[1905-1963]

Karl Amadeus Hartmann

Karl Amadeus Hartmann
Born in Munich, the son of Friedrich Richard Hartmann, well known there for his flower paintings, and the youngest of four brothers of whom the elder three also became painters, Hartmann was himself torn, early in his career, between music and the visual arts. He was much affected in his early political development by the events of the unsuccessful Workers’ Revolution in Bavaria that followed the collapse of the German monarchy at the end of World War I (see Bavarian Soviet Republic), and he remained an idealistic socialist all his life. At the Munich Academy in the 1920s Hartmann studied with Joseph Haas, a pupil of Max Reger, and later he received enormous intellectual stimulus and encouragement from the conductor Hermann Scherchen, an ally of the Schoenberg school, with whom he had a nearly lifelong mentor-protégé relationship. He voluntarily withdrew completely from musical life in Germany during the Nazi era, while remaining in Germany, and refused to allow his works to be played there. An early symphonic poem, Miserae (1933–1934, first performed in Prague, 1935) was condemned by the Nazi regime; but his work continued to be performed, and his fame grew, abroad. During World War II, though already an experienced composer, Hartmann submitted to a course of private tuition in Vienna by Schoenberg’s pupil Anton Webern (with whom he often disagreed on a personal and political level). Although stylistically their music had little in common, he clearly felt that he needed, and benefitted from, Webern’s acute perfectionism. After the fall of Hitler, Hartmann was one of the few prominent surviving anti-fascists in Bavaria whom the postwar Allied administration could appoint to a position of responsibility. In 1945, he became a Dramaturg at the Bavarian State Opera and there, as one of the few internationally-recognized figures who had survived untainted by any collaboration with the Nazi regime, he became a vital figure in the rebuilding of (West) German musical life. Perhaps his most notable achievement was the Musica Viva concert series which he founded and ran for the rest of his life in Munich. Beginning in November 1945, the concerts reintroduced the German public to 20th-century repertoire which had been banned since 1933 under National Socialist aesthetic policy. Hartmann also provided a platform for the music of the young composers who came to the fore in the late 1940s and early 1950s, helping to establish such figures as Hans Werner Henze, Luigi Nono, Luigi Dallapiccola, Carl Orff, Iannis Xenakis, Olivier Messiaen, Luciano Berio, Bernd Alois Zimmermann and many others. Hartmann also involved sculptors and artists such as Jean Cocteau, Le Corbusier, and Joan Miró in exhibitions at Musica Viva. He was accorded numerous honours after the war, including the Musikpreis of the city of Munich in March 1949. This was followed by the Kunstpreis of the Bayrische Akademie der Schönen Künste (1950), the Arnold Schönberg Medal of the IGNM (1954), the Große Kunstpreis of the Land Nordrhein-Westfalen (1957), as well as the Ludwig Spohr Award of the city of Braunschweig, the Schwabing Kunstpreis (1961) and the Bavarian Medal of Merit (1959). In addition, Hartmann became a member of the Academy of Arts in Munich (1952) and Berlin (1955) and received an honorary doctorate from Spokane Conservatory, Washington (1962). It should be noted that his socialist sympathies did not at all include communism: in the 1950s he refused an offer to move to East Germany He continued to base his activities in Munich for the remainder of his life, and his administrative duties came to absorb much of his time and energy. This reduced his opportunities for composition, and his last years were dogged by serious illness. In 1963, he died from stomach cancer at the age of 58, leaving his last work – an extended symphonic Gesangsszene for voice and orchestra on words from Jean Giraudoux’s apocalyptic drama Sodom and Gomorrah – unfinished. Significantly, no major German conductor championed his music following his death: Scherchen, his most noted advocate, died in 1966. Some have suggested that this accelerated the disappearance of Hartmann's music from public view in the years following his death.[2] The Czech Rafael Kubelik was one notable figure who regularly performed Hartmann's music, as did Ferdinand Leitner who also recorded Symphonies #3 and #6.[3] In recent years conductors such as Ingo Metzmacher and Mariss Jansons have brought many works back into the concert hall.Karl Amadeus Hartmann werd in 1905 geboren als zoon van Friedrich Richard Hartmann (zelf kunstschilder) en diens vrouw Gertrud. Van 1924 tot 1929 studeerde hij aan het Hochschule für Musik und Theater te München trombone, en compositie bij Joseph Haas. In 1934 trouwde hij met Elisabeth Reussmann. Vanaf 1928 werd Hermann Scherchen zijn belangrijkste mentor.   Hartmann was overtuigd communist, en gedurende het bewind van Hitler werd het voor hem uiteindelijk onmogelijk zijn werken nog uitgevoerd te krijgen; het is eigenlijk een wonder te noemen, dat hij deze periode in Nazi-Duitsland überhaupt heeft overleefd, daarvoor waren dan ook ook bijzondere overlevingsstrategieën noodzakelijk. Zo is Hartmann bijvoorbeeld jarenlang aan de dienstplicht ontsnapt door doelbewust efedrine te slikken, hetgeen de controlerende artsen indertijd de indruk gaf, dat hij ernstige hartafwijkingen had.   In 1941 reisde Hartmann naar Wenen, om (tot 1942) privé-les van Anton Webern te kunnen krijgen, Webern was toen nog relatief onbekend (hetgeen na de oorlog drastisch zou veranderen, o.a. door zijn tragische dood in 1945). Hartmanns voornaamste reden om met Webern in contact te treden kan worden gezien als een poging om zijn in 1935 gestorven voorbeeld Alban Berg nader te kunnen komen. Hartmanns werk kan wellicht worden gezien als een niet-serieel vervolg op de Tweede Weense School; het heeft enerzijds de expressie, zoals we die in het werk van Berg vinden, maar dan veel intenser en ruwer, en anderzijds, met name na 1945, de uitgewogen constructie van het werk van Webern, maar zonder diens extreme beknoptheid.   Na de Tweede Wereldoorlog begon Hartmann met het organiseren van de concertserie Musica Viva, gewijd aan de avant-garde muziek, hetgeen hem uiteindelijk in contact bracht met vele belangrijke kunstenaars en componisten van zijn tijd, waaronder ook de jongste generatie. In zijn nalatenschap bevindt zich onder andere een serie "brieven" op (ongeveer) A2, van onder andere Pierre Boulez. Olivier Messiaen, Luigi Nono, Jean Cocteau en Joan Miró. Hartmann overleed op 5 december 1963 aan kanker. Zijn zoon Richard (geboren in 1935) heeft zijn nalatenschap met hulp van musicologen zorgvuldig gecategoriseerd. In 2005 werd Hartmanns 100e geboortedag herdacht, met vele concerten en tentoonstellingen in de 144 Goethe Instituten wereldwijd.   Bron: wikipedia