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The Dresdner Philharmonie has long been for many years one of the famous Dresden cultural institutions, along with the State Opera, the State Orchestra and the Kreuz Choir. Founded in 1870, the Philharmonie has deve- loped into an orchestra of world renown. Eminent conductors and soloists who accepted invitations to perform with what was then known as the „Gewerbe haus Orchestra" assisted the ensemble in its rapid rise to fame. Peter Tchai- kovsky conducted his 4th Symphony in the season 1888/89, and Antonin Dvorak his 5th. Amongst the musicians who appeared with the orchestra were Johannes Brahms, Hans von Bülow, Moritz Moszkowski, Emil Sauer, Joseph Joachim, Teresa Carreno, Eugen d’Albert, Richard Strauss, Anton Rubinstein, Felix Mottl, Ferruccio Busoni, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arthur Schnabel, Pablo de Sarasate, Fritz Kreisler, Jacques Thibaud, Carl Flesch, Pablo Casals, Eugene Isaye and many great singers, including Maria Ivogün, Lotte Lehmann, S gr d Onegin and Leo Slezak. In 1915 the ensemble was renamed the „Dresden Philharmonie Orchestra", and to „Dresdner Philharmonie" in 1924. The chief conductor at that time was Eduard Mörike (1924 to 1929). In 1934, the Dutchman Paul van Kempen took over for nearly ten years. Distinguished guest conductors such as Arthur Ni- kisch, Siegfried Wagner, Max von Schillings, Fritz Busch, Erich Kleiber and Hermann Scherchen also took the baton from time to time. In 1942, when Paul van Kempen was obliged by the authorities of the period to abandon his work in Dresden, Otto Matzerath and Bernardino Molinari temporarily took over concert direction until Carl Schuricht was appointed as the orchestra’s new conductor, a function which he carried out until the Dresdner Philharmo nie was finally disbanded in autumn 1944 in the full throes of war. One month öfter the Second World War ended, the orchestra was already playing again although it had lost its old home, archives and music library in the destruction of Dresden on 13th February 1945. In 1947 Heinz Bongartz took Charge of the orchestra’s artistic direction and remained in ths post for 17 years. Thanks to his strenuous efforts, and generous state support, a high artistic Standard was soon reached and the Philharmonie became again an international^ respected body of players which, duringSjts many guest tours abroad, was able to promote the reputation of the German Democratic Republic as a committed patron of humanist art. From 1964 to 1967 the orchestra was directed by Horst Förster, and after- wards by Kurt Masur, who is one of the most prominent conductors of the GDR. Günther Herbig replaced him in 1972 for the next five years, and over this period the Dresdner Philharmonie was able to consolidate its successes at home and abroad. Today, the orchestra’s high artistic Standards entitle it to perform alongside world-class guest conductors and soloists. In 1977 Prof. Herbert Kegel, one of the GDR’s best known conductors, took over as musical director. With many years as an orchestral trainer behind him, he will undoubtless promote the Dresdner Philharmonie’s artistic repu tation. INTRODUCTORY NOTES Pau! Dessau, now 83, is one of the most prominent figures in the mu sical world of the German Democratic Republik. His works embrace almost all the genres of music. Two important, perhaps even decisive influences in his Creative work were his close contacts with the working class from the twenties onwards and his Cooperation with Bertolt Brecht, which began in 1942 during their exile in the USA and continued in Berlin after the Second World War. Dessau set a number of Brecht’s texts to music, and out of their work together there emerged not only a new dialectical relationship between words and music which was Marxist in its conception, but also Dessau ’s own reali- zation that a composer’s work must reflect his commitment to the cause of socialism. It is in this context that we must understand his quest for new forms and the search for original methods. The orchestral work In memoriam Bertolt Brecht, is dedicated to the memory of his poet friend who died in 1956. Brecht would have been 80 on 10th February 1978. „This is a composition which germinated in personal experience, where lament, retrospect and warning intertwine inseparably with the revolutionary optimism which we constantly meet in Brecht’s own writing", observed Prof. Siegfried Köhler in his review of the work. „The introduction, the lamento (the three parts of the main work are to be played attacca), is not just an expression of mourning at the death of this great poet; it has also captured all the agony, all the sorrow and human misery spawned by the iron might of imperialism against which Brecht fought so bitterly. This mu sic evokes anew the images of war and its horrors. We are confronted with the men, women and children murdered in the concentration camps and with the dead heroes of antifascist resistance. The lament dissolves into a powerful march above which the words are writ- ten: -A curse on war!' Here, too, personal and universal elements are inter- woven in an organic whole. The major element of this part, which sets the tone for the whole work, is Dessau's ,Song of Mother Courage', which he composed for Brecht's play of the same name. The chorus is bitter: ,. . . Spring is coming. Awake, Christian! The snow is melting away. The dead are at peace. And what hasn’t yet died is beginning to move on!' This musical quo- tation, embedded in the orchestral setting, symbolizes the common struggle in which poet and musician were personally involved. At the same time, it develops into a convincing generalization as the accu- sing, disturbing theme of the song is transformed, in a march tempo carried by string passages and horn and string glissandos, into a sweeping protest against war. In the epitaph, the final part of the work which follows a general pause, the passionate message now seems more purposeful, harnessed and yet just as forceful as ever. The excitement rolls gradually away. The last bars are do- minated by an intensely expressive cantilena from the strings, finally fading
