Description

ADOLF STEINER (SCHWÄBISCH HALL, 12 APRIL, 1897 – BADEN-BADEN, 27 MARCH, 1974)

 

 

 

 

Adolf Steiner, the son of a Württemberg music director who ran his own music school in Berlin from 1912, received his first musical education at home, along with his four brothers and five sisters. From the age of six, he learned violin and piano, switching to cello at twelve. He also began playing drums early in his father’s band. From 1914 to 1921, with an interruption due to military service from 1916 to 1919, he studied under Hugo Becker at the Berlin Academy of Music.

From 1921 to 1929 he was a member of the Havemann Quartet. In 1926 he became a soloist in the orchestra of the German Opera House. Subsequently, from 1928 until the end of the Second World War, he performed in the Steiner Brothers Quintet – consisting of violinists Karl and Willy, violist Fritz, and conductor and pianist Heinrich. In 1929 he was the first performer of Paul Höffer’s Cello Concerto.

Based on the research of Fred K. Prieberg, Adolf Steiner and his brother Heinrich demonstrated unconditional allegiance to Nazi ideology and its leading politicians until the very end. Adolf Steiner had already joined the Nazi Party ( NSDAP) on November 1, 1930 (membership number 359,757). In particular, Joseph Goebbels invited the Steiner Quartet to play before his performances. Immediately after the Nazi seizure of power, in 1933, Adolf Steiner was appointed to a teaching position at the Berlin Academy of Music, a position previously held by Emanuel Feuermann, who had been dismissed because of his Jewish heritage. From 1939 onward, he worked as a professor in Berlin. During the 1940/41 season, Adolf Steiner accepted invitations from the Linz General Music Director Georg Ludwig Jochum to perform in concerts with the Reich Bruckner Orchestra, which Jochum conducted and which had been established on Hitler’s orders. On November 3, 1944, he recorded a cello concerto by Eugen d’Albert with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under the direction of Hermann Abendroth in Leipzig. In 1944, Steiner was on the Gottbegnadeten-Liste (List of God-Gifted Artists) of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

Due to his close ties to the Nazi regime, Adolf Steiner was not allowed to resume public activity until 1948 – after his fourth denazification proceedings. From 1950 to 1962, he taught at the Cologne Academy of Music. He was also concertmaster for cello with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra. From 1950, he performed in a piano trio with pianist Hilma Holstein and violinist Wolfgang Marschner.  He continued his concert career and became the first performer of Walter Jentsch’s Cello Concerto (1956).

Adolf Steiner spent his later years in Baden-Baden.

 

TRACKLIST

 

D’Albert (1864-1932): Concerto for Violoncello

Adolf Steiner (cello)

Hermann Abendroth conductor

Recorded 06/09/1944, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.

 

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Double Concerto for violin and cello in A minor, Op. 102 (incomplete)

Carl Steiner (violin) and Adolf Steiner (cello)

Max Fiedler (conductor)

Orchester der Reichsenders Berlin

Recorded 1936

 

Ave Maria (Bach-Gounod) Kristall 5089 C1198

Largo (Händel) Kristall 5089 C1199

O hülle mein Erröten, Nacht (Beethoven) Helena Rott (Contralto), Michael Raucheisen (piano) and Paul Richartz (Violin) 63 R.159 45 Radiophon GmbH, Berlin