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Victor Fenigstein: Lebensprotokoll, Werkkommentare, Kataloge. By Fritz Hennenberg. Saarbriicken: Pfau, 2013. [290 p. ISBN 9783897274754. 28 [euro].] Curriculum vitae, biography, work commentary, works list, bibliography, discography, radio features. Fritz Hennenberg's 2013 book introduces readers to the life and works of a composer worth hearing in a book worth perusing. Scholars interested in the following topics will want to investigate parts of the book: post-1945 leftist and Marxist European composers, political music, Jewish studies, music and disability, theater history, Brecht and Shakespeare scholarship, polystylism, post-1945 serialism, piano pedagogy, and piano pedagogue lineage. Composers may also be interested in the details of Victor Fenigstein's struggles to become a composer. Hennenberg's latest book is a welcome addition to Fenigstein scholarship as there is little English-language literature on the composer and only slightly more in German. Despite occasionally excessive detail, a questionably-organized biographical section, and lack of an index, Hennenberg's work nevertheless makes a valuable contribution to numerous areas of scholarship. The first section of Hennenberg's book is a biography of sorts: the author selected excerpts from interviews, letters, and Fenigstein's documents and put them in mostly chronological order. Hennenberg did not connect these segments with his own narrative interludes, which leaves disjunct transitions and occasional temporal jumps from one year to another. This portion of the book goes into great detail, perhaps too much: we read about Fenigstein's connections to his pets, the details of many failed starts on his compositional path, and even the potentially embarrassing minutiae of the medical recovery of his wife, Marianne Fenigstein (pp. 89, 68, 95). Given the dearth of writings about Fenigstein, most of this repository of information, anecdotes, and details is welcome, but the lack of indexing makes it difficult to locate relevant information without sifting through biographical odds and ends. For those primarily interested in the music, Hennenberg's "Work Commentary" section includes analyses and descriptions of works that balance music-theoretical elements with historical background and insight into the composer's motivations. This section, almost twice as long as the biographical portion of the book, does a nice job of repeating just enough biographical detail to allow the reader to jump directly to works that interest them. As for the handful of works that Hennenberg does not analyze, no reason is given for their exclusion, but they are helpfully included in the "List of Works." For those generally interested in finding out more about Victor Fenigstein, I recommend reading through the biographical section (pp. 16-95) and skipping to the work commentary on readily-available recorded pieces like Icares, Passages, Memento et epitaphe, and Mara-(im)pulse (all available on Naxos Music Library). For scholars interested in politics and music, Jewish studies, and piano pedagogy, Fenigstein's early biography displays the relevance of Hennenberg's work. Fenigstein was born in Zurich in 1924 to an immigrant Jewish family. His father was a university professor and brought the family into contact with musicians, painters, writers, and philosophers. Fenigstein learned to read music and play piano from his older sister at age four and he took violin lessons from an uncle who was a local professional musician. He made his first public performance as a violinist at age nine, but shifted focus to his piano studies. While still in gymnasium he took lessons with Emil Frey, a composer-pianist teaching at the Zurich Conservatory, and later worked with Edwin Fischer (pp. 43-44). Fenigstein composed a symphony at age sixteen and songs for his future wife when he was seventeen. By the end of gymnasium he had premiered works as a composer and performed as a soloist with his school orchestra. … |
