Paul Graener
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Paul Graener (b. Berlin, January 11, 1872 – d. Salzburg, November 13, 1944) was a German composer and conductor.
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[edit] Biography
Graener was orphaned as a young child, and was a boy soprano in Berlin. He taught himself composition and moved to London in 1896, serving briefly as conductor at the Haymarket Theatre and gave private lessons. In London he married Marie; they had three children together. Around 1910 Graener moved to Vienna, teaching at the New Conservatory. He moved several times in the 1910s, living in Salzburg, Dresden, and Munich, eventually accepting the position of professor of composition at the Leipzig Conservatory previously held by Max Reger. In 1925 he quit the post to focus on composition.
Returning to Berlin in 1930, he directed the Stern'sches Konservatorium and, from 1935 to 1941, served as professor of composition at the Reichsmusikkammer. This position, previously held by Wilhelm Furtwängler, was a Nazi organization, though the extent to which Graener sympathized with Nazi ideals is a subject of debate. During World War II, Graener's Berlin apartment was bombed and he moved with his family to Wiesbaden, Munich, Vienna, and Salzburg successively. Graener died in Salzburg at the age of seventy-two in 1944.
Stylistically, Graener was heavily indebted to the late Romanticism of Richard Strauss and Max Weber.
[edit] Works
[edit] Operas
- The Faithful Sentry op. 1 (premiered 1899)[1]
- Das Narrengericht op. 38 (1913)[1]
- Don Juans letztes Abenteuer op. 42 (1914)[1]
- Theophano op. 48 (premiered 1918, Munich)[1]
- Schirin und Gertraude op. 51 (1920)
- Hanneles Himmelfahrt W/o Op. (1927)
- Friedemann Bach op. 90 (1931) (after Albert Emil Brachvogel's novel)
- Der Prinz von Homburg op. 100 (1935)
[edit] Orchestral
- Aus dem Reiche des Pan (1920)
- Variationen über ein russisches Volkslied op. 55 (from 1926)
- Concerto for Cello and Chamber Orchestra op. 78 (published in 1927)[1]
- Die Flöte von Sanssouci (1930)
- Comedietta op. 82
- Variationen über Prinz Eugen (1939)
- Turmwächterlied (1938)
- Symphony in D Minor Schied Schmerz
- Wiener Sinfonie (1941, First Performance: Hans Knappertsbusch, Berlin Philharmonic)
- Flute Concerto op. 116
[edit] Chamber music
- 4 String Quartets (incl. opp. 54, 65 and 80 published 1920-8 [1])
- Suite op. 63 for flute and piano (published in 1924 [1])
[edit] Other
- ca. 130 songs
[edit] References
- Don Randel, The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Harvard, 1996, p. 327.
