“During the month before his nervous breakdown, Scheel, encouraged by the artistic and financial success which was attending the season’s performances, redoubled his efforts to make the remaining concerts even outshine in brilliancy and attendance the preceding ones. “There is no doubt that he would have succeeded, for he had not only imbued both the musicians in the orchestra with his zeal, but had also wrought the music lovers of Philadelphia up to a high pitch of enthusiasm.” _Philadelphia Press_, Thursday, March 14, 1907: “MAGIC OF SCHEEL’S BATON STILLED BY LEADER’S DEATH” “Double pneumonia ends life of gifted musician who brought the Philadelphia Orchestra to a high plane of excellence. “Philadelphia music lovers suffered perhaps the severest loss in the city’s musical history yesterday, when Fritz Scheel, director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, succumbed to double pneumonia.” * * * * * “The news was received with sorrow among rich and poor alike, among those who were regular subscribers to the season of symphony concerts, as well as among those, who loving music, waited patiently in line for the doors to the family circle and amphitheatre of the Academy of Music to open, to hear the diverse program which it was Scheel’s wont to perform. “The maestro had made a brave fight for his life, his vitality, according to his physicians, having been remarkable.” * * * * * “Mr. Scheel added to the technical equipment, which is the natural product of German life and training, a poetic temperament and a broad outlook on matters musical, which not only gave great vivacity and variety to his programmes, but which made for such insight in the matter of the meaning of any given composition, as to produce the most illuminating and inspiring results. “A course of seven seasons under his baton was, therefore, not only pleasurable in the highest sense of the meaning of the word, but instructive and educational to a marked degree, the entertainment however, marked, being as it were, incidental to a greater purpose of not only creating, but of satisfying the desire for the higher things in the most glorious of arts. In this sphere of endeavor Mr. Scheel’s singleness of purpose was well known. His devotion to musical ideals was manifest in everything he did, and his concentration on what he considered his lifework was of so energetic and absorbing a character as to make serious inroads on his health and strength. His death places the musical world peculiarly in his debt, since he arrived in Philadelphia at a critical period in our musical history and met the situation admirably.