Erich Peter (conductor)

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Erich Peter in 1933 with his sons Klaus Jürgen (right) and Wolf-Dietrich.

Erich Peter (born January 26, 1901 in Berlin ; † December 29, 1987 there ) was a German conductor and university professor .

Life

Erich Peter conducts in Beuthen (around 1930)

From around 1910, Peter, the son of a businessman, received piano lessons from his family's neighbor, a teacher named Willi Sontag. He attended the Sophien-Realgymnasium in Berlin and the Oberrealschule Berlin-Pankow (Abitur). Already as a primary school student - and later in alternation with the singing teacher Max Rahn - he directed and conducted the choir of the Pankow secondary school, which was often expanded to include guest soloists. B. in November 1918 in concert performances of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's music to Racine's play “ Athalia ”. Peter studied in Berlin with the former Hofkapellmeister Theodor Müngersdorf and Rudolf Krasselt as well as five semesters of musicology at the university with Max Friedlaender and Curt Sachs . He financed his studies through private music lessons, as a silent film accompanist (piano and organ) and as Kapellmeister of Sing-Film GmbH, who presented synchronized films in which singers had to be brought into exact harmony with the movements of the mouths of the film actors. Sometimes with an orchestra of up to 36 musicians: "So Peter directed the performances of the film operetta 'Die Strandnixe' and the singspiel 'In einer kühlengrund', which was screened about 250 times." He made his theatrical debut in 1922 on the New Stadttheater Greifswald , where he was second Kapellmeister and choirmaster from 1923 and first Kapellmeister from 1925 to 1929. During this time he worked on 64 operas and an extensive concert repertoire with the orchestra. Since he studied and conducted eight operas by Richard Wagner during his time in Greifswald , he was invited to Bayreuth by Siegfried Wagner in 1927 .

From 1929 to 1945 Peter was 1st Kapellmeister at the State Theater in Beuthen / Upper Silesia (with Gleiwitz , Hindenburg , Kattowitz and Königshütte ; 1940 GMD ). In the programs between 1929 and 1933 “some works by ultra-modern composers like Paul Hindemith , Alfredo Casella , Arnold Schönberg and Igor Stravinsky appear.” Occasionally he accompanied the concerts and opera performances he conducted with his own articles in daily newspapers, magazines or program booklets, z. B. on Richard Strauss , Hindemith and Stravinsky. The Beuthen Orchestra he directed had “a special position among the German cultural orchestras”, as it had to serve several large industrial cities with opera and concert music and at the same time went on concert tours (including to Cosel , Groß-Strehlitz , Oppeln , Tarnowitz and Tost ) completed about 300 radio concerts (mainly for the broadcasters Breslau and Gleiwitz). Another special feature was the maintenance of Upper Silesian instrumental creation with around 60 world premieres by Upper Silesian composers in a decade. Peter's later renewed commitment to the work of Richard Wetz is based on his work in Bytom.

Erich Peter conducts Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's “Elias” (1960) in Berlin

After military service and Soviet imprisonment in 1948, Peter became chief conductor of the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlin, a production orchestra of the Berlin Radio. In 1949 he was appointed conductor of the orchestra at the Berlin University of Music (1951 professor, 1959 full professor and member of the academic senate, retired from 1969). In the concert hall of the university, several works were premiered by him, so u. a. “Si china il giorno” by Aribert Reimann and “Ideograms” by Klaus Wüsthoff .

In addition to his permanent engagements, Erich Peter worked as a guest conductor at an early stage. From 1947, Peter began to work more extensively as a guest conductor, for example for the Berlin State Opera, in Görlitz (city theater), Schwerin (state theater), Greifswald (city theater), at the Northwest German Philharmonic , in Erfurt (city theater), in Recklinghausen, Bonn ( Beethovenhalle) etc. In Berlin, Peter achieved particular fame in the 1950s and 1960s with a series of 12 symphony concerts with the Berlin Mozart Orchestra and concerts with the Berlin Concert Choir with soloists such as Josef Greindl , Lisa Otto and Helmut Krebs . From 1948 Peter also conducted recordings for the "Berliner Rundfunk", the Leipzig transmitter and from 1961 for the RIAS Berlin (most recently in 1981 the 3rd Symphony B-DUR Op. 48 by Richard Wetz). Peter, who moved to the vicinity of Wiesbaden after his retirement, then worked as a freelance conductor and lecturer and published two monographs. He transferred the Richard Wetz Archive he had built up to the Institute for German Music in the East.

Erich Peter was first married (from 1926) to Ilse Berry, the older sister of the jazz musician and composer Hans Berry . With her he had two sons, the flutist ( chamber virtuoso ) Klaus Jürgen Peter (1929-2006) and the bass player Wolf-Dietrich Peter (1931-2005). In his second marriage (from 1947) he was married to the concert singer Margarete Gumpert (1905–1985).

Publications (selection)

  • The music of 'Salome' by Richard Strauss. In: Beuthener Zeitung / Ostdeutsche Morgenpost. No. 311, November 9, 1929.
  • Bruckner's 'Third' and Beethoven's 'First' Symphonies. In: Beuthener Zeitung / Ostdeutsche Morgenpost. No. 319, November 17, 1929.
  • Hindemith and Stravinsky as poles of contemporary music. In: Beuthener Zeitung / Ostdeutsche Morgenpost. No. 82, March 23, 1930.
  • Alexander Ecklebe, an Upper Silesian composer. In: Franz Heiduk (Ed.): Aurora. Yearbook of the Eichendorff Society . Volume 32, Würzburg 1972, pp. 84-90.
  • History of the Upper Silesian State Theater and State Orchestra in Beuthen OS. A documentation report. (= Publication by the East German Research Center in North Rhine-Westphalia. A 24). Dortmund 1972.
  • as ed. with co-workers. v. Alfons Perlick : Richard Wetz as a person and artist of his time (= publication by the Research Center East Central Europe. A 28). Dortmund 1975.
  • Women around Richard Wetz. In: Alfons Perlick (Ed.): Communications of the Beuthener History and Museum Association. H. 36/41 1974/79, pp. 42-73.
  • A conductor remembers. In: Richard Wagner Blätter. 5th vol., H. 3/4, December 1981, pp. 130-140.

Appreciations

  • It has never been so difficult for me to part with such an ingeniously talented artist, because he was my best and most loyal colleague. Erich Peter was celebrated in Beuthen for about ten years as a result of his great achievements in the opera and on the occasion of the many symphony concerts. ( Emanuel Voß , director of the Greifswald City Theater)
  • Erich Peter also deserves the credit of having trained his orchestra, which ten years ago did not exceed an average provincial level, into a body of music, despite all the additional burdens, whose musical qualities have often been praised by professionals. (Wolfgang Pohl, Oberschlesische Zeitung , Kattowitz, October 30, 1942.)
  • It was a stroke of luck for Upper Silesia that the political situation in 1933 thwarted Ps's appointment to the State Opera in Dresden and so this personality with its great charisma on the border region, which experienced an astonishing musical and artistic awakening in a short time, was at the center of development there stayed. (Gotthard Speer, Schlesisches Musiklexikon 2001)

literature

  • Erich H. Müller (from Azov): Peter, Erich. In: ders .: German Musicians Lexicon . W. Limpert Verlag, Dresden 1929, column 1047.
  • Kürschner's German Musicians Calendar. 2nd edition. 1954, pp. 945f.
  • Herbert A. Frenzel , Hans Joachim Moser (ed.): Kürschner's biographical theater manual. Drama, opera, film, radio. Germany, Austria, Switzerland. De Gruyter, Berlin 1956, DNB 010075518 , p. 549.
  • Georg Kluß: General Music Director Prof. Erich Peter. In: Communications from the Beuthener History and Museum Association. H. 31/32, 1969/70, pp. 131-149.
  • Peter, Erich. In: History of the Upper Silesian State Theater and State Orchestra in Beuthen OS. A documentation report. Dortmund 1972, p. 174f.
  • Peter, Erich. In: Carl Dahlhaus (Ed.): Riemann Musiklexikon. Supplementary volume, personal section L – ZB Schott's Sons, Mainz 1975, p. 362.
  • Erich Peter. In: Herbert Groß: Significant Upper Silesians. Short biographies. Laumann-Verlag, Dülmen 1995, ISBN 3-87466-192-X , p. 534f.
  • Peter, Erich. In: Paul S. Ulrich: Biographical directory for theater, dance and music. Berlin Verlag Arno Spitz, 1997, ISBN 3-87061-479-X , p. 1409.
  • Gotthard Speer: Peter, Erich. In: Lothar Hoffmann-inheritance law (ed.): Schlesisches Musiklexikon . Wißner-Verlag, Augsburg 2001, ISBN 3-89639-242-5 , p. 567f.
  • Jacek Schmidt: Zycie muzyczne w Gliwicach 1750-1944. Musical life in Gleiwitz 1750–1944. Drukarnia, Gliwice 2003, ISBN 83-86192-31-7 , pp. 83f., 233, 384.
  • Who is who? z. B. 12.1955, p. 892, 15.1967 / 68, p. 1458, 23.1984, p. 948; Who's Who in Germany. 2.1960, p. 1080, 3.1964, volume 2, p. 1288; Who's Who in Europe. 2.1966 / 67, p. 2091; Etc.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Kluß: General Music Director Prof. Erich Peter. In: Communications from the Beuthener History and Museum Association. H. 31/32, 1969/70, p. 133.
  2. ^ NN: Prof. Erich Peter, General Music Director. In: Dt.Bjb. 80th year 1972, p. 72.
  3. ↑ Erich Peter: A conductor remembers. In: Richard Wagner Blätter. 5th vol. H. 3/4, December 1981, pp. 130-140, here p. 131.
  4. ^ Lothar Hoffmann inheritance law: Beuthen O / S. In: ders .: Schlesisches Musiklexikon. Wissner. Augsburg 2001, pp. 35-38, here 37.
  5. ^ Wolfgang Pohl, in: Oberschlesische Zeitung. Katowice, October 30, 1942.
  6. ^ Wolfgang Pohl, in: Oberschlesische Zeitung. Katowice, October 30, 1942.
  7. ↑ Gotthard Speer: Peter, Erich. In: Schlesisches Musiklexikon. Wißner, Augsburg 2001, p. 568.
  8. ↑ Quoted from: Georg Kluß: General Music Director Prof. Erich Peter. In: Communications from the Beuthener History and Museum Association. H. 31/32, 1969/70, p. 147f.
personal data
SURNAME Peter, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German conductor and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 1987
Place of death Berlin