Braunfels, Walter

Walter Braunfels – Offenbarung Johannis, Kapitel VI op. 17 for tenor, double chorus and large orchestra

(19. December 1882 – 19. March 1954)

Preface
Walter Braunfels received his first piano lessons from his mother. From 1895, he studied at the Hoch Conservatory in his native city of Frankfurt am Main, where he gained a solid education in piano and music theory. He then continued his studies in Vienna, where he was a piano apprentice of Theodor Leschetizky and took lessons in counterpoint. He received further musical training in Munich, where he studied composition with Ludwig Thuille and conducting with Felix Mottl. In 1909, Braunfels married Berta von Hildebrand, who had previously been engaged to his friend and conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler. Even before the First World War, Braunfels achieved his first significant successes with the opera Prinzessin Brambilla op. 12 and the Offenbarung Johannis, Kapitel VI op. 17 (Revelation of John, Chapter VI). After being called up for military service in 1915, he returned home in 1917 and converted to Catholicism. In the 1920s, Braunfels became one of the most frequently performed opera composers in the German-speaking countries. Works such as Die Vögel op. 30 (1920) and Don Gil von den grünen Hosen op. 35 (1925) were enthusiastically received by audiences. In 1923, he was accepted as a full member of the Prussian Academy of Arts; two years later, together with conductor Hermann Abendroth, he took over as director of the newly founded Academy of Music in Cologne. …

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