Hans Swarowsky

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Hans Swarowsky (born September 16, 1899 in Budapest , † September 10, 1975 in Salzburg ) was an Austrian conductor and from 1946 professor of conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna .

Life

Hans Swarowsky, son of a major Viennese industrialist, first studied art history and philosophy at the University of Vienna . From 1920 he took lessons in music theory and conducting with Arnold Schönberg and then with Anton Webern . After working as a répétiteur, he worked as Kapellmeister at the Vienna Volksoper and then at the Stuttgart Opera House . He was then first Kapellmeister and opera director at the Reussisches Theater in Gera , before he was hired as Kapellmeister at the Hamburg State Opera in 1934 and at the Berlin State Opera in 1935 . After an alleged professional ban in 1936, Swarowsky worked at the Zurich Opera House from 1937 to 1940 before returning to the National Socialist German Reich . At the invitation of Richard Strauss and Clemens Krauss , Swarowsky worked on the libretto for the opera Capriccio (the German text version of the Ronsard sonnet Kein Andres, which is so worthy of my heart, comes from him). In addition, he translated numerous older opera libretti from operas by Verdi , Gluck , Haydn and Monteverdi into German.

From 1940 to 1944 he also worked as a dramaturge at the Salzburg Festival . From 1944 until his last concert on January 9, 1945, he was chief conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the General Government in Krakow in occupied Poland . a. the world premiere of Pfitzner's composition Krakauer Willkommen , which was dedicated to Hans Frank . Swarowsky, attacked by Joseph Goebbels as a "friend of Poland", used the trust placed in him by the music lover Frank and his position as chief conductor to protect numerous Polish and Jewish citizens from the Gestapo .

After the end of World War II , Swarowsky, who was in Stuttgart at the time , was briefly on the US military government's "gray list". From 1946 to 1947 he was chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra , and from 1947 to 1950 director of the Graz Opera . As a result, he devoted himself primarily to teaching, but also conducted over 180 performances at the Vienna State Opera until shortly before his death.

Many of the most famous conductors and musicians come from his school, such as Claudio Abbado , Alexander Alexejew , Paul Angerer , Johan M. Arnell , Rudolf Bibl , Peter Burwik , Miltiades Caridis , Gabriel Chmura , Jesús López Cobos , Yoram David , Jacques Delacôte , Jörg Demus , Adam and Iván Fischer , Constantin Floros , Helmuth Froschauer , Wolfgang Gabriel , James Allen Gähres , Theodor Guschlbauer , Christoph Haas , Raimund Hug , Manfred Huss , Mariss Jansons , Dimitri Kitajenko , Augustin Kubizek , Uroš Lajovic, Anestis Logothetis , Miguel Gómez Martínez , Zubin Mehta , Erwin Ortner , Roberto Paternostro , Michael Radulescu , Heinrich Schiff , Peter Schneider , Giuseppe Sinopoli , Karl Sollak , Stefan Soltesz , Günther Theuring , Erich Urbanner , Mario Venzago , Bruno Weil and Hans Zanotelli .

He has repeatedly been a juror at the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Music Competition in New York.

One of Swarowsky's pupils, Alfred Scholz, has published numerous sound recordings as a producer with an orchestra he called the Süddeutsche Philharmonie under various conductor pseudonyms, including often Hans Swarowsky. Probably hardly any of these recordings were actually conducted by Swarowsky.

Thanks to Manfred Huss, Swarowsky's essays and lectures have been brought together in the Wahrung der Gestalt collection, and are still a source for questions about interpretation and performance practice.

His grave of honor is in the Vienna Central Cemetery (group 32 C, number 40).

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Tabular biography .
  2. ^ A b Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945. CD-Rom Lexicon. Kiel 2004, p. 7.130.
  3. ↑ Entry on Hans Swarowsky in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
  4. ↑ Most translations are no longer available; they had been moved to Ricordi Milano (Verdi) and Bärenreiter.
  5. ^ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945. CD-Rom Lexicon. Kiel 2004, pp. 5240 and 7130-7131.
  6. ↑ Corina Kolbe: "We won't play without these Jews". In: Der Spiegel. January 16, 2020, accessed on May 7, 2017 (German).
  7. ^ Corina Kolbe: The conductor who spied: Hans Swarowsky between Zurich and the “Third Reich”. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. November 23, 2019, accessed on July 9, 2020 (German).
  8. ^ Performances with Hans Swarowsky | Schedule archive of the Vienna State Opera. Retrieved March 3, 2018 .
  9. ^ Obituary for Rudolf Bibl (accessed on February 13, 2017)
  10. ↑ http://www.abruckner.com/Data/articles/articlesenglish/berkyjohnpseudonym/pseudonyms.pdf
  11. ^ Inscription Deutschordenshof, passage: Hans Swarowsky 1968 (accessed June 7, 2014)
  12. ↑ The golden Mahler medal . Retrieved December 22, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Swarowsky, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian conductor and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 1975
Place of death Salzburg