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2 - A Moravian Childhood
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 June 2023
Summary
The spacious house on Velké Novosady opposite the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren on what is now Drahlovského Street, no longer exists, having long since been demolished as part of a redevelopment scheme. But in Klein's day he enjoyed the extensive grounds and outbuildings, the physical backdrop for his cosseted, loving, cultured and, in many ways, exciting environment. Yet his encounter with music was not restricted to within his own family. By the early twentieth century, Přerov, with its agricultural industry amid the rich, fertile plains of Moravia, and also an important railway junction, was no backwater in terms of wealth or culture. During Klein's formative years it enjoyed high-quality music-making. It was close enough to the city of Olomouc for visiting professional musicians or actors to travel the fifteen miles from there every Monday evening to perform in Přerov's splendid neo-Renaissance Municipal House, putting on plays, concerts and even opera. World-class musicians, not least Leoš Janáček himself, were only 50 miles away in the Moravian capital of Brno. Eminent musicians regularly appeared in Přerov, including Dvořák's pupil, and at one time the principal conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, Oscar Nedbal, who on an unrecorded date conducted Smetana's opera The Kiss in the Municipal House there. Later to become a leading Czech theatre conductor, Zdeněk Chalabala gave orchestral concerts in Přerov. Emmy Destinn, one of the foremost sopranos of her age, sang in Smetana's Dalibor in Přerov, and the singer Magda Šantruček, one of Dvořák's daughters, lived in the town, where she organised concerts. Her mother, Dvořák's widow Anna Dvořáková, visited Přerov each year, as did her son-in-law, the composer Josef Suk, one of the major Czech composers of the post-Dvořák period. The town was a supportive environment for emerging musicians. Two of Klein's Přerov-born contemporaries would later become professional musicians: the conductor Vilém Tauský, and the violinist, composer, writer and illustrater Josef Kainar who was at school with Klein, the two of them performing together in a school concert in March 1931.
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- Don't Forget about MeThe Short Life of Gideon Klein, Composer and Pianist, pp. 36 - 50Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2022