End of Summer Essay 2026
The summer silence has come to an end, and today’s contribution is less about music and more about where we find ourselves. I was struck today by a comment piece by Matthew Parris… Continue reading
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The Paul Sacher Foundation’s Edition of the Surviving Material of “Der Kaiser von Atlantis – oder, die Tod-Verweigerung”
Heidy Zimmermann has put together all the surviving material of “Kaiser von Atlantis” by Viktor Ullmann and Peter Kien. For the first time, we are confronted with the conflicts and profound message of this enigmatic masterpiece.
Korngold – Up Close and Personal
Two publications available for the first time in English – the memoirs of Erich Korngold’s wife, conceived as a biography of her husband and a separate collection of family correspondence. One can finally read Korngold in his own words as either related by his wife, or in his letters.
Is a Work’s Composer Always the Best Judge?
The question in the title of this entry is down to my near obsession with a recording made by the baritone Christian Immler with pianist Helmut Deutsch of works that Hans Gál “discarded”.… Continue reading
The Exilarte Center at Vienna’s University for Music and Performing Arts Celebrates its Tenth Anniversary
The Exilarte Archive and Research Center turns ten – its parent, the exil.arte Verein (society) was founded 20 years ago. This is a brief report of what its achieved.
Music Exile in “Old” and “New Worlds”
This new book on the contributions made by musicians fleeing Hitler and ending up in Iceland touches on an important subject that has only rarely been examined: the fates of those musicians who found refuge in the “Old World” of other European countries, or countries with their own established musical traditions, and musicians who fled to the New World, where European colonisation had already planted seeds of European music. Both options presented advantages and disadvantages, though very different advantages and disadvantages.
Gustav Mahler, Julius Korngold and the “Neue Freie Presse”
Normally, upon publication of a book I’ve written, I would be encouraging all the people who follow this blog to rush out and buy a copy. That probably will not be practical this… Continue reading
The Asssessments and Reassessments of the Composer Wolfgang Fortner (1907-1987)
A brilliant but deeply compromised composer. Ethical questions are asked as to how his legacy should be seen. The music itself is too strong to ignore
Unlocking Winterberg: A Composer’s Return from Exile and Oblivion
It was in 2015 when the lawyer Randol Schoenberg sent me a copy of a contract that not only embargoed access to, but also any information on the musical estate of Hans Winterberg.… Continue reading
Tyranny and Kitsch
Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and… Minimalism, a development that had been bubbling under the surface since La Monte Young’s Static Music and Terry Riley’s In C established the dominance that had begun with Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach. Repeated c-major triads appeared to re-set the musical brain into diatonic order again. Tonality, structure and lyricism began its climb back into acceptance just as Mrs Thatcher pronounced that there was “no such thing as society”; there were only individuals.