Mischa Spoliansky

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Mischa Spolianski around 1914

Mischa Spoliansky (born December 28, 1898 in Białystok , † June 28, 1985 in London ) was a Russian - British composer ( revue , film music ) who worked in Germany from 1914 to 1933; among others together with Max Reinhardt . He went into exile in England . The child of a family of musicians received his education in Dresden and Vienna.

Life

Spoliansky was born into a musically diverse family. The father was an opera singer (baritone), his sister Lisa a concert pianist, his brother Aleksander (Shura) a cellist. After Misha was born, the family moved to Warsaw and later to Kalisz . After the early death of his mother, the five-year-old moved to Vienna with his father .

Spoliansky's early musical education (piano, violin and cello) was continued with Mark Günzburg in Dresden . Mischa first appeared in public at the age of ten. His father died soon afterwards and Spoliansky moved to Koenigsberg to live with relatives, but had to flee to Berlin as early as 1914 as a result of the outbreak of war , where his brother worked as a cellist and his sister studied with Artur Schnabel . He began an apprenticeship in the fashion house Hermann Gerson , which he broke off. Spoliansky worked as a pianist in coffee houses to finance his music studies at the Stern Conservatory . Spoliansky's first compositions were played by the UFA film theater orchestra in Friedrichstrasse. He also worked as a composer and pianist in a Russian emigrant cabaret. Friedrich Hollaender and Werner Richard Heymann heard him there and invited him to compose and play for the literary cabaret Schall und Rauch in the basement of the Großes Schauspielhaus , which Max Reinhardt had founded in 1919. Spoliansky also played in the renowned bar Kakadu . Spoliansky set texts by Kurt Tucholsky , Klabund and Joachim Ringelnatz to music and accompanied stars like Gussy Holl , Paul O'Montis , Rosa Valetti and Trude Hesterberg on the piano. Under the pseudonym "Arno Billing" he composed the melody for the first homosexual hymn entitled Das lila Lied in 1920 , which he dedicated to Magnus Hirschfeld and which came out for twenty-four hours with a text other than Be my wife .

In 1922 he met the poet Marcellus Schiffer and the diseuse Margo Lion , and in that year he also married the dancer Elsbeth (Eddy) Reinwald. In 1926 Spoliansky accompanied Richard Tauber on the recording of Schubert's Winterreise . Marlene Dietrich appeared in his revue It is in the air (text by Marcellus Schiffer) in 1928 . A year later she was discovered in Spoliansky's Two Ties (text by Georg Kaiser ) by Josef von Sternberg , who was looking for the leading actress for the Blue Angel .

It followed in 1930 How do I get rich and happy? , 1931 All swindle , 1932 Call Mr. Plim and the house in between , 1933 100 meters of luck .

In 1933 Spoliansky emigrated to London . There he began a second career as a film composer. The rapid naturalization as a British citizen succeeded not least thanks to the hit Tonight or Never from the film Das Lied einer Nacht (1932), which made Spoliansky world famous. In exile he composed the anti-fascist song of the barbed wire , which was sung by Peter Illing .

Recently, theaters occasionally play works by Spoliansky again, for example Zwei Krawatten in the 2004/2005 season at the Theater Dortmund as well as in 2009 in Rudolstadt and 2015/16 in Göttingen , or call Mr Plim at the Munster Municipal Theaters (2002/2003) and later at the theater in Kassel . Excerpts from Call Mr. Plim were performed in January 2010 in the Kulturzentrum Schlachthof in Bremen by the choir of the University of Bremen. And in 2017 the Nationaltheater Mannheim performed its cabaret revue How do I get rich and happy? from 1930 on again.

Works (selection)

  • 1928: Revue It's in the air
  • 1929: Revue piece Two Ties
  • 1930: Revue How do I get rich and happy? - A course in ten sections. (Text by Felix Joachimson )
  • 1931: Burlesque all swindle
  • 1932: Opera in one act Call Mr. Plim
  • 1932: Volksstück The house in between
  • 1932: Film music for The Song of a Night
  • 1933: Revue 100 meters of happiness
  • 1957: Musical Katharina Knie
  • 1957: Film music for St. Johanna

CD publications

  • Mischa Spoliansky: musical stations between morphine and resistance; a homage to the 100th KLEINaberKUNST KK-003/4 / Bear-Family-Records ISBN 978-3-89795-794-7 (2 CDs, 1998)
  • My song for you: Mischa Spoliansky, a musical portrait in original recordings. Edel 0014592TLR / Akademie der Künste ISBN 978-3-88331-046-6 (2 CDs, 1998)

literature

Web links

Commons : Mischa Spoliansky  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "The world is just a trench / the German cockroaches swarm in it in brown / like rust-eaten barbed wire. // Because we have nothing better to bite / have nothing better to offer / This is how the Nazi state produces / Only barbed wire, only barbed wire. ”On CD: This is England! Historical recordings by the German service of the BBC ( Memento from February 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
  2. ↑ Call Mr. Plim - performance on January 30, 2010 in the Kulturzentrum Schlachthof Bremen
  3. ↑ How do I get rich and happy? ( Memento from May 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) - Premiere January 21, 2017 at the Nationaltheater Mannheim
personal data
SURNAME Spoliansky, Misha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Billing, Arno (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian-British composer (revue, film music)
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Białystok
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1985
Place of death London