Hermann Noetzel

Hermann Noetzel (Wiesbaden, 10 April 1880 – Starnberg, 8 March 1951) was a German composer and conductor.

Hermann Noetzel in 1919

Signature of Hermann Noetzel

Early life and career

His father Wilhelm Noetzel (1838–1910) was a merchant and small-scale industrialist originally from Tilsit (now Sovetsk), East Prussia, who settled in Wiesbaden, where Noetzel was born. He studied piano at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt with James Kwast from 1896 to 1898 before moving to Sondershausen to pursue conducting.^[1] After guest conducting posts in Munich, Merseburg, and Koblenz, he devoted himself entirely to composition.

Public success and eclipse

The peak of Noetzel's career as a composer was the premiere of his opera Meister Guido in 1918. The work received an extraordinarily enthusiastic response from both critics and audiences, and was subsequently mounted in 20 further houses. In the 1920s, Noetzel withdrew more and more for public life and his works fell from the repertoire, although they were revived at the urging of the Reichsmusikkammer.^[2]

Selected works

Stage works

• Meister Guido, Komische Oper in 3 Akten. Libretto by the composer. Premiere 15 September 1918, Karlsruhe.^[3] Revived in the same city, 1937.
• Pierrots Sommernacht, Ballet-Pantomime in 1 Akt. Premiere 1924, Munich.^[4]
• Die Saligen, Oper in 3 Akten. Unperformed.
• Yvonne, Romantische Oper. Unperformed. (1930)

Orchestral music

• Fasching-Ouvertüre (1925)
• Frau Aventiure. Ouvertüre
• Cyclus aus dem Süden (1904/1910)
• Symphony No. 1 in A Major (1902)
• Symphony No. 2 in G minor (1905)
• Symphony No. 3 in one movement, "Der Ozean" (1905)
• Theater music for Der Traum ein Leben (1906)