5 - Short Midday, Long Sunset

Summary

On April 20, 1958, Anton Heiller applied for the Theodor Körner Prize (a cultural award named after the Austrian President Theodor Körner). In some ways, he had of course already crossed this particular cultural divide. The year before, on May 17, 1957, the Ministry of Education had approached him with an invitation to serve on the jury that selected the recipient of the Staatliche Förderungspreis für Musik (a national prize to assist outstanding young musicians). At the time Heiller, just thirty-four years old, had not so long ago himself been one of those young aspiring musical hopefuls. He politely turned down this invitation, regretting that he had “absolutely no time” to take on this duty. In the same year he was officially awarded the title “Professor.”

A year later the Education Ministry was more successful; Heiller was invited onto the jury for the Wettbewerb für Lieder und Chorkompositionen (Competition for song and choral composition, apparently a renamed version of the previously mentioned Förderungspreis). During the same spring the board of the Allgemeiner Caecilienverband (ACV) called Heiller to serve on its music committee. The ACV was a venerable governing body, rich in tradition, essentially a board of elders for Catholic church music in all German-speaking regions.

Even if Heiller, quite consciously, had turned more toward a career as an organist by now, he nevertheless still continued to receive interesting conducting engagements. Here is a small selection:

Frank Martin, Golgotha (1960)

George Frideric Handel, Israel in Egypt

Darius Milhaud, Cantata Pacem in Terris (1964)

Francis Poulenc, organ concerto (1964, with Jean-Claude Zehnder as soloist)

Franz Schmidt, Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln (1966)

For 1964 there were discussions about Heiller conducting an oratorio by Paul Kont, but this did not eventuate.

Heiller's European performances of Hindemith's organ concerto had boosted his international reputation. He had played the world premiere of this work in New York (April 25, 1963) and was therefore the logical choice for any subsequent performances, especially the European premiere in the large hall of the Musikverein in Vienna (November 9, 1963, conducted by Hindemith himself). Performances in Essen, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Zurich followed, as well as one in Berlin where the concerto was programmed for the inauguration of the new Schuke organ at the Philharmonie Berlin (November 19, 1965). This was in fact a “double” memorial concert for the composer.