Leo Weiner
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Leo Weiner (April 16, 1885 in Budapest – September 13, 1960 in Budapest) was one of the leading Hungarian music educators of the first half of the twentieth century.
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[edit] Education
Weiner had his first music and piano lessons from his brother, and later studied at the Landesakademie (High School) of Musical Art in Budapest. While there, he won numerous prizes, including: the Franz Liszt Stipend, the Volkmann Prize, and the Erkel Prize, all for one composition: his Serenade, Op. 3.
[edit] Teaching
In 1908, Weiner took the position of music theory teacher at the Landesakademie and remained on the faculty with various titles for the rest of his life. Some of these included Professor of Composition (1912) and Professor of Chamber Music (1920). Although in 1949 officially became an emeritus professor, he continued to teach and maintained a high level of activity. Among his students were Sir Georg Solti, Antal Doráti, and György Kurtág, to mention only a few of the most prominent Hungarian musicians of the twentieth century.
[edit] Compositions
As a composer, the Romantics from Beethoven through Mendelssohn most strongly affected Weiner's musical approach. His sense of orchestral color seems to relate to those French composers who were not notably affected by Wagner, especially to that of Bizet. This solid and conservative Romantic approach served the basis for his style which later was influenced by elements of Hungarian folk music. However, he did not conduct research in the area of folk music, as his contemporaries Bartók and Kodály did, but simply shared an interest in the subject and employed some elements of folk music without affecting his established harmonic language.
Among Weiner's notable compositions are a string trio, three string quartets, two violin sonatas, five divertimenti for orchestra, a symphonic poem, and numerous chamber and piano pieces. Most pianists will instantly recognize his lively "Fox Dance".
