As the university celebrated the launch of a PhD program where scholars from across the world will study American history, politics, and culture from a transatlantic perspective, Mrs. Strauss focused on the impact of German-Jewish emigres on America’s intellectual and cultural development.
This exhibition features a number of recently acquired books designed by George Salter, who revolutionized the art of book design over a career that spanned decades in Berlin and New York, lending iconic images to works by Kafka, Mann, and Faulkner. It also showcases a wide and diverse range of other books from the LBI collections.
Today, the Geneva-born composer Ernest Bloch is primarily known for the neo-romantic cello rhapsody “Schelomo,” which has been performed by nearly every major cellist. His relative obscurity today belies his tremendous impact on American classical music as both a teacher and composer.
Before Erich Wolfgang Korngold was first called to Hollywood by his fellow Austrian émigré, the actor and director Max Reinhardt, he was a celebrated child prodigy and an up-and-coming composer of serious orchestral music who had had works premiered by artists including Artur Schnabel
Famous for his tenure with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, William Steinberg was already an important conductor before he left Germany. At the Frankfurt Opera, Steinberg had conducted the premiere of the first 12-tone opera, Arnold Schoenberg’s “Von Heute auf Morgen.”
Though the conductor Otto Klemperer’s career in the United States lasted just six years before complications from an unnecessary surgery forced him temporarily from the podium, he had an enormous impact on classical music in America.
Known more for his communicative and emotional playing than technical mastery, Artur Schnabel eventually made recordings of all 32 Beethoven piano Sonatas which are still prized for their musicality despite inaccuracies. As a composer, he embraced a much more modern aesthetic.
Violinist Ernest (Ernst) Drucker’s papers in the LBI archives reflect the rich pool of talent associated with the Jüdischer Kulturbund during the 1930’s. Unlike many artists of his generation, whose careers were completely derailed by oppression and exile, Drucker was able to continue a successful career in America.
Michael Brenner, of the University of Munich discussed research from his new book “Prophets of the Past.” “Prophets” is the first book to examine in depth how modern Jewish historians have interpreted Jewish history. Brenner reveals that perhaps no other group has used their shared history for so many different ideological and political purposes as the Jews.
Arnold Schoenberg is recognized as one of the most important composers of the 20th century, and he appears again and again as a correspondent and topic of discussion in the papers of prominent musicians in the LBI archives.
Leo Baeck Institute receives major support from the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany. More info...
