Ernst Haefliger

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Ernst Haefliger (born July 6, 1919 in Davos ; † March 17, 2007 ibid) was a Swiss opera singer ( tenor ) who is also and especially known as a Bach interpreter.

Life

After training at the Wettingen teacher training college , Haefliger studied singing and violin at the Zurich Conservatory , later singing with the Italian tenor Fernando Carpi in Geneva and then with Julius Patzak in Vienna.

Haefliger appeared for the first time in 1943 as an evangelist in Johann Sebastian Bach's St. John Passion in Zurich with the Zurich Mixed Choir ; here he sang regularly as a soloist in the choir's oratorios and concerts until 1984. His debut was immediately followed by numerous concert engagements in Switzerland and - after the war - in neighboring countries. Soon he was noticed by the conductor Ferenc Fricsay , who brought him to Salzburg for the festival . Haefliger's world career began there in 1949 as Tiresias in Carl Orff's opera Antigonae .

In 1952 he followed Ferenc Fricsay's call to the Deutsche Oper Berlin , where he performed the tenor roles in all Mozart operas, in Rossini's Barbier von Sevilla and Le comte Ory , Hans in Smetana's Bartered Bride , Hans Pfitzner's Palestrina and others as a lyric tenor . v. a. sang.

In 1971 he was appointed professor for singing at the Munich University of Music , where he taught until 1988. He also gave master classes in Zurich, Japan and the USA and published the standard work Die Kunst des Gesangs (Schott publishing house, Mainz), which he placed entirely under the guiding principle of bel canto .

Thanks to his slender voice and clear diction, Haefliger was the ideal interpreter of the evangelist in Bach's Passions. His high phrasing skills predestined him for all tenor roles in the operas of WA Mozart , for song singing and for the interpretation of contemporary works such as Frank Martin's Le vin herbé , Zoltán Kodály's Psalmus hungaricus, and Wilfried Hiller's Job.

Haefliger recorded Bach's passions and numerous cantatas as well as Handel's Messiah with the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft with the Munich Bach Choir under the direction of Karl Richter . Under the direction of Ferenc Fricsay he recorded the Mozart operas Die Entführung aus dem Seraglio , Don Giovanni , Die Zauberflöte and Idomeneo as well as Kodály's Psalmus hungaricus . Haefliger has performed as a lieder interpreter in numerous concerts, first with the Berlin pianist Hertha Klust , with the Viennese Erik Werba and later with the Swiss conductor and pianist Jörg Ewald Dähler , who accompanied him on his fortepiano in the great Schubert cycles and these with him recorded at Claves Records . Haefliger's recording of Leoš Janáček's Diary of a Missing Person at DGG, with Rafael Kubelík at the piano, was memorable and received several awards .

Haefliger was a soloist in many world premieres, including works by Willy Burkhard , Frank Martin, Peter Mieg , Othmar Schoeck , Carl Orff and Wilfried Hiller . As one of the first singers, Haefliger was interested in historical performance practice .

According to him, funded by the Swiss Agency for Arts and Culture of the Canton of Bern singing competition was Concours Ernst Haefliger named, for the first time in 2006 in Gstaad and Berne took place and in which he participated as a jury president. The Concours Haefliger takes place regularly every two years.

Haefliger's son Michael (* 1961) is the director of the Lucerne Festival , his son Andreas (* 1962) is a pianist.

Awards

Works

  • The Singing Voice , Hallwag, Bern 1983 (Enclosure: 1 LP)
    • New edition as The Art of Singing. History - Technology - Repertoire , Schott, Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-7957-8720-3

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lucerne Festival: The real maestro is the director , balance sheet , August 23, 2005, accessed on November 12, 2011.
  2. ↑ Andreas Haefliger ( Memento of January 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), website of the Lucerne Festival, accessed on November 12, 2011.
  3. ↑ a b Federal President's Office
personal data
SURNAME Haefliger, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss opera singer (tenor)
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Davos
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 2007
Place of death Davos