Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Amazing Violinist

Wolfgang Schneiderhan (1915 – 2002) was one of the most celebrated violinist of his time for almost three decades, especially in the German speaking countries. Born in Vienna and trained at the Bohemian-Viennese violin school, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert were at the center of his repertoire.

Therefore it is also their works that impressively exemplify his extraordinary talent in this 10-CD collection. At the age of seventeen, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra appointed him as their concertmaster. He remained there until 1937, then changed to the Vienna Philharmonic in the same capacity from 1937 to 1950 and soon founded the string quartet named after him with other musicians of this world-famous orchestra.

His love for chamber music can also be heard in the trio recordings with Edwin Fischer and Enrico Mainardi, as well as with the piano partners Wilhelm Kempff and Carl Seemann in this collection.

In 1955 Schneiderhan co-founded the Festival Strings Lucerne, whose first recording of the Beethoven Concerto op.61 was conducted by Herbert von Karajan. It is a part of this collection as well as one of the first Schneiderhan concert recordings: Brahms op.77 from 1942 with the Sachsische Staatskapelle Dresden under Karl Bohm.

Contents performed on this CD are as follows: