Daniel Sternefeld

Daniel Sternefeld was a Belgian conductor and composer born in Antwerp in 1905 and died in Uccle, in the Brussels-Capital Region, in 1986. He belongs to the Flemish musical life of the first half of the twentieth century, and his importance lies both in his work at the head of orchestras and in his introduction of Belgian premieres of significant works of his time.

He trained as a flautist and in music theory at the Antwerp Conservatory between 1918 and 1924. He later broadened his studies in composition with Gilson and in conducting with Van der Stucken, in 1928. Between 1931 and 1932 he completed his conducting training in Salzburg with Paumgartner, Krauss and Karajan. In 1929 he joined the orchestra of the Royal Flemish Opera in Antwerp as a flautist, where he rose to second conductor in 1938 and to principal conductor in 1944. In 1948 he moved to the Belgian Radio Symphony Orchestra as second conductor and, after nine years, succeeded Franz André as music director, a post he held until his retirement in 1971.

During his career he frequently worked as a guest conductor in several European countries, as well as in Israel, South Africa and the Americas. He conducted the Belgian premieres of works such as Mathis der Maler and Peter Grimes. From 1948 he also taught conducting courses at the Antwerp Conservatory until his retirement.

The demands of conducting obliged him to set composition aside, although he devoted almost entirely himself to composing during the last seventeen years of his life. His music evolves towards a lyrical expressionism which, it seems, departed considerably from the usual definition of the term. Among his preferred composers was Stravinsky. His catalogue includes the opera Mater dolorosa, ballets such as Pierlala and Rossiniazata, and symphonies, among them Symphony No. 2, Breughel-symfonie. His works were published mainly through CeBeDeM.