Louis Spohr

A German composer, conductor and violinist, he was christened as Ludwig Spohr but became known as Louis. With his six foot height he was quite an imposing figure, generous, warm-hearted, interested in politics, a talented painter and a good chess player. He invented the chinrest for violins and the rehearsal signs for music sheets, and he was also the first major conductor who conducted with a baton. He was passionate about Mozart, and as a conductor who supported progressive music, he helped the careers of composers such as Wagner and Berlioz, while also regularly performing works by composers who were rare in the concert scene of the time, such as Bach and Händel. Born in 1784, at the age of fifteen he was already a violinist in the orchestra of the Duke of Brunswick. By 1805 he was a virtuoso known and admired throughout the country. He held numerous court positions in Germany and Austria: he was leader of the orchestra of Gotha and the orchestra of the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, director of the Frankfurt Opera and, between 1822 and his death in 1857, Hofkapellmeister of the city of Kassel. His works are rarely performed and his operas are almost completely forgotten, but his Violin Concerto No. 8 and his four clarinet concertos are periodically performed on the podium, as are his chamber and orchestral works.