Selmar Meyrowitz

An active recording artist in both Germany and France, Meyrowitz recorded many short works, typical of the period, with the Berlin State Opera and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras: for example the overtures to Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor. In addition he directed the accompaniment to numerous operatic recordings by singers of the day such as Joseph Schmidt, Helge Roswaenge, Anni Frind and Luise Willer. Among the most significant of his Berlin recordings were those of the fourth movement, Urlicht, from Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’, and one of the Rückert songs, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, with Sarah Charles-Cahier. The daughter of an American general, Charles-Cahier was engaged by Mahler to sing at the Vienna Court Opera in 1906; she sang in the first performance of Das Lied von der Erde under Bruno Walter in Munich in 1911, and at the 1920 Mahler Festival in Amsterdam organised by Willem Mengelberg. Meyrowitz’s recordings made in Paris included, as well as such usual short works as the overture to Weber’s Oberon, larger-scale repertoire: for instance the first recording of Liszt’s Faust Symphony, Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 ‘Unfinished’, and Liszt’s Les Préludes, Hungarian Fantasy, Totentanz, and orchestral arrangement of Schubert’s ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy, the last three with the pianist Edward Kilenyi.