1897 was an eventful year for music in Vienna: Johannes Brahms died and Gustav Mahler took over the Imperial Opera; the Eleven-year-old Ernst Toch decided to become a composer and in Brno, or… Continue reading
Over the last months, everything we thought we knew about Hans Winterberg has been turned on its head. The posting I made some two years ago resulted in enormous interest and re-opened an… Continue reading
One thing cannot go unmentioned and that’s the fact that 2017 is a double Korngold anniversary: 120 years old, and 60 years since his death. Revivals are taking place, one of which is… Continue reading
This is the title of the exhibition that accompanies the official opening of the exil.arte centre at Vienna’s University for Music and Performing Arts on May 22nd. It is also the reason that… Continue reading
Historically, there are cultural precedents that are worth considering. Nobody disputes this and though it’s perhaps too easy to carry on raising the spectre of Hitler, what I find interesting at this Trump/Brexit… Continue reading
As I move my office from my home in the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire to the belle-etage of the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, I find myself bereft of files, books… Continue reading
A blog such as “Forbidden Music”, dealing with history, music and freedom of expression cannot allow the election of Donald Trump in the wake of Brexit to pass without reflection. There are already… Continue reading
e Just consider for a moment, the following list of composers: Béla Bartók, Alban Berg, Max Brand, Walter Braunfels, Alfredo Casella, Hann Eisler, Hans Gál, Berthold Goldschmidt, Wilhelm Grosz, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, Joseph Matthias… Continue reading
This week saw the opening of an exhibition on women composers in Vienna. It follows a run of performances Of Baruchs Schweigen – or Baruch’s Silence, by the composer Ella Milch-Scheriff with a… Continue reading
I wrote a catalogue chapter on the persecution of popular music during the Nazi years for the exhibition Stars of David currently running at Vienna’s Jewish Museum. Obviously, in a catalogue, there… Continue reading
“History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme” – a quote apocryphally attributed to Mark Twain. So what does this historic meter reflecting events start to show us? It’s thrown up many… Continue reading
On April 22nd, I gave a lecture at Royal Holloway London University, on Karol Rathaus’s opera Fremde Erde – Alien Soil. I’ve now adapted it for inclusion on this blog. Much of the… Continue reading
