Antony Beaumont

Last updated

Antony Beaumont (born 27 January 1949 in London) [1] is an English and German musicologist, writer, conductor and violinist. [2] As a conductor, he has specialized in German music from the first half of the 20th century, including works by Zemlinsky, Weill, and Gurlitt. As a musicologist, he has published books on Busoni, Zemlinsky, and Mahler.

Contents

Biography

Beaumont was born in London of Anglo-German and Greek-Romanian parentage. He studied at Cambridge, worked as a disc jockey for the BBC, wrote reviews for The Daily Telegraph, and played violin and piano as a freelance artist. At various times he played under conductors Otto Klemperer, Leopold Stokowski, and Georg Solti. After graduation he moved to Germany and became a German citizen. [2] Beaumont has held conducting posts with orchestras in Bremen, Cologne, and Saarbrücken, and has guest conducted opera productions in England and Italy. [2] [3]

Musicology

Doktor Faust

Beaumont has prepared new versions of the final two scenes of Busoni's unfinished opera Doktor Faust , based on newly discovered sketches. This version serves as an alternative to the completion made by Busoni's pupil, Philipp Jarnach, which was based on less detailed information. [2] The changes in Scene 2 occur during the vision of Helen of Troy and include slightly altered text and additional music for the character of Faust such that the scene plays for approximately 39 instead of 37 minutes. In the Jarnach version of Scene 3, the final scene, Faust suffers a conventional kind of doom, dying to the accompaniment of E-flat minor chords; in the Busoni/Beaumont version Faust achieves a self-actualized resurrection: "In the freedom I have won, God and the Devil succumb." Perhaps Jarnach was uncomfortable with the morality, or perceived lack thereof, of Busoni's original intentions. [4] The changes in Scene 3 also include additional action for Mephistopheles (he lifts the body of Faust onto his shoulders and slowly leaves the stage), and a final choral passage not found in the Jarnach version. These changes extend the scene from approximately 25 to 29 minutes. [5] The full score of the Beaumont completion exists as a manuscript; the vocal score was published by Breitkopf and Härtel, Wiesbaden, in 1982. [6]

The Beaumont version has not been used often in staged productions of the opera. [2] It was premiered in Bologna in April 1985. [1] A co-production between the English National Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Opéra de Paris was mounted in the late 1980s. [7] The English performances (beginning 25 April 1986) were conducted by Mark Elder and Antony Beaumont, starred Thomas Allen (Faust) and Graham Clark, and were given in the English translation by Edward J. Dent, as revised by Beaumont. [8] This was the first staged production of the opera in Great Britain. The Zurich Opera DVD from 2006, with Thomas Hampson as Faust and conducted by Philippe Jordan, used the Jarnach version and has been severely criticized for doing so. [9] The production at the Metropolitan Opera in 2001, with Hampson as Faust and conducted by Philippe Auguin, also used the less authentic Jarnach version. [4]

Zemlinsky

In the late 1990s Beaumont began studying the life and music of Zemlinsky, conducting and recording several lesser known pieces (see below), and preparing a completion of Zemlinsky's unfinished opera Der König Kandaules . In addition, he wrote and published a biography of Zemlinsky in 2000, which has been widely praised. [2]

Alma Mahler

While researching Zemlinsky's affair with Alma Schindler at the library of the American University, Beaumont found her early diaries dating from that period of her life. Beaumont edited and translated the diaries and published them in 1999. About this volume, Kirkus Reviews UK wrote:

Desolate at the end of a romance with Gustav Klimt, Alma Mahler-Werfel falls briefly in love with her piano teacher, Zemlinsky: 'so immeasurably great!' she writes dramatically. Hers was a life filled with such drama for soon she was attracted to Gustav Mahler. Mahler-Werfel was a wildly dramatic character and a charismatic beauty. Her diaries, scribbled in old exercise books, record her development from adolescence to womanhood, up to her marriage to Mahler. They provide a vivid picture of Vienna in the 1900s, with accounts of the Secession exhibitions, performances of Mahler and Bruckner symphonies, the social scene and fashions. [10]

Further research led to Beaumont's translation and publication in 2004 of letters written by Gustav Mahler to Alma, during the period when she was Mahler's wife. Alma had published many of these letters in 1940, but they were heavily edited to present herself in the best way possible (see Alma Problem). The edition which Beaumont has translated includes these letters in unedited form and includes an additional 188 letters and other unpublished documents. "The texts, supplemented by detailed commentaries, depict an explosive relationship between two people of widely differing character and temperament. The Mahler that emerges from these authentic, unabridged sources is warm, genuine and touchingly human." [11]

Audio recordings (as conductor)

Gurlitt: Goya Symphony; 4 Dramatic Songs. Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. Phoenix Edition 114 (2008) Archived 28 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine . OCLC   256499310.
Weill: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2; Quodlibet, Op. 9. Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. Chandos CHSA 5046 (2006) OCLC   70967127.
Zemlinsky: Lyric Symphony; Complete incidental music to Shakespeare's Cymbeline. Czech Philharmonic. Chandos CHAN 10069 (2003) OCLC   52524302.
Zemlinsky: Die Seejungfrau, Fantasy for Orchestra (1902-3); Symphony in D minor. Czech Philharmonic. Chandos CHAN 10138 (2003) (includes [www.theclassicalshop.net/download_booklet.aspx?file=CHAN%205022.pdf downloadable CD booklet with an essay by Antony Beaumont], accessed on 14 August 2010) OCLC   54432393.
Zemlinsky: Symphony in B flat; Prelude to Es war einmal... (Original version, 1899); Sinfonietta, Op. 23 (1934); Prelude to Act II of Der König Kandaules (1936). Czech Philharmonic. Chandos CHAN 10204 (2004) OCLC   56360770; previously issued on Nimbus (2001) OCLC   50442560.

Publications

Note: This list of publications is not comprehensive.

Notes

  1. 1 2 Jacket notes for Beaumont (1987).
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lewis, Uncle Dave, Allmusic, reproduced at Answers.com. Accessed on 3 February 2009.
  3. ↑ Antony Beaumont (biographical note) at The Banff Centre website, 2011 Winter Music Creative Residencies, Program Faculty.
  4. 1 2 Ross, p. 91.
  5. ↑ The recording of Busoni's Doktor Faust conducted by Kent Nagano includes the Beaumont versions as appendices. (Erato 3984-25501-2, released January, 1999 Archived 1 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine ) Accessed on 3 February 2009.
  6. ↑ Beaumont (1985), p. 312.
  7. ↑ Roberge, pp. 352-353.
  8. ↑ Porter, Andrew (1986). "Musical Events" New Yorker 62 (30 June 1986), pp. 57-58.
  9. ↑ Reviewed by Guy Rickards in Gramophone, March, 2008, p. 90 (Accessed 27 Apr 2009.)
  10. ↑ Reproduced on the Amazon.com product page. Accessed on 3 February 2009.
  11. ↑ Product description on the Amazon.com product page. Accessed on 3 February 2009.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferruccio Busoni</span> Italian composer, pianist, and conductor (1866–1924)

Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary figures of his time, and he was a sought-after keyboard instructor and a teacher of composition.

<i>An die Jugend</i> Sequence of classical music

An die Jugend(BV 254) is a sequence of pieces of classical music for solo piano by Ferruccio Busoni.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alma Mahler</span> Austrian composer (1879–1964)

Alma Mahler-Werfel was an Austrian composer, author, editor, and socialite. Musically active from her early years, she was the composer of nearly fifty songs for voice and piano, and works in other genres as well. 17 songs are known to have survived. At 15, she was mentored by Max Burckhard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Othmar Schoeck</span> Swiss composer and conductor

Othmar Schoeck was a Swiss Romantic classical composer, opera composer, musician, and conductor.

<i>Fantasy on Themes from Mozarts </i>Figaro<i> and </i>Don Giovanni Unfinished operatic paraphrase for piano by Franz Liszt

The Fantasy on Themes from Mozart's Figaro and Don Giovanni, S.697, is an operatic paraphrase for solo piano by Franz Liszt, based on themes from two different Mozart's operas: The Marriage of Figaro, K.492 and Don Giovanni, K.527.

<i>Fantasia contrappuntistica</i>

Fantasia contrappuntistica(BV 256) is a solo piano piece composed by Ferruccio Busoni in 1910. Busoni created a number of versions of the work, including several for solo piano and one for two pianos. It has been arranged for organ and for orchestra under the composer's supervision.

Philipp Jarnach was a German composer of modern music, pianist, teacher, and conductor.

<i>Der Zwerg</i>

Der Zwerg, Op. 17, is an opera in one act by Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky to a libretto by Georg C. Klaren, freely adapted from the short story "The Birthday of the Infanta" by Oscar Wilde.

<i>Feuersnot</i> Opera by Richard Strauss

Feuersnot, Op. 50, is a Singgedicht or opera in one act by Richard Strauss. The German libretto was written by Ernst von Wolzogen, based on J. Ketel's report "Das erloschene Feuer zu Audenaerde". It was Strauss' second opera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Concerto (Busoni)</span> 1904 composition by Ferruccio Busoni

The Piano Concerto in C major, Op. 39 (BV 247), by Ferruccio Busoni, is one of the largest works ever written in this genre. Completed and premiered in 1904, it is about 70 minutes long and laid out in five movements played without a break; in the final movement an invisible men's chorus sings words from the verse-drama Aladdin by Adam Oehlenschläger.

<i>Doktor Faust</i> Opera by Ferruccio Busoni

Doktor Faust is an opera by Ferruccio Busoni with a German libretto by the composer, based on the myth of Faust. Busoni worked on the opera, which he intended as his masterpiece, between 1916 and 1924, but it was still incomplete at the time of his death. His pupil Philipp Jarnach finished it. More recently, in 1982, Antony Beaumont completed the opera using sketches by Busoni that were previously thought to have been lost. Nancy Chamness published an analysis of the libretto to Doktor Faust and a comparison with Goethe's version.

<i>Turandot</i> (Busoni)

Turandot(BV 273) is a 1917 opera with spoken dialogue and in two acts by Ferruccio Busoni. Busoni prepared his own libretto, in German, based on the play of the same name by Count Carlo Gozzi. The music for Busoni's opera is based on the incidental music, and the associated Turandot Suite, which Busoni had written in 1905 for a production of Gozzi's play. The opera is often performed as part of a double bill with Busoni's earlier one-act opera Arlecchino.

<i>Elegies</i> (Busoni) 1908 piano pieces by Ferruccio Busoni

Elegies, BV 249, by the Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni is a set of solo piano pieces which can be played as a cycle or separately. Initially published in 1908 with six pieces, it was subsequently expanded to seven by the addition of the Berceuse. The set of seven takes just over 40 minutes to play.

<i>Turandot Suite</i>

The Turandot Suite, Op. 41 is an orchestral work by Ferruccio Busoni written in 1904–5, based on Count Carlo Gozzi's play Turandot. The music – in one form or another – occupied Busoni at various times between the years 1904–17. Busoni arranged the suite from incidental music which he was composing to accompany a production of Gozzi's play. The suite was first performed on 21 October 1905, while the play with his incidental music was not produced until 1911. In August 1916 Busoni had finished composing the one-act opera Arlecchino, but it needed a companion work to provide a full evening's entertainment. He suddenly decided to transform the Turandot music into a two-act opera with spoken dialog. The two works were premiered together as a double-bill in May 1917.

Franziska is a play by the German dramatist Frank Wedekind, first produced in 1912. Subtitled "a modern Mystery in five acts", it presents the heroine as a "female Faust" by way of conscious parody and commentary on episodes from Goethe's Faust.

<i>Es war einmal</i>

Es war einmal is a fairy-tale opera in a prologue and three acts by the Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky, composed during 1897-99. The libretto, an adaptation of Marie von Borch's German translation of the fairy-tale play Der var engang by the Danish author Holger Drachmann, was written by Maximilian Singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander von Zemlinsky</span> Austrian composer, conductor, and teacher (1871-1942)

Alexander Zemlinsky or Alexander von Zemlinsky was an Austrian composer, conductor, and teacher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandra Trattnigg</span> Austrian opera and concert soprano (born 1976)

Sandra Trattnigg is an Austrian opera and concert soprano.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.