Rita Kurzmann chandelier

Rita Kurzmann-Leuchter , born Henriette Rita Pollak , (born February 4, 1900 in Vienna , † October 20 or 21, 1942 in Buenos Aires ) was an Austrian pianist and music teacher.

Rita Kurzmann studied chemistry and physics at the University of Vienna from 1918 to 1923 , then musicology and a minor in physics and philosophy. In 1921 she married the doctor Dr. Rudolf Kurzmann. In 1924 she completed her doctorate under Guido Adler with the dissertation The Modulation in Mozart's Instrumental Works , which appeared the following year in excerpts in Adler's Studies in Musicology, Supplements to the Monuments of Music Art in Austria (Volume 12).

Kurzmann's piano teachers were Hugo Reinhold and, in the early 1930s, Emil von Sauer . Her first proven performance as a pianist was a Max Reger evening at the Wiener Konzerthaus in 1926. As early as 1927 and 1928 she performed with the violinist Louis Krasner , for whom Alban Berg later composed his violin concerto. Since 1927 she has been teaching piano at the New Vienna Conservatory .

From the beginning of the 1930s Kurzmann was secretary of the Austrian section of the International Society for New Music (IGNM). a. Anton Webern and David Josef Bach counted. In 1932 and 1933 Webern gave two series of lectures in Kurzmann's apartment. a. Ernst Krenek , Eduard Steuermann , Paul Amadeus Pisk , Erwin Stein , and occasionally Alban and Helene Berg took part and their transcripts appeared in 1960 under the title Der Weg zur neue Musik . In 1935, Kurzmann worked with Berg on the piano version of the violin concerto that Berg had composed for Louis Krasner.

In early 1936 she rehearsed the work with Krasner, who premiered at the 1936 IGNM Festival in Barcelona under the direction of Hermann Scherchen . A preview took place shortly beforehand with Krasner and Kurzmann in the chamber music hall of the Wiener Musikverein . On the occasion of the award of the Emil Hertzka Prize , she played a piano suite by Norbert von Hannenheim and Paul Dessau's Three Piano Pieces here in May 1936 .

In the same year, Kurzmann divorced her husband and emigrated to Buenos Aires. Here she married the musicologist and conductor Erwin Leuchter , whom she met in the early 1930s at the Vienna Workers' Symphony Concerts . In 1938 she went on a European tour, during which she a. a. gave a concert of Argentinian music in Vienna. In the same year she played a cycle of violin sonatas with the violinist Carlos Pessina in Buenos Aires.

In 1939 she premiered the pieces Do re mi fa sol (1933) and Canción de otoño (1939) by José María Castro at the Teatro del Pueblo . However, she mainly devoted herself to teaching and published a number of music pedagogical works. Her best-known student was the composer and conductor Michael Gielen .

Works (selection)

• El pequeño violinista rondas, canciones, danzas populares argentinas arregladas para la enseñanza primaria para violín con acompañamiento de otro violín o de piano . Illustrations Agi Lamm . Buenos Aires: Ricordi Americana, 1942.
• Canciones infantiles Europeas . Illustrations Agi Lamm. Buenos Aires: Ricordi Americana, 1950. (3rd ed.)
• Canciones de navidad . Illustrations Agi Lamm. Buenos Aires: Ricordi Americana imp. 1998.

literature

• Rodolfo Arizaga: Enciclopedia de la musica argentina . Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Buenos Aires 1971.
• Higinio Angles, Miguel Querol Gavalda: Diccionario de la musica labor . Iniciado por Joaquin Pena, continuado por Higinio Angles. Con la colaboracion de Miguel Querol y otros distinguidos musicologos espanoles y extranjeros. Editorial Laboratory, Barcelona 1954.

Web links

• Herbert Henck: Rita Kurzmann-Leuchter