Greeting

In 2025, the Hamburg University of Music and Drama (HfMT) celebrates the 75th anniversary of its establishment. The University looks back on a history in which composers and music theorists played an important role from the very beginning, and continue to do so today, in both teaching and administrative capacities. In 1942, Ernst Gernot Klussmann, then in Cologne, was appointed to take over the administration of the Vogt Conservatory in Hamburg and to organize its transformation into the leading state college of music in northern Germany. Due to the events of the war and the severe destruction of Hamburg, this process was not completed until 1950. Between 1950 and his retirement in 1966, Klussmann helped guide the fortunes of the college as its vice president and, as an outstanding teacher of composition and theory, contributed to its reputation. A number of HfMT professors of the following generation studied under him. Reports of his legendary knowledge of the repertoire and his great and generous commitment to the students still circulate today.

Klussmann demonstrated how compositional practice, analysis, and knowledge transfer can mutually complement each other. He represented the kind of musical polymath who is still a role model for us today, a time in which creative activity and reflection face entirely new challenges in a digital and increasingly differentiated world.

In a 1980 disposition, Klussmann's son transferred the responsibility for his father's artistic estate to the respective president of the HfMT. I am therefore very pleased – and not only in my function as administrator – about the realization of this first CD production dedicated to Klussmann's works. I would like to thank all those involved in its creation, and I trust that it will serve as a stimulus for further study of an original composer about whom there is so much to discover and rediscover.

Prof. Dr. Jan Philipp Sprick, President of the Hamburg University of Music and Drama

March 2025

Foreword

I have known of Ernst Gernot Klussmann since my student days at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama (HfMT) in the 1980s, but I had no idea of his work as a composer. He was the teacher of three of my professors, so I saw myself – without really knowing what that implied – as a second-generation pupil of his. That is why I pricked up my ears when Philipp Nedel, on the occasion of our project to record the complete piano sonatas of Hans Winterberg, broached the subject of Klussmann and the upcoming production by the Kuss Quartet of two of the composer's early chamber music works, the late-romantic Piano Quintet and the expressionistic First String Quartet. The Funk Foundation supported not only this first-ever recording of compositions by this highly interesting personality, who was so important for Hamburg's musical life, but also first editions of the recorded works issued by the still young Laurentius Publishing House in Frankfurt. I am delighted that we are able to present this production on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the HfMT, of which Klussmann was one of the founding fathers. My heartfelt thanks go to the Funk Foundation, Hamburg, which made this project possible and provides ongoing support, to the President of the HfMT Prof. Dr. Jan Philipp Sprick, who has given it a place in the university's anniversary celebrations, to Dr. Carsten Bock, the editor of the first editions of the works presented here and author of the following introductory text, and last but not least to the Kuss Quartet and Péter Nagy – fantastic interpreters of a highlycomplex and at the same time highly emotional music beyond the trends of the 1920s.

As a composer, Klussmann had a lot to say, and we hope that this production will provide an impetus for the discovery of his oeuvre, especially that created in Hamburg after the Second World War, which includes important works that to the present day have not yet been premiered.

Frank Harders-Wuthenow, eda records

March 2025

Ernst Gernot Klussmann – Contours of a Life

Gernot Klussmann was one of the outstanding personalities of Hamburg's musical life from the late 1940s until his death in 1975. Nevertheless, traces of his artistic work are to be found only with great difficulty. The present recording of two early works is the very first CD production dedicated to Klussmann. Important compositions from his pen have still not been published nor have they been premiered to this day. An explanation for this is hardly to be found in their artistic quality. Possibly, however, due to the stigma attached to artists who worked in Germany during the Nazi era, artists who were not persecuted, driven into exile, or murdered. Klussmann joined the party in the Spring of 1933, which was enough to secure him a place in Fred K. Prieberg's Handbook of German Musicians, the "black book" of German musical history, and for a blemish that adhered to him after the war in spite of his great achievements. With Klussmann there is not only a very interesting composer to (re)discover, who was anything but a Nazi. His "case" makes emphatically clear how important it is to understand what exactly happened in German cultural life after the Nazis' assumption of power, what was possible and what was not, and to ask oneself how heroically one would have acted in a comparable situation.

Klussmann grew up in Hamburg-Bergedorf, originally an autonomous town that was incorporated into the city of Hamburg in 1938. Almost nothing is known about his musical training during his adolescence. That Klussmann was already a good instrumentalist during his school days is however documented by a review from 1919, in which he is mentioned as pianist and organist within the framework of a memorial service at his school for the dead of the 1914–18 war.

Klussmann's musical development was certainly influenced greatly by his godfather Hermann Behn (1857–1927). Behn, composer and pianist, published a large number of piano reductions of the established symphonic repertoire. He was a friend and patron of Gustav Mahler, of whose Second Symphony he made a piano reduction for two pianos. After graduation from high school in 1919, Klussmann immediately focused on his further musical training. A resumé written by him succinctly states; "… and studied composition and organ privately from 1919–1924 with Professor Felix Woyrsch (Altona), piano with Arnold Winternitz and Ilse Fromm-Michaels." Woyrsch (1860–1944), who was appointed municipal music director in 1903, was a composer who explored all the established genres of classical-romantic music, which certainly also informed Klussmann's composition lessons. On the basis of Klussmann's preserved compositions, a clear inclination toward the symphonic genre can be discerned. His estate largely contains draft scores of symphonies: Symphony in F Minor (1st, 3rd and 4th movements) 1918/19; Symphony in D Minor (1st movement) 1919, and Passacaglia in C Minor (old finale of the E Minor Symphony [Nr1.]) 1920/21. Klussmann could also have learned about current developments in music from pianist and composer Ilse Fromm-Michaels (1888– 1986). Proficient in modern music, she played the works of contemporary composers such as Hindemith, Busoni, Stravinsky, and of the Second Viennese School in her solo piano recitals. Klussmann continued his training at the Munich Academy of Music, where he attended master classes in composition with Prof. Joseph Haas and in conducting with Prof. Dr. Sigmund von Hausegger, graduating with honors already in 1925. In the summer of the same year, he was active as a solo repetiteur at the Bayreuth Festival. Klussmann was able to take up his first full-time position on 1 October 1925 as a theory teacher at the Rhenish Music School of the City of Cologne. In the application for this position, he was able to present, in addition to evaluations from Haas and v. Hausegger, an additional qualification in music education, which he had acquired in Kassel. In 1934, with the same combination of subjects, he transferred to the Cologne College of Music, where he was appointed professor of score playing and instrumentation in 1936.

The seizure of power by the National Socialists in 1933 was very radical in Cologne. After just a few weeks, all areas of society were hit by the "Gleichschaltung" (i.e., enforced political conformity). As early as March 1933, all Jewish teachers and students were removed from the College of Music and the Rhenish Music School. Walter Braunfels, who was director of the college together with Hermann Abendroth, was removed from office on 2 May 1933 as a so-called "half-Jew." The dismissal of Abendroth, who as artistic director of the Gürzenich Orchestra had fostered modern composers and had therefore been under scrutiny for some time, proved more difficult. During the course of the 1920s, a very aggressive atmosphere had emerged at the college, which was also maintained with the help of assaults by the SA. It can be assumed that especially the teachers at the college who had been members of the NSDAP for some time, such as Richard Trunk (enlistment on 1 November 1931) and Walter Unger (enlistment on 1 January 1932), were involved. This circle also included Walter Trienes (enlistment in 1930), who initially assumed a journalistic stance against the Cologne College of Music as editor of the Westdeutscher Beobachter (West German Observer) and was appointed NSDAP representative at the College of Music in 1933. On the occasion of the premiere of Klussmann's Organ Concerto at the International Music Festival in Stuttgart, Trienes pronounced judgement already in 1928 under the catchword "Uprooted Art": "In Klussmann's organ concerto, the disintegration of the tonal fundaments has reached a dead end. The reception showed that the listeners are not willing to follow him." Out of fear of possible dismissal, according to Klussmann after the end of the war, he joined the NSDAP on 1 April 1933 to protect his young family. Especially for his first two symphonies, Klussmann found recognition from the public as well as from the trade press in the 1930s. In addition to many concert reviews, the interest in his music is reflected in a multi-page article in the Zeitschrift für Musik (5/1936). If one surveys his compositions from this period, it becomes evident that it was predominantly instrumental music, whereby the focus was on classical genres.

With the outbreak of war in 1939, working conditions at the College of Music in Cologne became increasingly difficult, and Klussmann lived in constant fear of being called up for military service. Klussmann's letters to Katharina Holger née Schmitz (1902–1982) bear witness to this. As an actress, Holger was involved in a new production of Goethe's Iphigenia in Bielefeld in 1935, for which Klussmann had been commissioned to compose new incidental music. This correspondence, of which only Klussmann's letters have survived, represents an important source for an understanding of Klussmann as a person.

Already in 1937, Klussmann applied for a position in Hamburg. The "Vogt Conservatory" there was to be converted into a school of music, which in turn would then be used as a preliminary stage for the founding of a college of music. In the letters to Holger, Klussmann expressed the hope of being able to leave the Cologne College of Music, whereby he always feared that the college would not let him go. The process became further complicated by his conscription into military service in 1941. On 1 May 1942, Klussmann was finally appointed director of the "School of Music and Theater of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg." Until 1944, Klussmann devoted himself to his new job with great enthusiasm, where, in addition to administrative decisions such as the selection of teaching staff, his area of responsibility included in particular the establishment of statutes, curricula, and school regulations. Due to the course of the war, the school was closed.

"Now all the cats are out of the bag. My school will also be closed on 1 September, I have already been released for conscription" (Letter to Holger, 17 August 1944). Klussmann spent the last months of the war as a member of the ground staff at the military airbase in Leck, Schleswig-Holstein. Klussmann had to deal with the consequences of his membership in the NSDAP already shortly after the end of the war. During the course of the denazification of Germany by the respective military governments of the occupation zones, he was dismissed as director of the music school on 17 September 1945: "By order of the mayor, you are informed that you are to be dismissed from your employment by reason of Law No. 6 of the Military Government of 11 May 1945 and by order of the Military Government of 7 September 1945." Klussmann immediately filed an appeal against the order in which, with regard to his party membership, he spoke of a strategic decision to escape the harassment of his colleagues at the Cologne Music School. In the appeal proceedings, an attempt was made to substantiate this specific situation in Cologne through corresponding exonerating testimony from former friends and colleagues. The general problem of the "denazification certificates" is well known and criticism is more than justified. Nevertheless, in view of the above-outlined events in Cologne, one should attempt not to dismiss the statements out of hand, in order to gain a differentiated picture of the circumstances of life at the time.

Moreover, Klussmann explicitly included his own music in the argument for his exoneration. As proof that his musical language in no way corresponded to the aesthetic ideas of the National Socialists, he referred to correspondingly negative reviews of his music, such as those by W. Trienes. Additionally, Klussmann explicitly emphasized his relationship to Gustav Mahler, in whose tradition he places his music. That this is not merely lip service can be determined from a bundle of newspaper articles, typescripts by various authors about Mahler, and reviews of Mahler performances from the 1920s to the 1930s, which can be found in Klussmann's estate. There are also various texts by Klussmann in which he dealt with Mahler's music and expressed his lifelong enthusiasm, such as an analysis of the Ninth Symphony. From this point of view, the testimonies emphasizing Klussmann's occupation with Mahler during his time in Cologne, which led, among other things, to harassment by his colleagues, are a comprehensible aspect of the situation there. To be added in this context is the opinion of many contemporary witnesses that Klussmann was an apolitical person. All the more extraordinary is his comment about the composer Hans Pfitzner: "I also do forgive him that he dedicated earlier works to Jews, but then turned against the Jews when it became 'advantageous.' All his writings are so disgustingly polemical and self-congratulatory that I completely reject this part of his output" (letter to Holger, 10 November 1944). The Central Office of Appeals Committees informed Klussmann in October 1946 that his appeal had been acceded to. However, the  decision contained a decisive restriction, prohibiting him from working as the director or teacher at a college of theater or music, which Klussmann could not accept. In his appeal emphasized his claim to be reinstated as director. In the second trial, which dragged on until 1948, Klussmann was classified in category V (fellow traveler). In a letter to Holger in March 1948, he summarized his feelings: "I quote from the 'Meistersinger': You are quite right to remind me of this and I know of no other excuse for my delay and forgetfulness than that I was caught completely unawares by the force and speed of some of the events. On 13 January, in a five-hour appeal hearing, I attained classification V and was reinstated to my old position as head of the music school on 16 February."

In 1950, Klussmann was appointed assistant director of the newly founded Hamburg College of Music, where he was active as a professor until his retirement in 1966. Klussmann resumed his compositional work with his Fifth Symphony (first version, 1950), which shows a unique closeness to his role model Mahler. The question arises as to whether this is to be regarded as a reflex to reassure himself of his tradition or as a sign of uncertainty about the further development of his musical language. From the mid-1950s, Klussmann began to use dodecaphony as the basis for his compositions. This new approach was probably due less to the influence of the developing postwar avant-garde than to the fact that the serial technique corresponded to a large extent with Klussmann's contrapuntal thinking. The adoption of serial technique was less an aesthetic choice than a compositional decision. With the twelve-tone opera Rhodope op. 50, written in the early 1960s, and the Sixth Symphony op. 39 derived from it, Klussmann hoped to again attain esteem as a composer. For the broadcast of the symphony by the North German Radio in 1964, Klussmann had cards specially printed with the broadcast date, which he sent to a number of orchestra conductors, theatre managers, and stage directors. Although the preserved responses were polite and sympathetic, they did not lead to a performance of the opera. While some smaller compositions were performed in the following years, his subsequent major works, two large operas and four symphonies, were composed imperturbably for the drawer. Klussmann died in Hamburg on 21 January 1975.

If one considers Klussmann's biography – raised in the German Empire, educated in the Weimar Republic, teacher and composer during the Nazi era and in the Federal Republic – it is obvious that he had to react to enormous political changes during his lifetime. A first, very fragmentary impression of his personality suggests that Klussmann was a timid person who was careful to observe the rules and laws. This goes hand in hand with his wary "apolitical" acceptance of the decisions of the state. Interestingly, his fixation on music corresponds with his growing enthusiasm for antiquity, which Holger describes in her memories of Klussmann with the words: "His ideals of life were rooted in the humanism of Greco-Roman antiquity and grew in a humanist ideal of education." Whether one might see this as an escape from reality is beside the point. What remains to be said is that Klussmann neither committed himself to a "German music" that could be interpreted as being close to Nazi ideology, nor did he actively support the aims of National Socialism.

Early Works

According to the entry at the end of the score, Klussmann completed work on the Piano Quintet op. 1 in E Minor on 7 June 1925 in Munich, where the premiere presumably also took place on 24 June. The composition can obviously be seen as the conclusion of his studies. Klussmann's choice of the piano quintet, a genre with less pronounced guidelines, reflects his preference for symphonic music, as evidenced by his early compositional attempts. The combination of intense string timbre and full piano sound can correspond to this sound ideal in a special way. The musical language of the four-movement work displays a late Romantic character. The melodic style of the first violin at the beginning of the second movement is clearly inspired by Brahms. Dynamic condensations that go beyond a chamber music style are developed from the melodic lines of the strings. After the vibrant "espressivo" of the second movement, which is predominantly carried by the dense string sound, follows a short, seemingly almost exuberant scherzo as the third movement. In the finale, the music ultimately becomes so dramatically charged within a short time that the tonal structure seems to be suspended. At the same time, the insistence on motivic elements allows an ironic character to be recognized. The process is interrupted by a fugue that characteristically emphasizes Klussmann's penchant for counterpoint. His teacher Sigmund von Hausegger expressed his opinion of the premiere: "In a public recital, an impressive piano quintet by him rightly received the greatest applause. The independent, brilliant manner in which he intertwines his very musical, original ideas and develops them into a well-rounded whole is indeed extremely sympathetic and awakens high hopes for the composer's future work."

Klussmann composed the First String Quartet op. 7, dedicated to his teacher Joseph Haas,  between 1928 and 1930 in Cologne after he had finished his First Symphony. The premiere by the Havemann Quartet took place on 8 June 1933 as part of the Sixtieth Tonkünstlerfest in Königsberg. With this quartet, Klussmann left the gestures of late Romanticism behind. In spite of their different characters, the five movements are linked together by a fabric of related motivic material. The musical development of the individual movements is produced predominantly by means of contrapuntal progressions of the voices. In a typescript dealing with Gustav Mahler's symphonic works, Klussmann presents Mahler's polyphony, which reads like a description of his own compositional style: "From the outset,  Mahler's polyphony is not 'strictly by the book'; it arises from the need for new expression: thus, it does not work according to 'traditional' rules, but rather places itself exclusively under the law of the envisaged expression. It works in its means, for example, with unprepared dissonances, with parallel seconds, fourths and fifths, comes across unconventional, hard and, in its overall appearance, is to be seen as a consequence and development of the polyphonic attitude of late Beethoven (model: Beethoven's op. 133, Fugue in B-flat Major)." What consequences result for the composition can be seen in the fifth movement, where, through the strict conduct of the voices, the composition takes on atonal traits that come close to Schönberg's dodecaphony. If one takes the differentiation of the tone colors into account, the musical language of the string quartet can be described as modern. At the same time, Klussmann shows subtle irony, composing the third movement, entitled "March," in a quasi limping 7/4 meter.

Dr. Carsten Bock

March 2025