Gustav Brecher

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Gustav Brecher; Portrait photo by Rudolf Dührkoop
Brecher also directed the world premiere of Ernst Krenek's opera

Gustav Brecher (born February 5, 1879 in Eichwald , Austria-Hungary , † May 1940 near Ostend ) was a German conductor , composer and music critic .

Life

His Jewish family moved to Leipzig from Bohemia in 1889. Brecher was tutored there by Salomon Jadassohn . After Richard Strauss performed one of his tone poems in 1896, he made his debut at the Leipzig Opera in 1897 and conducted in 1901 at the Vienna Court Opera "alongside" Gustav Mahler . Between 1903 and 1911 he was Kapellmeister at the Hamburg City Theater , where he conducted the world premiere of Busoni's Die Brautwahl . After further conducting in Cologne and Frankfurt, Brecher became general music director at the Leipzig Opera from 1914 . He was controversial there especially because of the premieres of Jonny Plays , Life of Orestes or the rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny .

“The house was so raging that during the entire end of the piece on stage, I was on duty there, literally nothing more to hear from the orchestra. Brecher conducted the opera to the end. "

- Report of the répétiteur : About the Leipzig premiere of Brecht / Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

Although the Jonnyoper was a success, Brecher was dismissed after the " seizure of power " by the Nazis in spring 1933 due to the law to restore the civil service . In the magazine for music , the musicologist Alfred Heuss wrote a malicious comment on the occasion of the Rienzi performance during the Wagner Festival Week on February 12, 1933:

"Unsuspectingly, Brecher handled his strange conductor's baton for the last time in a Wagner performance."

Probably the last performance under his direction in Leipzig was Kurt Weill's Der Silbersee - Ein Wintermärchen on March 4, 1933. He left the conductor's desk during this event because the SA that was present was continuously rioting because of his Jewish origins and other peculiarities of the Silbersee that were perceived as provocative and bothered. The Lord Mayor of Leipzig Carl Friedrich Goerdeler put him on leave on March 11, 1933.

His path into exile can no longer be traced in detail. He conducted the radio orchestra in Leningrad and lived in Berlin and Prague , from where he had to flee again in 1938. In May 1940, he and his wife Gertrud Deutsch (daughter of Felix Deutsch ) committed suicide for fear of falling into the hands of the German occupiers in Belgium .

Georges Sebastian wrote in Leningrad in 1934:

“The terrible years in Germany were a moral humiliation for him. Brecher arrived in Leningrad very depressed. Everything that could happen was done, but there was no outward success. After his second concert we sat together. I had managed to make him nominally head of the Leningrad Orchestra. Brecher said: 'Dear friend, there is nothing more to be done - it's over - at my age. You have to be able to speak. ' Despite his talent for languages, he couldn't speak a word. Inside was something he couldn't handle. He felt constantly persecuted - he had the fixed idea that the Nazis would reach him somewhere. "

- Georges Sébastian

Erich Ebermayer wrote in Berlin, October 13, 1935 in his diary:

“Today I had a harrowing encounter in Grunewald. I never meet anyone in the mornings on the lonely narrow paths that lead over to the Havel. Only a few deer usually cross my trail or I cross theirs. But today I came across two people: Gustav Brecher, the former General Music Director of Leipzig, and his wife, the daughter of Privy Councilor Deutsch, the creator of the AEG and friend of Walther Rathenau . But how much have these two people changed since I was last in Leipzig in their hospitable house! Above all, Brecher himself seems to be suffering deeply from the forbidding and to be deeply affected; the real musician he is, he cannot live without music. Mrs. Brecher is more vital and visibly willing to survive the Nazis. Both still have their fortune, live in their beautiful Dahlem house and are, at least materially, independent. But how long? We have a long political conversation during which, however, Ms. Brecher darart yells out loud that it will be life-threatening. Fortunately, only squirrels listen. At the end, the Brechers asked shyly and embarrassed whether I would not hesitate to come and see them for tea. I gladly accept. How times change! What an honor it was one day to be invited to the "General" in Leipzig. ...! "

- Erich Ebermayer

A stumbling block in front of the Hamburg State Opera reminds of his fate.

Stumbling stone for Gustav Brecher in front of the Hamburg State Opera

literature

  • Björn Eggert: Brecher, Gustav . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 7 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2020, ISBN 978-3-8353-3579-0 , p. 44-45 .
  • Jürgen Schebera: Gustav Brecher and the Leipzig Opera 1923–1933. With a contribution by Heinrich Creuzburg: Memories of Gustav Brecher. Edition Peters, Leipzig 1990 ISBN 3-369-00230-2
  • Richard Wagner seized: a Leipzig memorial in documents 1931–1955. Selected and accompanied by Grit Hartmann. Forum-Verlag, Leipzig 2003, p. 57. ISBN 978-3-931801-35-9
  • Hannes Heer , Jürgen Kesting , Peter Schmidt : Silent voices: the Bayreuth Festival and the "Jews" 1876 to 1945; an exhibition . Bayreuth Festival Park and Exhibition Hall New Town Hall Bayreuth, July 22nd to October 14th, 2012. Metropol, Berlin 2012 ISBN 978-3-86331-087-5 , 26

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Project "JUDEN in SACHSEN" at DRZ Sachsen e. V .: Leipzig until 1933 - Jews in Saxony. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 21, 2017 ; accessed on January 21, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.juden-in-sachsen.de
  2. ↑ According to Jürgen Kesting: Even suicide can be murder. In: Hamburger Abendblatt from November 23, 2006.
  3. ^ Kesting: 1914, Balatková: 1917.
  4. ^ Heer / Kesting / Schmidt 2012
  5. ↑ Quoted from Kesting. The Hungarian conductor had been with Brecher in Leipzig and had directed the Moscow radio orchestra since 1931.
  6. ↑ Because today Germany belongs to us ... Personal and political diary of Erich Ebermayer from the seizure of power until December 31, 1935, Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Hamburg-Vienna 1959, p. 610.
personal data
SURNAME Crusher, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German conductor, composer and critic
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Dubí
DATE OF DEATH May 1940
Place of death at Ostend