Mark Lothar (1902-1985) was a German composer whose work included opera, orchestral music, chamber pieces and songs. He belonged to the twentieth-century German theatrical and concert tradition.

His music appears in the Pristine catalogue through historic orchestral repertory conducted by Carl Schuricht. Lothar’s stage works and concert pieces were part of the German musical landscape between the wars and after.

His style is broadly modern but rooted in traditional craft, with a strong interest in dramatic effect and clear musical argument. He was not a radical iconoclast, but a serious professional composer.

Lothar is now a specialist name, yet his presence in historic programmes is a reminder of how much twentieth-century repertory once filled the spaces around the canon.