WEINBERGER, JAROMÍR (1896-1967)

Gottlieb Wallisch has performed on stage at the world’s most prestigious concert halls and festivals: Carnegie Hall New York, Wigmore Hall in London, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Tonhalle Zurich, and the NCPA in Beijing, also the Ruhr Piano Festival, the Beethovenfest in Bonn, and the Festivals of Lucerne and Salzburg. Conductors with whom he has performed as a soloist include Sir Neville Marriner, Dennis Russell Davies, Kirill Petrenko, Martin Haselboeck and Bruno Weil. Orchestras he has performed with include the Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra Budapest and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. He has made numerous recordings for record labels, including Naxos. Gottlieb Wallisch is a Steinway Artist.

A gifted child, the Bohemian composer Jaromír Weinberger studied at the Prague Conservatory with Vitězslav Novák and then with Max Reger in Leipzig, pursuing an early career as a conductor and pianist. He wrote music in particular for the theatre and, during a period teaching in America, sought to emulate Dvořák in a planned ‘Union Rhapsody’, a purpose never realised. At home he became briefly director of the opera in Bratislava and director of the Cheb Music School before moving to Prague. Compelled to emigrate after the Anschluss, he returned to America in 1939, settling in Florida where his later depression led to suicide.