In this blog series we are sharing some of the recent research outputs, projects and activities of our executive board members. This week, we are introducing our Honorary President Prof. Erik Levi. Erik is a Visiting Professor in Music at Royal Holloway, having formerly been Professor of Music and Director of Performance at Holloway until 2015.
He has interests both in the academic and practical aspects of music, having become a worldwide authority on German music of the 20th century, especially during the Nazi era, with the pioneering books Music in the Third Reich (1994) and Mozart and the Nazis (2010). You can read more about Erik’s work and publications here, and here is a short introduction to what he’s working on at the moment:
“I am currently researching the infiltration of Nazi musicians and Nazi cultural policies on Austrian musical life during the late 1920s and 1930s (pre- Anschluss) with the hope of turning this material either into a conference paper or a chapter in a book . The central focus at this juncture is on two musicians, composer Josef Reiter (1862-1939), whose Goethe Symphony carries a dedication to Adolf Hitler and was performed a number of times in Austria and Germany especially during the early 1930s, and the conductor Leopold Reichwein (1878-1945) who was instrumental in founding the illegal Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur Orchestra in Vienna in 1933.”
“In tandem with this research, I also want to explore long-standing musical links with other countries in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire during this period (including the Balkans) and assess to what extent shared political values of national fascism impinged upon the kind of repertory from these countries that was regularly promoted in Austria during this period. Once again this material might be the subject of a conference paper or a chapter in a book.”
“I am also engaged on writing a chapter in a book dedicated to the memory of the musicologist Robert Pascall on the music of Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek (1860-1945), a late-Romantic Austrian composer who for a time was acknowledged as a serious rival to both Mahler and Strauss.”
“Finally, together with Jeremy, I am trying to establish a book series in conjunction with the IAGMR and Routledge on Austro-German music.”
IAGMR 
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