Georg Schnéevoigt

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This article is about the Finnish conductor. For the Danish film director, see George Schnéevoigt.

Georg Schnéevoigt (8 November 1872 – 28 November 1947) was a Finnish conductor and cellist, born in Vyborg, Grand Duchy of Finland, which is now in Russia.

Schnéevoigt began his career as a cellist performing throughout Europe in the 1890s.^[1] He was principal cellist of the Helsinki Philharmonic from 1896 to 1902. After this he conducted many orchestras including the Kaim Orchestra, now the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Stockholm Concert Society which was to become the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Sydney Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Georg Schnéevoigt from 1930 until his death in 1947 was leading conductor for the Malmö Symphony Orchestra.

Schnéevoigt was a close friend of composer Jean Sibelius and often performed Sibelius's orchestral music. He discovered the manuscripts of Sibelius's pieces Lemminkäinen and the Maidens, and Lemminkäinen in Tuonela which had been thought lost and gave their first performance.^[2] He also made the first recording of Sibelius's Symphony No. 6.

By an accounting of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Schnéevoigt's conducting style was characterised as "flaccid," "paunchy," "phlegmatic," and "plodding," with "little or no sense of direction so far as discipline was concerned." This notwithstanding, his passion for the music of Sibelius was such that he cried when conducting his works. ^[3]

Schnéevoigt died in Malmö, Sweden in 1947 at age 75.

[edit] References

^ FRSO Conductors. Finnish Radio Symphony. Retrieved on 2007-05-28.
^ "Fragment Found", Time, 09 Oct 1939. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
^ Mark Swed (31 Aug 2003). The Salonen-Gehry axis. CalenderLive.com. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2007-05-28.

[edit] External links

Georg Schnéevoigt biography

Preceded by none	Principal Conductors, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic 1915–1924	Succeeded by Václav Talich
Preceded by Robert Kajanus	Principal Conductors, Helsinki Philharmonic 1932–1940	Succeeded by Armas Järnefelt

v • d • e Munich Philharmonic Music Directors

Hans Winderstein (1893) · Hermann Zumpe (1895) · Ferdinand Löwe (1897) · Felix Weingartner (1898) · Georg Schnéevoigt (1905) · Ferdinand Löwe (1908) · Hans Pfitzner (1919) · Siegmund von Hausegger (1920) · Oswald Kabasta (1938) · Hans Rosbaud (1945) · Fritz Rieger (1949) · Rudolf Kempe (1967) · Sergiu Celibidache (1979) · James Levine (1999) · Christian Thielemann

v • d • e Oslo-Filharmonien Music Directors

Johan Halvorsen / Ignaz Neumark / Georg Schnéevoigt (1919) · José Eibenschütz (1921) · Issay Dobrowen (1927) · Odd Grüner-Hegge (1931) · Olav Kielland (1931) · Odd Grüner-Hegge (1945) · Herbert Blomstedt (1962) · Øivin Fjeldstad (1962) · Miltiades Caridis (1969) · Okko Kamu (1975) · Mariss Jansons (1979) · André Previn (2002) · Jukka-Pekka Saraste (2006)

v • d • e Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Directors

Walter Henry Rothwell (1919) · Georg Schnéevoigt (1927) · Artur Rodziński (1929) · Otto Klemperer (1933) · Alfred Wallenstein (1943) · Eduard van Beinum (1956) · Zubin Mehta (1962) · Carlo Maria Giulini (1978) · André Previn (1985) · Esa-Pekka Salonen (1992)