Hermann Zilcher

Hermann Zilcher (born August 18, 1881 in Frankfurt am Main; † 1 January 1948 in Würzburg) was a German composer, pianist, conductor and music teacher. He was the father of actress Eva Zilcher (1920-1994) and the conductor Heinz Reinhart Zilcher (1906-1967).Zilcher received early piano lessons from his father, the composer and piano pedagogue Paul Zilcher (1855-1943), who was known as a composer of didactic piano and chamber music. The son studied from 1897 at the Dr. Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, piano with James Kwast, counterpoint and morphology with Iwan Knorr and composition with Bernhard Scholz. At graduation he was awarded the Mozart Prize. In Frankfurt. In 1901 he moved to Berlin, where he quickly established himself mainly as a pianist for singers and instrumentalists, with concert tours, which made him internationally known in the US and in Europe. In 1905 he returned to Frankfurt as a piano teacher at the Dr. Hoch Conservatory. In 1908 he was appointed by Felix Mottl as a piano professor and in 1916 as a composition professor at the Academy of Music in Munich. In Munich, he worked closely with the head of the Munich Kammerspiele, Otto Falckenberg (1873-1947), for whom he wrote incidental music. In 1920 he became director of the Bavarian State Conservatory in Würzburg, and founded in 1922, the Würzburg Mozart Festival, which soon became internationally famous. For these accomplishments Zilcher was appointed in 1924 Privy Councillor by the Bavarian government and the University of Würzburg awarded him an honorary doctorate.

In the late 1920s Hermann Zilcher founded the Würzburg Chamber Orchestra, which achieved nationwide renown. As a result, Zilcher became increasingly engaged as guest conductor of other orchestras, for example, he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, at the invitation of Wilhelm Furtwängler. At this time Zilcher conducted works of Arnold Schönberg, Ernst Krenek and Paul Hindemith. In 1933 Hindemith joined in a concert in Würzburg under Zilcher conducting as a soloist of his Viola Concerto, Op. 36. [1] As the pianist of the Zilcher Trio (with violinist Adolf Schiering and cellist Ernst Chanbley) Zilcher performed works of Mendelssohn in 1932.

After the seizure of power by the National Socialists Zilcher became a member of the party, a fact for which he would later be criticized.

In 1941 his Violin Concerto, Op. 92. [11] was premiered in a concert by the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Wilhelm Furtwängler. Due to a long-standing dispute Zilcher was deprived of the management of the Mozart Festival and the directorship of the music school in 1943. [12] In the final phase of World War II Zilcher was approved to not serving on the front line, but was involved in the preparations for the Mozart Festival. [13]

Zilcher (after an anonymous complaint) was deposed as director of the Würzburg Conservatory due to his activities in the Nazi era. The US military administration [15] sentenced him to logging operations, where he injured his hands. Due to a medical certificate, he was exempted from this work. [16] Zilcher composed a fifth symphony in 1947. He had long suffered from a weak heart and died suddenly on 1 January 1948 at the age of 66 in Würzburg.

Zilcher compositional oeuvre includes orchestral and choral works, two operas, chamber music and songs, etudes, piano works and numerous works for accordion. As a music teacher, he also enjoyed an outstanding reputation.. Zilcher ‘s students included, among others Norbert Glanzberg, Karl Höller, Winfried Zillig, Kurt Eichhorn. Maria Landes-Hindemith and Carl Orff. His son Heinz Reinhart Zilcher (1906-1967) was a conductor in Stettin, Hamburg and Duisburg.

Music and Influences Hermann Zilcher is counted among the traditionalists of the 20th century and stands somewhere between late Romanticism and modernity. Alfred Einstein characterized Zilcher as follows: "one of the greatest German composers in the semi-Brahms tradition, with a neo-romantic and semi-impressionistic tonal direction" [18] The musicologist Barbara Haas commented: "Hermann Zilcher [...] can be seen as a composer of the middle; between old and new; He was a composer of moderate modernism, whose musical language evolved from the music of the 19th century, which was enriched with original personality traits. "[19] These personality traits are reflected in a tendency to simplicity and clarity of form, in a tendency to elaborate polyphony as well, and, especially in his late work - to monothematic concentration and uniform sentiment.” There is also a preference for the "Volkston" (in the style of folk music), similar to his models of Schumann and Brahms, but which is also to be found in more modern composers like Bartok or Hindemith.

Zilcher had special success in his lifetime with the oratorio Die Liebesmesse (The Love Fair) premiere 1913 in Strasbourg, with his " Deutschen Volksliederspiel " for four mixed voices and piano (1915) and with the première of his Violin Concerto No. 2 in 1942 by Furtwängler and the Berlin Philharmonic. In adiition to the posthumous premiere of his last symphony. 5 the led by Eugen Jochum (... "und dennoch ...) whch was well received in Hamburg in 1948. In Germany, his works were rarely performed. [20] until the 1990s. Zilcher music again regained broader interest, with CD releases, and an increasing number of performances.

Selected works

Stage
Orchestral
Concertante
Chamber music
Accordion
  1. Abendstimmung
  2. Jahrmarktsbilder
  3. Harmoniker-Marsch
Tanz auf der Wiese
Wächterlied
Piano
Vocal
Choral
  1. Mann und Weib
  2. Gott
  3. Die Welt

Literature

Conbtributions: 1. Joachim Stepp, in Barbara Haas u. a. Hg.: Hermann Zilcher, Tutzing 1999, S. 33. 2. Fred K. Prieberg: Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945, CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, S. 7983, zur KfdK – und Parteimitgliedschaft siehe auch Ernst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Frankfurt/Main 2007, S. 683. 3. Zur Logenzugehörigkeit siehe Matthias Wagner, in: Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch, Band 50, Würzburg 1998, S. 125, Fußnote 22. 4. Matthias Wagner, in: Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch, Band 50, Würzburg 1998, S. 127, Fußnote 77. 5. Fred K. Prieberg: Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945. CD-ROM-Lexikon 2004, S. 7984 (Zit. aus den RRG Presse-Mitteilungen Nr. 483, 1/XI/35, Blatt 45.) ZfM CI/9, September 1934, S. 918–925; zitiert nach Fred K. Prieberg: Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945. Kiel, 2004, CD-ROM-Lexikon, S. 7985. 6. J. Goebbels, in: Signale für die musikalische Welt, XCI/47, Berlin 1933, S. 780. 7. Matthias Wagner in: Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch, Band 50, Würzburg 1998, S. 120. Wagner schreibt irrtümlich 1938, bezieht sich aber auf ein in Abb. 6 (S. 135) abgedrucktes Schreiben aus der Gestapoakte 17972 im Staatsarchiv Würzburg. Diesem Schriftstück ist zu entnehmen, dass „alle Postsendungen, Eilsendungen und Telegramme für Zilcher“ zunächst zwei Monate lang überprüft wurden. Offen bleibt dabei, ob eine anschließende Verlängerung der Überwachung angeordnet wurde. 8. Matthias Wagner in: Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch, Band 50, Würzburg 1998, S. 121 und Fußnote 119, S. 129. 9. Ernst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich, Frankfurt/Main 2007, S. 683. 10. Fred K. Prieberg: Musik im NS-Staat, Frankfurt/Main 1982, S. 158 ff. 11. Matthias Wagner in Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch, Band 50, Würzburg 1998, S. 121. 12. Fred K. Prieberg: Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945, CD-ROM-Lexikon, 2004, S. 7987. 13. Joachim Stepp, in Barbara Haas u. a. Hg.: Hermann Zilcher, Tutzing 1999, S. 36; Fred K. Prieberg: Handbuch deutsche Musiker 1933–1945, CD-ROM-Lexikon 2004, S.7983; Matthias Wagner, in: Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch, Band 50, Würzburg 1998, S. 121. 14. Matthias Wagner, in: Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch, Band 50, Würzburg 1998, S. 119. 15. Ernst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Frankfurt/Main 2007, S. 683; Oliver Rathkolb: Führertreu und gottbegnadet. 16. Künstlereliten im Dritten Reich, Wien 1991, S. 173 ff. 17. Wagner, in: Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch, Band 50, Würzburg 1998, S. 119. 18. Wagner, in: Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch, Band 50 1998, S. 128, Fußnote 91. 19. Matthias Wagner, in: Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch, Band 50, Würzburg 1998, S. 123. 20. Alfred Einstein, in: Das neue Musik-Lexikon, Berlin 1926, S. 726 21. Barbara Haas, in: Hermann Zilcher, Tutzing 1999, S. 119 22. Reinhold Sietz schrieb 1968 in: MGG Band 14, S. 83.100 von einem „universale(n), heute wenig beachteten Schaffen Zilchers“.

References

    External links

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