infotext:
WOLFGANG JACOBI – A MODERN CLASSIC »Jacobi is neither a frequent nor a fast typist. In each of his works one notices the care he takes in the design process, the precise sense of responsibility towards every note and rest, the self-critical shyness […] of too much and too little,” the musicologist Erich Valentin stated in 1958 about Wolfgang Jacobi’s work. And indeed, Jacobi was a meticulous worker, a composer who set high standards for himself, and a man who went through life humbly and honestly. At the end of his life he had written a total of about 200 compositions, of which only about half have survived. Many of his early works were lost in World War II, others later did not stand up to Jacobi's self-criticism and were rejected again. What has been preserved bears witness to masterful skill, artistic expressiveness and a clear handwriting. Jacobi's enthusiasm for music had been awakened from an early age. Karl Theodor Franz Wolfgang Jacobi was born on October 25, 1894 in Bergen on the Baltic Sea island of Rügen. He grew up in an educated family and received musical and cultural impulses early on. However, Jacobi first made the decision to pursue a professional musical career as a soldier during the First World War: having been taken prisoner by the French and suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, he was sent to the sanatorium in Davos in 1917. Here he learned i.a. got to know the music of Ravel and Debussy and, impressed by it, began to compose himself. After the war, Jacobi went to Berlin and studied composition at the music academy there until 1922. He then got a job at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin, where he taught music theory. Jacobi also composed a lot, became a freelancer for the »Berlin radio hour« and was able to make a name for himself with his works. Jacobi achieved his first major success with his Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra. "My special fondness for baroque music and the harpsichord prompted me to write a work in the style of neoclassicism that characterized the late 1927s," he later recalled. Written in 1928 as a »Concertino for harpsichord and chamber orchestra«, the work was first performed in 1947 in the Alhambra cinema in Berlin by the cinema chamber orchestra conducted by Paul Dessau and with Eigel Kruttge as the soloist. Two years later, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra under Paul Scheinpflug gave an important performance in front of a prominent audience at the Tonkünstlertagung in Dresden. However, the three-movement work did not last in this early version and was revised by Jacobi in 1949. Especially in the area of instrumentation he made changes. The press wrote about the first performance of the adaptation in XNUMX: »In the orchestral concert, a concerto for harpsichord and orchestra by Wolfgang Jacobi was extraordinarily captivating due to its light, playful elegance and imaginative musical flexibility, which does full justice to the nature of the instrument even in a modern virtuoso form became." So Jacobi's career began full of hope. But the turning point came in 1933 when the National Socialists took power: The Hitler regime imposed a professional and performance ban on the composer, which remained in place until 1945. Because Jacobi was a thorn in the side of the Nazis both for cultural and political reasons - he had written works for the workers' choir movement - and because of his origin - his father was of Jewish descent. He had to take a forced break for twelve years. Jacobi temporarily found a new home in Italy with his wife and two children. Here he was able to distance himself from the events in tranquil Malcesine on Lake Garda. He was very interested in the country's culture and developed a deep connection to Italy. The place of refuge also became an important source of inspiration for him, as evidenced by many of his later compositions - such as the Italian songs for soprano and piano from 1954. Here, as in many of his vocal works, he set Italian texts to music, since he also had a special affinity for the Italian language and had a perfect command of it. The lyrics of the two songs The Gelsomino tra le labbra and Rapita Europe, are by the poets d'Incerto and Antonio Bruni and were sensitively set to music by Jacobi. The songs impress with their grace, clarity and subtle melody. Jacobi would have liked to have settled permanently in Italy. However, the currency ban forced the family to return to Germany in 1935, and they moved to Munich. Wolfgang Jacobi lived here as an ostracized composer in "inner emigration" until he was finally able to return to public musical life in 1945. He received a teaching position, then a professorship at the Munich Music Academy. He was also involved in various music associations and organizations and made an enormous contribution to the cultural development work in post-war Munich. He also became more artistically active again and - still under the impression of the dark events of the "Third Reich" - wrote numerous new compositions. This also includes the Music for string orchestra or string quartet. Jacobi created the work in 1948, initially as String Quartet, which critics rated as a poignant »period piece«, »perceptibly weathered by the tensions of the present«. Sometimes impulsive and rhythmically emphasized, then magically tender to touching, the five-movement work surprises with its impressive wealth of ideas. In 1952 Jacobi arranged the quartet for string orchestra and dedicated this version to the conductor Alessandro Derevitzky, who later performed the work in Argentina. Although Jacobi's compositions were performed far beyond the borders of Germany and he was able to celebrate many successes, the great artistic breakthrough was a long time coming. His music, influenced by composers such as Debussy, Hindemith, Reger and Bartók, differed too much from the avant-garde currents of the 1950s and 60s. However, he was given extremely high recognition from accordionist circles. At about the age of 60, Wolfgang Jacobi discovered the classical accordion for himself and began to write demanding works for the instrument, which until then had almost only been associated with folk music, which was tantamount to a pioneering achievement. One of these works is his virtuoso Concertino for accordion and accordion orchestra, Serenade and Allegro, which was composed in 1958 and also exists in a version with chamber orchestra. For the concert, Jacobi chose the one-movement sonata form with a slow introduction as the design principle: "The character of the introduction is a serenade with an elegiac, expressive melody," he explained, "the allegro is a stormy movement with jazz elements." Jacobi earned acclaim and fame for his accordion works, and accordionists have always known his name. However, many of his other compositions fell into oblivion after his death in 1972 – until various initiatives got them rediscovered. The works on this CD were performed and recorded (with the exception of the string quartet) at the Megève Festival Savoy Truffle. The CD will be released on the occasion of Wolfgang Jacobi's 125th birthday in 2019. Barbara Kienscherf More under: www.wolfgang-jacobi.de program:
|
