Robert Kahn (composer)

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Robert August Kahn (born July 21, 1865 in Mannheim , † May 29, 1951 in Biddenden , Kent , England ) was a German composer and music teacher .

Life

Robert Kahn was one of the nine children of a wealthy and respected Jewish merchant and banker family in Mannheim. His father was Bernhard Kahn , his mother Emma Eberstadt, daughter of Ferdinand Eberstadt , who had moved from Worms to Mannheim . His brother was the banker Otto Hermann Kahn .

Kahn studied music from 1882 to 1885 at the Royal University of Music in Berlin , among others with Friedrich Kiel and in 1885/86 with Josef Rheinberger in Munich . The personal encounter with Johannes Brahms in 1886 was formative for him.

After his military service, Kahn lived as a freelance composer and chamber musician in Berlin until 1890. From 1890 to 1893 he was a répétiteur at the Stadttheater in Leipzig .

In 1894 Kahn became a lecturer at the Royal University of Music in Berlin, from 1903 he was a professor there. His best-known students include the pianist Wilhelm Kempff , whom he taught composition from 1904, the conductor, pianist and music teacher Eduard Zuckmayer , the conductor Ferdinand Leitner , the composers Günter Raphael (from 1922) and Nikos Skalkottas, and the violinist Karl Klingler . Even Arthur Rubinstein visited his music theory classes. In 1900 he married Katharina Hertel, granddaughter of the composer Peter Hertel .

Memorial plaque on the house, Pariser Platz 4, in Berlin-Mitte

Almost all of his time in Berlin he was active as a chamber music partner and accompanist for the leading interpreters of his time, from Joseph Joachim and Richard Mühlfeld to Adolf Busch , from Johannes Messchaert to Ilona Durigo and Emmy Destinn .

Kahn was appointed a member of the Prussian Academy of the Arts in 1916 , of which he was a member until 1934.

As a Jew, Kahn was forced to emigrate by the National Socialists . When he emigrated to England in December 1938 , he was already known as a composer in Germany and had published numerous works. He spent the rest of his life in England.

After the end of the Second World War , Robert Kahn was almost completely forgotten by the broader musical public. In 1985 the Badische Kommunale Landesbank and Deutschlandfunk organized a concert in Mannheim, “Once celebrated, then forgotten”, in which Donald Runnicles performed Kahn's early piano pieces (including op. 11) and recorded them for record. From around the turn of the millennium, Kahn's music increasingly attracted the attention of various interpreters. A recording of the first piano quartet with Triendl, Shaham et al. released. In the interpretation of the tenor Martin Dillon (1957–2005), an extensive collection of Kahn's songs - including the complete Jungbrunnen cycle op. 46 for voice and piano trio - was recorded on 2 CDs; A third planned CD did not come about due to Dillon's death. Kahn's first cello sonata op. 37 was recorded by R. Rust and F. Schwinghammer, his clarinet trio op. 45 was recorded by Trio Paideia and, most recently, Trio Bornalie (2005), and the Serenade op. 73 is now in a recording of the Trio de Vries, Janssen, Guittart before (2002). Four of Kahn's six works for piano trio were recorded by the Hyperion Trio in 2012.

After his retirement, Robert Kahn moved into his country house in Feldberg and lived there for the last few years until he was expelled from Germany. Today the house is used as a youth hostel . On the west side of the house there is a plaque commemorating him.

Works

Kahn composed chamber music, a. a. 2 piano quintets, 2 string quartets, 3 piano quartets, 6 piano trios, 3 violin sonatas and 2 violoncello sonatas, over 200 songs and numerous choirs. His only orchestral works are a concert piece for piano and orchestra in E flat minor, Op. 74, and his orchestral serenade from his youth . Stylistically, his work can be assigned to Romanticism . During his inner emigration in Feldberg / Mecklenburg (1933–1938) and during his time in exile in England, he created the piano cycle “Diary in Tones” with 1160 (with second versions 1168) piano pieces, which is by far the largest piano cycle ever composed . Reprints , attacca instructions, harmonic or motivic references between pieces as well as statements about the intended sequence of the pieces or a coherent performance of these pieces prove the character of a coherent cycle.

Kahn dedicated his first violin sonata to the violinist Joseph Joachim . His first string quartet was premiered by the Joachim Quartet . The first performance of his orchestral serenade by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra took place under the direction of Hans von Bülow on October 27, 1890.

Most of the scores are in print and are in the newly founded Robert Kahn Archive at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. There are also some works in the IMSLP / Petrucci online library. Robert Kahn's work is not represented by GEMA and is therefore freely accessible to all those involved. The heirs of Kahn explicitly approved the work. The legal successors of the publishers with whom Kahn published works during his lifetime still have GEMA rights.

  • Op. 1 - Theme with 6 variations in E major for piano (1881)
  • op. 10 - Two songs for solos, female choir and orchestra (1890); First performance on June 13, 1890 in a “lecture evening” at the Berlin Music Academy under the direction of Joseph Joachim
  • op. 13 - At the lake. Six little pieces for piano duet (1891)
  • op.14 - Piano Quartet No. 1 in B flat minor (1891)
  • op. 27 - Seven songs for deep voice based on poems by Gerhart Hauptmann
  • op.74 - Concert piece for piano and orchestra in E flat minor (1923)

literature

Web links

Commons : Robert Kahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MARCHIVUM : Chronicle star . September 20, 1985. Retrieved September 30, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Cathy Karmilowicz: Rutgers-Camden prof revives music lost to Holocaust ( Memento of 8 April 2016 Internet Archive ), December 2, 2003; Music Lost to Holocaust Finds New Life in Recording by Rutgers-Camden Prof ( Memento from April 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), January 25, 2005
  3. ↑ For more information, see “Tradition of Naturalness”, among others, pp. 39–44 and on Steffen Fahl's website
personal data
SURNAME Kahn, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kahn, Robert August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1951
Place of death Biddenden , Kent