Original cabinet photograph of, from left to right, the Austrian conductor and composer Felix Mottl, Austrian conductor Ernst von Schuch, German conductor Hermann Levi, and Austrian composer and Director of the Berlin State Opera (1888-1899) Joseph Sucher. Photographed by Max von Rüdiger of Gotha. Lower area somewhat rubbed but otherwise in fine condition, a remarkable image. 4.25 x 6.5 inches (10.9 x 16.6 cm).

The Austrian conductor and composer Felix Mottl assisted Hans Richter in preparing the first complete Ring Cycle at Bayreuth in 1876, and himself conducted Tristan und Isolde at Bayreuth in 1886. The German conductor Hermann Levi is also remembered as a close friend of Richard Wagner and the conductor of the first performance of Parsifal at Bayreuth in 1882.   Specializing in the music-dramas of Wagner, Ernst von Schuch also led the original productions of the Richard Strauss operas Feuersnot (1901), Salome (1905), Elektra (1909) and Der Rosenkavalier (1911) as well as the first German productions of operas by Puccini and Mascagni, and the Dresden première of Wagner's Parsifal on 24 March 1914, his last new production before his death on 10 May.