Tag Archives: Austrian

Mar 11

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and its Nazi history

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The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra commissioned a report on its activities from the Anschluss with Germany in March 1938 to the end of the War. You can read the reports of three historians, along with memoirs by former players, in a series of documents on the orchestra’s website An English translation is in preparation. READ MORE.

The report confirmed that in 1966 the orchestra reissued its highest award, an Ehrenring (Ring of Honour) to Baldur von Schirach, the former Nazi party governor in Vienna, who had just been released from Spandau prison for crimes against humanity, including the deportation of thousands of Jews to death camps. His original ring issued in 1942 had been taken by an American soldier following the Nazi defeat.

The report unearthed a petition to von Schirach from a prominent Nazi member of the orchestra, Wilhelm Jerger, pleading for him to stop the deportation of the Jewish musicians. Von Schirach ignored the appeal. Today’s report names Helmut Wobisch as the man who handed the re-awarded ring to von Schirach. (Source The Times 11 March 2013)

A rare photo from Lebrecht Music & Arts from 1943 when the Nazis ran Austria shows Von Schirach (far right) at the Burg Theatre in Vienna for the world premiere of Hauptmann’s ‘Iphigenia’ (centre) and Richard Strauss (left).

STRAUSS, Richard (1864-1949) in 1943

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Jul 11

GUSTAV KLIMT ANNIVERSARY 14th July

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14 July is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gustav Klimt, prominent Austrian artist, a founder of the Vienna Secession movement, and he remained with the Secession until 1908.


© Lebrecht Authors

He is most remembered for his works produced during his ‘Golden Phase’ where many of the paintings used gold leaf. The paintings most popularly associated with this period are the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) and The Kiss (1907 – 1908). These paintings of Viennese society ladies have always aroused huge interest because of the exotic and erotic style. They have since sold for fabulous sums – Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I was reportedly purchased for Ronald Lauder’s Neue Galerie New York for US $135 million.

Klimt began his professional career painting interior murals and ceilings in large public buildings on the Ringstrasse in Vienna including a successful series of Allegories and Emblems. In 1894,hewas commissioned to decorate the ceiling of the Great Hall in the University of Vienna. The three paintings, Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence were criticized for their radical themes and approach, which was criticised as being ‘pornographic’. Klimt had created a new language which was more overtly sexual, and shocking to the mores of the time. Objections came from all fronts—political, aesthetic, and religious. All three paintings were destroyed by retreating SS forces in May 1945.

In 1902, Klimt finished the Beethoven Frieze for the 14th Vienna Secessionist exhibition, which was intended to be a celebration of the composer and featured a dramatic, polychromed sculpture by Max Klinger. The frieze was painted directly on the walls of the exhibition . It was not intended to last beyond the exhibition but the work was preserved, although it did not go on display again until 1986. The face on the Beethoven portrait resembles the composer and Vienna Court Opera director of this time Gustav Mahler.


Beethoven Frieze by Gustav Klimt, 1902
© IMAGNO/Lebrecht

In the early 1890s, Klimt met Emilie Flöge, who, despite the artist’s relationships with other women, was to be his companion until the end of his life.


Gustav Klimt, Emilie Flöge and her mother
© IMAGNO/Lebrecht


Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt
© IMAGNO/Lebrecht


Gustav Klimt ‘s painting ‘Der Kuss’ (The Kiss)
© A. Koch Interfoto/Lebrecht Music & Arts


Judith I by Gustav Klimt
© IMAGNO/Lebrecht

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Feb 22

Stefan Zweig Suicide Anniversary

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 The 70th anniversary of the suicide of the Viennese writer Stefan Zweig  is on 23rd February 2012. In his suicide letter he declared himself unable to carry on in a linguistic exile, even one so safe and beautiful as Brazil. His wife, Lotte, decided to share his fate.  Read more on Slipped Disc

 

 

 

Der Zwang by Stefan Zweig. Woodcut by Franz Masereel 1920.

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Jan 01

Did Beethoven’s deafness affect his composing?

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The Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal examines the relation between Beethoven’s deafness and his compositions. It quotes him: “For the last three years my hearing has grown steadily weaker . . . I can give you some idea of this peculiar deafness when I must tell you that in the theatre I have to get very close to the orchestra to understand the performers, and that from a distance I do not hear the high notes of the instruments and the singers’ voices. . . Sometimes too I hardly hear people who speak softly. The sound I can hear it is true, but not the words. And yet if anyone shouts I can’t bear it.”  Here is a sample of the hearing aid that Beethoven used:

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