Hans-Hubert Schönzeler
Encyclopedia
Hans-Hubert Schönzeler was a German
-born Australia
n-naturalised English
-resident composer
, conductor
and musicologist
who became an authority on Anton Bruckner
and Antonín Dvořák
.
He was born in Leipzig
, an only child, and studied the violin from the age of five. Although his family was not Jewish, he was sent to Brussels
so as to avoid contact with the Hitler Youth
. In 1939 his family emigrated to Australia
where, on the outbreak of the Second World War
, his father was interned as an enemy alien
. Hans-Hubert went to Sydney Boys High School
, but in 1941 he and his mother were also interned for the duration of the war. During these years he continued to study music. He also studied conducting with a former director of the Vienna Boys' Choir
. He was released in 1946 and was naturalised as an Australian in 1947. He attended the New South Wales State Conservatorium
, where he studied with Eugene Goossens
.
With assistance from Rafael Kubelík
, Schönzeler settled in London
in 1950, and went to work for Eulenburg Editions
. He was later a director of the company. He conducted the 20th-Century Ensemble in London from 1951 to 1962. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire
and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana
in Siena
, and worked as a freelance conductor in many countries as well as the UK. He conducted the concert at the Royal Albert Hall
in 1964 marking the 10th anniversary of the death of Wilhelm Furtwängler
, whose biography he later wrote. In 1967 he commenced a long association with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra
.
Schönzeler became a noted expert on Bruckner
: in 1970 he wrote a book on the composer; in 1973 he conducted the world premiere of the first version of the Eighth Symphony
; at the 1978 Adelaide Festival
he conducted the world premiere of the authentic first version of the Third Symphony
. He was honoured by the International Bruckner Society
, Vienna
, the Bruckner Society of America and he also won the Bruckner Medal Of Honor.
He was also a keen performer of the works of Dvořák
; as well as writing a biography, he appeared at the Prague Spring Festival in 1974 and was made an honorary member of the Antonín Dvořák Society in 1975. He also edited symphonies by Joseph Haydn
and Carl Maria von Weber
.
His recorded legacy includes works by Bruckner, Edmund Rubbra
, Sir Arthur Bliss
, Mozart
and Beethoven
.
Hans-Hubert Schonzeler died in England in 1997.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-born Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n-naturalised English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
-resident composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
and musicologist
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
who became an authority on Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
and Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
.
He was born in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, an only child, and studied the violin from the age of five. Although his family was not Jewish, he was sent to Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
so as to avoid contact with the Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
. In 1939 his family emigrated to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
where, on the outbreak of the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, his father was interned as an enemy alien
Enemy alien
In law, an enemy alien is a citizen of a country which is in a state of conflict with the land in which he or she is located. Usually, but not always, the countries are in a state of declared war.-United Kingdom:...
. Hans-Hubert went to Sydney Boys High School
Sydney Boys High School
Sydney Boys High School is an academically selective public secondary school for boys, located in the City of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, with 1,180 students, from years 7 to 12...
, but in 1941 he and his mother were also interned for the duration of the war. During these years he continued to study music. He also studied conducting with a former director of the Vienna Boys' Choir
Vienna Boys' Choir
The Vienna Boys' Choir is a choir of trebles and altos based in Vienna. It is one of the best known boys' choirs in the world. The boys are selected mainly from Austria, but also from many other countries....
. He was released in 1946 and was naturalised as an Australian in 1947. He attended the New South Wales State Conservatorium
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Australia...
, where he studied with Eugene Goossens
Eugène Aynsley Goossens
Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens was an English conductor and composer.-Biography:He was born in Camden Town, London, the son of the Belgian conductor and violinist Eugène Goossens and the grandson of the conductor Eugène Goossens...
.
With assistance from Rafael Kubelík
Rafael Kubelík
Rafael Jeroným Kubelík was a Czech conductor and composer.-Early life:Kubelík was born in Býchory, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, today's Czech Republic. He was the sixth child of the Bohemian violinist Jan Kubelík, whom the younger Kubelík described as "a kind of god to me." His mother was a Hungarian...
, Schönzeler settled in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1950, and went to work for Eulenburg Editions
Ernst Eulenburg (musical editions)
Ernst Eulenburg the music publisher was established by Ernst Eulenburg in Leipzig in 1874. The firm started by publishing a series of studies by a Dresden piano teacher, and then expanded into light music and works for men's chorus, at first all non-copyright works.-Origins of the miniature...
. He was later a director of the company. He conducted the 20th-Century Ensemble in London from 1951 to 1962. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire
Conservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France...
and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana
Accademia Musicale Chigiana
The Accademia Musicale Chigiana is a music institute in Siena, Italy. It was founded by Count Guido Chigi Saracini in 1932 as an international centre for advanced musical studies. It organises Master Classes in the major musical instruments as well as singing, conducting and composition...
in Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
, and worked as a freelance conductor in many countries as well as the UK. He conducted the concert at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
in 1964 marking the 10th anniversary of the death of Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...
, whose biography he later wrote. In 1967 he commenced a long association with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra
West Australian Symphony Orchestra
The West Australian Symphony Orchestra , often known as the "Orchestra of the West", is the premier professional orchestra of the state of Western Australia.-History:...
.
Schönzeler became a noted expert on Bruckner
Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
: in 1970 he wrote a book on the composer; in 1973 he conducted the world premiere of the first version of the Eighth Symphony
Symphony No. 8 (Bruckner)
Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 in C minor is the last Symphony the composer completed. It exists in two major versions of 1887 and 1890. It was premiered under conductor Hans Richter in 1892 in Vienna...
; at the 1978 Adelaide Festival
Adelaide Festival of Arts
The Adelaide Festival of Arts is an arts festival held biennially in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Although locally considered to be one of the world's greatest celebrations of the arts, that is internationally renowned and the pre-eminent cultural event in Australia, it is actually...
he conducted the world premiere of the authentic first version of the Third Symphony
Symphony No. 3 (Bruckner)
Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 3 in D minor was dedicated to Richard Wagner and is sometimes known as his "Wagner Symphony". It was written in 1873, revised in 1877 and again in 1891....
. He was honoured by the International Bruckner Society
International Bruckner Society
The International Bruckner Society was an organization which began its existence in 1927 in Leipzig and was officially founded in 1929 in Vienna. Its main purpose since then has been to publish editions of the music of Anton Bruckner...
, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, the Bruckner Society of America and he also won the Bruckner Medal Of Honor.
He was also a keen performer of the works of Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
; as well as writing a biography, he appeared at the Prague Spring Festival in 1974 and was made an honorary member of the Antonín Dvořák Society in 1975. He also edited symphonies by Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
and Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
.
His recorded legacy includes works by Bruckner, Edmund Rubbra
Edmund Rubbra
Edmund Rubbra was a British composer. He composed both instrumental and vocal works for soloists, chamber groups and full choruses and orchestras. He was greatly esteemed by fellow musicians and was at the peak of his fame in the mid-20th century. The most famous of his pieces are his eleven...
, Sir Arthur Bliss
Arthur Bliss
Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KCVO was an English composer and conductor.Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army...
, Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
and Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
.
Hans-Hubert Schonzeler died in England in 1997.
Selected compositions
- Sonata for viola and piano, Op.5 (1975)
- Tristesse, 5 Songs on texts by Paul VerlainePaul VerlainePaul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
for voice and piano or string orchestra