Ignaz Brüll

Brüll's compositional style was lively but unabashedly conservative, in the vein of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Brüll was also highly regarded as a sensitive concert pianist. Johannes Brahms regularly wanted Brüll to be his partner in private performances of four-hand piano duet arrangements of his latest works. Indeed, Brüll was a prominent member of Brahms's circle of musical and literary friends, many of whom he and his wife frequently entertained. In recent years, Brüll's concert music has been revived on CD, and well-received recordings are available of his piano concertos, among other non-vocal works. In 1872 he was appointed professor at the Horak Institute in Vienna.

Ignaz Brüll studied at University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Training under Julius Epstein is recorded. The recorded working language is German. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are opera. Places of work recorded in the authority are Vienna and Prostějov. Works named in the authority record are Das goldene Kreuz. Distinctions recorded are Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.

Brüll was born in Prostějov (Proßnitz) in Moravia, the eldest son of Katharina Schreiber and Siegmund Brüll. His parents were prosperous Jewish merchants and keen social musicians; his mother played piano and his father (who was closely related to the Talmudic scholar Nehemiah Brüll) sang baritone. In 1848 the family relocated their business to Vienna, where Brüll lived and worked for the rest of his life. Brüll started learning piano from his mother around the age of eight and he quickly showed talent. Despite being the heir to the family business, his promise at the keyboard encouraged his parents to provide him with a serious musical training. By the age of ten, he was taking piano lessons from Julius Epstein, a professor at the Vienna Conservatory and friend of Brahms. A year later, in 1857, he began studying composition with Johann Rufinatscha; instrument instruction followed with Felix Otto Dessoff. In 1860, while aged fourteen, Brüll started writing his Piano Concerto No. 1, which received its first public performance the following year in Vienna with Epstein as soloist. Further encouragement to pursue a musical career came with endorsement from the distinguished pianist-composer Anton Rubinstein.

Brüll scored another success with his Serenade No. 1 for Orchestra, which was premiered in Stuttgart in 1864. By now, Brüll was 18 years old and had just finished composing his first opera score, Die Bettler von Samarkand (The Beggars of Samarkand). Unfortunately, plans for a production at the Court Theatre in Stuttgart in 1866 failed to materialize, and the work was apparently never played. By contrast, Brüll's second opera, Das goldene Kreuz (The Golden Cross), was by far his most successful: it held a place in the repertory for several decades and brought its composer into the public eye almost overnight. At its premiere in Berlin in December 1875, Brüll was personally complimented by the emperor, Wilhelm I. The opera, with a libretto by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal based on a story by Mélesville, involves an emotional drama of mistaken identities during the Napoleonic wars. In parallel, Brüll had also been pursuing a career as a concert pianist, playing as a popular soloist and recitalist throughout the German speaking countries. The London premiere of Das goldene Kreuz, in an 1878 production by the Carl Rosa Opera Company, coincided with the first of two extensive concert tours of England, during which he was able to play his Piano Concerto No. 2 (another youthful work, written in 1868) and arrange performances of some of his other pieces. Brüll also toured with George Henschel.

In 1882, Brüll married Marie Schosberg, a banker's daughter who became a popular hostess to Viennese musical and artistic society. Brüll now shifted his attention towards composition, reduced the number of concert engagements, and permanently gave up touring. He also found himself playing host to Johannes Brahms's circle of friends, including the powerful music critic Eduard Hanslick, the musically minded eminent surgeon Theodor Billroth, and composers such as Carl Goldmark, Robert Fuchs, and even Gustav Mahler. When Brahms wanted to audition his latest orchestral compositions, as was his habit, to a select group of connoisseurs in four-handed versions for two pianos, Brüll regularly played alongside the senior composer. From 1890, Brüll's new holiday home (the Berghof) in Unterach am Attersee also became a social venue. Unlike Brahms, Brüll was a man of the theatre, and he went on to compose at least seven more operas, which however did not approach the same level of popular success as Das goldene Kreuz. His final opera, the two-act comedy Der Hussar, was well received when it was staged in Vienna in 1898. Brüll was an honorary British consul at Budapest and was appointed an Honorary Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1902 Coronation Honours list on 26 June 1902.

Brüll's other operas include: Der Landfriede (Vienna, 1877), Bianca (Dresden, 1879), Königin Mariette (Munich, 1883), Das Steinerne Herz (Prague, 1888), Gringoire (one act, Munich, 1892), and Schach dem König (Munich, 1893). For the ballet, he wrote the orchestral dance-suite Ein Märchen aus der Champagne (1896). Orchestral concert works by Brüll include the Im Walde and Macbeth overtures, a symphony and three serenades, a violin concerto, and the two piano concertos, as well as three other piano concertante pieces. His chamber and instrumental music includes a suite and three sonatas for piano and violin, a trio, a cello sonata, a sonata for two pianos and various other piano pieces. He also wrote songs and part-songs. Brüll's compositions were typically romantic, and bore similarity to works by Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms.

• Scores for Kaila's Piano Performances listed here are available at the imslp.org Category:Brüll,Ignaz web page • https: imslp.org/wiki/Category:Brüll,_Ignaz • Illustration — Kaila Rochelle performance of Brüll: Op.71 Piano Suite No.2 mvt 1 Prelude • Illustration — Kaila Rochelle performance of Brüll: Bretonische Melodien Op.45 No.1 Melodie • Illustration — Kaila Rochelle performance of Brüll: Bretonische Melodien Op.45 No.2 Ballade • Illustration — Kaila Rochelle performance of Brüll: Op.53 No.1 Valse-Caprice • Illustration — Kaila Rochelle performance of Brüll: Op.53 No.2 Melodie_revised 002 • Illustration — Kaila Rochelle performance of Brüll: Mazurka Op.34 No.1 • Illustration — Kaila Rochelle performance of Brüll: Barcarole Op.34 No.2 • Illustration — Kaila Rochelle performance of Brüll: Piano Suite No.1 Op.58 4mvt set complete