Julius Rietz

August Wilhelm Julius Rietz (28 December 1812 – 12 September 1877 ) was a German composer, conductor, cellist, and teacher. His students included Woldemar Bargiel, Salomon Jadassohn, Arthur O’Leary, and (by far the most celebrated) Sir Arthur Sullivan. He also edited many works by Felix Mendelssohn for publication. Biography Rietz was born in Berlin, and studied the cello under Bernhard Romberg and composition under Carl Friedrich Zelter. At 16, he joined the orchestra of Berlin’s Königstädter Theater, for which he wrote the music to Karl Eduard von Holtei’s play Lorbeerbaum und Bettelstab. In 1834, he was appointed assistant conductor at the Düsseldorf Opera under Mendelssohn, whom he succeeded the following year. He moved in 1847 to Leipzig, where he served as kapellmeister and conductor of the Singakademie. During 1848, a year after Mendelssohn’s death, Rietz took over Mendelssohn’s former role as conductor of the Gewandhaus concerts in the same city, and as teacher of composition at the Leipzig Conservatory. He was called to Dresden in 1860 to succeed Carl Gottlieb Reissiger as court kapellmeister. Here he spent the rest of his life, frequently appearing as an opera conductor,