Hans Pfitzner, born on May 5, 1869, was the son of the violinist Robert Pfitzner and his wife Wilhelmine Pfitzner. He received his first music lessons from his father and already at the age of eleven, he began to write his first compositions. After studying in Frankfurt, he became “Kapellmeister” at the opera house of Mainz. It was here that he he performed his first major works, the opera “Der arme Heinrich” and the incidental music to Ibsen’s “Das Fest auf Solhaug”. In 1897 Pfitzner moved to Berlin and became a teacher of conducting and composition. His second opera “Die Rose vom Liebesgarten” was successful and Gustav Mahler performed it in 1905 at the Vienna Court Opera.
From 1908 to 1919 Pfitzner lived in Strasbourg, where he directed the conservatory and conducted symphony concerts and operas! His greatest success came during this busy period: the premiere of his opera “Palestrina” at the Munich Prinzregententheater, conducted by Bruno Walter. After a stopover in Berlin, Pfitzner moved to Munich in 1929, where he was given a teaching position at the “Akademie für Tonkunst”. When his house was destroyed by a bomb in 1943, he stayed in Vienna for a short time.
Pfitzner fled to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1945, where he found protection in a refugee camp. The following year he moved into a retirement home in Munich. In 1948, as part of the denazification process, he was classified as “not affected by the law”, by the Munich District Court. Declarations of honor were received from composers and conductors Walter Braunfels, Hans Knappertsbusch, Arnold Schönberg and Bruno Walter, as well as from Alma Mahler-Werfel and Carl Zuckmayer. One of his last happy moments was the performance of his C major Symphony in Salzburg in 1949. He died soon after at the age of 80. …
