Marta Linz

Marta Linz (1922)

Marta Linz von Kriegner (born December 21, 1898 in Budapest , Austria-Hungary , † January 11, 1982 in Berlin ) was a Hungarian - German violinist , pianist , conductor and composer .

biography

Marta Linz came from a wealthy German-Hungarian family. The mother, Anna Hasslinger, was a singer, the father a lawyer and large landowner. Although her parents were very interested in music themselves, they initially resisted the daughter's wish for professional musical training for social reasons. Marta Linz prevailed, however, and began studying music with a focus on piano, violin and composition in Budapest.

Linz married the lawyer Kálmán von Kriegner (1889–1938); In 1916 and 1919 their two sons - Kalman and Georg - were born. To support his wife's career, von Kriegner gave up his own as a diplomat and became her manager and impresario . Linz's first concerts as a violinist are known from 1918. 1922 was her first recorded appearance in Germany: In Dresden she played works by Tartini, Goldmark, Mozart / Kreisler.

In 1924 the family moved to Berlin, to a representative apartment on Kurfürstendamm . The sons were enrolled in a boarding school, and Marta Linz began to give regular house concerts; the guests belonged to the top of Berlin society. Marta Linz continued her training as a violinist and was also the first woman to study in the conducting class at the Berlin University of Music . One of her teachers was Julius Prüwer . In 1929 she completed the master class with Felix Weingartner in Basel . In 1931 she appeared as a conductor for the first time at the New Year's Eve performance of the bat in Koblenz .

In the following years Marta Linz gave numerous concerts as a violinist, also abroad, for example in Austria, Spain, Italy and Switzerland. Sometimes she combined her appearances as a violinist with those as a conductor. In 1930 she made a tour of the USA , on which her husband accompanied her as a reporter for the magazine Signals for the musical world . Appearances on the radio were added in the 1930s. During her appearances she played solo programs - one of her piano accompanists was more often Michael Raucheisen - but also concerts with orchestras from the respective guest venue. Her music choices usually consisted of classical and romantic. She composed songs herself, most of which were performed at her house concerts.

In 1934 and 1935, Linz conducted the Berlin Philharmonic , announced as the “first woman” to conduct the orchestra, but this was not the case; there were at least six women who had conducted the ensemble before her. She was not followed until more than 40 years later in 1978 by Sylvia Caduff from Switzerland , who was General Music Director in Solingen at the time .

The musicologist Claudia Friedel describes Marta Linz's relationship to the Nazi regime as "carefully formulated - unclouded". Among other things, she played in charity concerts for the Winter Relief Organization, for the benefit of Kraft durch Freude and the Kampfbund for German Culture ; these concerts gave them a reputation as well as good connections in socially important circles. She cultivated and used her good relationship with State Councilor for Culture Hans Hinkel . Above all, however, she was involved in the Lyzeum Club , an association that has existed since 1905 for artists and scientists without ideological orientation. Every month she held “master concerts” in Berlin, and occasionally “female composers evenings”.

Claudia Friedel: "In the mid-thirties, Marta Linz was at the height of her artistic and social career." Hans von Bülow's widow adored her deceased husband's baton. In October 1938, Marta Linz's husband was killed in a car accident. The following year she moved to Bad Tölz , towards the end of the year to Wiesbaden , where she lived until at least 1950. In June 1940 she gave musical accompaniment to her son Georg, who played saxophonist on the Hungarian radio. Her engagements in Germany declined, "she attributes that to her Hungarian origins," writes Friedel. Instead, she engaged in troop support ; Concerts in this context led to Italy. In 1944 she applied for recognition as " Volksdeutsche ", but apparently not so much out of conviction, but rather in order to be able to conduct a lawsuit in Berlin for a property, as the clerk at the time stated "somewhat indignantly".

After the war, the "Theater & Music Control Officer" in Wiesbaden issued Marta Linz a certificate stating that she was "highly desirable" to remain in the US zone. She moved back to Berlin with her son Kalman; Son Georg died shortly after the end of the war in 1945. Linz only seldom performed; one of their last appearances was in 1955 with the Berliner Symphoniker . On this occasion she said in an interview: “It is easier to conduct 80 men than just one.” Due to osteoarthritis , she had to stop her concert activities. She lived in Berlin with her son Kalman until her death.

role

Marta Linz's artistic activities contradicted the National Socialist image of women, but she was successful and recognized during the Nazi era. In Friedel's opinion, this is due to the fact that Linz succeeded in “toning down” her public image by emphasizing herself as a woman. She was active as a composer in a male domain, but her pieces were only characterized as "noble light music" and add-on songs. As a conductor, she repeatedly emphasized her femininity; the critics praised her charm as a “classy Hungarian with sparkling artistic talent”. The distribution of roles in Marta Linz's marriage was kept secret in public, and her husband was often mentioned first as the host at house concerts; their children were not mentioned. This contradicting image of Marta Linz gave her, according to Friedel, “her personal and artistic freedom”.

music

Marta Linz's compositional work mainly comprised songs and arrangements, such as music by Franz Liszt and Antonín Dvořák . In the 1950s she composed an opera König Drosselbart , but it was never performed.

Among the UFA films under exclusion of the public (1937) with Olga Chekhova and Verklungene melody (1938) with Brigitte Horney , Willy Birgel and Carl Raddatz she created the soundtrack. The latter was shown again in theaters in the 1950s. The fact that the film music came from her could be read on the film posters in 1938.

At the age of 14 David Garrett played the Ave Maria D 839 by Dvorak based on an arrangement by Marta Linz; the piece of music was released on CD 14 in 2013 .

Works (selection)

• 1922 Caprice and Capricetto . For piano
• 1937 I only loved you alone . along. Waltz ad sound film Melody faded away
• 1941 Hungarian capriccio . For violin a. piano
• undated Spanish serenade
• no year Romanian rhapsody
• no year old minstrel style
• no year hand me the golden bowl: that you may love me! song

literature

• Claudia Friedel: Women composing in the Third Reich. Attempt to reconstruct the reality of life and the prevailing image of women (=  interdisciplinary women's research. Historical approaches to biography and world ). LIT, Münster / Hamburg 1995, ISBN 978-3-8258-2376-4 .

Web links

• Marta Linz's sound carrier in the catalog of the German National Library
• Marta Linz in the Internet Movie Database (English)

References and comments

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Friedel; Women composers , p. 354.
2. ^ Antje Kalcher: Julius Prüwer. In: lexm.uni-hamburg.de. Retrieved October 29, 2017 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Friedel; Women composers , p. 355.
4. ↑ Heinz Josef Herbort: One hundred years of the Berlin Philharmonic Concerts: Who, please, was César Ciardi? In: zeit.de . November 21, 2012, accessed October 8, 2017 . 
5. ↑ female conductors. In: Berliner Philharmoniker. November 8, 1923. Retrieved October 29, 2017 . 
6. ↑ Sylvia Caduff made history. In: luzernerzeitung.ch. October 6, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2017 . 
7. ↑ Friedel; Women composers , p. 362.
8. ↑ Friedel; Women composers , p. 363f.
9. ↑ Friedel; Women composers , p. 162.
10. ↑ Friedel; Women composers , p. 369.
11. ↑ ^{a b c} Friedel; Women composers , p. 356.
12. ↑ Friedel; Women composers , p. 365.
13. ^ The Courier , November 17, 1955.
14. ↑ Friedel; Women composers , p. 356f.
15. ↑ Friedel; Women composers , p. 366f.
16. ↑ David Garrett: "14" - The 'Lost' Album. In: networking-media.de. June 20, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2017 .