Adolph Kurt Bohm

Adolph Böhm is a redirect to this article. For other people see Adolf Böhm .

Adolph Kurt Böhm in January 2004

Adolph Kurt Böhm (born July 27, 1926 in Oberlangenstadt near Kronach ; † February 3, 2020 in Murnau am Staffelsee ) was a German composer , pianist , accompanist , painter and writer .

Life

Adolph Kurt Böhm had to emigrate to Paris at the age of seven , after his Jewish father had difficulty escaping the Dachau concentration camp . With his friend Michel Serrault , Böhm performed plays in the 1940s, which he also arranged musically. During the Nazi occupation (1940 to 1944) he used his outstanding talent for drawing to obtain false passports for Jewish citizens and in this way, together with his mother, saved many people from persecution by the authorities of the occupying power.

Later, the French pianist Bernadette Alexandre-Georges (from 1952), a close friend of Maurice Ravel , and then the famous Hungarian piano virtuoso György Cziffra (from 1960) took care of his pianistic development. Böhm always had melodic ideas, but it wasn't until many years later that he realized that his compositions were actually songs without words . The way for the art song was clear. He set poems by Paul Verlaine , Joseph von Eichendorff , Theodor Storm , Annette von Droste-Hülshoff , Heinrich Heine , Hermann Hesse , Eugen Drewermann , Manfred Kyber , Robert Frost , Wilhelm Busch , Albrecht Graf von Rechberg and others. He has written over 500 songs and released 5 LPs, 2 music cassettes and 20 CDs. Nobody less than Gerald Moore expressed enthusiastic appreciation for these compositions. Böhm worked with well-known artists, including mezzo-soprano Alexandra Petersamer , soprano Eva Lind , chamber singer Ingeborg Hallstein , the baritons Hanno Blaschke , Andreas Reibenspies and Florian Prey , chamber singer Karl-Heinz Lippe, bass Kieth Engen , bass baritone Michael Schopper , and the violin virtuosos Angelika Lichtenstern and Lena Neudauer , the cellists Julius Berger , Felix Chougrani and Klaus Kämper as well as the pianists Detlev Eisinger , Yi-Chih Lu, Heiko Stralendorff, Claudius Tanski and Leonhard Westermayr.

His work as a composer and accompanist has taken him not only to Germany, but also to Austria, Italy, France, Belgium, England, Spain, Finland, Japan and the USA. Since 1992, Bayerischer Rundfunk has repeatedly broadcast interviews with examples of his compositions. On October 22, 1995 the world premiere of the musical drama Savonarola for solos, choir and orchestra took place in Murnau with great success (text: Birgitta Wolf , music: Adolph Kurt Böhm). In addition, Böhm was active as a writer and has written four books. In 1995 he was awarded the honorary title of Righteous Among the Nations of the State of Israel in the Augsburg Town Hall . In 2001, Bavarian TV broadcast a portrait of his life and work in the program Lebenslinien under the title A man who doesn't like to be called ›Adolf‹ . On October 4, 2006, Böhm received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany from Federal President Horst Köhler in Berlin . In November 2009 he was awarded the Manfred Kyber Memorial Prize for his settings of Manfred Kyber poems . His autobiography Music and Humanity was published in November 2014 .

Adolph Kurt Böhm lived with his wife Christine in Murnau (Upper Bavaria).

Works

Musical works

• Over 500 poems (songs) based on various lyricists
• about 60 piano solo pieces
• the musical drama Savonarola (text: Birgitta Wolf, world premiere: Murnau 1995)
• many arrangements of his own compositions for violoncello and piano

Böhm's music has not yet been published by any publisher. Calligraphic manuscripts are used for performances . A musical opus list is in preparation.

CDs (selection)

• Andreas Reibenspies , baritone, accompanied by 11 instruments (including Adolph Kurt Böhm, piano) sings the song cycle Love Hymn to Diana , text: Eugen Drewermann , music Adolph Kurt Böhm (20 tracks), self-published October 1997
• Romantic songs based on poems by Hermann Hesse , Andreas Reibenspies, baritone, accompanied by 21 instruments, self-published in 1998
• Homage to Robert Frost , Andreas Reibenspies, baritone, sings 24 songs based on poems by Robert Frost , music by Adolph Kurt Böhm, with Angelika and Anneliese Lichtenstern, violins, Ursula Karl, cello and Adolph Kurt Böhm, piano (24 tracks), self-published by August 2000
• Alexandra Petersamer , mezzo-soprano, accompanied by Yumiko Urabe , piano, sings a song cycle based on poems by Joseph von Eichendorff , music by Adolph Kurt Böhm (30 tracks), self-published in February 2004
• Leonhard Westermayr , piano solo, plays piano compositions by Adolph Kurt Böhm (28 tracks), self-published March 2004
• Yi-Chih Lu, piano, plays piano works by AK Böhm (20 titles), self-published 2006
• 11 songs based on poems by Albrecht Graf von Rechberg , "Magic of Life" with Florian Prey , baritone and Birgitta Eila, piano, ORPLID SCHALLTRÄGER, Gauting 2006 item no. 7th
• Lyrical dialogue - songs and duets by Adolph Kurt Böhm (22 titles), with Alexandra Petersamer, mezzo-soprano, Andreas Reibenspies, baritone, and Leonhard Westermayr, piano, self-published January 2007
• 17 songs based on poems by Manfred Kyber "GENIUS ASTRI" (1880–1933) with Florian Prey, baritone and Birgitta Eila, piano, ORPLID SCHALLTRÄGER, Gauting 2008 Item no. 11
• 18 songs and ballads based on Wilhelm Busch with Florian Prey, baritone and Detlev Eisinger , piano, ORPLID SCHALLTRÄGER, Gauting 2010.
• Yi-Chih Lu, piano works by Adolph Kurt Böhm, 14 tracks, self-published April 2014
• On the death of my child - a song cycle based on poems by v. Joseph von Eichendorff (10 titles), with Alexandra Petersamer, mezzo-soprano, Heiko Stralendorff, piano and Felix Chougrani, violoncello, self-published 2015
• The symphony of life - a homage to the art song , with Eva Lind , soprano, accompanied by five instruments, poems by Walter Ehrlicher, Naxos 2018

Books

• (Adolphe Böhm :) My brother Gerd - strange experiences in Copenhagen, GE Schroeder Verlag Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1963 (out of print)
• (Adolphe Böhm :) Hommage à György Cziffra - le journal d'une amitié ( Homage to György Cziffra - the diary of a friendship , in French), La Pensée universelle publishing house, Paris 1995, ISBN 2-214-10112-8
• The healing power of beauty - a cultural criticism of the modern arts. Crotona Verlag, 83123 Amerang 2010, ISBN 978-3-86191-006-0
• Music and humanity. Morisken Verlag, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-944596-08-2 (autobiography)

swell

• Murnauer Tagblatt ( Münchner Merkur media group ) of June 7, 1995: (abbreviation: es) , "Marie and son Adolph put their lives at risk for persecuted Jews" (to award the honorary title Righteous Among the Nations )
• Murnauer Tagblatt from 24./25. November 2001, under the main heading "The portrait - an enrichment in the flower garden of music": Eva Stöckerl , "The life of Adolph Böhm has something fairytale-like: composer, pianist and lifesaver in occupied Paris"
• Wiener Zeitung of May 2, 2003: Günter Bitala , "The painter, pianist and composer Adolph Kurt Böhm - a life with civil courage"
• Murnauer Tagblatt dated October 6, 2006: (Abbreviation: Fro) , "Honored for humanity" (for the award of the Federal Cross of Merit)
• Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung of July 12, 2007: Helmut Kuhn , "Mutz Böhm - the painting musician"
• Süddeutsche Zeitung of June 16, 2009: Adolf Karl Gottwald , "The discovery of romanticism - composer Adolph Kurt Böhm dedicates himself to the German art song"
• Südkurier from November 11th, 2009: Roland Sprich , "Kyber Prize for Composer Böhm"
• Murnauer Tagblatt from November 4, 2010: Heino Herpen , "The healing power of beauty - Murnauer composer Adolph Kurt Böhm publishes book"
• Epoch Times of November 24, 2014: Roland R. Ropers , " Adolph Kurt Böhm - artist and sage - writes about" music and humanity "
• Murnauer Tagblatt of February 6, 2020: Heribert Riesenhuber , "A life for music - pianist and composer Adolph Kurt Böhm died at the age of 93"

Web links

• Author page , Morisken Verlag
• Radio interview in "Mensch, Otto!" from December 16, 2014, Bayern 3 ( ARD Mediathek )
• "Topic of the week" ( memento from August 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) in the midday music , BR-Klassik
• Underside of the Hermann Hesse Page , University of Santa Barbara , California

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Obituaries of Adolph Kurt Böhm | trauer.merkur.de. Retrieved on February 11, 2020 (German). 
2. ↑ Adolph Kurt Böhm on the website of Yad Vashem (English)