BORIS BLACHER
A Centenary Sketch
by
Dr David C F Wright
2003 is the centenary of the birth of that fine composer, Boris
Blacher.
He was born in Niu-chang, China on 19 January
1903 of Baltic descent. It was in Irkulak in Siberia where he
began to study music seriously. In 1919 he went to work at the
opera house in Charbin in China. Three years later he moved to
Berlin. This was in 1922 when his parents said that he had to
study something worthwhile and so he studied architecture and
mathematics. But, having pleased his parents, he was later able
to recommence his music studies studying composition at the Berlin
Hochschule fur Musick with Friedrich Ernst Koch. He moved up to
Berlin University in 1927 and until 1931 studied under Schering,
Blume and van Hornbostel.
He was a brilliant student. He composed an opera
and a symphony which he destroyed. He sought perfection or, at
least, satisfaction with his own work. He earned his living by
making arrangements and some composition. Architecture and mathematics
no longer concerned him.
Karl Böhm is only usually remembered for
the fine conductor that he was. And he was. What is not known
is that Böhm was a very courageous and decent man. Composers
like Blacher were frowned upon and were treated with suspicion
by Nazi Germany. Blacher was a Baltic and had lived in China.
He was not of the pure German race. Hitler and his national socialists
hated all races that were not pure German. And hatred leads to
all sorts of crime and despicable deeds.
At this time Böhm was conductor at Dresden
a post he had taken up in 1932 after successful tenures at Munich
opera (1921-7), Darmstadt (1927-31) and Hamburg (1931-4). He was
Austrian, of course and had no love for Nazism. Böhm found
Blacher a teaching post at Dresden Conservatory in 1938. Böhm
was impressed with two orchestral works of Blacher's, the Serenade
of 1933 and the Capriccio also of 1933.
But Blacher had to relinquish this post in 1939
since it did not conform to the Nazi's ideas of culture. He was
accused, among others, of writing degenerate music. It is often
the case in human affairs that those who are guilty of a particular
thing accuse others of their own crimes and mistakes. Blacher
went hungry. He could not pursue his career as he wished. From
all sides he was dismissed and mentally persecuted.
The defeat of Hitler was the best thing that
could have happened to Blacher and, indeed, to all of us. Blacher
resumed teaching composition at the International Music Institute
in Berlin-Zehlendorf and, from 1948, as professor at the aforementioned
Berlin Hochschule and, from 1953 to 1973, its director.
He was a brilliant teacher only equalled by Mátyás
Seiber. He was in demand everywhere. He gave lectures and workshops
at summer schools at Bryanstown (1949 and 1950), at the Salzburg
Mozarteum (1950 and 1951) and at Tanglewood (1955). Also in 1955
the West Berlin Academy of Arts appointed him a regular member
of its music section and the leadership of it was given to him
in 1961. From 1968 to 1971 he was President of the Academy. Germany
was admitting their previous wrongful treatment of him. Nonetheless
these honours were more than deserved.
To backtrack on his teaching. Among his many
composition pupils were Francis Burt, Gottfried von Einem (Blacher
helped extensively with the libretto for Der Prozess), Klebe and
Reimann. Blacher himself received many prizes for his own music
including the Hamburg Bach Prize and the Grosser Kunstpreis of
North Rhine, Westphalia.
His music is quite extraordinary. Although a
German composer his music is not grim-laden as is much German
music with its Teutonic dullness and heavy ponderous tread. His
music is playful and witty. He was a brilliant orchestrator. His
music has colour and brilliance and is seldom showy. The brightness
of tone and textural clarity quite unlike British orchestral music
of the first half of that century which was thick, turgid and
embarrassing.
Of great importance are his works for the theatre
which are graphic, the music being precise. His ballet scores
are infused with fine melodic ideas, rhythmically fascinating
and of unflagging interest.
His Symphony of 1938 is a masterly work written
in the days of acceptance in Dresden and shows signs of atonality
and tremendous originality. It was in 1950 that dodecaphony was
introduced in his ballet, Lysistrata.
Something must be said here about the difference
between atonality and dodecaphonic, or serial music since many
writers on music and music dictionaries get it wrong. Atonal music
is generally accepted as music not written in a key and while
serial music is not written in a key it is assumed that all serial
music is atonal. There are serial works which have a key basis
as there are atonal works which have an orientation to a key.
Comparatively little atonal music is serial. Serial music is serial
music. To call it atonal is misleading since, as we have said,
many works which are atonal are certainly not serial. It takes
a very great composer to write serial music and this is why few
have with any success. This is why serial music is dismissed but
it is really a mere camouflage for the composers and musicians
who have not the intellect and ability to deal with it.
In Lysistrata Blacher introduces variable metres
and to great effect.
During the Second World War Blacher wrote his
opera Romeo and Juliet for four singers and seven instrumentalists.
With the restrictions upon him he could not have used larger forces.
It was completed in 1943 and clearly is the composer's statement
of disgust not only of war but the loss of life and the fact that
often things were never quite what they seemed. Neither Romeo
nor Juliet should have died. In the war loved ones die unnecessarily.
War is never convenient or kind. The opera Die Flut of 1946 takes
further Blacher's social statements. It deals with the behaviour
of people in extreme conditions and it is clear that war is not
far from his mind. His opera-ballet Preussiches Marchen mocks
the trust Germany had in their leadership and authority and the
absurd veneration of uniforms. Both these works are commentaries
and condemnations of the Socialism of Nazis.
The confidence of this amazing composer took
his interest into the world of electronics of which there are
seven major compositions. Zwischenfalle bei einer Notlandung of
1965 returns to the subject of people under extreme pressure revealing
the retained effects and dismay of the composer at war and injustice.
His opera Abstrakte oper no. 1, with a text by his friend and
fellow composer Werner Egk, dating from 1953, deals with a vast
range of emotions such as love, fear and panic. It is this interest
in human situations which shows the character of this innovative
composer.
He was neither a snob nor a bigot. He used jazz
in some of his works including an unpublished Concerto for Jazz
orchestra of 1946. There are the Two Poems for Jazz Quartet of
1957 but it is probably his orchestral music that has made the
greatest effect.
The Concertante Musick
of 1937 has a vitality and instant appeal
and at its close a soaring music of
untiring beauty. I introduced it to
and conducted a youth orchestra in this
superb piece many years ago. Their parents
complained that we were to perform a
modern piece but the young people loved
it and rightly so! There is a fine Violin
Concerto of 1948. The Variations on
a theme of Paganini of 1947 established
him as a composer. It is a work of enviable
mastery. 1954 saw the appearance of
a very fine Viola Concerto. Variable
metres are exploited further in Ornaments
of 1953 and Music for Cleveland of 1957
was adored by George Szell.
Study in Pianissimo is very clever and totally
original. There is no work to compare with it.
I was present at the
London premiere of the 1964 Cello Concerto
in which the soloist was Siegfried Palm.
I have never forgotten it. Nor will
I. The orchestration is sparse at times
Sbut the cello writing has never been
bettered. It is the greatest cello concerto
of the 20th century. It is original,
clear, beautifully structured, well
written, full of ideas and rhythmic
contrasts and totally fascinating.
All his concertos employ a small orchestra. He
wanted clarity and he successfully achieved it.
There are three piano concertos of 1947, 1952
and 1961 respectively. The Piano Concerto no. 2 is a work that
any composer would be proud of, possessing an intellectual power
second to none. I believe it is still available on Berlin Classics
0090152BC. It is dedicated to Gery Hertzog. The piano concertos
are played by Horst Gobel with the orchestras conducted by Rudolf
Alberth and Takao Ukigaya on Thorofon - #2167. A Trumpet Concerto
appeared in 1970. There are five string quartets which rank alongside
those of Bartók and Bacewicz.
As might be expected Blacher's music often has
an oriental touch. His music has a mercurial quality seen throughout
his impressive output.
When Blacher died in Berlin in 1975 he left a
legacy of over twenty major theatre works, over forty orchestral
works, a dozen choral works including the fine oratorio Der Grossenquisitor
of 1947 as well as an impressive Requiem of 1958, premiered in
1959 by Solti, many songs and chamber music of rare quality.
As previously stated Blacher was not a snob.
Jewish Chronicle was a joint oratorio composed by Dessau, Hartmann,
Henze and Wagner-Regeny premiered by Christoph von Dohnanyi in
1961. Blacher wrote the Prologue.
The Symphony of 1938, the Violin Concerto of
1948 and the Poeme of 1974 are available on Signum LC8939. The
violin soloist is Kolja Blacher and the Frankfurt (Oder) Philharmonic
Orchestra is conducted by Nikos Athinaos.
I adore his Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird
which, like so much of his work teems with detail. I had the pleasure
of meeting him once ... a gaunt man, kind but slightly severe-looking
whose opinions on music were both succinct and precise.
I will accept that there are too many interesting
composers worthy of attention but here is one who is at the top
of the list of discerning musicians and music lovers.
Copyright David C F Wright, 1972 renewed 2003
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