IN QUEST OF WEBERN By HANS MOLDENHAUER

OCTOBER 26, 1965, Austria's Tag der Fahnen (National Flag Day) dawned cold and gloomy over Vienna. The car, parked overnight in the street, was covered with thick frost, and the engine seemed unwilling to start. Hermine von Webern had met us at the quaint little pension near the university where we stayed, so that she could pilot us through the labyrinth of intertwining city streets to our destination of the day. Now we followed her car, as it was weaving in and out of traffic, with the anticipation of old friends who were leaving town for a joint excursion into the country.

Actually, our acquaintance with Her-mine von Webern was less than twenty-four hours old. At lunch the day preced-ing, we had met for the first time at the Coq d'Or, a popular restaurant in the in-rrer city. The meeting had been prompt-ed by a teleplione conversation the night before, and as a sign of recognition Her-mine would display a heavy golden sig-net ring on her finger.

Hermine was the daughter-in-law of the Austrian composer Anton von We-bern, about whom I had set out to write a biography. In 1941, she had married Peter von Webern, the composer's only son. Her husband was killed in February of 194.5 during a strafing attack on the tiain which was to bring him, already wounded, to a hospital and, as he hoped, lelease from further war action. From other family members, I had learned tf.at the young widow had bravely made her way alone in the world, then one of destiuction and deprivation, and that she ultimately had risen to an executive position in a mercantile occupation. Con-tact between her and her in-laws was scanty, supposedly because of the de-mands of her career.

Caused to befieve that Hermine von Webern was always far too busy, I had

Dr. Moldenhauer has done extensive re-search on Webern, his works, and the docu-ments of his career. He is author of The Death of Anton Webern: A Drama in Documents (1961) and founder-director of the Webern Archive in Spokane. Wash. SR/Augusi 27. 1966

previously made no attempt to contact her. But this time a specific incentive prompted me to do so: In my quest for a picture of the coat-of-arms of the von Webern clan, I had been told that Her-mine possessed a signet ring, an heir-loom from her husband. When I phoned her, she told me that the ring stayed always on her finger, but that she would be glad to show it to me. We had in-tended to terminate our stay in Vienna on the following day, but the cordial and eager response from Hermine made me decide to postpone our departure.

At the luncheon meeting, Hermine von Webern showed us not only the ring with the engraved coat-of-arms but also several letters which her father-in-law had written to her during 1945. They were letters of deeply moving contents, one of them penned on the evening of March 30 when Anton von Webern and his wife Wilhelmine fled from Vienna, the others written from the mountain refuge a.: Mittersill where the composer was to meet his tragic death a few months later.

In these last letters, Anton von We-bern expressed his concern about the

SK/RECORDINGS IN QUEST OF WEBERN

By Hans Moldenhauer 47 VERDI'S NABUCCO REVEALED

By Herbert Weinstock 50 IN MEMORIAM, BUD POWELL

By Martin Williams 51 RECORDINGS IN REVIEW

By the Recordings Editor 52 SYMPHONIES OF HENZE

By Irving Kolodin 53 RECORDINGS REPORTS I

Orchestral LPs 54 "BASSARIDS" IN SALZBURG

By Robert Breuer 55 RECORDINGS REPORTS II

Miscellaneous LPs 56 THE OTHER SIDE

By Thomas Heinitz 57 RECORDINGS REPORTS

]azz LPs 58 TAPING TRUE, FOR LESS

By Ivan Berger 59 LETTERS TO THE RECORDINGS

EDITOR 61

personal belongings left behind at his home in Maria Enzersdoif; specifically, he mentioned his typewriter, the silver-ware, and manuscripts of his composi-tions which he had buried under the garden house. Like many others, he had resorted to this primitive measure when the Russian armies approached Vienna, but the plan gave little protection when looting became widespread during those dismal days. "Is everything really gone?" inquired Webern anxiously from Her-mine in the last of his letters dated

Dr. Hans Moldenhauer (right) holds Webern's cello. On the piano is the bust of the composer which inspired his "head hunt." Mrs. Moldenhauer holds a Webern inaniiscript.

47 PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG

ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED