Joseph Beer

Joseph Beer (7 May 1908 – 23 November 1987) was a composer who worked mainly in the genres of operettas, singspiele, and operas.

Beer started composing music as a young man in Vienna in the 1930s. His operettas Der Prinz von Schiras and Polnische Hochzeit premiered at the Zürich Opera House in 1934 and 1937, respectively.

Beer, ethnically Jewish, fled Austria in 1938 for France. His family stayed in Poland and subsequently perished in the Nazi extermination camps. Beer continued composing new works until the end of his life, and left a large number of composition for the stage.

Early life
Beer was born in 1908 in Chodorow, Galicia, today Khodoriv near Lviv, the second child of Uri Isidore Beer, a wealthy banker, and Amelie Esther Malka Beer nee Silver; he had an older brother and a younger sister. Beer started composing in his early teens and attended the Lviv Conservatory at the time called Lwów Conservatory, during his high school years.

To please his father, he first completed a year of law studies at Lviv University, succeeding in the final exam on the question of Lex Salica, and was then applied with his father's backing at the Staatsakademie und Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. He was admitted, allowed to skip the first four years, and immediately joined the master classes of Joseph Marx. Following this success, his father set Joseph up in a two-bedroom apartment in central Vienna with his own baby-grand piano. In 1930, he graduated with highest honors.

Career
Beer joined a Viennese ballet company as conductor and toured with the company extensively in Austria and throughout the Middle East. While on tour, he played some of his compositions for the librettist Fritz Löhner-Beda who was so impressed that he became very instrumental in Beer's budding career. Their first collaboration, Der Prinz von Schiras, which also included the librettist, premiered on 31 March 1934 at the Zürich Opera House and then toured extensively in Europe and South America.

Joseph Marx wrote a congratulatory letter to his former pupil, enthusiastically stating that in his first work, Beer had displayed a knowledge and mastery that "few established operetta composers possess."

Beer's second work, Polnische Hochzeit to a libretto by Fritz Löhner-Beda and Alfred Grünwald, premiered in Zürich in 1937. It had tremendous success and within a few years was performed throughout Europe on some 40 stages (including the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, and the Teatro Fontalba in Madrid) and translated into eight languages.

Following the Anschluss in 1938, Beer had to flee Austria. He was granted a visa by the French government and settled in a hotel room in Paris. He adapted instrumental works for orchestras and received a commission from a conductor at the Zürich Opera House for a work to be performed under the latter's name. He completed this work, including all the orchestral and voice parts, in just three weeks, without the benefit of a piano.

After the German's captured Paris in 1940, Beer, who was enrolled in the Polish army-in-exile, tried to join up with his military unit in England, but failed to find passage from Bordeaux before the port closed. He escaped to Nice in the south of France and remained there until the end of the war.

While continuing to arrange works for orchestra, he also composed his third major work, Stradella in Venedig based on Alessandro Stradella's adventures in Venice. When the Nazis occupied all of France in 1942, Beer went into hiding, using the name "Jean Joseph Bérard". During this time, his father, his mother and his sister, who had remained in Lviv, were caught in the Lwów Ghetto. Postcards written under false names suggest they survived the Lviv pogroms of 1941, but communication ceased in 1942, when they were likely sent to concentration camps, perhaps after the "Great Aktion" (Großaktion) of August 1942 when between 40,000 and 50,000 Jews were deported from the Lemberg Ghetto to Belzec. Beer thought his parents had been murdered in Auschwitz and his younger sister Suzanne in Buchenwald. His librettist Fritz Löhner-Beda was murdered in Monowitz (Auschwitz III) on 4 December 1942.

Following the war, Beer became increasingly withdrawn and refused performance rights to his previous works. Still, Polnische Hochzeit was performed in Scandinavia without his co-operation or consent—even posthumously up until 2005—often under the title Masurkka. In 1946 his oratorio Ave Maria premiered at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Nice with tenor Enzo Seri and soprano Lotte Schöne. Stradella in Venedig, composed during his years in hiding, premiered in 1949 at the Zürich Opera House. The music critic Kurt Pahlen called it "a comic opera of the highest sort" and the member of the Académie Française André Roussin adapted the libretto for the French stage.

Later life
Ø  1945: Although bereft of worldly possessions and career, Joseph Beer has survived the Holocaust. But his beloved father, mother, and younger sister perished in the Nazi extermination camps. The great Viennese librettist Dr. Fritz Löhner-Beda, Beer’s main associate, supporter and friend, has also been murdered in the camps.

Ø  Permanently scarred, Beer recoils from success. He refuses offers from such houses as the Theater an der Wien and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. He characterizes many of his former colleagues in the music business as having been Nazi collaborators…

Ø  1950s: Takes on the French nationality, having been stripped of his Polish nationality during the Holocaust.

Ø  1949: Beer’s next stage work, Stradella in Venedig, a comic opera in seven tableaux with interlude, premieres at the Zurich Opera House on February 26, 1949, starring famed Max Lichtegg, tenor & Heinz Rehfuss, bass among others. The opera is critically acclaimed - mentioned by the late Kurt Pahlen in his World Music History (München, Südwest Verlag) as "…a comic opera of the highest sort."

Ø  With time, Beer becomes increasingly withdrawn. He severs his ties with the artistic community, yet he continues to compose daily in isolation, writing to his friend and admirer the famous musicologist Kurt Pahlen:

“'I no longer write operettas. Besides, the last two [Prinz von Schiras & Polnische Hochzeit] really were not operettas'.”

Ø  1966: Beer earns a Doctorate in Musicology with Mention Très Honorable et Félicitations du Jury from the Sorbonne under the direction of famed French musicologist Vladimir Jankélévitch. His thesis topic: "The Evolution of Harmonic Style in Scriabin’s Oeuvre."

Ø  July 1972: Jankelevitch deems the doctorate to be “the best study […] the most complete and the most rigorous, on Scriabin” and offers to preface a popularized version for the general public to help boost exposure of this outstanding work. But Beer’s sole passion was composition.

Ø  1949-1981: Beer composes La Polonaise, a singspiel opera in three acts, five tableaux and a prologue. Set in Russia-occupied Poland against the epic background of Napoleon’s reign and his affair with Maria Walewska, this masterpiece awaits a world premiere.

Ø  1961-1987: Beer composes Mitternachtssonne, a singspiel opera, in five tableaux, with two interludes and a prologue. A magical romance populated by lumberjacks and elf-like creatures called Nissen set in rural Norway of the 1930's, this work of genius of colossal proportions is also awaiting a world premiere.

Ø  November 23, 1987: Joseph Beer passes in Nice, France. Thus ends a life spent in pursuit of one passion: composition.

Ø  1988: Beer’s late wife, Hanna Beer, along with their two daughters Suzanne and Béatrice Beer, start to actively promote the works of this brilliant composer posthumously.

Ø  2007: Emerging Soprano Béatrice Beer, a graduate from the Manhattan School of Music with graduate studies at the Juilliard School, starts to perform her father’s music in concert internationally, in Austria (under the auspices of Orpheus Trust), Germany (Musica Reanimata), in Washington, D.C. (USHMM), New York City, and in the United States at large -- at times in duet with internationally acclaimed Dramatic Baritone Robert McFarland.

Ø  2008: Robert McFarland starts to act as Joseph Beer’s agent and actively promotes him to his colleagues at the top echelon of the classical music world.

Ø  January 2010: Joseph Beer’s music experiences the start of a major renaissance, included among others in a sold out concert at the Théâtre du Châtelet featuring the famed Orchestre Pasdeloup under the baton of Maestro David Charles Abell (who has since recorded a CD with Diana Damrau among others.)

Ø  March 2010: The concert was broadcast by France's major classical radio channel France Musique.

Ø  July 2010: Joseph Beer’s music is featured in a special In Memoriam performance during the French Festival Musiques Interdites at the Opéra de Marseille.

Ø  December 2010: the Viennese publisher Musikverlag Doblinger includes a couple of Joseph Beer’s compositions on its roster.

Ø  July 2012: Polnische Hochzeit sees a small Viennese Revival by the Wiener Operettensommer under the baton of Maestro Charles Prince.

Ø  2013: Major members of the international classical music scene start to show interest and to get involved, among others, Roberto Alagna, Maestro Łukasz Borowicz, Maestro Alain Altinoglu, and the late stage director Harold Prince, while major premieres are in the works as well as recordings.

Ø  November 2015: The world-renowned Munich Radio Orchestra (Münchner Rundfunkorchester) performs and records Joseph Beer’s pre-war “blockbuster” Polnische Hochzeit under the baton of its chief conductor, Leipzig Opera Director Maestro Ulf Schirmer with Chorus from the famed Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz.

Ø  Broadcast live on German National Radio (Bayerischer Rundfunk) and recorded live by the major German label CPO.

Ø  Fall 2016: CPO release of the November 2015 Polnische Hochzeit live recording performance featuring the Munich Radio Orchestra, distributed by the Naxos label in the United States.

Ø  March 2017: The CD is awarded three Gold Medals at the prestigious Global Music Awards (US.)

Ø  April 2017: Joseph Beer is featured by Philadelphia’s Classical Music Radio WRTI-FM in a week-long broadcast and story, including an interview with his daughter, Soprano Béatrice Beer.

Ø  May 2017: Joseph Beer is included in the international “Wann ich komponiere, bin ich wieder in Wien” (“I Return To Vienna When I Compose”) permanent exhibit dedicated to Suppressed Musicians at the Exil.Arte Center. University of Vienna, Michael Haas, Curator, Gerold Gruber, Founder.

Ø  November 2016-May 2018: The Polnische Hochzeit CPO CD is extensively reviewed at the international level, including by Opera News, Fanfare, Luister (Netherlands) Diapason (France) etc.

Ø  Winter 2018/Spring 2019: Joseph Beer’s great youth success Polnische Hochzeit is booked by the prestigious Oper Graz (Austria’s second largest opera house) for a 3-months run starting December 2018. Opening night and all subsequent 11 performances were practically sold out and garnered a slew of rave reviews along with a live stream on Fidelio and a TV broadcast.

Ø  March-April, 2019: The Landestheater Linz features Polnische Hochzeit in a series of sold-out, acclaimed performances.

Ø  Summer 2019: Both the Graz Oper and Landestheater Linz productions are nominated for the prestigious Austrian award “Frosch” Beer and Linz actually wins an award.

Ø  January 10, 2019: Béatrice Beer is featured in a solo Recital-Lecture of Beer’s music by Leeds University (UK) including an interview by the BBC.

Ø  January 18, 2019: Polnische Hochzeit is streamed live by Austria’s major classical music streaming platform Fidelio -- a first for both Oper Graz and Polnische Hochzeit.

Ø  March 2019: Polnische Hochzeit is telecast live from Oper Graz on national Austrian television.

Ø  June 2019: Beer’s Triptych, “A very interesting, very important piece” is premiered in Austria under the baton of Maestro Johannes Wildner.

Ø  October 18, 2019: Joseph Beer’s unique work Triptych is premiered in Poland by the Poznań Philharmonic under the baton of star conductor Maestro Łukasz Borowicz in a concert including Prokofiev’s violin sonata performed by Midori.

Ø  November 29, 2020: Critically acclaimed Polish premiere of Polnische Hochzeit in concert version at the prestigious Kraków Congress Center, organized by the Kraków Culture Forum (Izabela Biniek/Andrzej Kosowski). Soloists: Edyta Piasecka, Anna Bernacka, Wojciech Gierlach, Jacek Ozimkowski, Pavlo Tolstoy, Tomasz Rak; with the Polish Radio Choir and the Beethoven Academy Orchestra under the baton of international conductor Maestro Łukasz Borowicz who is championing Beer’s music.

Ø  Fall 2021: Creation of a page dedicated to Joseph Beer on the website of the University of Southern California Polish Music Center, the largest repository of Polish music outside of Poland: https://polishmusic.usc.edu/research/composers/joseph-jozef-beer/

Ø  April 22, 2023—July 2023: Major, critically acclaimed German premiere of Polnische Hochzeit by the Staatsoperette Dresden.

Ø  Fall 2023: Beer’s Sorbonne groundbreaking study, L’Évolution du style harmonique dans l’œuvre de Scriàbine (The Evolution of Harmonic Style in Scriabin’s Oeuvre) is selected for publication by premiere Paris-based French publisher L’Harmattan in commemoration of Alexander Scriabin’s 150th birth anniversary.

Ø  Fall 2024: Concert of Beer’s compositions at the POLIN Museum of the History of the Polish Jews (Warsaw, Poland) featuring Beer’s great advocate Maestro Łukasz Borowicz who among others made his Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra debut in April 2023.

Ø  Upcoming: Joseph Beer is slated for an entry in the prestigious online Grove Dictionary.

Ø  Upcoming: Various labels express interest in an all Joseph Beer CD spanning the entire Beer oeuvre, featuring among others International Dramatic Baritone Robert McFarland and the composer’s own daughter, emerging Soprano Béatrice Beer.

Ø  For more information, please visit  http://www.JosephBeerComposer.com  or  http://www.facebook.com/JosephBeerComposer .