Eugen Szenkar

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Eugen Szenkar
Eugen Szenkar in 1939
Born
Szenkár Jenő

(1891-04-09)9 April 1891
Budapest, Austria-Hungary
Died25 March 1977(1977-03-25) (aged 85)
Düsseldorf, West Germany
EducationFranz Liszt Academy of Music
Occupation
  • Conductor
Organizations

Eugen Szenkar (Hungarian: Szenkár Jenő; 9 April 1891 – 25 March 1977) was a Hungarian-born German-Brazilian conductor who made an international career in Austria, Germany, Russia, and Brazil. He promoted the stage works of

Bela Bartók and other contemporary music at the Oper Frankfurt, the Cologne Opera, where he conducted the world premiere of The Miraculous Mandarin, and in Berlin. He conducted all of the symphonies by Gustav Mahler
.

Szenkar escaped the

Stalinist purge. He tried to build musical life in Rio de Janeiro from 1939 but returned to Germany after World War II. He remained faithful to his intentions for life, although he was often restricted as a Jew, a foreigner, a perceived leftist, and a non-conformist.[1] As he preferred live performances to recording, few sound documents of his work are extant.[1]

Life

Szenkar was born in Budapest, the son of the conductor, organist and composer

Hans Koessler[3] in Vienna.[4]

Szenkar took up his first position as a répétiteur at the Budapest Volksoper in 1911.[2] In 1912, he got a contract for one year at the Deutsches Landestheater in Prague, first as a choir director, later as second Kapellmeister.[4] In 1913, he returned to the Budapest Volksoper, which existed until 1915.[2] After one season at the Stadttheater Salzburg[2] and a short intermezzo at the Centraltheater Dresden, he became Kapellmeister at the ducal court theatre in Altenburg, Thuringia, in 1917, a position he held until 1920.[3] There he conducted Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen and all symphonies by Gustav Mahler, then still a composer who was not generally accepted.[2]

In 1920, Szenkar became first Kapellmeister, with Ludwig Rottenberg, at the Oper Frankfurt, where Paul Hindemith played principal viola.[2] Szenkar conducted the world premiere of Wellesz' Die Prinzessin Girnara[5] and the German premieres of Bartók's Herzog Blaubarts Burg and Der holzgeschnitzte Prinz. He met Bartók there and became a pioneer of his works in Germany.[2]

From 1923 to 1924, Szenkar was

Pelléas et Mélisande. The same year, a recording of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony was made for the 100th anniversary of his death. In 1928 and 1932, Szenkar gave guest concerts at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.[8]

In 1933, he fled the

Vienna Symphony Orchestra[9] and a performance of Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer. In 1934, Szenkar accepted an invitation to Moscow, where he conducted the State Philharmonic Orchestra and was guest conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre. He also held a conductor class at the State Conservatory.[2] His most famous student was Kirill Kondrashin. Szenkar was friends with Prokofiev and Nikolai Myaskovsky. He conducted the world premieres of Aram Khachaturian's First Symphony and Myaskovsky's 16th symphony. In 1937, he was expelled from Russia during the first great wave of Stalin's purge.[3]

In 1938 and 1939, Szenkar lived in Paris where he conducted concerts with the Palestine Orchestra, founded by Bronisław Huberman.[2] In 1939, he was invited as guest conductor at the Theatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro. The beginning of World War II kept him in Brazil, where he and a few colleagues founded the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra in 1940, which he led until 1948.[2] He built up musical life based on European models in Rio, gave up to 80 concerts a year, initiated Sunday matinees and youth concerts and founded a choir of amateur singers. During a guest performance in 1958, he was made an honorary citizen of the city.[1][4]

At the end of 1949, Szenkar returned to Europe and lived in Paris.

Düsseldorf Opera under general manager Walter Bruno Iltz, and GMD of Düsseldorf. In 1954, he led the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra and the choir of the Musikverein on their first tour abroad. At a concert in the Royal Festival Hall in London, he conducted Bruckner's Seventh Symphony.[2] In 1958, he conducted the world premiere of the Fifth Symphony by Wellesz. He was awarded honorary membership of the International Gustav Mahler Association.[2] In 1960, he resigned as GMD due to his age.[1] In the following years he was a traveling conductor in Europe,[6] particularly to Hungary. His last conducting performance was Bizet's Carmen in Cologne on the occasion of his 80th birthday.[10]

Szenkar married the opera singer Hermine Zeitschel.[11] Their son was the music producer and composer Claudio Szenkar [de].[11] Eugen Szenkar's brother Alexander was also a conductor.[11] Szenkar died in Düsseldorf at the age of 85.[3]

Recording

Archiphon released a 3-CD set in 2005 that compiled Szenkar's 1928 recording of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony with his postwar recordings of Mahler's

Symphonieorchester der Stadt Düsseldorf.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Fischer, Gert (2008). "Wer war Eugen Szenkar?" (PDF). archiphon.de (in German). Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Eugen Szenkar – Generalmusikdirektor von 1952 bis 1960" (in German). Musikverein Düsseldorf. 30 April 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Kneipel, Eberhard (March 2017). "Bauchhenß, Elisabeth / Eugen Szenkar (1891–1977) / Ein ungarisch-jüdischer Dirigent schreibt deutsche Operngeschichte". Das Orchester (in German). Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  4. ^ a b c "Eugen Szenkar" (in German). Munzinger Archiv. 1977. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  5. ^ Die Prinzessin Girnara
  6. ^ a b c Vratz, Christoph (30 November 2016). "Erste Biografie über einen fast vergessenen Dirigenten / Bereichernd" (in German). SWR. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  7. ^ a b c Ozorio, Anne (May 2005). "Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) / Symphony No. 3 / Symphony N. 4 / Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) / Symphony No 5". musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  8. ^ Bauchhenß 2016, p. 130.
  9. Vienna Symphony Orchestra
  10. ^ Bauchhenß 2016, p. 275.
  11. ^ a b c "Szenkar (Szenkár), Familie". Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon (in German). Retrieved 25 September 2020.

Sources

Further reading

External links

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