Franz Schreker | |
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 Schreker, c. 1911 | |
| Born | (1878-03-23)23 March 1878 |
| Died | 21 March 1934(1934-03-21) (aged 55) Berlin, Germany |
| Education | Vienna Conservatory |
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Franz Schreker (originallySchrecker;[1][2] 23 March 1878 – 21 March 1934) was an Austriancomposer,conductor, librettist, teacher and administrator.[3][4] Primarily a composer ofoperas, Schreker developed a style characterized by aesthetic plurality (a mixture ofRomanticism,Naturalism,Symbolism,Impressionism,Expressionism andNeue Sachlichkeit),timbral experimentation, strategies of extendedtonality and conception of total music theatre into the narrative of20th-century music.
He was born as Franz Schrecker inMonaco, the eldest son of theBohemian Jewish court photographer Ignaz Franz Schrekker (Germanized fromIgnácz Furencz, originallyIsak),[1] and his wife, Eleonore von Cloßmann,[1] who was a member of the Catholicaristocracy ofStyria. He grew up during travels across half of Europe and, after the early death of his father, the family moved fromLinz to Vienna (1888) where in 1892, with the help of a scholarship, Schreker entered theVienna Conservatory. Starting withviolin studies, withSigismund Bachrich andArnold Rosé,[5][6] he moved into the composition class ofRobert Fuchs, graduating as a composer in 1900. His first success was with the Intermezzo for strings, Op. 8, which won an important prize sponsored by theNeue musikalische Presse in 1901. His first opera,Flammen, was completed in 1902 but failed to receive a staged production.
Schreker had begun conducting in 1895, when he had founded the Verein der Musikfreunde Döbling. In 1907 he formed the Vienna Philharmonic Chorus, which he conducted until 1920: among its many premières wereZemlinsky'sPsalm XXIII andSchoenberg'sFriede auf Erden andGurre-Lieder. Schreker and other composers, such as Schoenberg and Zemlinsky, were influential during theJugendstil movement, which incorporated non-western styles inspired by Ancient Egypt and the Far East.[4]
His "pantomime",Der Geburtstag der Infantin, commissioned by the dancerGrete Wiesenthal and her sister Elsa for the opening of the 1908 Kunstschau, first called attention to his development as a composer. Such was the success of the venture that Schreker composed several more dance-related works for the two sisters includingDer Wind,Valse lente andEin Tanzspiel (Rokoko).
November 1909 saw the stormy premiere of the complex orchestral interlude (entitledNachtstück) fromDer ferne Klang, the opera he had been working on since 1903. In 1912, the first performance of the complete opera byOper Frankfurt consolidated his fame. In the same year, director Wihelm Bopp offered Schreker a provisional teaching appointment at the Conservatory where Schreker had studied, now theVienna Music Academy. In early 1913 he was appointed fullprofessor.[7] Schreker wrote his own libretti for all of his mature operas.[4]
This breakthrough heralds a decade of great success for the composer. His next opera,Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin, which was given simultaneous premières in Frankfurt and Vienna on 15 March 1913 was less well received (the work was subsequently revised as a one-act 'Mysterium' entitled simplyDas Spielwerk in 1915), but the scandal caused by this opera in Vienna only served to make Schreker's name more widely known.
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The outbreak ofWorld War I interrupted the composer's success but with the première of his operaDie Gezeichneten, in Frankfurt on 25 April 1918, Schreker moved to the front ranks of contemporary opera composers.[8] The first performance ofDer Schatzgräber in Frankfurt on 21 January 1920 was the high point of his career. TheChamber Symphony, composed between the two operas for the faculty of the Vienna Academy in 1916, quickly entered the repertoire and remains Schreker's most frequently performed work today.
In March 1920 he was appointed director of theHochschule für Musik in Berlin and between 1920 and 1932 he gave extensive musical tuition in a variety of subjects withBerthold Goldschmidt,Alois Hába,Jascha Horenstein,Julius Bürger,Ernst Krenek,Artur Rodziński,Stefan Wolpe,Zdenka Ticharich andGrete von Zieritz numbering among his students.
Schreker's fame and influence were at their peak during the early years of theWeimar Republic when he was the most performed living opera composer afterRichard Strauss. The decline of his artistic fortunes began with the mixed reception given toIrrelohe at theCologne Opera in 1924 underOtto Klemperer and the failure ofDer singende Teufel, given in Berlin in 1928 underErich Kleiber.
Political developments and the spread ofantisemitism were also contributory factors, both of which heralded the end of Schreker's career. Right-wing demonstrations marred the première ofDer Schmied von Gent in Berlin in 1932 andNational Socialist pressure forced the cancellation of the scheduledFreiburg première ofChristophorus in 1933 (the work was finally performed there in 1978). Finally, in June 1932, Schreker lost his position as Director of the Musikhochschule in Berlin and, the following year, also his post as professor of composition at the Akademie der Künste.
In his lifetime he went from being hailed as the future of German opera to being considered irrelevant as a composer and marginalized as an educator.[3] After suffering from astroke in December 1933, he died inBerlin on 21 March 1934, two days before his 56th birthday.
Although Schreker was influenced by composers such asRichard Strauss andRichard Wagner, his mature style shows a highly individualharmonic language, which, although broadly tonal, is inflected withchromatic and polytonal passages. Schreker also took musical inspiration from his close friendArnold Schoenberg with the use of expressionist style.[4]
TheThird Reich banned Schreker's music along with that of many other composers of Jewish origin. His early death in 1934 at the age of 55, together with the Nazi ban, prevented Schreker's music from expanding outside of German-speaking Europe.[4]
After decades in obscurity, Schreker has begun to enjoy a considerable revival in reputation in the German-speaking world and in the United States. In 2005 theSalzburg Festival mounted an incomplete production ofDie Gezeichneten, conducted byKent Nagano (and filmed), and theJewish Museum in Vienna presented an exhibition devoted to his life and work. New productions ofDer ferne Klang were staged at theStaatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and theZurich Opera in 2010, as well as in smaller opera houses in Germany.Irrelohe was performed at theVolksoper in Vienna in 2004, at theBonn Opera in November 2010 then staged for the first time in France at theOpéra National de Lyon in March 2022. In 2010 a Schreker opera was staged in the US for the first time:Die Gezeichneten atLos Angeles Opera; and months after that came a second:Der ferne Klang during theBard Summerscape Festival. Australian composer, pianist, and conductor David Stanhope included Scheker'sPrelude to a Drama in his recording Tall Poppies TP274David Stanhope live in concert with Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Franz SchrekerPrelude to a Drama, and RachmaninoffSymphonic Dances.
Principal publisher: Universal Edition
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