posted November 2002
Newsletter No. 4, November 2002

I. Introduction

Welcome to the fourth email Newsletter of the JMI International Forum for Suppressed Music (IFSM). Thank you for your warm and enthusiastic responses to the first three newsletters, (which are available on this website). In this issue we again bring you news of concerts, talks, conferences, publications, recordings and other matters to do with music suppressed by the Third Reich and other totalitarian regimes. There is a particularly interesting list of doctoral dissertations on topics relevant to our subject, and two articles, about Schoenberg (including two letters published for the first time) and about Italian Jewish composers in the last century.

Do keep in contact with us and send any material of interest to our readers (over 450 musicologists, conductors, festival directors, critics, musicians and writers all around the world). We are also compiling a list of interesting web links (to be found at the end of this newsletter); if you know any others that should be included, please send them to us.

We would like this newsletter to be able to carry more CD, concert and book reviews. If you would like to propose a review, please send us your suggestions.

If you do not wish to receive this newsletter – roughly quarterly – again, please let us know and we will remove your name from the list. By the same token, if you know someone who may like to receive it, please let us have their details.

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II. News

Suppressed Music email discussion forum

The Suppressed Music discussion group is now up and running. If you would like to join, send a paragraph about yourself to contact and we will enrol you. We hope that the discussion group will become a useful forum for posting information, requests for help, discussing research topics, and so on.

Schreker Opera Productions 2002–3

The 2002–3 season sees no fewer than seven stage productions or concert performances of Schreker's operas. This is the highest number in any one season since the 1920s, when Schreker rivalled Richard Strauss as the most successful German-language opera composer of the time.

Schreker's third (and own favourite) opera is enjoying a particular revival. Originally written during 1909–12, Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin (The Music-Box and the Princess) had a double premiere in Frankfurt and Vienna in March 1913. In Frankfurt, the work was reasonably well received, but in Vienna it caused a huge scandal and received poor reviews. In 1915 Schreker revised the work, condensing it into a one-act 'Mysterium' entitled simply Das Spielwerk, in which form it was premiered in Munich under Bruno Walter in 1920. But the work never managed to establish itself in the repertory, despite containing some of the composer's finest and most characteristic music. Darmstadt Opera is currently midway through a run of performances of a new production of Das Spielwerk, while the original two-act version (unseen on any stage since 1913) will be presented by Kiel Opera for twelve performances in February. In addition, Christian Thielemann will conduct the opera's Prelude in four concerts with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam in February and at the Vienna Festival in June.

Kiel Opera's commitment to the composer continues with a revival of its recent production of Schreker's late Christophorus in November 2002, while Martin Kusej's controversial but highly acclaimed production of Die Gezeichneten, conducted by Lothar Zagrosek, is revived in Stuttgart the following month. The same work receives a concert performance at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris under the baton of Armin Jordan in December. Der Schatzgräber receives a new production at Frankfurt Opera in December directed by David Alden and, finally, the Berlin Staatsoper will revive its recent production of Der ferne Klang for five performances in April under Michael Gielen.
Full details of dates and performers can be found at www.operabase.com.

IFSM and partners in European-wide programme

The JMI International Forum for Suppressed Music is working together with a number of European partners – the Jewish Museum, Vienna, Musica Reanimata Berlin, Vara Broadcasting Corporation in the Netherlands and The Jewish Summer Festival in Budapest – to present a three-year programme recovering little-known music of the early 20th century that disappeared because of National Socialist ideology.The project – under the general title 'Thwarted Voices: Music Suppressed by the Third Reich' – kicks off in May 2003 with a major exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Vienna, focussing on the extraordinary Jewish contribution to every aspect of musical life in that most musical of cities, Vienna. Opening in May 2003 the exhibition will be accompanied by more than a dozen concerts illuminating the music of composers who were well established in pre Nazi-Europe but who, because of Nazi suppression and destruction, are hardly remembered today. In 2004 the story is taken up in Berlin where Musica Reanimata is hoping to mount an international conference. Again there will be an exhibition on 'Entartete Musik' and several concerts. Activities continue in the 2004–5 concert series at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam where VARA Netherlands Radio/TV is planning at least twelve orchestral and choral concerts. The project closes at the Budapest Jewish Summer Festival in the summer of 2005. In London the IFSM will be publishing two books on composers who came to Britain in exile and setting up a searchable database for information and research for the whole project that will be accessible to everyone interested and involved in this repertoire.

Michael Haas (CoralFoxUK[at]aol.com) is the overall project consultant for all centres. He said that he is delighted to see such a concerted effort and such excellent collaboration. Funding is still required to be put in place for some of these plans but the collaboration has been welcomed by all.  Michael was pleased to learn that Universal Music will shortly be reissuing in Germany and Austria the entire series of recordings he made for Decca under the heading "Entartete Musik".

Goldschmidt centenary in 2003: Update

Please click on the attached link for an up-to-date list of forthcoming Goldschmidt performances:

http://booseyprod/pages/cr/calendar/
perf_results.asp?pg=1&composerid=2697

If you have any plans to mark the Goldschmidt centenary in 2003, please email Lloyd Moore on lloyd.moore[at]boosey.com.

Korngold

In December, Korngold will be honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard – the first composer to receive the accolade. The Australian premiere of the Sinfonietta took place on 21 September 2002 at Sydney Opera House conducted by Johannes Fritzsch.

In 2003, Die tote Stadt will receive new productions in Braunschweig (January), Zurich (April) and Salzburg (August).

Viktor Ullmann

The Viktor Ullmann Foundation UK was established in September 2002 by concert pianist Jacqueline Cole (Artistic Director). The main purpose of the VUF (www.viktorullmannfoundation.org.uk) is to celebrate the life, works and genuis of the composer Viktor Ullmann through concerts, opera and festival (see concerts 2 and 3 December below). Jacqueline Cole says. 'There will be a Remembrance A–Z section of the website devoted to finding and remembering the names of all artists, musicians, composers, writers. etc., who were incarcerated alongside Viktor Ullmann in Theresienstadt. Names of people who are not forgotten, but nevertheless are as yet unknown. This is just a start'.

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III. Concerts, Festivals and other Performance Events

1. JMI and other events in London

Lecture-recital: Recovering a lost 20th-Century Piano Repertoire
Thursday 7 November 2002, 7.30pm

Malcolm Troup, piano, Emeritus Professor of Music at City University, London, examines the music and fate of Czech composers, Hans Krása, Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas and Gideon Klein who were herded into what transpired to be, briefly, a citadel of culture in the midst of Nazi barbarism, and who were later sent to their deaths in Auschwitz and elsewhere.

Luke and A Gallery, 4 Pollen Street, London, W1. A Beethoven Piano Society of Europe event in association with London ArtsFest, JMI International Forum for Suppressed Music and Woodhouse Music (Malcolm Troup email malcolmtroup[at]yahoo.co.uk).

St Petersburg Society for Jewish Folk Music
Wednesday 13 November 2002, 7.30pm

a: Mikhael Gnesin songs and chamber works on Jewish Themes

Sovali (soprano) and seven-piece international ensemble
(Sophie van Lier email sovali[at]worldonline.nl)

Inspired by the teachings of Rimsky Korsakov, Gnesin and Krein (see 14 November) were prominent members of the St. Petersburg Society of Jewish Folk Music (founded in 1908) where their classical interpretation of Jewish folk music found much favour before Stalin's take-over and suppression.

St Giles, Cripplegate, 4 The Postern, Wood Street, London EC2Y 7NA . A JMI International Forum for Suppressed Music event with London ArtsFest, supported by the Royal Netherlands Embassy.

St Petersburg Society for Jewish Folk Music
Thursday 14 November 2002, 7.30pm

b: Krein and Gnesin with Rachmaninov and Enesco

Joseph Spooner, cello
(Joseph Spooner email josephus[at]surflink.co.uk)
Susanne Stanzeleit, violin
Jonathan Powell, piano

(see 13 November)

St Giles, Cripplegate, 4 The Postern, Wood Street, London EC2. A JMI International Forum for Suppressed Music event with London ArtsFest

... Vienna and those it influenced.
Monday 18 November 2002, 7pm

A recital of songs by Mahler, Brahms, Zemlinsky and Wolf. Important composers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who because of their association with Austria have left us a rich legacy. The performers will be the young German baritone Christian Immler, Finnish mezzo-soprano Jenny Carlstedt and accompanying them will be Canadian Silvia Fraser (piano).

St John's, Smith Square, London SW1. Promoted by the Gustav Mahler Society UK.

NB: Jenny Carlstedt, Christian Immler and Silvia Fraser will appear on 'In Tune' on BBC Radio 3 on Monday, 11 November 2002, at around about 5.15pm.

Remembrance concerts for Pavel Haas (1899–1944)
Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 December 2002, 8.15pm

Music by Pavel Haas, his teacher Janáèek, fellow sufferers Viktor Ullmann and Berthold Goldschmidt, Israeli composer Yuval Shaked, and Hebrew folksongs

Jacqueline Cole (piano) and Friends

The Sternberg Centre, 80 East End Road, Finchley, London N3. Promoted by the Viktor Ullmann and Pavel Haas Foundations

Beethoven and Suppressed Composers
8 piano recitals April 2002 - February 2003
St. James's Piccadilly, London W1

A series of eight lunchtime piano recitals and a masterclass by outstanding and internationally-known artists who have each chosen to couple a major piano work by Beethoven with music by a European composer who suffered or died as a result of Nazi or Soviet oppression.

Introduction

Thanks to the fearless example of Beethoven, European composers of his generation were largely set free from their previous life as lackeys and liveried servants of the aristocracy to become self-employed professionals. During Beethoven's lifetime, too, new laws were passed, first in revolutionary France but subsequently across Europe, emancipating his Jewish colleagues who hitherto had not been allowed to train for a professional career in either universities or conservatoires.

This was the reason Moscheles, one of the first Jewish pianists-composers to emerge at that time, idolised the ground Beethoven walked on for the very reason that he too would now be eligible to tread that same ground. This new wave of composers was to lead through Mendelssohn to Mahler and Schoenberg, not to speak of the great nineteenth-century virtuosi from Thalberg to Rosenthal and Anton Rubinstein, before once again they were to be threatened with an even worse persecution, whether Nazi or Soviet, than their forefathers had ever known before - either forced into exile in England like Berthold Goldschmidt or in America like Erich Korngold and Arnold Schoenberg, or systematically wiped out in concentration camps such as Terezin or Auschwitz like Viktor Ullmann or Pavel Haas.

Thus Beethoven acts for us as a musical catalyst in calling up these lost and martyred voices. Professor Malcolm Troup, Chairman, Beethoven Piano Society of Europe

Artists and Programmes

All recitals at St. James's Piccadilly, London W1

Wednesday 17 April 2002, 1.05pm
'Ronan Magill was brilliant in the projection of the solo part' (Tippett's Fantasia on a Theme of Handel in the Huddersfield Festival) - The Times
Erich Korngold Sonata no 1 in D minor
Beethoven Sonata Opus 2 No.3
Magill In Memoriam RMS Titanic 15th April 1912

Monday 13 May 2002, 1.05pm
Jacqueline Cole
'Jacqueline Cole impelled Ullmann's vision forward with dramatic intensity and virtuosity' - Malcolm Miller, Musical Opinion May 2002
Viktor Ullmann Sonata No 7 (Terezin, 1944)
Beethoven Sonata Opus 10 No.1 in C minor

Wednesday 17 July 2002, 1.05pm
Ian Fountain
'A musician who underpins technical ease with intellectual refinement: a rarity which lifts his performances into the realms of the keyboard masters' - The Daily Telegraph
Berthold Goldschmidt Variations and Fugue on a Palestinian Shepherd's Song Opus 32
Beethoven Sonata in C Opus 111

Friday 13 September 2002, 1.05pm
David Wilde
'200% PIANIST' - The Daily Telegraph
Egon Wellesz Triptychon
Franz Reizenstein Twelve Preludes and Fugues - from Book 2
Beethoven Sonata in C major, Opus 53 'The Waldstein'

Monday 21 October 2002, 1.05pm
Inon Barnatan
'Musically and technically impeccable' - Le Figaro, Paris
Beethoven Sonata in F major, Opus 10 No. 2 in F major
Gideon Klein Sonata (Terezin, 1943)
Schubert Impromptus, Opus 142, Nos.1 and 3
Liszt Mephisto Waltz

Wednesday 27 November 2002 at 1.05pm
Wu Qian
'... the command and control she brought to her programme was breathtaking' - The Daily Telegraph
Beethoven Sonata Opus 81a in E flat major 'Les Adieux'
Skryabin Sonata No.4
Rodion Shchedrin (b.1932) Prologue and Races from his ballet Anna Karenina
Alfred Schnittke Improvisation and Fugue (1965)

Wednesday 22 January 2003 at 1.05pm
Daniel Bard, violin, and Noam Greenberg, piano
Daniel is Leverhulme Violin Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Paul Ben-Haim Solo Violin Sonata
Beethoven 'Kreutzer' Sonata

Wednesday 19 February 2003 at 1.05pm
Radoslav Kvapil
'Any performance needs not only energy and virtuosity, but also insight. Kvapil brings all three qualities to bear in performances which continually capture and hold the ear.' - BBC Music Magazine
Viktor Ullmann Sonata No. 6 (Terezin, 1943)
Beethoven Sonata Opus 111
Janacek Along an Overgrown Path ('The Madonna of Frydek' and
'They chattered like sparrows')
Smetana Concert Study 'On the Seashore'

Suppressed Composers - Lecture recital and Masterclass

Thursday 7 November, 7.30pm
Lecture-recital:
Recovering a Lost 20th Century Piano Repertoire

Malcolm Troup, piano, Emeritus Professor of Music at London's City University, will examine the music and fate of Czech composers Hans Krasa, Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas and Gideon Klein, who were herded into what transpired to be, for a short time, the only European citadel of culture in the midst of Nazi barbarism, and who were later sent to their deaths in Auschwitz.

Skryabin Space, Luke and A Gallery, 4 Pollen Street W1 . A Beethoven Piano Society of Europe event with JMI International Forum for Suppressed Music and Woodhouse Music.

Sunday 16 February 3.00pm
Masterclass: The Piano Music of Terezin

Radoslav Kvapil, internationally-renowned Czech pianist, will focus on the piano music of Terezin composers Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas and Gideon Klein as part of a wider conspectus of Czech music in general.

Duke's Hall, Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road, NW1. Free. Open to the public. Book in advance on 020 7259 2379. A Beethoven Piano Society of Europe event with JMI International Forum for Suppressed Music.

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2. USA

From Phillip Silver email Phillip_Silver[at]umit.maine.edu

2002-3 CMS Concert and Lecture Season USA

Friday, 8 November 2002, 8.00pm: Fall Concert
Haydn: Mass in Time of War (Paukenmesse)
Zeisl: Requiem Ebraico
Kesselman: Let Peace Descend
with the Ars Viva! Orchestra

14 October 2002, 7:30pm lecture recital: Phillip Silver on Viktor Ullmann - Music in Extremis, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, School of Music.

4 November 2002, 7.00pm Gottfried Wagner
Lecture: From Wagner to Hitler: Anti-Semitism and Culture in Germany University of Maine, Orono, ME.

25 January 2003, 7.30pm - Cadenzato (the University of Maine faculty chamber ensemble)
Schreker: Der Wind
Minsky Recital Hall, University of Maine, Orono, ME.

2 February 2003 concert
Ben-Haim: Five pieces for piano solo, Op. 34
Martinu: Sonata No. 2 for Cello and Piano (with Noreen Silver, cello)
Schreker-Strasfogel: Transcriptions for solo piano from the operas
Strasfogel: Scherzo No. 1 for solo piano
Schulhoff: Hot Jazz Sonata for Saxophone and Piano (with Karel Lidrel, sax)
Minsky Recital Hall University of Maine campus in Orono, ME.

12 March 2003 3.00pm Phillip Silver, 4th annual Dorris Lipinsky Lecture in the Jewish Arts: Viktor Ullmann - Music in Extremis. San Diego State University, San Diego, CA.

Phillip Silver is grateful to the IFSM team for referring him to Tanya Tintner who is providing him with copies of all of Georg Tintner's music for piano; he hopes to be able to program some of it for the 2004 season.

Masterpieces of the Russian Underground

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in NYC (www.chambermusicsociety.org) has announced a very interesting series of three concerts, two poetry readings, two lectures, and films on the Russian Underground, organised by the Russian pianist Vladimir Feltsman. Feltsman reveals a rich artistic world previously unimagined by western audiences. This three-concert festival presents artists and composers who, like the titan Shostakovich, waged a lonely underground battle to maintain artistic integrity amidst Soviet political oppression and beyond, offering a fascinating look at how the concept of 'the underground' has shaped present-day sensibilities. Lectures, discussions, and poetry readings will provide added context to these concerts.

Friday 24 January 2003 7.30pm
Russian Underground: From Shostakovich to Schnittke
Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 67
Galina Ustvolskaya: Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano
Weinberg: Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano, Op. 21
Schnittke: Piano Trio
Vladimir Feltsman, piano; Gary Hoffman, cello; Ani Kavafian, violin; Oleh Krysa, violin; David Shifrin, Artistic Director, clarinet

Friday 24 January through Thurs 30 Jan 2003
Films with music by Shostakovich, Schnittke, Kissine, et al details available in late December (www.filmlinc.com).

Saturday 25 January 2003, 4.00pm
Lecture by noted scholars on the music of the Russian Underground, reception and conversation with composers.

Tuesday, January 28, 2003 at 7:30pm
Russian Underground: Innocence and Experience
Andre Volkonsky: Musica Stricta for Piano
Denisov: Piano Trio
Karetnikov: Two Pieces for Piano
Valentin Silvestrov: String Quartet No. 1
Victor Kissine: Piano Quartet
Vladimir Feltsman, piano; Gary Hoffman, cello; Ani Kavafian, violin; Oleh Krysa, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola

Friday 31 January 2003, 8.00pm
Poetry Reading: 'I will tell you with the utmost candor...' Poetry of Mandelstam and Brodsky, with visiting poets.
Saturday 1 February 2003, 4.00pm
Lecture: Poetry of the Russian Underground
Poetry of Tsvetaeva and Brodsky, with visiting poets.

Saturday 1 February 2003, 8.00pm
Poetry Reading: A time will come...
Lecture followed by reception and conversation with poets.

Sunday 2 February 2003, 5.00pm
Russian Underground: Mirror in the Mirror
Ashot Zohrabian: String Quartet No. 2, Kronos
Faradzh Karayev: Postlude for Clarinet, String Quartet and Piano
Sofia Gubaidulina: Meditation on a Bach Chorale for String Quintet and Harpsichord
Giya Kancheli: Piano Quartet
Arvo Part: Spiegel im Spiegel for Violin and Piano
Vladimir Feltsman, piano; Gary Hoffman, cello; Ani Kavafian, violin; Oleh
Krysa, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; David Shifrin, Artistic Director, clarinet ,

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3. Europe

From Béatrice Beer, NY: It is my pleasure to announce to you my Béatrice Beer sings Joseph Beer concert on Thursday 21 November, 2002 8:00pm

Musikclub at the Konzerthaus – Gendarmenmarket, Berlin, Germany

Dr. Joseph Beer – my father – was an opera composer trained in Vienna whose budding career as a youth (he saw his first two works play throughout Europe to great critical acclaim) was short-circuited by the Holocaust. He continued to compose after the war daily till his passing in 1988, leaving a great body of work which I, as a professional opera singer, am actively promoting through concerts such as the one upcoming in Berlin.

For a brief overview, please visit
www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/music/sunshine.utp

Béatrice Beer, NY, beatricebeer[at]hotmail.com

From: Mark Ludwig (mludwig2[at]terezinmusic.org)

Terezin chamber Music Foundation Concerts in the Czech Republic and the USA

We would like to notify your readership of Terezin Chamber Music Foundation concerts in Prague and Terezin and also in Boston: please check our website at: www.terezinmusic.org

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4. Concert Reviews

Continental Britons, the Émigré Composers'

Report and compilation of reviews of two concerts and seminar, Wigmore Hall, London, 9 and 17 June 2002

Suppressed voices brought to life
'The music of the generation of composers killed or exiled by the Nazis in the Thirties and Forties has been slowly regaining life, thanks not least to the work of the Jewish Music Institute's International Forum for Suppressed Music'. So ran the headline of The Daily Telegraph review, by Matthew Rye, of the two concerts at the Wigmore Hall, London in June, under the title of 'Continental Britons'.

Rye praised the playing of the Israeli-American violinist Nurit Pacht, with Konstantin Lifschitz at the piano and the singing of German baritone Christian Immler with pianist Erik Levi. He noted that besides an emotionally powerful piece by Berthold Goldschmidt (someone who had already been on the way to re-discovery in his later years) the works of two significant pre-war composers, Egon Wellesz, a Schoenberg pupil who ended up a don at Oxford, and Hans Gál, who became an academic in Edinburgh, revealed just what rich treasures there are to be found.

Malcolm Miller, writing in The Jewish Chronicle, pointed out the extraordinary range of styles of these Jewish composers from Vienna, Berlin and Prague. The gem for him was the Reizenstein Wind Quintet performed by the Ensemble Modern of Frankfurt. The most poignant moments were when Peter Gellhorn and Vilém Tausky, one 89, the other 92, stood to receive the audience's applause.

Michael Haas, Chairman of the JMI International Forum for Suppressed Music, points out that the works of these composers are significant in their own right, and also that they fill in the gaps of how music evolved from the romanticism of the 19th Century to the more angular and austere musical language of the 20th. Michael has just been made Curator of Music at the Jewish Museum in Vienna in time for their special programme 'The Jew in Musical Vienna' with which JMI IFSM is collaborating in June 2003. This year Michael was also awarded the David Uri Memorial Fellowship for his work in promoting Music Suppressed by the Third Reich.

Lewis Forman, the writer and broadcaster who chaired the pre-concert seminar on 9 June, said that it had taken over fifty years for the full extent of the artistic achievements of the large number of composers who were silenced by the Nazis to become apparent. Suppressed for being Jewish, for being avant garde and then for being conservative, for a time, even very distinguished names were almost totally forgotten. We are now aware of many fine works that have been overlooked but the voyage of discovery is only just beginning.

JMI International Forum for Suppressed Music will be continuing the project of 'Continental Britons' with further concerts, lecture-recitals, recordings, publications and interviews.

For those who missed these concerts, a boxed set of CDs will shortly be issued on the new record label and website Andante www.andante.com.

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IV. Recordings

Korngold RecordingsDie tote Stadt was released on DVD (BMG CLASSICS) at the end of September

A new CD album of lieder including many unpublished items will be released on October 7 by Harmonia Mundi, featuring Dietrich Henschel (baritone) with Helmut Deutsch (piano)

A new CD of orchestral works featuring the world premiere of the Prayer, Op. 32, (composed for the Los Angeles Jewish Community) is released by ASV in October featuring the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz conducted by Caspar Richter.

Music for Oboe, Viola and Piano by Robert Kahn, August Klughardt, Charles Loeffler and Paul Hindemith

Han de Vries (oboe), Henk Guittart (viola), Ivo Janssen (piano)

Chandos CHAN 9990 (67 minutes)

Website: www.chandos.net

Hindemith apart, the principal interest of this CD for adherents of the IFSM will be the Serenade by Robert Kahn, a Hitlerflüchtling to Britain whose name is generally forgotten among the better known ones of Goldschmidt, Gàl, Wellesz and others. Part of the reason for his relative obscurity was the advanced age at which he took flight: the younger composers were able – to some extent, at least – to resume a degree of professional activity in Britain. But Kahn – brother of the Otto Kahn who bankrolled the Metropolitan Opera in New York for most of the first three decades of the twentieth century – was almost 68 when the Nazis came to power: he was born in Mannheim in 1865, yet another composer from that annus mirabilis. A biographical outline (in German) at www.muenster.org/trio-concertare/wb-kahn.html) states that he studied in Berlin from 1882 before going to Rheinberger in Munich, then making his living as a composer in Berlin until 1890, when he began a three-year stint as co-repétiteur at the Leipzig Stadttheater. In 1893, an appointment to the Hochschule für Musik took him back to Berlin, and he stayed there until his retirement in 1931. In spite of the loss of his honorary positions in 1934 (he had been made a member of the Prussian Academy of the Arts in 1916), Kahn left it rather late to flee to England, arriving only in 1939; he settled in the village of Biddenden, in Kent, and died there on 29 May 1951.

Since then Kahn and his music have been almost entirely forgotten. The evidence of this ten-minute Serenade (there is otherwise only a handful of his songs in the catalogue) is that some serious investigation is long overdue. There are only two orchestral works – another Serenade and a piano concerto – but oodles of chamber music, songs and choral pieces. Kahn met Brahms in 1886 and became a friend, though Anthony Burton's notes with this new Chandos release reveal that he was too shy to accept Brahms' offer of lessons. He learned a lot from the old fellow nonetheless: the Serenade breathes a Brahmsian idiom with consummate fluency; there's also a strong sniff of Schumann. The primary instrumentation is for oboe, horn and piano, although the score allows a number of alternatives; certainly, the combination of oboe, viola and piano works wonderfully well. Kahn's craftsmanship is of a high order: the invention never flags; the music evolves spontaneously, with effective but unforced contrasts, moving fluently from one episode to the next (it's in a single movement). There's nothing here that wrestles with the deeper meanings of life, I grant you, but the there's an effortless felicity that is hardly less pleasing.

I shouldn't forget Klughardt's Schilflieder, here receiving their first recording, and Loeffler's Two Rhapsodies – both enormously attractive works; the Loeffler has an extra atmospheric charge, and the Klughardt is especially charming. Hindemith's Trio, Op. 47, initially scored for viola, heckelphone and piano, is given a deliciously feisty reading – the Dutch trio gets the blend of learning and mischievous learning just right. In short, this CD offers a combination of composers and works that might not appear to have an immediate appeal outside specialist circles, but it's one of the most instantly beguiling recitals I have come across in a long time. The playing and recording are both very fine indeed. © Martin Anderson

Art From Ashes (innova 585), Vol. I – Music of Remembrance, USA

In December 2002, innova, the CD label of the American Composers' Forum, will be releasing an interesting recording of chamber works by composers who became victims of the Holocaust. The artists involved are the pianist Mina Miller, the singers Julie Mirel (mezzo soprano) and Erich Parce (baritone), with musicians from the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. The selected works for this recording are a combination of 'Suppressed Music' items and newly commissioned works by living American composers who have some relation to the subject.

Innova Album 578 includes:

Paul Schoenfield: Camp Songs
Robert Dauber: Serenata
Ervin Schulhoff: Five Pieces for String Quartet
Herman Berlinski: Sonata for Flute and Piano
David Stock: A Vanished World

NB: The CD is not distributed in Europe through retailers or record shops. You have to contact either innova (innova[at]composersforum.org) or Music of Remembrance (info[at]MusicOfRemembrance.org) for orders outside the USA. The CD costs US$7.50 (+ shipping costs)

Details of the Recording

Art From Ashes conjoins a number of composers of Jewish decent who fell victims to the Nazi Regime. Even experts on the topic of Suppressed Music probably make some surprising discoveries on this recording, which include a number of world-premiere recordings. Two examples:

Herman Berlinski's Sonata for Flute and piano (written in 1941 and revised in 1981) is, in his own words, “not a complex work, and the Holocaust, which has marked so many of my later works, had not yet become part of my consciousness”. The work, though traditionally structured in sonata form, attempts sublimate a historical Jewish Eastern European prayer Mode (Ahava Rabba), presented as a non-religious work. Berlinski (1910–2001), German by birth of Polish decent, is virtually unknown in Europe, particularly outside the non-Jewish (musical) world. He studied composition first in Leipzig (1927–32), and then with Nadia Boulanger in Paris (1934–38); fleeing Europe thereafter to the USA in 1941 as Nazism spread across the continent. Berlinski's musical extensive output reflects his dedication to liturgical music, as do his completed studies and work in the USA after 1941 as an organist and minister – as examples, organ studies with Joseph Yasser at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (New York), and from 1963 to 1977, Berlinski served as a minister of music of the Washington (D.C.) Hebrew Congregation.

Robert Dauber (1922–45), whose Serenata for violin and piano (1942) is presented on this CD, was imprisoned in Terezín where he played in the performances of Krása's Brundibár as a cellist. Not much known biographical information about Dauber has survived, norm is much known about his compositions. As the CD booklet points out, it was David Bloch's achievement to have made this composition available for this recording – a composition, which gives a first impression of the quality and style of a musician whose life was tragically cut short.

The CD also includes, as indicated above, two commissioned works: Camp Songs (2001) by Paul Schoenfeld, a song cycle of five poems by Aleksander Kulisiewicz (sung in Polish) for mezzo soprano, baritone, clarinet, violin, cello, double-bass and piano, and David Stock's A Vanished World, a chamber piece for flute, viola and harp. Schoenfeld's song cycle successfully combines popular styles, vernacular and folk traditions with the traditions of western concert music, while Stock's chamber piece impresses with the combination of the instrumental sonorities. Both works are world premiere recordings and combine perfectly with the other items.

The CD is an important documentation, but it is much more than that. This CD series uniquely combines works referred to as 'Suppressed Music' with contemporary works. And most importantly, the musical performances are of exceptional quality, as one would expect from such outstanding musicians. Music of Remembrance and the innova CD label deserve credit for this exciting recording, and one can only look forward to their next release. © Matthias Würz

Music of Remembrance (Seattle, USA)

Back in 1998, Music of Remembrance was founded by the American pianist Mina Miller, who has since also lead this non-profit organisation as Artistic Director. Every year, two chamber concerts are organised: one as a commemoration of Reichskristallnacht in November and Yom Ha Shoah in April. The concerts, in which Mina Miller usually appears together with musicians of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, have seen performances of works by Gideon Klein, Ervin Schulhoff, Viktor Ullmann, Hans Krása and many other victims or survivors of the Holocaust. For each of the concerts, there a commissions of new works by living American composers, which makes an intelligent concert programming. Other activities involve educational events in the community, and the commissioning of new works has been mooted.

See the following websites:

Music of Remembrance:
www.musicofremembrance.org/Innova http://innova.mu/

Weigl reviewed in The Independent

On 16 May 2002 Rob Cowan chose Thomas Sanderling's recording of the Weigl Fifth Symphony (booklet notes by IFSM committee member Lloyd Moore, by the way) as one of this two CDs of the week:

Karl Weigl's "Apocalyptic" Symphony opens from the far end of chaos. The year is 1945, the musical context an orchestra in the process of tuning, and the gesture that sets the symphony in motion a trio of trombones calling for order, like Moses summoning the faithless from the edge of Mount Sinai. Indeed, the second movement is an Oriental-sounding Dance around the Golden Calf, which is not surprising, given that Arnold Schoenberg was a prominent presence in Weigl's Viennese youth. 'One of the best composers of the old school,' Schoenberg had called him, 'who continued the glittering Viennese tradition.'

Weigl's 'old school' heaves its deepest sigh in the symphony's third movement, Paradise Lost, where archaic harmonic patterns span 15 minutes of Brucknerian serenity. The effect is expansive and ethereal, and quite unlike anything else from the period, a sort of musical nostalgia for a culture that lay in ruins beneath the rubble of defeated mob rule. The finale conjures the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, ending with an equivocal march that neither celebrates nor commemorates. Time marching on, you might say, whereas the mercurial Fantastic Intermezzo 'fill-up' was originally intended as the finale to Weigl's Second Symphony of 1921. Again, the musical vocabulary is securely rooted in late Romanticism: it's rich without being over-ripe, knowing but never cynical. A fascinating voice, then, considerately tended by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Sanderling who, with some luck, might now go on to tackle Weigl's still unknown Sixth Symphony.

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V. Books and other publications

Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology (DDM)

The end-of-summer update of DDM-Online is now complete and available for use at www.music.indiana.edu/ddm. The Director of the major online portal database at the School of Music at Indiana University, writes: 'Since the last update (June 2002), we have been continuing to update our existing records, enter new registrations, and process the backlog of data not included in the earlier print versions of Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology. This update contains approximately 175 new, expanded, and corrected records. The entire database now includes 11,619 records. In this announcement, I would like particularly to thank Professor Geoffrey Chew of Royal Holloway College in the University of London for supplying a considerable number of new records for musicological dissertations written at the University of London that had heretofore either escaped our notice or appeared only as incomplete records. As always, DDM-Online relies heavily on all the institutions and individuals who regularly send us new records, corrections, updates, queries, and suggestions. Such communications are always welcome, and we hope you will continue to be in touch with us.

Thomas J. Mathiesen, Director mathiese[at]indiana.edu

Martin Anderson has been through the twentieth-century section of Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology, noting the many dissertations that our readers may find of interest – some might even make important books in a series:

Bergman, Rachel E: Creativity and Captivity: The Musical Language of Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944). Ph.D., Musicology, Yale University. Research director: Allen Forte DDM Code: 71stBerR*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:

Berner, Christof: Friedrich Hollaender / Frederick Hollander / Friedrich Holländer: Sein Werk–seine Zeit. Ph.D., Musicology, Osnabrück. Research director: Hans-Christian Schmidt-Banse DDM Code: 71woBerC*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:
Additional keywords: cabaret, revue, revuette, chanson, film music, Berlin

Dahm, Annkatrin: Musik und Antisemitismus. Ph.D., Musicology, Freiburg im Breisgau. Research director: Christoph von Blumröder DDM Code: 76mvDahA*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:
Additional keywords: Nazi music literature, racism, jews

Gvirtz, Alejandro: Viktor Ullmanns Lieder aus Theresienstadt. Ph.D., Musicology, Heidelberg. Research director: Silke Leopold DDM Code: 71voGviA*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:

Haarmann, Irene: Der Komponist Herbert Windt zwischen Expressionismus und Faschismus. Ph.D., Musicology, Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Frankfurt am Main. Research director: Peter Ackermann DDM Code: 71mvHaaI*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:
Additional keywords: national socialism

Harris, Scott: Formal Archetypes, Phrase Rhythm, and Motivic Design in the String Quartets of Alexander Zemlinsky. Ph.D., Theory, Indiana University, 1993. xv, 399 p. tbls., mus. exs., append., discog., bibliog. Research director: Allen Winold DDM Code: 79chHarS; DA no.: 54/12:4300; RILM no.: 93:11368dd; UM no.: 94-10414

Kwon, Elaine: Vittorio Rietti: A Rediscovery. D.M.A., Piano, Boston University. Research director: Anthony di Bonaventura DDM Code: 71keKwoE*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:

Petersen, Bettina: Arnold Schönberg–Kol nidre op. 39. Ph.D., Musicology, Hildesheim. Research director: Werner Keil DDM Code: 71ciPetB*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:
Additional keywords: Arnold Schoenberg

Rackowitz, Dorothee: Musikkritik im "Dritten Reich." Eine Untersuchung zur Pressepolitik und Feuilletonarbeit in Hamburger und Altonaer Tageszeitungen. Ph.D., Musicology, Hamburg. Research director: Peter Petersen DDM Code: 71crRacD*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:
Additional keywords: music criticism, Third Reich

Roberge, Marc-André: Die Musik (1901-44): La transformation d'un périodique à travers trois périodes de l'histoire allemande. Ph.D., Musicology, University of Toronto, 1988. xxi, 445 p. illus., tbls., transl., append., bibliog. Research director: Robert A. Falck DDM Code: 71pgRobM; DA no.: 49/09:2445; RILM no.: 88:10766dd; UM no.:
Publication: Extracts in "Le périodique Die Musik (1901-1944) et sa transformation à travers trois périodes de l'histoire allemande," Revue de musicologie 78 (1992): 109-44; and "Deux facettes de la critique musicale pendant le Troisième Reich: Musikkritik et Musikbetrachtung," Criticus musicus 1, nos. 2/3 (1993): 25-36.
Additional keywords: musical journalism, music criticism, First World War, Weimar Republic, Third Reich, national socialism, Second World War

Scharenberg, Sointu: Überwinden der Prinzipien. Betrachtungen zu Arnold Schönbergs unkonventioneller Lehrtätigkeit zwischen 1898 und 1951. Ph.D., Musicology/Music Education, Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hannover, 1997. 446 p. illus., mus. exs., transcr., transl., works lst., append., discog., bibliog., ind. Research director: Hans Bäßler DDM Code: 71pdSchS; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.: Publication: Saarbrücken: PFAU, 2002. ISBN 3-89727-110-9.
Additional keywords: Arnold Schoenberg's pupils, John Cage, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Guido Adler, Tonkünstlerverein, Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen, Arnold Schönberg-Bibliothek, The Students Private Library, Willomitzer, Stern'sches Konservatorium, Preußische Akademie der Künste, Bärenreiter-Verlag, Theodor Adorno, Marc Blitzstein, Nadia Boulanger, Paul Hindemith, Eugenie Schwarzwald, Franz Schreker, Wahrheit, truth, Erfahrung, experience, Verstehen, understanding, Kunst, art, Musikpädagogik als Wissenschaft

Schöfer, Tanja: Manfred Gurlitts Oper Wozzeck. Ph.D., Musicology, Köln. Research director: Manuel Gervink DDM Code: 71opSchT*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:

Schorling, Valeska: Haggadah shel Pessach von P. Dessau und M. Brod. Ph.D., Musicology, Hamburg. Research director: Peter Petersen DDM Code: 71ciSchV*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:

Schürmann, Mona: Untersuchungen zu den Klavierliedern Viktor Ullmanns. Ph.D., Musicology, Köln. Research director: Erich Reimer DDM Code: 71voSchM*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:

Seshadri, Anne M: Richard Strauss, Salome and the "Jewish Question". Ph.D., Musicology, University of Maryland at College Park, 1998. vi, 350 p. illus., plts., facs., mus. exs., transl., append., bibliog. Research director: Carolina Robertson DDM Code: 71opSesA; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:
Additional keywords: opera, Germany, twentieth century

Staude, Marina: Franz Schrekers Liedschaffen. Ph.D., Musicology, Köln. Research director: Hans Schmidt DDM Code: 71voStaM*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:

Taylor, Robert L: The Completed Symphonic Compositions of Alexander Zemlinsky. Ph.D., Music, Ohio State University, 1995. 2 vols., xl, 653 p. tbls., mus. exs., transcr., transl., works lst., discog., bibliog. Research director: Keith E. Mixter DDM Code: 71oqTayR; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:
Additional keywords: symphonies, nineteenth-century music, twentieth-century music, Vienna

Taylor-Jay, Claire: Politics and the Ideology of the Artist in the Künstleropern of Pfitzner, Krenek and Hindemith. Ph.D., Musicology, University of Southampton, 1999. viii, 271 p. plts., tbls., mus. exs., append., bibliog. Research director: Julie Brown and Nicholas Cook DDM Code: 71opTayC; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:
Additional keywords: Germany, artist-opera, Palestrina, Jonny spielt auf, Mathis der Maler, Weimar Republic, Third Reich

Thompson, Jeanne M: Opera in the Netherlands during the German Occupation. Ph.D., Music and Cultural History, University of Iowa. Research director: Sarah Farmer DDM Code: 70opThoJ*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:
Additional keywords: Dutch, fascism

Tregear, Peter J: Ernst Krenek and the Politics of Musical Style. Ph.D., Musicology, Cambridge University, 2000. ix, 254 p. illus., mus. exs., transl., append., bibliog. Research director: John Deathridge DDM Code: 71woTreP; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:
Additional keywords: Theodor Adorno, Franz Schreker, Karl Kraus, Jonny spielt auf, Karl V, Reisebuch aus den Österreichischen Alpen, Weimar culture, jazz, Germany, Nazism, Fascism, Arnold Schoenberg, Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg, Catholicism

Wegner, Dirk: Erich Wolfgang Korngolds Oper Das Wunder der Heliane. Versuch einer musikgeschichtlichen und personalstilistischen Standortbestimmung. Ph.D., Musicology, Wien. Research director: Peter Ackermann DDM Code: 71opWegD*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:

Zeidler, Katja: Karl V. von Ernst Krenek. Ph.D., Musicology, Hamburg. Research director: Peter Petersen DDM Code: 71opZeiK*; DA no.: RILM no.: UM no.:

A review (in German) by Joachim Landkammer of the book Musikforschung. Faschismus. Nationalsozialismus. – reviewed by Martin Anderson in an earlier Newsletter to be seen now at Website www.jmi.org.uk/suppressedmusic – can be found here.

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VI . Conferences and Talks

17. Internationales Studentisches Symposium des DVSM e. V.

3 October 2002 Ulrike Anton talked at the 17. Internationales Studentisches Symposium des DVSM (Dachverband der Studierenden der Musikwissenschaft in Deutschland) on Viktor Ullmann's "Kaiser von Atlantis".

Abstract: Der Kaiser von Atlantis
Viktor Ullmann and Anthroposophie

The Jewish-Czech composer Viktor Ullmann (1898–1944) was one of the leading figures of Prague's contemporary music scene during the 1930s. His promising career was brought to a sudden end when he was deported by the Nazis to the concentration camp of Theresienstadt in September 1942. He was killed at Auschwitz two years later. During his time in Theresienstadt Ullmann composed 22 works, the most well-known being his opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis. Ullmann's life was strongly influenced by the anthroposophical movement of Rudolf Steiner which consequently has left traces on the composer's output.

This paper analyses the compositional processes of the opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis and shows that Ullmann has developed the different characters in the opera on the basis of his anthroposophical beliefs. Der Kaiser von Atlantis was written as a clear statement against the terror regime of Nazi Germany. But underneath this obvious political protest Ullmann's music goes towards a much deeper philosophical dimension. It confronts us with the meaning of life and the development of the individual.

There is also a website: www.dvsm.de with a link to the Symposium.

Talk: Nicolay Myaskovsky (1881–1950): 'The composer who wrote too much?'
Clive Marks, Trinity College of Music Jerwood Library Seminars in the Performing Arts 2002–3
Tuesday 19 November 2002, 6.15pm

Myaskovsky is one of the greatest Soviet symphonists. A friend of Prokofiev and Shostakovich and teacher of Kabalevsky, Khachaturian and Shebalin, he composed 27 symphonies, 13 string quartets, 9 piano sonatas, a violin concerto, a cello concerto and two magnificent cello sonatas. He was the oldest of the four composers – two of the others were Shostakovich and Prokofiev – condemned for 'formalism' at All Party Conference in Moscow, 1948. Clive Marks will examine how the 'musical conscience of Moscow' was failed by the Party, using live and recorded musical examples to illustrate his talk.

Clive Marks is a chartered accountant specialising in the world of music. Formerly a Governor of Thames Valley University, he is Chairman of the London College of Music, and is currently drawing up a curriculum for a master's degree in music, tyranny and politics. He is a trustee of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sir Arthur Bliss Trust and the John Ireland Trust.

Trinity College of Music, King Charles Court, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London, SE10 9JF. Telephone +44 (0)20 8305 4388, e mail cnelson[at]tcm.ac.uk. Supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation

'From East to West: Piano Music by Three Generations of Composers in Israel'
A lecture recital by Malcolm Miller
Thursday 28 November 2002, 7.30pm
the London Jewish Cultural Centre

This lecture-recital traces the development of piano music by composers in Israel over three generations, from the pioneers of the 'Mediterranean Style' who came to pre-State Palestine in the 1920s and '30s from Europe and Russia, through the second-generation Israeli-born or educated composers who forged a deeper synthesis of European and Middle-Eastern elements, to the younger generations who explored an eclectic postmodernism.

The talk examines the nature of an Israeli musical style, illustrated by performances of piano works by composers of each generation, including Paul Ben-Haim, Alexander Boscovich, Oedeon Partos and Josef Tal; Yehezkel Braun, Tzvi Avni, Ben Zion Orgad and Andre Hajdu, and the younger composers Sulamit Ran and Jan Radzynski.

LJCC c/o King's College, Kidderpore Avenue, London NW3 7SZ T: 020 7431 0345
F: 020 7431 0361 E: admin[at]ljcc.org.uk www.ljcc.org.uk

'Mahler: Songs into Symphonies'
An illustrated lecture by Paul Banks, Chelsfield Room, Royal Festival Hall,
Saturday, 30 November 2002, 2pm–3.15pm

Followed by a pre-concert recital in the RFH from 6.15–6.45pm with Silvia Fraser, piano and Christian Immler, baritone (Zemlinsky, Mahler); in the concert which follows, Mahler's First Symphony was conducted by Kurt Masur.

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VII . Articles

1. 'The Most Famous Thing He Never Said'
by E. Randol Schoenberg

It seems that when one wants to deflate the image of Arnold Schoenberg and the twelve-tone method of composition he developed, the most common approach is to recite Schoenberg's most famous statement to his pupil Josef Rufer during the summer of 1921:

I have made a discovery, which will ensure the supremacy of German music for the next hundred years. [Ich habe eine Entdeckung gemacht, durch welche die Vorherrschaft der deutschen Musik für den nächsten hundert Jahre gesichert ist.]

The not-so-subtle implication is always that Schoenberg was a fanatical German supremacist, like Hitler, and therefore that his twelve-tone method should be associated with fascism and Nazism and discarded. Uncritical acceptance of this statement can be found in even the most pro-Schoenberg books and articles. But closer scrutiny casts serious doubt on the accuracy of Rufer's recollection. Schoenberg's most (in)famous statement may be the most famous thing he never said.

Schoenberg is possibly the world's best-documented composer. His thousands and thousands of pages of writings – books, letters, essays and aphorisms – have been meticulously preserved, catalogued and made accessible by publication and in the Schoenberg archives open without restriction to scholars since 1977. However, Schoenberg's most famous statement does not appear in any of these writings. Its source is the 1959 publication by Schoenberg pupil Josef Rufer, Das Werk Arnold Schönbergs (Kassel 1959). In that book, published eight years after Schoenberg's death, Rufer stated, apparently for the first time, that during the summer of 1921, in the Austrian town of Traunkirchen, Schoenberg had disclosed to him the discovery of the twelve-tone method. The quotation recounted by Rufer some 38 years after the fact has become the line most commonly used to discredit Schoenberg and his music.

There is good reason to be sceptical of Rufer's belated recollection of this event. Rufer conveniently makes himself the first pupil to whom Schoenberg disclosed his new method of composition. The first work using the twelve-tone method, the Prelude of the Piano Suite, Op. 25, was begun in Traunkirchen in July 1921. But as Schoenberg's biographer H. H. Stuckenschmidt recounts, “an enormous number of friends and pupils visited” Schoenberg at Traunkirchen that summer. Wouldn't Schoenberg have made this disclosure also to other pupils and colleagues? Why did Rufer not reveal this event until 1959, after Schoenberg and many of the other pupils (and witnesses) had died?

For the sake of argument, let us assume that Schoenberg did disclose his method of composing with twelve tones only to his young pupil Josef Rufer during that summer. Would Schoenberg have used the German nationalist language that Rufer ascribes to him? It should be noted that when Rufer recounted the story it was 1959. The German-born Rufer had lived through the entire Nazi period in Germany. The phrase “supremacy of German ...” was one that Rufer had heard many, many times. Can we be certain that his belated recollection of Schoenberg's words was accurate?

The timing of the disclosure to Rufer also makes Schoenberg's use and appropriation of nationalist German rhetoric unlikely. Schoenberg moved to Traunkirchen in July 1921 after an incident in the town of Mattsee, where it was made known to him that the town did not appreciate having Jewish guests. (Rufer is credited with locating the Villa Josef in Trauenkirchen to which the Schoenbergs moved.) The Mattsee event proved a watershed in Schoenberg's perception of himself as a Jew. Less than two years later he would write to Kandinsky that the event led to his rediscovery of his Jewish identity and he warned already then of the dangers of Hitler and anti-Semitism. If Schoenberg did use the term “German supremacy” when discussing his musical discovery during the summer of 1921, it could only have been with considerable irony – an irony perhaps lost on his young German pupil Rufer.

A letter from Schoenberg to Alma Mahler dated 26 July 1921 casts much-needed light on the subject. In this short letter, which has not previously been published, Schoenberg makes a statement quite similar to the one Rufer later recalled. But the context of Schoenberg's statement makes it clear that Schoenberg harboured no sympathy for the Austrian-German nationalists who had recently interrupted his summer in Mattsee.

My dear, most esteemed friend,

I just wanted to give you quickly a sign of life and to thank you for your dear letter. Quickly: for after I paid my Mattsee compatriots – forever deranged by the madness of the times – a tribute in money (very much money) and what is more: work time (3 weeks!) – I have begun again to work. Something completely new! The German Aryans who persecuted me in Mattsee will have this new thing (especially this one) to thank for the fact that even they will still be respected abroad for 100 years, because they belong to the very state that has just secured for itself hegemony in the field of music! – How are you? All is well with us – only we cannot find anyone to do housework. Long live democracy: no one wants to work, so we have to do it. Many heartfelt greetings from my wife, Trudi, Görgi and from me. Your most devoted Arnold Schoenberg

[Liebe hochverehrte Freundin, nur um rasch ein Lebenszeichen zu geben und, dir für deinen so lieben Brief zu danken. Rasch: denn, nach dem ich meinen Mattseer Mitmenschen – Ewig-Zeitgeisteskranken – einen Tribut von Geld (von sehr viel Geld) und was noch mehr ist: in Arbeitszeit (3 Wochen!) gezahlt habe, – habe ich wieder zu arbeiten begonnen. Was ganz Neues! Die Deutscharier, die mich in Mattsee verfolgt haben, werden es diesem Neuen (speciell diesem) [XXX] zu verdanken haben, dass man sogar sie noch 100 Jahre lang im Ausland achtet, weil sie dem Staat angehören, der sich neuerdings die Hegemonie auf dem Gebiet der Musik gesichert hat! – Wie gehts dir. Bei uns alles wohl – nur können wir niemanden zur häuslichen Arbeit finden. Es lebe die Demokratie: niemand will arbeiten; also müssen wir es tun. Viele herzliche Grüsse von meiner Frau, Trudi, Görgi, und von mir.

Dein herzlich ergebener Arnold Schönberg]

If Schoenberg did say something to Rufer during the summer of 1921, it was probably similar to what Schoenberg wrote to his friend Alma Mahler. But the irony in the letter to Alma Mahler is completely lost in the famous line later recounted by Rufer over thirty years later. And the implication that is often made from the Rufer quote – that Schoenberg was a fanatical German nationalist – is exactly the opposite of what Schoenberg expressed.

Schoenberg recognised that his discovery of the twelve-tone method would have far-reaching implications, and correctly predicted that his innovation would establish his pre-eminence among composers not only in Austria and Germany but throughout the world. (The widespread use of the twelve-tone method by other composers since 1921 does seem to bear out Schoenberg's prophecy.) Schoenberg recognised the supreme irony that the honour that would inure to Austria as a result of his discovery would even benefit those Austrian German nationalists who sought to expel him because of his Jewish background. The discovery of the twelve-tone method was not proclaimed as a triumph of German nationalism, but rather in spite of such nationalism.

We have from Schoenberg another similar but much more ecumenical statement about the importance of his twelve-tone method of composition. In 1930, Schoenberg wrote to a number of leading figures seeking support for a proclamation in honor of the architect Adolf Loos' 60th birthday. After receiving an uncharacteristic rejection from Albert Einstein, Schoenberg wrote to Loos' wife, Claire, on 17 November 1930 as follows:

Dear esteemed madam,

Enclosed is the answer from Einstein and one from Heinrich Mann. To Einstein I wanted to send the following answer:

'. . . I understand something about the subject; hardly less than the expert from the newspaper, whom everyone would believe. And I say: Loos has in his field at least the same importance as I do in mine. And you know perhaps that I pride myself on having shown mankind the way of musical creation for at least the next hundred years.'

[Verehrte gnädige Frau,

anbei die Antwort von Einstein und eine von Heinrich Mann. An Einstein wollte ich folgende Antwort richten:

“...ich verstehe wirklich etwas von der Sache; kaum weniger als der Fachmann von der Zeitung, dem jeder glauben würde. Und ich sage: Loos hat auf seinem Gebiet mindestens dieselbe Bedeutung wie ich auf dem meinigen. Und Sie wissen vielleicht, dass ich mir einbilde der Menschheit für wenigstens hundert Jahre die Wege musikalischen Schaffens gewiesen zu haben.']

There is no doubt that Schoenberg believed that he was an heir to the great Austro-German musical tradition – to Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner. But this does not make him a believer in Nazi-like German supremacy. In several essays written in 1931, he discusses the concept of 'national music' and of improper attempts to ascribe national, political dimensions to artistic phenomena. In music, as in many fields, certain nations sometimes obtain hegemony over others. But in Schoenberg's view, artisitic dominance was not at all related to political dominance. Schoenberg certainly believed that his discovery of the twelve-tone method would again lead to Austrian and German hegemony in the field of music. But that did not make him a German nationalist. As an Austrian, and a Jew, he could hardly have ever had any sympathy for those who longed for a 1,000-year German Reich. One may quibble with Schoenberg's naturally partisan view of the historical importance of his own discovery, and of the influence it would have in the future. But it is not fair to ascribe to Schoenberg the German nationalist tendencies that he so obviously abhorred. It is a mistake to rely on the line recounted by Rufer in 1959, when we have in Schoenberg's letters evidence of a more nuanced, ironic and ecumenical point of view.

© E. Randol Schoenberg

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2. 'Italian Jewish Composers in the Twentieth Century:
A Study Group under the Auspices of YUVAL Italia' 

Since the Renaissance, Italy has been the cradle of the close relationship between Jewish musicians and European art music. Italian music was then the most exciting one in the continent, and Italy's Jews were as affected by it as anyone else – except, of course, they lived in ghettos and therefore learned it, cultivated it and performed it inside their walls. Only at given occasions, Jewish musicians were allowed to join the musical world outside. Sometimes it worked the other way around, and non-Jewish composers entered the ghettos, where they were hired to teach and write music that was often performed in the synagogues. Art music began to influence synagogue music throughout the country: eventually, choirs were trained, organs were played, and polyphony gained pride of place within the segregated Jewish life.In the 19th century, with emancipation, the encapsulated life of the ghetto burst into excitement. Jews became openly involved with all sorts of professions, including music. At the same time, music became an essential part in the standard education of the evolving Jewish bourgeoisie. The new situation grew out of the tradition that had been shaped in the previous centuries. Thus, in the 1900s, several Jewish composers started establishing themselves as leading figures in the national musical landscape. In many cases, they were true innovators, and their fame reached beyond national borders. Especially beginning with the 1920s, under the newly established Fascist regime, composers like Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco, Vittorio Rieti or Renzo Massarani were able to reach a very high recognition. At the same time, Jewish scholars established groundbreaking paths in the national musical world. Musicologist Alberto Gentili, who was appointed to the first chair of Music History established in an Italian University, started the Vivaldi renaissance; the composer Fernando Liuzzi, who taught in the Universities of Florence and Rome, discovered the key to the transcription of twelfth-century religious music, while the ethnomusicologist Leone Sinigaglia was active in researching the popular music in Piedmont, setting a basis for the future development of his discipline.After the anti-Semitic laws that Italy approved in 1938, Jews abruptly disappeared from the country's public life. Scholars lost their teaching positions, and artists were blacklisted. Some of them eventually left, finding refuge in the Americas. The new conditions they found, their lives as refugees, were not easy, and in many cases their productivity and creativity suffered considerably. At the end of the War, their original roles in their homeland were lost, and their places were filled in by their non-Jewish colleagues, who ended up profiting from their forced absence: except for Castelnuovo Tedesco, all the Italian-Jewish composers disappeared from the national and international music scene. Most of these events are no longer part of the Italian musical memory, and rarely find place in the research world or in concert programmes. YUVAL Italia, the Milan-based Centre for the Study of Jewish Music founded in 1997, has been active over the past five years in re-discovering Jewish repertoires, researching and popularising them in Italy and abroad. A first achievement in this field is the new publication of the CD Italian Jewish Musical Traditions From the Leo Levi Collection (1954–1961), edited by Francesco Spagnolo, issued by the Jewish Music Research Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and entirely devoted to the country's oral traditions. A further step in reviving Italy's Jewish music, as well as in reconsidering the role of Jewish musicians in the peninsula, necessarily involves re-constructing the musical figures and activities of the country's recent past.Since January 2002, YUVAL Italia has sponsored the creation of a Study Group devoted to researching the life and the work of a number of Italian-Jewish composers, musicians and musicologists who were active in the twentieth century, and who have disappeared from our collective memory. The Study Group is coordinated by Yuval's director, Francesco Spagnolo, and combines the skills and energies of Mrs Simonetta Heger, a pianist and harpsichordist who pioneered the re-discovery of such composers as Aldo Finzi and Fernando Liuzzi since the 1980s, the pianist and composer Delilah Gutman, and musician and scholar Carlo Goldstein. The goals of the Group are both scholarly and performance- and broadcasting-oriented. A database is being created by searching in libraries and archives for information about life and bibliography of Italian Jewish 20th-century composers in order to re-establish the catalogue of their works; in August 2002 the milanese "Radio Popolare" broadcasted a part of the Yuval series especially dedicated to these authors; also, by interviewing old musicians and their remaining families, by promoting lectures, conferences and performances at home and abroad, the researchers' hope is to bring back a relevant, but lost, part of Italy's and Jewish musical history.

© YUVAL Italia

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VIII. Web Links

Good Day from Mesa in Arizona: Sincerely, Ralph de Butler.

May I take the liberty to invite you to visit a web page in the memory of Lex de Vries. He was the eldest son of Clara Dalberg, the sister of Leni Dalberg. Leni was the mother of Milein Keller. Milein Keller is the widow of Hans Keller.

The address is here:
www.geocities.com/SoHo/Museum/4597/devries.html

Articles for downloading/viewing (Ottens/Rubin)

The following articles are now available for downloading at www.rubin-ottens.com/p6.html, which may be of interest to newsletter readers: Dr. Joel E. Rubin & Rita Ottens, rubin[at]rubin-ottens.com, simontov[at]compuserve.com, www.rubin-ottens.com

Rita Ottens, "Ikonografie der Andersartigkeit: Rassismus und Antisemitismus in der deutschen Popularmusik" (The Iconography of Otherness: Racism and Anti-Semitism in German Popular Music, Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik, July-August 2002, pp. 54-57)

Rita Ottens, "'Anyos Munchos i Buenos': Die Kunst des Rabbi Isaac Algazi" (The Art of Rabbi Isaac Algazi, Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik, May-June 2002, pp. 56-57)

Rita Ottens "Der Klezmer als ideologischer Arbeiter: Jiddische Musik in Deutschland" (The Klezmer as Ideological Worker, Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik, May-June 1998, pp. 26-29)

In addition, we have put up excerpts from the books "Klezmer-Musik" (Rita Ottens and Joel Rubin, Baerenreiter/dtv, 1999) and "Juedische Musiktraditionen" (Rita Ottens and Joel Rubin, Jewish Musical Traditions, Gustav-Bosse-Verlag, 2001). At present they are only in the original German.

Eventually, time permitting, we plan to put up translations of at least some of the above texts, as well as further writings. - Joel Rubin

Martin Anderson writes:

Leo Ornstein (1892 or 1893–2002) may not have been a suppressed composer, although his family did flee Czarist Russia in 1906 to escape the pogroms. Pianist subscribers to this newsletter may like to know that a considerable quantity of Ornstein's piano music is now available online, at www.poonhill.com, and can be downloaded free.

The Hanns Eisler Newsletter offers the following links:

Universal to re-issue Decca's 'Entartete Musik' series:
http://eislermusic.com/new.htm#universal

First major US performances of Eisler in five years:
http://eislermusic.com/new.htm#eislermaterial

Berliner Ensemble to stage Brecht's Die Mutter:
http://eislermusic.com/new.htm#mutter

Brecht scholar John Willett dies in London:
http://eislermusic.com/new.htm#willett

New CDs, video, etc., added to our site:
http://eislermusic.com/cd.htm

To submit an item for the Eisler mailing list, please email Andy Lang langohio[at]earthlink.net.

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IX. JMI International Forum for Suppressed Music

This Newsletter is published by the JMI International Forum for Suppressed Music

JMI International Forum for Suppressed Music

President Sir Simon Rattle

The International Forum for Suppressed Music (IFSM) was established in September 1999 by the Jewish Music Institute (JMI) at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, as a platform to bring together all those working in the field of suppressed music. Although its early focus is on composers who suffered under the Third Reich, the IFSM is also a platform for examining music under other totalitarian regimes.

Executive Committee and Editorial Board

Michael Haas, Project Director 'Continental Britons' and Executive Producer 'Entartete Musik' Series, Decca
Erik Levi, Senior Lecturer, Royal Holloway University of London, Author Music in the Third ReichLloyd Moore, Composer
Martin Anderson, Writer and Publisher (Toccata Press)
Betty Sagon Collick, Consultant JMI
Geraldine Auerbach MBE, Director, Jewish Music Institute, SOAS

Advisory Board

Brendan G Carroll, International Korngold Society Albrecht Dümling, Musica Reanimata and 'Entartete Musik' Exhibition Curator, Berlin
Christopher Hailey, Franz Schreker Foundation LA and Schoenberg Institut, Vienna
Martin Schüssler, Rathaus Foundation, New York, Berlin

Patrons

Lawrence Foster
Matthias Goerne
Barry Humphries
John Mauceri
Spoli Mills
Vilém Tausky

IFSM Projects

The International Forum for Suppressed Music has embarked on a number of projects, among them, to record the oral testimony of composers and musicians of the early part of the twentieth century in Central Europe, their families and friends. It is preparing to receive the archives of musicians of the period, establishing databases of the repertoire, developing major enterprises in the study, reconstruction, performance and recording of this music, and publishing new scholarship as well as material not hitherto available in English. Many projects are lined up and awaiting funding to set them in motion. The establishment of this Forum, and the development of its work, is endeavouring to meet the needs of audiences, musicians, promoters and scholars the world over.

Website

This website will expand to contain archives and information received and databases of repertoire as well as links to related sites.

International Forum for Suppressed Music
Jewish Music Institute
The School of Oriental and African Studies
University of London Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4308 fax: +44 (0)20 7898 4309
email contact

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