Deutsch, Max
Deutsch, Max
Deutsch, Max, Austrian-born French composer, conductor, and pedagogue; b. Vienna, Nov. 17, 1892; d. Paris, Nov. 22, 1982. He studied composition privately with Schoenberg; also took courses at the Univ. of Vienna. He began his career conducting operetta in Vienna; in 1923 he went to Berlin, where he organized his own orch. group concentrating mainly on modern music, emulating Schoenberg’s Soc. for Private Performances of Vienna. In 1925 he settled in Paris, where he founded a Jewish theatrical ensemble, Der Jiddische Spiegel; also conducted concerts of modern music. From 1933 to 1935 he was in Madrid, where he was in charge of a film enterprise; in 1939 he went to France; after service in the Foreign Legion (until 1945), he returned to Paris, where he devoted himself to teaching, using Schoenberg’s method. In 1960 he founded the Grands Concerts de la Sorbonne. In his compositions, Deutsch pursued novel ideas; he was the first to write a complete film sym., in 5 movements, for the production of the German film Der Schutz (1923); he furthermore com-posed 2 syms. and a choral sym., Priere pour nous autres mortels.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire