Bernhard Abramowitsch

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Bernhard Abramowitsch (born January 5, 1906 in Hamburg , † October 15, 1986 in San Francisco , California , United States ) was a German-American pianist and music teacher .

Life

Time in Hamburg 1906 to 1936

Bernhard Abramowitsch attended the Talmud Torah School in Hamburg. There he also received his first piano training from the pianist Paul Strecker. After various public auditions, his first solo concert took place in November 1926 in the Small Hall of the Hamburg Music Hall . The program included Sonata Op. 1 by Johannes Brahms , Sonata Op. 120 by Franz Schubert , Op. 20 by Ernst von Dohnányi and the Piano Sonata in B minor by Franz Liszt . He played its 1st Piano Concerto in E flat major on September 28, 1927 with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra under the direction of Eugen Papst . The concert took place in the great hall of the music hall. On February 21, 1930 he played the 2nd piano concerto by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky under the direction of José Eibenschütz (1872–1952). The concert took place as part of a Tchaikovsky evening organized by Nordische Rundfunk AG NORAG. After the seizure of power in 1933, he was no longer able to perform publicly as a Jewish musician. At a competition for voice and piano in June 1933 in Vienna, he was awarded a diploma in recognition of his extraordinary performance . In January 1934 he was engaged by Ferdinand Gowa and Leopold Sachse of the Jewish Cultural Association to prepare and accompany the musical preparation of the musical play Bastien und Bastienne by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . This was followed by around ten appearances at events organized by the Jewish Cultural Association. Guest performances within this organization took him a. a. also to Lübeck and Frankfurt am Main . On July 4, 1934, he worked as a pianist in the 2nd program of Die rosarote Brille - cabaret in a completely new form under the direction of Willy Hagen (1878-1942). He also worked as a piano teacher in Hamburg. On October 22, 1936 he gave a farewell concert.

Period in the United States from 1936 to 1986

Abramowitsch then emigrated to the United States in 1936 and settled in Portland (Oregon) . Here, too, he gave concerts and performed several times with the Portland Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the Dutch conductor Willem van Hoogstraten (1884–1964). In 1939 he settled in San Francisco with his wife Eva (1916–2000), who was born in Hamburg and is a pianist and organist . Here they were initially accommodated in the boarding house of pianist Edith Schreier. Here, too, he gave many concerts a. a. with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and was soon valued as one of the best pianists in the country. His interpretations of Franz Schubert's piano works in particular received the highest recognition. With a series of concerts in which he played all of Schubert's piano sonatas, he brought the composer, who was rather unknown at the time, closer to the audience. Another focus of his work was contemporary music. Here he often gave concerts with young soloists and chamber ensembles such as the Griller Quartet. As a piano teacher he taught primarily at Mills College in Oakland and Berkeley . One of his students was David Del Tredici , who dedicated the work Soliloquy for piano to him in 1958 . Further students were Leon Kirchner and Leonard Rosenman as well as Hiro Imamura, Betty Woo, Ursula Wang, Margaret Fabrizio, Carolin Bowen Hawley, Hiro Imamura, Gianna Laputz, Claudia Stevens (* 1949), Dorothy Toshiko Sugawara (1932-2017), Elizabeth Wagele and Charles Lynn Wheele. He was buried in the Home of Eternity Cemetary in Oakland.

family

Bernhard Abramowitsch's parents were Odessa-born Moses and Yette Ida Abramowitsch. Two older brothers also emigrated to England and the United States, respectively. His daughter is the soprano Miriam Abramowitsch, who teaches singing at Mills College in Oakland. He performed as her piano accompanist at song recitals.

literature

  • Bernhard Abramowitsch . In: Adrian Gaster: International who's who in music and musicians' directory, Cambridge, 1980, page 3 (English) ISBN 0 900 332 51 4
  • Barbara Müller-Wesemann, Sophie Fetthauer: Bernhard Abramowitsch . In: Lexicon of persecuted musicians from the Nazi era , Claudia Maurer Zenck, Peter Petersen (ed.), Hamburg: Universität Hamburg, 2007 OCLC 162210293
  • Bernhard Abramowitsch Collection . In: Manuela Schwartz: Sources on the history of emigrated musicians 1933–1950 . Walther de Gruyter, 2011 ISBN 978-311-0-95143-1 p. 17 ff.
  • Bernhard Abramowitsch . In: Barbara Müller-Wesemann: Theater as intellectual resistance: The Jüdische Kulturbund in Hamburg 1934–1941 , Springer Verlag, 2016 ISBN 978-347-6-04262-0 p. 464 ff.

Recordings (selection)

  • Franz Schubert : Piano Sonata in B flat major D 960. Recorded in May 1977 at the Hertz Hall in Berkeley. Released in 1978 on Arch Records with a piano piece in E flat major.
  • Ernst Krenek : Piano Sonata No. 4, published in the Music Library Recordings series, San Francisco
  • Bernhard Abramowitsch Piano, Vol 1 . I Ludwig Van Beethoven : Bagatelles op.126 II Robert Schumann : Humoreske op.20 III Frederic Chopin : Mazurkas op.67 nos. 2 and 3 IV Frederic Chopin: Polonaise Fantasie op.61, published on June 1, 1999

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Barbara Müller-Wesemann, Sophie Fetthauer :: Bernhard Abramowitsch. In: https://www.lexm.uni-hamburg.de . Claudia Maurer Zenck, Peter Petersen, 2007, accessed October 18, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Barbara Müller-Wesemann: Theater as intellectual resistance: The Jewish cultural association in Hamburg 1934-1941 . Springer-Verlag, 2016, ISBN 978-3-476-04262-0 ( google.de [accessed October 18, 2019]).
  3. ^ Institute for the history of the German Jews (Germany): The Jewish Hamburg: a historical reference work . Wallstein Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-8353-0004-0 ( google.de [accessed October 18, 2019]).
  4. ↑ Bernhard Achhorner, Milijana Pavlovic: The Boarding House of the pianist Edith Schreier in San Francisco. In: https://www.uibk.ac.at . University of Innsbruck, 2017, accessed on October 18, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Barbara Bladen: Harpsichord concert by a master . In: 8 Feb 1977, Page 26 - at Newspapers.com (Ed.): The Times . San Mateo February 8, 1977, p. 26 (English, newspapers.com [accessed August 19, 2018]).
  6. ↑ Gay T. Neep: Music Lovers Treat Friday . In: Ukiah Daily Journal . Ukiah September 30, 1970, p. 4 (English, newspapers.com [accessed August 19, 2018]).
  7. ↑ Hiro Imamura . In: Santa Maria Times . Santa Maria October 3, 1975, p. 7 (English, newspapers.com [accessed August 19, 2018]).
  8. ^ Young Artist series at Williams features Stevens, Rangell, Takacs . In: Bennington Banner . Bennington Jan 3, 1977, p. 8 (English, newspapers.com [accessed August 19, 2018]).
  9. ↑ Classical pianist will perform here . In: Ukiah Daily Journal . Ukiah October 27, 1977, p. 19 (English, newspapers.com [accessed August 19, 2018]).
  10. ^ Music . In: The Argus . Oakland November 24, 1974, p. 142 (English, newspapers.com [accessed August 19, 2018]).
  11. ↑ Lieder recital . In: The Petaluma Argus-Courier . Petaluma February 21, 1976, p. 22 (English, newspapers.com [accessed August 19, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Abramowitsch, Bernhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American pianist and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH October 15, 1986
Place of death San Francisco , California , United States