The Composer

The odds were against him and it was bad luck for the composer and conductor Manfred Gurlitt who was born in Berlin in 1890 and studied with Engelbert Humperdinck and Karl Muck. Under the Nazi regime he lost his official posts, while opportunists like Egk, Orff, Pfitzner and Strauss were critically acclaimed. Gurlitt emigrated to Japan, where he returned to after the war when he failed to continue his professional career in his mother country. He died in Tokyo at 81. His music fell into oblivion: songs and chamber music, symphonic and stage works. He created a distinct expressionist style embracing elements of late romanticism, neoclassicism, twelve-tone technique and free [...]