Günter wall

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Günter Wand (born January 7, 1912 in Elberfeld , today a district of Wuppertal ; † February 14, 2002 in the municipality of Ulmiz , Canton of Friborg Switzerland ) was a German conductor .

Artistic career

Wand studied with Paul Baumgartner and Walter Braunfels at the Cologne University of Music and Franz Dorfmüller (piano) and Walter Courvoisier (composition) at the Munich University of Music and Theater . After initial practical experience in Cologne, Allenstein ( East Prussia ) (1934–1938) and Detmold (1938/1939), he became first conductor of the Cologne Opera in 1939 under GMD Karl Dammer , where he stayed for 35 years. A position as musical director at the Salzburg State Theaterhe did not appear because of the war, but rebuilt the scattered Mozarteum orchestra there and conducted the last symphony concert of the " Third Reich " on April 30, 1945 and worked after the end of the war in the troop support of the US Army . In 1946 he was appointed general music director and head of the Gürzenich concerts in place of Eugen Papst . In addition, he worked as a guest conductor with some of the most important orchestras in Germany and Europe. In 1959 he was the first West German conductor to be invited to the USSR after the Second World War .

Due to the activities of Kurt Hackenberg , then Cologne's head of cultural affairs , who had already made it clear in the autumn of 1971 that he intended to replace Wand with the Hungarian conductor István Kertész , Günter Wand, whose contract actually ran until 1977, prematurely ended his position as director in 1974 the Gürzenich Concerts.

In the same year - already after his official departure from Cologne - after decades of hesitation, he conducted Anton Bruckner's 5th Symphony for the first time with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra for a radio broadcast. This recording resulted in a record production that caused a sensation when it was released and became part of a complete recording of the Bruckner symphonies. Since then, Günter Wand has been counted among the most important Bruckner interpreters.

A second career followed at the beginning of the 1980s: from 1982 to 1991, Wand was chief conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra and was made an honorary conductor in 1987. Also in 1982 the BBC Symphony Orchestra appointed him Principal Guest Conductor. Later the BBC Wand even donated a "Günter Wand Conducting Chair" in honor.

In 1989 he made his USA debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra . In this second career he found his valid age style. While he was keen to experiment in Cologne and performed numerous modern works, he reduced his repertoire in his later days to little more than the symphonies of Bruckner , Brahms , Beethoven and Schubert . He performed these symphonies repeatedly, sometimes with different orchestras.

His students included u. a. Heribert Beissel , Heribert Esser , Frithjof Haas , Hans Herbert Jöris , Bernhard Klee , Horst Stein and Wolfgang Trommer .

Artistic style

Wand was an unrelenting advocate of absolute fidelity. In principle, scores seemed completely untouchable to him. Unauthorized ritardandi or crescendos He considered beifallheischender " nonsense ". However , he never took a step towards “historical performance practice” with Mozart and Beethoven either. In this respect his absolute fidelity to the work has something peculiarly broken about these composers; but even beyond considerations of performance practice, his art is characterized by rigor and rigor.

As a young conductor he was asked how he intended to interpret Beethoven's Ninth Symphony , more like Arturo Toscanini or more in the style of Wilhelm Furtwängler . His laconic answer was: "Like Beethoven".

His audience will especially remember the performances of his later years when he conducted "his" Bruckner symphonies, still free standing on the podium, mostly without a score, with economical movements, but in strict eye contact with the orchestra.

Although Wand increasingly concentrated on Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner and Brahms in the course of his career, the music that was contemporary at the time was always an important concern of his. For example, he campaigned for works by Walter Braunfels , Wolfgang Fortner and Bernd Alois Zimmermann .

Awards

The Günter-Wand-Platz in front of the Gürzenich

The city of Cologne dedicated Günter Wand, who as general music director and Gürzenich Kapellmeister shaped the orchestra like no other before him, a place of his own, which is closely connected to his work. On October 24, 2010, the southern forecourt of the Gürzenich was inaugurated as Günter-Wand-Platz.

Trivia

After Wand had conducted a contemporary work in Cologne's Gürzenich, he received numerous boos in addition to weak applause. Then he bowed to the audience and said: “I see you haven't understood the piece yet. I will therefore bring it to you again. ”This also happened.

Discography

On the occasion of his 100th birthday in January 2012, a 28-CD box titled The Great Recordings , recorded 1974–1999, was released.

literature

  • Wolfgang Seifert: Günter Wand: one way and no other. Thoughts and memories . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-455-11154-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see web link Wolfgang Seifert: Günter Wand: so and not otherwise
  2. ↑ a b c d Eduard Prüssen (linocuts), Werner Schäfke and Günter Henne (texts): Cologne heads . 1st edition. University and City Library, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-931596-53-8 , pp. 86 .
  3. ↑ Conductor Günter Wand died - sadness and sadness . mopo.de; accessed on September 17, 2016
  4. ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/sXnJWD6dprbBG2LK4wN9Cj/whos-who
  5. ↑ werner-steinbach.de ( Memento from February 21, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) List of bearers of the ring of honor of the city of Wuppertal; accessed in May 2008
  6. ↑ Simone Winkelhog: Cologne names place after the conductor Günter Wand. Ceremony with speeches by the Lord Mayor, Gürzenich Kapellmeister and District Mayor. City of Cologne - Office for Press and Public Relations, October 19, 2010, accessed on March 13, 2013 .
  7. ↑ Wolfram Goertz  : 28 CDs honor Günter Wand . RP Online , February 22, 2012; Review. The box also contains a DVD with documentation about the wall.
personal data
SURNAME Wall, Günter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German conductor
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld , now part of Wuppertal
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 2002
Place of death Ulmiz , Switzerland