Fritz Lehmann (conductor)

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Fritz Lehmann (born May 17, 1904 in Mannheim , † March 30, 1956 in Munich ) was a German conductor and university professor .

Life

Fritz Lehmann, son of an organist and teacher, studied from 1918 to 1921 at the University of Music in Mannheim, then musicology at the Universities of Heidelberg and Göttingen. From 1923 to 1927 he was first choirmaster, but soon also Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater Göttingen . Then he moved to Essen, where he took over the leadership of the Kapellmeister class as well as the opera and orchestra school at the Folkwang School . He then worked as an orchestra and choir conductor in Hildesheim until 1934, and from 1934 to 1938 as director of the Lower Saxony Orchestra, which was newly founded in Hanover . In 1934 he also took over the artistic direction of the Göttingen Handel Festival , which he resigned in 1944 after a conflict with the district leader of the NSDAP . From 1935 to 1938 Fritz Lehmann, who had joined the NSDAP in 1937, worked as general music director in Bad Pyrmont, and from 1939 to 1946 in Wuppertal. During the Second World War he also performed in areas occupied by German troops , such as Brussels and Paris .

Göttingen memorial plaque for Fritz Lehmann

After the war, Lehmann was reappointed director of the Göttingen Handel Festival in 1946, an office that he held until 1953. Also from 1946 he worked as artistic director and general music director at the Göttingen City Theater . In 1950 this activity ended with the closure of the opera and operettas, which was forced for financial reasons. Lehmann then built up a career as a guest conductor. Many radio and vinyl recordings were made during this time.

In 1953 he finally moved his permanent residence to Munich, where he took over the management of a conducting class at the Hochschule für Musik . Fritz Lehmann suffered a heart attack during a performance of the St. Matthew Passion on Good Friday in 1956. A second conductor, Jürg Popp, director of the Munich teachers' choir, brought the concert to an end. Only at the end of the performance did the audience learn from concertmaster Herbert Becker that Lehmann had died. He is buried in Pullach .

Discography (selection)

literature

  • Walter Meyerhoff : In memoriam Fritz Lehmann: (May 17, 1904 - March 30, 1956). In: Handel yearbook 1957. German publishing house for music, Leipzig 1957.
  • Marianne Wick: Obsessed with music: the conductor Fritz Lehmann. Stapp, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-87776-707-9 .
  • Alain Pâris: Lexicon of Performers of Classical Music in the 20th Century. dtv / Bärenreiter, Munich / Kassel 1992, ISBN 3-423-03291-X , p. 419.
  • Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933-1945. Kiel 2004, p. 4172f. (CD-ROM dictionary).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joined May 1, 1937; Membership number: 5.218.110. Cf. Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945. Kiel 2004, p. 4172.
  2. ↑ In addition to other concerts, on April 20, 1941, he conducted a concert with the orchestra of the broadcaster Brussels on the occasion of Adolf Hitler's birthday . Cf. Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945. Kiel 2004, p. 4172f.
personal data
SURNAME Lehmann, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German conductor and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH March 30, 1956
Place of death Munich