“The question of why people like me behave this way and not differently has only one answer: out of love for the truth that Schoenberg and his students, who were my teachers, could never betray because they knew that otherwise they would have given up on themselves spiritually.” (Karl Heinz Füssl 1976)
The composer and musicologist, born in Jablonec in 1924, worked for the Universal Edition on various complete editions (Haydn, Mozart) and since 1958 was assisting his teacher Erwin Ratz in working on the Complete Critical Edition of Gustav Mahler’s works. At the same time he was a teacher of form analysis and since 1985 a full professor at the Vienna Academy of Music. For over three decades he contributed his extensive musical knowledge to the Mahler editions and took over the chair of the edition in 1973 after Ratz passed away. He completed the edition of the Eighth Symphony and began editing the songs, while at the same time tirelessly improving the existing volumes and materials and very carefully training additional editors until he died unexpectedly in 1992.
The editorial board of the New Critical Complete Edition is aware of Füssl’s human and musical significance and has made it its mission to continue to publish Mahler’s musical legacy in the future in his spirit.
In the Austrian National Library, which manages Füssl’s compositional estate, a “Music Salon” will take place on May 7, 2024 to mark the anniversary year, at which board members of the IGMS will also be present. We would like to invite anyone interested.