Selmar Meyrowitz/Berlin Philharmonic - Dance of the Hours ('La Gioconda' - Ponchielli) (1932)

Selmar Meyrowitz conducts the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 'Dance of the Hours,' recorded by Telefunken in Berlin c. June 1932 and transferred by me from Telefunken E 1710. From German Wikipedia (translated): Selmar Meyrowitz (born April 18, 1875 in Bartenstein, German Empire; died March 25, 1941 in Toulouse; real name Salomon Reinmar Meyerowitz) was a German conductor. Meyrowitz's parents were the Chazan (cantor) Abraham Meyerowitz (born 1848 in Neustadt, Kaunas Governorate; died 1920 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf) and Henriette Meyerowitz, née Reinus (born 1848/49 in Tapiau; died 1917 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf). After attending high school in Stolp (Pomerania), Meyrowitz studied at the Leipzig Conservatory with Carl Reinecke and Salomon Jadassohn from 1894 to 1896 and with Max Bruch at the 'Master School for Composition' of the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin from 1896 to 1898 . As an assistant to Felix Mottl, he worked as a co-repetiteur at the Hoftheater Karlsruhe from 1898 to 1901 and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1901 to 1902. He then toured throughout the United States as a piano accompanist for the soprano Johanna Gadski. After returning to Europe, Meyrowitz again worked as a solo accompanist from 1905 to 1907 at the Deutsches Landestheater in Prague. As a theatre conductor, he worked from 1907 to 1909 at the Stadttheater Danzig, from 1909 to 1910 at the (old) Komische Oper Berlin, from 1911 to 1912 at the Kurfürsten-Oper Berlin, from 1912 to 1913 at the Münchner Hoftheater, and from 1913 to 1918 as lead conductor at the Hamburger Stadttheater, interrupted by his participation in the First World War. From 1917 to 1922, he regularly conducted concerts of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; from 1919 to 1924, he worked mainly as a concert conductor; and from 1920 to 1921, he conducted the Blüthner Orchestra. Tours took him through the Netherlands, Italy, and Sweden. From 1924 to 1927, he was a conductor at the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, alongside Erich Kleiber and George Szell. He then turned to radio and recordings: from 1928 to 1933, he was a frequent guest conductor of the Funk-Stunde Berlin and conducted the Berlin Radio Orchestra, and from 1929 to 1932, he worked as the resident conductor of the newly founded record company Ultraphon. Selmar Meyrowitz conducted the world premiere of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's opera Der Schmuck der Madonna at the Kurfürsten-Oper on December 23, 1911 , the Hamburg premiere of the opera Der ferne Klang by Franz Schreker on March 31, 1913, and the world premiere of the Eichendorff cantata Von deutscher Seele by Hans Pfitzner in Berlin on January 27, 1922 . As the designated director of the Berlin State Opera, he had to flee to Paris in 1933. There, he recorded the  first complete recording of Franz Liszt's Faust Symphony for Pathé in 1935, and he conducted the first French production  of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera in 1937. After the occupation of Paris by the German Wehrmacht in May 1940, Meyrowitz fled to southern France. He died in Toulouse from the hardships of flight and exile. The exact date of death is disputed, with various sources citing March 23, 24, or 25, 1941. In 1909, he married  Margarete 'Grete' Braun, née Neumann. The couple had a son, Peter (b. February 16, 1912), who later  worked as a film editor. Nothing is known about the fate of Margarete and Peter Meyrowitz after 1941. Tributes: 'He [Meyrowitz] is, after all, one of the last of those conductors of the Bayreuth School who were co-founders of the modern German musical life reformed by Richard Wagner. As a student, colleague, and friend of Felix Mottl, he carried on the legacy of the great German master through his most devoted disciple. […] He turned more and more to the rapidly emerging art of radio broadcasting, conducting for radio and on records. He soon mastered this new field like no other; he understood how to meet the cultural demands of radio through interesting arrangements of old, long-lost music, and he adapted so well to the peculiarities of recording technology—especially the phonograph record—that he came to occupy a position on the German record scene comparable to that of Stokowski.' (P. Walter Jacob: …On His Sixtieth Birthday.) Internationally, Meyrowitz appeared mostly as a conductor of light music. Thus, a description of a concert he conducted in Berlin—featuring several short pieces—includes the following statement, which is both laudatory and critical: 'The program was stylish, but a suite of suites is simply not everyone’s cup of tea. Meyrowitz conducted with a light touch and a lighthearted spirit, once again delivering a convincing demonstration of his finely nuanced conducting artistry. The Philharmonic Orchestra supported him devotedly.'