Alfons Vodosek

Alfons Vodosek (1982)

Alfons Vodosek (born May 8, 1912 in Vienna , † January 19, 1996 in Linz ) was an Austrian musician and composer .

Life

Alfons Vodosek was born on May 8, 1912 in Vienna as the son of Rosa Hanser and the kk judge Stefan Vodosek. He grew up in Graz with his mother and her three sisters. His musical talent showed up early on. When he was four years old, he received his first violin lessons. His mother's five siblings worked intensively on the house music, the sisters were partly full-time and partly part-time as music teachers. After the First World War , they ran the Hanser private music school in Graz for a few years. From the age of 6, Alfons Vodosek played in the family's house quartet. In public concerts he was presented as a child prodigy .

Instead of attending a public elementary school, he received private lessons. In 1922 he became a student at the Pestalozzi Gymnasium and later switched to the Academic Gymnasium in Graz. At the same time, later exclusively, he studied at the Conservatory of the Steiermärkischer Musikverein in Graz. His teachers included Karl Krehahn (1869–1946), violin, Gustav Steps (clarinet), Roderich von Mojsisovics (1877–1953) (composition) and Ludwig Seitz (1876–1957), (conducting).

After completing his music studies, he was initially a freelance composer, musician and music teacher. As early as 1928, the head of the Graz City Opera Orchestra, Oswald Kabasta, accepted him as a substitute, first with the second violins, with the violas and finally with the first violins. In 1937/38 he held a permanent position in the municipal orchestra. From 1936 to 1938 he also taught violin at the conservatory. During these years he founded a "Graz Club" which organized "Music Care Days" in private. In addition to works from the classical repertoire, works by colleagues and other contemporary composers were heard.

During his studies he wrote his first compositions, especially songs, and later also chamber music, which were performed with considerable success in Graz. His "Slawischer Tanz" piano trio for 2 violins and viola op. 1 was published in 1931 by Holm Pälz's publishing house in Würzburg.

Together with his fellow student and friend Rudolf Stejskal (1910–1954) he founded a chamber music duo. In his concerts he paid particular attention to the works of contemporary composers such as Paul Hindemith , Béla Bartók , Sergei Prokofjew , Igor Stravinsky , Olivier Messiaen and others. Very early on, he acquired the reputation of a specialist in modern violin literature. He was a founding member (1933) of the Styrian Tonkünstlerbund , whose secretary he was for several years.

On September 26, 1938, he took the position of first concertmaster in the orchestra of the Landestheater Linz (since 1967 Bruckner Orchester Linz ), which was then directed by Georg Ludwig Jochum . He held this position until his retirement in 1977. Together with Jochum , who was also his accompanist at chamber music concerts, he brought the orchestra to a respectable level.

In December 1938 he married Marianne Kollik. From this marriage the children Peter (* 1939), Heide (* 1941) and Eva (1945-2018) emerged.

Alfons Vodosek soon took on an active role in the musical life of Linz. He continued his solo activity with Rudolf Stejskal. In addition, he succeeded Walter Weller sen. as the first violinist, he founded the Linz Chamber Quartet, which from then on called itself the Linz String Quartet (1st violin: Alfons Vodosek, 2nd violin: Robert Süss, viola: Anton Bauer, cello: Wilhelm Czerwinka). His concert activities extended to Germany (including at the invitation of Otto Jochum (1898–1969) in Augsburg ), Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia .

After the proclamation of the "total war" by Joseph Goebbels and the closure of the opera houses, Vodosek was drafted into the Wehrmacht as a radio operator in 1944 . He experienced the end of the war in Czechoslovakia and was taken prisoner by the Soviets , from which he was able to return home in September 1945, where he immediately resumed his work as concertmaster. He also continued his concert activities. After Rudolf Stejskal's untimely death in 1954, he first won the opera director of the Landestheater in Linz, Siegfried Meik (1951–1958), as a companion, then until the end of his solo career in 1963 Detlef Metzner. After the war, the Linz string quartet initially became the busiest professional string quartet in Upper Austria . Frequent changes of performers, due to illness or death, gradually led to a decline in concert activity.

Even after the war, Vodosek saw the promotion of contemporary music as an important task. In particular, he devoted himself to Upper Austrian and Styrian composers ( Johann Nepomuk David (1895–1977), Frida Kern (1891–1988), Franz Xaver Müller , Ludwig Makovsky (1912–1998), Franz Schnopfhagen (* 1898), Joseph Marx and Otto Siegl (1896-1988)). The performance of works by the Yugoslav composers Fran Lhotka (1883–1962) and Jakov Gotovac was recognized by radio recordings in Ljubljana and Zagreb . In the field of church music, he worked closely with the Linz Cathedral Kapellmeister Josef Kronsteiner (1910–1988). The Upper Austrian provincial government confirmed to him on the occasion of his 80th birthday that he had played a pioneering role with his intensive commitment to contemporary music and had shaped a considerable section of the country's music history in an exemplary manner. In addition, he gave violin lessons at the Kollegium Aloisianum am Freinberg in Linz for many years .

In 1964, the Austrian Federal President Adolf Schärf awarded him the title of Professor. In 1978 he received the Silver Medal of Honor of the Province of Upper Austria. In 1977 he ended his professional career, but continued to participate in church music performances for several years. He died on January 19, 1996. His grave is in the Bad Leonfelden cemetery in Upper Austria's Mühlviertel .

swell

• Kreczi, Hanns: Bruckner Orchestra Linz and Brucknerhaus . Vienna: Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag , 1992. S. 211.
• Linz culture manual . Editor: Hanns Kreczi. Linz: Cultural administration in the Gutenberg printing and publishing house, 1965. Volume 2.
• Announcements of the Styrian Tonkünstlerbund . Born 1977, No. 72, p. 18.
• Stekl, Konrad: Alfons Vodosek, a "sixties" . In: Communications of the Styrian Tonkünstlerbund. 1972, No. 52, pp. 14-15.
• Suppan, Wolfgang: Styrian Music Lexicon . Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1966. S. 619.
• Unfried, Johannes: Alfons Vodosek - Professor . In: Oberösterreichischer Kulturbericht 18 (1964) 29, p. 3.
• Zamazal, Franz: Prof. Alfons Vodosek, 39 years concertmaster . In: Oberösterreichischer Kulturbericht 32 (1978) 7, pp. 56–57.

Catalog raisonné

There is a handwritten directory by Alfons Vodosek, “ Œuvres de Alfons Vodosek”, which must be sorted according to opus numbers and written shortly after 1932. For the Styrian Tonkünstlerbund Graz / Styrian Tone Arts Association Graz there is a typewritten "Works Directory: Alfons Vodosek", which was probably created after 1932 and before 1938 (Vodosek moved to Linz). This is arranged according to work groups. Both registers contain works with and without opus numbers. The two sources have been combined for the list below and the compositions written after 1938 have been added. The directory is continuously enriched with works discovered during the processing of the estate.

Works marked with an asterisk (*) are available as manuscripts. Works marked with ** appeared in print. Unmarked works are lost.

According to work groups

Piano: 2 hands

• 2 piano pieces (1st mood, 2nd Slavic dance)
• The Children's Book: 6 Little Pieces for Young People, Op. 9 (1. Longing, 2. Loneliness, 3. The Sick Child, 4. In the Forest, 5. Soldier's Game, 6. Short Story)
• 2 moods (1st mood, * 2nd melancholy), 1934 [identical to "Zwei Klavierstücke" op. 14: a) Andante religioso, b) mood?]
• 7 miniatures
• 3 children's pieces (1st mazurka, 2nd music box, 3rd lullaby)
• 3 pieces from the Small Suite (1st memory, 2nd Croatian song, 3rd Kolo). 1949 [dedicated to Jakobine Hanser] *

Violin solo

• 2 concert studies for violin, op. 2, 2

2 violins

• 15 folk songs
• 6 variations on a folk song *
• 7 impressions for 2 violins (1st invention, 2nd impulse, 3rd rhythmic interplay, 4th epitaph, 5th pizzicato, 6th in the folk tone, 7th ostinato). 1963 *
• Kanzone (in modo antico) for 2 violins. 1988 *
• Lullaby*

Violin & piano

• Berceuse, op. 5 [before 1938; possibly identical to the version from 1950] *
• Slavic folk song
• Suite, op. 11 (1st prelude, 2nd aria, 3rd minuet; also for solo violin and string orchestra) [also under the title "Pieces for Violin and Piano"] *
• Old Dance (1st Hungarian Minuet, 2nd Old Dance, 3rd Mother Polka, 4th The Mother's Heart, 5th Melody)
• 2 pieces for violin and piano (1st Adagio, 2nd Caprice). Concertmaster Rudolf Nahlitschek amicably appropriated. [before 1938] *
• Largo [before 1938] *
• Gavotte, * March [before 1938; both only as sketches]
• Elegy (on the death of a friend). 1954/55 [memory of the long-time companion Dr. Rudolf Stejskal, died 1954. First performance June 15, 1956 as the first encore at the violin evening in the ballroom of the Linz town hall. Companion: Siegfried Meik] *
• Prelude on a theme by Alexander Glasunow, op. 16 for violin and organ [or harmonium or piano; other title: Postludium]. 1962 *

Violin & organ

• Aria for violin & organ, from op.11 (No. 2 from the suite for violin & piano or violin and string orchestra) *
• Adagio (for harmonium or piano) [1. Version 1936 on the occasion of Trude Lind-Schmotzer's wedding. 2nd version 1986. Further versions under the title Romantic Adagio and Adagio festivo. See also the version for violin and orchestra] *

Chamber music

• Slavonic Dance for String Trio, op. 1, 1931 (2 violins & viola). Würzburg: Verlag Holm Pälz **
• Minuet for string quartet
• 2 pieces for piano quartet (1st overture, 2nd canon, 3rd lullaby, 4th waltz / march; "in progress")
• Largo for 2 violins and violoncello [before 1938]
• Gavotte for 2 violins and violoncello [before 1938]
• Extension cantata for string trio (2 violins and violoncello). 1948 [incorporated parts of the 1st movement of a string trio by Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf] *

Songs

• Ave Maria for soprano solo, violin, viola and organ, op.4
• Words, op. 6, 1st text by Paul Keller. For high voice & piano *
• Serenade, op. 6, 2nd text by Victor Wolfram. For high voice & piano
• 3 Songs of Solitude, op. 10 (1st Late Bells. Text by N. Maximowitsch Minaki; * 2nd Lonely Night. Text by Tetsujiro Inouye; 3rd Contemplation. Text by Richard Dehmel). For medium voice.
• 2 songs based on Japanese texts for medium voice, op. 12 (* 1st homecoming at night. Text by Tetsujiro Inouye; 2nd evening on the river. Text by Tschan-Jo-Su)
• From the songs of the deep, op. 13. (1933). Texts by Arthur Jeschke. For medium voice (1st * lonely evening; * 2nd twilight hour; 3rd premonitions)
• Songs from the Chinese texts by Klabund, 1934 (1. The swing, for medium voice, 2. She commemorates her distant husband, for deep voice) *
• And how many a night, op. 16. Text by Hans Carossa. For deep voice. *
• Rös'chen bit the apple. From the old ways by Gottfried Keller. For medium voice.
• Melody. 1936. Text by Friedrich Schreyvogel *
• Tanzlied [also under the title "Tanzliedchen"]. [before 1938]. Text by Heinz Pochlatko *
• Love song, 1944. Text by Hanns Johst. For a deep singing voice *
• Under the Učka. [after 1945]. Text by Drago Gervais *
• O do not trust, 1949. Text by Christian Morgenstern. For a high voice. *
• Love song, 1950; 2nd version 1967 ("Will you give me your heart"; unknown poet) *
• Heimaterde, 1953. Text by Gustav Krklec *
• The Nutcracker speaks ("Christmas carol"), 1953 *
• Folk song ("At Balaton: Lake Balaton is full of fish - big and small", "An Donau und Theiss"), 1991 [only accompaniment for violin available] *

Choir

• 3-part motet for mixed choir, op.3, based on the words of Angelus Silesius *
• 3 choirs based on folk song texts by Hoffmann von Fallersleben, op. 15 (1. Lullaby. Mixed choir, four-part; 2. Competition. Mixed choir, four-part; 3. Dancing. For women's choir, three-part)
• Tantum ergo for mixed choir four-part
• Christmas chorale, 1958. Text by Max Mell *

Melodramas

For a speaking voice and piano

• The old fool, 1983. Text by Wilhelm Busch. Melodrama for 1 speaking voice and piano. (For Markus Vodosek) *
• Der Kreisel, 1988. Text by Eugen Roth. (For Markus Vodosek) *
• The singer and the Könismaid, [after 1983]. Text by Ludwig Hölty. Melodrama for a speaking voice and piano. (For Markus Vodosek) *

For a speaking voice and viola

• Mariae Wiegenlied (The Shepherd's Song at the Krippelein). Way after Max Reger op. 76, no. 52. Arranged for a speaking voice and viola by Alfons Vodosek *

orchestra

• Suite for solo violin & string orchestra, op.11 (1st prelude, 2nd aria, 3rd minuet; also for violin & piano)
• Concerto grosso [* 1. Movement "Kolo", unfinished; before 1938]
• 2 pieces for violin and small orchestra (* 1st Adagio for violin and orchestra, * 2nd Caprice). Concertmaster Rudolf Nahlitschek amicably appropriated. [before 1938. See also the version for violin and piano]
• Cadenzas to Mozart's concertante symphony KV 364 for violin, viola & orchestra ["Between op. 4 and op. 5"]
• Cadenza to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart No. 6 in C major. KV 465 [? KV 465, C major is the string quartet no.19] *
• Cadenzas to Violin Concerto No. 3 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 1942. Grateful to my revered teacher Prof. Karl Krehan. *
• Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in G major. Flute part by Alfons Vodosek. 1980 *
• "Fox for jazz orchestra for ball in the Musikverein on February 20, 1931" ["after op. 6"] *

Light music for parties in the Horzeyschy house (between 1949 and 1960)

• Canon "Today we are all happy" *
• Foxtrot "I have red hair" (variations) *
• Jousting. Drama music [composed in Graz before 1938, repeated in Linz after 1949] *
• Teenage Song (1960) *

According to opus numbers

• op. 1 Slavic Dance for String Trio, 1931 (2 violins & viola). *
• op. 2 2 concert studies for violin
• op. 3 3-part motet for mixed choir, based on the words of Angelus Silesius *
• op. 4 Ave Maria for soprano solo, violin, viola and organ
• op. 5 Berceuse *
• op. 6,1 words, text by Paul Keller. For high voice & piano *
• op. 6.2 serenade, text by Victor Wolfram. For high voice & piano
• op. 7 Concerto grosso for string orchestra [* 1. Sentence "Kolo". Before 1938, unfinished]
• op.8 Two piano pieces (1st tuning, 2nd Slavic dance)
• Op. 9 Children's Pieces for Piano [Also under the title "The Children's Book. 6 Little Pieces for Young People". (1. Longing, 2. Loneliness, 3. The sick child, 4. In the woods, 5. Soldier's game, 6. Short story)]
• op. 10 3 songs of loneliness (1st Late Bells. Text by N. Maximowitsch Minaki; * 2nd Lonely Night. Text by Tetsujiro Inouye; 3rd Einkehr. Text by Richard Dehmel). For medium voice.
• op. 11 Suite [also called "Pieces for Violin and Piano"] Prelude, 2nd Aria, 3rd Minuet; also for solo violin and string orchestra *
• op.11,2 Aria for violin & organ (from the suite for violin & piano)
• op. 12 2 songs based on Japanese texts for medium voice (* 1st homecoming at night. Text by Tetsujiro Inouye; 2nd evening on the river. Text by Tschan-Jo-Su)
• op. 13 From the songs of the depths (1933). Texts by Arthur Jeschke. For medium voice (* 1st lonely evening, * 2nd twilight hour; 3rd premonitions)
• op. 14 2 moods (mood, melancholy), 1934 [identical to "Zwei Klavierstücke": a) Andante religioso, b) mood?]
• op. 15 3 choirs based on folk song texts by Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1. Lullaby. Mixed choir, four-part; 2. Competition. Mixed choir, four-part; 3. Dancing. For women's choir, three-part)
• Op. 16 And how many a night, op. 16. Text by Hans Carossa. For deep voice. *

Individual evidence