Max Kowalski

Max Kowalski ( born August 10, 1882 in Kowal, Russia, now Poland, † June 4, 1956 in London ) was a composer, singer, singing teacher and lawyer.

Life

Max Kowalski was born as the son of Jewish cantor and teacher Abraham Kowalski and his wife Bertha Kowalski, nee Rosenthal, in Kowal. A year later the family moved to Germany and lived in Frankfurt am Main since 1894 (or 1895). After high school, Max Kowalski studied law at the Universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Marburg and received his doctorate in 1906 at the University of Marburg with a thesis on " The Nature obligation".

From 1908 to 1938 he worked as a lawyer and was a recognized authority in the field of copyright. He represented, for example, 1930 Arnold Schoenberg, in a dispute with the Frankfurt Opera occasion of the performance of Schoenberg's opera " Overnight ". 1938, after the lawyer's license was him previously been withdrawn, Max Kowalski was arrested on 11 November as a result of action of Kristallnacht and in the Buchenwald concentration camp deported ( prisoner number 21,609 ). The purpose of this action was to extort imprisoned Jews to emigrate, the more to be able to confiscate their assets. So even Max Kowalski, who was released Nov. 27, 1938 as No. 195, together with a total of 445 Jewish prisoners.

In March 1939, Kowalski took his daughter into exile in London. Although his wife Anna Kowalski had appropriate immigration papers for the UK, she took on 25 October 1938, the life (Anna Kowalski had been previously detained in prison Preungesheim, then in Moringen, Lichtenburg concentration camp and concentration camp Ravensbrück ).

Under difficult circumstances earned Max Kowalski in London his living as a piano tuner, synagogue singer and singing teacher.

Lieder and singer

The oeuvre of Max Kowalski includes 6 seventeen published and at least another seventeen unpublished song cycles in addition to the "two piano pieces " op. He set European and non-European poet (selection): Li Tai Po, Hafiz, Omar Khayyam, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Friedrich Hölderlin, Heinrich Heine, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Martin Griffin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Paul Verlaine, Rainer Maria Rilke, Hermann Hesse and Klabund. Submission of its musical settings were also Jewish poems, poetry collections from Japan, India and poems from the Arab region.

The songs of Max Kowalski were performed by the great singers of his time: Paul Bender, Heinrich Rehkemper, Heinrich Schlusnus, Leo Schützendorf, Joseph Schwarz, before the 2nd World War, and Alexander Kipnis, Albert Fischer, Hans Hotter, Emmy Krüger, Karin Bransell among other things, after 1945.

Songs ( selection)

Published

Op. 1 Six Songs (1913 ) Simrock
Op. 2 The sun sinks, Three Poems of Frederich Nietzsche ( 1913) Simrock
Op. 5 Three Songs on Poems by Martin Greif ( 1915)
Op. 6 Simrock Two Piano Pieces (1913 ) Simrock
Op. 7 Three Ballads of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer ( 1914) Leukart
Op. 8 Three Poems by Martin Greif ( 1914) Leukart
Op. 9 Four songs of various poets (1916 ) Simrock
Op. 10 Six Songs on Poems old (1914 ) Simrock
Op. 11 Six Songs from the Rococo ( 1921) Simrock
Op. 12 Five songs of Mary (1927 ) Leukart
Op. 13 Six Poems of Verlaine (1928 ) Leukart
Op. 14 Five Poems by Hermann Hesse (1931 ) Zimmerman
Op. 15 Six Poems of Klabund (1930 ) Zimmerman
Op. 16 Five Songs of various poets (1931 ) Leukart
Op. 17 Six Songs from the West Eastern Divan of Goethe (1934 ) Universal

Numerous songs Max Kowalski are in publishing "Recital Publications" in Huntsville, Texas, appeared.

Unpublished

Op. 18 Seven Poems of Hafiz (1933 )
Op. 19 Japanese Spring (10 songs ) ( 1934-38 )
Op. 21 Five Jewish Songs ( 1935-37 )
Op. 22 Three additional Jewish Songs ( 1935-37 )
Op. 23 Twelve Children's Songs (1936 )
Op. 24 six Heine songs (1938 )
Op. 25 Twelve Songs of Li Tai Po ( 1938-39 )
Op. 26 A song cycle of Omar Khayyam (1941 )
Op. 27 Eight Songs ( Hafiz ) ( 1948)
Op. 28 Seven Songs ( Meyer) (1949 )
Op. 29 Six Songs ( Hölderlin ) ( 1950-51 )
Op. 30 Seven Songs ( Rilke ) ( 1951)
Op. 31 Seven Geisha Songs) (1951 )
Op. 32 Six Songs on Poems Indian ( 1951-52 )
Op. 33 Five Songs (George) (1952 )
Op. 34 Six Songs on Poems Arab ( 1953-54 )

Discography

Max Kowalski: 7 songs on texts by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Otto von Rohr (bass ), Wolfgang Rudolf ( piano), undefined Tone Recording Co., 160 West 73rd St., New York, 12 "LP, nd
Max Kowalski: Seven Songs by Rilke, Willy Berling (baritone ), Walter Faith ( Piano), undefined Tone Recording Co., 160 West 73rd St., New York, 12 "LP, nd
Max Kowalski: Pierrot songs, Hans Hotter (bass - baritone ), Michael Raucheisen (piano), undefined Tone Recording Co., 160 West 73rd St., New York, 12 "LP, nd
Max Kowalski: 5 Songs on Holderlin, Otto von Rohr (bass ), Wolfgang Rudolf ( piano), undefined Tone Recording Co., 160 West 73rd St., New York, 10 " LP, nd
A Clown Behind the Masques of Music, A selection of four different settings of seven poems from " Pierot lunaire "; in u. a: Max Kowalski, choice of 4 op, with Edith Urbanczyk (mezzo - soprano) and Dunja Robotti (piano), Musicaphon, B00005LZS0, June 2001.
Symposium Opera Collection 10: Paul Bender Sings. Paul Bender (1875-1947) Recordings from 1907 to1933 ... Previously unpublished: Pierrot Lunaire ( Kowalski ) - No.2 robbery, No.4 The Dandy & No.10 The Lantern. April 29, 2003
Suzi More, Kendell Kardt: Max Kowalski Opus 2,
Suzi More, Angela Manso: Max Kowalski Opus 12, five songs of Mary, cdbaby, © Copyright Leukart Publishing, Munich, Germany ( 884 502 908 763 ), Record Label: lilredhen
Suzi More, Max Kowalski Opus 16,
Songs on Poems by Stefan Zweig, Stefan Zweig production of the International Society and the University Mozarteum Salzburg 2008 ( 17: Paul Verlaine, moonlight, translation by Stefan Zweig, Max Kowalski 6 Poems, Op 13, No. 6, 1928)

Opern- und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt Name Authority File

559105