Gustav Mäurer

Gustav Mäurer was born on 23 May 1880 in Wiesbaden (Germany). His father was Ferdinand Mäurer, Kurinspektor (spa town superintendent) and poet. Gustav Mäurer studied violin in Leipzig, London and Vienna under Felix Berber, Alexander Sebald, August Wilhelmj and Karl Prill. After his studies he first went on concert tours as a violin soloist, but already in 1910 Gustav Mäurer settled in Vienna and founded a music school, and in 1924 a second one especially for the violin. In the first half of the 20th century Gustav Mäurer and his students were an active part of the music scene in Vienna and were regular guests in concerts. In 1920 Gustav Mäurer was elected the president of the "Weltmusik- und Sangesbund". Gustav Mäurer died on 19 October 1968 in Vienna (Austria).

Gustav Mäurer was also a composer, but his output is small. He composed a violin concerto, a funfair-symphony, some orchestral pieces, chamber music mainly for the violin and arrangements. None of his compositions was published commercially and so his works are forgotten nowadays.

Violin concerto

In my possession is a manuscript of the violin concerto op.8 by Gustav Mäurer. The work is originally titled "Grosses romantisches Konzert für Violine mit Orchester und Kadenzen" (Great romantic concerto for violin with orchestra and cadences) and was composed in 1930. The concerto was premiered on 17 November 1940 by Ernst Johann Süßmann (violin), the Gau-Symphonieorchester Niederdonau under the baton of Fritz Rechtenwald in Vienna.

My manuscript is the piano reduction of the concerto, penned down by a copyist. According to some markings on the flyleaf this manuscript was used as the last proof copy by Gustav Mäurer (obviously for a planned printing). Therefore it contains several of his handwritten corrections. In addition the manuscript contains a printed solo violin part published by Doblinger in Vienna. Curiously there are no archived copies in public libraries of the violin concerto by Gustav Mäurer. For that reason I contacted the publishing house Doblinger and they also had to do some research about this concerto. The legal situation is that Doblinger registered the concerto by Gustav Mäurer at the Austrian copyright collective AKM sometime in the 1930s, but it seems they never printed any material of it. So the printed violin part in my manuscript is very likely a proof copy as well.

The manuscript and printed part was later given to violinist Ede Zathureczky. It bears his stamp on the printed solo part and Gustav Mäurer inscribed the part with a long personal dedication to Ede Zathureczky in June 1947. Interestingly the solo part has also a special typewritten dedication glued in. It says: "Dedicated to the prize winners for violin of the International Music Competition in Paris in 1946 Arnold Widus (USA), Gabriele Lengyel and Robert Virovay (Hungary), Hedi Gigler (Austria), Gilbert Bel (France)".

With the kind permission of the publishing house Doblinger I am allowed to present here the piano reduction of the violin concerto by Gustav Mäurer.