This Week in Classical Music: April 17, 2023.Schillings and the problem of evil.In his “little tragedy” Mozart and Salieri, the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin made a profound, if not necessarily true statement: “Genius and villainy are two things incompatible.”We’d like to believe it to be true, and in some higher sense it should be true, but we know that history is full of villainous geniuses.As far as music is concerned, Richard Wagner’s name is the first to come to mind.He was a vile antisemite and made statements that today are difficult to comprehend.One thing we’d like to make clear about Wagner is that in no way was he responsible for the atrocities committed by the Nazis, though much of them were accompanied by his music.Wagner’s music was favored by Hitler, but the Führer also loved Bruckner and Beethoven.Wagner’s place in the Nazi culture was unique, partly because of the Bayreuth Festival, run by the antisemitic Winifred Wagner, the wife of Richard’s son Siegfried and Hitler’s dear friend, but in no way does this make Wagner, as terrible a person as he was, an accomplice.Then there was Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, who murdered his wife and Fabrizio Carafa, Duke of Andria, after finding them in flagrante.Alessandro Stradella, a wonderful composer, embezzled money from the Catholic church, seduced and abandoned many women, and was killed by three assassins hired by a nobleman who found out that Stradella had become a lover of his mistress (or, in another version of the story, the nobleman’s sister).One person we find especially fascinating is the painter of genius, Caravaggio, who murdered several people, maimed many more, belonged to a gang, was arrested on many occasions, and had fled from justice for half of his life.We tend not to remember these things when we look at his pictures, some of the most profound ever created.
The musician whom we decided to write about this week never had the talent of the artists just mentioned, but neither were his sins as deep; nonetheless, his story, which is much closer to our time, seems to be more relevant.His name was Max Schillings, he was born on April 19th of 1868 in Düren, the Kingdom of Prussia.He studied the piano and the violin in Bonn and later entered the University of Munich, where he took courses in law, philosophy, and literature.While in Munich, he met Richard Strauss who became his friend for life.In 1892 Schillings was appointed assistant stage conductor at Bayreuth; in 1903 he was made professor in Munich (Wilhelm Furtwängler was one of his students).In 1908 he became the assistant to the Director of the Royal Theater in Stuttgart, the city’s main opera house, where he staged several premieres, including Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos; later he also conducted Strauss’s Salome and Elektra.By then he had composed several operas, most of them unsuccessful imitations of Wagner.Then, in 1915, he had a breakthrough with his opera Mona Lisa, which became the most often staged opera of the time.In 1918 Schillings succeeded Richard Strauss as the Intendant of the State Opera in Berlin (we know it as Staatsoper Unter den Linden; Barenboim lead it for years).He then spent several years outside of Germany, conducting and staging operas in Europe and the US.Upon his return in 1932, he was appointed President of the Prussian Academy of the Arts.
Schillings was a rabid antisemite, a nationalist and an opponent of the Weimar Republic.As soon as he became the President of the Academy, he fired some of the most talented members, among them Heinrich and Thomas Mann; Alfred Döblin, the author of Berlin Alexanderplatz; the composer Franz Werfel.He terminated Arnold Schoenberg’s contract and sent Franz Schreker into retirement.God only knows what else he would have done had he lived through the Nazi period, but he died on July 24th of 1933, four months after the Enabling Act gave Hitler dictatorial powers.We don’t want to keep Schillings’s music in our library, but you can find Mona Lisa on YouTube.
Schillings
This Week in Classical Music: April 17, 2023. Schillings and the problem of evil. In his “little tragedy” Mozart and Salieri, the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin made a profound, if not
necessarily true statement: “Genius and villainy are two things incompatible.” We’d like to believe it to be true, and in some higher sense it should be true, but we know that history is full of villainous geniuses. As far as music is concerned, Richard Wagner’s name is the first to come to mind. He was a vile antisemite and made statements that today are difficult to comprehend. One thing we’d like to make clear about Wagner is that in no way was he responsible for the atrocities committed by the Nazis, though much of them were accompanied by his music. Wagner’s music was favored by Hitler, but the Führer also loved Bruckner and Beethoven. Wagner’s place in the Nazi culture was unique, partly because of the Bayreuth Festival, run by the antisemitic Winifred Wagner, the wife of Richard’s son Siegfried and Hitler’s dear friend, but in no way does this make Wagner, as terrible a person as he was, an accomplice. Then there was Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, who murdered his wife and Fabrizio Carafa, Duke of Andria, after finding them in flagrante. Alessandro Stradella, a wonderful composer, embezzled money from the Catholic church, seduced and abandoned many women, and was killed by three assassins hired by a nobleman who found out that Stradella had become a lover of his mistress (or, in another version of the story, the nobleman’s sister). One person we find especially fascinating is the painter of genius, Caravaggio, who murdered several people, maimed many more, belonged to a gang, was arrested on many occasions, and had fled from justice for half of his life. We tend not to remember these things when we look at his pictures, some of the most profound ever created.
The musician whom we decided to write about this week never had the talent of the artists just mentioned, but neither were his sins as deep; nonetheless, his story, which is much closer to our time, seems to be more relevant. His name was Max Schillings, he was born on April 19th of 1868 in Düren, the Kingdom of Prussia. He studied the piano and the violin in Bonn and later entered the University of Munich, where he took courses in law, philosophy, and literature. While in Munich, he met Richard Strauss who became his friend for life. In 1892 Schillings was appointed assistant stage conductor at Bayreuth; in 1903 he was made professor in Munich (Wilhelm Furtwängler was one of his students). In 1908 he became the assistant to the Director of the Royal Theater in Stuttgart, the city’s main opera house, where he staged several premieres, including Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos; later he also conducted Strauss’s Salome and Elektra. By then he had composed several operas, most of them unsuccessful imitations of Wagner. Then, in 1915, he had a breakthrough with his opera Mona Lisa, which became the most often staged opera of the time. In 1918 Schillings succeeded Richard Strauss as the Intendant of the State Opera in Berlin (we know it as Staatsoper Unter den Linden; Barenboim lead it for years). He then spent several years outside of Germany, conducting and staging operas in Europe and the US. Upon his return in 1932, he was appointed President of the Prussian Academy of the Arts.
Schillings was a rabid antisemite, a nationalist and an opponent of the Weimar Republic. As soon as he became the President of the Academy, he fired some of the most talented members, among them Heinrich and Thomas Mann; Alfred Döblin, the author of Berlin Alexanderplatz; the composer Franz Werfel. He terminated Arnold Schoenberg’s contract and sent Franz Schreker into retirement. God only knows what else he would have done had he lived through the Nazi period, but he died on July 24th of 1933, four months after the Enabling Act gave Hitler dictatorial powers. We don’t want to keep Schillings’s music in our library, but you can find Mona Lisa on YouTube.