Johann Nepomuk Batka the Younger

Johann Nepomuk Batka the Elder J.

Johann Nepomuk Batka the Elder J. (born October 4, 1845 in Preßburg , Kingdom of Hungary ; † December 2, 1917 ibid., Austria-Hungary ) was a lawyer, music critic and archivist for the city of Pressburg. He held several important functions in Pressburg. Among other things, he was: Deputy City Governor (1884–1901), member of the city's representative office, the theater committee, the artists' association, the Masonic lodge “Secrecy”, secretary of the church music association , reporter for the Preßburger Zeitung , chairman of the association for scientific lectures.

Life

Johann Nepomuk Batka was born as the son of the father of the same name, Johann Nepomuk Batka the Elder. Ä. and his wife Johanna Grasselli (* 1812, † 1882) in the Preßburger Basteigasse 2 (near the Michaelertore ) born. In his hometown he also attended the Catholic grammar school and from 1864 studied at the Pressburg Law Academy, which he successfully completed in 1868. He was taught to play the piano in his youth. In 1864 he began a public career as a legal trainee at the city court, and from 1871 he worked as an actuary at the city administration. From 1879 he was the first archivist in his hometown, whose history he was very familiar with. He carried out this activity until his death in 1917. However, his great interest, which was probably also based on family tradition, was in music. As a high school student he appeared as a theater and art critic and wrote music reviews for the Pressburger Zeitung . This activity enabled him to establish contact with important personalities of the musical life of the time. He often went to concerts and opera performances in Vienna , and was well introduced to Viennese cultural and social circles. He also maintained contacts with some personalities from the Budapest art and music scene. As a well-traveled man he visited Paris , Weimar , Bayreuth , Moscow , St. Petersburg , Regensburg , Birmingham and other European cultural centers. He visited Moscow and St. Petersburg together with Hans Richter - with whom he had a close friendship throughout his life - at his invitation. Through these trips he hoped to deepen his knowledge of music and art and to get to know contemporary European musical life better.

Johann Nepomuk Batka was a typical representative of the European educated bourgeoisie, who was aware of its cultural and historical role and worked purposefully towards its fulfillment. He is to be regarded as the most important music critic in the music history of the 19th century in Pressburg, but not in the sense of an ethnic principle. He was Czech, that means Slavic origin. Born in Pressburg, he remained loyal to his hometown and, as a local patriot, identified himself with the Central European cultural unity of Austria-Hungary, which was permeated by German, Hungarian and Slavic influences. His legacy of music criticism and music writing, including publications on the history of music in Pressburg, still provides a suitable source of information on the city's recent music history. Although he was not a feared critic of the Eduard Hanslick type , his reviews, criticisms and feature articles are considered to be characterized by artistic intuition and astuteness.

In 1871 Batka married Maria Waleta (* 1846, † 1915) with whom he spent 44 years of marriage. The marriage remained childless.

Batka maintained friendly contacts with the most important musicians of the time. He had a special friendship with the composer Franz Liszt, who was over 30 years older than him . Thanks to Batka, some works by Franz Liszt were premiered in Pressburg. Liszt's oratorio Legende von der Heiligen Elisabeth von Preßburger Kirchenmusikverein was premiered as a world premiere in the Cathedral of St. Martin . The composer also conducted Liszt's G raner Mass personally in Pressburg. At Batka's suggestion, the sculptor Viktor Tilgner modeled a bust of Franz Liszt, one of the composer's most authentic representations. The bust, which is housed today on the southern Domplatz ( Rudnay -Platz) in front of the Martinsdom, was built by Batka at his own expense.

Batka was also a great admirer of the Pressburg composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel . On April 13, 1885, he organized a concert in honor of Hummel, in which Franz Liszt and Anton Rubinstein also took part. He also procured the financial means with which Johann Nepomuk Hummel was erected a memorial in Pressburg. In this way he contributed to the shaping of the cityscape. The memorial was erected on October 17, 1887 on the 50th anniversary of the composer's death as part of a ceremony in front of the Pressburg City Theater .

Together with the important Bratislava historian and archaeologist Franz Floridus Romer , he built the Pressburg City Museum and set up a city library, to which he donated several thousand volumes. He also provided material support to the young sculptor Johann Fadrusz , the creator of the Pressburg Maria Theresa monument. He also promoted and supported the young Béla Bartók , who grew up in Pressburg.

As an archivist, Batka also dealt with other subjects relating to the city of Pressburg. He also published articles on the city's historical viticulture and forestry .

Batka left a generous legacy. His extensive correspondence, comprising around 10,000 individual items, with important contemporaries ( Johannes Brahms , Anton Bruckner , Johann Strauss , Richard Wagner , Franz Liszt, Hans Richter) form an important cultural asset that is in the Bratislava City Archives and is currently being scientifically processed and processed is digitized . In letters to his wife, Batka reports on experiences with important personalities in musical and public life at the time.

In 1911 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order . Batka died on December 2, 1917 in Pressburg and was laid to rest at the Pressburg Andreas Cemetery .

One year after his death, the city of Pressburg had a bust of Batka made by the sculptor Viktor Tilgner, which was placed next to the bust of Franz Liszt at a ceremony on October 26, 1918 on Rudnay Square. After the coup when Bratislava was annexed to the newly founded Czechoslovakia , Czech nationalists chopped off the Batka bust's nose. The bust was then dismantled and moved to the Pressburg City Museum.

Between September 6 and 20, 2017, an exhibition under the motto “The world of the Pressburg archivist Johann Batka” took place in Bratislava, which reminded of the work of this music patron. It was also discussed whether Batak's bust should be put back in its original place.

Literary work (selection)

• History of the Pressburg viticulture , Carl Angermayer Verlag, Pressburg 1902
• Memoranda in matters of the Pozsonyer-Pressburg castle ruins as Korngut, Carl Angermayer Verlag, Pressburg 1910
• Pozsony as a city of music. Music and musicians in Preßburg , in: Preßburger Zeitung , vol. 150, no. 352 of December 25, 1913, Morgenblatt , pp. 45–56 ( digitized version )
• The castle fire of 1811. On the occasion of the 100th turn of the year, in the Preßburger Zeitung on May 28, 1911

literature

• Karpatendeutsches Biographisches Lexikon, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-927096-00-8 , p. 29
• Alexandra Tauberová - Jarmila B. Martinková: Johann Nepomuk Batka. Selection from the correspondence . Bratislava: Musaeum Musicum, 1999, p. 188
• Zdenko Nováček: Ján Batka - criticism and estetics. In Bratislava, Zborník Múzea mesta Bratislavy, 1970, roč. VI., S. 281-294. (Slovak)
• Visszakerülhet eredeti helyére Batka János pozsonyi mellszobra, in Új Szó on September 7, 2017 (digital, Hungarian)

Web links

• Online letter edition
• Hans Richter's letters
• Prečo píšem o Batkovi iba teraz ... (Slovak)
• Batka, Johann family in the Austrian Music Lexicon online
• Batka (Slovak)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johanna Grasselli was the daughter of an optician from Italy ( Como ) who was Johann Nepomuk Batka the Elder. Ä. married on December 27, 1844.
2. ↑ An 'actuary' is a legal expert who is sworn under public authority to record what has been negotiated and to supervise the resulting files.
3. ↑ cit. after: Hanna Lengová: Hans Richter's letters in the collection of Johann Nepomuk Batka, p. 111, (see web links)
4. ↑ The Preßburger Hummel Monument is the work of the Pressburg sculptor Viktor Tilgner. Today it is in front of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bratislava.
5. ↑ The Maria Theresa Monument was erected in 1897 and destroyed by Czechoslovak legionaries in October 1921 . See also the main article Námestie Ľudovíta Štúra .