Albert Jürgen Grah

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Albert Jürgen Grah (born September 14, 1953 in Cologne) is a German pianist , instrumental teacher and music researcher. His concern with the "original, historical tempi" is important.

Career

Albert Jürgen Grah is the son of Josef Grah, who was the municipal chamber musician (viola) of the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra in the era of Günter Wand . He owes his first piano lessons with the pianist Paul Traut ( Conservatory of the City of Cologne ) to his father .

According to his curriculum, Grah went through organ studies with Wolfram Gehring ( Conservatory of the City of Cologne ) and from 1973–1979 studied music at the University of Music in Cologne , majoring in piano. The focus was on the musical and technical training by the Polish pianist Roswitha Gediga-Glombitza and the musical history of the musicologist Heinrich Lindlar .

In his 2nd major he studies clarinet with Franz Klein. Further studies in: singing with the Hungarian opera and concert singer Edith Kertész-Gabry and courses with the composers Jürg Baur and Johannes Fritsch .

Create

After completing his university studies, Grah devoted himself to research projects from 1980 together with fellow campaigners Grete Wehmeyer and Willem Retze Talsma to rediscover the "original, historical tempos" of the music of the 18th and 19th centuries with the postulate of the rediscovery of slowness and the associated slowness Deceleration.

In turning away from the split use of the metronome according to Talsma's theory, Grah went his own way with the implementation of tempi from 1982 onwards. They are based on the combination of the historical metronome use (metric method) with the historical metronome numbers.

He is not dogmatically interested in counting the beats of the metronome, but rather in making music sound in the breath and pulse of its time. In approaching this goal, which is not uncontroversial in parts of music circles , he feels confirmed by the Italian conductor Carlo Maria Giulini , who, after a personal conversation with the Cologne pianist in Milan in the summer of 1985, gave his insights into the “original, historical Tempi ”shared.

During the time of his research, Grahs decided to pass on his knowledge, experience and “love of music” as a piano teacher (including teaching piano at the Rheinische Musikschule ). He also pursued this goal as the initiator and co-founder of the youth art school “MuKuTaThe”, which has been active in Cologne for almost 40 years. In addition to this work, the pianist has been involved in musical soirées from 1982 onwards. a. made a name for himself in the "Zimmer Theater Am Lichtor" in Bergisch Gladbach, which he founded, and not least as the founder and director of the "Experimental Music Theater Cologne".

His new productions of Mozart operas in the "original, historical tempos", which he directed from the piano, caused a sensation. His first performance of " Don Giovanni " in 1988 at the 600th anniversary of the University of Cologne at the Cologne Studiobühne was enthusiastically received by audiences, television, radio and the press, as did the performances in 1993 " The Abduction from the Seraglio " and 1995 " Così fan tutte ”. The latter was performed on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in the church bunker in Cologne-Mülheim.

In addition to his intensive work as a piano teacher, CD recordings (1998–2019) and musical soirées (since 2007) in Germany and Italy complete the range of his musical work. In August 2013 the permanent seat of the “Progetto adagio” was founded in the small mountain village of Pantasina in Liguria (Italy) with 4 piano evenings of the lecture series “Estate Musicale adagio” . This series was successfully presented in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

In autumn 2015, Grah published his manifesto for the cultural initiative “Der Spieltrieb”, which was written in Weimar and focused on the striving for the “ideally beautiful” in connection with the absolute autonomy of the creative artist called for by Friedrich Schiller in his book On Aesthetic Education of Man .

While in 2017 the focus was still on working on your own compositions, in 2018 the opera project " Le nozze di Figaro " by W. A. ​​Mozart was prepared in the "original, historical tempi" with the preliminary result of the recording of the entire piano reduction as "Minus One “production.

In the same year, the concern with the recording possibilities of symphonic music by means of a digital "Orchestra Library" followed. These efforts (autumn 2018 to spring 2019) lead to the digital recording of the orchestral version of the 6th symphony “Pastorale” by Ludwig van Beethoven in the “original, historical tempos”, which will be premiered in 2019 in a live concert in digital orchestral version Form experienced in Cologne and thus at the same time represents a novelty in performance practice in the classical cultural scene.

On the occasion of Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday in 2020, Grah designed a series of performances of some of his orchestral works using a digital “Orchestra Library”. The opening concert of the series with Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto in G major Op. 58 took place in January 2020 in Bergisch Gladbach-Bensberg.

Editions

  • CD recordings of classical and romantic piano music from 1998 to 2008 in the "original, historical tempos". AJG Productions 1998-2008
  • CD recording: Ludwig van Beethoven, 6th symphony “Pastorale” as a digital orchestral version in the “original, historical tempos”. AJG Productions 2019

literature

  • Grah, Albert Jürgen: Studies on the 4th Symphony by Gustav Mahler. State examination at the Cologne University of Music. Cologne 1977, 177 pages. Can be viewed in the library of the Cologne University of Music and in the Institute of Musicology at the University of Cologne.
  • Retze Talsma, Willem: rebirth of the classics. 1. Instructions for de-mechanizing music. Word and World, Innsbruck 1980.
  • Wehmeyer, Grete , with extensive literature on the matter.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ AJ Grahs personal website
  2. ↑ The novel title of the same name "The Discovery of Slowness" (1983) by Sten Nadolny only illustrates a historically equal interest in literature and music. The agreement with the musicological postulate is accidental.
  3. ↑ The subtitle of Fritz Reheis' "The Creativity of Slowness" (1996) shows a similar linguistic equality, which is historically significant but incidental in content: New prosperity through deceleration .
  4. ↑ The teaching assignment for piano existed from December 1st, 1979 to April 30th, 1982.
  5. ^ Co-founder 1979, teaching there until 1987.
  6. ↑ In private circles.
  7. ↑ Active venue in the street “Am Lichtor” from 1982 to 1987.
  8. ↑ http://www.adagio.com/web_images/don_giovanni.jpg Events of the Studiobühne Köln: Experimental Musiktheater Köln, Mozart opera Don Giovanni, June 24th, June 26th, June 29th. and July 1st, 1988 (musical director Jürgen Grah).
  9. ↑ http://www.adagio.com/web_images/entf__hrung_01.jpg
  10. ↑ http://www.adagio.com/web_images/plakat_2013_1.jpg The poster for the premiere in 2013 on August 3rd and 4th as well as on August 10th and 11th
  11. ↑ http://www.adagio.com/web_images/plakat_2014_2.jpg Poster of the following year 2014: on July 18th, 19th and 20th. Grah organized the evening on July 20, 2014 together with the mezzo-soprano Claudia Giribaldi.
  12. ↑ http://www.adagio.com/web_images/plakat_2015_jpeg.jpg The third time in 2015: on July 11th, July 12th. and on 2.8.
  13. ↑ The constitution of the Manifesto in Weimar symbolically reflects the reference to Schiller's “Aesthetic Letters”, with which Grah has been familiar since the study seminars with Johannes Schurr.
  14. ↑ This premiere took place on May 10, 2019. http://www.adagio.com/web_images/flyer.jpg
  15. ↑ The premiere on January 24th, 2020 is illustrated at: http://www.adagio.com/index.php?p=2_19
personal data
SURNAME Grah, Albert Jürgen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pianist, instrumental teacher and music researcher
DATE OF BIRTH September 14, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne