Viennese conductor, also composer of chamber music, solo piano music, and songs.

Career Summary

Oskar Posa belonged to the circle around Arnold Schoenberg. With Schoenberg and Zemlinsky in 1904, he founded the Vereinigung schaffender Tonkunstler in Wien (Society for Creative Musicians in Vienna) ‒ an organization in which Schoenberg tried hard to involve Schenker (OJ 14/15, [8]‒[13]). It has been suggested that Posa, an otherwise obscure figure, might have penned the Society's charter (Auner, p. 42). From 1911 to 1913 Posa worked at the Graz Opera House, where he gave the first Graz performance of Richard Strauss's opera Der Rosenkavalier in 1913.

Posa and Schenker

In a letter to Schenker of 1902, the pianist Moriz Rosenthal referred to "your friend Posa" (OJ 13/29, [6]). Posa and Schenker evidently were acquainted in the late 1890s and early 1900s (though Posa appears not to be mentioned in Schenker's early diaries). A recital by the bass singer Eduard Gärtner in the Bösendorfer-Saal, Vienna on January 26, 1900, for which Schenker and Moriz Violin were the accompanists, included two songs by Posa, "In einer grossen Stadt" and "Irmelin Rose."

Correspondence

There is only one known surviving item of correspondence between Posa and Schenker: a humorous joint lettercard from Posa and Julius Röntgen to Schenker (OJ 13/27, [3], June 17, 1901). On June 26, 1899, the baritone Johannes Messchaert wrote to Schenker "Posa is splendid! This is music, poetry, sonorous beauty, formal mastery, everything of the highest order!" (OJ 12/54, [7] ‒ with the possible implication that Schenker had drawn Messchaert's attention to them). Röntgen, in a letter to Schenker, refers enthusiastically to Posa's violin sonata and songs (OJ 13/27, [1], March 18, 1901).

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