Franz Reizenstein
Encyclopedia
Franz Theodor Reizenstein (7 June 191115 October 1968) was a German-born
British
composer
and concert pianist
. He left Germany for sanctuary in Britain in 1934 and went on to have his career there, including teaching at the Royal Northern College of Music
and Boston University
, as well as performing.
, Germany. The family was Jewish and counted many professionals and musically inclined people among its members.
Reizenstein grew up in Nuremberg and was considered a child prodigy. He composed his first pieces when he was 5, and by the age of 17 he had written a string quartet
. His well-to-do and artistic family encouraged him to play chamber music
at home. Eventually he was sent to study under Paul Hindemith
at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik.
In 1934 he emigrated to England
at the age of 23 to escape the Nazis, one of nearly 70 Jewish composers to do so from 1933-1945. Once in England, he furthered his studies under Ralph Vaughan Williams
at the Royal College of Music
, and began to incorporate English music into his works. He eventually became a professor at the Royal Academy of Music
and the Royal Northern College of Music
(then the Royal Manchester College of Music) in Manchester
. Although he never taught composition in Great Britain, he was invited for six months as a Visiting Professor of Composition at Boston University
in the United States, where there were also special concerts given of his works.
Reizenstein published his first piece, the Suite for Piano, Op. 6, in 1936. He gained more attention with the "virtuosic and flamboyant" Prologue, Variations and Finale, Op. 12, composed for the violin
ist Max Rostal
. It was inspired by an extended tour which he took to South America (undertaken with another legendary violinist, Roman Totenberg
). Reizenstein performed as a pianist as well as working as a composer.
He composed several chamber
and piano works, which are highly regarded, as well as a number of orchestral works, overtures and concerto
s (a Concerto for String Orchestra, two Piano Concertos, a Violin Concerto and a Cello Concerto). Reizenstein is best remembered for his Piano Quintet
in D major, Op. 23 (1959), of which the critic Lionel Salter wrote in Gramophone in 1975: It "stands alongside Shostakovitch
's as the most noteworthy of this century's piano quintets."
He also wrote two opera
s: Men Against the Sea (1949) and Anna Kraus
(1952). He composed a lavish orchestral score for Hammer Studios' horror film
The Mummy
(1959).
's first music festival in 1956. Hoffnung's festivals were comedy events, trading on the musical knowledge of the audience. The premise of the Concerto Popolare is that the orchestra believes it is playing Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto
, but the pianist believes he or she is playing the Grieg Piano Concerto
. A pitched musical battle ensues, dragging in other themes (notably from Rhapsody in Blue
, the Warsaw Concerto
and the music-hall song "Roll Out the Barrel
"). The soloist at the premiere was Yvonne Arnaud
(otherwise a renowned actress), who had been chosen after Hoffnung's first choice, Eileen Joyce
, declined.
Also popular was his set of Variations
on The Lambeth Walk
(a popular song of the 1930s), for solo piano, each variation being a parody
of the style of a major classical
composer. The composers parodied are Chopin
, Verdi
, Beethoven
, Mozart
, Schubert
, Wagner
and Liszt
.
Through his mother's Kohn family, Reizenstein was related to the writer Catherine Yronwode
.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and concert pianist
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. He left Germany for sanctuary in Britain in 1934 and went on to have his career there, including teaching at the Royal Northern College of Music
Royal Northern College of Music
The Royal Northern College of Music is a music school in Manchester, England. It is located on Oxford Road in Chorlton on Medlock, at the western edge of the campus of the University of Manchester and is one of four conservatories associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music...
and Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, as well as performing.
Life and work
Franz Reizenstein's parents were Dr. Albert Reizenstein (1871-1925) and Lina Kohn (b. 1880), both of NurembergNuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
, Germany. The family was Jewish and counted many professionals and musically inclined people among its members.
Reizenstein grew up in Nuremberg and was considered a child prodigy. He composed his first pieces when he was 5, and by the age of 17 he had written a string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
. His well-to-do and artistic family encouraged him to play chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
at home. Eventually he was sent to study under Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik.
In 1934 he emigrated to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
at the age of 23 to escape the Nazis, one of nearly 70 Jewish composers to do so from 1933-1945. Once in England, he furthered his studies under Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
at the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
, and began to incorporate English music into his works. He eventually became a professor at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
and the Royal Northern College of Music
Royal Northern College of Music
The Royal Northern College of Music is a music school in Manchester, England. It is located on Oxford Road in Chorlton on Medlock, at the western edge of the campus of the University of Manchester and is one of four conservatories associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music...
(then the Royal Manchester College of Music) in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. Although he never taught composition in Great Britain, he was invited for six months as a Visiting Professor of Composition at Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
in the United States, where there were also special concerts given of his works.
Reizenstein published his first piece, the Suite for Piano, Op. 6, in 1936. He gained more attention with the "virtuosic and flamboyant" Prologue, Variations and Finale, Op. 12, composed for the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist Max Rostal
Max Rostal
Max Rostal was a violinist and a viola player. He was Austrian-born, but later took British citizenship.-Biography:Max Rostal was born in Cieszyn and studied with Carl Flesch. He won the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1925...
. It was inspired by an extended tour which he took to South America (undertaken with another legendary violinist, Roman Totenberg
Roman Totenberg
Roman Totenberg is a Polish-American violinist and educator.He is the father of National Public Radio journalist Nina Totenberg...
). Reizenstein performed as a pianist as well as working as a composer.
He composed several chamber
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
and piano works, which are highly regarded, as well as a number of orchestral works, overtures and concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
s (a Concerto for String Orchestra, two Piano Concertos, a Violin Concerto and a Cello Concerto). Reizenstein is best remembered for his Piano Quintet
Quintet
A quintet is a group containing five members.It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single unit....
in D major, Op. 23 (1959), of which the critic Lionel Salter wrote in Gramophone in 1975: It "stands alongside Shostakovitch
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
's as the most noteworthy of this century's piano quintets."
He also wrote two opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s: Men Against the Sea (1949) and Anna Kraus
Anna Kraus
Anna Kraus, Op. 30 is an opera in one act by composer Franz Reizenstein. The work uses an English language libretto by Christopher Hassall which tells the tragic tale of a German woman who is forced to leave her country due to opression from the Nazi regime, as the Nazis did not like her political...
(1952). He composed a lavish orchestral score for Hammer Studios' horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
The Mummy
The Mummy (1959 film)
The Mummy is a 1959 Technicolor British Hammer Horror film starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.Though the title suggests Universal Pictures' 1932 film of the same name, the film actually derives its plot and characters entirely from two later Universal films, The Mummy's Hand and The Mummy's...
(1959).
Hoffnung Festivals
Reizenstein contributed the Concerto Popolare ("A Piano concerto to end all piano concertos") to Gerard HoffnungGerard Hoffnung
Gerard Hoffnung was an artist and musician, best known for his humorous works.- Early years :Born in Berlin, and named Gerhard, he was the only child of a well-to-do Jewish couple, Hildegard and Ludwig Hoffnung...
's first music festival in 1956. Hoffnung's festivals were comedy events, trading on the musical knowledge of the audience. The premise of the Concerto Popolare is that the orchestra believes it is playing Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto
Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)
The Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between November 1874 and February 1875. It was revised in the summer of 1879 and again in December 1888. The first version received heavy criticism from Nikolai Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky's desired pianist....
, but the pianist believes he or she is playing the Grieg Piano Concerto
Piano Concerto (Grieg)
The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, composed by Edvard Grieg in 1868, was the only concerto Grieg completed. It is one of his most popular works and among the most popular of all piano concerti.-Structure :The concerto is in three movements:...
. A pitched musical battle ensues, dragging in other themes (notably from Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue is a musical composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band written in 1924, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects....
, the Warsaw Concerto
Warsaw Concerto
The Warsaw Concerto is a single-movement piano concerto written for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight . It was written by British composer Richard Addinsell...
and the music-hall song "Roll Out the Barrel
Beer Barrel Polka
Beer Barrel Polka, also known as Roll Out the Barrel, is a song which became popular worldwide during World War II. The music was composed by the Czech musician Jaromír Vejvoda in 1927. Eduard Ingriš wrote the first arrangement of the piece, after Vejvoda came upon the melody and sought Ingriš's...
"). The soloist at the premiere was Yvonne Arnaud
Yvonne Arnaud
Yvonne Arnaud was a French-born pianist, singer and actress.Germaine Yvonne Arnaud was born in 1892. She entered the Paris Conservatoire at age 9, studying piano under Alphonse Duvernoy and other teachers...
(otherwise a renowned actress), who had been chosen after Hoffnung's first choice, Eileen Joyce
Eileen Joyce
Eileen Alannah Joyce CMG was an Australian pianist whose career spanned more than 30 years. She lived in England in her adult years....
, declined.
Also popular was his set of Variations
Variation (music)
In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.-Variation form:...
on The Lambeth Walk
The Lambeth Walk
"The Lambeth Walk" is a song from the 1937 musical Me and My Girl . The song takes its name from a local street Lambeth Walk once notable for its street market and working class culture in Lambeth, an area of London.The tune gave its name to a Cockney dance first made popular in 1937 by Lupino Lane...
(a popular song of the 1930s), for solo piano, each variation being a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of the style of a major classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
composer. The composers parodied are Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
, Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
, Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
and Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
.
Marriage and family
He married in England, and he and his wife had a son.Through his mother's Kohn family, Reizenstein was related to the writer Catherine Yronwode
Catherine yronwode
Catherine "Cat" Yronwode is an American writer, editor, graphic designer, typesetter, publisher, and practitioner of folk magic with an extensive career in the comic book industry....
.