Walter Braunfels’ musikalisches Testament L’annonce faite à Marie (Verkündigung)

Abstract

Having been one of the most widely performed, contemporary German composers in the early decades of the twentieth century, Walter Braunfels was banned by the National Socialist regime after 1933 due to his partially Jewish descent. For the next twelve years, during which he focused on religious themes in his subsequent inner emigration, he conceived his musical testament Verkündigung, based on Paul Claudel’s mystery play L’annonce faite à Marie. However, communication between the French author and the German composer ended in failure, mainly because of the language barrier, as documented in recently rediscovered letters from the Braunfels estate. Braunfels ultimately switched from Claudel’s original French text to Jakob Hegner’s German translation, which was despised by Claudel. The French fragment has recently been completed by conductor Martin Wettges, making use of Braunfels’s sketches and Claudel’s text.