Musikhaus Doblinger – Adler’s Postwar Chamber Music Career

From the archive of Musikhaus Doblinger

For music lovers, recent news about the possible closing of the famous music store, the Musikhaus Doblinger is concerning, to say the least. For myself, every time I go to Vienna, I’d go to Dorotheergasse 10, the location Doblinger has been situated since 1873. It’s not just the selection of sheet music, books and souvenirs, it’s a pilgrimage. Even flipping through the volumes stacked in old wooden cases and smelling the scent of the years would keep me for hours.

During the process of making the documentary “Visit from China”, my friend, Vienna based director and producer Paul Rosdy, helped uncover some precious historical materials from the Musikhaus Doblinger archive: posters and programs of a series of chamber music concerts that Ferdinand Adler performed with the Neue Wiener Streichquartett, the string quartet that Adler organized after he returned to Austria in August 1947.

From the archive of Musikhaus Doblinger

In the poster shown, The New Vienna String Quartet, consisting of Ferdinand Adler, first violin, Fritz Kerry, second violin, Ernst Kriss, viola and Günther Weiss, cello, was to present four chamber music concerts on October 24, November 28, in 1949, and on March 6, April 17, in 1950. Their programs cover a wide range of compositions by Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, Schubert, Mozart, Mendelsohn and Haydn, as well as some “lesser known” works, such as Fritz Kreisler’s String Quartet in A Minor.

In addition, on February 13, 1950, Adler was to perform a recital with pianist Otto Schulhof, of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 7, Otto Siegl’s Second Sonata in C Minor, and Schubert’s Rondeau Brillante in B Minor. All these at the Barocksaal - the 110-seat concert hall at the Musikhaus Doblinger.

Seat plan of the Barocksaal.

Postwar years were a tough time for Ferdinand Adler. After eight years of exile in Shanghai, few people in the European music circle still knew him, even though his resume in Shanghai – concertmaster of the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra and Professor of the Nanking State Conservatory – was outstanding. As I discussed this period with Christina Adler during my interview in 2018, she remembered that her father even had to approach some of his former colleagues and put up with their Nazi faces. For several years, Ferdinand Adler freelanced as a gig musician with different orchestras. He was also active as a chamber musician, performing live concerts on radio, and presenting quartet series with his New Vienna String Quartet. Finally, in the 1950-1951 season, Ferdinand Adler was hired as the concertmaster of the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, which was temporarily performing at the Vienna People’s Opera while the war-damaged State Opera House was being rebuilt on its original site. Unfortunately, he died of a heart attack during a rehearsal in February 1952, at only 48 years of age.

A corner of the Doblinger basement vault. Photo by: Paul Rosdy

With all such historical archives, the cost of relocating the Musikhaus Doblinger would be prohibitively expensive. This would be an operation not just of business proportion, but of much cultural weight. Hidden in the basement of the Musikhaus Doblinger are invaluable cultural heritage, in which artists like Ferdinand Adler and the New Vienna String Quartet left their marks. All these are faced with the risk of disappearing into thin air.