His first public performance was in December 1874 at New York's Stadt Theatre, where he conducted an adult orchestra and cast and chorus of children in Schneewittchen, a fairy tale opera by his elder brother John C. Rietzel, who was also concertmaster.
Other performers included singers Eugenie Pappenheim, soprano, and Adolph Sohst, baritone; violinist Hermann Brandt; and Frederick Bergner, principal cellist of the Philharmonic.
Joseffy was sufficiently pleased that the two repeated their performance in a charity recital at the New York home of banker, stockbroker, and railroad magnate Henry K. McHarg on March 23 of the following year.,[5][1] Rietzel was an excellent sight reader on piano and other instruments alike.
He did complete one song, "Der Schafer," during his studies in Stuttgart, as a gift for his sister; one other called "I Saw Thee Weep," which he scored but considered unsatisfactory; and fragments of a piano concerto.
[6] The accident precluded Reitzel's planned participation in a tour through the United States and to Australia and New Zealand in a company being organized by violinist Camilla Urso.
[2][7] A memorial concert for the two victims on June 10, 1882, at New York's Academy of Music lasted more than three hours and raised at least $4,000 (roughly $100,000 in 2017 money[8]) for the benefit of Conly's wife and children.