Wilhelm Petersen

About Wilhelm Petersen

Wilhelm Petersen was born on March 15, 1890 in Athens and died on December 18, 1957 in Darmstadt. From 1908 until 1912, he studied at the Munich Academy of Music, first under Felix Mottl and later with Friedrich Klose. He then pursued his studies privately with R. Louis. He worked in the Lübeck City Theater in 1913 and 1914. He worked as a music critic in Munich from 1919 to 1922.

Wilhelm Petersen lived in Darmstadt beginning in 1922. He taught at the Akademie der Tonkunst from 1927 to 1935. Later, he worked as a lecturer at the Städtische Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Mannheim, where he taught until 1955. He taught briefly in Heidelberg after 1945, but returned to Darmstadt after that.

Among his works are the opera Der goldene Topf, which he composed in Darmstadt in 1941, as well as other theater pieces. He also composed four symphonies, as well as a posthumously published symphony and smaller orchestral works, three string quartets, two violin sonatas, and compositions for orchestra and piano. He also left behind choral works like as Hymne, Op. 25 from 1930 and Große Messe für Soli, Chor, großes Orchester und Orgel, Op. 27 from the same year. The production of Edition Günter Hänssler's 3. Sinfonie with the hr-Sinfonieorchester conducted by Constantin Trinks received the OPUS KLASSIK in the category "Best Symphonic Recording" in 2023.