Viktor Ullmann

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R.I.P
Viktor

Viktor Ullmann (1 January 1898 – 18 October 1944) was a Silesia-born Austrian composer, conductor and pianist.

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Biography Viktor Ullmann was born on 1 January 1898 in Cieszyn (Teschen), which belonged then to Austrian Silesia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Both his parents were from families of Jewish descent, but had converted to Catholicism before Viktor's birth. As an assimilated Jew, his father, Maximilian, was able to pursue a career as a professional officer in the army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In World War I he was promoted to colonel and ennobled. One writer has described Ullmann's milieu in these terms: "Like such other assimilated German-speaking Czech Jews as Kafka and Mahler, Ullmann lived a life of multiple estrangements, cut off from Czech nationalism, German anti-Semitism and Jewish orthodoxy". Beginning in 1909 Viktor attended a grammar school (Gymnasium) in Vienna. His musical talents and inclinations soon gave him access to Arnold Schoenberg and his circle of pupils. Upon finishing school, he volunteered for military service. After deployment on the Italian Front at Isonzo, he was granted study leave, which he used to start studying law at Vienna University. There he also attended the lectures of Wilhelm Jerusalem. At the beginning of 1918 he was accepted in Schoenberg's composition seminar. With Schoenberg he studied the theory of form, counterpoint…Citește mai mult

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Theresienstadt concentration camp On 8 September 1942 he was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Up to his deportation his list of works had reached 41 opus numbers and contained an additional three piano sonatas, song cycles on texts by various poets, operas, and the piano concerto Op. 25, which he finished in December 1939, nine months after the entry of German troops into Prague. Most of these works are missing. The manuscripts presumably disappeared during the occupation. Thirteen printed items, which Ullmann published privately and entrusted to a friend for safekeeping, have survived. The particular nature of the camp at Theresienstadt enabled Ullmann to remain active musically: he was a piano accompanist, organized concerts ("Collegium musicum", "Studio for New Music"), wrote critiques of musical events, and composed, as part of a cultural circle including Karel Ančerl, Rafael Schachter, Gideon Klein, Hans Krása, and other prominent musicians imprisoned there. He wrote: "By no means did we sit weeping on the banks of the waters of Babylon. Our endeavor with respect to arts was commensurate with our will to live." Overall, Ullmann "probably made the most significant contribution of any single individual to the musical life of Terezin", composing 20 works…Citește mai mult

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Later works The work he completed in Theresienstadt was mostly preserved and comprises, in addition to choral works, song cycles and a quantity of stage music, such significant works as the last three piano sonatas, the Third String Quartet, the melodrama based on Rilke's Cornet poem, and the chamber opera The Emperor of Atlantis, or The Disobedience of Death, with a libretto by Peter Kien. Its premiere was planned for Theresienstadt in the autumn of 1944, conducted by Rafael Schachter, but it is believed that the SS commander noticed similarities between the Emperor of Atlantis and Adolf Hitler and suppressed it. However, eye-witness Herbert Thomas Mandl argues, "that the Emperor is not Hitler". The opera was first performed in Amsterdam in 1975 in a version of the conductor Kerry Woodward. It has been broadcast by BBC television in Britain, and there have been productions in several countries. Important productions took place in Bremen and Stuttgart in 1990; American premieres took place in San Francisco in 1975 and in Brooklyn in 1977. Other works include the song-cycle "Man and his Day" to poems by Ullmann's friend, the poet and later historian of Theresienstadt, H. G. Adler. Since 1993 it is possible…Citește mai mult

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Chronology 1898 Born in Teschen (in Austrian Silesia) on 1 January 1909–16 Attended school in Vienna 1916–18 Military service as a volunteer; service at the Front; promotion to Lieutenant 1918 Attended the University of Vienna, studying law and attending lectures in sociology and philosophy of Wilhelm Jerusalem and attending Arnold Schoenberg's "composition seminar" 1920 autumn: Choirmaster and co-repetiteur under Alexander von Zemlinsky in the New German Theatre in Prague; later (1922–27) conductor 1925 Composition of the "Schönberg Variations" for piano (first performance 1926 in Prague) 1927–1928 Director of Opera in Aussig an der Elbe (Ústí nad Labem); afterwards back in Prague without a position 1929 Success of the "Schönberg Variations" at the music festival of the International Society for New Music (Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik; IGNM) in Geneva 1929–1931 Composer and conductor for stage music in the theatre at Zürich 1931–1933 Bookdealer in Stuttgart, as proprietor of the anthroposophical Novalis-Bücherstube 1933 Flight from Stuttgart; return to Prague 1934 Hertzka Prize for the orchestral arrangement of the "Schönberg Variations" (Op. 3b) 1935–1937 Instruction in composition from Alois Hába 1936 Hertzka Prize for the opera The Fall of the Antichrist (Op. 9) 1938 After the performance of the Second String Quartet…Citește mai mult

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List of the Prague and Theresienstadt works In the middle of 1942, shortly before his deportation to Theresienstadt concentration camp, Ullmann drew up a comprehensive list of his compositions to that point. This list was preserved in a London library as part of a letter to a correspondent whom it has not hitherto been possible to identify. In contrast to earlier lists of works, the London list is distinguished by an unbroken sequence of opus numbers (1–41) and the unmistakable incorporation of works or titles already known. Ullmann's list of works is of incalculable value in light of the lost or missing compositions, although it makes clear the full extent of the loss caused by persecution and war. In the following summary Ullmann's opus numbering has been used, and extended for the opus numbers given to works composed in Theresienstadt. The order of titles is essentially chronological and takes account both of compositions known from earlier lists of works as well as of those bibliographically recorded. Uncertain dating is indicated by (?). Traces of an earlier numeration derive from the list of works from the 1920s (Riemann Musiklexikon 11/1929). These references occur only in connection with the "Schönberg Variations", which…Citește mai mult

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Sources Schultz, Ingo, Viktor Ullmann. Leben und Werk Kassel, 2008. ISBN 978-3-476-02232-5 Initiative Hans Krása in Hamburg: Komponisten in Theresienstadt, ISBN 3-00-005164-3 Karas, Joza, Music in Terezin 1941–1945 NY: [Beaufort Books Publishers, undated Ludvova, Jitka, "Viktor Ullmann," in Hudebni veda 1979, No. 2, 99–122 Schultz, Ingo: "Viktor Ullmann," in Flensburger Hefte, Sonderheft Nr. 8, Summer 1991, 5–25 ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre, Tracks to Viktor Ullmann, including material written by Herbert Thomas Mandl, who worked with Ullmann as a violinist in Terezín, Ingo Schultz, Jean-Jacques Van Vlasselaer, Dzevad Karahasan, and Herbert Gantschacher, edition selene, Vienna, 1998 Herbert Thomas Mandl, Tracks to Terezín, interview with Herbert Thomas Mandl about Terezín and Viktor Ullmann, DVD, ARBOS Vienna-Salzburg-Klagenfurt, 2007 Erich Heyduck and Herbert Gantschacher, Viktor Ullmann – Way to the Front 1917, DVD, ARBOS, VIENNA-Salzburg-Klagenfurt, 2007 Herbert Gantschacher Viktor Ullmann – Zeuge und Opfer der Apokalypse / Witness and Victim of the Apocalypse / Testimone e vittima dell'Apocalisse / Svědek a oběť apokalypsy / Prič in žrtev apokalipse. ARBOS-Edition, Arnoldstein- Klagenfurt – Salzburg – Vienna – Prora – Prague 2015, ISBN 978-3-9503173-3-6 Герберт Ганчахер Виктор Ульман – Свидетель и жертва апокалипсиса «Культ-информ-пресс» Санкт-Петербург 2016, ISBN 978-5-8392-0625-0 The Emperor of Atlantis or…Citește mai mult

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Recordings "Schwer ist´s, das Schöne zu lassen" – complete songs for soprano and piano by Viktor Ullmann (Irena Troupová – soprano, Jan Dušek – piano). Prague: ArcoDiva, 2015.