Say Viennese operetta to anyone and they most likely think of Johann Strauss or Franz Lehár. In any case, both Fledermaus and Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow) have pushed their way into… Continue reading
Daniel Spitzer, unfamiliar to English readers, was an Austrian sketch writer in 19th century Imperial Vienna’s paper of record, die Presse, then later relaunched as die Neue Freie Presse. I mention him once… Continue reading
It’s been some time since I’ve written on this blog, and having just returned from a fascinating trip to the United States, there is a good deal to write about. All of this… Continue reading
Every conference has its revelations. The one in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s lovely capital city Schwerin in early October 2015 was no different. After decades of researching material and believing that perhaps it was possible to… Continue reading
The story of Czechoslovakia’s betrayal is illustrated by the loss of composers who were either murdered or died in exile. This is merely to underline again that it is head-in-the-sand to declare politics… Continue reading
In this blog and in my book Forbidden Music, I have tried to stress the importance of the five year period running up to the annexation of Austria in March 1938. They represented… Continue reading
This article was posted some time ago, but appears to have been swallowed somewhere along the line. No matter, it’s good to review such things and my thoughts on this subject have certainly… Continue reading
“Migrants”, “immigrants”, “refugees”, “asylum seekers”: these are the last words I hear at night as I switch off the news and the first I read in my morning paper. For several decades now,… 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
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.
