
Ignaz Brüll (7 November 184617 September 1907) was a
Moravia
Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia.
Th ...
n-born pianist and composer who lived and worked in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
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.
His operatic compositions included ''
Das goldene Kreuz
''Das goldene Kreuz'' (''The Golden Cross'') is a German-language opera by Ignaz Brüll in two acts, with a libretto by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal. It premiered in Berlin in 1875 and was a huge success, later playing on many stages around the wor ...
'' (''The Golden Cross''), which became a repertory work for several decades after its first production in 1875, but eventually fell into neglect after being banned by the Nazis because of Brüll's Jewish origins. He also wrote a small corpus of finely crafted works for the concert hall and recitals. Brüll's compositional style was lively but unabashedly conservative, in the vein of
Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sym ...
and
Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
.
Brüll was also highly regarded as a sensitive concert pianist.
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...
regularly wanted Brüll to be his partner in private performances of four-hand
piano duet
According to the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', there are two kinds of piano duet: "those for two players at one instrument, and those in which each of the two pianists has an instrument to themself." In American usage the former is ...
arrangements of his latest works. Indeed, Brüll was a prominent member of Brahms's circle of musical and literary friends, many of whom he and his wife frequently entertained.
In recent years, Brüll's concert music has been revived on CD, and well-received recordings are available of his piano concertos, among other non-vocal works.
In 1872 he was appointed professor at the
Horak Institute in Vienna.
[
]
Biography
Early years
Brüll was born in Prostějov
Prostějov (; german: Proßnitz) is a city in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 43,000 inhabitants. The city is known for its fashion industry. The historical city centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban m ...
(Proßnitz) in Moravia
Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia.
Th ...
, the eldest son of Katharina Schreiber and Siegmund Brüll. His parents were prosperous Jewish merchants and keen social musicians; his mother played piano and his father (who was closely related to the Talmudic scholar Nehemiah Brüll
__NOTOC__
Nehemiah Brüll (16 March 1843 in Rousínov, Moravia – 5 February 1891 in Frankfurt am Main) was a rabbi and versatile scholar.
Life
Brüll received his rabbinic-Talmudic education from his father, Jakob Brüll (de), who combined ...
) sang baritone. In 1848 the family relocated their business to Vienna
en, Viennese
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, registration_plate = W
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, postal_code =
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, where Brüll lived and worked for the rest of his life.[ Retrieved 7 May 2012.]
Brüll started learning piano from his mother around the age of eight and he quickly showed talent.[ Despite being the heir to the family business, his promise at the keyboard encouraged his parents to provide him with a serious musical training.] By the age of ten, he was taking piano lessons from Julius Epstein, a professor at the Vienna Conservatory Vienna Conservatory may refer to:
*University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university ...
and friend of Brahms.[ A year later, in 1857, he began studying composition with ]Johann Rufinatscha
Johann Rufinatscha (1 October 1812 – 25 May 1893) was an Austrian composer, theorist and music teacher.
Life
Rufinatscha was born in 1812 in Mals (Austria, now in the Italian province of South Tyrol). At the age of 14 he came to Innsbruc ...
; instrument instruction followed with Felix Otto Dessoff.[
In 1860, while aged fourteen, Brüll started writing his Piano Concerto No. 1, which received its first public performance the following year in Vienna with Epstein as soloist.][ Further encouragement to pursue a musical career came with endorsement from the distinguished pianist-composer ]Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein ( rus, Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн, r=Anton Grigor'evič Rubinštejn; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the S ...
.[
]
Success and ''Das goldene Kreuz''
Brüll scored another success with his Serenade No. 1 for Orchestra, which was premiered in Stuttgart in 1864.[ By now, Brüll was 18 years old and had just finished composing his first opera score, ''Die Bettler von Samarkand'' (''The Beggars of Samarkand''). Unfortunately, plans for a production at the Court Theatre in Stuttgart in 1866 failed to materialize, and the work was apparently never played.][
By contrast, Brüll's second opera, '']Das goldene Kreuz
''Das goldene Kreuz'' (''The Golden Cross'') is a German-language opera by Ignaz Brüll in two acts, with a libretto by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal. It premiered in Berlin in 1875 and was a huge success, later playing on many stages around the wor ...
'' (''The Golden Cross''), was by far his most successful: it held a place in the repertory for several decades and brought its composer into the public eye almost overnight.[ At its premiere in Berlin in December 1875, Brüll was personally complimented by the emperor, ]Wilhelm I
William I or Wilhelm I (german: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the f ...
.[ The opera, with a libretto by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal based on a story by ]Mélesville
Baron Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier, pen-name Mélesville (13 December 1787 in Paris – 7 November 1865 in Marly-le-Roi) was a French dramatist. The playwright Mélesville fils was his son.
Life
The son of Honoré-Nicolas-Marie Duveyrier, M� ...
, involves an emotional drama of mistaken identities during the Napoleonic wars.
In parallel, Brüll had also been pursuing a career as a concert pianist, playing as a popular soloist and recitalist throughout the German speaking countries. The London premiere of ''Das goldene Kreuz'', in an 1878 production by the Carl Rosa Opera Company
The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, and his wife, British operatic soprano Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company premiere ...
, coincided with the first of two extensive concert tours of England, during which he was able to play his Piano Concerto No. 2 (another youthful work, written in 1868) and arrange performances of some of his other pieces.[ Brüll also toured with ]George Henschel
Sir Isidor George Henschel (18 February 185010 September 1934) was a German-born British baritone, pianist, conductor, and composer. His first wife Lillian was also a singer. He was the first conductor of both the Boston Symphony Orchestra ...
.
The Brahms circle and later years
In 1882, Brüll married Marie Schosberg, a banker's daughter who became a popular hostess to Viennese musical and artistic society.[ Brüll now shifted his attention towards composition, reduced the number of concert engagements, and permanently gave up touring. He also found himself playing host to ]Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...
's circle of friends, including the powerful music critic Eduard Hanslick
Eduard Hanslick (11 September 18256 August 1904) was an Austrian music critic, aesthetician and historian. Among the leading critics of his time, he was the chief music critic of the '' Neue Freie Presse'' from 1864 until the end of his life. H ...
, the musically minded eminent surgeon Theodor Billroth
Christian Albert Theodor Billroth (26 April 18296 February 1894) was a German surgeon and amateur musician.
As a surgeon, he is generally regarded as the founding father of modern abdominal surgery. As a musician, he was a close friend and con ...
, and composers such as Carl Goldmark, Robert Fuchs
Robert Fuchs (15 February 1847 – 19 February 1927) was an Austrian composer and music teacher. As Professor of music theory at the Vienna Conservatory, Fuchs taught many notable composers, while he was himself a highly regarded composer in h ...
, and even Gustav Mahler.[ When Brahms wanted to audition his latest orchestral compositions, as was his habit, to a select group of connoisseurs in four-handed versions for two pianos, Brüll regularly played alongside the senior composer.][ From 1890, Brüll's new holiday home (the ''Berghof'') in ]Unterach am Attersee
Unterach is a village in the Austria state of Upper Austria on the southern shore of lake Attersee in the centre of the Salzkammergut region.
The name derives from the Austro-Bavarian ''Untr, aha'' ~ ''between, waters'' based on the geograph ...
also became a social venue.[
Unlike Brahms, Brüll was a man of the theatre, and he went on to compose at least seven more operas, which however did not approach the same level of popular success as ''Das goldene Kreuz''.] His final opera, the two-act comedy ''Der Hussar'', was well received when it was staged in Vienna in 1898.
Brüll was an honorary British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English ...
consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states th ...
at Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
and was appointed an Honorary Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III.
It is named in hono ...
in the 1902 Coronation Honours list on 26 June 1902.
Music
Brüll's other operas include: ''Der Landfriede'' (Vienna, 1877), ''Bianca'' (Dresden, 1879), ''Königin Mariette'' (Munich, 1883), ''Das Steinerne Herz'' (Prague, 1888), ''Gringoire'' (one act, Munich, 1892), and ''Schach dem König'' (Munich, 1893). For the ballet, he wrote the orchestral dance-suite ''Ein Märchen aus der Champagne'' (1896).
Orchestral concert works by Brüll include the ''Im Walde'' and ''Macbeth'' overtures, a symphony and three serenades, a violin concerto, and the two piano concertos, as well as three other piano concertante pieces. His chamber and instrumental music includes a suite and three sonatas for piano and violin, a trio, a cello sonata, a sonata for two pianos and various other piano pieces. He also wrote songs and part-songs.[
]
Recordings
While a selection of Brüll's concert and recital works is now available on CD, the vocal output has been largely passed by: the few known commercial recordings, by Brüll's Moravian compatriot Leo Slezak
Leo Slezak (; 18 August 1873 – 1 June 1946) was a Moravian dramatic tenor. He was associated in particular with Austrian opera as well as the title role in Verdi's ''Otello''. He is the father of actors Walter Slezak and Margarete Slezak ...
and by Emanuel List among others, remain confined to vinyl. The second piano concerto was set down twice on elusive LPs, and in 1999, Hyperion Records
Hyperion Records is an independent British classical record label.
History
Hyperion is an independent British classical label that was established in 1980 with the goal of showcasing recordings of music in all genres and from all time period ...
released a well-received recording of the two piano concertos and a ''Konzertstück'' played by Martin Roscoe with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) is a Scottish broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Glasgow. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), it is the oldest full-time professional ra ...
under Martyn Brabbins
Martyn Charles Brabbins (born 13 August 1959) is a British conductor. The fourth of five children in his family, he learned to play the euphonium, and then the trombone during his youth at Towcester Studio Brass Band. He later studied compositio ...
. Brüll's piano sonata has been recorded by Alexandra Oehler for CPO along with some other shorter keyboard pieces.
For the centenary of Brüll's death in 2007, the Cameo Classics
Cameo or CAMEO may refer to:
* Cameo appearance, a brief appearance of a known figure in a film or television show
* Cameo (carving), a method of carving, making use of layers of different colours, or an item made with such a method
Music
* ...
record label and the Brüll Rediscovery Project began a recording programme intended to make Brüll's orchestral works known to a wider audience. His Symphony op. 31 and the Serenade No. 1, op. 29 were recorded by the Belarusian State Symphony Orchestra under Marius Stravinsky. Janet Olney recorded a selection of solo piano works by Brüll (CC9030CD). His Piano Sonata No. 3 was recorded in 2010 by Valentina Seferinova, as was his Serenade No. 2, op. 36 for Orchestra (CC9031CD). In 2011 the Musical Director of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra
The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra is recognized as Malta’s foremost musical institution.
Founded in 1968 as the Manoel Theatre Orchestra, in September 1997 it became an independent body and was officially named as Malta's national orchestra. In ...
, Michael Laus, corrected and completed the score of Brüll's Violin Concerto and recorded the complete work with Ilya Hoffman as soloist (due to multiple errors and gaps in both the score and Brüll's original manuscript, only the slow movement had been previously released). The ''Macbeth'' overture was also recorded. All the Cameo Classics recording sessions were filmed, and a documentary on the music of Brüll and his fellow German Jewish Romantic era composers is reported to be in preparation.
Notes and references
Notes
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
*
* Concert Pianis
Valentina Seferinova
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruell, Ignaz
1846 births
1907 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century classical pianists
19th-century Czech male musicians
20th-century classical composers
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century Czech male musicians
Austrian classical pianists
Austrian Jews
Austrian male classical composers
Austrian music educators
Austrian opera composers
Austrian Romantic composers
Czech classical pianists
Czech Jews
Czech male classical composers
Czech music educators
Czech opera composers
Czech Romantic composers
Honorary Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George
Jewish classical composers
Male classical pianists
Male opera composers
People from Prostějov
People from the Margraviate of Moravia
Piano pedagogues