Fried, Oskar
Fried, Oskar
Fried, Oskar, German-born Russian conductor and composer; b. Berlin, Aug. 10, 1871; d. Moscow, July 5, 1941. He studied with Humperdinck in Frankfurt am Main and P. Scharwenka in Berlin. He played the horn in various orchs. until the performance of his choral work with orch. Das trunkene Lied, given by Muck in Berlin (April 15, 1904), attracted much favorable attention; he continued to compose prolificacy. At the same time, he began his career as a conductor, achieving considerable renown in Europe; he was conductor of the Stern Choral Soc. in Berlin (from 1904), of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Berlin (1907–10), and of the Berlin Sym. Orch. (1925–26). He left Berlin in 1934 and went to Russia; became a naturalized Russian citizen in 1940. For several years he was conductor of the Tbilisi Opera; later was chief conductor of the All-Union Radio Orch. in Moscow.
Bibliography
P. Bekker, O. F. (Berlin, 1907); P. Stefan, O. F. (Berlin, 1911); D. Rabinovitz, O. F. (Moscow, 1971).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire