Anton Webern: Was He a Nazi? 

I love history and music. A great combination for a video. You guys are great instructors. Thanks for sharing. I am a fan of baroque music but this is an interesting video.

Really great video!!!

you guys are a great team!

Very enjoyable video.

Brilliant discussion!

First of your posts I've seen: I found it very interesting and it show's how easy it is to accuse some of being a Nazi simply because they stayed in Germany before and during the war. I think much of what you say would also apply to Richard Strauss - it's complicated.

This is outstanding! You guys should expand into the documentary format. Of course you should do the scores as well. I don't think enough emphasis is put on politcs when discussing music. Also keep the violin reviews. I think you will get a bump in suscribers after this vid.

Beautiful music you two make together, in all senses! (In 1962, I played the Variations Op 27 at a recital at Los Angeles City College, so it was fun to 'revisit' the piece this way, after such a long interval -- nearly 60 years. You play it beautifully.) As for your very interesting topic (Was Webern a Nazi?), here is a footnote to that: One of great ironic tragedies of WWII is that Schoenberg and Einstein, TOO, were very pro-German (in the broader sense that includes Austria): Schoenberg thought he was securing "the future of German music" and Einstein thought he was securing "the future of German science" (paraphrase) -- -- until the ground fell out from under their feet, and both had to flee to the US.

Ah, the lure of Nationalism! It fueled the Romantic era and wound up corrupting generations of young people throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I appreciate the way you have discussed Webern here. I think the main point is that whatever his politics, his music demonstrated a skill and nuance that was utterly non-political, not a representation of any political theory. I don’t particularly care for Webern’s music, but I am grateful to you for showing how much you do care and for giving us all an intelligent perspective on the value of art in our lives.

Merci pour ce vidéo !

Good discussion! Krasner had some interesting theories about Webern-- apparently, when they went to Barcelona to do the Berg Concerto, Webern insisted on taking a train that changed in Munich. Webern wanted to make a point to his Jewish friend that Germany wasn't lost to civilization. Of course, an international train station would have been shielded from the worst that was going on in the late 30s.

But remember that both Dutch and German pronounce the "v" in the preposition -- "van" or "von" -- as an English "f".

I've never heard the music performed more admirably. There are many, many, many artists of all types in our history whose work we have to separate from personal choices on their part. It's only when those choices inform the work that we can begin to discern what we should think about the work. It might still be "great" technically (or any similar term) but found wanting for it's connection to repugnant thinking/behavior. I understand the historical importance of the Second Viennese school even while the content doesn't touch me personally. Again, though, I know great playing when I see it!

The music is mixed too loud when Mr. Filshtinskiy is speaking. Better to let both Mr. Filshtinskiy and the music speak in turn.

I like your creative approaches to the cinematography in your video, and the playing is wonderful. I didn't know Webern's son was a Nazi. It certainly seems hard to imagine that Webern was "mildly anti-Semitic". That is a shocking claim for which you need to provide textual evidence. This is different from being fervently nationalistic (which in itself needs to be defined), and it is yet different again to consider Austrian culture to be the solution to the Bolshevism of impetuous young Austrians. What was the frame of reference to this "solution"? It seems hardly plausible that he was proposing that Austrian culture would be the solution for everyone everywhere. For British people too? For Chinese people? It seems unlikely. In light of this, I can't see that his cultural nationalism possessed an implied universal applicability to all mankind.

What an unusual history lesson. I have on and off watched a lot of documentaries on the rise of nazism and while I doubt the environment of today would produce it again, today's environment is still capable of producing true horrors under the right circumstances. I am lucky I live in OZ where the historical approach to authority is less than enthusiastic, its hard to get an idiot fringe idea off the ground here. If you are truly bored and are interested in this area of modern history, a very long documentary called "Hitler A Career" was an eye opener.

"without discipline nor cultural cultivation" 8:34

You should pronounce "von" as "fonn" (with a short, closed o, /fɒn/, pretty much like in British English), not as "vaahn". The same thing with "van": it should be pronounced "fun". Anton "fonn" Webern. Ludwig "fun" Beethoven.

I’m 7:12 in I just have to go out for a smoke

''van'' is not per se 'Belgian', but Dutch/Flemish if you will :)

wow thats great,

A direct answer to a direct question. Yes. Anton Webern supported the National Socialist party of Adolf Hitler. Did he support its policies regarding the genocide of jews? No. At best he was naive. As were so many. But this kind of naivety is what emboldened National Socialism to become what it did. Many artists left. Webern stayed. But even the manner of your staying is significant.

Thank you. Enjoyable and informative; nevertheless, I disagree that such conjecture 90 years after-the-fact is relevant. Simply put: so what? More to the point: what's the goal of attempting to make such a determination? No posthumous non-musical discoveries should result in adverse impact to his incredible contributions to formal Western art music. For my two cents, such presentations are needless; rather, we should focus on the art he created.

he was a monarchist and therefore not fascist..

Von=Van=From

don't use Anton Webern to promote your own shit!

German culture is mad superior. Berlin techno proves this. And Gerhard Richter. And... Webern.

as a leftists whos into history Id like a diskussiun with you ^^ but I understand your arguments

Was khe nazi?