Mottl, Felix

Mottl, Felix

(fā`lēks mō`təl), 1856–1911, Austrian conductor. He assisted Wagner in preparing the first Bayreuth Festival, at which he conducted the Ring cycle. Mottl conducted (1881–1903) at the court at Karlsruhe, where he produced the complete cycle of Berlioz's operas. In 1904 he became director of the Vienna Philharmonic and in 1907 director of the Court Opera. Mottl made important editions of Berlioz's operas and of works by Bellini, Wagner, Liszt, and other composers.

Mottl, Felix

 

Born Aug. 24, 1856, in Unter-St.-Veit, near Vienna; died July 2, 1911, in Munich. Austrian conductor and composer.

Mottl attended the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied composition with F. Dessoff, music theory with A. Bruckner, and conducting with J. Hellmesberger. In 1881 he became conductor at the grand-ducal opera house in Karlsruhe and until 1892 was director of the Philharmonic Society of Karlsruhe (in 1893 he became its general music director). In 1903, Mottl became an opera conductor and in 1904, a conductor at the Academy of Music (with H. Bussmeyer) in Munich. He made many concert tours, which included appearances in Moscow and St. Petersburg (1910, 1911).

Mottl was one of the outstanding representatives of the German school of conducting and an eminent interpreter of the works of R. Wagner. He composed musical works and made a number of arrangements and adaptations for orchestra of other composers’ pieces.