Othmar Schoeck (Brunnen, Switzerland, September 1 1886 – March 8 1957) was a Swiss composer who studied briefly at the Leipzig Conservatory with Max Reger, in 1907/08, ^* but spent his whole career in Zürich. He was known mainly for his considerable output of art songs and song cycles, though he also wrote a number of operas (mosty notably his one-act Penthesilea, premiered in Dresden, 1927, and revived at the Lucerne Festival, 1999) and instrumental compositions including two string quartets and concertos for violin (for Stefi Geyer, dedicatee also of Béla Bartók's first concerto), cello and horn.

His father, Alfred Schoeck was a landscape painter, and as a young man, Othmar seriously considered following in his father's footsteps and attended classes an art school in Zürich before dropping out to go to the Zürich Conservatory.

Schoeck spent World War I in Zürich, where he had an affair with the pianist Mary de Senger. After hearing the music of Les Six in Paris, Schoeck abandoned his tonal style in favor of serialism, with the music of Alban Berg as a model. Alignment with Nazi artists led Schoeck to be perceived as a traitor by his Swiss compatriots, from which he never recovered.

External links

• Othmar Schoeck Site

1886 births | 1957 deaths | Opera composers | Romantic composers | Swiss composers

Othmar Schoeck | Othmar Schoeck | オトマール・シェック | Othmar Schoeck