Description

KARL KLINGLER (STRASBOURG, 7 DECEMBER, 1879 – MUNICH, 18 MARCH, 1971)

 

 

 

 

Karl Klingler was the fifth of six children of the Strasbourg theater orchestra violist Theodor Klingler and Marie Elisabeth Klingler, née Christian. The five-year-old learned to play the violin from his father and then from his colleague at the Strasbourg Conservatory, Heinrich Schuster. At the Berlin State University of Music, the seventeen-year-old then studied violin with Joseph Joachim and composition with Max Bruch and Robert Kahn and won the Mendelssohn State Prize for Composition at the age of 19.

In 1904 he became second concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic under Arthur Nikisch. He was also accepted as a violist into the famous Joachim Quartet founded by his former teacher in 1869, which brought him great recognition. In addition to his concert activities, he composed songs, chamber music and a violin concerto in E major, which he performed with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1907.

In 1910 he was appointed Royal Prussian Professor for the violin at the Berlin State University of Music, making him Joseph Joachim’s successor. He also managed to acquire a Stradivarius – the “De Barreau” from 1714 – which had been Joachim’s property. In 1911 his performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Arthur Williams and Artur Schnabel received a glowing review in the American music magazine The Musical Times and Singing-class Circular.

During the First World War he was initially deployed as a soldier, but later also as a musician to provide cultural support to the troops with his newly formed string quartet. He gave concerts at the British royal court and in the Vatican, among others, but also for workers in factory halls. During the war he married the wealthy, piano-playing Margarethe von Gwinner, daughter of the banker and member of the House of Lords Arthur von Gwinner. He had four children with her.

In 1920, a young Japanese man named Shinichi Suzuki visited him and asked for private lessons, which he then enjoyed for eight years: the first four years mainly concerts and sonatas, the next four years chamber music. The Suzuki method, which is now widespread worldwide, was thus influenced by Karl Klingler.

During the Nazi regime, Klingler resisted the iconoclasm at his university in 1936, which also included the bust of his highly revered – Jewish – teacher Joseph Joachim. As a result, he lost his professorship, was banned from performing in Germany and went to Switzerland for a few months. After his return, he went into internal exile and devoted himself to composing. Among other things, he wrote a large work for choir, a solo voice and piano. In an exchange of ideas with his friend Max Planck, he also dealt with certain geometric problems.

After the Berlin house had become uninhabitable due to bombing, he and his family moved to the Krumke manor in the Altmark, which his wife had inherited and transferred to him. He only escaped the execution of an existing arrest warrant by the Nazis because American troops had already occupied the castle. The manor was taken over by the Soviet occupying forces and expropriated as part of the GDR land reform. The family moved to Hanover and in 1949 to Munich. There he wrote about musical themes such as the Rode Caprices and Bach’s solo sonatas, created smaller compositions and arrangements and continued to study geometry. Klingler was a member of the Zwanglosen Gesellschaft München from 1950. He made music every day until shortly before his death at the age of 92: sonatas with his wife and chamber music with his children, friends and acquaintances.

The Klingler Quartet, founded in 1905 by Karl Klingler, initially consisted of himself as first violinist, the Russian Josef Rywkind as second violinist, Klingler’s older brother Fridolin as violist and Arthur Williams, a Briton from Wales , on cello, who followed his teacher Robert Hausmann , who had played in the Joachim Quartet for many years, down to the smallest detail in his playing and thus, together with Klingler, ensured the continuation of the Joachim Quartet’s musical and sound tradition. Because of the First World War, the quartet, which consisted of citizens whose countries were at war with each other, had to disband.

Later, Klingler continued the tradition of the Klingler Quartet with Richard Heber as second violinist. Max Baldner was the first cellist, and from 1926 Francesco von Mendelssohn. The style and sound of the Joachim Quartet, once praised as the best string quartet in the world, can best be understood from the recordings that Karl Klingler made with this quartet, because he and his quartet were also considered the legitimate successor to Joachim.

Even in the era of National Socialism, a “non-Aryan” played the cello: in 1934, the Klingler Quartet played with the Jewish cellist Ernst Silberstein at the invitation of President Paul von Hindenburg and in the presence of Adolf Hitler. In 1936, Klingler refused to give in to pressure from the National Socialists and exchange Silberstein for an “Aryan” cellist. Silberstein emigrated, and Klingler resignedly disbanded the quartet, which had by then become world famous.

The quartet’s new beginning after the war with Agnes Ritter, Friedrich Hausmann and Otto Garvens could no longer continue the great tradition; after all, Klingler had also reached retirement age in the meantime.

In 1979, the Karl Klingler Foundation was established to promote string quartets and early musical education in the spirit of Shinichi Suzuki.

Suzuki’s principles that all children can learn to play the violin 1. by starting early, 2. by using a better method and 3. by using a better teacher, and furthermore that service to humanity is the highest calling and that the highest goal of artistic endeavor must be the improvement of society, have also found their way into the foundation’s objectives.

At the first Karl Klingler Competitions for String Quartet in Hanover, the Cherubini Quartet, the Stuttgart and Mannheim String Quartet from Germany, the Guadagnini and Fairfield Quartet from Great Britain, the Voces Quartet from Romania, and scholarships were awarded to the German Auryn Quartet and the Polish Voces Academia Quartet. After a break of several years, the Karl Klingler Competition was held for the first time in 1998 at the place of work of its namesake, the current “Hanns Eisler” Academy of Music in Berlin, and the first prize winners there were the German Kuss Quartet and the two French quartets Johannes and Diotima.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

Andante cantabile aus dem Duo für Violine und Viola; (K. V. 424) (Mozart) with with Fridolin Klingler (viola) Electrola EH 1031 2RA 1735

Serenade in D-dur, Op. 77a 2. Satz Andante semplice con variazioni (Schluß) (Reger) with Fridolin Klingler (viola) and Gustav Scheck (flöte) EH 1029 2RA 1732 Electrola

Serenade in D-dur, Op. 77a 1. Satz Allegro (1. Teil) (Reger) with Fridolin Klingler (viola) and Gustav Scheck (flöte) EH 1029 2RA 1729 Electrola

Serenade in D-dur, Op. 77a 1. Satz Allegro (Schluß) (Reger) with Fridolin Klingler (viola) and Gustav Scheck (flöte) EH 1029 2RA 1730 Electrola

Serenade in D-dur, Op. 77a 2. Satz Andante semplice con variazioni (1. Teil) (Reger) with Fridolin Klingler (viola) and Gustav Scheck (flöte) EH 1029 2RA 1731 Electrola