Egon Wellesz

Egon Wellesz was born in Vienna on 21 October 1885. Half Jewish, half Hungarian, and wholly Austrian, he assimilated Europe’s most venerable yet cosmopolitan tradition. He played the piano from an early age, studied musicology with Guido Adler and, from 1905 to 1906, counterpoint with Arnold Schoenberg, whose earliest biography Wellesz wrote in 1920.

The first composition to appear in print was the ‘cycle of four Impressions’ for piano, ‘Der Abend’ Op. 4 (1910). Its harmonic language is basically diatonic and Brahmsian, though the subtitle confirms Debussy as another strong influence, a connection apparent in subsequent works such as the piano piece ‘Eklogen’ Op. 11 (1912) and the Suite for Orchestra Op. 16 (1913). ‘Drei Skizzen’ for piano Op. 6 (1911) is a foretaste of Wellesz’s expert concision and directness of expression. The material is pared to the bone, with no extraneous decoration or embellishment to detract from the predominant musical argument. Such formal austerity forges a stylistic kinship with the Expressionist statements of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern.

Among the early chamber works, the String Quartet No. 3 Op. 25 (1918) is outstanding: a radiantly nostalgic piece containing a remarkably broad range of expression characteristic of all the string quartets.

Scores such as ‘Alkestis’ Op. 35 (1923), to a text by Wellesz’s friend Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and, most successfully, ‘Die Bakchantinnen’ Op. 44 (1930), premiered at the Vienna State Opera under Clemens Krauss in 1931, sealed his reputation as one of the most significant opera composers of his generation. Among notable choral works of this period is the setting of the Mass in F minor Op. 51 which Wellesz, a Roman Catholic convert, wrote in 1934.

‘Prosperos Beschwörungen’ Op. 53 (1936) is a pivotal work. The climax of the composer’s dramatic achievements, it also presages his ‘English’ years with its Shakespearean stimulus and its acknowledgement of the great Austrian symphonic tradition. Bruno Walter premiered the work on 19 February 1938 in Vienna’s Musikverein with the Vienna Philharmonic. The success of this first performance led to another in the composer’s presence in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam on 13 March 1938, the day the Nazis annexed Austria. Wellesz did not return home from the Netherlands, but came to England, becoming a fellow of Lincoln College at Oxford University, which, six years earlier, had conferred upon him the first honorary doctorate to an Austrian since Haydn.

For the first five years of his exile, Wellesz was unable to compose, emigration having apparently severed his musical roots. However, under the influence of a poem by Gerald Manley Hopkins, he started writing music again, completing his Fifth String Quartet Op. 60 (1943) and, more remarkably, at the age of sixty, his First Symphony Op. 62 (1945), premiered in 1948 by the Berlin Philharmonic under Sergiu Celibidache. A torrent of compositions followed, including eight more symphonies, four more string quartets and three key works for soloists, choir and orchestra – Duineser Elegie Op. 90 (1963), Mirabile Mysterium Op. 101 (1967) and Canticum Sapientiae Op. 104 (1968). Among his first works written in his adopted homeland, the glorious Octet Op. 67 (1949) is typically protean in invention, showing an extensive expressive range from geniality and wistfulness to introspection and regret.

The first four Wellesz symphonies are broadly tonal, exuding a Brucknerian spiritual grandeur, whilst the last five symphonies are tautly chromatic, invoking the Expressionism of late Mahler and pre-serial Schoenberg. Structural and stylistic features are common to all symphonies: the use of chorales, funeral marches, fugal passages and chamber-like textures; a three-movement design established in the first symphony is resumed in the last four. The later symphonies’ instrumentation is often transparent: the scherzos are pointillistic, recalling Webern’s jewelled miniatures. Although Wellesz wrote his ninth and last string quartet op97 in 1966, he composed a further series of chamber works which complement the late symphonies in their resolute integrity: Vier Stücke für Streichquartet Op. 103 (1968), Vier Stücke für Streichtrio Op. 105 (1969) and Vier Stücke für Streichquintett Op. 109 (1970) all display a continuing mastery of the intense intimacy and intellectual rigour of chamber music.

‘Studien in Grau’ for piano Op. 106 (1969) is a typical example of the late Wellesz style – grittily determined and intently serious, with forcefully unisonal themes, vigorously energetic rhythms and dissonant textures. These characteristics are perfectly illustrated in his last orchestral works, the volatile Eighth symphony op110 (1970) and the solemn Ninth Op. 111 (1971), whose concluding Adagio expresses a post-Mahlerian threnody for a bygone era. In his last years, Wellesz received many honours in Europe, most notably from Austria, which in 1961 awarded him the State Prize for Music. He died on 8 November 1974 in Oxford, where he had remained in exile for the last thirty-six years of his life.

Conversant with both avant-garde and traditional tendencies, Wellesz achieved a synthesis of both, yet coined his own inimitable musical language. His works embrace such diverse styles as the academic Austrian – the numerous chorales in the dramatic Third Symphony Op. 68 (1951) or the proliferation of fugal passages in the Fourth Symphony ‘Austriaca’ Op. 70 (1953) – and the melodic and rhythmical complexities of the modern idiom eg Triptychon for piano Op. 98 (1966) and the compelling Symphonic Epilogue for large orchestra Op. 108 (1969).

During his years as an émigré in Oxford, Egon Wellesz’s distinguished academic accomplishments as a Byzantine expert overshadowed his work as a composer. His creative achievements are belatedly gaining international recognition due to a series of recent recordings, concert performances and the tireless advocacy of the Egon Wellesz Fond at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. Spanning eight decades, his compositions evince an absolute integrity and mastery of structure. To the genres enriched by the Second Viennese School, Wellesz added the Symphony in a lateflowering series of consummate and powerful scores. His essays in this form and in the fields of chamber music and opera reveal a composer of unique gifts and profound humanity. 

Paul Conway (2003)