Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt (5 May 1900 Berlin – 28 May 1973, Holm-Holstein, Germany) was a German conductor and composer. He studied music in Heidelberg and Münster. He was also a composition student with Franz Schreker at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, and received a doctorate in 1923. He was a repetiteur at the Wuppertal Opera starting in 1923. He held conducting positions at the opera houses of Rostock (1928 - 1931) and Darmstadt (1931 - 1933). He had the post of first conductor at the Hamburg State Opera from 1935 to 1943. In 1944, he was named music director at the Berlin State Opera.

In 1945, after the end of World War II, the British military authorities invited Schmidt-Isserstedt to found an orchestra at the North German Radio in Hamburg. In six months, he assembled the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra and conducted its first concert in November 1945. He was subsequently the orchestra's first principal conductor. He became an advocate of music by composers whose music had been outlawed in Germany, such as Bartók, Stravinsky and Hindemith, during the Nazi regime. His favortite composer, however, was Mozart, and Schmidt became associated with his music through several recordings and notable performances of his works. In particular his recordings of Mozart's operas Idomeneo and La finta giardiniera are greatly admired.

From 1955 to 1964, he was principal conductor also of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. He conducted memorable performances of Le nozze di Figaro at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1958, and of Tristan und Isolde at Royal Opera, Covent Garden in 1962.

He made a well-regarded recording of all the Beethoven symphonies. In Germany, Schmidt-Isserstedt was a noted champion of the music of Michael Tippett. Schmidt-Isserstedt's own compositions included songs, the opera Hassan gewinnt (Rostock, 1928), and works for orchestra. His son was the British record producer Erik Smith.

References

1. Potts, Joseph E., "European Radio Orchestras: Western Germany" (September 1955). The Musical Times, 96 (1351): 473-475.
2. Obituary for Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt (1973). The Musical Times, 114 (1566): 734.

Recordings

In 1937 Dr. H. Schmidt-Isserstedt conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Prof. Georg Kulenkampff in a rendition of Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto In D Minor. The original has been restored and reissued by Heritage Records here.

Sources

• Hans Christoph Worbs. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, edited by Stanley Sadie (1992), ISBN 0-333-73432-7 and ISBN 1-56159-228-5

External links

• Biography at allmusic.com