MENGELBERG, WILLEM (JOSEPH WILHELM)

(1871–1951)

Musician and conductor. Born into an artistic family from Cologne, Germany, Mengelberg studied piano in his birthplace Utrechtand at the conservatory at Cologne. In 1895, he was appointed conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra (founded in 1888) in Amsterdam. Un der his leadership, the orchestra became world-famous, and as its conductor, he became an international celebrity. He conducted the philharmonic orchestras of New York and London. Mengelberg in troduced the classical music of Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss and was a good friend of composers such as Sergej Rachmaninov, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schonberg, and Igor Stravinsky. Because the Dutch authorities resented that he did not take a firm stand against the German Occupation during World War II, Mengelberg had to stay in Switzerland where he had already settled in 1934.