Ignaz Brüll
born Prossnitz, Moravia [Prostějov, Czech Republic], November 7, 1846; died Vienna, September 17, 1907
Documents associated with this person:
Austrian pianist and composer of Czech origin, friend and colleague of Schenker.
Career Summary
Brüll studied piano (with Julius Epstein) and composition in Vienna. In the early 1860s he began his rise to prominence as a composer, culminating in the successful performance of his opera The Golden Cross in 1875. In all, he wrote nine operas, one ballet, orchestral works in several genres, two piano concertos and one violin concerto, and a large amount of chamber music, solo piano works, and choral and vocal works. He taught at the Horák School of Music in Vienna 1872‒78, becoming one of its directors in 1881. He made several concert tours as a solo pianist, performing works from the classical and romantic repertory. He was a close friend of Brahms, who frequently entrusted him with first performances of his piano works.
Brüll and Schenker
Schenker was part of the Brahms circle ‒ though much less intimately so than Brüll. (One might almost say that Brüll, and others such as Ernst Rudorff and Julius Röntgen, belonged to the "intersection" of the Brahms and Schenker circles.) The period of personal contact between Schenker and Brüll coincided roughly with that in which Schenker was striving to establish himself as a composer. He showed his compositions to Brüll in visits and by mailing copies to him, and received favorable comments such as "bears the stamp of a deep spirit and significant talent" and "has an element of Sturm und Drang." His diary for February 7, 1897 records a visit to Brüll in which he received a "sincerely favorable judgment" on unspecified works. And Schenker received social invitations from Brüll and his wife.
Correspondence
Ten letters, a calling card, a note, and a printed concert announcement from Brüll to Schenker survive as OJ 9/23, [1]‒[11] and [A]‒[B] dating from 1891 to 1907. Additionally, two postcards from Brüll to Moriz Violin survive as OJ 70/9, [1]‒[2]. Brüll seems not to have been mentioned in Schenker's critical writings and reviews from the years 1891 to 1901.
Sources:
- MGG
- Grove Music Online
- Hellmut Federhofer, Heinrich Schenker nach Tagebüchern und Briefen ... (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1985), pp. 73‒76
- Heinrich Schenker: Selected Correspondence, ed. Ian Bent, David Bretherton, and William Drabkin (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2015), pp. 7, 21, 25, 33
Contributor
- Ian Bent