Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s songs and letters provide an insight into the turbulent history of his time and the life of his family. A large number of them are held in the Austrian National Library and will be sung or read as part of this music salon. The thematic focus is on Korngold’s stays in the Salzkammergut region, to which he had close ties from his early youth. Many of his works either originated in this area or were orchestrated or completed during his summer stays there. Due to the precarious political situation, Korngold did not return to Austria from film shoots in Hollywood in 1938. His retreat in Gmunden, Schloss Höselberg, was confiscated by the Gestapo in the same year. The loss of his homeland was a deeply painful blow for him.
Interpreters:
Günter Haumer, baritone Josipa Bainac, mezzo-soprano David Hausknecht, piano
The eventful life and dazzling career of Viennese composer Julius Bürger (1897–1995) reflect the musical and social upheavals of the 20th century. His career brought him into contact with numerous influential figures in music history, and his original compositions also bear the unmistakable signature of a master of his craft. Despite significant successes at leading opera houses and radio stations worldwide, Bürger’s artistic path was abruptly interrupted and permanently altered by the rise of National Socialism. Although he continued to compose undeterred in the following decades, a large part of his oeuvre remained hidden for a long time – until these important works were rediscovered in the last years of his life.
The performance of his music follows on from a highly acclaimed concert in August 2023, which focused on Bürger’s serious works. This concert now turns its attention to his entertaining, brilliant, and colorful compositions. The Divertimento Viennese orchestra will perform under the baton of Vinzenz Praxmarer. The soloists are the internationally acclaimed baritone Thomas Hampson and mezzo-soprano Josipa Bainac. This concert also sets a strong signal for musical discoveries: all of the works are Austrian premieres, some of them even world premieres.
Ticket reservations from April 1st at the RadioKulturhaus ticket office (in the entrance area of the Großer Sendesaal) Phone: +43 1 / 501 70-377 Email: radiokulturhaus@orf.at Opening hours: Mon. – Fri. from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Closed on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays (For events, the box office opens 60 minutes before the start of the event.)
Performers:
Divertimento Viennese Orchestra conducted by Vinzenz Praxmarer Thomas Hampson, baritone Josipa Bainac, mezzo-soprano
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of exil.arte and the 10th anniversary of the Exilarte Centre of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Katharina Wincor, will perform works from the Exilarte music edition by Wilhelm Grosz and Hans Winterberg. Since 2006, what was originally a remembrance culture initiative has developed into an internationally recognised research and cultural centre that successfully combines academic work, archive practice and artistic performance. Through exhibitions, publications, recordings, symposia and concerts, expelled composers have been made accessible to a wide audience. Today, Exilarte is regarded as a model of living cultural history through the preservation of musical estates, international co-operation and the accessibility of its collections. The years 2006–2026 do not represent an end, but rather a sustainable foundation – for a living archive that gives the music history of the 20th century a lasting new perspective.
Wilhelm Grosz Vienna, 1894 – 1939, New York City
Grosz studied at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts (now the mdw) under Franz Schreker and musicology under Guido Adler. He turned to popular music early on, for example with his Jazzband Sonata (1922) and the jazz ballet Baby in der Bar (1928). Despite Julius Korngold’s praise for his opera Sganarell, he began a career in Berlin as a producer, arranger and conductor with Ultraphon. In 1934 he fled to London and wrote numerous hits such as Red Sails in the Sunset. In 1939 he followed Erich W. Korngold’s advice to move to New York, where he died shortly after his arrival.
Hans Winterberg Prague, 1901 – 1991, Stepperg / Upper Bavaria
Winterberg, from a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, studied with Finke, Zemlinsky and Hába. Initially protected by his marriage to the non-Jewish pianist Maria Maschat, he was divorced in 1944 and deported to Theresienstadt. After being liberated from the ghetto, he emigrated to Germany and never returned to Prague due to the political situation. In Bavaria, he fought for compensation and struggled to find work, including at Bayerischer Rundfunk. Despite individual performances, he was denied widespread recognition throughout his life.
The anniversary exhibition presents, for the first time, a panorama of the estates preserved at the Exilarte Center of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, offering insight into the lives, works, and legacy of composers who were persecuted and marginalized. At the same time, it situates their creative output within its historical context and highlights its significance for contemporary research and cultures of remembrance.
The Exilarte Center preserves, researches, and makes accessible to the public the estates of numerous musicians whose lives were shaped by persecution, displacement, exile, or murder during the National Socialist era. The collection encompasses composers, performers, conductors, musicologists, as well as dancers and theatre practitioners whose artistic careers were violently disrupted or forced into exile. Many of them went on to shape the musical landscapes of their host countries, while others fell into obscurity after 1945 and are only now being rediscovered through the work of Exilarte.
These biographies reveal a multifaceted panorama of European music history in exile: from composers trained in Vienna who went on to revolutionise film music in Hollywood, to conductors who founded new orchestras overseas, to music educators, theorists, and performers who left a lasting mark on cultural life in Great Britain, the United States, Latin America, Israel, Australia, and Asia. At the same time, many of these life stories stand for the irretrievable loss of artistic potential caused by disenfranchisement, internment, material hardship, or murder in concentration camps.
The estates held at the Exilarte Center therefore document not only individual artistic biographies, but also offer a broader perspective on the global consequences of displacement and persecution for the music of the twentieth century. They demonstrate how European musical traditions were transformed in exile and what new cultural impulses emerged from experiences of loss and new beginnings. At the same time, they point to the long period of silence after 1945, during which many of these works and names disappeared from collective memory.
The anniversary exhibition builds upon this unique biographical archive. Through selected life stories, it conveys the diversity, scope, and contemporary relevance of the legacy of exile, linking personal destinies with broader historical and musicological contexts. In doing so, it makes a vital contribution to remembrance culture, historical responsibility, and the sustained visibility of suppressed cultural history.
The duration of the exhibition is from 16.04. – 20.12.2026
The publication about the work and life of the Jewish composer “Wilhelm Grosz – An Unsung Protagonist of Viennese Modernism” has now been published by Böhlau Verlag!
From 1920s Vienna to Exile – The Forgotten Career of Wilhelm Grosz
Wilhelm Grosz (1894–1939), whose estate has been housed at the Exile Art Center of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna since 2018, performed in the grand concert halls of Vienna, the vibrant Berlin of the 1920s, and later in exile in London and New York. Over the course of his career, Grosz moved between the modernist aesthetics of Neue Sachlichkeit, early jazz influences in art music, and popular music. Political upheavals forced him into exile in 1933, where he continued his career in popular music, composing hits such as Isle of Capri. Drawing on his correspondence with his long-standing publisher, the Wiener Universal Edition, and entries from Arthur Schnitzler’s diary, this publication provides a vivid account of Grosz’s artistic networks, the debates of his time, and the multifaceted scope of his oeuvre—from his ‘serious’ music to international popular successes in exile.
The estate includes Grosz’s compositions in the form of autograph manuscripts as well as a large collection of personal documents and photographs.
