One of my German colleagues wondered why ‘Forbidden Music’ seemed to have such a strong Austrian bias. I explained that the sub-title of the book was ‘The Jewish Composers Banned by the Nazis’… Continue reading →

Here the final two covers from Ernst Toch’s private LP collection, maintained at the Library of Performing Arts at UCLA. For those who missed Misha Horenstein’s comments on the previous posts and are… Continue reading →

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 →