Record

CodeDS/UK/375
NameSchneiderhan; Wolfgang Eduard (Wolfi) (1915-2002); Austrian violinist
Variations of NameWolfi
Dates1915-2002
GenderMale
BiographySchneiderhan was born in Vienna in 1915. He performed publicly from the age of 10 and he lived in England for some time from 1929, where he appeared in concerts with artists such as Maria Jeritza, Feodor Chaliapin, Jan Kiepura and Paul Robeson.

He returned to Vienna to become the first Concertmaster of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra from 1933 to 1937, and from 1937 to 1951 led the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
He became a member of the Nazi Party in 1940.In September 1952 he made his benchmark Deutsche Grammophon recordings of all ten Beethoven violin sonatas with Wilhelm Kempff in the Konzerthaus, Mozartsaal, Vienna.He held teaching posts in Salzburg, Vienna and Lucerne. In 1956 he founded the Lucerne Festival Strings together with Rudolf Baumgartner. He gave the 1959 premiere of his friend Karl Amadeus Hartmann's revised Concerto funèbre.

Schneiderhan was married to the soprano Irmgard Seefried from 1948 until her death in 1988; they had three daughters. He died in his native Vienna in 2002, aged 86.

Related Events

Add to My Items