Richard Mohaupt

Richard Mohaupt was born on 14 September 1904 in Breslau (at that time Germany, now Poland and called Wrocław). He studied music in his hometown Breslau. After his studies he worked as a répétiteur and music director in Breslau, Aachen and Weimar and after a concert tour through the Soviet Union he finally moved to Berlin in 1932. Four years later he had his first success with his ballet "Die Gaunerstreiche der Courasche". The work was performed during the ballet festival which was part of the supporting programme of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. But already shortly after this success the Nazis denounced him with the expression "Music Bolshevism" and he was excluded from the Reichsmusikkammer. With this exclusion Richard Mohaupt could not work in Germany anymore and so emigrated to the USA in 1939 and settled in New York.

In the USA, Mohaupt did not compose musical theatre anymore because symphonic music sold much better. That led to the composition of his most famous work, the Town Piper Music, which was performed worldwide in the 1950s. During his time in the United States he mainly composed for film, television and radio. His works were performed by renowned orchestras like the New York Philharmonic and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. He also composed operas at that time but mainly for German opera houses, among them were Max und Moritz (1949). In 1955 Richard Mohaupt moved back to Europe and lived in Austria until his death.
Richard Mohaupt died on 3 July 1957 in Reichenau an der Rax (Austria).

The work catalogue of Richard Mohaupt contains mainly opera and ballet works as well as orchestral music. Among his orchestral compositions are a symphony, a concerto for orchestra and concertos for piano and for violin.

In my possession is an autograph manuscript of the Piano concerto in a reduction for two pianos. The piano concerto was composed in 1938, but the composer made a revision in 1950. The world premiere of the revised version took place on 28.06.1951 at the "Darmstädter Ferienkursen" with Helmuth Roloff (piano), the orchestra of the Süddeutschen Rundfunks with Hans Müller-Kray (conductor). My manuscript was in the possession of pianist Helmuth Roloff. Therefore it is likely that Richard Mohaupt made the piano reduction for Helmuth Roloff in preparation to the upcoming premiere performance. The piano reduction was in 1952 published by Associated Music Publishers.