Grosz, Wilhelm
Grosz, Wilhelm
Grosz, Wilhelm, Austrian composer; b. Vienna, Aug. 11, 1894; d. N.Y., Dec. 10, 1939. He studied in Vienna with Richard Robert (piano), at the Cons, with Heuberger, Fuchs, and Schreker (theory and composition), and at the Univ. with Adler (musicology; Ph.D., 1920, with the diss. Die Fugenarbeit in W.A. Mozarts Vokal- und Instrumentalwerken). He was active mainly in Vienna, where he was conductor of the Kammerspiele in 1933-34. As a Jew, he sought refuge in London before emigrating to the U.S. in 1938.
Works
DRAMATIC Sganarell, opera (Dessau, Nov. 21, 1925); Der arme Reinhold, dance fable (Berlin, Dec. 22, 1928); Achtung, Aufnahme!, musical comedy (Frankfurt am Main, March 23, 1930); incidental music for plays, films, and radio. ORCH.: 2 Phantastische Stucke: Serenade (1916) and Tanz (1917); Overture to an Opera Buffa (n.d.); Symphonischer Tanz for Piano and Orch. (1930); Espanola, jazz rhapsody (1937). CHAMBER: String Quartet (1915); Jazzband for Violin and Piano (1924); Violin Sonata (1925); piano pieces. VOCAL: Serious and light songs.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire