Schreker, Franz (1878–1934)

Austrian composer, conductor, and teacher. He conducted the first performance of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder in 1913. His operas were late Romantic in expression and popular in the 1920s; first performances were conducted by Otto Klemperer (at Cologne) and Bruno Walter (at Munich).

He studied under Fuchs in Vienna, and founded the Philharmonic Choir there in 1911. He taught at the Imperial Academy of Music until his appointment as director of the Academy of Music in Berlin in 1920; he was forced by the Nazis to resign in 1933.

Works Opera Flammen (1902), Der ferne Klang (1912), Die Gezeichneten (1918), Der Schatzgräber (1920), Irrelohe (1924), Christophorus (1924–29; produced 1978); pantomime Der Geburtstag der Infantin (after Wilde, 1908; reworked as Spanisches Fest, 1927).

Orchestral Chamber symphony for 23 solo instruments (1917; also in version for full orchestra, as Sinfonietta), Kleine Suite for small orchestra (1931).

Vocal Zwei lyrische Gesänge for voice and orchestra to poems by Whitman (1929); 43 Lieder to texts by Heyse, Tolstoy, and Scherenberg (1895–1916).