Weiner Leó
Composer
Place of Birth
Budapest
Date of Birth
1885
16 April 1885 Budapest - 13 September 1960 Budapest
Leó Weiner was born on the 16th of April, 1885 in Budapest in the city that he almost never left for longer periods. His outstanding talent became visible already at the Music Academy (1901-1906), where as pupil of János Koessler he won four scholarships and grants in the last year. Thanks to his compositions with brilliant technical background, generous melody inventions and gorgeous orchestration he won the Volkmann Prize, the Erkel Prize (for the Serenade No. 3.), the Haynald Prize (for his choral works) and the Schunda Prize (for the Hungarian Fantasy). As coeval and classmate of Bartók, Kodály and Dohnányi he started his career in the same intellectual circle, but as composer he left all of them behind when he presented his uniquely Hungarian music at the turn of the century.
From 1907 to 1908 he was répétiteur of the Comic Opera. The Francis Joseph Coronation Prize he won made him possible to go to Vienna, Munich, Berlin and Paris.
In 1908, at the age of only 23 he became teacher of the Music Academy teaching music theory, composing and chamber music until his retiring in 1957. As music teacher primarily as chamber music teacher his effect was enormous: a number of worldwide-known instrumental musicians (like Antal Doráti, Andor Földes, Louis Kentner, György Kurtág, György Pauk, György Sebők, Sir Georg Solti, János Starker and Tibor Varga) considered him as their master.
In 1922 he received the Coolidge Prize for his String Quartet No. 2. In 1933 he was honored by the state for his Suite Op. 18. Although he retired in 1949 he continued his teaching activity as professor emeritus. In 1950 he was awarded with the Kossuth Prize. In 1957 he retired from academic teaching but to a certain limit he still gave private lessons at home until his death. In 1960 he received the Kossuth Prize for his oeuvre.
He has never collected folk songs and never been on the countryside; he spent almost his whole life at the Music Academy. For he did not only want to - and could - create beautiful music but also wanted it to be comprehensible, he became popular at a dash. At first his star was rising brightly, but later, mainly because of the originality of Bartóks music, Weiners works - composed with high professional skills, artistic care and subtle sense of form and coloration culture - fell into the background. These compositions were inspired by the idea of classical form as well as by the airy scores of Late Romantic French music.
His talent held on to the most attractive, most human traditions of Romantic Music, and his nature made him to the lyric of flooding emotions and fable poetry. (György Kroó)
Leó Weiner was born on the 16th of April, 1885 in Budapest in the city that he almost never left for longer periods. His outstanding talent became visible already at the Music Academy (1901-1906), where as pupil of János Koessler he won four scholarships and grants in the last year. Thanks to his compositions with brilliant technical background, generous melody inventions and gorgeous orchestration he won the Volkmann Prize, the Erkel Prize (for the Serenade No. 3.), the Haynald Prize (for his choral works) and the Schunda Prize (for the Hungarian Fantasy). As coeval and classmate of Bartók, Kodály and Dohnányi he started his career in the same intellectual circle, but as composer he left all of them behind when he presented his uniquely Hungarian music at the turn of the century.
From 1907 to 1908 he was répétiteur of the Comic Opera. The Francis Joseph Coronation Prize he won made him possible to go to Vienna, Munich, Berlin and Paris.
In 1908, at the age of only 23 he became teacher of the Music Academy teaching music theory, composing and chamber music until his retiring in 1957. As music teacher primarily as chamber music teacher his effect was enormous: a number of worldwide-known instrumental musicians (like Antal Doráti, Andor Földes, Louis Kentner, György Kurtág, György Pauk, György Sebők, Sir Georg Solti, János Starker and Tibor Varga) considered him as their master.
In 1922 he received the Coolidge Prize for his String Quartet No. 2. In 1933 he was honored by the state for his Suite Op. 18. Although he retired in 1949 he continued his teaching activity as professor emeritus. In 1950 he was awarded with the Kossuth Prize. In 1957 he retired from academic teaching but to a certain limit he still gave private lessons at home until his death. In 1960 he received the Kossuth Prize for his oeuvre.
He has never collected folk songs and never been on the countryside; he spent almost his whole life at the Music Academy. For he did not only want to - and could - create beautiful music but also wanted it to be comprehensible, he became popular at a dash. At first his star was rising brightly, but later, mainly because of the originality of Bartóks music, Weiners works - composed with high professional skills, artistic care and subtle sense of form and coloration culture - fell into the background. These compositions were inspired by the idea of classical form as well as by the airy scores of Late Romantic French music.
His talent held on to the most attractive, most human traditions of Romantic Music, and his nature made him to the lyric of flooding emotions and fable poetry. (György Kroó)