Gösta Schwarck

Gösta Ernst Poul Schwarck (born September 14, 1915 in Ahlbeck ; † March 11, 2012 ) was a Danish composer and entrepreneur . He was best known for his activities as an impresario, for which he finally received the title of Doctor of Music honoris causa .

Gösta Schwarck was born into a family of artists of Danish and German descent. His father was the conductor Ernst Paul Schwarck and his mother the opera singer Marguerite Brian-Schwarck.

He has been musically active since the early 1930s, first as a composer and later as a sales manager for cosmetics companies and touring choir director. At a young age, Gösta Schwarck set up his own sales organization (in Danish: Salgsorganisation Gösta Schwarck). Since the early 1950s and throughout this decade, he organized Denmark's first national beauty contests and was the official national representative of Miss Denmark , Miss World and Miss Europe . From 1957 he was also an internationally active impresario for classical music events with his company International Concert Management , which later became Dr. Gösta Schwarck International Ltd. got known.

Early years

In the first years of his professional life, Gösta Schwarck pursued a dual career as a composer and sales manager for a perfume company. He published records and scores in collaboration with Sven Rye , Gull-Maj Norin , Greta Keller and others.

1946–1947 military service

In the course of his Danish military service in the aftermath of World War II , Gösta Schwarck founded a soldiers' choir, with which he toured in Denmark and abroad. In addition to recordings for the Danish state radio station (Statsradiofonien) , a number of own musical publications were also made during this period. The Danish King Frederik IX personally expressed his gratitude to Gösta Schwarck for his great commitment, which had contributed significantly to the restoration of Danish morality in post-war Europe.

Ib Schønberg and Bent Fabricius Bjerre performed in many concerts by Gösta Schwarck at that time as a young teenager, together with his newly founded orchestra. Gösta Schwarck himself often said later that during the years of his time as a soldier as well as the learning phase as a young composer and choir director, the seeds for his later work as an impresario were laid.

1947–1998 The Gösta Schwarck sales organization

From 1946 he went into business for himself and built up a national sales organization (Salgsorganisation Gösta Schwarck) in Copenhagen with its headquarters at Adelgade 18 and later at Vesterbrogade 27. Under the motto "A new item every week", this Danish start-up was one of the first providers of cosmetics, health products, clothing, innovations and imports of all kinds in the country between the North and Baltic Seas. The range includes u. a. The invisible comb, the Grand Massette and the first bikini in Denmark, which was designed by his sister, the artist Christel. The election for the first Miss Denmark, pageants and numerous cabaret events organized by Gösta Schwarck during this time were not least a platform for the sale of his company's products.

1954–1960 beauty contests

At a business lunch at Dyrehavsbakken in the summer of 1954, Gösta Schwarck happened to meet Albert V. Unruh, a theater director and owner of a theater that suffered from a sharp drop in sales. Thanks to the help of Gösta Schwarck with marketing, sales and advertising and with his inexhaustible wealth of ideas (and organizational talent), a few days later there were long queues in front of the theater, which was saved from the impending bankruptcy.

In the second half of the 1950s, Gösta Schwarck also organized national beauty pageants. Its sales organization, based at Vesterbrogade 27 in Copenhagen, was the Danish representative for the Miss Europe, Miss World and Miss Universe elections. In the Miss Denmark and therefore Danish qualifications for Miss Universe, Miss Europe and Miss World in 1958, MGM actor Errol Flynn accepted Gösta Schwarck's invitation and came to Copenhagen from the USA to participate in the jury. In doing so, he discovered Gösta Schwarck's musical talent and made contact with his own agent. According to Gösta Schwarck's notes, career opportunities were opened up to him in Hollywood, which he, however, turned down here.

1957–2010 concert agency

After a serious car accident in Hamburg , Gösta Schwarck concentrated on classical music. A concert agency was founded under the name Gösta Schwarck International, and the profits from his cosmetics company flowed directly into the agency in order to be able to present the greatest classical musicians of the time to a small country like Denmark. Alexander Borovsky , Nikita Magaloff , Shura Cherkassky , Yury Boukoff , Walter Klien , Jakob Gimpel , Svjatoslav Richter , Adam Harasiewicz , Grigory Sokolov and others sat at the grand piano of the Danish concert halls, and Victor Schiøler wrote a long, open letter in which he wrote the Gösta Schwarck praised actions with the introductory words "The Danish music scene owes you a lot."

At the age of 40, Gösta Schwarck completed his piano skills with an apprenticeship at the Royal Conservatory of Denmark and completed his studies as a concert pianist under the direction of Prof. Herman D. Koppel . His musical studies coincided with the management of his cosmetics company, the newly founded concert agency and the establishment of a growing family.

In the years that followed, Gösta Schwarck opened up to other art forms in addition to piano art and organized tours for the Vienna Boys' Choir , the Vlach and Janáček Quartet , Carlo Zecchi , Kyung-Wha Chung , Anne-Sophie Mutter , Alexander Lazarev and many others . It is thanks to him that great voices like Boris Christow , Christa Ludwig , Mirella Freni , Teresa Berganza , Gena Dimitrova could also be heard in Denmark. In 1975 he married the young Bulgarian pianist Assia Zlatkowa .

In the mid-1980s, Gösta Schwarck was the first organizer in Denmark to organize performances by the Soviet Bolshoi Opera in Denmark.

In the same year he also announced publicly that he would stage the opera Aida by Verdi with 264 participants at the Royal Danish National Opera in Copenhagen .

In 1988 he was the first in Denmark and in all of Scandinavia to organize a concert by Luciano Pavarotti with the orchestra of the Royal Danish National Opera in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. After learning that there were going to be problems with funding, he mortgaged his own house and put all of his fortune on the line to run the event.

Only after he had impressively demonstrated with his example that such spectacular classical music events were also possible in Denmark did the Danish national radio and other major concert promoters follow in his footsteps years later with similar events.

Gösta Schwarck was responsible for organizing thousands of unique cultural events in Denmark, Europe and even worldwide. He achieved this parallel to the management of his company "Salgseinrichtungen Gösta Schwarck", which later became the mail order company "Euro Pharma ApS", both of which made the financing of his cultural events possible. During the first 20–30 years of his work as a concert organizer, he put his personal financial needs on hold and invested almost all of his own money in music, driven only by the desire to present his Danish fellow citizens with unprecedented and unique musical experiences.

International awards

Over the years, Gösta Schwarck has received orders, medals and state honorary titles for his services to music in Germany, France, the USA, the Soviet Union and Russia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Israel and Hungary. In 1977 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in musicology from the Chicago Conservatory. He received his greatest honor in 2008 when he received the Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius - the highest honor that can be awarded in recognition of special efforts in art and science - from the hand of Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov. Despite his services to his native Denmark, he was never granted similar honors there.

Compositions

• Elegy (1971)
• Golden Rhapsody (1955)
• Little Pearl (1950)
• We are Denmark, we are soldiers (1946)
• One Kiss (1942)
• A Scent of Spring (1938)
• Goodbye (1937)
• Without Words (1936)
• Melody of Life (1936)

credentials

1. ↑ Young composer makes his debut on New Year's Eve. Greta Keller sings his first opus. (Danish) . In :? . 
2. ↑ Greta Keller sings in Danish (Danish) . In :? . 
3. ↑ 90th birthday a wonderful life (Danish) . In: cnn , 2005-09-14. 
4. ↑ Kirsten Olesen, Steen Tronsgaard: so far the greatest visit to the opera of all time (Danish) . In: the newspaper , March. 
5. ↑ Maximum foreign guest performances ever in Denmark (Danish) . In: Ny Thisted-Posten , 1987-01-14, p. Page 15.  
6. ^ Poul Erik Petersen: Boris Coming to Aarhus (Danish) . In: Berlingske Tidende . 
7. ^ Bolshoi Opera in guest performances in Denmark in 1986 (Danish) . In: Berlingske Tidende , 1985-12-17, S. Culture.  
8. ↑ Tina Gustavsen, Ib Hansen: Russians are Coming! (Danish) . In: Aarhus Stiftstidende , 1987-05-17, p. Page 6, second part. 
9. ↑ Night Party for a world star (Danish) . In: Berlingske Tidende , June. 
10. ↑ Han banade väg för Pavarotti (Swedish) . In: Kvällsposten , 1988-06-23. 
11. ↑ Britta Bjerre: Diet Industry rages over the doctor of TV detection (Danish) . In: BT , November, page 40. 
12. ↑ A life in art, women, and cream (Danish) . In: the newspaper , 1987-05-23, S. Weekend. 
13. ^ A Seller Life . In: Ekstrabladet , 1960-03-19.  
14. ↑ Birgitte Grue: Schwarck's Schizophrenic Circus (Danish) . In: The Free News , 1987-05-18, p. 34. 
15. ^ Vibeke Andersen Nørby: New Opera House in Copenhagen (Danish) . In: Berlingske Tidende , 1990-02-16. 
16. ^ Ole V. Hansen, Charles Raven: Gösta Schwarck is the oldest impresario: I dare not slow down (Danish) . In: Family Journal . 
17. ↑ Thomas Alling: Day Portrait: There is music in him (Danish) . In: Politiken . 
18. ^ Orders, decorations, and medals of Bulgaria # Orders 4
19. ↑ John Christiansen: From massage rollers to Bach (Danish) . In: cnn , 2010-09-13. 

Web links

• http://www.danskefilm.dk/skuespiller/3242.html