , among othersform. At the age of 19 he won a composition award for a piano concerto in A minor . He then became a personal student of the pianist Alexander Ilyich Siloti .

After spending seven months in the United States , he decided to pursue a career as a conductor. He got a job as 2nd Kapellmeister at the Rostock City Theater . At the age of 24 he was appointed chief conductor in Kiel . In 1906 he was given the honorable assignment to participate in the Bayreuth Festival .

After a short activity in Stettin , he took over the musical direction of the Halle City Theater in 1907 . Here he founded the subscription concerts of the Hallische Orchestervereinigung . Halle experienced a musical heyday under Eduard Mörike. Important conductors such as Arthur Nikisch , Felix Mottl , Richard Strauss , Siegfried Wagner and Felix Weingartner were hired. During this time, Mörike also worked as an employee of the Saalezeitung and composed ballets such as The Funny Clover Leaf and the Operetta Dear Princess .

In 1907 he received a personal invitation from Richard Strauss to Paris to study his opera Salome . During the two months of his stay he directed several performances of this and other operas. During this time he also conducted the Wagner Festival in Halberstadt and Bad Lauchstädt .

From 1912 to 1924 he was Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper Berlin , which was founded by the Charlottenburg upper class as a musical alternative to the frozen court opera stage . Here he performed Wagner's works in particular, including the Berlin premiere of Parsifal on January 1, 1914. At the same time, he was a lecturer at the Lessing University and performed as a concert pianist. From 1919 he made numerous recordings for Parlophone and Odeon . In 1922 and 1923 he toured all of North America as chief conductor of the Wagner Opera Company .

From 1924 to 1929 he was chief conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic and head of the Dresden Singing Academy as general music director . In this capacity he led numerous pre- and first modern compositions, among others, Friedrich Koch , Kurt Weill , Henry Noren (1861-1928), Josef Suk . Together with his first concert master, Stefan Frenkel , he established the reputation of the Dresden Philharmonic as a promoter of contemporary music.

Eduard Mörike died on the evening of March 14, 1929 at the age of 51 in his Berlin apartment of a flu that had developed into pneumonia . ^[1] He left his wife Ida Mörike geb. Bassler. The burial took place on March 18, 1929 in the Heerstraße cemetery in Charlottenburg (today's district of Berlin-Westend ). ^[2] The grave was dissolved in 1955.

 

 

Eduard Mörike is all but forgotten nowadays, but he was a talented conductor whose work deserves reassessment. Mörike was born in Stuttgart on 16 August 1878. He ultimately entered the Leipzig Conservatoire, where he studied piano, organ, violin and composition. Originally intending to pursue a career as a pianist, he was attracted to conducting and obtained his first appointment as conductor at age 24. From 1912 to 1924, he was principal conductor of the Berlin State Opera, and from 1924 until his death - at the early age of 51 - on 14 March 1929, he was chief conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra. He visited America on several occasions. Mörike recorded the 'Nutcracker Suite' in Berlin on 20 November 1926. It is a performance with so many elements: charm, wit, joyfulness, reflection, and beauty - an absolute delight!  

Gramophone Celebrities XIII. - Eduard Mörike By W. A. Chislett

Mörike (or Moerike), which was a comparatively unknown name in England less than two years ago, has now become almost a household word in gramophone circles.

Herr Eduard Mörike was born in Stuttgart on August 16th, 1878, and comes of old South German stock, being one of the eight sons of a successful merchant and the great-nephew of his namesake the lyric poet. His mother was an enthusiastic lover of music and it was from her that he received his first lessons. When he was ten years of age the family moved to Leipzig, where he attended the High School. Up to the age of sixteen the career that had been mapped out for him was that of medicine, but as at that age he already showed unmistakable talent he was induced by Felix von Weingartner to devote himself to music. He continued his education at the Leipzig High School for some time and then entered the Conservatoire in the same city, where he studied the piano under Adolph Ruthárdt, the organ under Homeyer, the violin under Hans Sitt, and composition under Hofmann, the then most renowned teacher in Germany. Originally Ruthardt had planned for him a career as a piano virtuoso, but, following his own inclinations, the youth devoted all the time he could spare to the study of conducting, both orchestral and operatic.

At the age of nineteen he was awarded a Schumann composition prize for a piano concerto in A minor, and shortly after this became a private pupil of Silotti. The call of the theatre was still strong, however, and, on the opportunity occurring, he accompanied Ernst Kraus, the singer, on a visit to America, where he was engaged as a soloist at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, under the direction of Walter Damrosch.

After a period in America the student returned to Germany more strongly attracted to the theatre than ever, and soon secured an engagement as second conductor at the Stadt Theatre Rostock, and later, at the early age of twenty-four, was appointed chief conductor at Kiel. While holding the latter appointment, in 1906, he was honoured by being called to assist in the great celebrations at Bayreuth. His next permanent post was at Halle/Saale, where in addition to the opera he took over the direction of the symphony concerts. In the summer of 1907, while still at Halle, Herr Mörike received a personal invitation from Richard Strauss to conduct the rehearsals of the German operas to be given at the Paris Opera House. This invitation was gladly accepted and the visit to Paris ultimately extended over two mouths, for, in addition to taking charge of the rehearsals, he was called upon to conduct several performances of Salome and other operas during the season. At about this time he also directed the famous Wagner festivals at Halberstadt and at Lauchstadt.

In 1912 Herr Mörike received the appointment of principal conductor of the Deutches Opernhaus, Berlin, which post he held for twelve years, being responsible mostly for the production of Wagnerian works, including the first performance in Berlin of Parsifal on January 1st, 1924. He revisited America in 1922 and again in 1923, on each occasion as the general musical director of the Wagner Opera Company, which toured all the principal towns in Northern America.

Since 1924 he has been the conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra in Dresden - devoting himself entirely to concert work - and is now also the director of the Dresden Academy of Singing.

Herr Mörike has had a wide experience of conducting music of all schools, but his records of the works of Wagner and Strauss are the most valuable, for though all his interpretations are thoughtful and full of vitality, these, in addition, bear the hallmark of authority, and the Parlophone Company have done us good service by including so many of these works in the records issued.

These records have the virtues and faults common to all Parlophone orchestral records. The tone is full and forward, but inclined at times to be rather rough. Although this is doubtless largely the fault of the recording, it may also be partly due to the fact that the tone of the reeds in continental orchestras frequently is more pungent than that to which we are accustomed, and, I believe, that the brass tone, particularly that of the trumpets, is not quite so refined and suave as that of the best English orchestras. The chief flaw in these records is that in forte passages the deeper toned instruments, including the 'cellos and double basses, sound muffled and "woolly." This defect can be overcome partially by the use of suitable needles.

I know of no records which respond more to care in the choice of needles. It is, of course, impossible to lay down any hard-and-fast rules, for not only do the records themselves vary considerably, but machines also differ. I have found that a Columbia medium needle not pushed quite home into a Jewel sound-box with a Nom-y-ka diaphragm an ideal combination for most of these records. Splendid results can be obtained also from doped fibres after the record has been got into good condition by the judicious use of fine steel needles or otherwise ; fibres, however, are not a great success until this condition is obtained, as the material of which the records are made wears all needles very rapidly.

In grading these records I have had to adopt a somewhat different system from that used previously by other contributors. Comparisons are apt to be invidious, but when it is appreciated that much of the music recorded by Herr Mörike for the Parlophone Company has also been issued by other companies, they must be made when necessary. Grade I. only includes really first-class records, and it can be assumed safely that any Record in this grade is at least as good as, if not better than, any other record issued of the same music quite irrespective of price. Grade II. contains a large proportion of records which would have been in Grade I. but for comparatively slight flaws ; the most frequent fault being that occasional indistinctness of tone in heavy passages. Records in this oracle are well worth buying, and most of them will ''bear comparison with similar records issued by other companies, particularly when price is a factor to be considered.

The most successful complete recording is Ein Heldenleben, which is a magnificent piece of work. It is not absolutely without a fault throughout, but I am afraid it will be a long time before we get a work scored for such a large orchestra and which occupies ten sides recorded without a single fault.

Les Preludes and Scheherazade both contain records which considered individually might be placed in Grade I., but the works as a whole just fail to reach that standard. The last movement is my own favourite bit of Scheherazade, and this is really splendid. It is better than the Columbia version which is not too well recorded in places and which annoys me every time I either see or play it because of the absurd waste of space; why it was ever made to spin out to four sides I cannot conceive, as it can be got on to three easily and, moreover, with equally, if not more, convenient places for the divisions. The first movement of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, considered purely from the recording point of view, is worthy of a place in Grade I., but I have relegated it to Grade II. because of the disfigurement occasioned by a huge cut. Other records which only just miss being placed higher are Don Juan and the Overture and Sailors' Chorus from The Flying Dutchman. In the Overture the tympani are heard better than in any record I know, the pitch being easily distinguishable; the horns, however, are overpowering in some places.

The Ballet Music from Aida is issued twice, but both, records seem to be pressed from the same matrix. In No. E.10288 the reverse is occupied by the Introduction to the same opera, which is beautifully played and recorded, while in No. E.10055, we find on the reverse the Vale des Fleurs from Tchaikovsky's Casse Noisette Suite, which is a thoroughly bad record.

I am very sorry to have to relegate Beethoven's Seventh Symphony to Grade III., but it is not a good specimen of recording. The best that I can say is that the Columbia records of this symphony would be in the same grade and cost 15s. more! The reason for the lowly positions of the three excerpts from Wagner's Ring is the old trouble of muffled tone again, though it is only fair to say that Siegfried's Funeral March would have been a candidate for Grade I. had the first side been as good as the second.

GRADE I.

Aida - Introduction (Verdi).

Fin Heldenleben (Strauss).

Lohengrin - Prelude (Wagner).

Parsifal Introduction and Good Friday Music (Wagner).

Rienzi - Overture and March of the Warriors (Wagner).

Tannhauser - Overture (Wagner).

Tannheiuser's Pilgrimage to Rome (Wagner). Tod und Verkleirung (Strauss).

GRADE II.

Aida - Ballet Music (Verdi).

Don Juan (Strauss).

Fingal's Cave Overture (Mendelssohn).

The Flying Dutchman - Overture and Sailors' Chorus (Wagner).

The Magic Flute - Overture (Mozart).

The Merry Wives of Windsor - Overture (Nicolai).

The Marriage of Figaro - Overture (Mozart).

The Midsummer Night's Dream - Overture and Scherzo (Mendelssohn).

Oberon - Overture (Weber).

Pagliacci - Selection (Leoncavallo).

Les Preludes (Liszt).

Saint Elizabeth - Crusaders' March (Liszt).

Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov).

Siegfried - Forest Murmurs (Wagner).

Slavonic Dances Nos. 6 and 8 (Dvorak).

Symphony No. 6, 1st Movement (Beethoven).

Symphony No.8 (Unfinished) (Schubert).

Tristan and Isolde - Liebestod (Wagner).

GRADE III.

Götterdammerung - Siegfried's Funeral March (Wagner).

Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven).

Symphony No. 8 - Allegretto (Beethoven).

The Valkyrie - Wotan's Farewell and Fire Music (Wagner).

GRADE IV.

Casse Noisette Suite - Valse des Fleues (Tchaikovsky).

Lohengrin - Introduction to Act III. and Bridal Chorus (Wagner).

The Rhinegold - Entry of the Gods into Valhalla (Wagner).

Many of the Parlophone records are pressed from old German matrices, and as I have a number of records purchased in Germany before the English company was formed I have been able to compare the two issues. The English records are pressed from a material which gives a better surface, but apart from that I do not think they are quite as good as the German ones. The general impression left after hearing all these records is that though many of them are really excellent many more would have been equally good had a little more care been exercised in both recording and pressing. The general standard has improved considerably during the last few months, and I am hopeful that this improvement will continue and that we shall be given more fine records of the music upon which Herr Mörike is such an acknowledged authority.