(b Coburg, 7 Oct 1835; d Dresden, 26 Feb 1913). German composer. He showed progressive tendencies at the Leipzig Conservatory and was influenced by Wagner and by Liszt at Weimar, but had little success with his early, programmatic works. Later, cultivating Classical instrumental forms, he gained contrapuntal mastery and produced much vocal music as well as the operas Gudrun (1884), Herrat (1892) and Fischer und Kalif (1905) and the oratorio trilogy Christus (1895-9).

The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.