This catalogue accompanies the exhibition Ernst Toch. Life as Geographical Fugue at the Jewish Museum Vienna, June 23 – October 31, 2010 as part of the series Music in Transition.
Concept: Michael Haas, music curator
The included CD contains Tochs „Fuge aus der Geographie, 3. Satz aus Gesprochene Musik o. op. (1930), Klavierkonzert op. 38 (1926) (Klavier: Ernst Toch), Musik für Bariton und Orchester op. 60 mit Text von Rainer Maria Rilke (1932), 3. Sinfonie op. 75 (1954)

Ernst Toch (1887-1964) was the shooting star ofthe Weimar music scene and his Geographical Fugue is one ofthe most well-known works in the history ofmodern music.
Born in the Leopoldstadt district ofVienna, he became one of the main protagonists of musical New Objectivity in the 1920s and his works were frequently performed at German music festivals. This all changed in 1933: The distribution ofhis works broke down when he was obliged to flee to the USA. To help his relatives in Europe, he wrote film music in Hollywood and was nominated three times for an Oscar.
After 1945 his life began increasingly to resemble his own Geographical Fugue. He alternated in a restless odyssey between his old and new homes and in under fifteen years wrote seven symphonies, winning a Pulitzer Prize for the third of them.
This catalogue and CD offer a new insight into the oeuvre of one of the most important Austrian composers of the twentieth century.