Robert Kahn (21 July 1865 – 29 May 1951) was a German composer, pianist, and music teacher.
Kahn was born inMannheim, the second son of Bernhard Kahn[1] and Emma Eberstadt. One of his seven siblings was the wealthy financierOtto Kahn whose sonRoger Wolfe Kahn was a successful jazz musician, composer and aviator. His parents belonged to a distinguishedGerman-Jewish family of bankers and merchants. In 1882, Kahn entered theKöniglichen Hochschule für Musik inBerlin, where he studied for the next three years. Between 1885 and 1886, he continued his musical education underJosef Rheinberger inMunich. On a visit to Vienna the following year, Kahn met and befriended composerJohannes Brahms, who offered to make Kahn his pupil.[2] Although Kahn declined the invitation out of diffidence, Brahms's music would exert a profound influence on his compositional style throughout his career.[3]
After finishing his military service, Kahn worked as a freelance composer in Berlin until 1890. For the next three years he was employed as a Korrepetitor (rehearsal pianist) at the Stadttheater inLeipzig. Having been appointed lecturer in composition at his alma mater in 1894, Kahn went on to train some of the best-known musicians of the 20th century. His students include the pianistsArthur Rubinstein andWilhelm Kempff, the conductorFerdinand Leitner, the composersTheodore Holland,Nikos Skalkottas andGünter Raphael, and the violinist Karl Klinger.
While Kahn was composing and teaching in Berlin he also was active as chamber musician andLied accompanist in concert with leading soloists and singers of his time, ranging fromJoseph Joachim andRichard Mühlfeld toAdolf Busch, from Johann Messchaert toIlona Durigo andEmmy Destinn.
In 1916, Kahn was elected to thePrussian Academy of Arts, a membership he held until 1934 when theNazi regime ordered him to resign because he was Jewish. The Nazis also prohibited the publication and performance of his music. This drove him, at the age of 73, to leave Germany for England in 1939 with his wife Katharina, where (as with manyémigré musicians of the period) he spent the last years of his life in relative obscurity but composing prolifically. He lived inAshtead, Surrey and inBiddenden,Kent, where he died. Kahn and his music were almost entirely forgotten after World War II, but are being rediscovered by musicians and audiences, as is the case of many other composers of "degenerate music" persecuted by the Nazis.[4]
Kahn composed a vast quantity of chamber music, writing in an intimate, lyrical style that is reminiscent ofFelix Mendelssohn,Robert Schumann, and Brahms. He was also an admirer ofReger. But aside from the SerenadeAus der Jugendzeit ("From Youth") and theKonzertstück, Op. 74 for piano and orchestra in E-flat minor, he mostly avoided the large scale orchestral forms and emotional extravagance of late Romanticism. There are a number of ambitious works for chorus and orchestra, such as theGoethe settingMahomets Gesang, Op. 24 (1896), theSturmlied, Op. 53 for chorus, orchestra and organ (1910), and theFestgesang, Op. 64 for the same forces.[5]
Of the chamber music there are three violin sonatas,[6] two cello sonatas, four piano trios,[7] two string quartets, three piano quartets and two piano quintets. Particularly notable are the Violin Sonata in E, Op. 50 (1907), the Piano Quartets, Op. 30 (1899) and Op. 41 (1904), and the String Quartet in A minor, Op. 60 (1914). The unconventionally scored Quintet in C minor of 1911 (for piano, violin, cello, clarinet and horn, the same combination used byVaughan Williams in 1897), has been recorded.[8] Lieder were also very important to Kahn: he composed around 180 solo songs and 13 duets.[5]
Kahn was often commissioned to create works for some of the finest musicians of the early decades of the 20th century up to the youngAdolf Busch, with whom Kahn gave the first performance of his Suite, Op. 69 for violin and piano in 1920. His first Violin Sonata in G minor (1886) was dedicated toJoseph Joachim, who asked to perform it when Kahn was still a young student in Berlin.Clara Schumann mentioned this sonata in her diary. The second Violin Sonata, in A minor, Op. 26 (1897) was dedicated to Joachim, while the String Quartet No. 1 in A major, Op. 8 (1889) was dedicated to and first performed by the Joachim Quartet. The second string quartet was premiered by the Klingler Quartet, successor of the Joachim. His Clarinet Trio, Op. 45 was dedicated to and performed by the famous clarinetistRichard Mühlfeld who also inspired Brahms's late chamber compositions.Hans von Bülow conducted theBerlin Philharmonic Orchestra in the world première of Kahn's orchestral serenade in 1890.
His renewed compositional activity after leaving Germany in 1938 resulted in a large collection of piano music, including more than 1,100 pieces. These took the form of a musical diary, theTagebuch in Tönen, begun in 1935, with Kahn writing several short piano works per week until his death in 1951.[4] Apart from an extracted set of 29, these only exist in manuscript at theAkademie der Künste in Berlin. The pianist Maksim Štšura has recorded a selection,[9] as hasDanny Driver.[10]
