Page 345 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2023. Glasbena društva v dolgem 19. stoletju: med ljubiteljsko in profesionalno kulturo ▪︎ Music societies in the long 19th century: Between amateur and professional culture. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 6
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the role and contribution of immigrant musicians to the music societies ...
and also successfully conducted a number of large-scale vocal-instrumen-
tal works. The repertoire and reviews of Zöhrer’s solo and chamber music
performances reveal an ambitious and technically demanding pianist who
turned to, among other things, the most challenging contemporary piano
literature. As a soloist without orchestra he performed only in exception-
al cases, as a soloist in concerts with mixed programs and not in solo re-
citals.23 Over almost half a century he participated in more than 350 of the
Society’s concerts: in 160 as a performer and in more than 190 as a conduc-
tor.24 In addition to Hans Gerstner (1851–1939) and Gustav Moravec (1837–
1916),25 he is credited for the development and rapid progress of chamber
music in Ljubljana.26
The Prague violinist Hans Gerstner moved to Ljubljana in 1871 and
was a decisive turning point for violin playing in the city.27 For almost 50
years he was associated with the Philharmonic Society as a soloist, concert-
master, teacher and conductor. During his long career as a violin teacher
at the Society, he taught numerous brilliant violinists who later worked in
Slovenia and abroad. He performed violin concertos by Bazzini, Mendels-
sohn, Spohr, Bruch, Beethoven, Beriot and Lipinski in Ljubljana. With his
most prominent students, Gerstner premiered numerous violin composi-
tions and raised violin playing to a whole new level. In Ljubljana he was the
first to play the violin sonata by C. Frank (1902), the Violin Concerto in E
Major by J.S. Bach (1904) and the violin sonata op. 45 by Grieg (1908).28 Dur-
ing his career of more than 40 years as concertmaster of the Philharmon-
23 Jernej Weiss, “Musical performance activities of Josef Zöhrer (1841–1916) at the Lju-
bljana Philharmonic Society,” De musica disserenda, 18, no. 1/2 (2022): 195, https://
doi.org/10.3986/dmd18.1-2.04.
24 The data is based on the transcription and reconstruction of the preserved concert
programmes of the Philharmonic Society between 1816 and 1919.
25 Gustav Silvestr Moravec was born on 31 December 1837 in Hlinsko (CZ). He came
to Ljubljana in 1866, where he stayed active until 1914. He taught violin, piano, and
singing, and performed at numerous Philharmonic Society concerts as a violinist
and violist in chamber ensembles. He died in 1916 in Vienna. See: Státní oblastní
archiv, Zamrsk, Taufbuch: 1836–1852, Sig. Chrudim 223, fol. 21; Cvetko Budkovič,
Razvoj glasbenega šolstva na Slovenskem (Ljubljana: Znanstveni inštitut Filozofske
fakultete, 1992), 67–8, 71.
26 Maruša Zupančič, “Razvoj komorne glasbe na Slovenskem,” in Zgodovina glas
be na Slovenskem III, ed. Aleš Nagode and Nataša Cigoj Krstulović (Ljubljana:
Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete and Založba ZRC, 2021), 430, https://doi.
org/10.4312/9789610605270.
27 For more about Gerstner, see: Jernej Weiss, Hans Gerstner: Življenje za glasbo (Mari-
bor: Litera, 2010).
28 Zupančič, “The Musical Network of the Ljubljana Philharmonic Society.”
343
and also successfully conducted a number of large-scale vocal-instrumen-
tal works. The repertoire and reviews of Zöhrer’s solo and chamber music
performances reveal an ambitious and technically demanding pianist who
turned to, among other things, the most challenging contemporary piano
literature. As a soloist without orchestra he performed only in exception-
al cases, as a soloist in concerts with mixed programs and not in solo re-
citals.23 Over almost half a century he participated in more than 350 of the
Society’s concerts: in 160 as a performer and in more than 190 as a conduc-
tor.24 In addition to Hans Gerstner (1851–1939) and Gustav Moravec (1837–
1916),25 he is credited for the development and rapid progress of chamber
music in Ljubljana.26
The Prague violinist Hans Gerstner moved to Ljubljana in 1871 and
was a decisive turning point for violin playing in the city.27 For almost 50
years he was associated with the Philharmonic Society as a soloist, concert-
master, teacher and conductor. During his long career as a violin teacher
at the Society, he taught numerous brilliant violinists who later worked in
Slovenia and abroad. He performed violin concertos by Bazzini, Mendels-
sohn, Spohr, Bruch, Beethoven, Beriot and Lipinski in Ljubljana. With his
most prominent students, Gerstner premiered numerous violin composi-
tions and raised violin playing to a whole new level. In Ljubljana he was the
first to play the violin sonata by C. Frank (1902), the Violin Concerto in E
Major by J.S. Bach (1904) and the violin sonata op. 45 by Grieg (1908).28 Dur-
ing his career of more than 40 years as concertmaster of the Philharmon-
23 Jernej Weiss, “Musical performance activities of Josef Zöhrer (1841–1916) at the Lju-
bljana Philharmonic Society,” De musica disserenda, 18, no. 1/2 (2022): 195, https://
doi.org/10.3986/dmd18.1-2.04.
24 The data is based on the transcription and reconstruction of the preserved concert
programmes of the Philharmonic Society between 1816 and 1919.
25 Gustav Silvestr Moravec was born on 31 December 1837 in Hlinsko (CZ). He came
to Ljubljana in 1866, where he stayed active until 1914. He taught violin, piano, and
singing, and performed at numerous Philharmonic Society concerts as a violinist
and violist in chamber ensembles. He died in 1916 in Vienna. See: Státní oblastní
archiv, Zamrsk, Taufbuch: 1836–1852, Sig. Chrudim 223, fol. 21; Cvetko Budkovič,
Razvoj glasbenega šolstva na Slovenskem (Ljubljana: Znanstveni inštitut Filozofske
fakultete, 1992), 67–8, 71.
26 Maruša Zupančič, “Razvoj komorne glasbe na Slovenskem,” in Zgodovina glas
be na Slovenskem III, ed. Aleš Nagode and Nataša Cigoj Krstulović (Ljubljana:
Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete and Založba ZRC, 2021), 430, https://doi.
org/10.4312/9789610605270.
27 For more about Gerstner, see: Jernej Weiss, Hans Gerstner: Življenje za glasbo (Mari-
bor: Litera, 2010).
28 Zupančič, “The Musical Network of the Ljubljana Philharmonic Society.”
343
