Adolf Weissmann

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Adolf Weißmann (born August 15, 1873 in Rosenberg (Upper Silesia) , † April 23, 1929 in Haifa ) was a German music critic and music essayist.

Career and activities

Weißmann studied music and philosophy at the universities of Breslau, Innsbruck, Florence and Bern, where he also received his doctorate in 1895. He worked briefly as a high school teacher before moving to Berlin in 1900.

In Berlin he began his work as a music critic for the Berliner Tageblatt (1900–1905) and continued with the Roland von Berlin (1904–1910), the German Monday newspaper (from 1904) and the Berliner Zeitung am Mittag (1916–1929) (his Successor was Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt ). He also supplied the Vossische Zeitung and the specialist journals Musikblätter des Anbruch and Die Musik . He also published the almanac Sang und Klang (1920–1929) and designed a weekly radio program with new music . Music-political importance flowed to him through the establishment of theSociety for New Music (IGNM), of which he was first president from 1922 to 1925.

Although he was in principle very close to his contemporaries, he could have a thoroughly ambivalent attitude towards them: "He was deeply critical of Strauss, Schreker, Debussy, Puccini and Schoenberg, but supportive of neoclassically oriented composers such as Hindemith and Krenek."

Weissmann was a very well-read and influential critic who was valued for his brilliant prose. He combined music-sociological perspectives with historical facts and was particularly interested in cultural phenomena such as the status of conductors, virtuosos or divas, where musical and social functions came together.

From 1927 he headed the Berlin Committee for the Promotion of Music in Palestine . Weißmann died at the age of 55 on a lecture tour in Haifa. Since 1911 he was married to the Hungarian pianist Gisella Grosz (1875–1942), with whom he had a child since 1908.

Fonts

  • Bizet , Berlin 1907
  • Berlin as a city of music: history of opera and concerts from 1740 to 1911 , Berlin 1911
  • Chopin , Berlin 1912
  • The virtuoso , Berlin 1918
  • The prima donna , Berlin 1920
  • The sounding garden - impressions of the erotic in music , Berlin 1920
  • Arthur Nikisch and the Berlin Philharmonic Concerts 1895–1920 , Berlin 1920
  • Giacomo Puccini , Munich 1922
  • The music in the world crisis , Stuttgart 1922; English translation 1925: The Problems of Modern Music
  • Verdi , Stuttgart 1922
  • The conductor in the 20th century , Berlin 1925
  • The music of the senses , Stuttgart 1925, contains: The virtuoso , the prima donna , the sounding garden .
  • The de-goding of music , Stuttgart, 1928; English translation 1930: Music Come to Earth .

Secondary literature

  • W. Schrenk: Adolf Weißmann , in: Die Musik , xvi (1924), 480–86
  • E. Preussner: Adolf Weißmann , in: Die Musik , xxi (1929), 660–64
  • Edward Joseph Dent: Adolf Weissmann: 1873–1929 , in: Monthly Musical Record , xxix (1929), 167
  • Michael von der Linn: Article Weissmann, Adolf , in: New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , 2nd ed. 2001

Remarks

  1. ^ Adolfo Weissmann, L'influenza del Malebranche sulla filosofia del Leibniz , Bern, Univ., Diss., 1895
  2. ↑ Michael von der Linn, New Grove

Web links

Wikisource: Adolf Weißmann  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Weissmann, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German music critic
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Rosenberg , Upper Silesia
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1929
Place of death Haifa