Hanns Wolf (sometimes incorrectly called Hans Wolf;[a] June 7, 1894 – July 2, 1968) was a post-romantic and modern composer, pianist and music professor.[1] Nearly all his works were destroyed after World War II,[2] and Wolf was nearly forgotten until 1996 when he was rediscovered by Karl Urlberger.
Biography
Würzburg Music Conservatory, where Wolf studied between 1908 and 1912Leopold Mozart Centre in Augsburg, where Wolf taught in 1924
From 1912 to 1924 he was a teacher for piano and organ, first in Essen as a private piano teacher from the year 1912 to 1913, then in Aschaffenburg as a teacher of piano and organ in the Städtische Musikschule Aschaffenburg (municipal music school), starting as a permanent teacher from February 1914[5] to 1924.[2] In Aschaffenburg, Wolf was considerably popular and well known as he and Hermann Kundigraber (who was the head of the music school)[6] organized many concerts that can be date backed as early as 1917.[7][b] Wolf taught piano to Ottmar Geißler (Geissler).[9]
After 1924, Wolf was a professor in the Augsburg Musikhochschule, now known as Leopold Mozart Centre of the University of Augsburg.[2] As Wolf had a prior job as an organ professor, he had relations to Arthur Piechler [de][10] (who was an organ virtuoso), Piechler was the student of Heinrich Kaspar Schmid who was the director of the music school.[11] Wolf also played piano around Europe, playing the works of Dobrowen and Wladigeroff.[12] However, the outbreak of World War II forced him to stay in Germany. He continued to hold his position as a professor in the university until the war ended in 1945, when he resigned as a professor and lived as an independent composer and pianist.
He died at the age of 74 on July 2, 1968, in Füssen, Germany.
Twelve variations on a minuet by Johann Christian FischerKV 179, (A rewrite of the original variations by Mozart, this work was originally started by Alfred Hoffmiller of the Augsburg music school; 1940s?)[20]
Rediscovery and recordings
In 1996, Karl Urlberger reintroduced Hanns Wolf to the world,[21] recording five of Wolf's pieces (listed below) in 1997 under the •K•U• Classics[c] (Aschaffenburg) label.[22][14]: 4 While the 4 Peasant Dances were also released on "For strings only" CD that includes Moritz Moszkowski's Prelude and Fugue Op. 85, Alec Rowley's English Dance Suite, Richard Trunk's Serenade for strings Op. 55, George Enescu's two intermezzi for strings, Op. 12, and Constantin Silvestri 3 pieces for string orchestra, Op. 4, No. 2.[14]: 45 All the recordings were made in Romania.[23]
The piano concerto was probably composed in 1929, it known to be performed as early as 1935 in Coburg by the Coburg Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde.[26] Another performance was given on 21 July 1938, in a music program including Hector Berlioz's Roman Carnival overture, and Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony, in this performance Hanns Wolf was the pianist.[27] In 1939, under the baton of Otto Miehler [de] (1903–1968) in the FlensburgGrenzlandtheater the piano concerto was performed again with Wolf as the pianist; the work was celebrated and was very successful in this performance.[28] That same year, Wolf's 5 Franconian Dances for Four hands was published by Anton Böhm & Sohn [de].[28]: 517 Due to World War II, the piece wasn't performed again until 60 years later on 17 January 1997, when it was performed and recorded with pianist Dana Borsan and the National Radio Orchestra of Romania conducted by Ludovic Bács [ro]. Karl Urlberger organized and helped the performance by bringing the sheet music.[29]
On 8 September 2011,[30] in the 2011 George Enescu Festival, Dana Borsan again performed the piano concerto, but with the "Moldova" Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sébastian Rouland.[13][31] This performance was recorded, and was published on YouTube on 25 April 2013, thus making Wolf more well-known.[32]
Other
In Box 16 (1927) of the Ernst Henschel collection, there might be a recording of Hanns Wolf's piano recital dated 1 October 1927.[33]
Wolf's piano concerto was mentioned in Paul D. Escudero's Pluto II: Voyage to the End of the Universe when Greg listened to it to achieve a "Hemi-Sync Reality" during meditation.[35][relevant?]
Notes
^However, this should not be confused with Hans Wolf (1912–2005) who was a German conductor who moved to America to escape the Nazis in 1938.
^The 1917 event involved many people such as Alois Seifert, Alfred Hoehn, the Stuttgarter Oratorio Quartet, and many more. It lasted for a few weeks; in this time Wolf created several compositions and performed some in the time of October 31 – November 22.[8]
^•K•U• Classics is a label owned by Karl Urlberger, KU are his initials. These recordings were on KU 29002, but the piano concerto was released again with Franz Liszt's Piano Concerto no. 2 and Totentanz as KU 29004.
