Born on 18 October 1866 in Strasbourg, Scharrer came from a family of merchants in Nuremberg, and he had his first music lessons at the Ramann-Volkmann music school in that city. After just one year of training he had learned enough to be presented to Liszt as a young virtuoso. He then went to Strasbourg to work in his father's business and attended the conservatoire at the same time. On a trip to the United States in summer 1885 he was given the opportunity to improvise on the Salt Lake City tabernacle organ for two hours. This led to his decision to devote himself to music full time. He completed his studies in Strasbourg, Krefeld and Berlin, and it was in Berlin that he had his first success as a composer (lieder, orchestral pieces, cantatas, choral music). His choral work 'Hymne an die Nacht' was performed in several cities, and his musical-dramatic Legend "Die Erlösung" (redemption) was accepted for performance by five theatres. He met or corresponded with, among others, Strauss, Thuille and Reger in Munich, Brahms, Bruckner and Hans Richter in Vienna. He then chose the career path of a conductor, and was soon very successful, first in Munich, then in Berlin. In a three-year tenure from 1904 he conducted nearly 1000 concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, in that city in winter and in Bad Scheveningen in summer. After his time with the Berlin Philharmonic he travelled widely as a guest conductor in various countries and still found time to compose. His symphony in D minor "Per aspera ad astra" op. 23 had been performed in 40 cities by 1933, according to a note in the journal "Signale für die musikalische Welt", edited by Max Chop. This announced a radio performance of the symphony, conducted by Hans Rosbaud.
I have in my possession a handwritten letter by Scharrer to an unnamed conductor, dated 6 May 1913. In this, Scharrer recommends his symphony for performance and lists cities in which it has been played or where it has been accepted for future performances. These include several German cities such as Frankfurt, Bremen, Leipzig, but also Chicago, Davos or Karlsbad.
Scharrer's estate remains largely unresearched, numerous music manuscripts are held by the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. An article (https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/kulturgut/article/view/80109) from 2020 describes the sometimes unexpected findings in addition to the scores: drawings and sketches, notes and puns added by the musicians or the composer himself. In the large-scale work "Erlösung" (redemption) the word "Erlösung!" with an exclamation mark was added after the last bar of the cellist's part. In German "Erlösung" can also mean relief...
The score of the D minor symphony is at the Staatsbibliothek Berlin (https://musikipac.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/ipac_musik/catalog/main?cn=S&lin=S6010823&rin=S6010878&ro=-1&css=11&cop=:osy).
Scharrer died in Weihershof near Fürth in Germany shortly after his 70 birthday.
Thank you for posting this. Are you familiar with any recordings of his music you could recommend?
So far I haven't come across a single recording of anything by him, unfortunately.