Austrian or Czech pianist, accompanist, conductor, and teacher, who contributed an article to Der Dreiklang .

Career Summary

According to a newspaper article about his daughter, Paul Berl was Czech and Jewish; but the New York census for 1940 records his country of birth as Austria, and his New York Times obituary described him as a "native of Vienna." He studied musicology at the University of Vienna, receiving his doctorate in 1931 with a dissertation entitled "Die Opern Giuseppe Verdis in ihrer Instrumentation." It is thought that he also studied with Oswald Jonas and Felix Salzer in Vienna, but whether privately or at the Neues Wiener Konservatorium is unclear. His obituary states that he was a "graduate of the Music Academy;" if so, then his study there could not have been with either Jonas or Salzer. He also had a conductorship at an opera house in Germany.

Berl and his wife Maria (Kloss) moved to the USA from Austria in 1938, settling in New York. In 1943 they had a daughter, Christine, who became a composer, dancer, and pianist. At the Mannes Music School, where he taught for twenty-eight years, Berl became head of opera studies and conducted opera and orchestra performances (notably, rarely performed operas), taught conducting and accompanying, and coached singers. Among the vocalists whom he coached was Mannes student Frederica von Stade. For twenty-two years he served as the regular American accompanist for Victoria de los Angeles, with whom he made several recordings. He also accompanied Erna Berger, Mattiwilda Dobbs and many other singers in recitals. At the time of his death, he was living at 250 West 85th Street in New York.

Berl and the Schenker circle

Berl contributed an article on the "Freude" theme of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to Der Dreiklang, Heft 2 (May 1937).

There is no known surviving correspondence between him and Schenker, Jonas, or Moriz Violin.

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Contributors