´óÏó´«Ã½

Donald Macleod delves into Müller-Hermann’s life during the privations after World War I.

Johanna Müller-Hermann once held a significant place as a composer and teacher in Vienna, yet has been largely forgotten over the decades since her death in 1941. Radio 3 has been working to unearth her music and story through its Forgotten Women Composers project, in collaboration with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Dr Carola Darwin. This week, Dr Darwin and Professor Robert Evans join Donald Macleod to explore this fascinating composer and her times. Their series includes many specially recorded works by Müller-Hermann that have sat neglected in dusty archives for decades.

Müller-Hermann was greatly celebrated in her own lifetime and moved in eminent musical circles. She studied with Zemlinsky, befriended Alma Mahler, and also corresponded with Arnold Schoenberg. She went on to teach at Austria’s New Vienna Conservatory where students travelled from as far away as America and the UK to study with her. She became a pivotal figure in Vienna’s cultural scene and her music was regularly performed and published during her lifetime.

After World War One, life in Vienna was exceptionally hard with food shortages, and shortages of other things too such as clothes. Johanna Müller-Hermann was beginning her teaching career at the New Vienna Conservatory and she built up an impressive list of national and international students over the next few years. Müller-Hermann also saw performances of many of her works, including her Cello Sonata in 1923, although reaction to her music often elicited dismissive and chauvinistic reviews. A decade later, with the approach of World War Two and changing times in Austria, Müller-Hermann resigned from her post at the Conservatory

Piano Quintet in G minor, Op 31 (excerpt)
Louise Farrenc Ensemble

Zwei Lieder, Op 11
Robyn Allegra Parton, soprano
Simon Lepper, piano

Cello Sonata, Op 17 (excerpt)
Othmar Müller, cello
Leonore Aumaier, piano

Epilog zur einer Tragodie ’Brand‘ – symphonic fantasy, Op 25
´óÏó´«Ã½ Philharmonic Orchestra
Ilan Volkov, conductor

Intermezzo in D minor, Op 3 No 3 (Fünf Klavierstücke)
Hiroaki Takenouchi, piano

Impromptu in D minor, Op 3 No 5 (Fünf Klavierstücke)
Hiroaki Takenouchi, piano

Produced by Luke Whitlock