Juliusz Wolfsohn

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Juliusz Wolfsohn (born January 7, 1880 in Warsaw (then Russian Empire , now Poland ), † February 12, 1944 in New York , USA ) was a Russian-Austrian pianist , composer and music journalist .

Life

Juliusz Wolfsohn, son of the Jewish merchants Simon and Glicka Wolfsohn, studied piano playing and composition at first at the Warsaw Conservatory and later at the Moscow Conservatory . He completed his training as a pianist with Raoul Pugno in Paris and finally as a student of Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna , where he lived from 1906 until he emigrated. Wolfsohn established himself in international musical life through numerous concert tours within Europe and the USA, but above all as an outstanding Chopin interpreter. In addition to his career as a pianist, Wolfsohn also worked successfully as a teacher, even though he was denied the position of piano professor at the Vienna Music Academy for his entire life. His students include Leo Birkenfeld , Ernst Kanitz , Egon Lustgarten , Leo Sirota and Ignatz Waghalter .

After having dealt with Yiddish folklore since the turn of the century , his compositional work was exclusively Jewish music. His paraphrases on ancient Jewish folk tunes , published in three volumes, were based on well-known Yiddish songs; also the three-part Hebrew Suite and the Jewish Rhapsody , were based on musical folk themes. Wolfsohn's works were very popular at the time and were frequently performed - and not just by himself.

Like Joachim Stutschewsky , he was not only involved as a composer but also as a journalist for Jewish music; for example in the Vienna Association for the Promotion of Jewish Music, which he co-founded in 1928, and as a lecturer and music critic for numerous Austrian and Polish newspapers.

After Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany , Wolfsohn emigrated to the USA in 1939, where he only lived as a piano teacher.

His uncle David Wolffsohn was one of Theodor Herzl's closest collaborators .

Works (selection)

  • Two double fingering studies after Chopin , op.25 (1923)
  • Jewish Rhapsody in the Old Jewish Ways, for 2-handed piano (1923)
“This rhapsody is composed according to old Jewish folk tunes. Prof. Wolfsohn has created a grateful, if not easy to master piano piece, which is just as distinguished by the depth of its sensation as by the pianistic stimuli that are extracted from the thematic material. Psalmodies and chant, wedding dance and meal song interlock like links in a chain, and when a wedding song is intoned at the end, after the triumphant upsurge that it takes, it is only natural that it should be a joy that laughs with one eye and cries with the other. "( Die Musik , October 1924)
  • Paraphrases on old Jewish folk tunes , for two-handed piano, (1920-25; published in three volumes)
“From the infinite sadness or bizarre-grotesque merriment of these wise men, the strange and yet strictly self-contained world of the Eastern Jew rises mysteriously. The folk songs are very old and it does not require a small degree of mental and artistic empathy not to destroy their individuality, especially through harmonization. Wolfsohn solved this extremely difficult task brilliantly. [...] How does it all sound, how elegant, witty and delicately intimate, how genuinely pianistic and piano-like is it all conceived! "( Walter Niemann : In: Zeitschrift für Musik , 1925, issue 5)
  • Hebrew Suite , op.8, for piano (1926)
    Hebrew Suite in the version for piano and orchestra (1928)
  • Five mood pictures from the children's world , for piano (1930)
  • Mirjam's lullaby , for voice and piano (Text: Richard Beer-Hofmann ; around 1930)
  • Zwei Idyllen , op.10, for violin and piano (1933)
  • Vision , for piano (1936)
  • Baal Schem Suite , for piano (around 1936)
  • Schir hamalojs , for piano (1937)
  • On the beautiful blue Danube by Johann Strauss (son) in the arrangement for the left hand (1934, for the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein ).

Discography

  • Paraphrases on old Jewish folk tunes , Jewish Rhapsody , Hebrew Suite
    together with Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies No. 3, 7, 8 and 13.
    Jascha Nemtsov (piano), OehmsClassic OC 572.

literature

  • Andreas Sperlich: "S 'is not no bad": Notes on Juliusz Wolfsohn . In: Jascha Nemtsov (Ed.): Jewish Art Music in the 20th Century: Sources, Development History, Style Analyzes . Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, pp. 137-148, ISBN 3-447-05293-7 .
  • Jascha Nemtsov : The New Jewish School in Music . Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-447-05034-9 .

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Wolfsohn, Juliusz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolfsohn, Ilja; Wolfsohn, Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian-Austrian pianist, composer and music journalist
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 1944
Place of death New York City