Reznicek, Emil Nikolaus von

Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek – Serenade in G

(b. Vienna, 4 May 1860 – d. Berlin, 2 August 1945)

Auftakt (Prelude), p.2
Intermezzo, p.7
Liebeserklärung (Declaration of Love), p.11
Kanon-Walzer (Canonic Waltz), p.14
Bauernmarsch (Peasant March), p.15

Preface
Emil Reznicek was born in Vienna on May 4, 1860, and grew up in a household without financial worries, but his memories of childhood were not particularly happy ones. He was encouraged to study law. On the side he took composition and piano lessons with Wilhelm Mayer (also known as W.A. Remy) in Graz who had also studied law before choosing music as a profession. After a few years of studying law Reznicek also took the same path, turning to the Leipzig conservatory where he studied primarily with Carl Reineke and Salomon Jadasssohn. In 1894 his Donna Diana opera was first performed and solidified his success as a composer. He remained active as a composer until around 1933 and the beginning of the Second World War.

During the early war years, he worked closely with Richard Strauss to champion non-dodecaphonic composers in Germany and the rest of Europe. He was politically cool in a volatile political climate, and his family was much divided on the subject of fascism. His health was also very bad: he suffered deeply from depression, had a stroke, and became increasingly senile. On August 2, 1945 he succumbed to typhoid during a breakout of dysentery in Berlin. His daughter Felicitas’ biography of her Father, “Gegen den Strom,” was written in part from her memories of repeated stories several from long before she was born, and on many details of his life is extraordinarily inaccurate. These inaccuracies are perennially repeated and often reprinted despite the availability of correct information, but a transcription of Reznicek’s personal memoirs will be published shortly by Michael Whittmann. …

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