Braunfels studied law and economics at the university inMunich until after a performance ofRichard Wagner'sTristan und Isolde he decided on music. He went to Vienna in 1902 to study with the pianist and teacherTheodor Leschetizky. He then returned to Munich to studycomposition withFelix Mottl andLudwig Thuille.[1] In February 1918 he was wounded at the front and in June 1918 on his return to Frankfurt converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, composing hisTe Deum of 1920–21 "not as music for musicians but as a personal expression of faith".[3]
He achieved early success with the melodious operaDie Vögel (The Birds, 1920), such thatAdolf Hitler, not realising that Braunfels was half-Jewish, in 1923 invited Braunfels to write an anthem for the Nazi Party, which Braunfels "indignantly turned down".[4]
Braunfels performed as a professional pianist for many years. In 1949 he played Beethoven'sDiabelli Variations on a radio broadcast.[5] At his farewell concert as pianist on 19 January 1952, he played Bach's D major Toccata, Beethoven'spiano sonata no. 32 op. 111 and the arrangement of theOrgan Fantasy and Fugue in G minor by Liszt.[6]
Braunfels was invited byKonrad Adenauer, then mayor of Cologne, to serve as the first director (and founder together withHermann Abendroth) of theCologne Academy of Music (Hochschule für Musik Köln) from 1925 to 1933, and again from 1945 to 1950.[1][6][7] With the rise of theNazis to power he was dismissed, and listed as being half-Jewish in the Nazi list of musicians composing what the regime calleddegenerate music.[8] He retired from public life during the Hitler years but continued to compose. The war passed peacefully for Braunfels and his wife as they had succeeded in fleeing to Switzerland, though his three sons were conscripted into the Wehrmacht.[9] After World War II, he returned to public life and on 12 October 1945 again became director, and in 1948 president, of the Cologne Academy of Music and further enhanced his reputation as a music educator with high ideals.[6]
Walter Braunfels was well known as a composer between the two world wars but fell into oblivion after his death. There has however been something of a renaissance of interest during the last thirty years. His music is in the GermanClassical–Romantic vein. HisPhantastische Erscheinungen eines Themas vonHector Berlioz (1914) is a giant set of orchestral variations; "structurally the work has something in common with Strauss'Don Quixote, onLSD … the orchestral technique also is quite similar, recognizably German-school, with luscious writing for violins and horns, occasional outbursts of extreme virtuosity all around and a discerning but minimal use of additional percussion," notedDavid Hurwitz ofClassicsToday.[10] Braunfels' operaDie Vögel, based on the playThe Birds byAristophanes, was recorded byDecca in 1994 underLothar Zagrosek and has been revived byLos Angeles Opera (2009, underJames Conlon, filmed and released onArthaus), byTheater Osnabrück (2014) and byBavarian State Opera (2020, underIngo Metzmacher, filmed and streamed online). Another opera,Der Traum ein Leben, has been staged atOper Bonn.[11] Braunfels' 1935 MysteriumVerkündigung has been recorded twice, in 1992 byElectrola and in 2011 byBR Klassik. Braunfels also composed songs, choral works, and chamber and piano pieces. HisTe Deum laudamus of 1921, Op. 32, was recorded byManfred Honeck in 2004 for theOrfeo label. The A-Minor String Quartet of 1944 is well regarded.
TanzspielDer Zauberlehrling afterthe poem byGoethe, Op. 71 composed as aBallade for television (1954). "In the television studios of Hamburg-Lokstedt there was the premiere ofDer Zauberlehrling during February to music by Professor Walter Braunfels in charge of the NWDR Television."[13]
.jpg)
.jpg)
