Carl Bergmann in New York: Conducting activity 1852--1876
Item
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Title
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Carl Bergmann in New York: Conducting activity 1852--1876
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:75c83d80f686:11266
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identifier
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11323
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Creator
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Reichert, Matthew,
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Contributor
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John Graziano | Sylvia Kahan
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Date
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2011
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Music | Biographies
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Abstract
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Carl Bergmann (1821--1876), a cellist and conductor born in Ebersbach, Saxony, emigrated from Vienna to New York in November 1849, a refugee from the political turmoil of 1848. In April 1850 he joined the cello section of the Germania Orchestra, which was then based in Baltimore; in July he was elected conductor of that ensemble. After the dissolution of the Germania in 1854, Bergmann briefly served as the conductor of the Philharmonic Society of Chicago before settling in New York. There he had a profound impact on concert life, establishing himself as the pivotal figure in the integration of the symphonic and operatic works of Liszt, Wagner, Schumann, and Berlioz into the standard repertory.;Bergmann's initial claim to fame as a conductor in New York was his own series of orchestral concerts which took place on Sunday evenings at the City Assembly Rooms. The programs in this series, which appealed to a mainly but not exclusively German immigrant audience, included New York premieres of the works of progressive composers of the day, and functioned as a springboard for later performances by local philharmonic societies and opera companies that served a wider public. Scholars that have studied this period have generally overlooked Bergmann's early freelance activity. This may be attributed to the fact that his Sunday concert series was almost exclusively covered by the New York German press, which (up to now) has not been carefully chronicled. In this dissertation I assess Bergmann's contributions to musical life in mid nineteenth-century New York City, his choice of repertory, which is evidence of his forward-looking artistic agenda, and its reception by the public and the New York press.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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D.M.A.
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Program
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Music
