Stresemann, Wolfgang

Stresemann, Wolfgang, German conductor and orchestral Intendant; b. Dresden, July 20, 1904; d. Berlin, Nov. 6, 1998. His father, Gustav Stresemann, was the distinguished chancellor and foreign minister of the Weimar Republic. He was educated in Berlin, Heidelberg, and Erlangen (Dr.Jur., 1928), and also studied music in Berlin. After the Nazis came to power (1933), he left Germany and eventually settled in the U.S. He served as asst. conductor of the National Orch. Assn. in N.Y. (1939-45), and then conducted the Toledo (Ohio) Orch. (1949-55). He returned to Germany and held the post of Intendant of the (West) Berlin Radio Sym. Orch. (1956-59). In 1959 he assumed the prestigious post of Intendant of the Berlin Phil., with Herbert von Karajan as its artistic director. He retired in 1978, only to be recalled to his post in 1984 during the so-called Karajan affair, when the chief conductor and the musicians of the orch. locked horns in a bitter artistic dispute. After serving as mediator, Stresemann continued as Intendant until retiring for a second time in 1986. He wrote an informative history of the Berlin Phil., The Berlin Philharmonic from Billow to Karajan: Home and History of a World-Famous Orchestra (in Ger. and Eng.; Berlin, 1979), and likewise publ. Eine Lanze für Felix Mendelssohn (Berlin, 1984), Ein seltsamer Mann: Erinnerungen an Herbert von Karajan (Frankfurt am Main, 1991), and Zeiten und Klänge: Ein Leben zwischen Musik und Politik (Frankfurt am Main, 1994). He also composed some orch. music and songs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire