MOTTL, FELIX JOSEF

MOTTL, FELIX JOSEF (1856–1911), German conductor and composer. Born near Vienna, Mottl studied with Anton Bruckner and Joseph Hellmesberger. When he was 24, Liszt conducted his first composition, the opera Agnes Bernauer, at Weimar. From 1881 to 1903 he was court conductor and then Generalmusikdirektor at Karlsruhe, acquiring a brilliant reputation. For the next four years he was conductor of the opera at Munich, making the city a center of operatic life. Mottl devoted himself to the interpretation of the works of Berlioz, Peter Cornelius, and Wagner. In 1887 he appeared at the Wagner festival at Bayreuth and in 1890 presented the first full production of Berlioz' Les Troyens at Karlsruhe. He also conducted in London and New York. Mottl's compositions include three operas, lieder, and chamber music, but he is best remembered for his orchestral arrangement of works by Lully, Rameau, Mozart, and Gluck, and for his piano reductions of Wagner's operas. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: MGG; Grove, Dict; Riemann-Gurlitt. (Judith Cohen)