Hortense Monath Explained

Hortense Monath
Birth Name:Hortense Husserl
Birth Date:January 16, 1905
Death Place:New York City, U.S.
Occupation:Pianist, arts administrator

Hortense Husserl Monath (January 16, 1905[1] – May 21, 1956) was an American concert pianist and program director of New Friends of Music, a concert series that ran in New York City from 1936 to 1953.

Early life and education

Hortense Husserl was born in Newark, New Jersey, the daughter of Siegfried Husserl and Clara Gotthelf Husserl.[2] Her mother was an American music teacher and pianist trained under Leschetizky,[3] and her father was a physician from Austria.[4] She studied piano with her mother, Ernest Hutcheson[5] and Artur Schnabel.

Career

Husserl made her professional debut in Hamburg. "Miss Husserl is without doubt the most promising young pianist heard so far this season," said a reviewer in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, after her New York debut at Town Hall in 1930. "She brings to her instrument a highly cultivated technique, marked individuality and a truly remarkable innate rhythmic sense".[6] She was a soloist who played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the NBC Symphony Orchestra,[7] and the New York Philharmonic.[8] She made several recordings,[9] and performed on radio programs.[10]

Though she was based in the New York area,[11] Monath toured in the United States. She performed in Iowa and California[12] in 1936, in Missouri in 1939 and 1943,[13] [14] and in Texas in 1940.[15] In 1938 she was soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, in a concert marking the 20th anniversary of the end of World War I.[16]

Monath was a co-founder and program director of New Friends of Music,[17] a subscription chamber music concert series[18] that ran for sixteen seasons, from 1936[19] to 1953. The unconventional series was based at Town Hall, and scheduled for Sunday evenings, 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm. Monath instructed that audiences should not applaud, and there were no intermissions[20] and no encores in the program; the names of musicians and the works to be performed were not announced in advance. The concerts were broadcast, and sometimes recorded.[21]

Monath was considered an important early proponent of Arnold Schoenberg, after playing his works at a recital in the early 1930s,[22] inviting him to conduct his own works for the New Friends of Music series in 1940, and sponsoring the world premiere of his Second Chamber Symphony. She also debuted works by Schoenberg's student, Alban Berg.[23] [24] Monath opined on musical topics, including a strong distaste for musical prodigies, declaring them "a menace to musical education, a menace to proper music appreciation, and a menace mostly to their own futures as musicians and human beings".[25] She was described as a stylish beauty in some publicity, with her beauty regimen, hairstyles, and fashion preferences detailed in newspaper profiles.[26]

Personal life and legacy

She married and divorced twice. Her first husband was Paul E. Monath; they married in 1926 and had a son, Peter, born in Vienna in 1927; they divorced in 1934. In 1937, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia officiated when she married her second husband, businessman Ira A. Hirschmann.[27] [28] They divorced in 1952. Monath died in 1956, at the age of 52. Pianist Seymour Bernstein, a student of her mother's, described Monath's final years as complicated by mental illness and financial struggles.[29] Some of the New Friends of Music papers are in the Ira Arthur Hirschmann collection at the New York Public Library.[30]

In the novel Fifty-Seventh Street (1971), by Joseph Machlis, the pianist character "Judith Conrad" is partly based on Monath in her later years.[31]

Notes and References

  1. Some sources give 1904 as her birth year.
  2. News: 1952-09-23 . Obituary for Clara Gotthelf Husserl . 27 . The Commercial Appeal . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  3. News: 1898-12-12 . She Wins Favor; Miss Clara Gotthelf Abroad . 5 . The Commercial Appeal . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  4. Book: Bernstein, Seymour . Monsters and Angels: Surviving a Career in Music . 2002 . Hal Leonard Corporation . 978-0-634-07837-8 . 75–80 . en.
  5. News: 1936-11-01 . Civic Music Association Will Open Season Thursday Night at Augustana College . 15 . Quad-City Times . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  6. News: 1930-11-18 . Music of the Day . 20 . The Brooklyn Daily Eagle . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  7. News: 1941-03-15 . Hortense Monath, Soloist on NBC Symphony Concert . 5 . The Cincinnati Post . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  8. Web site: June 29, 1949 . New York Philharmonic Program . 2023-10-18 . New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon Levy Digital Archives . en.
  9. Web site: Hortense Monath . 2023-10-18 . Discography of American Historical Recordings.
  10. News: Loving . Bob . 1938-03-13 . Hortense Monath, Charlotte Symons, Josef Hofmann Guest Stars on the Air . 15 . Bristol Herald Courier . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  11. News: 1936-01-13 . Hortense Monath Guest Artist. . en-US . The New York Times . 2023-10-18 . 0362-4331.
  12. News: 1936-03-22 . Pianist to Play Schumann Concerto with Orchestra . 54 . The Los Angeles Times . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  13. News: 1939-01-12 . Civic Music to Present Hortense Monath . 3 . Jefferson City Post-Tribune . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  14. News: Inge . William . 1943-12-18 . Hortense Monath Has Upset Musical Tradition . 11 . The St. Louis Star and Times . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  15. News: 1940-02-21 . Hortense Monath, Pianist, to Give Concert in Civic Music Series . 5 . The Kilgore Herald . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  16. News: 1938-11-06 . Orchestra Has Piano Soloist; Hortense Monath on Armistice List . 60 . The Philadelphia Inquirer . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  17. Weber . Daniel B. . December 1983 . The New Friends of Music: Democracy, Chamber Music and the Mass Audience . The Journal of American Culture . en . 6 . 4 . 44–48 . 10.1111/j.1542-734X.1983.0604_44.x . 1542-7331.
  18. 1937-11-15 . Music: Music's New Friends . en-US . Time . 2023-10-18 . 0040-781X.
  19. Book: Feisst, Sabine . Schoenberg's New World: The American Years . 2011-03-10 . OUP USA . 978-0-19-537238-0 . cxcv . en.
  20. News: Selby . John . 1942-12-18 . 'New Friends of Music' Reverses Order . 27 . The Evening Sun . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  21. News: 1943-11-27 . It's the Music that Matters Says New Friends' Society . 10 . The Ottawa Journal . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  22. Book: Berger, Arthur . Reflections of an American Composer . University of California Press . 2002 . 9780520232518 . 228–229.
  23. News: 1931-10-21 . Anyway, Her Name is Hortense . 20 . The Standard Union . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  24. News: Taylor . Helen S. . 1931-11-08 . Hortense Monath Plays Tomorrow; Young Woman Pianist Has a European Tour in Concert to Back Her Reputation . 56 . The Baltimore Sun . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  25. News: December 31, 1937 . Prodigy Musician Epidemic Appals Hortense Monath . 1 . The Jewish Herald . October 18, 2023.
  26. News: Donnelly . Antoinette . 1938-02-05 . Beauty Laurels Today Go to Well Bred Air . 7 . Orlando Evening Star . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  27. News: 1989-10-11 . Ex-presidential envoy dead at 88 . 14 . The Daily Times . 2023-10-18 . Newspapers.com.
  28. News: 1937-11-24 . Hortense Monath, Pianist, is Married; Bride of Ira A. Hirschmann, Vice President of Saks-5th Ave.--Mayor Officiates . en-US . The New York Times . 2023-10-19 . 0362-4331.
  29. News: 1956-05-22 . Hortense Monath, Pianist, Dies; Directed New Friends of Music; Concert Performer Studied With Schnabel--Made Her Town Hall Debut in 1931 . en-US . The New York Times . 2023-10-18 . 0362-4331.
  30. Web site: Ira Arthur Hirschmann papers . 2023-10-19 . New York Public Library Archives.
  31. Ball, Robert J. "Joseph Machlis and the Enjoyment of Music: A Biographical Appreciation of a Great Teacher" The Musical Quarterly 95(4)(Winter 2012): 613–643.

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