Pfitzner, Hans

Pfitzner, Hans – Symphony in C-Major Op. 46

(b. Moskau, 5 Mai 1869 – d. Salzburg, 22 Mai 1949)

Symphony in C-Major op.46 (1940)

Preface
Hans Pfitzner was born on May 5, 1869, as the son of violinist Robert Pfitzner and his wife Wilhelmine Pfitzner. He received his first music lessons from his father and soon, at the age of eleven, he began to write his first compositions.

After studying in Frankfurt, he became “Kapellmeister” in the opera house of Mainz. Here he also performed his first major works, the opera “Der arme Heinrich” and the incidental music to Ibsen’s “Das Fest auf Solhaug”. In 1897 he moved to Berlin, where he became a teacher of conducting and composition. His second opera “Die Rose vom Liebesgarten” was already successful, and Gustav Mahler performed it in 1905 at the Vienna Court Opera.

From 1908 to 1919 Pfitzner lived in Strasbourg, where he headed the conservatory and conducted symphony concerts and operas! During this busy period, his greatest success also fell, the premiere of his opera “Palestrina” by Bruno Walter at the Munich Prinzregententheater. After a stopover in Berlin, Pfitzner moved to Munich in 1929, where he was given a teaching position at the Academy of Music. His house was destroyed by a bomb in 1943 and he went to Vienna for a short time.

Pfitzner fled to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1945, where he found shelter for refugees. The following year he moved to a retirement home in Munich. In 1948 he was classified as “not affected by the law” as part of the denazification process by the Munich Spruchkammer. Declarations of honor were received from composers and conductors Walter Braunfels, Hans Knappertsbusch, Arnold Schönberg and Bruno Walter, as well as from Alma Mahler-Werfel and Carl Zuckmayer. One of his last happy moments was the performance of his C major symphony in Salzburg in 1949. He died soon after at the age of 80….

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