Paul von Klenau

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Paul August von Klenau (born February 11, 1883 in Copenhagen ; † August 31, 1946 there ) was a Danish composer and conductor .

Life

Klenau, who came from a family of German descent, entered the Copenhagen Conservatory in 1900 and studied violin and composition there. In 1902 he moved to Berlin , where he became a student of Max Bruch . Two years later he resumed his studies with Ludwig Thuille in Munich . After Thuille's death in 1907, Klenau found a job as Kapellmeister at the Städtisches Theater in Freiburg , but continued to take music lessons, this time with Max von Schillings .

Klenau's first symphony was successfully premiered in Munich in 1908. In 1912 he conducted concerts for the Frankfurt Bach Society. In the following years his appearances as a conductor took Klenau through several European countries (including donating the Danish Philharmonic Society in his native Copenhagen in 1920) until he became choirmaster of the Vienna Concert Society in 1922 . In the time of National Socialism , Klenau came closer to the rulers and was considered one of the leading composers in the German Reich , especially with his operas between 1933 and 1945. In 1940 he moved back to Copenhagen and devoted himself entirely to composition. Paul von Klenau died there in 1946 at the age of 63.

Klenau was married to Anne Marie Simon in his first marriage and to Margarethe Klimt in his second marriage .

style

Klenau's work shows a variety of influences, especially from German music. The tonal language of his teachers Bruch and Thuille, but also that of Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner, shimmers through his early compositions . However, the composer was already able to map out his own path here. For Klenau's later career as a composer, occupation with Arnold Schönberg's twelve-tone music became important, but he subjected it to a predominantly tonal order. Since Klenau succeeded in convincing the National Socialists that his form of twelve-tone composition represented a counterpart to the “Jewish” direction of Schönberg, he was able to stick to the repertoire after 1933 as a modern composer. His work includes 9 symphonies, operas, ballet songs and chamber music works.

Works (selection)

  • Symphony No. 1 in F minor (1908)
  • Symphony No. 2 (1911)
  • Symphony No. 3 (1913)
  • Symphony No. 4 Dante Symphony (1913)
  • Symphony No. 5 Tripticon (1939)
  • Symphony No. 6 Nordic Symphony (1940)
  • Symphony No. 7 Storm Symphony (1941)
  • Symphony No. 8 in the Old Style (1942)
  • Symphony No. 9 for choir and orchestra (1945)
  • Symphonic Fantasy Paolo and Francesca (1913)
  • Symphonic seal at London fair (1922)
  • Old German song suite for orchestra (1934)
  • Violin Concerto (1922)
  • Music in the manner of the minstrels for orchestra
  • Conversations with Death , song cycle with orchestra (1916)
  • Little Ida's Flowers , Ballet (1916)
  • Marion , ballet (1920)
  • The blasphemy school , opera
  • Michael Kohlhaas , opera
  • Rembrandt van Rijn , opera
  • Elisabeth von England , Opera (premiered March 29, 1939, Staatstheater Kassel), revised as Die Königin (April 1940, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin)
  • Sulamith , opera (1913)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Klimt, Margarethe on frankfurter-habenlexikon.de with a portrait of Emy Limpert
  2. ^ A b Fred K. Prieberg: Music in the Nazi State . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-596-26901-6 , pp. 303 ff .
  3. ↑ Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 , CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, p. 3717.
  4. ↑ Margaret Ross Griffel: Operas in German: A Dictionary . Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham et al. a. 2018, ISBN 978-1-4422-4796-3 , pp. 122 ( google.de ).

Web link

personal data
SURNAME Klenau, Paul von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Klenau, Paul August von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish composer and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen
DATE OF DEATH August 31, 1946
Place of death Copenhagen