| Variations of Name | Heinz 'Heinrich' Unger, Heinz (Heinrich) Unger |
| Biography | Heinz (Heinrich) Unger. Conductor, b Berlin 14 Dec 1895, d Toronto 25 Feb 1965; D JURIS (Greifswald) 1917, State Music Teacher's Diploma of Prussia. His music teachers in Berlin included Wilhelm Klatte and Theodor Schoenberger (theory) and Eduard Moerike and Fritz Stiedry (a few conducting lessons). While a law student he heard Bruno Walter conduct Mahler's The Song of the Earth in Munich in 1915 and decided on the spot to become a conductor and a champion of Mahler. Soon afterward he had his first conducting experience with a Berlin amateur orchestra, in part of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. In 1919-20 he made his professional debut, conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in several Mahler concerts, including the Symphony No. 1 and The Song of the Earth. He conducted some of the Konzerte des Anbruch series 1920-2, led the Berlin SO and Berlin Philharmonic combined in Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in 1923, and for nine seasons, 1924-33, directed the concerts (usually six per season) of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, engaging the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1921 he became the founder and conductor of the Caecilienchor of Berlin. He appeared as guest conductor in other German cities, in Vienna, and in Oslo, and at the suggestion of Artur Schnabel in 1924 he undertook the first of 13 trips to the Soviet Union. On these visits he led concert and radio orchestras in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, and other cities, and in the mid-1930s he was under contract with the Leningrad Radio Orchestra for annual six-month seasons. Unger's enthusiasm for the musicianship of Russian and Ukrainian orchestras and the responsiveness of their audiences was dampened eventually by his experiences with Soviet bureaucracy, and he wrote a book of memoirs (Hammer, Sickle and Baton, London 1939) describing his enticement and disenchantment. [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/emc/heinz-unger] |