Hans Winterberg

Czech-German Composer and Holocaust Survivor

Czech-German composer. Born 23 March 1901 in Prague, Austria-Hungary. Died 10 March 1991 in Stepperg, Germany. Winterberg began music lessons at the age of nine with the concert pianist Therèse Wallerstein. He went on to study at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Prague. Winterberg's compositions are almost exclusively instrumental. He composed orchestral works, a number of chamber and piano solo works; music for radio plays as well as some vocal music. Winterberg largely composed in expanded chromatic tonalities while avoiding both 12 tone and microtonal techniques. He referred to his first symphony 'Sinfonia dramatica' as a premonition of the catastrophe of the Second World War when it was first broadcast by Bavarian Radio in a performance conducted Karl List and the Bayer Philharmoniker. Important premieres were his concerto for piano and orchestra performed by the pianist Agi Brand-Setterl on 13 November 1950 and three further premieres, his Sinfonia dramatica 17 January./18. 1949 in Mannheim, his suite for String Orchestra on 12 February 1952 and his Symphonic Epilogue on 13 June 1956 with the Münchner Philharmoniker, conducted by Fritz Rieger. The Winterberg music estate is housed at the Sudeten German Music Archive in Regensburg, though due to contractual conditions laid out upon handover of the estate to the Archive, it remains barred to scholars or musicians until 1 January 2031. This contract was deleted on 17 July 2015. In November 2018, the first record ever – with chamber music by Hans Winterberg – appeared at Toccata Classics in London.