Peter Lafite

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Peter Lafite (1908–1951)

Peter Lafite (born October 11, 1908 in Vienna ; † June 15, 1951 Bad Gastein ) was an Austrian cultural politician, music critic and founder of the Austrian music magazine .

Life

Peter Lafite completed his law studies (doctorate in 1932) and at the same time received a sound musical education in piano, organ and composition theory at the New Vienna Conservatory . After internships in court in Vienna and St. Gilgen, he worked in the Austrian financial procuratorate from 1935, after the " Anschluss " in 1940 by transferring to the East Prussian financial administration in Königsberg . In 1945 he fled to Vienna. He started there again in the Federal Ministry of Finance, but switched to culture in 1945 with the founding of the Federal Ministry of Education by Felix Hurdes , where he had the expertise for general art and music matters. He was also personally engaged as a critic and published continuously on theater, film and music: 1933–1938 Neues Wiener Tagblatt , 1940–1944 Königsberger Allgemeine Zeitung, 1945 Neues Österreich , since 1946 Wiener Kurier .

After the end of the war he was significantly involved in the cultural reconstruction of Austria, so he carried out the tender for the new Austrian national anthem . Lafite was entrusted with the files on denazification, including musicians like Wilhelm Furtwängler , Richard Strauss and Herbert von Karajan . He devoted himself to the systematic structure of musical life, on the one hand through the four zones of occupation, on the other hand directly through correspondence with composers, conductors, performers and scholars. In 1950, at the invitation of the USA - mediated by the Austrian Ambassador Franz Leitner - he traveled to the United States for cultural and political comparisons and for contacts with those in exile such as Rudolf Bing , Arnold Schönberg , Ernst Krenek , Max Steiner , Rudolf Réti and Herbert Zipper . At music festivals he was responsible for festival funding as well as music critic, he was on the board of trustees of the Salzburg Festival , also involved in its festival fund law, and initiated the “cultural penny law” in favor of private theaters.

Herbert von Karajan and Clemens Holzmeister looking at Peter Lafite's magazine with the blueprint for the Salzburg Music Olympiad

From 1949–1951 he was the coordinator of the Salzburg Music Olympiad with 30 participating countries (see: Art competitions at the Olympic Games). He was given the task of ordering the judges' colloquium for the Great Austrian State Prize in 1950.

Peter Lafite founded the " Austrian music magazine " ÖMZ, which "covers the entire serious musical life of Austria and abroad on a monthly basis for musicians and music lovers". He positioned the specialist journal as a general forum for the presentation and discussion of musical life: the specialist and public forum had its first task in the function of finding the new national anthem (1946/1947). Opinion surveys on music in general and new music in particular prepared the ground. Lafite got involved with young performers, both lieder singers like Maria Jeritza , Ljuba Welitsch , as well as pianists like Friedrich Gulda , Paul Badura-Skoda or composers like Gottfried von Eine , Paul Kont, Josef Matthias Hauer , and many others. The focus was on music criticism, which in goals , Principles and commitment has been set forth; The internationalization of culture (UNESCO) was future-oriented. “Music as a noble mediator” was his credo.

As a critic for the daily newspapers, he accompanied the major festivals, commented on the Vienna Festival Weeks and the Salzburg Festival, but also on the cultural policy of the city of Vienna (“Vienna School”, “Music Film”) and was a juror for the international singing competition in Scheveningen.

In 1951 he died suddenly while on vacation. He found his grave first in St. Wolfgang, then finally in Vienna ( Heiligenstädter Friedhof ) (Part A, Group 4, Number 151), parallel to the dedication of a “Lafitegasse” in Vienna XIII and the grave of honor for his father Carl Lafite at the Vienna Central Cemetery (Group 31B, Row 13, Number 5). In the ministry, his agenda for the national anthem remained unopened. In 1952 Austria lost the planned anchoring of the European Festival Association to Geneva in Salzburg and instead the ARD International Music Competition started with singing in Munich. His closest friend Franz Stoss erected a memorial for him in the television series Die liebe Familie about "Section Head Lafite".

Peter Lafite's grave

Individual evidence

  1. Kronen Zeitung August 6, 1995, p. 26 f.
  2. ^ Kurier April 23, 1990, p. 24 f. > June 16, 2007, p. 12

literature

  • Austria's musical broadcast , in: ÖMZ 1/1 (1946), p. 3 ff.
  • Music criticism , in: ÖMZ 3/4 (1948), pp. 115–119
  • American musical life , in: ÖMZ 5 / 7–8 (1950), pp. 158–163.
  • Franz Stoss: Memories of Peter Lafite , in: ÖMZ 13/10 (1958), p. 441
  • Letters, photos, dossier on the US trip (Lafite archive)

Web links