Julius Bittner (born Vienna, 9 April 1874; died Vienna, 9 January 1939) was an Austrian composer.
Julius Bittner (born Vienna, 9 April 1874; died Vienna, 9 January 1939) was an Austrian composer.
The son of a judge, Bittner also initially pursued a career in law. Until 1920 he was a judge in Wolkersdorf im Weinviertel, in Lower Austria. From 1920 to 1922 [1] or 1923 [2] he was an official in the Austrian Department of Justice.
In addition, Julius Bittner became one of the best-known and most performed Austrian opera composers in the first half of the 20th century. [1] [3] Many of his operas deal with Austrian-Alpine themes. He usually wrote his own libretti. After the Second World War, however, as a typical representative of late Romantic opera in the tradition of Richard Wagner, he was gradually forgotten. [1] Critics gave him the somewhat derogatory nickname "the Anzengruber of the opera"; in importance he is comparable to his better known contemporary Wilhelm Kienzl.
Bittner was married to the alto Emilie Werner. [3] [4] As a leading member of Vienna's judiciary and close friend of Gustav Mahler, he assessed Mahler's estate for probate after his death. He later won the Mahler Prize in 1915. He composed many operas, two symphonies and many songs and was helped and promoted by Mahler and Bruno Walter. He was also a close friend of Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Franz Schmidt. He was for a while editor of the Austrian music journal Der Merker [2] and wrote music criticism for it and other newspapers. He was so influential that he was able to arrange Arnold Schoenberg's release from active military service in the First World War.
He received numerous awards and honors and became a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin in 1925. In 1964, the archive containing almost all of his works (autograph sketches, text books, scores and piano reductions) was taken over by the Vienna City Library.
Bittner is buried in an honorary grave in Vienna's Central Cemetery (Group 32C, Plot 15).
Operas (selection):
Julius Bittner also composed two symphonies, two symphonic poems and a work for two pianos and orchestra entitled Österreichische Tanze (Austrian Dances). He wrote incidental music to plays by Shakespeare, and for popular plays by Johann Nestroy and Ferdinand Raimund, chamber works (including two string quartets and a still unpublished Cello Sonata) many songs, and a Great Mass and Te Deum which was a cornerstone of the Austrian choral tradition until World War II. He also composed numerous operettas and three ballets, and assisted his friend Erich Wolfgang Korngold in the creation of the most successful of the Johann Strauss pastiches - Walzer aus Wien (premièred in Vienna on 30 October 1930), which became known in English as The Great Waltz . [5]
Bruno Walter was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French citizen in 1938, and settled in the United States in 1939. He worked closely with Gustav Mahler, whose music he helped to establish in the repertory, held major positions with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Salzburg Festival, Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Staatsoper Unter den Linden and Deutsche Oper Berlin, among others, made recordings of historical and artistic significance, and is widely considered to be one of the great conductors of the 20th century.
Josef Paul Labor was an Austrian pianist, organist, and composer of the late Romantic era. Labor was an influential music teacher. As a friend of some key figures in Vienna, his importance was enhanced.
Julius Leopold Korngold was an Austrian music critic. He was the leading critic in early twentieth century Vienna, serving as chief music critic of the Neue Freie Presse from 1904 to 1934. His son was the composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, whom he named after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of his favorite composers.
Ferdinand Raimund was an Austrian actor and dramatist.
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Professor Dr. Ernst Décsey, was an Austrian author and music critic.
Alfred Maria Willner was an Austrian writer, philosopher, musicologist, composer and librettist.
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Uwe Harten is a German musicologist, who works in Austria.
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