Georg Schnéevoigt

Who was Georg Schnéevoigt?

Georg Lennart Schnéevoigt was a Finnish conductor and cellist, born in Vyborg, Grand Duchy of Finland, which is now in Russia.

Schnéevoigt began his career as a cellist performing throughout Europe in the 1890s. He was principal cellist of the Helsinki Philharmonic from 1896 to 1902. After this, he conducted many orchestras including the Kaim Orchestra, Riga Philharmonic Orchestra which he founded, the Stockholm Concert Society, the Sydney Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. From 1930 until his death in 1947, Schnéevoigt was chief conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra.

Schnéevoigt was a close friend of composer Jean Sibelius and often performed Sibelius's orchestral music. He conducted the first performance in Finland of Luonnotar in January 1914. He discovered the manuscripts of Sibelius's tone poems "Lemminkäinen and the Maidens" and "Lemminkäinen in Tuonela", which had been thought lost, and gave their first performance since 1894. He also made the first recording of Sibelius's Symphony No. 6.

In Europe young Schneevoigt was considered at best a genius.