Klenau, Paul (August) von

Klenau, Paul (August) von, Danish conductor and composer; b. Copenhagen, Feb. 11, 1883; d. there, Aug. 31, 1946. He studied violin with Hillmer and composition with Mailing in Copenhagen, then took lessons in violin with Halif and in composition with Bruch at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik (1902–04). In 1904 he went to Munich, where he studied composition privately with Thuille, and in 1908 he moved to Stuttgart, where he became a student of Schillings. He began his conducting career at the Freiburg im Breisgau Opera during the season of 1907-08. From 1909 to 1912 he was conductor at the Stuttgart Court Opera and in 1912 conductor of the Bach Soc. in Frankfurt am Main. He then returned to the Freiburg im Breisgau Opera (1913). After World War I, he studied with Schoenberg. From 1920 to 1926 he was conductor of the Danish Phil. Soc. in Copenhagen, concurrently conducting the Vienna Konzerthausgesellschaft (1922–30). He returned to Copenhagen in 1940.

Works

dramatic:Opera: Sulamith, after the Song of Songs (Munich, Nov. 16, 1913); Kjartan und Gudrun (Mannheim, April 4, 1918; rev. version as Gudrun auf Island, Hagen, Nov. 27, 1924); Die Lästerschule, after Sheridan (Frankfurt am Main, Dec. 25, 1926); Michael Kolhaas, after Kleist (Stuttgart, Nov. 4, 1933; new version, Berlin, March 7, 1934); Rembrandt van Rijn, libretto by the composer (Berlin and Stuttgart, Jan. 23, 1937); Elisabeth von England (Kassel, March 29, 1939; title changed to Die Königin after the outbreak of World War II to avoid mentioning England). Ballet: Kleine Idas Blumen, after Hans Christian Andersen (Stuttgart, 1916); Marion (Copenhagen, 1920). ORCH.: 7 syms. (1908, 1911, 1913, 1913, 1939, 1940, 1941); Inferno, 3 fantasies. other: Chamber music; piano pieces; songs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire