Editing Anton Seidl (section)

==Biography==
He was born in [[Pest, Hungary|Pest]], Austria-Hungary, where he began the study of music at a very early age. When only seven years old, he could pick out at the piano melodies which he had heard in the theatre. At 15, he became a student of [[harmony]] and [[counterpoint]] under Nicolitsch.{{clarify|date=March 2024|reason=Who?}} He attended the normal school at Pest for three years, the [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] for eight years. At age 16 he had been thinking of becoming a priest. Seidl entered the [[Eötvös Loránd University|Royal University of Pest]],<ref name="SzabolcsiTóth">{{cite book|author1=[[Bence Szabolcsi]]|author2=[[Aladár Tóth]]|chapter=Seidl Antal|title=Zenei lexikon|publisher= Zeneműkiadó Vállalat|date= 1965|page=III. k. 322}}</ref> but his love for music prevailed and he left the university two years later to go to [[Leipzig]], where he studied at the [[University of Music and Theatre Leipzig|Leipzig Conservatory]] from October 1870, remaining there until 1872, when he was summoned to [[Bayreuth]] as one of [[Richard Wagner]]'s copyists.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Seidl, Anton|volume=24|page=586}}</ref>

At Bayreuth, he assisted in making the first fair copy of ''[[Der Ring des Nibelungen]]''. Wagner treated him as one of the "chosen few", and it was natural that he should take a part in the first [[Bayreuth Festival]] in 1876.<ref name="EB1911"/> Wagner then sent him to Vienna to stage ''[[Siegfried (opera)|Siegfried]]'' and ''[[Götterdämmerung]]'' there, the last two of his operatic tetralogy, ''[[Der Ring des Nibelungen]]''.

His chance as a conductor came in 1879 when, on Wagner's recommendation, he was appointed to the [[Leipzig Opera|Leipzig State Opera]]. In May 1881, he introduced at the {{ill|Victoria Theatre, Berlin|de|Victoria-Theater|}}, the complete Ring tetralogy for the first time. In 1882, he went on tour with [[Angelo Neumann]]'s Nibelungen Ring company. The critics attributed much of the artistic success that attended the production of the Ring at [[Her Majesty's Theatre, London]], in June of that year to his conducting.<ref name="EB1911"/> In 1883 Seidl went with Neumann to Bremen, and in 1884 he married {{ill|Auguste Kraus|de}} in Frankfurt, a distinguished singer of the German Opera Company.<ref>[[#FinckMarriage|Finck 1899]]</ref>

In 1885, after [[Leopold Damrosch]]'s death, Seidl accepted the first conductor’s position of the German opera in New York,<ref name="SzabolcsiTóth" /> then domiciled at the [[Metropolitan Opera House (39th Street)|Metropolitan Opera House]],{{sfn|Krehbiehl|1899}} where Seidl made his debut with Wagner's ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]'' on 23 November 1885.

Seidl, as celebrated conductor of the musical life in New York, became the music director of the [[New York Philharmonic]] in 1891, where he remained until his death in 1898. During his tenure, the Philharmonic enjoyed a period of unprecedented success and prosperity. Under his baton the orchestra played for the first time in [[Carnegie Hall]] on 18 November 1892.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/f375b05e-e883-46e5-b365-e68069825a6f-0.1|title=NYPO concert on 1892. Nov. 18|date=18 November 1892 |publisher=[[New York Philharmonic]] Digital Archives|access-date=2024-03-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831040556/http://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/ec43b944-1e2a-4a0a-a1e2-287f40ee6269?search-type=singleFilter&search-text=Carnegie+Hall&doctype=&sort-order=asc&sort-column=npp:SortDate&page=2|archive-date=31 August 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> While in New York, he conducted the world premiere of [[Antonín Dvořák]]'s [[Symphony No. 9 (Dvořák)|Symphony No. 9, "From the New World"]], which greatly influenced the direction of American classical music. Dvořák had added that subtitle to the title page of his autograph score in Carnegie Hall just before turning it over to Seidl.

[[File:Urn of Life verso 1908.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|''Urn of Life'']]
He also had a significant role in the genesis of [[Edvard Grieg]]'s ''[[Lyric Suite (Grieg)|Lyric Suite]]''. It started as Seidl's [[orchestration]]s of four pieces from Book V of Grieg's ''[[Lyric Pieces]]'', which he put together as ''Norwegian Suite''. While Grieg acknowledged the merit of the [[arrangement]]s, he nevertheless chose to revise them in 1905, and published three of them, along with an arrangement of a fourth piece he made himself directly from the original piano score, into his own ''Lyric Suite''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.572403&catNum=572403&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English|title=Naxos|website=www.naxos.com|accessdate=6 January 2023|archive-date=7 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160807135055/http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.572403&catNum=572403&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[http://www.classicalarchives.com/work/104732.html#tvf=tracks&tv=about Classical Archives]</ref>

On March 28, 1898, Seidl died from [[Foodborne illness|food poisoning]] (then erroneously called "ptomaine poisoning") reportedly caused from eating a serving of tainted fish.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://nyti.ms/3ViqUX4|title=Death of Anton Seidl|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=March 29, 1898|page=1}}</ref> He was 47 years old. Several thousand people attended the memorial, held at the [[Metropolitan Opera House (39th Street)|Metropolitan Opera House]], with the cremation following in [[Fresh Pond, Queens]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1898/04/01/archives/anton-seidls-funeral-public-memorial-demonstration-held-at-the.html|title=Anton Seidl's Funeral|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=1898-04-01|page=7|access-date=2017-08-30}}</ref> He was an atheist.<ref>[[Michael Steinberg (music critic)|Michael Steinberg]] (1995). ''The Symphony – A Listener's Guide''. Oxford University Press. p. 149. {{ISBN|9780199761326}}. "For all that Seidl's atheism made the devout Dvořák uneasy, the two men were good friends."</ref>

===Urn of Life===
Seidl's friends and colleagues commissioned sculptor [[George Grey Barnard]] to create a marble burial urn to hold the conductor's ashes. After Seidl's widow declined the large ornate urn, Barnard carved a smaller, simplified version, which now holds both their ashes. The unused ''[[Urn of Life]]'' was sold by Barnard in 1919 to the [[Carnegie Museum of Art]] in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.<ref>[https://collection.cmoa.org/objects/89226709-11fe-4ecd-880d-0ec7123ea2e6 "''Urn of Life''"], [[Carnegie Museum of Art]]</ref>