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February 2007
In one of the most magnificent exhibitions of Jugendstil
Art, the Neue
Galerie / Museum for German and Austrian Art in
New York brought together the designs of Josef Hoffmann
and the craftsmanship of the Wiener Werkstätte. By reconstructing
four complete interiors––including furniture, silverware,
lighting, wall and floor coverings, ceramics, glassware,
and tableware—the exhibition recreated Hoffmann's interpretation
of the Gesamtkunstwerk, the total work of Art.
Members of the Wittgenstein family had commissioned
two of the interiors on display. The industrialist Karl
Wittgenstein had ordered a dining room for his daughter
Margaret and her husband Jerome Stonborough, and his
brother Paul, one of the earliest and most important
customers of the Wiener Werkstätte, had selected a bedroom
for his daughter Johanna and her future husband Dr.
Johannes Salzer. When Karl's son, the pianist Paul Wittgenstein,
lost his right arm in WW1, but nevertheless wanted to
keep his performing career alive, he promptly adopted
the system and mechanisms of patronage his father and
favourite uncle had so vigorously practised.
The Suite Op. 23 by Erich Wolfgang Korngold is but
one of a sizeable variety of compositions crafted by
the likes of Maurice Ravel, Richard Strauss, Franz Schmidt,
Alexander Tansman, Benjamin Britten, Paul Hindemith,
and Serge Prokofieff, among many others that were exclusively
commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein to address his special
performing abilities. This composition, performed
in the Café Sabarsky by Gary Graffman and the Shanghai
Quartet on 21 February 2007, aesthetically and sonically
completed the Gesamtkunstwerk Hoffman had envisioned.
In addition, Georg Predota, curator of the Paul Wittgenstein
Archive currently housed in Hong Kong and Assistant
Professor of Music at The University of Hong Kong, elaborated
on the pivotal and fundamental role music had played
in the development of Hoffmann's ideas, and how Korngold
was able to penetrate the severe historicist filter
provided by Paul Wittgenstein's commission.
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