Alfred Szendrei

Alfred Szendrei , also Alfred Sendrey and Aladár Szendrei (born February 29, 1884 in Budapest , Austria-Hungary , † March 3, 1976 in Los Angeles ), was an American musicologist , organist , conductor , composer of Hungarian origin. He was one of the leading conductors and a pioneer of German broadcasting. In exile he changed his Hungarian family name "Szendrei" to the Americanized spelling "Sendrey". Alfred Szendrei was married to the soprano Eugenie Weisz , who performed at the Vienna State Opera during Gustav Mahler's time as director. The American composer and conductor Albert Richard Sendrey is the couple's son.

Life

Szendrei was born in 1884 into a middle-class Hungarian family, his father was a civil servant. Alfred learned the piano from the age of six . At the request of his parents, he first studied law at the Corvinus University in Budapest . From 1900 to 1905 he studied music with Hans Koessler at the University and the Royal Hungarian Music Academy in Budapest. He then worked as Kapellmeister and répétiteur at the Cologne Opera (1905-07), in Mulhouse (1907-09), Brno (1908-11), Philadelphia and Chicago (1911-12), at the Hamburg State Opera (1912-13) , New York City (1913-14), Berlin (1914-16) and Vienna (1916-18). In the First World War he served in the Austro-Hungarian Army . In 1931 received his doctorate he attended the University of Leipzig with a thesis on "radio and music care" for Dr. phil. in musicology .

From 1918 on he worked in Leipzig , from 1924 as Kapellmeister at the Leipzig Opera House . In the same year he became music director of the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk AG (MIRAG). He was also the first conductor of the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra . However, due to growing anti-Semitism, he lost this post in 1931 because of his Jewish descent. He was previously u. a. denounced by musicologists Herbert Gerigk and Theophil Stengel . From 1931 to 1933 he was music director of the Berlin radio and teacher at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin. After emigrating to France, he worked from 1933 to 1940 as program director at “Radiodiffusion nationale” in Paris .

When the Nazis attacked France in May and June 1940 , he fled to the USA . There he changed his name to Sendrey . He first worked as a translator for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . He was later invited by Abraham Binder to the 92nd Street YMCA Jewish Community Center in New York City . From 1944 to 1952 he was a professor at Westlake College of Music in Los Angeles . From 1952 to 1956 he was music director of the Fairfax Synogogue and from 1950 to 1963 music director and organist of the Sinai Temple. From 1961 he was Professor of Musicology ( Jewish Music ) at the Jewish Theological Seminary of the School of Fine Arts of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. In 1967 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa).

Sendrey died in Los Angeles New Hospital in 1976. The memorial service was attended by the Jewish community at the Sinai Temple in Westwood , Los Angeles.

Compositions

He composed several works including an opera , orchestral and chamber music , art songs and liturgical songs.

Scientific work

• Sound artist and radio. Wegner & Flemming, Berlin 1927
• Broadcasting and music maintenance. Kistner & Siegel, Leipzig 1931
• Conducting studies. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1932 (3rd edition 1956)
• Bibliography of Jewish Music. Columbia University Press, New York 1951
• Joseph Achron. Israeli Music Publications, Tel Aviv 1966
• Music in Ancient Israel. Philosophical Library, New York 1969; in German: Music in Old Israel . Leipzig 1970
• The Music of the Jews in the Diaspora (up to 1800). T. Yoseloff, New York 1970
• Music in the Social and Religious Life of Antiquity. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, Rutherford 1974

student

• Bob Bruner
• Johnny Green
• Henry Mancini
• Lyn Murray
• Nelson Riddle
• Leo Shuken

literature

• Jörg Clemen, Steffen Lieberwirth : Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. The history of the symphony orchestra. Verlag Klaus-Jürgen Kamprad, Altenburg 1999, ISBN 3-930550-09-1 .
• Szendrei, Aladár (Alfred Sendrey) . In: Wilibald Gurlitt , Carl Dahlhaus (Hrsg.): Riemann Musiklexikon . In three volumes and two supplementary volumes. 12th completely revised edition. 1st - 3rd Person part L – ZB Schotts-Söhne, Mainz 1959, p. 764 (first edition: 1882).
• Uwe Harten : Sendrey (own Szendrei, also Szendrey), Alfred (Aladár). In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 4, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7001-3046-5 .
• Max Pommer (Ed.): In the turquoise-blue garden. The way of Kapellmeister A. [lfred] S. [zendrei] from Leipzig to emigration is told by himself. Verlag JG Seume, Leipzig, Frankfurt 2014, ISBN 978-3-9814045-4-8 .
• Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933-1945. CD-ROM Lexicon, Kiel 2004, p. 7133.
• Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Eds.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945 , Vol II, 2, Saur, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , pp. 1074f. (sv Alfred Sendrey )
• Thomas Schinköth: Jewish musicians in Leipzig. 1855-1945. Verlag Klaus-Jürgen Kamprad, Altenburg 1994, ISBN 3-930550-00-8 .

Web links

• Steven Swanson (via: Universität Hamburg: Institute for Historical Musicology): Photo of the Sendrey family with Alfred Sendrey. In: Lexicon of persecuted musicians from the Nazi era. Retrieved August 5, 2018 . 
• Literature by and about Alfred Szendrei in the catalog of the German National Library
• We remember the 30th anniversary of the death of the conductor Alfred Szendrei. ( Memento from October 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Friends and supporters of the MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig
• Israel J. Katz:  Sendrey [Szendrei], Alfred [Aladar]. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sendrey, Alfred. In: Austrian Music Lexicon Online. Retrieved August 5, 2018 . 
2. ^ Robert Strasbourg: Alfred Sendrey. In memoriam. ( Memento of January 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.1 MB) In: Journal of Synagogue Music. Volume 06, 4 (Jul 1976), p. 15.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Robert Strasbourg: Alfred Sendrey. In memoriam. In: Journal of Synagogue Music. Volume 06, 4 (Jul 1976), p. 16.
4. ^ Robert Strasbourg: Alfred Sendrey. In memoriam. In: Journal of Synagogue Music. Volume 06, 4 (Jul 1976), p. 18.
5. ^ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 . CD-ROM Lexicon, Kiel 2004, p. 7133.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Robert Strasbourg: Alfred Sendrey. In memoriam. In: Journal of Synagogue Music. Volume 06, 4 (Jul 1976), p. 19.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Robert Strasbourg: Alfred Sendrey. In memoriam. In: Journal of Synagogue Music. Volume 06, 4 (Jul 1976), p. 14.
8. ^ Robert Strasbourg: Alfred Sendrey. In memoriam. In: Journal of Synagogue Music. Volume 06, 4 (Jul 1976), p. 13.