Röntgen, Julius

views updated

Röntgen, Julius

Röntgen, Julius , German-born Dutch pianist, conductor, pedagogue, and composer; b. Leipzig, May 9, 1855; d. Bilthoven, near Utrecht, Sept. 13, 1932. He studied music with his father, Engelbert Rontgen (1829–97), and later with Plaidy and Reinecke in Leipzig and F. Lachner in Munich. From 1877 to 1925 he taught in Amsterdam. He was conductor of the Soc. for the Promotion of Music (1886–98) and also a co-founder (1884) of the Amsterdam Cons., which he served as director from 1912 to 1924. He was a friend of Brahms and Grieg, and ed. the letters of Brahms to T. Engelmann (1918); publ. a biography of Grieg (1930). An astonishingly industrious composer, he wrote an enormous amount of music in every genre, cast in an expansive Romantic style: 21 syms., 7 piano concertos, 2 violin concertos, 2 cello concertos, 3 operas (Agnete, Samum, and Der lachende Kavalier), much chamber music, etc.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

More From encyclopedia.com