Josef Labor

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Josef Labor (1842 - 1924) was a pianist, organist, and composer of late Romantic music. Labor was an influential music teacher. He was important, too, as a friend of some key figures in Vienna.

Born in the town of Horowitz in Bohemia, Labor was left blind by smallpox at the age of 3. He attended the Institute for the Blind in Vienna and the Konservatorium der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Conservatory of the Society of Friends of Music) where he studied composition with Bruckner’s teacher, Simon Sechter, and piano with Eduard Pickhert.

He toured Europe as a pianist and, in the process, formed a lasting friendship with King Georg V of Hannover, who was also blind. Georg named him Royal Chamber Pianist in 1865. The following year, the two men settled in Vienna, where Labor began organ lessons and became a teacher, while continuing to compose and perform.

In 1904, Labor received the title Kaiserlich und Königlich Hoforganist (Royal and Imperial Court Organist) and is today best known for his organ works. Labor took a serious interest in early music and, for example, wrote continuo elaborations for Heinrich Biber’s sonatas.

Labor taught many notable musical personalities including Alma Schindler (who became Alma Mahler), Paul Wittgenstein and Arnold Schönberg. Alma Schindler studied with Labor for 6 years, beginning when she was 14, and her diaries contain numerous references to her esteemed teacher.

Labor was exceedingly close to the Wittgenstein family. He attended many musical evenings at the Wittgenstein home with such Viennese musicians of the day as Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann, Gustav Mahler, Bruno Walter, and Richard Strauss.

When the pianist Paul Wittgenstein lost his right arm in World War I, Labor was the first person he asked to write a piece for the left hand. Paul later commissioned works for the left hand from other composers including Strauss, Maurice Ravel, Benjamin Britten, and Serge Prokofiev. Paul’s brother, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein praised Labor as one of "the six truly great composers" along with Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms.

History has not been kind to Josef Labor. He is little known today. Writing in the magazine Gramophone, Malcolm Riley commented that: "Labor's musical style can best be described as Mendelssohn without the charm...."

[edit] References

• Program notes by Bonnie H. Campbell for the Cedille Records "Twilight of the Romantics: Chamber Music by Walter Rabl and Josef Labor" (CD 90000 088)