The second cover made by Curt John Witt for the recording by Hans Wolf of Symphony in D (César Franck).

   
See also:
The Seattle Times
Andante Magazine

Hans Wolf was a friend of Marcel Prawy's and, like Prawy and so many other refugees, enlisted in the Us Army during World War II. He became a US citizen and was sent to Europe. Via Innsbruck he returned to Vienna in 1945. But he did not stay for long. He finally choose to settle in the US, but only after making a few recordings for Don Gabor's Remington Records in 1950, conducting the Austrian Symphony Orchestra.

Despite the low quality of the recordings and pressings, and despite the few recordings that were made of this conductor, one can hear that Hans Wolf was a man who knew about styles and had insight in whatever score he would bring to his audience. A Symphony of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is playful and detailed, yet serious. The build up and development of themes in César Franck's Symphony in D creates suspense and excitement, while the structure of every movement comes to light. Themes are detailed and lyrical. It it is not the heavy, slow and ponderous Franck, but a somewhat faster, no less compelling rendering. The performances must be the result of good communication and good instruction, no doubt, but they also convey that the basis is talent. Timing and phrasing are excellent. Dr. Wolf masters the score and is in full control throughout. The recording greatly evokes his passion for music. This is a remarkable performance full of nuances, and it never fails to captivate the listener.

Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D Major Op. 75 with the Austrian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Wolf - Remington R-199-19.

Also his Brahms has the great line, the structural concept, asking the utmost discipline and virtuosity of the orchestra. Wolf was a creative musician, enjoying all sorts of music. He had imagination. His enthusiasm must have been aroused very easily. "Let's do it" could have been his life's motto. But he also had the energy to work, to further the quality and to persevere in following his ideas, sticking to them, and not being distracted at all. His artistic insight, his feeling for the essence of the music, must have been a natural gift, but was certainly heightened and shaped when studying with legendary Heinrich Schenker.

Heinrich Schenker (June 19, 1868 - January 14, 1935) was a musicologist, a composer, and a musician. He composed mainly for piano, wrote Songs (Lieder), and made arrangements of Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, of Piano Concertos of Carl Philip Emanuel Bach, and of Five Organ Concertos of Handel. He also wrote an "explanation" to Beethoven's Sonatas Op. 101, 109, 110 and 111. Searching for the essence of a composition, he analyzed the music and discovered unexpected complexities and structures existing within a composition, presenting themselves in layers, showing the relationships between melody lines and chords. He said that a composition could be understood in its essence by defining the "Urlinie", the kernel line, so to speak, and the "Ursatz", the inner, basic structure. From an early day on Wilhelm Furtwangler was a student of Schenker's (who himself had studied with Anton Bruckner and had witnessed Brahms, Wagner, Mahler, Strauss, Schönberg, and many other important composers of the first half of the 20th century). Wilhelm Furtwangler had been struck by the ideas Schenker put forward in his book "Beethovens Neunte Sinfonie" (Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). Furtwangler tells in his essay on Heinrich Schenker (published in "Ton und Wort", 1954), that he, quite by accident, picked up Schenker's book in 1911, the time when he started his carreer in Lübeck where he was "Kappelmeister". Furtwangler did not agree with everything Schenker wrote and he also found that Schenker could not hold on to his theory of the "Urlinie" completely. Of greater importance however is the idea introduced by Schenker called "Fernhören", listening over a distance in time, a philosophical-psychological, natural, inborn attitude of man. It means understanding the music not in a pure historical perspective with dates and occurrences in the life of the composer, but hearing it in the perspective of evolution, grasping the earliest occurrences in the history of mankind and one's own life, and relating these to the present day and the present moment, and beyond. More or less Carl Gustav Jung's "collective unconsciousness" made conscious, I gather. As is so often the case when a great mind is devising a theory, all and everything has to be explained in relation to the original idea put forward. Nevertheless the Schenkerian ideas about structure and counterpoint can intensify the study of music and the performance of a compoisition more comprehensibly. In that lies the importance of his approach. Another writing of Schenker's was on Schubert's 8th Symphony (Unfinished, Unvollendete), the Symphony that asks for a thorough understanding of its structure and development, in order to set the right pace and atmosphere, right from the first chord. Schenker's publications are many. Another student of Schenker's was Carl Bamberger (1902-1987), who started off as a cellist and became a conductor with great timing and had control over the execution when conducting many a composition. Carl Bamberger migrated to the USA and became Director of the Orchestra and Opera Section of Mannes College of Music, New York, in 1938. You can hear Carl Bamberger on Musical Master Pieces Society recordings. Schenker had many pupils and followers. Among them Paul Hindemith, Otto Klemperer, and Arnold Schoenberg. Understanding music in this perspective gives birth to a completely new and greater concept of music in general and of a musical work in particular.

Hans Wolf studied for about two years with Schenker, from March 1933 till the end of 1934, prior to Heinrich Schenker's death in January 1935.
In the correspondence of Oswald Jonas (another follower) to Heinrich Schenker there is a letter describing a nasty occurrence in September of 1934. After having traveled to Hamburg, young Hans Wolf, who was Jewish, was denied by the Nazis to return to Vienna. (See: Schenker's Correspondence). Through the intervention of Wilhelm Furtwangler, he was allowed to return.

Hans Wolf in the nineteen sixties. Picture courtesy the Seattle Opera.

Hans Wolf was originally from Hamburg, he was born in the Hansa town on December 5, 1912, came to Vienna to study at the University and received a Ph.D. in 1937 with his thesis on the "Notions of Musical Movement in the Teachings of Bass and Composition of the 18th Century as a Continuation of the Instruction of the Counterpoint" (Die musikalischen Bewegungsbegriffe in den Generalbaß- und Kompositionslehren des 18. Jahrhunderts als Fortsetzung der Lehre vom Kontrapunkt”). The subject of his thesis shows the influence of Heinrich Schenker.
The political situation in Austria was getting more and more threatening. The earlier Hamburg incident, the rumors that the Anschluss (Annexation) could be at hand, and the fact that Hans had now finished his studies and had received his title, these made the Wolf family (Hans Wolf was 26 years of age) decide to migrate to the United States where they found refuge, as so many Europeans who had fled for the Nazis did.

The early release of Cesar Franck's Symphony in D conducted by Hans Wolf - Remington RLP-199-36.

In the US, Wolf taught at John Fletcher College (Iowa) for a while. He enlisted in the Army, probably in 1943, the same year as Marcel Prawy did. Wolf became a translator, eventually was sent to Europe, and finally returned to Vienna, to the musical culture that had formed him. Like Berlin also Vienna was divided in sectors. Athough he later daid that he was living it up, he must have experienced the cumbersome and restricted atmosphere, and the fact that many just continued where they had left off in 1938. He choose to go back and live in America for good, thus escaping the trauma of his younger years. There are at least two reported instances when he returned to Europe on a visit. In 1953 he came to Vienna as Marcel Prawy recounted in his book "Marcel Prawy talks about his life" (Marcel Prawy erzählt aus seinem Leben, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna, 2001), and in 1958 and/or 1959 he must have traveled to Germany to conduct the Mannheim National Symphony Orchestra.

Hans Wolf in the nineteen sixties. Images submitted by Monte Jacobson, courtesy The Seattle Opera. Picture courtesy the Seattle Opera.	Hans Wolf at 90, conducting Johann Strauss' Operetta The Gypsy Baron in Seattle in 2003. Picture courtesy the Seattle Opera.

When Marcel Prawy started producing recorded performances for Donald Gabor's Remington Records in 1950, he also asked Dr. Hans Wolf, still living in Vienna, to join him. Wolf made recordings of compositions by Brahms, Franck, Mozart, and by Haydn (with cellist Gaspar Cassado).
After 1950 Wolf worked in America in various cities and with several opera companies. For Four Star Television in Los Angeles he conducted Aida (Verdi) and Carmen (Bizet). At the invitation of Glynn Ross, the Seattle Opera's founding general director, and conductor Henry Holt, Wolf became assistant and then associate conductor and chorus master of the Seattle Opera from 1969 till 1981. He performed many operas in English, often with his own translation, the Associated Press reported. From 1981 until 1996 he led the revival of (co-founded) Tacoma Opera, serving as artistic director and conductor.
In 2003 he was honored by Seattle's Mayor Greg Nickels by proclaiming March 30, 2003 Hans Wolf Day. He also received congratulations from Washington's governor and a special handwritten note from Beverly Sills on "MET" stationery. On August 5, 2005, Hans Wolf died in Seattle.

	Violoncellist Gaspar Cassado plays Haydn's Cello Concerto with the Austrian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Wolf, and Mozart's K 385 on a 10" Concerteum release from France: TCR 257. At left César Franck's Symphony in D on the German DIAMANT label.

The recordings of Hans Wolf for Remington Records:

R-149-9 Beethoven Symphony No. 5. The Austrian Symphony Orchestra.

From the Kurt Wöss Page:
On Masterseal MSLP 5008 Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and Schubert's Symphony No. 8 conducted by Kurt Wöss can be found, whereas there exists no Remington disc with this coupling conducted by Wöss. Beethoven's Fifth was released on a 10" disc (R-149-9) with the Vienna Symphonic Society Orchestra conducted by Hans Wolf and Schubert's Eighth was originally a recording with conductor H. Arthur Brown (R-149-15). The name Wöss was probably a convenient substitute, especially when Brown had fallen from grace and the Remington label ceased to exist. 

R-149-48 Beethoven Egmond Overture, conducted by Hans Wolf (coupled with Overture Ruy Blas, Mendelssohn, conducted by George Singer.

R-199-19 Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D Major Op. 73

R-199-36 Franck Symphony in D minor

R-199-79 Haydn Cello Concerto with Gaspar Cassado and Mozart Symphony no. 35 "Haffner" (K 385)

R-149-33 Mozart Symphony No. 35 "Haffner" (K 385)

One may regret that Dr. Hans Wolf did not make more recordings for the Remington label or another label. There is only one more recording and that is when he conducted the Mannheim National Symphony Orchestra in Haydn's Military Symphony (No. 100, in G), released on the Period label, SHO-2321 in 1959.

Original text written by Rudolf A. Bruil. Page first published March 25, 2008