HANS GÁL, HIS SACRED DUCK AND BEYOND
Since posting this article six years ago, the discovery of Hans Gál has carried on at such a pace, that an update is required, demanding a broader focus than his opera Die heilige… Continue reading
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The Third Year of exil.arte, and Second Year after its opening
With May 2019, exil.arte came into its third year, following its official public opening two years ago. I’ve already documented exil.arte with three previous article: The first was when we were given the… Continue reading
THE MUSIC OF INNER-RETURN: PART 2
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
The Music of Inner Return: Part 1
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
exil.arte: 2018 and what we’ve learned:
As the old year closes and a new one starts, I look back at the progress that our exil.arte Centre has made and find myself acknowledging that having come a long way, we… Continue reading
From Crossover Star to Survivalist – the unexpected transformation of Alma Rosé
The Shoah is by and large an area I try to avoid on this blog. For the purposes of the “Forbidden Music” blog, what was lost is more important than the manner of… Continue reading
“Vom Jüdischen Schicksal” – The Jewish Cultural League, or Der Kulturbund
(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
Heinsheimer’s Hidden History
Since posting this article on Heinsheimer, Univeral Edition has now published his history of their publishing house since its founding in 1901 to the death of Emil Hertzka and Austria’s annexation in 1938.… Continue reading
The False Myths and True Genius of Erich Wolfgang Korngold
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
The Ominous Hans Winterberg Puzzle
Except we now know that Winterberg’s part in this story wasn’t true. The truth is actually far more revealing of the Germany immediately after the war, and incredibly, of Germany today: Hans Winterberg was initially hijacked by a community of post-war refugees, who claimed him as one of their own. More recently, he was commandeered by contemporary German musicology. Both groups set great store in Winterberg being a victimised German Czech composer.
Musings on 2020
Politics and the arts – what might it mean for the next decade?
The Centenary of the Salzburg Festival
This is a paper I was invited to give in Brussles earlier this month as part of a conference organised by “Forum Voix Etouffées” The destruction of Habsburg Austria would result in an… Continue reading
“Jewish Destiny” and the defiance of Richard Fuchs
“Jewish Destiny” is the English translation of “Jüdisches Schicksal”, which in turn was the title of a large oratorio written by Richard Fuchs. We’ll come to this work later, though I have already… Continue reading
Die Strudlhofstiege – the Strudlhof Steps
This entry represents an intermezzo between my articles on the music of exile and the music of “Inner return”. I’ve changed my Facebook profile picture to that of an urban stairwell. After 15… Continue reading
Reflections on Music and Politics at a Time of Transition
In the year 2018, as we reflect on 1918 and in Austria and the Czech Republic, on the year 1938, we encounter more and more references suggesting a repeat of Weimar Constitution Germany:… Continue reading