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.
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
Forbidden Music The Jewish Composers Banned by the Nazis Michael Haas Yale UP London. published price £25, ISBN: 9780300154306, 352 pp., hardback. Gramophone, July 2013 by Rob Cowan “My parents were deported from… Continue reading
Norman Lebrecht has written a fascinating treatment (full article can be found below) of ‘Forbidden Music’ in the context of Decca’s recording series ‘Entartete Musik’ for the Wall Street Journal. I suppose I could… Continue reading
The archive of the Music University in Vienna houses part of the Bruno Walter estate. Earlier this year, I was asked to give a talk, to be published (only in German at this… Continue reading
BBC’s Radio 3 has been more than generous about ‘Forbidden Music’. First Rob Cowan mentioned it three Sundays ago in his Sunday breakfast programme, then last Sunday he raised the subject of the… Continue reading
The book launch at Senate House went very well! Thank you all who came and thanks to all who supported the show. It went without hitch and even the technology didn’t let me… Continue reading
