Camillo Hildebrand

Camillo Hildebrand was born on 31 January 1876 in Prague (then part of Austria-Hungary). He studied at the Prague Conservatory, where Antonin Dvorak and the violinist and conservatory director Antonin Bennewitz are named among his teachers. He subsequently continued his training in Frankfurt am Main. During the academic year 1891/92 he was enrolled at Dr. Hoch’s Conservatory, studying score reading with Engelbert Humperdinck, and from 1892 to 1894 he worked at the same institution as a repetiteur. 
By the turn of the century Hildebrand had established himself as a theatre conductor. In 1900–01 he served as Kapellmeister at the German theatre in Olomouc (Olmütz). Further appointments took him to Heidelberg, Mainz, Aachen and Mannheim. He was active at the Mannheim National Theatre by the middle of the decade and attained the position or title of Hofkapellmeister there. From 1909 to 1910 he served as Generalmusikdirektor in Erfurt. His career then increasingly shifted from the opera house to the concert hall. In 1912 he worked at the Komische Oper in Berlin, and in the same year he began an important association with the Berlin Philharmonic. From 1912 until 1919 he was a regular conductor of the orchestra’s popular Sunday and Tuesday concerts. In April 1914 Hildebrand conducted the opening concerts of the Philharmonic’s first complete Beethoven cycle; Artur Schnabel appeared as soloist in the Third Piano Concerto. Hildebrand was also among the relatively early orchestral conductors to leave a substantial recorded legacy. In 1914 he made acoustic recordings with members of the Berlin Philharmonic for Odeon.
After the First World War Hildebrand became First Kapellmeister in Freiburg im Breisgau, where from 1919 he was active both at the municipal theatre and in the city’s symphonic concerts. In 1921 he returned to Berlin and assumed the direction of the Blüthner Orchestra, subsequently known as the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, remaining at its head until 1924. With this ensemble he again made numerous recordings for Odeon. From 1928 to 1932 he was artistic director of the Orchestervereinigung Berliner Musikfreunde, one of Berlin’s long-established amateur orchestral organizations, and he also appeared with other ensembles as a guest conductor. In the early 1930s he conducted the Sinfonieorchester der Berliner Schutzpolizei. His activities after the National Socialist seizure of power also included involvement in explicitly National Socialist musical projects. He participated in the preparation of a National Socialist song collection and wrote politically aligned occasional works and male choruses. From 1936 to 1937 he held another position as Generalmusikdirektor, this time in Swinemünde. After twice losing his home through bombing during the Second World War Camillo Hildebrand moved to Sondershausen in Thuringia in 1944, where he spent the remainder of his life.
Hildebrand composed throughout his conducting career. His most important stage works include the opera Verheißung, performed in Rostock in 1909, the opera Cosimo, and Firlefanz, a fairy-tale opera in three acts with prologue and epilogue to a libretto by Egon Straßburger and Albrecht Brandt, published in 1920. His orchestral works include the Sänger-Fest-Ouvertüre for orchestra with optional chorus and Rund um Neapel: Fünf Impressionen in Form einer Suite. Among his later choral compositions is Sonnenfahrt for male choir. His remaining output comprises further orchestral and occasional pieces, piano music, songs for voice and piano, numerous works for male choir, festival music, and a number of political songs and marches written during the National Socialist period. 
Camillo Hildebrand died on 13 October 1953 in Sondershausen (Germany).

Firlefanz

in my possession is the autograph piano reduction of the opera "Firlefanz" by Camillo Hildebrand. "Firlefanz" is a fairy-tale opera with a libretto by Egon H. Straßburger and Albrecht Brandt. It was composed in 1920 and received its first performance at the Central-Theater in Berlin on 20 November of that year, with Hugo Fischer-Köppe, Inge Karlsen, Erich Kuttner and Rita Burg among the cast. The work was subsequently staged at other German theatres and continued to be performed during the 1920s, particularly as a Christmas fairy-tale production.
The libretto was published by the "Vertriebsstelle des Verbandes Deutscher Bühnenschriftsteller", while Hildebrand’s music remained unpublished.