Violinist and sometime conductor
Wolfgang Schneiderhan was a highly versatile artist, just as much at home in the music of
Hans Werner Henze as in
Beethoven,
Mozart, and
Schubert, even if he is best known for his playing of the last-named group of composers. Never quite a household name, he was nevertheless active in every aspect of Austria's music scene and was widely admired for the depth of his interpretive abilities.
Born in Vienna on May 28, 1915,
Schneiderhan was taught violin by his mother from age three and gave his first concert at five. In 1926, in Copenhagen, he played
Mendelssohn's violin concerto, and he subsequently toured Europe, hailed as a prodigy. However, the fast-money life of a touring virtuoso demoralized the young violinist, and he turned his career in a new direction: with the help of a recommendation from an aristocratic patroness, he became concertmaster of the new
Vienna Symphony at 17. Four years later, he moved on to the same post with the
Vienna Philharmonic, where he served under the great conductors
Wilhelm Furtwängler and
Hans Knappertsbusch. That year, he also formed the
Schneiderhan Quartett. In the 1940s, he performed duo sonatas with
Wilhelm Backhaus and other top-rank soloists, and he formed a trio with pianist
Edwin Fischer and cellist
Enrico Mainardi in 1948. He married
Irmgard Seefried that year and often performed with her as well over their 40-year marriage.
Schneiderhan's solo career took off once again when he resigned his
Philharmonic concertmaster post in 1949, at age 34. For many years, he ruled the roost among Deutsche Grammophon's stable of violin soloists. At first, he was identified with the core Viennese Classical repertoire, but he later became interested in contemporary music and explored the works of
Henze,
Stravinsky, and other composers. He co-founded the
Lucerne Festival Strings in 1956 and also taught at the Lucerne Music Academy. In the 1970s,
Schneiderhan undertook yet another new career: after studying with
Hans Swarowsky, he became active as a conductor. In 1975, he led a performance of
Franz Schmidt's Notre Dame at the Vienna Volksoper. Much in demand as a teacher in his later years,
Schneiderhan continued to live in Vienna, where he died on May 18, 2002. Since his death, many of his recordings have appeared in archival reissues on such labels as Deutsche Grammophon, BBC Legends, and Orfeo; among these, in 2019, was his recording of
Schubert's piano trios with cellist
Boris Pergamenschikow and pianist
Paul Badura-Skoda. ~ James Manheim