Karl Giesskann

Karl Giesskann was born on 2 July 1901 in Kojetein (now Kojetín, Czech Republic). From 1920 to 1925 he studied at the Academy of Music in Vienna, where his teachers included Camillo Horn, Joseph Marx and Max Springer in harmony and counterpoint, and Anton Barthlme, Friedrich Buxbaum and Paul Grümmer in violoncello. He also attended classes in piano, music history, chamber music and orchestral performance. According to the academy's student records, his studies were interrupted by a leave of absence in 1925.
Alongside his musical education, Giesskann pursued a career in dentistry. His Austrian dental qualification dates from 1926, and he subsequently established himself as a dentist in Vienna. However, he continued to be active as a musician and composer. During the early 1930s he composed a number of popular songs and dance pieces, including the tangos "Immer kann man nicht treu sein" and "Eine Nacht hab ich mit dir im Traum verbracht", as well as the foxtrots "Mein Muckili, mein Schnuckili", "Deine Augen sind wie Saphire" and "Wenn ein Kadett ein kleines Mädel liebt", the latter credited jointly to Ludwig (his older brother) and Karl Giesskann. Several of these compositions were broadcast on Austrian radio.
Following the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, Giesskann emigrated to Great Britain. His wife Wally-Therese, née Fuchs, had fled to London in October 1938. In Britain, Giesskann continued both his dental and musical activities. He obtained the British Licence in Dental Surgery (LDS) in 1939. In December of that year he appeared as a cellist in a performance of a piano trio by Dvořák, together with violinist Hans Geiger and pianist Paul Lichtenstern, all three being refugees from Vienna. Giesskann subsequently established a dental practice in London and became a naturalised British citizen on 16 September 1947.
By the late 1940s Giesskann had also attracted attention as a composer of orchestral music. His "Symphonic Variations in D" were performed on 20 November 1948 by the London Symphony Orchestra under Walter Goehr at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Contemporary newspapers reported that the composer received an ovation. The work was performed again at the Royal Albert Hall on 16 October 1949, this time by the London Symphony Orchestra under Muir Mathieson.
In 1951 Giesskann was credited with the music for a London production of Leo Ferrero's comedy "Angelica", presented by the International Theatre Group at the New Lindsey Theatre. This is the latest documented musical activity discovered so far. Little is currently known about his subsequent life.
Karl Giesskann died on 30 November 1995 in England. His exact place of death has not yet been established.