Löwe, Ferdinand
Löwe, Ferdinand
Löwe, Ferdinand, noted Austrian conductor; b. Vienna, Feb. 19, 1865; d. there, Jan. 6, 1925. He studied with Dachs, Krenn, and Bruckner at the Vienna Cons., then taught piano and choral singing there (1883–96) and was conductor of the Vienna Singakademie (1896–98). In 1897 he became conductor of the Kaim Orch. in Munich; then of the Court Opera in Vienna (1898–1900) and of the Vienna Gesellschaftskonzerte (1900–1904). In 1904 he became conductor of the newly organized Vienna Konzertverein Orch., which he made one of the finest instrumental bodies in Europe. He returned to Munich as conductor of the Konzertverein Orch. (1908–14), which comprised members of the former Kaim Orch. From 1918 to 1922 he was head of the Vienna Academy of Music. He was a friend and trusted disciple of Bruckner; ed. (somewhat liberally) several of Bruckner’s works, including his Fourth Sym., preparing a new Finale (1887–88); he also made a recomposed version of his unfinished 9th Sym., which he conducted in Vienna with Bruckner’s Te Deum in lieu of the unfinished Finale (Feb. 11, 1903).
Bibliography
R. Rauner, F.L.: Leben und Wirken: Eine Wiener Musiker zwischen Anton Bruckner und Gustav Mahler (Frankfurt am Main, 1995).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire