A three-disc boxed set of piano music recently released by Avie marks the most important step to date in the rediscovery of the music of the Austrian composer Hans Gál (1890–1987). Gál was one of those myriad composers who, being Jewish, found the world turned upside when those twelve mad years of Nazi perversity began.…
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Ernst Krenek’s Recollections of Schreker in Berlin
This paper was delivered to the conference ‘Thwarted Voices: Franz Schreker and his Pupils in Berlin (1920–1933)’ at the University of London , Sunday–Monday, 2–3 July 2000 Abstract This paper examines Ernst Krenek’s recollections of Schreker as a teacher, as retold through both published and private sources. Cordial and deferential to begin with, by the…
Opus Est: German and Austrian Musicians in UK Exile
Although extensive work has been done on the influence in Britain of ‘Hitler’s émigrés’ in other fields, music has tended to be left to one side. That this central activity should have aroused so little interest or recognition is a mystery and demands further investigation, not least because the numerous teachers, composers, instrumentalists, singers, academics…
Hans Gál in Conversation
This conversation, first published in the Journal of the British Music Society (Vol. 9, 1987, pp. 33–44), was recorded at Dr Gál’s Edinburgh home in December 1986, less than a year before his death on 3 October 1987 . It shows his wit and wisdom undiminished by age. As a performing musician, too, he was…