Pionier der alten Musik: Hans Eberhard Hoesch und die Kabeler Kammermusik by Nikolaus de Palézieux (review)

Abstract

PIONEERS Pionier der alten Musik: Hans Eberhard Hoesch und die Kabeler Kammermusik. By Nikolaus de Palezieux. Kassel: Barenreiter, 2012. [155 p. ISBN 9783761822722. i29.95.] Illustrations, index.Nikolaus de Palezieux's 2012 study of early music pioneer Hans Eberhard Hoesch (1891-1972) is an indispensible work for academics and amateurs alike who are interested in the early music revival in twentieth-century Germany. Although Hoesch played a vital role in collecting rare baroque scores, period musical instru- ments, and even creating the first early mu- sic chamber orchestra in Germany, his name has been ignored in virtually all other historical accounts. De Palezieux's book represents a vital step in rectifying this omission, and this work will be the volume on which all other studies of Germany's early music revival must build.Hoesch lived most of his life in the small city of Hagen, located on the eastern edge of the Ruhr region. As a teenager, he stud- ied violin with Bram Eldering in Cologne, a colleague of Johannes Brahms. After Hoesch's service in World War I, he re- turned to Hagen to serve as the technical director of his family's highly successful pa- per factory. Most of the book details the years 1928 to 1934, the period in which he created Kabeler Kammermusik, an early music concert series in which Hoesch played viola. By April 1931, Hoesch had as- sembled the first complete chamber or- chestra to play on period instruments. He then founded his own workshop for instru- ment preservation on the ground floor of his home. Hoesch ultimately financed the entire venture himself, as he received little to no support from the city government. And in 1933, he opened a small concert hall inside his home for public performances.Through de Palezieux's treatment of Hoesch's musical tastes, it is easy to get a sense of why he was so driven to create such an ensemble. Hoesch considered modern music (especially jazz) to be a highly de- structive influence, a sentiment that he also shared in the program notes for the Kabeler Kammermusik's first public con- cert in January of 1930. Hoesch's own musi- cal ideology can tell us much about the cul- tural milieu in which the early music revival took place, and although the Nazis would share his musical preferences in many re- spects, Hoesch nevertheless found the party's cultural politics abhorrent.The question lingering throughout the book-why did Hoesch not receive any credit for his part in the early music revival?-is artfully threaded in and out of the narrative. Ultimately, there are several reasons why Hoesch languished in obscu- rity: his primary role as a paper manufac- turer rather than cultural impresario, the ensemble's Hagen origins which isolated the group from success outside the region, and Hoesch's own brief involvement with the entire project. As de Palezieux points out, Hoesch's decision to resign from the ensemble in 1936, just as the group was be- coming more established, also meant that he remained uncelebrated. With the unex- pected death of his third wife, Hoesch felt unable to continue his work with the Kabeler Kammermusik. In addition, the Nazis' cultural politics had begun to make Hoesch increasingly uncomfortable, and he wanted to avoid registering his ensemble with the Reichsmusikkammer (RMK). To Hoesch, there appeared no better solution than to resign.After his departure, the group soon changed their name to the Kammer- musikkreis Scheck-Wenzinger after two of the ensemble's long-standing members, flutist Gustav Scheck and cellist and recorder player August Wenzinger. Al- though Hoesch had resisted pressure to join the RMK and accept funding from the National Socialists, the ensemble's new leaders were not so reticent. In 1940, the Kammermusikkreis Scheck-Wenzinger re- ceived funding from the Nazi organization Kraft durch Freude and its Italian counter- part, Dopo Lavoro, to go on a concert tour of Italy. …