Robert Karl Friedrich Reitz (17 June 1884 – April 1951) was a Swiss violinist and university lecturer. He was
concert master of the
Staatskapelle Weimar
The (DNT), or German National Theater and Weimar State Orchestra, is the most significant arts organization in Weimar. The institution unites the (German National Theater) with the (Weimar State Orchestra). It plays on a total of six stages ...
, first violinist of the Reitz Quartet and professor at the
Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar
The University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar (in German: Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar) is an institution of music in Weimar, Germany.
The Hochschule
Franz Liszt, who spent a great deal of his life in Weimar, encouraged the founding o ...
.
Life
Reitz was born in 1884 in
Burgdorf as the son of the Burgdorf music director Georg Friedrich "Fritz" Reitz (18581956). He received his first violin lessons from his father and began to perform publicly at the age of eight. After attending the grammar school in his home town, he went to Germany and studied violin with
Hans Sitt, theory with Paul Quasdorf and
chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...
with
Carl Reinecke
Carl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke (23 June 182410 March 1910) was a German composer, conductor, and pianist in the mid-Romantic era.
Biography
Reinecke was born in what is today the Hamburg district of Altona; technically he was born a Dane, as u ...
, Carl Herrmann and
Julius Klengel at the
University of Music and Theatre Leipzig
The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig () is a public university in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn as the Conservatorium der Musik (Conservatory of Music), it is the oldest univ ...
. He also played with the
Gewandhausorchester
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhausorchester; also previously known in German as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) is a German symphony orchestra based in Leipzig, Germany. The orchestra is named after the concert hall in which it is bas ...
. In 1906, he went to
Felix Berber
Karl Heinrich Felix Berber (11 March 1871 – 2 November 1930) was a German violinist.
Life
Born in Jena, Berber was the youngest child of music and art-loving parents. He spent the first part of his childhood in Weimar, where the family moved ...
in Munich. In 1912, he had lessons with
Hugo Heermann
Hugo Heermann (3 March 1844, in Heilbronn – 6 November 1935, in Meran, Italy) was a German violinist. He studied the violin with Lambert Joseph Meerts at the Koninklijk Conservatorium (Brussels), Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussels, and later ...
and
Carl Flesch
Carl Flesch (born Károly Flesch, 9 October 1873 – 14 November 1944) was a Hungarian classical violinist and teacher. Flesch’s compendium ''Scale System'' is a staple of violin pedagogy.
Life and career
Flesch was born in Moson (now part of ...
.
He found his first employment as concert master in 1904 in Majorenhof near Riga. From 1904 to 1906, he was concertmaster, solo violinist and conductor of the Görlitz City Orchestra. In 1906/07, he took up a position as concertmaster and solo violinist at the Philharmonic Orchestra of Wroclaw. Afterwards, he was 1st concertmaster, quartet leader and conductor at the
Theater Kiel and at the orchestra of the . During the summer months, he also conducted the Kurkapelle in Westerland.
In 1909, Reitz took over the post of 1st concertmaster at the
Staatskapelle Weimar
The (DNT), or German National Theater and Weimar State Orchestra, is the most significant arts organization in Weimar. The institution unites the (German National Theater) with the (Weimar State Orchestra). It plays on a total of six stages ...
, and in 1915 he was appointed court concertmaster. From 1909 to 1935 he was head of a violin class (from 1926 a university class) at the Staatliche Musikschule Weimar (from 1930
Weimar Conservatory); in 1919, he received a professorat. Among his pupils were among others
Marlene Dietrich
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however, Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...
, with whom he occasionally had an affair. Since Reitz had many fields of activity as a musician,
Bruno Hinze-Reinhold additionally engaged the Berlin pedagogue
Paul Elgers. In 1920, Reitz temporarily left the music school. In addition to his position as concertmaster, he was primarius of the Reitz Quartet in various formations from 1909 to 1945. In addition, together with
Eduard Rosé
Eduard Rosé (born Eduard Rosenblum (29 March 1859 – 24 January 1943) was a German cellist and concert master.
Life
Born in Iași (Romania), Born "Rosenblum", Rosé received his artistic education at the conservatory of the Gesellschaft der ...
(violoncello) and Bruno Hinze-Reinhold (piano) he formed the Weimar Trio. His successor became the violin virtuoso
Max Strub. Although Reitz had become a member of the
NSDAP
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...
, the Nazis saw him as a competitor and he was transferred back from the orchestra to the Musikhochschule in 1934. Reitz was an arranger of violin concertos (Tartini, Pisendel and Stamitz) and the Mystery Sonatas of Bieber. He also reconstructed Bach's
Violin concert in D minor from
BWV
The (, ; BWV) is a Catalogues of classical compositions, catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990 and the third edition in ...
1052, which he published at
Breitkopf & Härtel
Breitkopf & Härtel () is a German Music publisher, music publishing house. Founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, it is the world's oldest music publisher.
Overview
The catalogue contains over 1,000 composers, 8,000 works ...
. During his Weimar years, he had a significant influence on the musical life of the city.
In 1942, he moved back to Switzerland and thus escaped
denazification
Denazification () was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by removing those who had been Nazi Par ...
after the war. From 1945 to 1951 he was concert master at .
Reitz was married and father of three children.
Awards
* 1911: Silver medal for art and science ( Saxe-Coburg and Gotha )
Further reading
*
Albert Bruckner: ''Neue Schweizer Biographie''. Buchdruck zum Basler Berichtshaus, Basel 1938.
* Wolfram Huschke: ''Reitz, Robert.'' In Gitta Günther, Wolfram Huschke, Walter Steiner (eds.): ''Weimar: Lexikon zu Stadtgeschichte''. Metzler, Weimar 1998, , .
* Erich H. Müller (ed.): ''Deutsches Musiker-Lexikon''. W. Limpert-Verlag, Dresden 1929.
*
Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski: ''Die Violine und ihre Meister''.
''Die Violine und ihre Meister''
on WorldCat 6th edition, Breitkopf & Härtel
Breitkopf & Härtel () is a German Music publisher, music publishing house. Founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, it is the world's oldest music publisher.
Overview
The catalogue contains over 1,000 composers, 8,000 works ...
, Leipzig 1920, .
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reitz, Robert
1884 births
1951 deaths
Swiss classical violinists
Swiss Nazis
Concertmasters
Nazi Party members
Musicians from Bern