Arthur Johannes Scholz: Guitar Works in Early 20th-Century Vienna

Description

Biographical Note
Arthur Johannes Scholz (born 16 November 1883 in Lemberg — today Lviv, Ukraine; died 3 April 1945 in Vienna) represents an almost entirely forgotten figure within the Austrian musical landscape of the first half of the twentieth century.
Scholz received his musical education in Goldberg (today Złotoryja, Poland) and Vienna. Subsequently, he worked as an organist, conductor, and choral and orchestral director across Spalato (today Split, Croatia), Olmütz (today Olomouc, Czech Republic), and Vienna, where he settled permanently in 1911.
A versatile instrumentalist by training — violin, oboe, flute, clarinet, piano and organ — he dedicated his entire artistic career to composition and choral conducting, with an extensive œuvre including operas, symphonies, and choral works. Nevertheless, the core of his artistic legacy lies in his chamber music, which is characterized by its remarkable originality. In the final years of his life, he focused particularly on compositions for guitar, both for solo and chamber music ensembles, an instrument he had always regarded as especially rich in expressive possibilities. In this context, he collaborated closely with the Viennese guitarists Gerta Hammerschmid and Luise Walker, to whom he dedicated works of great refinement and expressive power. Scholz was also a colleague of Luise Walker at the Staatsakademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna (today the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna). Starting in 1932, he held there the position of lecturer for the Akademische Chorschule and Praktische Instrumentation. Available archival documents indicate that from 19 February 1933 he was an illegal member of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), which was banned in Austria starting in June of the same year. From 1937, he held the chair of Melodiebildungslehre.
Scholz won several prizes in Austria, Spain, Germany, and Switzerland, and his musical career in Vienna as a composer and conductor was marked by significant collaborations — notably with the Wiener Symphoniker — and several successes, such as the comic opera Don Diego, for which he also authored the libretto. His public concert career, however, ceased abruptly; indeed, the last documented official performance of one of his works took place on 13 April 1937, when the Wiener Symphoniker performed his composition for male choir and orchestra, Die Mühle am Arendsee. Following this event, his compositions largely disappeared from public concert repertoire.
With his wife, Charlotte Scholz (1888–1961), he had a son, Klaus (1915–1992), an engineer recognized today as one of the pioneers of robotics in Austria.
Following his death on 3 April 1945, Arthur Johannes Scholz quickly faded into obscurity. Many of his works, often conceived for large ensembles, remained unpublished.
Marcello Massari © 2026

The guitar works of Arthur Johannes Scholz, both for solo and chamber music ensembles, open a still largely unexplored chapter in the instrument’s repertoire of the early decades of the twentieth century. Shaped by the influence of other Mitteleuropean artists of the period, this music is characterized by a broad and refined harmonic palette, firmly rooted in the late-Romantic idiom.
The three Lieder opening this recording are taken from “Es steht ein Schloss in Österreich”, a collection of Volkslieder published in 1924 by Kunst und Musikalien Verlag Gerlach & Wiedling (Vienna). Inspired by the German Romantic Lieder tradition — from Schubert to Brahms — this collection, edited by Scholz and Franz Rebiczek, features twenty Austrian folk melodies (from both oral and written traditions). These are arranged with a simplicity intended to make them accessible even to less experienced performers.
The Kleine Solostücke (Präludium, Menuetto, and Gavotte mit Variationen) recorded here belong to a posthumous publication (Musikverlag V. Hladky Wien, 1947) edited by Luise Walker (1916–1998). This edition includes several of the short pieces Scholz wrote for solo guitar throughout his career, most of which were composed after 1940. The Viennese guitarist Luise Walker was among the most prominent musicians in twentieth century Austria and is considered one of the grandes dames of the guitar of that era. She held Scholz in high esteem; as his colleague, she was the dedicatee of many of his guitar works.
The subsequent works presented in this recording represent the heart of the composer’s rediscovery by Dora Filippone and the musicians of the Guitare Actuelle collective. A fundamental milestone in this endeavor was the discovery of the author’s original manuscripts at the Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (Vienna City Library), which allowed for a more thorough philological study based on Scholz’s autographs. This ongoing project has been enriched by various collaborations: the composer Giorgio Mirto; the publishers Les Productions d’Oz and Pizzicato Verlag Helvetia, who are overseeing the first modern critical editions of these pieces; and finally, Dr. Nathalie Meidhof and Prof. Elena Càsoli, who have supported and developed the analytical, performative, and musicological study of this music within the Hochschule der Künste Bern (Bern Academy of the Arts).
The Divertimento für Flöte und Gitarre is a duo composed in 1943 for Josef Niedermayr (1900–1962) and Gerta Hammerschmid (1906–1985). The former was the principal flutist of the Wiener Philharmoniker from 1921 to 1962, while the latter is regarded as a leading exponent of Viennese guitar chamber music of her time. This piece offers an intriguing insight into Scholz and the Viennese musical landscape during the height of the Second World War. Following the Elegie and Improvisation, the Divertimento concludes with a Menuett — a light and balanced finale that pays homage to Viennese tradition, creating an intimate atmosphere in stark contrast to the wartime climate of 1943. The character of this Duo — later performed publicly by its two dedicatees, as confirmed by a contemporary article by music critic Otto Repp — confirms that this repertoire was typically Hausmusik, written primarily for private circles. This was common not only for Scholz but also for other Austrian composers of the era, most notably Ferdinand Rebay (1880–1953), the uncle of Gerta Hammerschmid, to whom he dedicated the majority of his guitar compositions.
By including the Thüringer Volkslied mit Variationen, we intended to close the circle opened at the beginning of the album, returning to the Central European Lieder tradition. This solo guitar theme and variations is based on “Ach, wie ist’s möglich dann,” one of Thuringia’s most famous folk songs. Also dedicated to Luise Walker, its exact composition date is uncertain, though it is attributable to the same period as his other guitar works. The main theme, which became highly popular in Germany in the early nineteenth century, is here elaborated and fragmented by Scholz in a characteristically Austrian Late-Romantic style.
The final work is the Suite für Flöte, Klarinette und Gitarre. Like the Divertimento, it is dedicated to Gerta Hammerschmid. The manuscript bears two dates: 7 September 1942 at the end of the score and 26 May 1943 on the title page. Here too, Scholz’s Romantic-Neoclassical writing remains anchored in a melodic invention that weaves folk elements into formal structures like the Suite. The fourth movement, titled “Le Sabat (Der Kreisel)”, is emblematic: it may be a reference to Jewish culture (Shabbat), while the spinning top (Der Kreisel) — which can be interpreted as the Hanukkah dreidel — is musically evoked through the chromatic chasing between flute and clarinet. This builds to a sudden halt before the finale, where the top resumes its spin before coming to a definitive stop.
The selection of pieces on this album reflects the historical and musicological necessity of presenting the — hitherto nearly unknown — figure of Arthur Johannes Scholz, contextualizing him within the Austrian musical landscape of his time. These pages provide further evidence of the interest Viennese composers — including major figures such as Mahler and Zemlinsky — showed toward the guitar, often paired with the mandolin. They help offer a new perspective on the instrument and its role within the musical context of the first half of the twentieth century.
Marcello Massari © 2026