The author reflects on his experiences writing about Jewish composers and music that were banned or otherwise impacted by the Nazis. He has published various academic works and translations on this topic over his ten year career. His new book, Music of Exile, stems from his work at Exilarte Centre, a cultural institution he co-founded. The piece discusses the lesser-known narratives of exile music, underscoring its historical significance and cultural nuances.
The content discusses Horowitz’s book on Mahler’s New York experience, filling gaps in Mahler biography, contrasting Vienna and New York’s musical scenes, and addressing antisemitism. Horowitz’s unique narrative style and revealing insights make it an important and engaging read, shedding light on Mahler’s life and music career.
I could not even begin to count the books I own and have read on fin de siècle Vienna, the Habsburgs, the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy, biographies of prominent individuals who lived, or were… Continue reading
The post reflects on the significant changes in music composition and consumption during the twentieth century, questioning the concept of progress and exploring the impact of societal and cultural shifts on musical expression. It delves into the complexities of dissonance, the challenges of conveying emotion through music, and the evolution of musical language in the face of societal upheaval.
I hope this is a book that takes the reader further down the road of understanding what it means to view music as a cultural good in need of restitution: a return to audiences of stolen composers and a return to composers of stolen audiences.
There is a legitimate reason I have neglected regular submissions to this blog. I have just completed two books: one is for Yale University Press and can perhaps be seen as a follow-up… Continue reading
Hanslick, by offering his negative points on La Bohème offers startling insight into early Modernism before departure from tonality began to define Austro-German Modernism from the century’s second decade.
A review of John Mauceri’s history of music post-war
In a previous life, somewhere around 1977, I was brought to Decca, where for the next two years or so, I was the assistant producer on a number of opera recordings. The first… Continue reading
Banned first by Hitler, then later by the Sudeten German Music Institute – Hans Winterberg, Theresienstadt survivor and the missing link in Czech music
Despite Covid, the work of the Exilarte Centre carries on – a report on what’s been happening over the past year
This follows parts 1 and 2 in dealing with the crisis of Jewish identity by exile composers. In part 3, we take a case study of two composers as they set “The Song of Solomon”, known by one composer as “Song of Songs” and by the other as “Das Hohelied”.
There is another important element that illustrates “inner return”: it’s the concept of “return”, when composers prominent as pre-war modernists return to old-fashioned concepts such as symphonies, sonatas and string quartets. Of these… Continue reading
Apologies are due for having neglected this blog for so many months. There has been an inordinate amount of activity at the exil.arte Centre with acquisitions of several important estates, a symposium which… Continue reading
(Richard Fuchs’ “Vom Jüdischen Schicksal”, written for the Kulturbund. World Premiere in Wellington New Zealand, 2014: Jenny Wollerman, Christian Thurston, Cantoris Choir, NZSM Orchestra, Donald Maurice – conductor) One of the most unsettling… Continue reading
1897 was an eventful year for music in Vienna: Johannes Brahms died and Gustav Mahler took over the Imperial Opera; the anti-Semitic Karl Lueger was elected mayor; the Eleven-year-old Ernst Toch decided to… Continue reading
My article on Eric Zeisl from 2014 updated with its formerly corrupted audio files replaced.
The Kirchklang Festival in Salzburg asked me to speak on Cultural Transfer, including Samuel Barber in Austria and Austrians in California.
The performance of The Dead City, better known as Die tote Stadt at London’s English National Opera was a revelation and frankly, a sensation for reasons few critics have mentioned. But then again,… Continue reading
An exceptional biography about an exceptional young Czech composer. Gideon Klein was much more than the tragic young man murdered before his prime as David Fligg’s excellent biography explains.
the recording business has created a different type of performer: the curator – someone who looks at the composer before looking at the work. It’s not a bad thing, it’s a change in our habits and attitudes towards great music. Does the performer re-create a work in front of an audience, or does the performer “curate” a work?
