Composers

issued Oct.4th,1974
Eysler was a very successful operetta composer of and in Vienna.Because his operettas were "very viennese"

and written for Vienna audiences,his success internationally was rather limited.
Because of his jewish descent,his works could no longer be performed,after the "Anschluß",

when Austria became a part of Germany in 1938.
It annoyed Hitler a lot,when he learned,that the composer of one of his favourite operettas (Die goldene Meisterin) was a jew.
Eysler did not leave Germany,but stayed with relatives and friends till the end of the war.

It might have helped him,that he was a Honorary Citizen of Vienna.

issued Dec.18th,1974
Schmidt can be called a "Late-Romatic" viennese composer.Born in Pressburg (Bratislava) the family moved to Vienna,

when he was 14.He studied cello and became a soloist in different orchestras.However his main career was that of
an academical educationalist.
He composed all kinds of classical music.
After the war his works were more or less shunned,because of his closeness to "Austro-Fascism" and his support for the

"Anschluß" (Austria becomming the "Ostmark" of Germany,1938).

Johann Strauß (Son) again,issued Oct.24th,1975

issued Sept.11th,1970,commemorating Strauß´ operetta "Die Fledermaus".
From a set of 3 or 6,depending on different catalogues.

Franz Schubert´s 150th death-anniversary,issued Nov.17th,1978.

issued July 14th,1978

Ference (Franz) Lehár (1870-1948) gives a nice example of the complicated history of Austria/Hungary and Germany.
Lehár was born in what is today Slovakia.His father,a military orchestra-conductor,was Hungarian,but spoke German only.

His mother was a German,born in Hungary,spoke Hungarian only.So the language of his childhood was Hungarian.

At the age of ten he attended a german-language gymnasium (grammar school).
His name originates in Czechia,where it is spelled Léhar.

He was a musical child prodigy,composing his first Lied (song) at eleven.
As a composer he was famous for his operettas.In the first austrian operetta-series,issued July 3rd,1970 his
"Die lustige Witwe" (The merry widdow) was featured:

Lehar was very popular and became very wealthy.He lived in Vienna in a
small palais,what was owned earliar by Schikaneder (texter).For the summer
months he had a villa in Ischl,the favourite summer residence of emperor Franz Joseph.
However,after the end of WW I,he opted for the citizenship of Hungary.
In 1933 he had problems in Germany,as he had many jewish acquaintances
and was married to a jewish wife.However,as Hitler liked his music a lot,
he was allowed to be played in Germany.The Rosenberg Office tried to
sanction him,the SS even wanted to deport his wife,but Goebbels intervened.
His wife was declared a "Honorary Arian".Lehar was bestowed with a high
civil order by Hitler in person in 1940.He conducted many official party- and
Wehrmacht-concerts throughout the war.
He would not like to emigrate,because he did not like to live in England or the US,

because his English was too bad,as he claimed.
From 1943 on he became ill and spent much time in Switzerland clinics.
After the war he refused to make any statements about his connections to
the Nazi-regime.
He died in 1948 in his villa in Ischl.

Imre (Emmerich) Kalman was a hungarian composer of operettas.
He wrote his most successful operettas after he had moved to Vienna in 1908.
He wrote them all in German.
Because he was jewish,he had to emigrate to the USA in 1938.
When he returned to Vienna after the war,he was not very welcomed.
But there was a press-campaign against him,when he reclaimed his villa.
He left Austria again for the US and settled later in Paris,where he died in
1953.He was buried in a honorary-grave on Vienna´s central cementery.

issued June 5th,1984
Born as Rudolf Josef Frantisek Benatzky (1884-1957) in Moravia,he joined the k.u.k. army with age of 15 as a cadet.

For health-reasons he had to end his career in 1907 with the rank of a second lieutenant.

He then went to university in Vienna and ended his studies as a Doctor of Philosophy.
During the same time he also took music lessons.Antonin Dvorak was one of his teachers.
From 1909 on he started composing popular songs.

He later went to Berlin where he wrote songs for political cabarets.
However he is best known as a composer of operettas.

His most popular operetta is "Im weißen Rössl",what made him a wealthy man.
In 1932 he left Germany for Switzerland,because he foresaw the rule of the Nazis.

1938 he moved to the US,where he settled down permanently in 1940,when he was denied the swiss citizenship.

However in 1948 he returned to his villa in Thun,Canton Bern,where he spent his final years.
He is buried in St.Wolfgang im Salzkammergut,the scene of "Im weißen Rössel".

An cute item that came across my desk and as I had little interest was sold. The island issued dozens of these mainly as collector fantasies
They came in large sets at a fairly high CV
Click on image for full view

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger 1736-1809 was an composer,music-theoretican and organist.

As music-teacher he had many composers as students.One of his
students was a certain Ludwig van Beethoven.Albrechtsberger is said to have
remarked about him: he will never get anywhere...

Christoph Willibald Gluck,born 1714 in Upper Palatine was a pre-classical composer.

His father,a forester,who had moved the family to Bohemia,wanted Christoph Willibald to become a forester as well.

Gluck left and made his way to Vienna and later to Milan,where he studied the Italian Opera.

From there he started an international career.He is regarded as the most important opera
composer of the second half of the 18th century.

In the 1770th,with the help of Marie Antoinette,the french Queen,whoem he had given singing instructions,
when a princess in Vienna,he changed from Italian Operas to French Operas.
In those years he commuted between Vienna and Paris.

After his first stroke in 1779 he withdraw from public life and lived his last years in Vienna.

There he died,after a second stroke in 1787.
Gluck wrote all his operas in Italian and French,but not one in German.
His most played opera today is "Orpheus and Eurydike",as it is titled in German.