Another striking plate from Hans Mermann’s 1928 book on ‘Modern Music’ was the 1924 portrait of Arnold Schoenberg painted by Oskar Kokoschka. The internet offers no information on where this portrait is held,… Continue reading
Anne Midgette writes about ‘Forbidden Music’ – and is largely generous in her appraisal. Sadly, there are a number of minor-slips in my book that some people are picking up. My slip, at… Continue reading
The accompanying photo shows Bartók, Hindemith and his wife, Erich von Hornbostal, someone I could not find any information on named Karl Schindler and Egon Wellesz. They were attending the 1932 Congrès du… Continue reading
Is it unreasonable to reflect on America’s ‘show-trials’ of the late 1940s when we see similar developments today? The House of Un-American Activities (HUAC) was not the same thing as the McCarthy hearings… Continue reading
While moving material from one bookshelf to another in the study of my flat in Vienna, I stumbled on a copy of Hans Mersmann’s ‘Modern Music’ from 1928. Mersmann was one of the… Continue reading
Bruno Walter would conduct Egon Wellesz’s cycle of symphonic poems based on Shakespeare’s ‘Tempest’ in Amsterdam on the very day that Hitler marched into Vienna. A return was unthinkable for Egon Wellesz or… Continue reading
In May 1920, the first ever Mahler festival was held in Amsterdam under the conductor Willem Mengelberg. The Viennese composer Egon Wellesz wrote a detailed report on the events in two separate articles… Continue reading
for those wishing to read the article by James Loeffler…
The new-music festivals of the 1920s and early ‘30s must have been something totally different from what we know today. They probably settled somewhere between Glastonbury and Darmstadt. Post-1919 developments simply piled up… Continue reading
Adding to the ‘Heliane’ vs. ‘Jonny’ conflict is an ad with someone singing a popular song of the day ‘Komm herab, oh Madonna Theresa’ (‘Come down, oh Madonna Theresa’ sung by Joseph Schmidt:… Continue reading
