I am indebted to Wladimir Vogel for the trouble he took to reply to my questions. Surely, he must have been in poor health: he passed away a few months after posting the envelope.

Easily the oldest of the composers in this book, he represents a generation that heard Scriabin play the piano and had Busoni for a teacher. His was a searching and adventurous spirit as demonstrated, among other things, by his works for speaking chorus.

A summary of his idiom is offered by Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Classical Musicians:

“Gradually, he approached the method of composition in 12 tones as promulgated by Schoenberg, while Busoni’s precepts of neo-Classical structures governed Vogel’s own works as far as formal design was concerned; many of his polyphonic compositions adhered to the Classical harmonic structures in 4 parts, which he maintained even in choral pieces using the Sprechstimme. Serial procedures were adumbrated in Vogel’s music through the astute organization of melodic and rhythmic elements.”62

Alone among the composers contributing to this book, Wladimir Vogel decided to reply to all three questions in one continuous block.

The first major experience of my youth was linked to Alexander Scriabin. Both his music and his personality made a deep impression. I attended his piano recitals in Moscow between 1912 and 1914 where he played some of his own compositions as well. I was also influenced by his ideas regarding the background to his works, especially those of his last sonatas and orchestral pieces, because I was close to the Russian Symbolists.

Scriabin’s influence was felt also in my first years in Berlin. The pieces I composed then bear traces of his piano technique. Later, when I became acquainted with Schoenberg’s music of his middle period, I amalgamated his musical idiom with Scriabin’s style and technique.

Meanwhile I became a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni. It was not so much his music that impressed me but his broad cultural horizon, his aesthetic and his stance as a composer. I was convinced that I could learn from him more about the cultural heritage of the West (I had serious gaps there) than I would if I joined the new German school.