Promoted by Richard Strauss as a highly talented musician, Gustav Brecher, born in 1879, conducted his first concert at the age of 18. Hia goal, however, was to pursue a career as an opera conductor. After a year with Gustav Mahler at the Vienna Court Opera, he began a 20-year career as principal opera conductor in Hamburg, Cologne, and Frankfurt in 1903. In the fall of 1923, Brecher was appointed general music director of the Leipzig Opera – his most important decade began with groundbreaking but controversial world premieres.

In March 1933, the Nazis drove the Jewish maestro from office. Years of isolation followed, and finally his flight to Belgium, where his life ended in May 1940.

 Jürgen Schebera talks to Albrecht Dümling about the stages of Brecher's life. Soprano Pia Davila and Linda Leine on the piano have brought along some of the composer's early songs.