Description

PAUL FISCHER (VIENNA, AUSTRIA, AUGUST 31, 1876 – VIENNA, NOVEMBER 4, 1942)

 

 

 

 

Paul Fischer was born on August 31, 1876 in Vienna, Austria, the youngest of nine children in a Jewish family. His father, Adolf Fischer, served as a cantor at the Vienna City Temple. Fischer studied violin at the Vienna Conservatory of the Society of Friends of Music, where his teachers included Jakob Moritz Grün and Sigismund Bachrich. He completed his diploma in 1890.

On March 1, 1899, Fischer joined the Vienna Court Opera Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic, where he played first violin for nearly 40 years. In 1905 he also became second violinist in the Rosé Quartet, one of Europe’s most prestigious chamber ensembles at the time. With the Rosé Quartet he took part in premieres of works by major composers including Johannes Brahms, Arnold Schönberg, Anton Webern, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and others. Fischer’s contributions to both orchestral and chamber music helped shape Viennese musical life in the early 20th century. In recognition of his artistry, he was awarded the title of Professor in 1926.

In 1913, Fischer resigned his membership in the Vienna Jewish Community and converted to Catholicism in preparation for his marriage to Leopoldine Pohl, a solo dancer at the Vienna Hofoper. The couple married that year and had two sons: Paul (born 1914) and Otto (born 1921).

Following the Anschluss (Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938), Fischer was forcibly suspended from the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera on March 23, 1938, due to Nazi racial laws targeting people of Jewish heritage. He was pushed into retirement with a sharply reduced pension and had to fight bureaucratically to receive even minimal support.

After his dismissal, Fischer and his family faced increasingly harsh restrictions and financial hardship. His health deteriorated due to chronic illness (neuritis), and his younger son Otto died in 1941. Paul Fischer himself died on November 4, 1942, at the Jewish Hospital in Vienna’s Leopoldstadt district at age 66.

Fischer’s musical legacy is recognized as part of Vienna’s rich orchestral and chamber tradition. In recent decades, his name has been memorialized with Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) and other markers remembering musicians and artists persecuted under National Socialism.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

The Rosé String Quartet (Arnold Rosé (first violin), Paul Fischer (second violin), Anton Ruzitska (viola), Anton Walter (cello))

 

1. Quartet No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 131 (Beethoven) I Adagio non troppo e molto espressivo
2. Quartet No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 131 (Beethoven) II Allegro molto vivace
3. Quartet No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 131 (Beethoven) III Allegro moderato – Adagio
4. Quartet No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 131 (Beethoven) IV Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile
5. Quartet No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 131 (Beethoven) V Presto
6. Quartet No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 131 (Beethoven) VI Adagio quasi un poco andante
7. Quartet No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 131 (Beethoven) VII Allegro

1927 HMV EJ560/64 CW 1881/87, CM 620 and CW 1889/90

8. String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4 (Beethoven) I Allegro ma non tanto
9. String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4 (Beethoven) II Scherzo andante scherzoso quasi allegretto
10. String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4 (Beethoven) III Menuetto allegretto
11. String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4 (Beethoven) IV Allegro prestissimo

1927 HMV ES388/90 (matrices Ck 2822/23, CW 1907 and Ck 2825/26)

12. String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74 Harp (Beethoven) I Poco adagio – allegro
13. String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74 Harp (Beethoven) II Adagio ma non troppo
14. String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74 Harp (Beethoven) III Presto piu presto quasi prestissimo – tempo I
15. String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74 Harp (Beethoven) IV Allegretto con variazioni

1927 HMV ES594/96 (matrices Ck 2848/50, CW 1880 and Ck 2852/53)