Stolz, Robert (Elisabeth)

(b Graz, 25 Aug 1880; d Berlin, 27 June 1975). Austrian composer and conductor. He received his initial musical training from his parents, Jacob Stolz, a conductor and music teacher, and Ida Bondy, a concert pianist. He gave his first public piano recital at the age of seven with Brahms, a family friend, in the audience. Later he studied under Fuchs at the Vienna Conservatory and with Humperdinck in Berlin. In 1897 he was appointed repetiteur in Graz, in 1898 second conductor at Marburg an der Drau (now Maribor, Slovenia), in 1902 first conductor in Salzburg, and in 1903 conductor at the German Theatre in Brno. In 1904 he married the soprano Grete Holm. A meeting with Johann Strauss in 1899 had turned Stolz's thoughts to the composition of light music, and his first operetta Studentenulke (Marburg, 1901) had been followed by further efforts. In 1907 he became conductor at the Theater an der Wien, where he conducted Die lustige Witwe from about the 420th performance and the initial runs of other leading Viennese operettas of the time, but his own first lasting success as a composer came with a song, Servus, du! (1911), which was followed by several other popular Viennese songs. He first enjoyed international popularity with the song Hallo, du susse Klingelfee (1919), sung at the Casino de Paris, and with the operetta Der Tanz ins Gluck (1920), produced in England as Whirled into Happiness and in the USA as Sky High.

In 1924 Stolz took a job in cabaret in Berlin and his period of greatest success began with scores for early German film musicals, with interpolated songs for Benatzky's Im weissen Rossl and with the operetta Wenn die kleinen Veilchen bluhen. In 1940 he went to the USA, where he composed music for Hollywood films and conducted concerts of Viennese music. In 1946 he returned to Vienna, becoming celebrated as the last major survivor of Viennese operetta from before World War I, and from 1952 to 1971 he wrote the music for the ice revues. He also continued to conduct on concert tours and for records. In the 1960s he conducted recordings of classical operettas for Ariola-Eurodisc, which remain important documents, and was also commissioned to provide new operettas, though these often turned out to be revisions of earlier works. Besides his stage and film works he composed several hundred individual songs and dances, and received many honours including Academy Awards, honorary citizenship of Vienna (1970) and a statue in his native city (1972). Stolz's longevity and his extensive promotion of his own music on LPs have led to him being ranked among the leading names of classical Viennese operetta. However, his more ambitious scores are less effective than the lighter songs he wrote for films and song-and-dance musicals, where he was able to display his melodic touch and rhythmic invention to particular effect.

WORKS
(selective list)

stage works
for fuller list see GroveO
c65 operettas and musicals (many pubd in vs or individual numbers in Vienna or Berlin) incl. Studentenulke (F. Haller), Marburg, Stadt, 21 March 1901; Der Favorit (2, F. Grunbaum, W. Sterk), Berlin, Komische Oper, 7 April 1916; Das Sperrsechserl (Wiener Gemutlichkeit) (2, R. Blum, A. Grunwald), Vienna, Komodienhaus, 1 April 1920; Der Tanz ins Gluck (3, R. Bodanzky, B. Hardt-Warden), Vienna, Colosseum, 23 Dec 1920; Madi (3, Grunwald, L. Stein), Berlin, Berliner Theater, 1 April 1923; Wenn die kleinen Veilchen bluhen (2, Hardt-Warden, after A. Kehm and M. Frehsee: Als ich noch im Flugelkleide), The Hague, Princess, 1 April 1932
Venus in Seide (3, Grunwald, L. Herzer), Zurich, Stadttheater, 10 Dec 1932; Der verlorene Walzer [later Zwei Herzen im Dreivierteltakt] (3, P. Knepler, J.M. Welleminsky, R. Gilbert, after W. Reisch, F. Schulz), Zurich, Stadttheater, 30 Sept 1933; Gruezi (Himmelblaue Traume) (G. Burckhard and Gilbert), Zurich, Stadttheater, 3 Nov 1934; Fruhling im Prater (2, E. Marischka), Vienna, Stadttheater, 22 Dec 1949; Signorina (P. Schwenzen and Gilbert), Nuremberg, Stadttheater, 26 April 1955, rev. as Trauminsel (Weit her von Yucatan), Bregenz, Lake Stage, 21 July 1962; Fruhjahrsparade (2, Marischka and H. Wiener), Vienna, Volksoper, 25 March 1964 [after film]

other works
c100 film scores incl. Der Millionenonkel, 1913; Zwei Herzen im Dreivierteltakt, 1930; Das Lied ist aus, 1930; Ein Tango fur dich, 1930; Liebeskommando, 1931; Mein Herz ruft immer nur nach dir, 1933; Fruhjahrsparade, 1934; Ich liebe alle Frauen, 1935; Herbstmanover, 1935; Confetti, 1936; Ungekusst sollst du nicht schlafen geh'n, 1936; Zauber der Boheme, 1937; Spring Parade, 1940; It Happened Tomorrow, 1943; Une nuit a Tabarin, 1947; Rendezvous im Salzkammergut, 1948; Deutschmeister, 1955; A Breath of Scandal, 1959; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, 1959; Der Kongress amusiert sich, 1966
Hundreds of individual songs incl. Servus, du!, op.102 (B. Vigny), 1911; Wien wird bei Nacht erst schon, op.216 (Sterk), 1915; Im Prater bluh'n wieder die Baume, op.247 (K. Robitschek), 1916; In Wien gibt's manch' winziges Gasserl, op.249 (Robitschek), 1916; Hallo, du susse Klingelfee, op.341 (A. Rebner), 1919; Salome, op.355 (Rebner), 1919; 20 Blumenlieder, op.500 (Hardt-Warden), 1927; Vor meinem Vaterhaus, op.614 (Hardt-Warden), 1933
Waltzes, marches, other orch works, pf pieces

BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Holm: Im 3/4 Takt durch die Welt (Linz, 1948)
W.-D. Brummel and F. van Booth: Robert Stolz: Melodie eines Lebens (Stuttgart, 1967)
O. Herbrich: Robert Stolz, Konig der Melodie (Vienna and Munich, 1975, 2/1977)
R. and E. Stolz: Servus Du: Robert Stolz und sein Jahrhundert (Munich, 1980)
S. Pflicht, ed.: Robert Stolz Werkerverzeichnis (Munich, 1981)
K. Eidam: Robert Stolz (Berlin, 1989)
H. Grunwald and others: Ein Walzer muss es sein: Alfred Grunwald und die Wiener Operette (Vienna, 1991)
 

ANDREW LAMB