Weingartner, (Paul) Felix (1863–1942)

Austrian conductor and composer. He was noted as a conductor of the classical repertoire, and especially of the works of Schubert and Beethoven. He wrote seven symphonies and several operas. His writings include books on conducting and on Beethoven's symphonies.

Weingartner studied at Graz, at the Leipzig Conservatory, and under Liszt at Weimar, where he produced his first opera in 1884. He became conductor at Königsberg, Gdańsk, Hamburg, and Mannheim before 1891, when he was appointed conductor of the Court Opera in Berlin and conductor of the symphony concerts. In 1898 he left for Munich to become conductor of the Kaim orchestra and in 1908 succeeded Mahler as chief conductor at the Vienna Hofoper. He resigned in 1911 but conducted Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra concerts until 1927 and continued to conduct throughout Europe and the USA, notably in the symphonies of Beethoven. At Covent Garden he conducted Wagner's Tannhäuser and Parsifal in 1939. The last years of his life he spent, still actively, in Switzerland, especially at Basel.

Works Opera Sakuntala (after Kalidasa, 1884), Malawika (1886), Genesius, Orestes trilogy (after Aeschylus, 1902), Kain und Abel (1914), Dame Kobold (after Calderón), Die Dorfschule, Meister Andrea, Der Apostat.

Incidental music incidental music for Shakespeare's Tempest and Goethe's Faust.

Orchestral seven symphonies (1899–1937), symphonic poem King Lear (after Shakespeare).

Other three string quartets; songs.