1846–1907 · Austria
Ignaz Brüll (1846–1907) was an Austrian composer and pianist who was born in Moravia and spent his life in Vienna. He is best known for the opera Das goldene Kreuz, but he also wrote for piano, including for two pianos. Brüll was a friend of Brahms and often played four hands with him.
Ignaz Brüll was born on 7 November 1846 in Prostějov, in Moravia. His family was prosperous and Jewish: his parents were merchants who loved making music. His father, Siegmund, sang as a baritone, and his mother, Katharina, born Schreiber, played the piano. On his father's side Ignaz was a close relative of the rabbi and Talmudic scholar Nehemiah Brüll.
The family moved to Vienna, and Brüll lived there for the remainder of his life. His mother began teaching him the piano, and the boy quickly showed talent. The family firm was due to pass to him, yet his parents decided to give their son a serious musical education.
Julius Epstein, who taught at the Vienna Conservatory and was a friend of Brahms, gave Ignaz piano lessons by the time the boy was ten. In 1857, a year later, Ignaz took up composition under Johann Rufinatscha. Felix Otto Dessoff was among his teachers as well.
Brüll's first pieces for piano and strings appeared in 1860. In that year, at the age of fourteen, he also began work on his Piano Concerto No. 1. The concerto was performed in public a year later in Vienna, with the composer's teacher Epstein as soloist.
The pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein also encouraged the young man to take up a musical career. In 1864 his First Serenade for orchestra was first performed in Stuttgart, and it brought another success. The serenade marked the start of his wide popularity. In the same year he wrote several piano and chamber pieces.
After finishing his education in Vienna, Brüll performed successfully for many years as a virtuoso pianist in the capitals of Europe and in many places in Germany and Austria-Hungary. He was a popular soloist and gave recitals across the German-speaking countries. On tours abroad he played his own compositions too.
In 1872 Brüll became a teacher at Eduard Horak's piano school in the city (now the Schubert Conservatory). He taught there until 1878, and in 1881 he became one of the school's directors.
Operas stand at the centre of Brüll's work. Das goldene Kreuz appeared in 1875. Its libretto was written by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal, the author of the well-known Deborah, and a tale by Mélesville served as the source. It is a drama of emotion and mistaken identities, played out against the Napoleonic wars.
The opera, with its artless, folk-like melodies, quickly won the public's affection and travelled to many stages around the world. At the Berlin premiere in December 1875, Emperor Wilhelm I complimented the composer in person. The opera remained in the repertory for decades, and Brüll's name became known to the public almost overnight.
Der Landfriede, with a libretto by the same Mosenthal, was first given on 4 October 1877 in Vienna, at the Court Opera. Gringoire, on a text by Victor Léon, was heard on 19 March 1892 at the Court Opera in Munich. These operas did not match the success of Das goldene Kreuz.
In 1878 the Carl Rosa Opera Company staged Das goldene Kreuz in London. Brüll came to England on tour and gave twenty concerts instead of the two that had been planned. He played his Piano Concerto No. 2, written in 1868, and got a number of his other works performed. He also went on tour with George Henschel.
In 1882 he married Marie Schosberg, the daughter of a banker. She became a popular host for the musical and artistic circles of Vienna. The couple had two children, Johanna (Hanna) and Wilhelmine (Minni).
After his marriage Brüll gave fewer concerts, turned his attention to composing and gave up touring for good. His Vienna home became a centre of musical life. The leading figure in that circle was Johannes Brahms, who valued working with Brüll very highly.
As a concert pianist Brüll was held in high esteem for his sensitivity. Brahms regularly wanted him as a partner when he played four-hand arrangements of his latest works in private. Brüll was a prominent figure in the circle around Brahms, which included musicians and writers, and he and his wife often had many of them as guests.
Brahms liked to try out his new works before a few connoisseurs, and Brüll regularly took the second piano beside him. All four of Brahms's symphonies were first heard by friends in a performance by Brahms himself and Brüll on two pianos. Visitors to the house included the critic Eduard Hanslick, the surgeon Theodor Billroth, the composers Carl Goldmark and Robert Fuchs, and Gustav Mahler. From 1890 the Berghof, the Brülls' new holiday house at Unterach am Attersee, became a meeting place too.
He wrote no fewer than seven further operas, yet none matched the success of Das goldene Kreuz. Brüll was also an honorary British consul in Budapest, and in the Coronation Honours of 26 June 1902 he was named a Companion in the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George.
Ignaz Brüll died in Vienna on 17 September 1907. He was buried in the old Jewish section of the Central Cemetery. His grave was designed by Oskar Marmorek.
The heart of Brüll's legacy is his operas, and the best known is Das goldene Kreuz. Besides it he wrote Der Landfriede (1877), Bianca (1879), Königin Mariette (1883), Das steinerne Herz (1888), Gringoire (1892) and Der Hussar. The success of Das goldene Kreuz pushed the rest of his output into the background. His orchestral output includes the overtures Im Walde and Macbeth, one symphony, a violin concerto, three serenades and two piano concertos, plus three more pieces for piano and orchestra.
Das goldene Kreuz (opus 27) is an opera in two acts, first staged on 22 December 1875 at the Royal Opera House in Berlin. Its libretto is by Mosenthal, who also wrote the text of Der Landfriede (opus 30). Bianca has a libretto by Adolf Schirmer, Königin Mariette (opus 40) by Camillo Walzel and Richard Genée, Das steinerne Herz (opus 55) by Joseph Victor Widmann, and Gringoire (opus 66) by Victor Léon. Schach dem König (opus 70) is also set to a text by Léon, and so is Der Hussar (opus 79). Brüll also has an opera called Gloria, to a libretto by Guido Menasci, first performed in 1896 in Hamburg with Gustav Mahler conducting.
Brüll's two piano concertos, the First (F major, opus 10) and the Second (C major, opus 24), belong to his early work. He wrote the Second in 1868. He also has a concert piece, Andante and Allegro (opus 88), for piano and orchestra.
Besides the operas, Brüll left a small body of carefully made works for the concert hall. He also has chamber and instrumental music: a piano-and-violin suite, three violin sonatas with piano, a trio, a sonata for cello, a two-piano sonata and assorted piano pieces. He composed songs too, including part-songs; one of them is Sechse, sieben oder acht, for baritone and piano (opus 85 II), to words by Ludwig Jakoboski. His manner is lively yet openly conservative, following Mendelssohn and Schumann. Overall the music is Romantic, resembling that of Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms.
The site has three pieces by Brüll, all at the upper intermediate level. The sonata for two pianos, Op. 21, suits those who play in an ensemble. For solo piano there are Bretonische Melodien, Op. 45, and Phantasiestück, Op. 47, No. 2.
For several decades Das goldene Kreuz stayed on the stage, but then the Nazis banned it because of the composer's Jewish origins, and the opera sank into neglect. More recently his concert music has returned on CD, including the piano concertos, and the recordings were well received.