Artur Immisch

Artur Immisch (born November 24, 1902 in Hermsdorf , Saxony-Altenburg , † January 9, 1949 in Bautzen ) gained fame as a pianist , rather than a composer , during his lifetime . His musical legacy has only been gradually processed since 1990.

Life

The pianist and composer Artur Immisch was born in 1902 in Hermsdorf, then Saxony-Altenburg, as the son of a well-off family. In 1912 the Immischs moved to Bautzen.

After graduating from high school in 1921, he moved to the University of Jena to study law and economics at the request of his father . His musical training began there at the same time. He continued his double studies in 1922/23 at the University of Munich and at the Academy of Music under Ernst Riemann . He finished it in Leipzig during the years 1923-28 where he of Carl Adolf Martienssen in artistic piano playing and piano methodology and Hermann Grabner in music theory and composition was taught. In 1926 Immisch received his doctorate in law from the University of Leipzig . However, he never practiced any legal activity, since 1928 he devoted himself exclusively to music.

His work as a concert pianist took him to several major cities in Germany, especially Dresden , where Immisch settled in the early 1930s. He gained a very good reputation as an intelligent interpreter of modern piano music. Later he increasingly accompanied singers and instrumental soloists, also on the radio . From 1936 Immisch was a lecturer at the orchestral school of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and at the conservatory . A scoliosis, which can be traced back to an accident in gym class as a thirteen-year-old and from which Immisch, according to his sister, "had to bear all his life", saved him from being deployed in the war. Immisch was pressured to join the NSDAP, which he refused. This led to his dismissal without notice in 1943. As a result of the air raids on Dresden in 1945, he gave up the city as a sphere of activity. After the end of the war, the Academy for Music and Theater Dresden renewed the offer to appoint him as a lecturer at their institute. Immisch declined because of his poor health. He died in January 1949, shortly after he had reached the age of 46, in his hometown of Bautzen.

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Immisch left behind a qualitatively considerable compositional legacy, which is mainly based on chamber music works. Especially in the 50, for the most part quite demanding, songs, in which his interest in contemporary authors becomes clear, he reveals a remarkable mastery. Almost half of these songs are settings of Chinese and Japanese poetry. Influenced by French impressionism , these works definitely have an individual style. A planned publication did not come about during his lifetime. After his death, his work was soon forgotten for decades. From 1997 the sheet music for most of the songs, piano and chamber music works was finally set, many pieces were performed in concerts and some were documented on CD and DVD. It is thanks to Artur Immisch's last student at the Dresden Conservatory, Brigitta Lubke (1925–2004), that the manuscripts of his works have been preserved.

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The musical legacy of Artur Immisch is on the one hand in the Bautzen City Museum and in private ownership.

Selection of works

• 7 songs based on poems by Paul Verlaine
• Three songs based on texts by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Three love poems by Ricarda Huch
• Two songs based on poems by Max Dauthendey
• 10 songs from "Japanese Spring" by Hans Bethge
• 7 songs from “The Chinese Flute” by Hans Bethge
• Four Chinese songs based on Li-Tai-Po, adaptations by Klabund
• Prelude for piano
• Pictures from the Great Garden
• “Ecce nunc benedicite Domino” for two four-part choirs
• Poème for piano

Discography (selection)

• 1997: Forgotten Treasures
• 2011: Dresdner Lieder , compositions from three centuries
• 2019: "Songs by Artur Immisch and Robert Schumann" (Blu-Ray / DVD)

Web links

• Website about Immisch at Yin-Yang-Verlag