1.
Orchestra
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The term orchestra derives from the Greek ὀρχήστρα, the name for the area in front of a stage in ancient Greek theatre reserved for the Greek chorus. A full-size orchestra may sometimes be called an orchestra or philharmonic orchestra. The actual number of employed in a given performance may vary from seventy to over one hundred musicians, depending on the work being played. The term chamber orchestra usually refers to smaller-sized ensembles of about fifty musicians or fewer, the typical orchestra grew in size throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, reaching a peak with the large orchestras called for in the works of Richard Wagner, and later, Gustav Mahler. Orchestras are usually led by a conductor who directs the performance with movements of the hands and arms, the conductor unifies the orchestra, sets the tempo and shapes the sound of the ensemble. The first violin, commonly called the concertmaster, also plays an important role in leading the musicians, the typical symphony orchestra consists of four groups of related musical instruments called the woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings. The orchestra, depending on the size, contains almost all of the instruments in each group. Chamber orchestra usually refers to smaller-sized ensembles, a chamber orchestra might employ as many as fifty musicians. The term concert orchestra may also be used, as in the BBC Concert Orchestra, the so-called standard complement of doubled winds and brass in the orchestra from the first half of the 19th century is generally attributed to the forces called for by Beethoven. The composers instrumentation almost always included paired flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, the exceptions to this are his Symphony No. 4, Violin Concerto, and Piano Concerto No,4, which each specify a single flute. Beethoven carefully calculated the expansion of this particular timbral palette in Symphonies 3,5,6, the third horn in the Eroica Symphony arrives to provide not only some harmonic flexibility, but also the effect of choral brass in the Trio movement. Piccolo, contrabassoon, and trombones add to the finale of his Symphony No.5. A piccolo and a pair of trombones help deliver the effect of storm and sunshine in the Sixth, for several decades after his death, symphonic instrumentation was faithful to Beethovens well-established model, with few exceptions. Apart from the core orchestral complement, various instruments are called for occasionally. These include the guitar, heckelphone, flugelhorn, cornet, harpsichord. Saxophones, for example, appear in some 19th- through 21st-century scores.6 and 9 and William Waltons Belshazzars Feast, and many other works as a member of the orchestral ensemble. The euphonium is featured in a few late Romantic and 20th-century works, usually playing parts marked tenor tuba, including Gustav Holsts The Planets, cornets appear in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys ballet Swan Lake, Claude Debussys La Mer, and several orchestral works by Hector Berlioz
2.
Vienna
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Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austrias primary city, with a population of about 1.8 million, and its cultural, economic and it is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin, Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region, along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, apart from being regarded as the City of Music because of its musical legacy, Vienna is also said to be The City of Dreams because it was home to the worlds first psycho-analyst – Sigmund Freud. The citys roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city and it is well known for having played an essential role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first for the worlds most liveable cities, between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne, Australia. Monocles 2015 Quality of Life Survey ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world to make a base within, the UN-Habitat has classified Vienna as being the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the worlds number-one destination for international congresses and it attracts over 3.7 million tourists a year. The English name Vienna is borrowed from the homonymous Italian version of the name or the French Vienne. The etymology of the name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from Vedunia, meaning forest stream, which produced the Old High German Uuenia. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech and Slovak names of the city, the name of the city in Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian and Ottoman Turkish has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city Dunaj, which in other Central European Slavic languages means the Danube River, evidence has been found of continuous habitation since 500 BC, when the site of Vienna on the Danube River was settled by the Celts. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north
3.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
4.
Musikverein
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The Wiener Musikverein, commonly shortened to Musikverein, is a concert hall in the Innere Stadt borough of Vienna, Austria. It is the home of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra, none of these halls was built in the modern era with the application of acoustics science, and all share a long, tall, and narrow shoebox shape. The building is located on Dumbastraße/Bösendorferstraße behind the Hotel Imperial near the Ringstraße boulevard, however, since Bösendorferstraße is a relatively small street, the building is better known as being between Karlsplatz and Kärntner Ring. It was erected as the new concert hall run by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, the plans were designed by Danish architect Theophil Hansen in the Neoclassical style of an ancient Greek temple, including a concert hall and a smaller chamber music hall. The building was inaugurated on 6 January 1870, a major donor was Nikolaus Dumba, industrialist and liberal politician of Greek descent, whose name the Austrian government gave to one of the streets surrounding the Musikverein. The Großer Musikvereinssaal, or Goldener Saal, is about 49 m long,19 m wide and it has 1,744 seats and standing room for 300. The Skandalkonzert of 1913 was given there, and it is the venue for the annual Vienna New Years Concert, the Great Halls lively acoustics are primarily based on Hansens intuition, as he could not rely on any studies on architectural acoustics. The rooms rectangular shape and proportions, its boxes and sculptures allow early, the original equipment comprised a historic pipe organ built by Friedrich Ladegast, and the first organ recital was held by Anton Bruckner in 1872. The present–day organ was installed in 1907 by the Austrian firm of Rieger Orgelbau, highly esteemed by musicians such as Franz Schmidt or Marcel Dupré. Since 2001, the building has been undergoing renovation, and several new rehearsal halls have been installed in the basement, the names of the six halls refer to gold, Johannes Brahms, glass, metal, stone and wood respectively. Symphony Hall, Boston Notes Media related to Musikverein at Wikimedia Commons Musikverein website
5.
Vienna State Opera
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The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria and it was originally called the Vienna Court Opera. In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian Republic, the members of the Vienna Philharmonic are recruited from its orchestra. The opera house was the first major building on the Vienna Ringstrasse commissioned by the Viennese city expansion fund, work commenced on the house in 1861 and was completed in 1869, following plans drawn up by architects August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll. It was built in the Neo-Renaissance style by the renowned Czech architect, the somewhat coarser-grained Kelheimerstein was intended as the main stone to be used in the building of the opera house, but the necessary quantity was not deliverable. Breitenbrunner stone was suggested as a substitute for the Kelheimer stone, the staircases were constructed from polished Kaiserstein, while most of the rest of the interior was decorated with varieties of marble. The decision was made to use dimension stone for the exterior of the building, due to the monumental demand for stone, stone from Sóskút, widely used in Budapest, was also used. Three Viennese masonry companies were employed to supply enough masonry labour, Eduard Hauser, Anton Wasserburger, the foundation stone was laid on 20 May 1863. The building was, however, not very popular with the public, on the one hand, it did not seem as grand as the Heinrichshof, a private residence which was destroyed in World War II. Eduard van der Nüll committed suicide, and barely ten weeks later Sicardsburg died from tuberculosis so neither architect saw the completion of the building, the opening premiere was Don Giovanni, by Mozart, on May 25,1869. Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Elisabeth were present, towards the end of World War II, on March 12,1945, the opera was set alight by an American bombardment. The front section, which had been walled off as a precaution, remained intact including the foyer, with frescoes by Moritz von Schwind, the stairways, the vestibule. The auditorium and stage were, however, destroyed by flames as well as almost the entire décor, the State Opera was temporarily housed at the Theater an der Wien and at the Vienna Volksoper. Eventually the decision was made to rebuild the house as it had been. The Austrian Federal Chancellor Leopold Figl made the decision in 1946 to have an opera house again by 1949. An architectural competition was announced, which was won by Erich Boltenstern, in order to achieve a good acoustic, wood was the favoured building material, at the advice of, among others, Arturo Toscanini. In addition, the number of seats in the parterre was reduced, and the fourth gallery, the façade, entrance hall and the Schwind foyer were restored and remain in their original style. In 1947, the company went on tour to London, due to the appalling conditions at Theater an der Wien, the opera company leadership tried to raise significant quantities of money to speed up reconstruction of the original opera house
6.
Franz Lachner
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Franz Paul Lachner was a German composer and conductor. Lachner was born in Rain am Lech to a musical family and he studied music with Simon Sechter and Maximilian, the Abbé Stadler. He conducted at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna, in 1834, he became Kapellmeister at Mannheim. His career there came to a end in 1864 after Richard Wagners disciple Hans von Bülow took over Lachners duties. Lachner remained officially in his post on extended leave for a few years until his contract expired, see, List of compositions by Franz Lachner Lachner was a well-known and prolific composer in his day, though he is not now considered a major composer. His work, influenced by Ludwig van Beethoven and his friend Franz Schubert, is regarded as competent and craftsman-like, among his greatest successes were his opera Catharina Cornaro, his Requiem, and his seventh orchestral suite. His songs, some of which are set to the texts that Schubert used, contributed to the development of the German Lied. Ripley, George, Dana, Charles A. eds, free scores by Franz Lachner at the International Music Score Library Project
7.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he one of the most famous. His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies,5 piano concertos,1 violin concerto,32 piano sonatas,16 string quartets, his great Mass the Missa solemnis, and one opera, Fidelio. At the age of 21 he moved to Vienna, where he began studying composition with Joseph Haydn and he lived in Vienna until his death. By his late 20s his hearing began to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost completely deaf. In 1811 he gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose, many of his most admired works come from these last 15 years of his life. Beethoven was the grandson of Ludwig van Beethoven, a musician from the town of Mechelen in the Duchy of Brabant in the Flemish region of what is now Belgium, who at the age of twenty moved to Bonn. Ludwig was employed as a singer at the court of the Elector of Cologne, eventually rising to become, in 1761. The portrait he commissioned of himself towards the end of his life remained proudly displayed in his grandsons rooms as a talisman of his musical heritage. Ludwig had one son, Johann, who worked as a tenor in the musical establishment and gave keyboard. Johann married Maria Magdalena Keverich in 1767, she was the daughter of Johann Heinrich Keverich, Beethoven was born of this marriage in Bonn. There is no record of the date of his birth, however. Of the seven children born to Johann van Beethoven, only Ludwig, the second-born, caspar Anton Carl was born on 8 April 1774, and Nikolaus Johann, the youngest, was born on 2 October 1776. Beethovens first music teacher was his father and he later had other local teachers, the court organist Gilles van den Eeden, Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer, and Franz Rovantini. Beethovens musical talent was obvious at a young age, some time after 1779, Beethoven began his studies with his most important teacher in Bonn, Christian Gottlob Neefe, who was appointed the Courts Organist in that year. Neefe taught Beethoven composition, and by March 1783 had helped him write his first published composition, Beethoven soon began working with Neefe as assistant organist, at first unpaid, and then as a paid employee of the court chapel conducted by the Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi. His first three piano sonatas, named Kurfürst for their dedication to the Elector Maximilian Friedrich, were published in 1783, Maximilian Frederick noticed Beethovens talent early, and subsidised and encouraged the young mans musical studies. Maximilian Fredericks successor as the Elector of Bonn was Maximilian Francis, the youngest son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, echoing changes made in Vienna by his brother Joseph, he introduced reforms based on Enlightenment philosophy, with increased support for education and the arts
8.
Nikolaus Lenau
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Nikolaus Lenau was the nom de plume of Nikolaus Franz Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau, a German-language Austrian poet. He was born at Schadat, now Lenauheim, Banat, then in Hungary and his father, a Habsburg government official, died in 1807 in Budapest, leaving his children in the care of their mother, who remarried in 1811. In 1819 Nikolaus went to the University of Vienna, he subsequently studied Hungarian law at Pozsony, unable to settle down to any profession, he began writing verse. Soon afterwards, however, a legacy from his grandmother enabled him to devote himself wholly to poetry and his first published poems appeared in 1827, in Johann Gabriel Seidls Aurora. In 1831 he moved to Stuttgart, where he published a volume of Gedichte dedicated to the Swabian poet and he also made the acquaintance of Ludwig Uhland, Justinus Kerner, Karl Mayer and others. His restless spirit longed for change, and he determined to seek peace, in October 1832 he landed at Baltimore and settled on a homestead in Ohio. He also lived six months in New Harmony, Indiana, with a called the Harmony Society. Life in the primeval forest fell lamentably short of the ideal he had pictured and he disliked Americans with their eternal English lisping of dollars, and in 1833 returned to Germany. The appreciation of his first volume of poems revived his spirits, from then on he lived partly in Stuttgart and partly in Vienna. In 1838 his Neuere Gedichte proved that Savonarola had been the result of a passing exaltation, of these new poems, some of the finest were inspired by his hopeless passion for Sophie von Löwenthal, the wife of a friend. In 1842 appeared Die Albigenser, and in 1844 he began writing his Don Juan, soon afterwards he developed signs of mental ill-health. In October 1844, he jumped from a window one morning and he was placed in an asylum, under restraint, for the remainder of his life. He died in the asylum at Oberdöbling near Vienna and was buried in the cemetery of Weidling, near Klosterneuburg. On his grave is the replica of a book with an extract from one of his poems inscribed on the left-hand page. He has various streets and squares in Vienna and the area named after him. Lenaus fame rests mainly upon his poems, even his epics are essentially lyric in quality. His excellent poem, Herbst, expresses the sadness and melancholy he felt after his sojourn in the United States, in it, he mourns the loss of youth, the passing of time and his own sense of futility. The poem is archetypal of Lenaus style and culminates with the dreaming of death as a final escape from emptiness
9.
Otto Nicolai
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Carl Otto Ehrenfried Nicolai was a German composer, conductor, and founder of the Vienna Philharmonic. Nicolai is best known for his version of Shakespeares comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor as Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor. In addition to five operas, Nicolai composed lieder, works for orchestra, chorus, ensemble, Nicolai, a child prodigy, was born in Königsberg, Prussia. He received his first musical education from his father, Carl Ernst Daniel Nicolai, after initial successes in Germany, including his first symphony and public concerts, he became musician to the Prussian embassy in Rome. When Giuseppe Verdi declined the libretto of Il proscritto by the proprietors of La Scala in Milan, later, Nicolai refused a libretto by the same author, and it went to Verdi, whose Nabucco was his first early success. All of Nicolais operas were written in Italian, the sole exception being his last and best known opera, The Merry Wives of Windsor. At one time he was popular in Italy than Verdi himself was. During the early 1840s, Nicolai established himself as a figure in the concert life of Vienna. In 1844 he was offered the position, vacated by Felix Mendelssohn, of Kapellmeister at the Berlin Cathedral, but he did not reestablish himself in Berlin until the last year of his life. On 11 May 1849, two months after the premiere of The Merry Wives of Windsor, and only two days after his appointment as Hofkapellmeister at the Berlin Staatsoper, he collapsed and died from a stroke. On the very day of his death, he was elected a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Arts. Nicolai was portrayed by Hans Nielsen in the 1940 film Falstaff in Vienna, published by Schott Music in 1999. Der dritte Psalm for alto solo, six sonatas for two horns, from the Handel Knot-Farquharson Cousins ms Mass in D major. Te Deum, Psalm 97, Der Herr ist König, Psalm 31, Herr, auf Dich traue ich, schröder, B. ed. Otto Nicolais Tagebücher nebst biographischen Ergänzungen. Altmann Wilhelm, ed. Otto Nicolai, Briefe an seinen Vater, brown, Clive, ed. Nicolai, Carl Otto Ehrenfried in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Attibution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Otto
10.
Mosco Carner
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Mosco Carner was an Austrian-born British musicologist, conductor and critic. He wrote on a range of music subjects, but was particularly known for his studies on the life and works of the composers Giacomo Puccini. Born in Vienna to Rudolf and Selma Cohen, Carner was educated at the Vienna Conservatory and at the University of Vienna and he received his doctorate there in 1928, with a dissertation on the sonata form in the works of Robert Schumann. He then worked as a conductor in Opava from 1929 to 1930. In 1933, he settled in London, where he was to live for the rest of his life and he went on to become the music critic for the British magazine Time and Tide and the London Evening News. He was also a frequent contributor to The Times and the Daily Telegraph, Carner became a naturalised British subject in 1940 and in 1944 married the composer and pianist, Helen Lucas Pyke. In the 1940s he also began publishing articles and monographs. In 1958, he published one of his most important works, Puccini, the book was dedicated to the memory of his wife, Helen, who had died in 1954. Carner also edited a volume of Puccinis letters as well as writing two volumes on Puccinis operas for the Cambridge Opera Handbooks series, Madame Butterfly, and Tosca, another key work by Carner was his 1975 Alban Berg, the Man and his Work. Carner also published two collections of essays and reviews, Of Men and Music and Major and Minor, Mosco Carner died of a heart attack at the age of 80 while on vacation in Stratton, Cornwall. He was survived by his wife, Hazel Carner, whom he had married in 1976. Hazel Carner wrote the preface to and helped prepare the third edition of Puccini,1957 Puccini, a Critical Biography, Gerald Duckworth,1958 The Mass from Rossini to Dvořák c. 1835–1900 in Choral Music, A.153. ISBN 0-19-869162-9 Mosse, Werner Eugen and Carlebach, Julius, Second Chance, Two Centuries of German-speaking Jews in the United Kingdom, ISBN 3-16-145741-2 New York Times, Mosco Carner, Musicologist, Wrote Biography on Puccini,7 August 1985 Sadie, Stanley. Whos Who in the World, 1978-1979, Carner, Mosco, Marquis Whos Who,1978, ISBN 0-8379-1104-4 Mosco Carner at WorldCat
11.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
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The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, it is one of the largest reference works on Western music, in recent years it has been made available as an electronic resource called Grove Music Online, which is now an important part of Oxford Music Online. A Dictionary of Music and Musicians was first published in four volumes edited by George Grove with an Appendix edited by J. A. Fuller Maitland in the fourth volume, an Index edited by Mrs. E. Wodehouse was issued as a separate volume in 1890. In 1900, minor corrections were made to the plates and the series was reissued in four volumes. The original edition and the reprint are now available online. Grove limited the chronological span of his work to begin at 1450 while continuing up to the present day, the second edition, in five volumes, was edited by Fuller Maitland and published from 1904 to 1910, this time as Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians. The individual volumes of the edition were reprinted many times. An American Supplement edited by Waldo Selden Pratt and Charles N. Boyd was added in 1920 and this edition removed the first editions beginning date of 1450, though important earlier composers and theorists are still missing from this edition. These volumes are now freely available online. The third edition, also in five volumes, was a revision of the 2nd edition. The fourth edition, also edited by Colles, was published in 1940 in five volumes, in addition to the American Supplement, MacMillan also published a Supplementary Volume edited by Colles. The fifth edition, in nine volumes, was edited by Eric Blom and this was the most thoroughgoing revision of the work since its inception, with many articles rewritten in a more modern style and a large number of entirely new articles. Many of the articles were written by Blom personally, or translated by him, an additional Supplementary Volume, prepared for the most part by Eric Blom, followed in 1961. Blom died in 1959, and the Supplementary Volume was completed by Denis Stevens, the fifth edition was reprinted in 1966,1968,1970,1973, and 1975. The next edition was published in 1980 under the name The New Grove Dictionary of Music and its senior editor was Stanley Sadie with Nigel Fortune also serving as one of the main editors for the publication. It was reprinted with minor corrections each subsequent year until 1995, in the mid-1990s, the hardback set sold for about $2,300. A paperback edition was reprinted in 1995 which sold for $500, the second edition under this title was published in 2001, in 29 volumes. It was also available by subscription on the internet in a service called Grove Music Online
12.
Revolution of 1848
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It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in European history. The revolutions were essentially democratic in nature, with the aim of removing the old feudal structures, the revolutionary wave began in France in February, and immediately spread to most of Europe. Over 50 countries were affected, but with no coordination or cooperation between their respective revolutionaries, the uprisings were led by shaky ad hoc coalitions of reformers, the middle classes and workers, which did not hold together for long. Tens of thousands of people were killed, and many forced into exile. Significant lasting reforms included the abolition of serfdom in Austria and Hungary, the end of monarchy in Denmark. The revolutions were most important in France, the Netherlands, the states that would make up the German Empire in the late 19th and early 20th century, Italy, and the Austrian Empire. The revolutions arose from such a variety of causes that it is difficult to view them as resulting from a coherent movement or set of social phenomena. Numerous changes had been taking place in European society throughout the first half of the 19th century, both liberal reformers and radical politicians were reshaping national governments. Technological change was revolutionizing the life of the working classes, a popular press extended political awareness, and new values and ideas such as popular liberalism, nationalism and socialism began to emerge. Some historians emphasize the serious crop failures, particularly those of 1846, that produced hardship among peasants, large swaths of the nobility were discontented with royal absolutism or near-absolutism. In 1846, there had been an uprising of Polish nobility in Austrian Galicia, additionally, an uprising by democratic forces against Prussia, planned but not actually carried out, occurred in Greater Poland. Next, the middle classes began to agitate, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, working in Brussels, had written Manifesto of the Communist Party at the request of the Communist League. Following the March insurrection in Berlin, they began agitating in Germany, the middle and working classes thus shared a desire for reform, and agreed on many of the specific aims. Their participations in the revolutions, however, differed, while much of the impetus came from the middle classes, much of the cannon fodder came from the lower. The revolts first erupted in the cities, the population in French rural areas had risen rapidly, causing many peasants to seek a living in the cities. Many in the feared and distanced themselves from the working poor. Many unskilled laborers toiled from 12 to 15 hours per day when they had work, living in squalid, traditional artisans felt the pressure of industrialization, having lost their guilds. Revolutionaries such as Karl Marx built up a following, the situation in the German states was similar
13.
Karl Eckert
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Karl Anton Florian Eckert was a German conductor and composer. Eckert was born in Berlin, Germany, and by the age of five, had proved himself as a musical child prodigy. He was later appointed Kapellmeister of Staatsoper Unter den Linden where he remained until the spring of 1848, after the end of the political turmoil of the Revolutions of 1848, Eckert left Berlin for Amsterdam, and later Brussels. Eckert died in Berlin at age 58, singspiel Das Käthchen von Nürnberg Der Laborant von Riesengebirge. Oper Free scores by Karl Anton Eckert at the International Music Score Library Project
14.
Otto Dessoff
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Felix Otto Dessoff was a German conductor and composer. Dessoff was born to a Jewish family in Leipzig, his father was a cloth merchant and his musical talent was recognized by Franz Liszt, who then advised his family on his musical training. It was as a conductor that he established his reputation. His first conducting post was at Actien Theater in Chemnitz, after that, he was successively director of music in Altenburg, Düsseldorf, Kassel, Aachen and Magdeburg. In 1860 he was offered a position with the Vienna Court Opera, in 1860, the Vienna Philharmonic elected Otto Dessoff to be its subscription conductor, a position he held until 1875. The Vienna-based music critic, newspaper editor, and biographer Max Kalbeck wrote in 1908 that the fame and excellence of the Vienna Philharmonic resulted from Dessoffs energy, in Vienna, beginning in 1861 Dessoff also taught composition at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. His students included Artur Nikisch and Felix Mottl, see, List of music students by teacher, C to F#Felix Otto Dessoff. Although he composed into the early 1860s, he gave up composing when his career as a conductor blossomed, during Dessoffs tenure with the Vienna Philharmonic, Brahms was invited to dinner in his home after every Sunday concert - Frau Frederike was a good cook. In October,1876, Brahms wrote to Dessoff hinting that he would like him conduct the first performance of his long-awaited Symphony no. 1, saying It was always a secret, fond wish of mine to hear the thing for the first time in the town which has a good friend, good conductor. Dessoff was, according to Styra Avins, overjoyed at Brahmss veiled request, though it met with success in its premiere, Dessoff was still not sure it was worth publishing and sent the score to Brahms asking for his candid opinion and offering to dedicate to him. Much gratified, Dessoff wrote back in a free and bantering way of the sort Brahms himself often penned. you will be relieved to see your name on the page of the quartet preserved for posterity. When people have forgotten your German Requiem, people will then say, oh yes, hes the one to whom Dessoffs Op.7 is dedicated. Dessoff also composed a quintet for 2 violins, viola and 2 cellos, Op.10, several Lieder. He died in Frankfurt in 1892 and his daughter, Margarete Dessoff, founded the Dessoff Choirs when she stayed on in New York City during a family visit there. Dessoff Choirs at the Bach Cantatas Website Free scores by Felix Otto Dessoff at the International Music Score Library Project
15.
Max Kalbeck
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Max Kalbeck was a German writer, critic and translator. He became one of the most influential critics in Austria and was opposed to the music of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner. Kalbeck was born in Breslau and studied music in Munich, in 1875 he became the music-critic for the Schlesische Zeitung and assistant director of the Breslau Museum. He came to Vienna in 1880 on the invitation of Eduard Hanslick, first as critic of the Allgemeine Zeitung and then, from 1886 till his death, Kalbeck was a close friend and partisan of Johannes Brahms. Kalbecks principal achievement was his biography of that composer, published from 1904 to 1914. Kalbeck also edited several volumes of Brahmss correspondence and in 1918, in addition, he supplied lyrics for the songs in the operetta Jabuka by Johann Strauss II, the dialogue and plot being the work of Gustav Davis. Kalbeck also wrote poetry and Brahms set a few of his verses to music as songs and he died in Vienna in 1921, aged 71, Works by or about Max Kalbeck at Internet Archive Works by or about Max Kalbeck in libraries
16.
Karlsruhe
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Karlsruhe is the second-largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg, in southwest Germany, near the French-German border. It has a population of 307,755, the city is the seat of the two highest courts in Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice. Its most remarkable building is Karlsruhe Palace, which was built in 1715, the city lies at an altitude between 100 m and 322 m. Its geographical coordinates are 49°00′N 8°24′E, the 49th parallel runs through the city centre and its course is marked by a stone and painted line in the Stadtgarten. Almost all of these survived until today. The city centre is the oldest part of town and lies south of the palace in the quadrant defined by nine of the radial streets, the central part of the palace runs east-west, with two wings, each at a 45° angle, directed southeast and southwest. The market square lies on the street running south from the palace to Ettlingen, the area north of the palace is a park and forest. The area west of the palace is now mostly residential, Karlsruhe experiences an oceanic climate and its winter climate is milder, compared to most other German cities. Summers are also hotter than elsewhere in the country and it is one of the sunniest cities in Germany, precipitation is almost evenly spread throughout the year. In 2008, the station in Karlsruhe, which had been operating since 1876, was closed, it was replaced by a weather station in Rheinstetten. A variation of this claims that he built the new palace in order to find peace from his wife. Charles William founded the city on June 17,1715, after a dispute with the citizens of his previous capital, the founding of the city is closely linked to the construction of the palace. Karlsruhe became the capital of Baden-Durlach and in 1771 of the united Baden until 1945, built in 1822, the Ständehaus was the first parliament building in a German State. In the aftermath of the revolution of 1848, a republican government was elected here. Karlsruhe was visited by Thomas Jefferson during his time as the American envoy to France, Jefferson passed to him maps of 12 European towns to consult, one of which was a sketch he had made of Karlsruhe during his visit. In 1860, the international professional convention of chemists, the Karlsruhe Congress, was held in the city. Much of the area, including the palace, was reduced to rubble by Allied bombing during World War II but was rebuilt after the war. Located in the American zone of the post-war Allied occupation, Karlsruhe was home to an American military base, in 1995, the bases closed, and their facilities were turned over to the city of Karlsruhe
17.
Johannes Brahms
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Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his life in Vienna. Brahms composed for orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works and he worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. Many of his works have become staples of the concert repertoire. An uncompromising perfectionist, Brahms destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished, Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg, the diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahmss works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Embedded within his meticulous structures, however, are deeply romantic motifs, Brahmss father, Johann Jakob Brahms, was from the town of Heide in Holstein. The family name was sometimes spelt Brahmst or Brams, and derives from Bram. Against the familys will, Johann Jakob pursued a career in music, arriving in Hamburg in 1826, where he work as a jobbing musician. In 1830, he married Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen, a seamstress 17 years older than he was, in the same year he was appointed as a horn player in the Hamburg militia. Eventually he became a player in the Hamburg Stadttheater and the Hamburg Philharmonic Society. As Johann Jakob prospered, the family moved over the years to better accommodation in Hamburg. Johannes Brahms was born in 1833, his sister Elisabeth had been born in 1831, Fritz also became a pianist, overshadowed by his brother he emigrated to Caracas in 1867, and later returned to Hamburg as a teacher. Johann Jakob gave his son his first musical training, Johannes also learnt to play the violin, from 1840 he studied piano with Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel. Cossel complained in 1842 that Brahms could be such a good player, at the age of 10, Brahms made his debut as a performer in a private concert including Beethovens quintet for piano and winds Op.16 and a piano quartet by Mozart. He also played as a solo work an étude of Henri Herz, by 1845 he had written a piano sonata in G minor
18.
Symphony No. 1 (Brahms)
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Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op.68, is a symphony written by Johannes Brahms. Brahms spent at least fourteen years completing this work, whose sketches date from 1854, Brahms himself declared that the symphony, from sketches to finishing touches, took 21 years, from 1855 to 1876. The premiere of this symphony, conducted by the composers friend Felix Otto Dessoff, occurred on 4 November 1876, in Karlsruhe, a typical performance lasts between 45 and 50 minutes. The symphony is in four movements, marked as follows, I, un poco sostenuto – Allegro – Meno allegro II. Un poco allegretto e grazioso IV, adagio – Più andante – Allegro non troppo, ma con brio – Più allegro The first movement is in sonata form with an extended introduction. Unique among Brahms symphonies, the First Symphony is ushered in via a formal introduction, the overall mood is “savagely energetic” and “scherzo-like” in 68 time. An extended transition leads to the arrival of the key of E♭ major which in turn introduces the flowing and heart-easing second theme. This theme, which is related to the used to open the movement, is carried out in the wind section, led by oboe and clarinet with support from the bassoon. The score then calls for a repeat, which requires an abrupt return to C minor. A series of modulations, each seeming to lead away from the tonic. Starting with a murky rumble in the basses, the music gathers strength with a set of arpeggios in the violins with support from the brass. Finally, a “shocking digression” in the line leads to a modulation to F♯. The coda begins with strings which quickly decrescendo, leading to a set of modulations played out in the strings with their bows leading to the closing cadence. The movement ends peacefully in C major, the E-major second movement is in modified ternary form. It features significant solo passages from oboe and first chair violin, like the second movement, the third movement is in ternary form. It is composed of the 24 Allegretto and contrasting 68 trio section, followed by a reprise of the Allegretto material, a notable aspect of this movement is Brahms’s careful attention to symmetry. The four-bar figure is extended to an irregular five bars through a bridge between the phrases by the strings. The clarinet rounds off the A theme in the Allegretto with an inversion of the first five bars heard
19.
Variations on a Theme by Haydn
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It consists of a theme in B♭ major based on a Chorale St Antoni, eight variations, and a finale. The work was published in two versions, for two pianos, written first but designated Op. 56b, and for orchestra, designated Op. 56a, the orchestral version is better known and much more often heard than the two-piano version. The piece usually takes about 18 minutes to perform, the first performance of the orchestral version was given on 2 November 1873 by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Brahmss baton. Brahms composed the work on a theme entitled Chorale St. Antoni found in a wind ensemble composition, at the time Brahms discovered it, the wind ensemble piece carried an attribution to the composer Joseph Haydn. Subsequent research has concluded that the wind piece Brahms used as a source does not fit Haydns style, today the wind ensemble piece remains without clear attribution. The situation has led to Brahmss piece being referred to today in recordings, a detailed survey of the controversy can be found in Douglas Yeos 2004 edition of the Haydn piece. The second movement bore the heading St. Anthony Chorale, and it is this movement which, in its entirety, Brahmss statement of the theme varies in small but significant ways from the original, principally with regard to instrumentation. Some sources state the Divertimento was probably written by Ignaz Pleyel, a further question is whether the composer of the divertimento actually wrote the St. Anthony Chorale or simply quoted an older theme taken from an unknown source. To date, no mention of a St. Anthony Chorale has been found. The theme begins with a repeated ten-measure passage which consists of two intriguing five-measure phrases, a quirk that is likely to have caught Brahmss attention. Almost without exception, the eight variations follow the structure of the theme and, though less strictly. Each has a character, several calling to mind the forms and techniques of earlier eras. The finale is a magnificent theme and variations on a bass, five measures in length. Its culmination, a restatement of the chorale, is a moment of transcendence that the usually austere Brahms permits himself the use of a triangle. Just before the end of the piece, in the coda of the finale, the reader may compare the two passages by following these links, Brahms, Haydn. This fragmentary allusion may be the sole link to Haydn. The sections are named and tempo markings given as follows, where the tempo markings of the two versions differ, the one for Op. 56b is shown in parentheses. Andante con moto Variation V. Vivace Variation VI, andante This is a performance of the version for two pianos
20.
Hans Richter (conductor)
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Hans Richter was an Austrian–Hungarian orchestral and operatic conductor. Richter was born in Raab, Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire and his father was a good local composer, conductor and regens chori Anton Richter. His mother was opera-singer Jozefa Csazenszky and he studied at the Vienna Conservatory. He had a particular interest in the horn, and developed his career at several different opera houses in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He became associated with Richard Wagner in the 1860s, and in 1876 he was chosen to conduct the first complete performance of Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. In Europe his work was based in Vienna, where he gave much attention to the works of Brahms himself, Anton Bruckner and Antonín Dvořák. In later years, Richter became an admirer of Sir Edward Elgar. On one occasion, he laid down his baton and allowed a London orchestra to play the second movement of Tchaikovskys Pathétique Symphony itself. Never afraid to experiment on behalf of the music he loved, in 1909 he delivered the British premiere, very shortly after the world premiere in Boston, of Ignacy Jan Paderewskis Symphony in B minor Polonia. Failing eyesight forced his retirement in 1911 and he died at Bayreuth in 1916. True Artist and True Friend, A Biography of Hans Richter
21.
Symphony No. 2 (Brahms)
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Symphony No.2 in D major, Op.73, was composed by Johannes Brahms in the summer of 1877, during a visit to Pörtschach am Wörthersee, a town in the Austrian province of Carinthia. Its composition was brief in comparison with the 21 years it took Brahms to complete his First Symphony, the symphony is scored for 2 flutes,2 oboes,2 clarinets,2 bassoons,4 horns,2 trumpets,3 trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings. I have never written anything so sad, and the score must come out in mourning, a typical performance lasts between 40 and 50 minutes. The woodwinds develop the section and other instruments join in gradually progressing to a full-bodied forte, at bar 82, the cellos and violas introduce a new theme in F-sharp minor, which eventually moves to A major. After a development section based mostly on motives of the principal theme group, the recapitulation begins at bar 302, with the second theme returning at bar 350. Towards the conclusion of the movement, Brahms marked bar 497 as in tempo, sempre tranquillo, Brahms bases much of the first movement on a melody he formerly composed for Wiegenlied, Op.49, the tune commonly referred to as Brahmss Lullaby. It is introduced at bar 82 and is brought back. A brooding theme introduced by the cellos from bars 1 to 12, a second theme, marked Listesso tempo, ma grazioso, appears in bar 33. After a brief development section, the recapitulation is highly modified, the movement then finishes with a coda-like section in which the main theme is reintroduced in the end. An interesting use of material is used in this movement. Here we see the use of the variation of the theme. The third movement scherzo opens with pizzicato cellos accompanying a lilting oboe melody in G major, a contrasting section in 24 time marked Presto ma non assai begins in the strings, and this theme is soon taken over by the full orchestra. Bar 107 returns to the tempo and gentle mood, but the idyll setting is again disrupted in bar 126 when the earlier Presto marking makes a re-entry. Brahms yet again diverts the movement back into its principal tempo, the third movement contains very light articulated sections, which could be due to the influence of Mozart or Schubert. This lighter element provides a contrast to the two movements. Busy-sounding strings begin the final Allegro con spirito, again in sonata form, a loud section breaks in unexpectedly in bar 23 with the full orchestra. As the excitement appears to fade away, violins introduce a new subject in A major marked largamente, the wind instruments repeat this until it develops into a climax. Bar 155 of the movement repeats the symphonys first subject again, a mid-movement tranquillo section elaborates earlier material and slows down the movement to allow a buildup of energy into the recapitulation
22.
Symphony No. 3 (Brahms)
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The Symphony No.3 in F major, Op.90, is a symphony by Johannes Brahms. The work was written in the summer of 1883 at Wiesbaden, in the interim Brahms had written some of his greatest works, including the Violin Concerto, two overtures, and the Second Piano Concerto. The premiere performance was given on 2 December 1883 by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and it is the shortest of Brahms four symphonies, a typical performance lasts between 30 and 40 minutes. The symphony is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, a contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings. The symphony consists of four movements, marked as follows, Allegro con brio, andante, in a modified sonata form. Allegro – Un poco sostenuto, in a sonata form. Hans Richter, who conducted the premiere of the symphony, proclaimed it to be Brahms Eroica, the symphony was well received, more so than his Second Symphony. Although Richard Wagner had died earlier that year, the feud between Brahms and Wagner had not yet subsided. Wagner enthusiasts tried to interfere with the premiere, and the conflict between the two factions nearly brought about a duel. After each performance, Brahms polished his score further, until it was published in May 1884, a musical motto consisting of three notes, F–A♭–F, was significant to Brahms. At the time of the Third Symphony, Brahms was a bachelor who declared himself to be Frei aber froh, Free. His F–A–F motto, and some altered variations of it, can be throughout the symphony. At the beginning of the symphony the motto is the melody of the first three measures, and it is the bass line underlying the main theme in the next three, the motto persists, either boldly or disguised, as the melody or accompaniment throughout the movement. The finale is a lyrical, passionate movement, rich in melody that is exploited, altered. The movement ends with reference to the motto heard in the first movement – one which quotes a motif heard in Schumanns Symphony No,3, Rhenish in the first movement just before the second theme enters in the recapitulation – then fades away to a quiet ending. Brahmss Third Symphony in popular culture Frisch, Walter, visual analysis of Brahms Symphony no
23.
Violin Concerto (Tchaikovsky)
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The Violin Concerto in D major, Op.35, was written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1878. It is one of the best known concertos, and is considered one of the most technically difficult works for the violin. The concerto is scored for violin, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in A and B-flat, two bassoons, four horns in F, two trumpets in D, timpani and strings. The piece is in three movements, Allegro moderato Canzonetta, Andante Finale, Allegro vivacissimo There is no break or pause between the second and third movements, a typical performance runs approximately 35 minutes. The piece was written in Clarens, a Swiss resort on the shores of Lake Geneva and he was working on his Piano Sonata in G major but finding it heavy going. Presently he was joined there by his pupil, the violinist Iosif Kotek. The two played works for violin and piano together, including an arrangement of Édouard Lalos Symphonie espagnole. This work may have been the catalyst for the composition of the concerto and he wrote to his patroness Nadezhda von Meck, It has a lot of freshness, lightness, of piquant rhythms, of beautiful and excellently harmonized melodies. Tchaikovsky authority Dr. David Brown writes that Tchaikovsky might almost have been writing the prescription for the concerto he himself was about to compose. Since Tchaikovsky was not a violinist, he sought the advice of Kotek on the completion of the solo part, how lovingly hes busying himself with my concerto. Tchaikovsky wrote to his brother Anatoly on the day he completed the new slow movement and it goes without saying that I would have been able to do nothing without him. Tchaikovsky wanted to dedicate the concerto to Iosif Kotek, but felt constrained by the gossip this would cause about the true nature of his relationship with the younger man. In 1881, he broke with Kotek after he refused to play the Violin Concerto, believing it was poorly received, however, he did dedicate to Kotek the Valse-Scherzo in C for violin and orchestra, written in 1877, on its publication in 1878. Tchaikovsky intended the first performance to be given by Leopold Auer, for whom he had written his Sérénade mélancolique for violin and orchestra, Auer refused, however, meaning that the planned premiere for March 1879 had to be cancelled and a new soloist found. My first feeling was one of gratitude for this proof of his sympathy toward me, on closer acquaintance with the composition, I regretted that the great composer had not shown it to me before committing it to print. Much unpleasantness might then have been spared us both, I am still of the same opinion. This delicate and difficult task I subsequently undertook, and re-edited the violin part, and it is this edition which has been played by me. It is incorrect to state that I had declared the concerto in its original form unplayable
24.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States. Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884, by Emperor Alexander III, although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. There was scant opportunity for a career in Russia at that time. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Tchaikovskys training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style—a task that did not prove easy, Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great. This resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia about the countrys national identity—an ambiguity mirrored in Tchaikovskys career, despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovskys life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. His homosexuality, which he kept private, has also been considered a major factor. Tchaikovskys sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera, there is a debate as to whether cholera was indeed the cause of death. While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed, some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted the music for its Western elements. Others dismissed Tchaikovskys music as lacking in elevated thought, according to longtime New York Times music critic Harold C, schonberg, and derided its formal workings as deficient because they did not stringently follow Western principles. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, a town in Vyatka Governorate in the Russian Empire. His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, had served as a lieutenant colonel and engineer in the Department of Mines and his grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky, served first as a physicians assistant in the army and later as city governor of Glazov in Viatka. His great-grandfather, a Ukrainian Cossack named Fyodor Chaika, distinguished himself under Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava in 1709, Tchaikovskys mother, Alexandra Andreyevna, was the second of Ilyas three wives,18 years her husbands junior and French on her fathers side. Both Ilya and Alexandra were trained in the arts, including music—a necessity as a posting to an area of Russia also meant a need for entertainment. Of Tchaikovskys six siblings, he was close to his sister Alexandra and twin brothers Anatoly, alexandras marriage to Lev Davydov would produce seven children and lend Tchaikovsky the only real family life he would know as an adult, especially during his years of wandering. One of those children, Vladimir Davydov, whom the composer would nickname Bob, in 1844, the family hired Fanny Dürbach, a 22-year-old French governess. Four-and-a-half-year-old Tchaikovsky was initially too young to study alongside his older brother Nikolai. By the age of six, he had become fluent in French, Dürbach saved much of Tchaikovskys work from this period, which includes his earliest known compositions, and became a source of several childhood anecdotes
25.
Symphony No. 8 (Bruckner)
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Anton Bruckners Symphony No.8 in C minor is the last symphony the composer completed. It exists in two versions of 1887 and 1890. It was premiered under conductor Hans Richter in 1892 in Vienna and it is dedicated to the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. This symphony is sometimes nicknamed The Apocalyptic, but this was not a name Bruckner gave to the work himself, Bruckner began work on the Eighth Symphony in July 1884. Working mainly during the vacations from his duties at the University of Vienna and the Vienna Conservatory. In September 1887 Bruckner had the copied and sent to conductor Hermann Levi. Levi was one of Bruckners closest collaborators, having given a performance of the Seventh Symphony in Munich that was the greatest triumph Bruckner had yet experienced. He had also arranged for Bruckners career to be supported in ways, including financial assistance from the nobility. However the conductor wrote back to Bruckner that, I find it impossible to perform the Eighth in its current form, I just cant make it my own. As much as the themes are magnificent and direct, their working-out seems to me dubious, indeed, dont lose your courage, take another look at your work, talk it over with your friends, with Schalk, maybe a reworking can achieve something. By January 1888 Bruckner had come to agree with Levi that the symphony would benefit from further work and he began work on the revision in March 1889 and completed the new version of the symphony in March 1890. Once the revision was completed, the composer wrote to Emperor Franz Josef I for permission to dedicate the symphony to him, the emperor accepted Bruckners request and also offered to help pay for the works publication. Bruckner had some trouble finding a publisher for the work, the symphony was eventually published in March 1892. It was the one of Bruckners symphonies to be published before its first performance. The premiere was scheduled to occur under the young conductors direction during 1891. Eventually the conductor told Bruckner that he was unable to undertake the performance because he was about to take up a new position at the Berlin Opera. After a Munich performance by Levi was canceled because of an outbreak of cholera. At last Hans Richter, subscription conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the first performance took place on 18 December 1892
26.
Anton Bruckner
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Josef Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character. Bruckners compositions helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, unlike other musical radicals such as Richard Wagner and Hugo Wolf who fit the enfant terrible mould, Bruckner showed extreme humility before other musicians, Wagner in particular. This apparent dichotomy between Bruckner the man and Bruckner the composer hampers efforts to describe his life in a way that gives a straightforward context for his music. On the other hand, Bruckner was greatly admired by subsequent composers including his friend Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden on 4 September 1824. The ancestors of Bruckners family were farmers and craftsmen, their history can be traced to as far back as the 16th century and they lived near a bridge south of Sindelburg, which led to their being called Pruckhner an der Pruckhen. Bruckners grandfather was appointed schoolmaster in Ansfelden in 1776, this position was inherited by Bruckners father, Anton Bruckner senior and it was a poorly paid but well-respected position in the rural environment. Music was a part of the curriculum, and Bruckners father was his first music teacher. Bruckner learned to play the organ early as a child and he entered school when he was six, proved to be a hard-working student, and was promoted to upper class early. While studying, Bruckner also helped his father in teaching the other children, after Bruckner received his confirmation in 1833, Bruckners father sent him to another school in Hörsching. The schoolmaster, Johann Baptist Weiß, was a music enthusiast, here, Bruckner completed his school education and learned to play the organ excellently. Around 1835 Bruckner wrote his first composition, a Pange lingua – one of the compositions which he revised at the end of his life, when his father became ill, Anton returned to Ansfelden to help him in his work. Bruckners father died in 1837, when Bruckner was 13 years old, the teachers position and house were given to a successor, and Bruckner was sent to the Augustinian monastery in Sankt Florian to become a choirboy. In addition to practice, his education included violin and organ lessons. Bruckner was in awe of the great organ, which was built during the late baroque era and rebuilt in 1837. Later, the organ was to be called the Bruckner Organ, despite his musical abilities, Bruckners mother sent her son to a teaching seminar in Linz in 1841. After completing the seminar with an excellent grade, Bruckner was sent as an assistant to a school in Windhaag. The living standards and pay were horrible, and Bruckner was constantly humiliated by his superior, despite the difficult situation, Bruckner never complained or rebelled, a belief of inferiority was to remain one of Bruckners main personal characteristics during his whole life
27.
Gustav Mahler
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Gustav Mahler was an Austrian late-Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century, born in Bohemia as a German-speaking Jew of humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism to secure the regular opposition. Late in his life he was director of New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. Mahlers œuvre is relatively limited, for much of his composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor. Some of Mahlers immediate musical successors included the composers of the Second Viennese School, notably Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten are among later 20th-century composers who admired and were influenced by Mahler. The International Gustav Mahler Institute was established in 1955 to honour the composers life, the Mahler family came from eastern Bohemia and were of humble circumstances, the composers grandmother had been a street pedlar. Bohemia was then part of the Austrian Empire, the Mahler family belonged to a German-speaking minority among Bohemians, from this background the future composer developed early on a permanent sense of exile, always an intruder, never welcomed. Bernhard Mahler, the son and the composers father, elevated himself to the ranks of the petite bourgeoisie by becoming a coachman. He bought a modest house in the village of Kalischt, halfway between Prague in Bohemia and Brno in Moravia, in the center of todays Czech Republic. Bernhards wife, Marie, gave birth to the first of the couples 14 children, a son Isidor, two years later, on 7 July 1860, their second son, Gustav, was born. In December 1860, Bernhard Mahler moved with his wife and infant son, Gustav, to the town of Iglau,25 km to the south-east, the family grew rapidly, but of the 12 children born to the family in Iglau only six survived infancy. All of these elements would later contribute to his musical vocabulary. When he was four years old, Gustav discovered his grandparents piano and he developed his performing skills sufficiently to be considered a local Wunderkind and gave his first public performance at the town theatre when he was ten years old. Although Gustav loved making music, his reports from the Iglau Gymnasium portrayed him as absent-minded. In 1871, in the hope of improving the results, his father sent him to the New Town Gymnasium in Prague. In 1874 he suffered a personal loss when his younger brother Ernst died after a long illness. Mahler sought to express his feelings in music, with the help of a friend, Josef Steiner, he work on an opera
28.
Anschluss
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Anschluss is the term used to describe the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938. German spelling, until the German orthography reform of 1996, was Anschluß, the idea of an Anschluss began after the Unification of Germany excluded Austria and the Austrian Germans from the Prussian-dominated German nation-state in 1871. Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938, there had been several years of pressure from supporters in Austria and Germany for the Heim ins Reich movement. Earlier, Nazi Germany had provided support for the Austrian National Socialist Party in its bid to seize power from Austrias Fatherland Front government. Infuriated, on 11 March, Adolf Hitler threatened invasion of Austria, and demanded Chancellor von Schuschniggs resignation, Hitlers plan was for Seyss-Inquart to call immediately for German troops to rush to Austrias aid, restoring order and giving the invasion an air of legitimacy. In the face of threat, Schuschnigg informed Seyss-Inquart that the plebiscite would be cancelled. Nevertheless, the German Führer underestimated his opposition, Schuschnigg did resign on the evening of 11 March, but President Wilhelm Miklas refused to appoint Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor. At 8,45 pm, Hitler, tired of waiting, around 10 pm, a forged telegram was sent in Seyss-Inquarts name asking for German troops, since he was not yet Chancellor and was unable to do so himself. Seyss-Inquart was not installed as Chancellor until after midnight, when Miklas resigned himself to the inevitable, clearly it was Hitler, and not Schuschnigg, who was terrified by the potential results of the scheduled plebiscite, and that was the best indication of where Austrians loyalty lay. The newly installed Nazis, within two days, transferred power to Germany, and Wehrmacht troops entered Austria to enforce the Anschluss, Austrian citizens of Jewish origin were not allowed to vote. No military confrontation took place, and even the strongest voices against the annexation, particularly Fascist Italy, France, the loudest verbal protest was voiced by the government of Mexico. Although Austria had never been a part of the German Empire, Austria was predominantly ethnically German, prior to annexing Austria in 1938, Nazi Germany had remilitarized the Rhineland, and the Saar region was returned to Germany after 15 years of occupation through a plebiscite. In March 1939, Hitler then dismantled Czechoslovakia by recognising the independence of Slovakia and that same year, Memelland was returned from Lithuania. With the Anschluss, the Republic of Austria ceased to exist as an independent state, at the end of World War II, a Provisional Austrian Government under Karl Renner was set up by conservatives, social democrats and communists on 27 April 1945. It cancelled the Anschluss the same day and was recognized by the Allies in the following months. In 1955 the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, the idea of grouping all Germans into a nation-state country had been the subject of debate in the 19th century from the ending of the Holy Roman Empire until the ending of the German Confederation. Austria had wanted a Großdeutsche Lösung, whereby the German states would be united under the leadership of the Austrian Germans and this solution would include all the German states, but Prussia would have to take second place. This controversy, called dualism, dominated Prusso-Austrian diplomacy and the politics of the German states, by 1871, the decision was to form a kleindeutsch German Empire based on Prussia and excluding Austria
29.
Claque
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A claque is an organized body of professional applauders in French theatres and opera houses. Members of a claque are called claqueurs, hiring people to applaud dramatic performances was common in classical times. For example, when the Emperor Nero acted, he had his performance greeted by an encomium chanted by five thousand of his soldiers and this inspired the 16th-century French poet Jean Daurat to develop the modern claque. Buying a number of tickets for a performance of one of his plays, in 1820 claques underwent serious systematization when an agency in Paris opened to manage and supply claqueurs. By 1830 the claque had become an institution, the manager of a theatre or opera house was able to send an order for any number of claqueurs. These were usually under a chef de claque, who judged where the efforts of the claqueurs were needed, there would be commissaires who learned the piece by heart and called the attention of their neighbors to its good points between the acts. Rieurs laughed loudly at the jokes, pleureurs, generally women, feigned tears, by holding their handkerchiefs to their eyes. Chatouilleurs kept the audience in a humor, while bisseurs simply clapped and cried Bis. The practice spread to Italy, Vienna, London and New York, claques were also used as a form of extortion, as singers were commonly contacted by the chef de claque before their debut and forced to pay a fee, in order not to get booed. Later Toscanini and Mahler discouraged claques, as a part of the development of concert etiquette, although the practice mostly died out in Europe during the mid-20th century, it has continued in Russia, most famously with the Bolshoi Ballet, and US presidential speaking engagements
30.
Exposition Universelle (1900)
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The style that was universally present in the Exposition was Art Nouveau. The staging of the first International Exhibition in 1855 was motivated by a desire to re-establish pride, the succession of exhibitions followed the same theme, the regeneration of nationality after war. Eight years before the launch of the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, countries from around the world were invited by France to showcase their achievements and lifestyles, the Exposition Universelle was a uniting and learning experience. It presented the opportunity for foreigners to realize the similarities between nations as well as their unique differences, new cultures were experienced and an overall better understanding of the values each country had to offer was gained. The learning atmosphere aided in attempts to increase cultural tolerance, deemed necessary after a period of war, the early announcement and the massively positive response disenchanted the interest that had been circling around the first German International Exposition. It is suspected that the Exposition Universelle did not do as well financially as expected because the public did not have the funds to participate in the fair. The 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle was so expensive to organize and run that the cost per visitor ended up being about six hundred more than the price of admission. The exhibition lost a total of 82,000 francs after six months in operation. Many Parisians had invested money in shares sold to raise money for the event, with a much larger expected turnout the exhibit sites had gone up in value. Continuing to pay rent for the sites became increasingly hard for concessionaires as they were receiving fewer customers than anticipated, the concessionaires went on strike, which ultimately resulted in the closure of a large part of the exposition. To resolve the matter, the concessionaires were given a refund of the rent they had paid. The financial consequences of the 1900 Exposition Universelle were devastating for many Parisians, the Exposition Universelle was where talking films and escalators were first publicized, and where Campbells Soup was awarded a gold medal. At the exposition Rudolf Diesel exhibited his engine, running on peanut oil. Brief films of excerpts from opera and ballet were apparently the first films exhibited publicly with projection of both image and recorded sound, the exposition also featured many panoramic paintings and extensions of the panorama technique, such as the Cinéorama, Mareorama, and Trans-Siberian Railway Panorama. The centrepiece of the Palais de lOptique was the 1. 25-metre-diameter Great Exposition Refractor and this telescope was the largest refracting telescope at that time. The optical tube assembly was 60 meters long and 1.5 meters in diameter, light from the sky was sent into the tube by a movable 2-meter mirror. Partly organized by Booker Washington and W. E. B, du Bois, this exhibition aimed at showing African Americans positive contributions to American society. Many of the buildings constructed for the Exposition Universelle were demolished after the conclusion of the exposition, many of the buildings were built on a framework of wood, and covered with staff, which was formed into columns, statuary, walls, stairs, etc
31.
Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr.
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Josef “Pepi” Hellmesberger Jr. was an Austrian composer, violinist and conductor. Hellmesberger was son of violinist and conductor Joseph Hellmesberger Sr. who was his first teacher, among his family of notable musicians include, grandfather, Georg Hellmesberger Sr. uncle, Georg Hellmesberger Jr. and brother, Ferdinand Hellmesberger. In 1875 Hellmesberger became a member of his fathers Hellmesberger Quartet, in 1878 Hellmesberger became solo violinist of the Vienna Court Chapel and professor at the Vienna Conservatory. In 1890 he was the first hofkapellmeister at the Vienna Court Opera, in 1904 and 1905 he was Kapellmeister at the Stuttgarter Hoftheater His compositions include 22 operettas,6 ballets, dance music and lieder. Hellmesberger died in Vienna at age 52
32.
Ferdinand Schmutzer
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Ferdinand Schmutzer was an Austrian photographer and engraver. Media related to Ferdinand Schmutzer at Wikimedia Commons
33.
Felix Weingartner
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Paul Felix Weingartner, Edler von Münzberg was an Austrian conductor, composer and pianist. Weingartner was born in Zara, Dalmatia, Austria–Hungary, to Austrian parents, the family moved to Graz in 1868, and his father died later that year. In 1881 he went to Leipzig to study philosophy, but soon devoted himself entirely to music, entering the Conservatory in 1883, Liszt helped produce the world premiere of Weingartners opera Sakuntala in 1884 with the Weimar orchestra. Walker got this account from Weingartners autobiography, published in Zürich, the same year,1884, he assumed the directorship of the Königsberg Opera. From 1885 to 1887 he was Kapellmeister in Danzig, then in Hamburg until 1889, starting that year, he was Kapellmeister of the Royal Opera and conductor of symphony concerts in Berlin. He eventually resigned from the opera post while continuing to conduct the concerts, and then settled in Munich. In 1902, at the Mainz Festival, Weingartner conducted all nine Beethoven symphonies, from 1907 to 1910 he was the Director of the Vienna Hofoper, succeeding Gustav Mahler, he retained the conductorship of the Vienna Philharmonic until 1927. In 1919-20, he was conductor of the Vienna Volksoper. In 1920, he became a professor at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, from 1927 to 1934 he was music director of the Basel symphony orchestra. He gave his last concert in London that year and died in Winterthur, Weingartner was the first conductor to make commercial recordings of all nine Beethoven symphonies, and the second to record all four Brahms symphonies. In 1935 he conducted the premiere of Georges Bizets long-lost Symphony in C. His 1935 recording of Beethovens Symphony No,9, for instance, sounds much more like Toscaninis 1936,1938,1939 and 1952 renditions than Furtwänglers far more expansive readings. He taught conducting to students as eminent as Paul Sacher, Charles Houdret, Georg Tintner and he experimented with films of himself conducting as a tool in orchestral training. He was married five times, to Marie Juillerat, Baroness Feodora von Dreifus, mezzo-soprano Lucille Marcel, actress Roxo Betty Kalisch, despite his lifelong career as a conductor, Weingartner regarded himself as equally, if not more importantly, a composer. Besides numerous other operas, Weingartner wrote seven symphonies which are being recorded, with his orchestral music, by cpo - classic production osnabrück, in Osnabrück. Weingartners choice of verse for his songs mirrors that of his contemporary composers, Max Reger, Joseph Marx, Richard Trunk and his idiom left some marks on Erich Wolfgang Korngold, whose precocious Sinfonietta is dedicated to Weingartner, who conducted its first performance. Weingartner edited, with Charles Malherbe, the works of Hector Berlioz as well as the operas Joseph by Méhul and Oberon by Weber. He also made versions of piano works such as Beethovens Hammerklavier Sonata, Webers Invitation to the Dance
34.
Johann Strauss, Jr.
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Johann Strauss II, also known as Johann Strauss Jr. the Younger, the Son, Johann Baptist Strauss, was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of music, as well as several operettas. In his lifetime, he was known as The Waltz King, Strauss had two younger brothers, Josef and Eduard Strauss, who became composers of light music as well, although they were never as well known as their elder brother. Some of Johann Strauss most famous works include The Blue Danube, Kaiser-Walzer, Tales from the Vienna Woods, among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the best known. In other words, it is properly Strauss, not Strauß and his family called him Schani, derived from the Italian Gianni, a nickname. Strauss was born in St Ulrich near Vienna, Austria, on October 25,1825 and his paternal great-grandfather was a Hungarian Jew – a fact which the Nazis, who lionised Strausss music as so German, later tried to conceal. His father did not want him to become a musician but rather a banker, nevertheless, Strauss Junior studied the violin secretly as a child with the first violinist of his fathers orchestra, Franz Amon. When his father discovered his son secretly practising on a one day. It seems that rather than trying to avoid a Strauss rivalry and it was only when the father abandoned his family for a mistress, Emilie Trampusch, that the son was able to concentrate fully on a career as a composer with the support of his mother. Strauss studied counterpoint and harmony with theorist Professor Joachim Hoffmann, who owned a music school. His talents were recognized by composer Joseph Drechsler, who taught him exercises in harmony. It was during that time that he composed his only sacred work and his other violin teacher, Anton Kollmann, who was the ballet répétiteur of the Vienna Court Opera, also wrote excellent testimonials for him. Armed with these, he approached the Viennese authorities to apply for a license to perform and he initially formed his small orchestra where he recruited his members at the Zur Stadt Belgrad tavern, where musicians seeking work could be hired easily. Johann Strauss Is influence over the local entertainment establishments meant that many of them were wary of offering the younger Strauss a contract for fear of angering the father. Strauss Jr. was able to persuade the Dommayers Casino in Hietzing, a suburb of Vienna, to allow him to perform. The elder Strauss, in anger at his sons disobedience, and at that of the proprietor, refused to play at the Dommayers Casino again. Strauss made his debut at Dommayers in October 1844, where he performed some of his first works, such as the waltzes Sinngedichte, Op.1 and Gunstwerber, Op.4, critics and the press were unanimous in their praise for Strausss music. Despite the initial fanfare, Strauss found his years as a composer difficult
35.
Clemens Krauss
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Clemens Heinrich Krauss was an Austrian conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss. His natural father, Chevalier Hector Baltazzi, came from a family of wealthy Phanariot bankers resident in Vienna, baltazzis older sister Helene was married to Baron Albin Vetsera and was the mother of Baroness Mary Vetsera, who was accordingly Clemens Krauss first cousin. Krauss sang in the Hofkapelle as a Vienna Choir Boy and he graduated from the Vienna Conservatory in 1912, after studying composition with Hermann Graedener and theory with Richard Heuberger there. He was then appointed chorus master in the Brno Theater, where he made his debut in 1913. The famous Romanian soprano Viorica Ursuleac, who often sang under him, Krauss made the rounds of regional centers, conducting in Riga, Nuremberg and Stettin. The latter appointment gave him opportunity to travel to Berlin to hear Arthur Nikisch conduct the Berlin Philharmonic. He then returned to Austria as director of the opera and symphony concerts in Graz, in 1922, he joined the conducting staff of the Vienna State Opera and teacher of the conducting class in the Vienna Singakademie. He conducted the Vienna Tonkünstler concerts from 1923 to 1927, and was Intendant of the opera in Frankfurt and he guest-conducted in the United States in 1929, with the Philadelphia Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. Also in 1929, he was appointed director of the Vienna State Opera and its orchestra, which was part of the independent concert entity known as the Vienna Philharmonic, appointed him its music director in 1930. He was a conductor at the Salzburg Festival from 1926 to 1934. Krauss gave up his Vienna positions in 1933-34 to direct the Berlin State Opera in 1935 after Erich Kleiber had resigned in protest against Nazi policies, in 1933, he took over the preparations for the premieres of Richard Strausss opera Arabella after the departure of conductor Fritz Busch. Krausss own position on Nazism was unclear, although he did enjoy a relationship with Nazi official Alfred Frauenfeld. However, throughout the 1930s he and his wife were involved in helping Jews escape from Germany, after befriending British novellist Ida Cook and her sister Mary, both opera fans, he gave cover to their smuggling operation. Munich Opera House shows were arranged around the times and cities that the Cooks needed to contact with escapees. In 1937, he was appointed Intendant of the National Theatre Munich following Hans Knappertsbuschs resignation and he became a close friend of Strauss, and even wrote the libretto for his opera Capriccio which he premiered in Munich in 1942. He also conducted the premieres of Strausss operas Friedenstag and Die Liebe der Danae, during the early 1940s, he taught at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg where among his pupils was composer Roman Toi. After the Munich opera house had been destroyed by Allied bombing, after the war, Allied officials investigated his career and forbade him from appearing in public until 1947, when it emerged that he had helped Jews escape from the Third Reich. He conducted opera at Covent Garden in London starting in 1951 and he also recorded a highly regarded Parsifal at Bayreuth, starring Martha Mödl as Kundry, in 1953, at the height of Mödls brief prime
36.
Salzburg Festival
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The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, one highlight is the annual performance of the play Jedermann by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Since 1967, an annual Salzburg Easter Festival has also been held, Music festivals had been held in Salzburg at irregular intervals since 1877 held by the International Mozarteum Foundation, but were discontinued in 1910. Although a festival was planned for 1914, it was cancelled at the outbreak of World War I, the Salzburg Festival was officially inaugurated on 22 August 1920 with Reinhardts performance of Hofmannsthals Jedermann on the steps of Salzburg Cathedral, starring Alexander Moissi. The practice has become a tradition, and the play is now performed at Cathedral Square, since 1921 it has been accompanied by several performances of chamber music. The first operatic production came in 1922, with Mozarts Don Giovanni conducted by Richard Strauss, the singers were mainly drawn from the Wiener Staatsoper, including Richard Tauber in the part of Don Ottavio. At that time the festival had developed a large-scale program including live broadcasts by the Austrian RAVAG radio network. During the years from 1934 to 1937 famed conductors such as Arturo Toscanini, in 1936, the festival featured a performance by the Trapp Family Singers, whose story was later dramatized as the musical and film The Sound of Music. In 1937, Boyd Neel and his orchestra premiered Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge at the Festival, the Festivals popularity suffered a major blow as a consequence of the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938. Toscanini resigned in protest, artists of Jewish descent like Reinhardt and Georg Solti had to emigrate, nevertheless, the festival remained in operation until in 1944 it was cancelled by the order of Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels in reaction to the 20 July plot. At the end of World War II, the Salzburg Festival reopened in summer 1945 immediately after the Allied victory in Europe. The post-war festival slowly regained its prominence as an opera festival, especially for works by Mozart. In 1960 the Great Festival Hall opera house opened its doors, upon Karajans death in 1989, the festival was drastically modernized and expanded by director Gerard Mortier, who was succeeded by Peter Ruzicka in 2001. In 2006, the festival was led by intendant Jürgen Flimm and that year, Salzburg celebrated the 250th anniversary of Mozarts birth by staging all 22 of his operatic works, to great acclaim. All 22 were filmed and released on DVD in November 2006, the 2006 festival also saw the opening of the Haus für Mozart. Alexander Pereira succeeded Flimm, who departed in 2011 to become director of the Berlin State Opera, Pereiras objective for the festival was to present only new productions. The 2015 festival marked the first one for which Bechtolf was responsible for the artistic programming, budget cuts led to a retreat from Pereiras new productions only objective. The remaining four opera productions—Norma, Il trovatore, Iphigénie en Tauride, the Salzburg Whitsun Festival was established at the behest of Herbert von Karajan in 1973 as a brief concert series with the name Pfingstkonzerte
37.
Vienna New Year's Concert
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It is broadcast live around the world to an estimated audience of more than 50 million in 73 countries in 2012 and 93 countries in 2017. Joseph Lanner, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Otto Nicolai, Emil von Reznicek, Franz Schubert, Franz von Suppé, in 2009, music by Joseph Haydn was played for the first time, the 4th movement of his Farewell Symphony to mark the 200th anniversary of his death. There are traditionally about a dozen compositions played, with a halfway through the concert. They include waltzes, polkas, mazurkas, and marches, of the encores, the first is often a fast polka. The second is Johann Strauss IIs waltz The Blue Danube, whose introduction is interrupted by applause of recognition, the last is Johann Strauss Is Radetzky March, during which the audience claps along under the conductors direction. In this last piece, the tradition calls for the conductor to start the orchestra as soon he steps onto the stage. The complete duration of the event is two and a half hours. The concerts have been held in the Goldener Saal of the Musikverein since 1939, the television broadcast is augmented by ballet performances in selected pieces during the second part of the programme. The dancers come from the Vienna State Ballet and dance at different famous places in Austria, schönbrunn Palace, Schloss Esterházy, the Vienna State Opera or the Wiener Musikverein itself. In 2013, the costumes were designed by Vivienne Westwood, from 1980 until 2013, the flowers that decorated the hall were a gift from the city of Sanremo, Liguria, Italy. In 2014, the flowers were provided by the Vienna Philharmonic itself, since 2014, the flowers have been arranged by the Wiener Stadtgärten. In 2017, the performed for the first time in new attire designed by Vivienne Westwood. There had been a tradition of concerts on New Years Day in Vienna since 1838, from 1928 to 1933 there were five New Years´s concerts in the Musikverein, conducted by Johann Strauss III. These concerts were broadcast by the RAVAG, after World War II, this concert survived, as the Nazi origins were largely forgotten, until more recently. The concert was first performed in 1939, and conducted by Clemens Krauss, for the first and only time, the concert was not given on New Years Day, but instead on 31 December of that year. It was called then a special, or extraordinary concert, Clemens Krauss almost always included Perpetuum mobile either on the concert or as an encore. Surprisingly, the waltz The Blue Danube was not performed until 1945, the Radetzky March was first performed in 1946, as an encore. Until 1958 these last two pieces were often but not always given as encores, boskovsky, concertmaster of the orchestra from 1936 until 1979, conducted the Vienna New Years concerts from 1955 to 1979
38.
Berlin State Opera
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The Berlin State Opera is a German opera company based in Berlin. Its permanent home is the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, commonly referred to as Lindenoper, in the central Mitte district, originally the Hofoper from 1742, it was named Königliches Opernhaus in 1844, and Staatsoper Unter den Linden in 1918. From 1949 to 1990 it housed the opera of East Germany. Since 2004, the State Opera company belongs to the Berlin Opera Foundation, like the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Berlin State Ballet, king Frederick II of Prussia shortly after his accession to the throne commissioned the original building on the site. Construction work began in July 1741 with what was designed by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff to be the first part of a Forum Fredericianum on present-day Bebelplatz. Although not entirely completed, the Court Opera was inaugurated with a performance of Carl Heinrich Grauns Cesare e Cleopatra on December 7,1742. This event marked the beginning of the successful, 250-year co-operation between the Staatsoper and the Staatskapelle Berlin, the orchestra, whose roots trace back to the 16th century. In 1821, the Berlin Opera—hosted at the Schauspielhaus Berlin—gave the premiere of Webers Der Freischütz, in 1842, Wilhelm Taubert instituted the tradition of regular symphonic concerts. In the same year, Giacomo Meyerbeer succeeded Gaspare Spontini as General Music Director, Felix Mendelssohn also conducted symphonic concerts for a year. On August 18,1843 the Linden Opera was destroyed by fire, in 1849, Otto Nicolais Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor was premiered at the Royal Opera House, conducted by the composer himself. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century and they included Felix von Weingartner, Karl Muck, Richard Strauss, and Leo Blech. After the collapse of the German Empire in 1918, the Opera was renamed Staatsoper unter den Linden, in the 1920s, Kurt Adler, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Erich Kleiber, Otto Klemperer, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Bruno Walter occupied the conductors post. In 1925, Alban Bergs Wozzeck, was given its premiere in a production conducted by Erich Kleiber in the composers presence, after having undergone an extensive renovation, the Linden Opera reopened on 28 April 1928 with a new production of Die Zauberflöte. The cast included Delia Reinhardt, Richard Tauber, Friedrich Schorr and Leo Schützendorf, in the same year, the famous Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin and Serge Diaghilevs Ballets Russes with conductor Ernest Ansermet were guest performers. In 1930 Erich Kleiber conducted the premiere of Darius Milhauds Christophe Colomb, however, in 1934, when symphonic pieces from Alban Bergs Lulu were performed by Kleiber, the National Socialists provoked a scandal and the conductor was forced into exile. After Hitlers Nazi takeover, members of Jewish origin were dismissed from the ensemble, many German musicians associated with the opera went into exile, including the conductors Kurt Adler, Otto Klemperer and Fritz Busch. During the Third Reich, Robert Heger, Herbert von Karajan,1938, Werner Egk conducted the first night of his opera Peer Gynt on November 24. Herbert von Karajan´s interpretation of Mozart´s Die Zauberflöte was performed on December 18, Karajan continued as Generalmusikdirektor, the principal musical director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden between 1941 and 1945
39.
Erich Kleiber
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Erich Kleiber was an Austrian conductor, composer. He is widely considered to be one of the conductors of the 20th century. He was born in a teachers family in Vienna in 1890. His mother was a pioneer Wagnerian who, as Kleiber remembered, though she died when he was six, played piano transcription of Lohengrin. His father died the year before, as a little boy, he went to live with his grandfather in Prague. In 1900, he returned to Vienna to live with an aunt, in July 1908, he left Vienna and studied art, philosophy, history at the Charles University in Prague between 1908 and 1912 and took conducting lessons at the Prague Conservatory. Erich Kleiber made his debut at the Prague National Theater in 1911, Then he conducted opera in Darmstadt, Barmen-Elberfeld, Düsseldorf, and Mannheim. In 1923, after conducting a performance of Beethovens Fidelio at the Berlin State Opera, he became the general music director of the institution. During twelve years he was one of the artists of the German music life with Wilhelm Furtwängler. He was known for his interpretations of the symphonic and operatic repertoire - works of Beethoven and Wagner -. In 1925, he conducted the world première of Alban Bergs opera, Wozzeck. between 1923 and 1929 he made more than 100 recordings. His international reputation had been started, he began traveling abroad for concerts, notably to Buenos Aires, Moscow, Kleiber was engaged to conduct the first six weeks of the season of the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in 1930. Then began a world of wandering, a path that passed through Amsterdam, London, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Havana, New York City and Rome. Kleiber also repudiated his contract with La Scala in Milan in April 1939, shortly after the fascist Mussolini regime enacted its own anti-semitic legislation, La Scala is denied for Jews. both as a Christian and an artist, I can no longer co-operate. Kleiber was a firmly antifascist, emigrated to Argentina, Buenos Aires in 1936, here he specialized in the German operatic repertoire, particularly the works of Wagner. Through the prestige of his name, he was able to attract such luminaries to the Colón as Emanuel List, Kirsten Flagstad, Viorica Ursuleac and Set Svanholm. Some of his performances from this period have made available on CDs of varying quality. In 1938, Kleiber became an Argentine citizen, Kleiber came back to Europe in 1950
40.
Bruno Walter
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Bruno Walter was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Born in Berlin, he left Germany in 1933 to escape the Third Reich and he studied composition at Stern with Robert Radecke, and remained active as a composer until about 1910. But it was hearing a concert in 1889 by the Berlin Philharmonic led by Hans von Bülow, he wrote, now I knew what I was meant for. No musical activity but that of a conductor could any longer be considered by me. He made his conducting début at the Cologne Opera with Albert Lortzings Der Waffenschmied in 1894, later that year he left for the Hamburg Opera to work as a chorus director. There he first met and worked with Gustav Mahler, whom he revered, in 1896, he was appointed Kapellmeister of the Stadttheater in Breslau, on the strength of a recommendation from Mahler to the theaters director, Theodor Löwe. These biographers add that Walter wrote to his parents that he found that having to change his name was terrible, in 1897, Walter became Chief Conductor at the municipal opera in Pressburg. He found the provincial and depressing, and in 1898 took the position of Chief Conductor of the Riga Opera. While there, he converted to Christianity, probably Roman Catholicism, in 1899 Walter was appointed music director of the Temeswar, Austria-Hungary Opera, the current Banatul Philharmonic of Timișoara. While in Berlin he also conducted the premiere of Der arme Heinrich by Hans Pfitzner, in 1901, Walter accepted Mahlers invitation to be his assistant at the Court Opera in Vienna. Walter led Verdis Aida at his debut, in 1907 he was elected by the Vienna Philharmonic to conduct its Nicolai Concert. In 1910, he helped Mahler select and coach solo singers for the premiere of Mahlers Symphony No.8, when Mahler died on May 18,1911, Walter was at his deathbed. On June 6, he wrote to his sister that he was to conduct the premiere of Mahlers Das Lied von der Erde, he did so in Munich on November 20,1911, in the first half of an all-Mahler concert. On June 26,1912 he led the Vienna Philharmonic in the premiere of Mahlers Symphony No.9. Although Walter became an Austrian citizen in 1911, he left Vienna in 1913 to become the Royal Bavarian Music Director, while there, argue Erik Ryding and Rebecca Pechefsky, Walters contribution to the history of Wagner performance more significant than many realize. The Bayreuth Festival was suspended after 1914. and resumed only in 1924, Walter was the citys music director for most of this period, and he presided over most of the Wagnerian repertoire. In January 1914, Walter conducted his first concert in Moscow, during the First World War he remained actively involved in conducting, giving premieres to Erich Wolfgang Korngolds Violanta and Der Ring des Polykrates as well as Hans Pfitzners Palestrina. In 1920, he conducted the premiere of Walter Braunfels Die Vögel, in Munich, Walter was a good friend of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli
41.
Nazi
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National Socialism, more commonly known as Nazism, is the ideology and practice associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party and Nazi Germany, as well as other far-right groups. Nazism subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism, identifying Germans as part of what Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race and it aimed to overcome social divisions and create a homogeneous society, unified on the basis of racial purity. The term National Socialism arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of socialism, the Nazi Partys precursor, the Pan-German nationalist and anti-Semitic German Workers Party, was founded on 5 January 1919. By the early 1920s, Adolf Hitler assumed control of the organisation, following the Holocaust and German defeat in World War II, only a few fringe racist groups, usually referred to as neo-Nazis, still describe themselves as following National Socialism. The full name of Adolf Hitlers party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the shorthand Nazi was formed from the first two syllables of the German pronunciation of the word national. The term was in use before the rise of the NSDAP as a colloquial and derogatory word for a peasant, characterizing an awkward. It derived from Ignaz, being a version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria. Opponents seized on this and shortened the first word of the name, Nationalsozialistische. The NSDAP briefly adopted the Nazi designation, attempting to reappropriate the term, the use of Nazi Germany, Nazi regime, and so on was popularised by German exiles abroad. From them, the spread into other languages and was eventually brought back to Germany after World War II. In English, Nazism is a name for the ideology the party advocated. The majority of scholars identify Nazism in practice as a form of far-right politics, far-right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate over other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements. Adolf Hitler and other proponents officially portrayed Nazism as being neither left- nor right-wing, but the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms, a major inspiration for the Nazis were the far-right nationalist Freikorps, paramilitary organisations that engaged in political violence after World War I. The Nazis stated the alliance was purely tactical and there remained substantial differences with the DNVP, the Nazis described the DNVP as a bourgeois party and called themselves an anti-bourgeois party. After the elections in 1932, the alliance broke after the DNVP lost many of its seats in the Reichstag, the Nazis denounced them as an insignificant heap of reactionaries. The DNVP responded by denouncing the Nazis for their socialism, their violence. Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was pressured to abdicate the throne and flee into exile amidst an attempted communist revolution in Germany, there were factions in the Nazi Party, both conservative and radical
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Richard Wagner
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Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works and he described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and his advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music, Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. The Ring and Parsifal were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, until his final years, Wagners life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment, notably, since the late 20th century, where they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century, his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, Richard Wagner was born to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, where his family lived at No. 3, the Brühl in the Jewish quarter and he was baptized at St. Thomas Church. He was the child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine. Wagners father Carl died of typhus six months after Richards birth, afterwards his mother Johanna lived with Carls friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyers residence in Dresden, until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father, Geyers love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel, in late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzels school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyers death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, at the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Webers opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright and his first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis as WWV1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was influenced by Shakespeare
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Arturo Toscanini
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Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and of the 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for detail and sonority. He was at times the music director of La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Toscanini was born in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, and won a scholarship to the music conservatory. Living conditions at the conservatory were harsh, for example, his diet consisted almost completely of fish. When he became successful, he never ate anything that came from the sea and he joined the orchestra of an opera company, with which he toured South America in 1886. Carlo Superti and Aristide Venturi tried unsuccessfully to finish the work, in desperation, the singers suggested the name of their assistant Chorus Master, who knew the whole opera from memory. The public was taken by surprise, at first by the youth and sheer aplomb of this unknown conductor, for the rest of that season, Toscanini conducted eighteen operas, all with absolute success. Thus began his career as a conductor, at age 19, upon returning to Italy, Toscanini set out on a dual path for some time. He continued to conduct, his first appearance in Italy being at the Teatro Carignano in Turin, on November 4,1886, in the world premiere of the revised version of Alfredo Catalanis Edmea. This was the beginning of Toscaninis lifelong friendship and championing of Catalani, however, he also returned to his chair in the cello section, and participated as cellist in the world premiere of Verdis Otello under the composers supervision. The composer was impressed when Toscanini consulted him personally about Verdis Te Deum. Verdi said that he had left it out for fear that certain interpreters would have exaggerated the marking, gradually, Toscaninis reputation as an operatic conductor of unusual authority and skill supplanted his cello career. In the following decade, he consolidated his career in Italy, entrusted with the premieres of Puccinis La bohème. In 1896, Toscanini conducted his first symphonic concert and he exhibited a considerable capacity for hard work, conducting 43 concerts in Turin in 1898. By 1898, Toscanini was Principal Conductor at La Scala, where he remained until 1908, returning as Music Director and he brought the La Scala Orchestra to the United States on a concert tour in 1920/21, during which he made his first recordings. Outside Europe, Toscanini conducted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as well as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and he toured Europe with the New York Philharmonic in 1930. At each performance, he and the orchestra were acclaimed by critics, Toscanini was the first non-German conductor to appear at Bayreuth, and the New York Philharmonic was the first non-German orchestra to play there
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Hans Knappertsbusch
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To this day, his interpretations of the works of Richard Wagner are regarded by many as among the best of the 20th century. Knappertsbusch was born in Elberfeld, todays Wuppertal and he studied philosophy at Bonn University and conducting at the Cologne Conservatory with Fritz Steinbach. For a few summers, he assisted Siegfried Wagner and Hans Richter at Bayreuth and he began his career with conducting jobs in Elberfeld, Leipzig and Dessau. When Bruno Walter left Munich for New York, Knappertsbusch succeeded him as General Music Director of the Bavarian State Orchestra, Knappertsbusch later refused to join the Nazi party. The signatories, who generally held staunchly conservative views, considered the text. Knappertsbusch was a highly educated moderate nationalist and never held a NSDAP membership and he had no sympathy for the Nazis, which he viewed as coarse and uncivilised, and was unusually outspoken in his distate for them. He often came into conflict with the authorities, risking his freedom, hitler himself was involved in the decision to dismiss him. However, since there was a shortage of first-class conductors in Germany, in 1936, Sir Thomas Beecham invited him to Covent Garden to conduct, but his permit to leave Germany was withheld. In the late 1930s he went to Vienna to conduct at the Wiener Staatsoper, in 1944, he was added to the so-called Gottbegnadeten list, which excluded him from military service. Despite his animosity towards the Nazi regime, Knappertsbusch never considered emigrating from his country, being deeply rooted in German arts. When World War II ended, Knappertsbusch returned to Munich, where he lived and worked for the remainder of his life and he continued to guest conduct in Vienna, as well as to make appearances at the Bayreuth Festival. He conducted the first performances of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the reopening of the Bayreuth Festival in 1951, the Parsifal of that year, in which Martha Mödl made her Bayreuth premiere as Kundry, remains among the marquee recordings of that role. Mödl, the preeminent Kundry and Wagner actress of the twentieth century and he is widely considered as one of the greatest Wagner-conductors of all time. Artistically, Knappertsbusch was known for conducting very slowly but intensely, emphasizing beauty, gravitas and his personality was modest and straightforward, at the same time forceful and highly sensitive. He was known for being able to conduct with minimal gesticulation at times, conveying his intentions with simply a look, one of his well-known idiosyncratic quirks was his strong dislike for rehearsals, which he avoided whenever he could. Instead, he preferred to more on his instinct and spontaneity. He also didnt care much for studio records, which is why there exists only a small number of them. However, numerous recordings of his performances are available
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Otto Klemperer
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Otto Klemperer was a German-born conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the conductors of the 20th century. Otto Klemperer was born in Breslau, Silesia Province, then in Germany, as a son of Nathan Klemperer, Klemperer studied music first at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, and later at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin under James Kwast and Hans Pfitzner. He followed Kwast to three institutions and credited him with the basis of his musical development. In 1905 he met Gustav Mahler while conducting the brass at a performance of Mahlers Symphony No. He also made a reduction of the second symphony. The two men became friends, and Klemperer became conductor at the German Opera in Prague in 1907 on Mahlers recommendation, Mahler wrote a short testimonial, recommending Klemperer, on a small card which Klemperer kept for the rest of his life. Later, in 1910, Klemperer assisted Mahler in the premiere of his Symphony No, Klemperer went on to hold a number of positions, in Hamburg, in Barmen, the Strasbourg Opera, the Cologne Opera, and the Wiesbaden Opera House. From 1927 to 1931, he was conductor at the Kroll Opera in Berlin, on March 22,1920, his wife soprano Johanna Geisler gave birth to their son, the German-American actor Werner Klemperer. In 1933, once the Nazi Party had reached power, Klemperer, Klemperer had previously converted to Catholicism, but returned to Judaism at the end of his life. In the U. S. he was appointed Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and he was granted United States citizenship in 1937. He also visited other countries, including England and Australia, Klemperer hoped for a permanent position as lead conductor in New York or Philadelphia. The New York decision was particularly galling, as Klemperer had been engaged to conduct the first fourteen weeks of the New York Philharmonics 1935-6 season and you see, I am no youngster. I have a name and a good name, one could not use me in a most difficult season and then expell me. This non-reengagement will have bad results not only for me in New York. This non-reengagement is an absolutely unjustified wrong done to me by the Philharmonic Society, though he would occasionally conduct the Philharmonic after that, he lost the post of Music Director. Furthermore, his behavior during manic episodes made him an undesirable guest to US orchestras. After World War II, Klemperer returned to Europe to work at the Budapest Opera, in the early 1950s Klemperer experienced difficulties arising from his U. S. citizenship
