ACKERMANN, OTTO

Otto Ackermann, conductor

Born in Bucharest, the Swiss-naturalised Otto Ackermann (1909-1960) first studied there at the Royal Academy of Music before moving to the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, where his teachers were Georg Szell and Leo Prüwer. At the age of fifteen he conducted the Royal Romanian Orchestra while they were on tour before accepting a position in the Opera House of his native city for the 1925-26 season. He was appointed a Kapellmeister at Düsseldorf Opera in 1928 and in 1932 moved to the German Opera in Brno. This was followed by an appointment to the Municipal Theatre in Berne in 1935 where he remained until 1947. Between 1949 and 1955 Ackermann worked regularly at Zurich Opera in addition to the Theater an der Wien between 1947 and 1953. Then followed three years as Music Director at the Cologne Opera. He returned to Zurich in 1958 but soon became seriously ill, dying in 1960. Ackermann was a fine conductor of both opera and operetta in addition to being admired as a sound Mozartian.

LEHAR: Land des Lachelns (Das) (Ackermann, Schwarzkopf) (1953) and excerpts from Lehar Operettas	8.111016-17
LEHAR: Merry Widow (The) (Schwartzkopf, Kunz, Gedda) (1953)	8.111007
STRAUSS II, J.: Nacht in Venedig (Eine) (Schwarzkopf, Gedda) (1954)	8.111254
STRAUSS II, J.: Wiener Blut (Schwarzkopf, Gedda, Ackermann) (1954)	8.111257
STRAUSS, R.: Four Last Songs / Arabella (highlights) (Schwarzkopf, Ackermann, Matacic) (1953, 1954)	8.111145
STRAUSS, R: Ariadne auf Naxos (Schwarzkopf, Streich, Karajan) (1954)	8.111033-34