(Born; Vienna, 14 Oct 1871; Died; Larchmont, NY, 15 March 1942). Austrian composer. He was a pupil of Fuchs at the Vienna Conservatory (1890-92). In 1895 he became a close friend of Schoenberg's;he also had encouragement from Mahler, who presented his opera Es war einmal at the Hofoper in 1900. His orchestral fantasy Die Seejungfrau dates from these years. By this time he was working as a theatre conductor in Vienna; his later appointments were at the German theatre in Prague (1911-27) and the Kroll Opera in Berlin (1927-31). In 1933 he fled to Vienna, and then in 1938 to the USA. From the same background as Schoenberg, and similarly influenced by Mahler and Strauss, he developed an impassioned style in such works as his Second Quartet (1914), one-act operas Eine florentinische Tragödie (1917) and Der Zwerg (1922), and Lyric Symphony (1923). Later works, including the opera Der Kreidekreis (1932), the Sinfonietta (1934) and the Fourth Quartet (1936), are influenced more by Weill and German neo-classicism.
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