Redlich, Hans F(erdinand)
Redlich, Hans F(erdinand)
Redlich, Hans F(erdinand) , Austrian-born English conductor, musicologist, and composer; b. Vienna, Feb. 11, 1903; d. Manchester, Nov. 27, 1968. He studied piano and composition, but devoted his energies mainly to writing biographical and analytical books on composers; he was only 16 when he publ. an essay on Mahler. After taking courses at the univs. of Vienna and Munich, he obtained his Ph.D. at the Univ. of Frankfurt am Main with the diss. Das Problem des Stilwandels in Monteverdis Madrigalwerk (pubi, in Berlin, 1931; 2nd ed., aug., 1932, as Claudio Monteverdi: I. Das Madrigalwerk). He conducted opera in Mainz (1925–29); then lived in Mannheim. In 1939 he emigrated to England and in 1947 became a naturalized British subject. From 1941 to 1955 he conducted the Choral and Orch. Soc. in Letch-worth and also was a lecturer for the extramural depts. of the univs. of Cambridge and Birmingham. From 1955 to 1962 he was a lecturer at the Reid School of Music at the Univ. of Edinburgh; then was at the Univ. of Manchester (1962–68).
Writings
Gustav Mahler: Eine Erkenntnis (Nuremberg, 1919); Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde, Lohengrin, Parsifal (London, 1948; 3rd ed., 1951); Claudio Monteverdi: Leben und Werk (Ölten, 1949; Eng. tr., 1952); Bruckner and Mahler (London, 1955; 2nd ed., rev., 1963); Alban Berg: Versuch einer Würdigung (Vienna, 1957; Condensed Eng. version, 1957, as Alban Berg: The Man and His Music).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire