Curt Cremer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Curt Cremer (born December 24, 1926 in Aachen , † September 21, 2016 in Bad Boll ) was a German conductor .

Life

Curt Cremer already played at the age of 15/16 as 2nd clarinetist in the spa orchestra of his hometown Aachen. At the age of 16/17, during a visit to the opera at the Stadttheater Aachen , he wanted to become a conductor. He studied piano , clarinet and organ in Aachen and at the Stuttgart University of Music .

After the Second World War , at the age of 22, he was committed to the Württemberg State Theater in Stuttgart as director of theater music . Four years later he was appointed Kapellmeister there. At the same time, he acted as assistant to Ferdinand Leitner , who was then General Music Director of the Stuttgart State Opera . A short-term musical takeover of the Puccini opera La Bohème , which is considered difficult to conduct among conductors, was Cremer's breakthrough as a conductor at the age of 24. From then on, he conducted the field of German game opera , Mozart operas, the Italian opera repertoire, the “sophisticated” operetta as well as concerts and ballet events in Stuttgart . He was also the musical director of the Stuttgart Opera Balls.

In 1957 he moved to the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe as "First Kapellmeister" .

In 1965 Cremer's collaboration with the Cologne radio orchestra began , which was later renamed the "WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne". He was initially a guest conductor there and was contracted as future chief conductor in 1967. From 1968 to 1990 he was chief conductor of the WDR radio orchestra in Cologne. Heinz Geese became his co-conductor . As chief conductor, Cremer was responsible not only for conducting the orchestra, but also for program design, music recordings and the organization of guest concerts and guest performances abroad. Cremer "had a major impact on the WDR orchestra" and made more than 1000 recordings with it, including many world premieres and German premieres. Under Cremer's direction was u. a. hired the American opera singer Anna Moffo for concerts and radio recordings in Cologne. Cremer promoted young, at that time still unknown singers like Julia Migenes and Arleen Augér , with whom he produced a complete recording of the Gilbert / Sullivan operetta Die Piraten von Penzance in 1968 at WDR in Cologne . Cremer is also considered to be the discoverer of the tenor René Kollo , whom he met at an audition by Kollos, who was still an active pop singer at the time , in Karlsruhe. Cremer made numerous operettas with Kollo and Migenes; As a partner for René Kollo, he engaged three classical opera singers, Wendy Fine ( Der Rastelbinder / Die Zirkusprinzessin ), Ingrit Liljeberg ( The Cousin from Dingsda ) and Ruth-Margret Pütz ( Madame Pompadour ), who otherwise rarely devoted themselves to operetta.

In 1990 Curt Cremer retired. In 1994 he moved with his wife to Bad Boll in the Göppingen district , where he bought a house as a retirement home. Cremer's marriage resulted in a son who attended the anthroposophically run boarding school in Eckwälden .

Curt Cremer died in September 2016 at the age of 89 in Bad Boll, his adopted home in Swabia.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Curt Cremer . Vita (profile). In: Südwestpresse of October 6, 2012. Accessed November 14, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "An orchestra conductor leads" . Interview with Curt Cremer. In: Südwestpresse of October 6, 2012. Accessed November 14, 2019.
  3. ↑ Cologne Radio Orchestra under new direction . Chronicle of the ARD. Press release. 6/68. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
  4. ↑ Ralph Zedler: Arleen Augér - recognition of a secret star . info-netz-musik.net from May 13, 2014. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Cremer, Curt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German conductor
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 2016
Place of death Bad Boll , Baden-Wuerttemberg