Issay Dobrowen - today only remembered as a conductor - was one of the outstanding exiled Russian piano composers of the 1920s. His works published by the Viennese Universal-Edition reveal influences from Scriabin on the one hand and affinities with Jewish folklore on the other, for example in the Mélodie hebraïque op. 12, which will be performed in the concert. He enjoyed success as a conductor in Dresden, Oslo and San Francisco, among other places, and in the late 1930s he was one of the first conductors of the Palestine Orchestra (later the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra) founded by Bronislaw Huberman. He had been a Norwegian citizen since 1928. In 1940, he fled to Sweden to escape the Nazi occupation of his adopted Norwegian homeland. Kolja Lessing has been studying the works of Issay Dobrowen for over 30 years. Together with violinist Holger Koch, he will introduce the fascinating piano and chamber music composer and shed light on his multifaceted work in conversation with Peter Sarkar.
In cooperation with musica reanimata – Förderverein zur Wiederentdeckung NS-verfolgter Komponisten und ihrer Werke e.V.