Trapped in the Web of History

Trapped in the Web of History By Leon Botstein Written for the concert The Hunchback of Notre Dame, performed on March 8, 2012 at Carnegie Hall. Today’s performance of Franz Schmidt’s opera Notre Dame, which he completed in 1906 and which was premiered in 1914, is perhaps the first effort to present this work on…

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Franz Schmidt, Notre Dame

Franz Schmidt, Notre Dame By Christopher H. Gibbs Written for the concert The Hunchback of Notre Dame, performed on March 8, 2012 at Carnegie Hall. Gustav Mahler famously predicted that “his time would come,” and it did with a vengeance. Franz Schmidt, who played cello for ten years under Mahler’s direction at the Vienna Court…

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