Franz Reizenstein

Franz Theodor Reizenstein (7 June 191115 October 1968) was a German-born British composer and concert pianist. He left Germany for sanctuary in Britain in 1934 and went on to have his teaching and performing career there. As a composer, he successfully blended the equally strong but very different influences of his primary teachers, Hindemith and Vaughan Williams. Life Franz Reizenstein’s parents were the well-known physician Dr. Albert Reizenstein (1871–1925) and his wife Lina Kohn (born 1880), both of Nuremberg, Germany. The family was Jewish and counted many professionals, scientists, bankers, and musically inclined people among its members. Reizenstein grew up in Nuremberg and was considered a child prodigy. He composed his first pieces when he was 5, and by the age of 17 he had written a string quartet. His well-to-do and artistic family encouraged him to play chamber music at home. Eventually he was sent to study composition under Paul Hindemith and piano under Leonid Kreutzer at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik. Hindemith’s composition class also included Harald Genzmer, Oskar Sala and Arnold Cooke. Reizenstein remained a lifelong friend of Cooke and kept his Piano Concerto