Editing Franz Schmidt (composer) (section)

== Life ==
Schmidt was born in [[Pressburg|Pozsony/Pressburg]], in the [[Transleithania|Hungarian part]] of [[Austria-Hungary]] (today [[Bratislava]], [[Slovakia]]) to a half-Hungarian father – with the same name, born in the same city<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/omz/21/1/article-p31.xml| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210115061025/https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/omz/21/1/article-p31.xml| archive-date = 2021-01-15| title = Eine Franz Schmidt-Gedenktafel in Preßburg in: Österreichische Musikzeitschrift Volume 21 Issue 1 (1966)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hungarytoday.hu/franz-schmidt-hungarian-roots-and-the-legacy-of-late-romanticism/|title=Franz Schmidt: His Hungarian Roots and the Legacy of Late Romanticism|website=Hungarytoday.hu|date=February 11, 2024|access-date=December 22, 2024}}</ref> – and to a Hungarian mother, Mária Ravasz.<ref name="autogenerated1939"/> He was a Roman Catholic.<ref name="autogenerated1939"/>

His earliest teacher was his mother, Mária Ravasz, an accomplished pianist, who gave him a systematic instruction in the keyboard works of [[Johann Sebastian Bach|J. S. Bach]]. He received a foundation in theory from {{ill|Felizian Josef Moczik|de}}, the organist at the Franciscan church in Pressburg.<ref>Biographical note in insert to Amadeo recording AVRS 5004-5005.</ref> He studied [[piano]] briefly with [[Theodor Leschetizky]], with whom he clashed. He moved to [[Vienna]] with his family in 1888, and studied at the [[University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna|Vienna Conservatory]] (composition with [[Robert Fuchs (composer)|Robert Fuchs]], [[cello]] with [[Ferdinand Hellmesberger]], and, for a few lessons, counterpoint with [[Anton Bruckner]], who was already seriously ill at that time<ref>Carl Nemeth: Franz Schmidt. Wien 1957, p. 43. Cited in: [http://www.abil.at/Datenbank_Scheder/Bruckner_Chronologie.php?we_objectID=21605 Anton Bruckner Institut Linz – Anton Bruckner Chronologie Datenbank]</ref>), graduating "with excellence" in 1896.

He obtained a post as cellist with the Vienna Court Opera Orchestra, where he played until 1914, often under [[Gustav Mahler]]. Mahler habitually had Schmidt play all the cello solos, even though [[Friedrich Buxbaum]] was the principal cellist. Schmidt was also in demand as a chamber musician. Schmidt and [[Arnold Schoenberg]] maintained cordial relations despite their vast differences in eventual outlook and style (Schmidt certainly shows a perceptible influence from Schoenberg's early, tonal works such as ''[[Verklärte Nacht]]'', Op. 4, in whose Viennese première he participated as cellist, the ''[[Chamber Symphony No. 1]]'', Op. 9 and the gigantic cantata ''[[Gurre-Lieder]]''. Unable to procure a teaching position for Schoenberg at the academy, Schmidt rehearsed his students in a performance of ''[[Pierrot Lunaire]]'', Op. 21 which Schoenberg warmly praised). Also a brilliant pianist, in 1914 Schmidt took up a professorship in piano at the Vienna Conservatory, which had been recently renamed [[University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna|Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts]]. (Apparently, when asked who the greatest living pianist was, [[Leopold Godowsky]] replied, "The other one is Franz Schmidt."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x5IJAQAAMAAJ&q=Leopold+Godowsky+replied,+%22The+other+one+is+Franz+Schmidt.%22 |title=The Strad: A Monthly Journal for Professionals and Amateurs of All Stringed Instruments Played with the Bow |date=1989 |publisher=Lavendar Publications |pages=486 |language=en}}</ref>) In 1925 he became Director of the academy, and from 1927 to 1931 its Rector.

As teacher of piano, cello and counterpoint and composition at the academy, Schmidt trained numerous instrumentalists, conductors, and composers who later achieved fame. Among his best-known students were the pianist [[Friedrich Wührer]] and [[Alfred Rosé]] (son of [[Arnold Rosé]], the founder of the Rosé Quartet, Konzertmeister of the [[Vienna Philharmonic]] and brother-in-law of [[Gustav Mahler]]). Among the composers were [[Walter Bricht]] (his favourite student), [[Theodor Berger]], [[Marcel Rubin]], [[Alfred Uhl]] and [[Ľudovít Rajter]]. He received many tokens of the high esteem in which he was held, notably the [[Order of Franz Joseph]], and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Vienna.<ref>This paragraph taken from German Wikipedia. {{unreliable source|date=December 2024}}</ref>

Schmidt's private life was in stark contrast to the success of his distinguished professional career. His first wife, Karoline Perssin (c. 1880–1943), was confined in the Vienna mental hospital [[Steinhof (Vienna)|Am Steinhof]] in 1919, and three years after his death was murdered under the [[Aktion T4|Nazi euthanasia program]]. Their daughter Emma Schmidt Holzschuh (1902–1932, married 1929) died unexpectedly after the birth of her first child. Schmidt experienced a spiritual and physical breakdown after this, and achieved an artistic revival and resolution in his [[Symphony No. 4 (Franz Schmidt)|Fourth Symphony]] of 1933 (which he inscribed as "Requiem for my Daughter") and, especially, in his oratorio ''[[The Book with Seven Seals]]''. His second marriage in 1923, to a successful young piano student Margarethe Jirasek (1891–1964), for the first time brought some desperately needed stability into the private life of the artist, who was plagued by many serious health problems.<ref>This paragraph re-worked from German Wikipedia.  {{unreliable source|date=December 2024}}</ref>
[[File:Franz Schmidt - Grab.JPG|thumb|His grave in Vienna's Zentralfriedhof]]
Schmidt's worsening health forced his retirement from the academy in early 1937. In the last year of his life Austria was brought into the [[German Reich]] by the [[Anschluss]], and Schmidt was feted by the Nazi authorities as the greatest living composer of the so-called [[Ostmark (Austria)|Ostmark]]. He was given a commission to write a cantata entitled ''The German Resurrection'', which, after 1945, was taken by many as a reason to brand him as having been tainted by Nazi sympathy. However, Schmidt left this composition unfinished, and in the summer and autumn of 1938, a few months before his death, set it aside to devote himself to two other commissioned works for the one-armed pianist [[Paul Wittgenstein]]: the Quintet in A major for piano left-hand, clarinet, and string trio; and the Toccata in D minor for solo piano.
Schmidt died on 11 February 1939.<ref>This paragraph from German Wikipedia.  {{unreliable source|date=December 2024}}</ref>