Diana Doherty - Julius Rietz: Concert Piece for Oboe and Orchestra Op. 33

August Wilhelm Julius Rietz (28 December 1812 – 12 September 1877) was a German composer, conductor and cellist. He was a teacher among whose students were 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. 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 conservatoire there. In terms of his own composing, Rietz belonged to the classically inclined school (Mendelssohn’s output, as might be expected, had a big influence upon him) and he was strongly opposed to the musical radicalism of Liszt and Wagner. Among his works are the operas, three symphonies, several overtures to plays, flute sonatas, violin sonatas, motets, masses, psalms, and a quantity of other church music.