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Hugo Gottesmann

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  • Comment: Do you have publisher and page details for the "Potter 2010" and "Hugo Gottesmann Gestorben.”1970 references they don't mean much otherwise Theroadislong (talk) 16:43, 28 December 2017 (UTC)
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  • Comment: A lot of work has obviously gone into this. But it's not ready as a Wikipedia article. The main issues are: it appears to contain Original Research which contravenes our guidelines. There are not enough Reliable Sources to support either the content or the subject's claim to Notability. You cannot use Wikipedia as a citation, nor private papers, family letters or similar unpublished documents, or blogs. Nor are ancestry websites strong sources. KJP1 (talk) 07:48, 22 December 2017 (UTC)

Hugo Gottesmann (April 8 1896- January 22 1970) was born of Jewish parents Leopold and Anna Greenwald Gottesmann in Leopoldstadt Vienna. He showed musical talent at an early age and was given violin lessons. He was accepted at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and studied with the Czech pedagogue Otakar Ševčík and composer Richard Stöhr. He graduated in 1916 first in his class and was awarded the "Staatspreis".[1]

Military service

Gottesmann was drafted Aug. 23, 1916 into the k.u.k. Armee in World War I as a private. He was assigned to the 7th Artillery Regiment and fought on the Eastern Front in Galicia against the Russians or, having entered the war late, possibly on the Italian Front. He rose in the ranks from private to lieutenant in a few months and received at least four medals, three "in recognition of brave acts in the face of the enemy." He earned the "Silberne Tapferkeitsmedaille II. Kl.' on Sept. 19, 1917. On Jan. 12, 1918, he was awarded the "Karl Truppen Kreuz". He earned the Bronze Signum Landis-Medaille with Crossing Swords "für seine verdienste ausgezeichnet" on March 20, 1918.[2] He was discharged Nov. 29, 1918 as a Lieutenant.[3]

Das Gottesmann Quartett

Upon completion of his military service at the end of World War I, Gottesmann formed the Gottesmann Quartet. Members of the group over the next decade included some of Vienna's finest musicians. Cellist Wilhelm Müller had been a member of the Joachim Quartet.[4] [5] Violists Hugo Kauder [6] and Marcel Dick[7] [8] and cellists Richard Krotschak and Hermann Busch were principals with the Wiener Sinfonie-Orchester.[9] The group toured Belgium, Holland, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Austria. They were featured on the 1925 New Year's Concert.[10] In 1928, for the Schubert Centennial Celebration, they performed the composer's entire string quartet cycle in the courtyard of his " Geburtshaus". [11] [12] They made approximately 182 performances on Radio-Wien from 1925 until 1934.[13] Adolf Busch biographer Tully Potter referred to the group as "distinguished".[14]

Solo debut and Viennese career

Gottesmann made his solo debut with the Wiener Tonkünstler Orchestra under Czech Conductor Oskar Nedbal on April 8, 1919 at Vienna's Grosser Konzerthaussaal. He performed Mozart's A Major Concerto, Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra composed for him by Hugo Kauder, and Brahms' Violin Concerto. German violinist Adolf Busch was concertmaster of the orchestra.[15]

Gottesmann became the first concertmaster of the new orchestra when the Tonkünstler-Orchester merged with the Wiener Sinfonie-Orchester in 1921.[16] [17] As concertmaster Gottesmann was the soloist for new works by Karol Szymanowski and Pantscho Wladigeroff and important performances of the Missa Solemnis and St. Matthew Passion under Wilhelm Furtwängler. He also served under conductors George Szell, Richard Strauss. and Bruno Walter.[18] [19]. For Vienna's 1927 Beethoven Centennial Celebration, Gottesmann performed Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D minor at the Theatre an der Wien where the concerto was premiered in 1806.[20] In 1929, he performed the concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic under Conductor Robert Heger on Radio-Wien.[21]. [22] Another high point in his career was his performance of Mozart's Violin Concerto in G-Dur under Conductor Bruno Walter.[23]

New music

Hugo Gottesmann was a member of the Arnold Schoenberg "Society for Musical Private Performances," Vienna 1918-1922.[24] The Gottesmann Quartet performed Schoenberg's Quartet Nr. 1 d-moll op 7 on Feb. 18, 1921 at the Konzerthaus Mozart-Saal.[25] [26] In 1930, Gottesmann premiered a violin concerto by Josef Matthias Hauer at the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Liège, Belgium. [27] [28] He frequently performed contemporary music as a soloist, with his Gottesmann Quartet and as a conductor. Some of the composers he featured were Hugo Kauder, Julius Chajes, Guido Peters, Karl Weigl, Carl Goldmark, Pantscho Wladigeroff, Ernesta Halffter, Karol Szymanowski, Anton Smareglia, Paul Josef Frankl, Ernest Bloch, Max Reger, Albert Siklos, Karl Rathaus, Christian Sinding, Eugene Goossens, Richard Mandl, Robert Fuchs, Maurice Ramillo Horn, Joseph Marx, Friedrich Wührer, Ludwig Czaczkes, Alfred Freudenhain, Gustav Mahler, Claude Debussy, and Nickolaus Mjaskowsky. [29] [30] [31]

Compositions written for Gottesmann

Besides his composition for Gottesmann's debut, Hugo Kauder dedicated to the violinist his Sonate für Violine und Klavier in 1919, his Sonata in G minor for Violin and String Quartet in 1923, and his Zwei kleine Sonaten für Violine in 1933. Eduard Frank, violinist with the Vienna Philharmonic and later Holocaust victim, composed the Gottesmann-Serenade in 1929 for his friend and colleague.[32] Later Adolf Busch composed Prelude and Fugato for Solo Viola for Gottesmann's 52nd birthday.[33]

Radio Wien

After his performance in the 1927 Beethoven Festival, Gottesmann was appointed conductor of RAVAG or Radio-Wien. He had already been performing on the station for several years. Three days after Radio-Wien began broadcasting, Gottesmann was featured Oct. 4, 1924, with Cellist Hermann Busch and Pianist Otto Schulhof performing Schubert's Piano Trio in B-Dur.[34] Between 1924 and 1938, Gottesmann was heard on Radio-Wien approximately 300 times. [35]

Conducting career

About the same time as his RAVAG appointment, Gottesmann became the permanent Sunday conductor of the Wiener Sinfonie-Orchester at Vienna's Musikverein Golden Hall.[36] In January of 1932, he conducted the Wiener Sinfonie-Orchester, the Vienna State Opera chorus and soloists in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Grosser Konzerthaus-Saal.[37] Three months later he conducted the opening concert of the 200th Anniversary of Haydn's birth at Redouten Hall in the Hofburg Palace.[38]

He conducted the summer symphony concerts in Gôteborg, Sweden in 1934 and 1935 and was featured several times as guest conductor with the Augusteo Orchestra in Rome before and after World War II. In the United States in 1942 and 1943, he conducted the North American tour of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.[39]

Akademie Für Musik und Darstellende Kunst

Gottesmann was asked to join the faculty of his alma mater in 1920, four years after graduation.[40] He taught violin and Chamber Music and was an exceptional teacher.[41] He applied for the "Title of Professor". On Sept. 21, 1926, his request was denied by a vote of three (Hofmann, Franz Schmidt, Alexander Wunderer) to two (Joseph Marx, Karl Geiringer).[42] Five days later on Sept. 26, 1926, in Linz, Austria, the State of Austria conferred on Gottesmann the "Title of Professor". [43]. It is the only known case where the State of Austria overruled an academy decision. Gottesmann is always referred to as Professor in references prior to 1938.

During the academic year of 1925 and 1926, the Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst offered "Volkstümliche Kurse" which were public courses in which the instructors received a percentage of the course fees. Gottesmann taught at least one of these classes.[44]

Forced to leave Austria

In 1933, Hugo Gottesmann was fired from all of his positions: as conductor at Radio-Wien; as professor at the Akademie für Musik; and his lifetime contract as concertmaster and conductor with the Wiener Sinfonie-Orchester. One reason given for this action was the patronage of the Gottesmann Quartet and the Wiener Sinfonie-Orchester by Hugo Breitner, Austria's unpopular Counselor of Finance (1919-1932). Breitner, known as the architect of Red Vienna, had instituted a progressive luxury tax on the propertied class to provide housing for the poor.[45] Gottesmann took legal action but there is no known documentation of a settlement. Another reason given for the firing was his Jewish ethnicity.[46] Gottesmann accepted conducting opportunities with the Gôteborg Summer Orchestra in Sweden and the Augusteo Orchestra in Rome.[47]

Gottesmann's parents and sister, her husband and daughter remained in Austria until 1938. On Kristallnacht, Gottesmann's mother's hat shop was destroyed and she went into shock and died that night. Rosa Jochmann helped the family escape and was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Ravensbrück Concentration Camp for five years.[48]

US visas for Gottesmann and fiancé

In 1936, in Gôteborg, Gottesmann received US visas for himself and his fiancé, Lia Astleitner, with the aid of the bishop of the Methodist Church for Northern Europe. Gottesmann immediately immigrated to New York where he soloed with the NBC Orchestra under Conductor Bruno Walter. Astleitner returned to Vienna to obtain a civil divorce from her husband, Austrian composer Prof. Hans Wagner-Schönkirch. The marriage was annulled by verdict of the Land Court in Vienna, in 1937. Wagner-Schönkirch recognized her claim of ownership of property. He was to have lifetime use of the assets but they were to be relinquished by his heirs upon his death. She returned to Gôteborg and booked passage to the United States. She and Gottesmann were married in New York the day she arrived June 7, 1937.[49] In 1947, Wagner-Schönkirch's widow and heirs refused to relinquish the assets stating that Astleitner nullified the contract by marrying a Jew in New York. Astleitner was required to return to Vienna to claim her belongings April 16, 1947. It is unknown if she was successful. [50]

New York career

In New York, Gottesmann performed regularly on WQXR.[51] He freelanced with various orchestras such as the Leopold Stokowski Orchestra.[52] He lead the second violin section of the Busch Chamber Players and Little Symphony.[53]

Bay View Music Festival

In 1942, Gottesmann joined the faculty of the Bay View Summer" College of Liberal Arts in Bay View, Michigan, now known as the Bay View Music Festival. The school was connected with Albion College. Gottesmann taught violin and performed as soloist and leader of the string quartet. He remained with the festival 28 years until his death.[54]

Busch Quartet

In 1946, Adolf Busch asked Gottesmann to join the Busch Quartet as violist. For the next six years, he performed in New York and toured the British Isles, Europe, and South America with the group. Beside concert appearances, he made recordings and performed radio broadcasts.[55] The recording of Beethoven's String Quartet op.59 no. 3 he made with the group in 1951 was awarded the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis when it was re-released Nov. 1, 1998.[56] Author Tully Potter states that the high quality of Gottesmann's playing can be assesed from the 1949 recording of Brahms' B-flat Quartet, Op. 67.[57] The 1949 recording of Brahms' Piano Quartet in G minor with Adolf Busch, Hermann Busch, Hugo Gottesmann, and Rudolf Serkin is highly regarded.

Fort Wayne Philharmonic

When Adolf Busch's death forced of the Busch Quartet to disband in 1952, American Conductor Igor Buketoff, a specialist in Russian music (specifically Sergei Rachmaninoff) offered Gottesmann the concertmaster position of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he was conductor. During Gottesmann's tenure with the orchestra, Yehudi Menuhin, Nathan Milstein, Isaac Stern and Rudolf Serkin soloed with the orchestra. Gottesmann also conducted ballet performances and lead the string quartet.[58]

Cancer and death

Gottesmann was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1951 and was sent to Mayo Clinic where Dr. Mayo operated on him. The medical costs were paid for by Northern Michigan friends. The cancer was arrested and Gottesmann resumed his career.[59] In 1969, he was again diagnosed with stomach cancer and treated at Little Traverse Hospital in Petoskey, Michigan, under the free care of Dr. Benjamin Blum. He died January 22, 1970 in Fort Wayne, Indiana.[60]

Gottesmann played a Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi violin and, in the Busch Quartet, he performed on a small Domenico Busan viola which Rudolf Serkin borrowed from Austrian collector Elisabeth Bondy, widow of Oskar Bondy.[61]

A 1970 news-release put out by the City of Vienna states that Gottesmann "was a gifted artist, who was a decisive influence on the musical life in Vienna..."[62]

References

  1. ^ JAHRES-BERICHT, DER K.K.AKADEMIE FŰR MUSIK UND DARSTELLENDE KUNST IN WIEN ŰBER DAS SCHULJAHR 1915-1916.
  2. ^ Kriegsarchiv, Oct. 17, 2015.
  3. ^ Haupt Grundbuchblatt. Kriegsarchiv, Ősterreichisches Staatsarchiv. Wien, Őstereich.
  4. ^ GOTTESMANN-QUARTETT, ZEITUNGSSTIMMEN. VERTRETUNG: KONZERTDIREKTION ALBERT GUTMANN [INH. HUGO KNEPLER], WIEN, 1921.
  5. ^ THE MENTOR, MASTERS OF THE VIOLIN, Henry T. Finck. Department of Fine Arts, Vol. 4, No. 5. April 15, 1916.
  6. ^ http://www.hugokauder.org/about/about-hugo-kauder/ Retrieved on Nov, 18, 2017.
  7. ^ http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/miskolc/Dick.html Retrieved on Nov. 18, 2017.
  8. ^ http://clevelandartsprize.org/awardees/marcel_dick.html Retrieved on Nov. 18, 2017.
  9. ^ Potter, Tully. Adolf Busch, Life of an Honest Musician. Toccata Press, 2010, Page 1095. ISBN 978-0-907689-50-8
  10. ^ http://www.ernsttheis.com/FNCMSFiles/WPh_Theis_D.pdf?PHPSESSID=4d52k9sp3uks116s6cg2fmqfl0 Retrieved on Nov. 18, 2017.
  11. ^ “Review”, New York Times, June 3, 1928.
  12. ^ “Hugo Gottesmann Gestorben.” Wiener Kultur-Notizen. Sonderdienst der Rathaus-Korrespondenz, Nummer 26, 1970. Eigentümer und Verleger: Stadt Wien Herausgeber: Presse- und Informationsdienst der Stadt Wien (PID). Wienbibliothek im Rathaus, Wien, Österrich.
  13. ^ ANNO Historische Zeitungen and Zeitschriften, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.
  14. ^ Potter 2010, Page 1095.
  15. ^ https://www.wienersymphoniker.at/de/archiv/suche Retrieved on Nov. 18, 2017.
  16. ^ Potter, 2010 Page 1095.
  17. ^ Botstein,Leon, Werner Hanak, Karl Albrecht-Weinberger. Vienna: Jews and the City of Music, 1870-1938, Center for Jewish History, Yeshiva University Museum, Bard College, Feb 2, 2004, Page 48.
  18. ^ “Hugo Gottesmann Gestorben.” 1970.
  19. ^ https://www.wienersymphoniker.at/de/archiv/suche Retrieved on Nov. 18, 2017.
  20. ^ "Hugo Gottesmann Gestorben.”1970
  21. ^ “Hugo Gottesmann Gestorben.”1970.
  22. ^ http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/converts/archive Retrieved on Nov. 18, 2017.
  23. ^ Hugo Gottesmann Gestorben.”1970.
  24. ^ Beniston, Judith. Geoffrey Chew. Robert Vilain "Words and Music: Austrian Studies." Modern Humanities Research Assoc. 2010. P. 137
  25. ^ https://konzerthaus.at/datenbanksuche Retrieved on Nov. 18, 2017.
  26. ^ Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, 1988. Page 97. https://books.google.com/books?id=p2g9AQAAIAAJ Retrieved Jan.5, 2018.
  27. ^ The Wiener Sonn und Montagszeitung. Sept. 15, 1930. Seite 4.
  28. ^ Evans, E. "The Liège Festival". Musical Times, 1930
  29. ^ https://www.wienersymphoniker.at/de/archiv/suche Retrieved on Nov. 18, 2017.
  30. ^ https://konzerthaus.at/datenbanksuche Retrieved on Nov. 18, 2017.
  31. ^ Programmzeitschrift der RAVAG, Radio-Wien.
  32. ^ Das interessante Blatt Aug. 15, 1929, Seite 15.
  33. ^ Potter 2010, Page 1095.
  34. ^ Reichspost, Okt. 4, 1924. Seite 4.
  35. ^ Programmzeitschrift der RAVAG, Radio-Wien.
  36. ^ Potter 2010, Page 1095.
  37. ^ Die Neue Freie Presse Jan. 10, 1932. Seite 13.
  38. ^ Tages-Post May 14, 1932. Seite 6.
  39. ^ Potter 2010, Page 1095.
  40. ^ Hugo Gottesmann Gestorben.”1970.
  41. ^ "Hugo Gottesmann Gestorben” 1970.
  42. ^ Bundesministerium für Unterricht. Archives, Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst.
  43. ^ Reichspost, Sept. 26, 1926, Seite 6
  44. ^ Application by Hugo Gottesmann. Archives, Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Wien, Österreich.
  45. ^ http://www.iff.ac.at/inventarisiert/breitner_en.html Retrieved Dec. 31, 2017.
  46. ^ DER STÜRMER, Arbeiterkammer für Wien Dokumentation. Mai 26, 1934-7.
  47. ^ Potter 2010, Page 1095.
  48. ^ http://www.unless-women.eu/biography-details/items/jochmann.html Retrieved Dec. 31, 2017.
  49. ^ Indiana Death Certificates, Indiana State Board of Health, 70-000185,1899-2011. Local No. 127.
  50. ^ https://www.fold3.com/image/311265951 Retrieved on Nov. 18, 2017.
  51. ^ "Shows the Microphone will Present", Radio Schedules 1937-1938, New York Times.
  52. ^ North, James H. "Leopold Stokowski and His Symphony Orchestra: Personnel Rosters for the RCA Victor Recordings". ARSC Journal. Vol 44. No. 1. Spring 2013.
  53. ^ Potter 2010, Page 1095.
  54. ^ Program Books,The Bay View Association Archives. Bay View, MI.
  55. ^ Potter. 2010. Page 1095
  56. ^ http://arbiterrecords.org/catalog/the-busch-quartet-live/ Retrieved Nov. 17, 2017.
  57. ^ Potter 2010, Page 1095.
  58. ^ History of the PHIL” http://www.fwphil.org/section/about Retrieved on Nov. 18, 2017.
  59. ^ "Bay View Violinist to Undergo Cancer Treatment at Rochester". Petoskey Evening News, Aug. 24 1951. Page 1.
  60. ^ Indiana Death Certificates.
  61. ^ Potter 2010, Page 1095.
  62. ^ "Hugo Gottesmann Gestorben.”1970.
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