Piano trios are an important part of the compositional work of André Singer and Hans Winterberg. The planned concert evening will feature the two still largely unknown but musically fascinating trios, interpreted by pianist David Hausknecht, violinist Floris Willem and cellist Cristina Basili.
Tuesday, December 12, 2023, 7 p.m. Palais Ehrbar – small Ehrbar Saal Mühlgasse 28 1040 Vienna
An event in collaboration with Puskas International, Exilarte – Center for Persecuted Music, Boosey & Hawkes, Austrian-Czech Society, Czech Center Vienna and Czech Embassy in Vienna.
Jonathan Powell places Winterberg in the context of Czech piano music and builds a bridge between Czech and Viennese traditions of the 1920s and 30s. The highlight of the recital is the premiere of Winterberg’s 4th piano sonata. Afterwards, an international panel discussion will examine Winterberg’s biography, work and the rediscovery of his legacy against the background of the historical developments of the 20th century.
In conversation:
Petr Brod (journalist, Prague) Gerold Gruber (Exilarte Center, Vienna) Frank Harders-Wuthenow (Boosey & Hawkes, Berlin) Lubomir Spurný (Masaryk University, Brno)
The composer and pianist Hans (Hanuš) Winterberg, born in Prague in 1901, found his final resting place in Bad Tölz in 1991. Winterberg, a student of Alexander von Zemlinsky, was part of Czechoslovakia’s musical elite in the 1930s and was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp on January 26, 1945 because of his Jewish descent. Winterberg’s fascinating oeuvre has only recently been rediscovered and published in a collaboration between the Exilarte Center of the mdw and the publishing house Boosey & Hawkes.
The internationally renowned English pianist Jonathan Powell plays a pioneering role in this Winterberg renaissance. The winner of the German Record Critics’ Prize in 2021 places Winterberg in the context of Czech piano music and builds a bridge between Czech and contemporary Viennese traditions. A highlight of the recital is the premiere of Winterberg’s 4th piano sonata.
Afterwards, a discussion will examine Winterberg’s biography, work and rediscovery of his legacy against the background of the historical developments of the 20th century.
Event in cooperation with the Bad Tölz Singing and Music School, Peter Puskas, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Czech Center Munich, Cultural Department for the Bohemian Countries in the Adalbert Stifter Association
The renowned duo – cellist Vida Vujic and pianist Sybilla Konstantinova – is dedicated to the cello sonatas of Walter Würzburger and Walter Bricht, whose papers are in the archives of the Exilarte Center
SPECIAL EVENTS as part of the ORF Long Night of Museums
1) “The songwriting of Erich Wolfgang Korngold”, lecture with music (start: 6:15 p.m.)
Opening: Gerold Gruber, head of the Exilarte Center
Kurt Arrer has been intensively involved with the composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold and his father Julius Korngold for decades. He is considered an expert in the field of transferring Julius Korngold’s difficult-to-read script. The lecture by the contemporary historian Arrer will be dedicated to the composer’s songwriting. Accompanying the lecture, singersArabella Fenyves and Josipa Bainacwill interpret works by Erich Wolfgang Korngold with pianist David Hausknecht.
Every two years a competition takes place in Schwerin that is exclusively dedicated to ostracized music. Exilarte awards a special prize that gives the winners the opportunity to take part in a concert in Vienna. The excellent duo with Ruben Mirzoian (clarinet) and Philipp Thönes(piano) were particularly convincing. They will interpret works by Joseph Horovitz (who died in London last year) and Paul Hindemith, among others.
3) “Tif vi di Nakht” with Ethel Merhaut and friends (start: 10:00 p.m.)
While hits like “That only exists once” or “In der Bar zum Krokodil” became absolute box office hits in Austria and Germany, Yiddish songs like “Glik” and “Zog es mir nokh amol” caused sell-outs in New York in the 1930s theater halls. “Tif wie die Nacht”, named after a tango by Abraham Ellstein, spans a musical arc from Europe to America and connects the German-speaking and Yiddish music scenes of the golden 20s and roaring 30s. Together with her outstanding ensemble, Ethel Merhaut strolls virtuosically between chanson, jazz and swing and takes the audience into the golden era of film and entertainment music. Music by Richard Werner Heymann, Abraham Ellstein, Robert Stolz, Sholom Secunda. Texts by Molly Picon, Fritz Löhner-Beda, Peter Herz, Bella Meissel…
4) Quick tours through the exhibition (from 6:30 p.m.)
The life and work of the famous violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler are presented in the new exhibition at the Exilarte Center with pictures, sheet music, life and sound documents. When the National Socialists came to power in Germany, the star violinist’s performances were accompanied by disruptions and calls for a boycott due to his Jewish origins. His compositions were also no longer played. In September 1939 he immigrated to the USA, where he settled in New York with his wife Harriet.
ENTRY
Tickets can be purchased directly at the Exilarte Center!
Exilarte center of the mdw, Lothringerstraße 18 / 1st floor, 1030 Vienna
Free entry for children up to 12 years*Reduced tickets for schoolchildren, students, senior citizens, people with disabilities, military servants and Ö1 Club members. Please have relevant proof ready on site.
Under the patronage of the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in the Republic of Austria in cooperation with the Exilarte Center of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, the ÖAW – Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Croatian Cultural Association in Vienna “Matica Hrvatska Beč” and Association Tonwerk – Forum for New Music
10 years of Croatia in the EU (2023) | 100th anniversary of the death of composer Dora Pejačević (2023) | Croatian Presidium IHRA (2023) | 150th birthday of Karl Kraus (2024) | 150th birthday of Arnold Schönberg (2024) | 150th birthday of Antun Gustav Matoš (2023)
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In the oeuvre of the Croatian composer Dora Pejačević (1885-1923), the composition Metamorphosis occupies a special place both because of its musical significance and because of the context in which it was created: the vocal work for alto, violin and organ or piano was based on verses by the Austrian writer and journalist Karl Kraus (1874-1936) in the spring of 1915 and was intended for the wedding of their mutual friend Sidonia Nádherný von Borutin, which did not take place. Kraus planned to perform the composition in Vienna in 1916, but due to the delay in the score and problems with the performers, the performance did not take place. Correspondence between Kraus and Nádherný recorded that Kraus showed the composition to Arnold Schönberg, who – despite his skepticism about a woman composer – praised the work and advocated its performance.
Metamorphosis by Dora Pejačević is one of the characteristic works of modernism; Schönberg particularly pointed out the interlude before the beginning of the text “Today is Spring”. Encountering Kraus’ poetry was obviously stimulating for Dora Pejačević’s departure from traditional patterns and periodic form towards a freer flow of musical phrases and expressive harmonies.
The symposium is part of the three-year research project “Musicians in Exile from Nazi Germany and Austria and their Role in the Development of Musical Life in Iceland, 1935-1974”. Gerold Gruber and Josipa Bainac Hausknecht gave the lecture “Art Creates Awareness: Estates of the Exilarte Center Vienna”.
Symposium Speaker G. Gruber, A. Ingolfsson, A. Dümling
Opening with Grazer University Choir, conducted by F. M. Herzog
Gerold Gruber with family Urbancic
Gerold Gruber visiting the grave of Victor und Melitta Urbancic
In Reykjavik, Gerold Gruber visited the family of the Icelandic exile composer Victor Urbancic, who was born in Vienna in 1903. He studied composition, conducting and musicology at the Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (today’s mdw). Already during his studies he worked as a conductor for incidental music at the Theater in der Josefstadt. From 1926 to 1933 he worked as a solo répétiteur, operetta conductor and finally opera conductor at the Stadttheater Mainz. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Urbancic was already with Dr. Married Melitta Grunbaum. The family moved back to Austria. From 1934 Urbancic continued his teaching activities at the conservatory of the Musikverein für Steiermark in Graz. Just six months later he was appointed deputy director of the conservatory and quickly assumed an important position in Graz concert life. Around 1936, the Graz Conservatory in particular became a nucleus of the National Socialists’ “new ethnic music education”. After Hitler’s troops invaded Austria, the family was forced to flee. This is how Urbancic ended up in Iceland, where he was considered one of the pioneers of modern musical life.
Most of Victor Urbancic’s estate is located in Reykjavik. Sibyl Urbancic (the daughter of Victor Urbancic) will hand over her father’s estate, which is still in her Viennese apartment, to the Exilarte Zentrum.
Gabriele Proy: Alchemilla Vulgaris, for oboe and string trio Hans Gal: Concertino for flute and string quartet Meinhard Rüdenauer: Caprices for string quartet, dedicated to the CIPRA quartet, UA Antal Dorati: Nocturno and Capriccio, for oboe and string quartet (1926) Julius Bürger: String Quartet No.2 Hans Winterberg: String Quartet 1957 Michael Paulus: Zweisinn, for piano, violin / viola, oboe and voice
