Boris Blacher

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Boris Blacher (January 19, 1903 - January 30, 1975) was a German composer.

1 Life
2 Works
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Life

Born in the Manchurian town of Niuzhuang, Blacher spent his first years in China and in the Asian parts of Russia, and in 1919, he eventually came to live in Harbin. 1922, after finishing school, he went to Berlin where he began to study architecture and mathematics. Two years later, he turned to music and studied composition with Friedrich Ernst Koch.

His career was interrupted by National Socialism. He was accused of writing degenerate music and lost his teaching post at the Dresden Conservatory.

His career was resumed after 1945, and he later became director of the Music Academy of Berlin, and is today regarded as one of the most influential music figures of his time. His students include Aribert Reimann, Isang Yun, Maki Ishii, Fritz Geißler, Giselher Klebe, Heimo Erbse, Klaus Huber, Francis Burt and Gottfried von Einem.

Was married to pianist Gerty Blacher-Hertzog. Their daughter is the German actress Tatjana Blacher.

[edit] Works

Works include:

Concertante Music for Orchestra (1937)
Symphonie (1938)
String Quartet No. 2 (1940)
Orchestral Variations on a Theme by Paganini (1947)
Violinkonzert (1948)
Hamlet (1949) - Ballet in a Prologue und drei scenes after Shakespeare by Tatjana Gsovsky
Preußisches Märchen (1949/52) Ballet-opera in five scenes
Lysistrata (1950) Ballet in three scenes after Aristophanes
Piano Concerto No.2 (in variable Metres) (1952)
Der Mohr von Venedig (1955) Ballet in a Prologue, 8 scenes and an Epilogue after Shakespeare by Erika Hanka
Tristan (1965) Ballet in seven scenes by Tatjana Gsovsky
Anacaona (1969) - Six Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson about the Indian Queen Anacaona
Poem für großes Orchester (1974) Tatjana Gsovsky gewidmet