Leo sheet metal

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leo Blech on a photograph by Nicola Perscheid , Berlin 1910
Leo Blech on an etching by Moritz Coschell , Dortmund 1923

Leo Blech (born April 21, 1871 in Aachen , † August 25, 1958 in Berlin ) was a German composer and conductor .

Life

Leo Blech's parents were the paintbrush and brush manufacturer Jacob Blech, born as Jacob Bleeck (1834–1921) and Rosetta Hartog, nee Roosa Hertog (1836–1914). Although he was already giving a concert in his hometown as a pianistic child prodigy at the age of seven, Blech initially, following the example of his two older brothers, did a commercial apprenticeship with an Aachen cloth merchant from 1887 to 1891 .

After the Cologne Conservatory Director Franz Wüllner had confirmed Blech's talent for composition, he began to study at the University of Music in Berlin in 1891 . He perfected his piano playing there with Ernst Rudorff , but his composition teacher Woldemar Bargiel rejected him as lacking in talent, so that Blech broke off his studies. In 1892 he composed his first opera Aglaja , which was successfully premiered at the Stadttheater Aachen in October 1893 ; at the same time, Blech received a job there as second, later as first Kapellmeister. Blech's employment apparently took place at the Aachen Symphony Orchestra , which was, however, regularly loaned to the city theater for opera performances, so that Blech was (almost?) Exclusively active as an opera conductor.

Blech finally acquired a thorough theoretical education through private studies with Engelbert Humperdinck during the theater holidays from 1895 to 1897 in Frankfurt am Main.

In September 1899, Blech went to Prague , where he was the first conductor at the German State Theater until 1906 . Here he conducted 38 premieres in Prague, including the world premiere of Eugen d'Albert's Tiefland on November 15, 1903 , his Flauto solo on November 12, 1905, and the world premiere of his own opera Cinderella on December 26, 1905 .

In September 1906 he followed a call to the Berlin Court Opera ; in June 1913 he was appointed general music director for life. Due to differences with the State Opera Director Max von Schillings , Blech left the State Opera temporarily and in August 1923 became General Music Director at the German Opera House in Charlottenburg . In April 1924 he resigned from this post after differences with the board of directors. From October to December 1924 he worked as a conductor at the Great Volksoper Berlin and in autumn 1925 he was director of the Vienna Volksoper together with Hugo Gruder-Guntram . In March 1926 he returned to Berlin and took up his position as general music director at the State Opera Unter den Linden.

With special permission from Hermann Göring , the Berlin general director Heinz Tietjen was able to continue to employ Leo Blech despite his Jewish origins during the Nazi regime . Until April 1937 he conducted a total of 2,846 performances at the State Opera. In 1937 his replacement was pursued more and more energetically and he was forced to retire - formally “for reasons of age”. He then emigrated to Latvia , where he was Principal Guest Conductor at the National Opera in Riga from 1938 to 1941 , leading numerous opera performances with great success. He taught at the Latvian Conservatory and made guest appearances with the Estonia Orchestra Tallinn . After the occupation of Latvia by the Soviet Union in the summer of 1940, Blech was invited to make guest appearances in Moscow and Leningrad. Due to the great success he was asked to take over as director of the Moscow Conservatory . However, he refused and returned to Riga, which was captured by German troops in June 1941. The deportation of the Blech couple to the Riga ghetto was imminent. With the mediation of Tietjen, with Göring's approval and the support of the Swedish Embassy , he and his wife were able to secretly emigrate to Sweden via Berlin and Saßnitz in September 1941 .

At the Royal Opera in Stockholm , where he had conducted regularly since 1925 and was appointed court conductor in June 1935, Blech experienced a successful career in old age, which culminated in his interpretation of the operas by Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner . In Stockholm he was a founding member and committee member of the Free German Cultural Association .

In early 1946, Blech made contact with the new artistic director of the Berlin State Opera, Ernst Legal , but for various reasons there was no renewed collaboration. In September 1949, at Tietjen's invitation, Blech returned to Berlin for good and began on October 18, 1949 as general music director at the Städtische Oper in Charlottenburg with his own new production of Carmen . In 1951 he conducted his two one-act opera operas Das Was Ich und Versiegel in a festival performance on his 80th birthday . In addition, Blech again led the Berlin Philharmonic , for example in several serenades in the courtyard of the Grunewald hunting lodge .

In the summer of 1953, a worsening hearing problem and a fall from the conductor's podium forced him to retire. He died in Berlin in 1958 and was buried in the Heerstrasse cemetery (department 20 Wald 1e).

Since 1899 Blech was married to the soprano Martha Frank-Blech (* 1871 in Sondershausen , † 1962 in Berlin). The son Wolfgang (* 1904 in Prague; † 1988 in Los Angeles ) became a businessman and emigrated to the USA in 1936. The daughter Luise (Lisel) (* 1913 in Berlin-Charlottenburg , † 2006 in Stockholm) became a singer (soprano) like her mother. Her first marriage was to the Hungarian pianist Arpád Sándor (1896–1972). She emigrated to Sweden in 1936 and married the German-Swedish conductor Herbert Sandberg (1902–1966), a student of her father's, in Stockholm in 1938 .

Honors

Berlin memorial plaque

In 1908 he was awarded the Prussian Red Eagle Order IV class by Wilhelm II . On his 80th birthday in April 1951, the Berlin Senate awarded him the title of professor at the University of Music. In January 1953 Blech was awarded the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 1956 he received the same medal with a star on the occasion of his 85th birthday.

From 1931 to 1937, Blech was an honorary member of the Aachen City Theater, and in 1957 he became an honorary member of the Berlin City Opera.

The State of Berlin had set up and cared for his grave as an honorary grave for the State of Berlin , initially for a period of 50 years. The status of an honorary grave is checked every 20 years according to the administrative regulations. The Senate Administration had already decided before 2013 that “a lasting memory in the general public beyond a century” was not to be expected. Therefore, the tombstone was sawed off at the beginning of 2013 and the grave site was newly occupied with the grave of the Germanist Peter Wapnewski . Protests from committed music lovers could not prevent this. Allegedly, since these protests, the cultural administration has considered giving Leo Blech an appropriate souvenir in the cemetery. At first nothing was heard from the Berlin Staatskapelle on this subject. Some music journalists then came together to set a new monument to Leo Blech with a publication. With the “Sheet for sheet metal” campaign, they called for support for the book, in which the Staatskapelle also participated. Thanks to private initiatives, the tombstone was erected opposite its former location.

In July 1959, a square in the Berlin district of Grunewald was named after Leo Blech; in the Aachen district of Kronenberg there is Leo-Blech-Strasse.

In October 1987 a Berlin commemorative plaque was attached to his home at Mommsenstrasse 6 by the Charlottenburg district administration .

Compositions

Gravestone , Heerstraße cemetery, Trakehner Allee 1, in Berlin-Westend

Blech was best known as a composer for his vocal music: between 1892 and 1908 he composed 7 operas, mostly in collaboration with the Prague librettist Richard Batka , followed in 1917 by a new version of Alpenkönig und Menschenfeind , and in 1918 the last stage work was an operetta: Die Strohwidwe .

Among his numerous song compositions, the 6 episodes of children's songs, the ditties to sing to large and small children, were particularly popular with singers and the audience.

Of his few orchestral compositions, the Waldwanderung was the longest in the repertoire.

Between 1896 and 1900 some compositions were published by Schott-Verlag under the pseudonym Max Frank .

Songs

  • op. 7, nos. 1-2: Two songs (1898). Old German love song , s'schalf'rige Deandl
  • op.9a: Three songs (1902). I loved , from afar into the night , in the end
  • op.9b: Three master songs. Song arrangements (1902). Mailied , lost love , longing for death
  • op.15a: Two songs (1909). Evening song , folk song
  • op. 16: Three songs (1907). Lullaby for my boy , love trial , summer arbor
  • op. 17: The gallant Abbé. Chansons and songs by Emmy Destinn (1907)
  • op. 19: Three songs (1910). Picaresque songs , ghosts , love notes
  • op. 20: Three songs (1913). A thousand stars , separation , the kiss
  • … To sing songs to big and small children. For voice and piano by Leo Blech:
    • op. 21: Eight little songs. First episode (1913)
    • op. 22: Eight little songs. Second episode (1915)
    • op. 24: Eight little songs. Third episode (1916)
    • op. 25: Eight little songs. Fourth episode (1917)
    • op. 27: Nine little songs. Fifth episode (1924)
    • op. 28: Nine little songs. Sixth episode (1926)

In addition numerous individual publications without opus number, u. a. in yearbooks, magazines and other compilations.

Stage works

  • Aglaya . Opera in one act. Text by D [avid] Kunhardt
    • World premiere: October 4th, 1893, Stadttheater Aachen. Conductor: sheet metal
  • Cherubina . Opera in two acts by D [avid] Kunhardt
    • World premiere: December 21, 1894, Stadttheater Aachen. Conductor: sheet metal
  • Nero . Opera, written in 1898, the score probably lost
    • First performance: planned for spring 1899 in Berlin
  • That was me! Village idyll in one act after Joh [ann] Hutt by Richard Batka, op. 12
  • Alpine king and misanthropist . [Romantic opera] in three acts after F. Raimund by Richard Batka, op. 14
    • World premiere: October 1, 1903, Royal Opera House Dresden. Conductor: Ernst von Schuch
  • Cinderella . A fairy tale in three acts by Richard Batka, op.15
    • First performance December 26, 1905, New German Theater Prague. Conductor: sheet metal
  • Sealed . Comic opera in one act after Raupach by Richard Batka and Pordes-Milo , op.18
  • Rappelkopf (Berlin version of Alpenkönig and Misanthrope) . Opera in 3 acts based on F. Raimund by Richard Batka. [New version of the text by Georg von Hülsen-Haeseler ]
    • First performance: October 2, 1917, Royal Opera House Berlin. Conductor: sheet metal
  • The straw widow . Operetta in three acts by August Neidhart , op.26
    • First performance: June 16, 1920, Hamburg City Theater. Conductor: Egon Pollak
  • Mister Wu . Opera in three acts by M. Karlev [d. i. Karl Michael von Levetzow ]. Instrumentation and completion of the opera based on existing sketches by Eugen d'Albert
    • First performance September 29, 1932, Dresden Opera House. Conductor: sheet metal

Orchestral works

  • The nun. Symphonic poem for large orchestra, inspired by the poem of the same name by Otto Julius Bierbaum , op.6. Created in Aachen, 1898
  • Consolation in nature. Barcarole for orchestra , op. 7 [No. 3]. Completed Aachen, June 3, 1900
    • World premiere under brass, Orchester des Kgl. German State Theater (Prague, January 24, 1901); further performances: Richard Strauss , Tonkünstler-Orchester (Berlin, February 10, 1902), Ernst von Schuch, Königliche Kapelle (Dresden, spring 1902), Willem Mengelberg , Concertgebouw-Orchester (Amsterdam, October 15, 1905)
  • Forest hike. Atmospheric picture for orchestra , op.8 No. 1. Made in Aachen, 1901
    • World premiere under brass, Orchester des Kgl. German State Theater (Prague, November 20, 1901); further performances: Tonkünstler-Versammlung Krefeld (June 7, 1902); Richard Strauss, Tonkünstler Orchestra (Berlin, April 7, 1903) and Royal Orchestra (Berlin, November 8, 1912); Willem Mengelberg, Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam, October 13, 1904); Erich Kleiber , Staatskapelle (Berlin, February 27, 1931)
    • Günter Blumhagen , Großes Rundfunkorchester Berlin : radio recording 1987
  • Two military marches op. 23 for orchestra . Berlin, 1915

Audio documents

One of the first records by Blech, Berlin, summer 1916

In the summer of 1916 Leo Blech and the Königliche Kapelle Berlin made their record debut. With this orchestra, which later became the orchestra of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, Blech made hundreds of other recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and Electrola by the summer of 1935 . He often accompanied state opera stars of the time such as Erna Berger , Frida Leider , Barbara Kemp , Sigrid Onegin , Maria Ivogün , Lotte Schöne , Tiana Lemnitz , Alexander Kipnis , Lauritz Melchior , Heinrich Schlusnus or Friedrich Schorr . The recordings of the violin concertos by Beethoven , Brahms and Mendelssohn with Fritz Kreisler and Leo Blech have also been regularly re-released to this day.

He worked with the Berliner Philharmoniker from 1921 to 1932 on gramophone, Electrola and Ultraphon / Telefunken , and conducted the orchestra of the Deutsches Opernhaus Berlin / Städtische Oper Berlin in 1924 on gramophone and in 1932/33 on Pallas. During guest tours in London in 1927 and 1931, recordings were made with the London Symphony Orchestra for His Master's Voice . In 1947, he made recordings with the Orchester de la Suisse Romande for Decca in Geneva . The last commercial recordings took place in 1950 with the orchestra of the Städtische Oper Berlin for Tefi ; they were released on LP in the mid-1960s by Elite Special.

Some radio recordings with the RIAS Symphony Orchestra from the early 1950s are available on CD.

In an early sound film recording from 1932, Blech conducts the overture to “ Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg ”.

In addition to numerous overtures and scenes from operas, the following can be found on record:

  • Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Concerto, Overtures to Egmont, Coriolan, Leonore No. 3
  • Hector Berlioz : Roman Carnival
  • Georges Bizet : "L'Arlésienne". Concert suites No. 1 and No. 2
  • Johannes Brahms: Violin Concerto, Hungarian Dances No. 5 and 6
  • Antonin Dvorak : Slavonic Dances op.46
  • Edward Grieg : Norwegian Dances, Peer Gynt Suites No. 1 and 2
  • Joseph Haydn : Symphonies No. 88 and No. 94
  • Franz Liszt : Les Preludes, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 1
  • Jules Massenet : Scenes pittoresques
  • Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Violin Concerto ( Grammy Hall of Fame Award 1998), Hebrides Overture, from the incidental music to "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Divertimenti, serenades (including 'A Little Night Music'), Maurerische Funeral Music and the Symphony No. 34
  • Franz Schubert : Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, D.485; Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D.759 “Unfinished”; Symphony No. 9 in C major, D.944; from the incidental music to "Rosamunde"
  • Bedrich Smetana : The Vltava
  • Johann Strauss : various waltzes
  • Richard Strauss : Death and Transfiguration
  • Peter Tschaikowsky : Festival Overture 1812, Symphony No. 5
  • Carl Maria von Weber : invitation to dance, jubilation overture

Publications on CD:

  • Leo Blech conducts Berlioz, Smetana, Liszt, Schubert. Koch Legacy 3-7072-2 (1991)
  • Mozart rarities in first recordings 1927–1931. Archiphon ARC-135 (2004)
  • Sheet metal conducts Tchaikovsky. Pristine Audio PASC 181 (2009)
  • Chopin: Piano concerto no. 2; Schubert: Symphony no.9 'great'. Julian von Károlyi, piano. Audits 95,640 (2011)
  • Overtures and dances. London Symphony Orchestra. Pristine Audio PASC 354 (2012)
  • Klemperer and Blech conduct Richard Strauss. Pristine Audio PASC 419 (2014)
  • Wagner: The potted ring. Vol. 1 and 3. Pristine Audio PACO 107/118 (2014)
  • 450 years Staatskapelle Berlin: great recordings. CD 2: Leo Blech (works by Mozart, Bizet and Wagner). Deutsche Grammophon 00289 483 7887 (2020)

literature

  • Ernst Rychnovsky: Leo Blech: a biographical-aesthetic study. Dürerblatt, Prague 1905.
  • Ernst Rychnovsky: Leo Blech. In: Monographs of Modern Musicians , Volume 2. Kahnt, Leipzig 1907. pp. 52–64.
  • Walter Jacob (Ed.): Leo Blech: a breviary on the occasion of the 60th birthday. Prismen-Verlag, Hamburg 1931.
  • Leo Blech: I was the king's bandmaster. In: Radio Revue. 1955, issue 13-22. Ullstein, Berlin.
  • Leo Blech: The balance sheet. In: Josef Müller-Marein , Hannes Reinhardt: The musical self-portrait of composers, conductors, instrumentalists and singers of our time. Nannen, Hamburg 1963, pp. 113–123.
  • Wolfgang Poch: Leo Blech: a contribution to Berlin's theater history with special consideration of the musical and dramaturgical facilities and the program policy of Leo Blech. Dissertation. Free University of Berlin , 1985.
  • Peter Aistleitner, Wolfgang Poch, Günter Walter: Leo Blech. (Discography.) In: Voices that went around the world. One magazine. Issue 47. Münster 1995, pp. 1-88.
  • Manfred Haedler: Leo Blech - the emperor's “last general”. In: Berlin in past and present: Yearbook of the Landesarchiv Berlin 1998. Gebrüder Mann, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-7861-1810-8 , pp. 105–119.
  • “Come back to your homeland!”: Letters from, to and about General Music Director Leo Blech. In: Sinn und Form 2002, Issue 5, pp. 629–646.
  • Lolita Fūrmane: German conductors at the Riga Opera House between 1919 and 1944: on the question of the productions by Leo Blech. In: German-Baltic musical relationships: history - present - future. Report on the 35th Conference of Musicologists of the Baltic States in Vilnius, 18. – 20. October 2001. Studiopunkt-Verlag, Sinzig 2003, ISBN 3-89564-111-1 , pp. 43-49.
  • Andrej Angrick, Peter Klein: The “Final Solution” in Riga: Exploitation and Extermination 1941–1944. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 3-534-19149-8 , pp. 131f.
  • Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933-1945. 2nd Edition. Kiel 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-037705-1 , pp. 533-535 (1 CD-ROM).
  • Jutta Lambrecht / Centrum Judaicum (editor): Leo Blech: composer - Kapellmeister - general music director. Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-95565-091-9 (= Jewish miniatures , volume 173).
    Detailed review at operalounge.de.
  • Leo Blech , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 44/1958 of October 20, 1958, in the Munzinger Archive , accessed on September 22, 2019 ( beginning of article freely accessible). Supplemented by news from MA-Journal until week 32/2015.

Web links

Commons : Leo Blech  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Euregio family book , queried on July 7, 2015.
  2. ^ Josef Müller-Marein, Hannes Reinhardt: The musical self-portrait . Hamburg 1963, p. 114.
  3. ^ Theater Aachen (ed.): The history of the Theater Aachen : "1920 takeover of the theater in the hands of the city. The orchestra, which until then had been made available to the theater on a private basis, was now officially used for theater service ”.
  4. ^ Josef Müller-Marein, Hannes Reinhardt: The musical self-portrait. Hamburg 1963, p. 117.
  5. ↑ Ernst Rychnovsky: Leo Blech. Prague 1905, pp. 12-14, pp. 21-22.
  6. ^ Detlef Meyer zu Heringsdorf: The Charlottenburg Opera House from 1912 to 1961. Berlin 1988, pp. 31–33.
  7. ↑ John M. Steiner, Jobst Frhr. von Cornberg: arbitrariness within arbitrariness. Exemptions from the anti-Semitic Nuremberg laws. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Volume 46 (1998), p. 143ff ( PDF ). See also Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945. 2nd Edition. Kiel 2009, p. 491.
  8. ↑ Lolita Furmane: German conductor at the Riga Opera House between 1919 and 1944. On the question of productions by Leo Blech. In: German-Baltic musical relationships. Studio-Verlag, Sinzig 2003, ISBN 3-89564-111-1 , pp. 43-49.
  9. ^ Helmut Scheunchen : Lexicon of German Baltic Music. Verlag Harro von Hirschheydt, Wedemark-Elze 2002, page 36f. ISBN 3-7777-0730-9
  10. ↑ Andrej Angrick, Peter Klein: The "Final Solution" in Riga. Exploitation and extermination 1941–1944. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2006, pp. 131–132.
  11. ^ Svenska Dagbladets Årsbok 1935 .
  12. ↑ Wolfgang Poch: Leo Blech. In: Voices that went around the world. No. 47, 1995, pp. 4-5.
  13. ↑ Werner Otto, Günter Rimkus (Ed.): Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin 1945–1965. Berlin 1965.
  14. ↑ Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . Volume 2. Saur, Bern / Munich 1999, p. 1195.
  15. ↑ Wolfgang-Blech  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on death-record.com, as viewed June 16, 2014.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.death-record.com  
  16. ^ Peter Petersen:  Leo Blech in the Lexicon of Persecuted Musicians of the Nazi Era (LexM).
  17. ↑ Herbert Sandberg on sok.riksarkivet.se, as seen on July 10, 2015 (Swedish).
  18. ↑ Matthias Janson: Music in the “Third Reich”: The conductor by Göring's grace. for one day , July 2nd, 2008.
  19. ^ Leo Blech: a contribution to the history of Berlin theater with special consideration of the music and dramaturgical facilities and the program policy of Leo Blech, Free University of Berlin, 1985
  20. ^ German stage yearbook. 60th year 1952. Hamburg 1951, p. 61
  21. ↑ Article Leo Blech in www.munzinger.de
  22. ↑ Klaus Schulte, Peter Sardoč: On the Führer’s birthday: “Fidelio”: the Aachen theater under the swastika. Berlin 2010. ISBN 978-3-00-031773-6
  23. ^ Charlottenburg Wilmersdorf / About the district / Leo-Blech-Platz
  24. ↑ Peter Sommeregger on info-netz-musik , April 23, 2013; accessed on September 14, 2014
  25. ↑ Danijel Majic: Abgesägt. Berlin has the honorary grave of the composer Leo Blech leveled and claims to keep his memory . In: Berliner Zeitung . May 31, 2013, p. 24.
  26. ^ Danijel Majic: Leo Blech - Sawn off. In: Frankfurter Rundschau of May 31, 2013, accessed on November 21, 2014.
  27. ↑ Regularly updated status under Leo Blech at info-netz-musik ; accessed on September 14, 2014
  28. ↑ Jutta Lambrecht (Ed.): Leo Blech. Composer - Kapellmeister - General Music Director. Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2015
  29. ↑ See Facebook ; accessed on October 14, 2015
  30. ^ Leo-Blech-Platz. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  31. ↑ Leo Blech memorial plaque on berlin.de, seen on May 20, 2015.
  32. ↑ List based on: Wolfgang Poch: Leo Blech. Free University of Berlin, 1985, pp. 235–243
  33. ↑ List based on: Wolfgang Poch: Leo Blech. Free University of Berlin, 1985, pp. 235–243. The spelling follows the title pages of the piano reductions, s. KVK https://kvk.bibliothek.kit.edu . The date of the premieres according to the Neuer Theater-Almanach 1894–1910 and the German Stage Yearbook 1921, 1934.
  34. ↑ Berliner Tageblatt - morning edition , November 8, 1898, p. 3
  35. ↑ List based on: Ernst Rychnovsky: Leo Blech. A biographical-aesthetic study. Dürerblatt, Prague 1905, pp. 18-20, 23-26. The spelling follows the title pages of the scores, s. KVK https://kvk.bibliothek.kit.edu .
  36. ^ Berliner Tageblatt, April 6, 1916
  37. ↑ Berlin, the city of music [1]
personal data
SURNAME Tin, Leo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frank, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 1958
Place of death Berlin