Gabriel Dessauer

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Gabriel Dessauer (2011)

Gabriel Dessauer (born December 4, 1955 in Würzburg ) is a German cantor , concert organist and university lecturer . Since 1981 he has been responsible for church music in St. Bonifatius in Wiesbaden . He is an internationally performing organist and taught organ at the Mainz University of Music from 1995 to 2013 . In 1985 he founded the Reger-Chor project choir .

biography

Gabriel Dessauer, the son of Guido Dessauer and his wife Gabrielle, completed his school years in 1974 with the Abitur at the St. Blasien college . He first studied church music for a year at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich , studying the organ with Elmar Schloter . From 1975 to 1980 he studied church music and organ playing at the Hochschule für Musik with Diethard Hellmann and Klemens Schnorr . He continued his studies with Franz Lehrndorfer and received the master class diploma in 1982 .

He was organist in church services in St. Blasien from 1971 to 1974, then for a year at the Evangelical Academy in Tutzing and choirmaster of the Evangelical church choir in Tutzing . From 1975 to 1981 he was the cantor of St. Andreas in Munich.

Church music in St. Bonifatius (Wiesbaden)

Interior seen from the organ gallery

Dessau has been cantor of St. Bonifatius , Wiesbaden's main Catholic church, since 1981 . Until 2019 he led the church choir of St. Bonifatius with 107 members, which was founded in 1862, as well as the children's choir of St. Bonifatius and the Schola, which cultivates Gregorian chant . The choir sings in church services, there regular orchestral masses by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert at Christmas and Easter. In 2011 the Mass No. 1 in B flat major was performed by Johann Nepomuk Hummel , and in 2012 the Missa "Dixit Maria" by Hans Leo Haßler .

In 1985 Dessauer initiated the rebuilding of the organ, which was built in 1954 by Romanus Seifert & Sohn , by the organ building company Hugo Mayer . In 1995 three electronic bass registers were added on his initiative.

Choir and Children's Choir of St. Bonifatius, October 3, 2011, Haydn The Creation

Every year since 1997 on October 3rd, the Day of German Unity , Dessauer conducts a choir concert with works such as Mendelssohn's Elias , A German Requiem by Brahms, and Verdi's Messa da Requiem . Choir and children's choir appeared together in Hermann Suters Le Laudi (1998 and 2007) and in 2004 in the German premiere of John Rutter's Mass of the Children . In 2006 Dessauer directed Karl Jenkins' Requiem from 2004. In 2010 he chose works by Bach, his Mass in G minor and choral movements from the cantatas BWV 140 , BWV 12 , BWV 120 and We thank you, God, we thank you . In 2011 he conducted Haydn's The Creation , with the children's choir reinforcing the choral soprano.

Colin Mawby and Gabriel Dessauer in front of St. Bonifatius, 2011

For the 150th anniversary of the choir in 2012, Dessauer commissioned the English composer Colin Mawby to compose the Missa solemnis Bonifatius Mass for soprano, choir, children's choir, oboe and organ. The work was completed in 2011 and premiered on October 3, 2012.

World premiere of Bonifatius-Messe, October 3, 2012

In 2013, Dessauer preceded a performance of Schubert's Mass No. 6 with the composer's unfinished symphony ,

He performed with the choir of St. Bonifatius in Azkoitia and San Sebastián in 1986 , in both churches on a Cavaillé-Coll organ (1986), in Limburg Cathedral in 1987, in St. Jakobus , Görlitz in 1990 and in Memphis, Tennessee in 1996. on a choir trip to Rome in 2008 he designed with the choir concert in San Paolo entro le mura with Vivaldi's Gloria and Haydn's Nelson Mass , accompanied by an Italian orchestra, as well as an exhibition in St. Peter's Basilica .

At the beginning of his activity, Dessauer initially continued the tradition of a monthly hour of church music and later organized Boni Music Weeks , a series of choir and organ concerts on one theme over two weeks. Jürgen Sonnentheil (St. Petri, Cuxhaven ), Kent Tritle (St. Ignatius Loyola, New York ) and Ignace Michiels ( Sint-Salvatorskathedraal , Bruges ) gave concerts at the Music Weeks 2010, Reger and more .

Organ concerts

Dessauer played organ concerts in Europe and the USA, including the Washington National Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City . He played the Kotzschmar organ in the Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine , and in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles . In 2004 he gave a lecture at the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in Los Angeles on the choral music of Max Reger , who was a member of the St. Bonifatius Congregation when he studied and lived in Wiesbaden. In 2005 Dessauer played the Spreckels organ in San Diego , the largest open-air organ in the world. In 2010 he gave a concert in St. Ignatius Loyola, New York.

Since 1992 organ tours have been organized for the Rheingau Music Festival , which led to historical organs in the Rheingau , later also to cathedrals and neighboring churches, to Worms Cathedral and the Trinity Church , the Speyer Cathedral , Würzburg Cathedral and Fulda Cathedral . Dessauer regularly played a New Year's Eve concert on the Walcker organ of the Marktkirche in Wiesbaden together with her organist Hans Uwe Hielscher until 2010 .

Organ of the Salt Lake Tabernacle in Salt Lake City

In 2014 he played in the USA at Washington Cathedral, St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco , and the organ of the Salt Lake Tabernacle in Salt Lake City.

Teaching

From 1995 to 2013 Dessau taught organ at the Mainz University of Music , a largely autonomous part of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz .

"Reger Choir"

In 1985, Dessau invited singers to form a project choir to perform a single work, Reger's Hebbel Requiem in the organ version by Max Beckschäfer . The name Reger Choir was chosen when in 1988 a second project was about the German premiere of the Mass op. 111 by Joseph Jongen . Another project was in 1990 one of the first performances in Germany of Rutter's Requiem , recorded on the choir's first CD . In 2001 an international collaboration began with the organist Ignace Michiels , which brings together an approximately equal number of choristers from Flanders and the Rhine-Main area for an annual concert that is performed in both Germany and Belgium. In 2003 Dessauer directed the world premiere of Reger's organ version of The 100th Psalm by François Callebout.

In addition to works by Reger, Dessauer preferred seldom performed sacred music, such as works by Herbert Howells , Benjamin Britten , Herbert Sumsion , Maurice Duruflé , Edward Elgar , Frederick Delius , William Lloyd Webber , Jules Van Nuffel , Joseph Ryelandt , Andrew Carter , Kurt Hessenberg , Rupert Lang , Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre .

Choir projects

In 1995 Dessauer prepared the choir for a memorial concert 50 years after the end of the war, together with the Schiersteiner Kantorei , Wiesbaden, an English choir and one from Macon, Georgia , Britten's War Requiem , conducted by Martin Lutz . A year later the choir took part in a performance of the work in Macon.

In 1999 he and Ignace Michiels organized a project to bring a century of violence to an end together. A concert was performed both in Bruges and Wiesbaden by the choirs Cantores and Choir of St. Bonifatius, with Michiels on the organ and Dessauer on the podium. The concert in Bruges on October 23, 1999 was called Eeuw van zinloos Geweld (Century of Senseless Violence). The program included Van Nuffel's In convertendo Dominus , Rudolf Mauersberger's How is the city so desolate , and Duruflé's Requiem . The concert in Wiesbaden was called the Reconciliation Concert at the End of the Century .

In November 2009 Dessauer again performed Duruflé's Requiem, this time with a choir of volunteers who wanted to take a stand against anti-Semitism in a memorial concert . Janina Moeller sang the mezzo-soprano solo, Petra Morath-Pusinelli played the organ.

In November 2015 he worked as an organist for a project day organized by the Church Music Department in the Diocese of Limburg, where a choir of around 150 singers developed Gabriel Fauré's Requiem and performed it as part of the Wiesbaden Bach Weeks . He also played Olivier Latry's Salve Regina , in which, as one reviewer wrote, "the entire human cosmos was felt, including the cruelty and violence from which salvation is sought in this prayer".

Recordings

Web links

Commons : Gabriel Dessauer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Gabriel Dessauer . Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. 2010. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved on November 23, 2010.
  2. ↑ a b St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden: Gabriel Dessauer ( Memento from March 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Richard Hörnicke: A touching message of faith - Bach's Mass in G minor under the brisk direction of Gabriel Dessauer . Wiesbaden courier. October 5, 2010. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved on November 24, 2010.
  4. ^ Richard Hörnicke: Imposing fullness / Haydn's "Creation" in St. Bonifatius . Wiesbaden courier. October 5, 2011. Archived from the original on October 6, 2013. Retrieved March 13, 2017.
  5. ↑ First performance in Wiesbaden / Mass by Sir Colin Mawby will be heard for the first time on the 150th anniversary of the Boni Choir . Church music department in the Diocese of Limburg. October 1, 2012. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  6. ↑ Doris Kösterke: Own gift / premiere of Colin Mawby's Boniface Mass . Wiesbadener Tagblatt . October 5, 2012. Archived from the original on December 27, 2012. Retrieved on October 5, 2012.
  7. ^ Richard Hörnicke: Franz Schubert's Mass in E flat major under the direction of Gabriel Dessauer in St. Bonifatius in Wiesbaden . Wiesbaden courier. October 5, 2013. Archived from the original on October 6, 2013. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
  8. ^ Claudia Scheidt: Romfahrt des Chores St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden 2008 ( Memento from March 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ a b Richard Hoernicke: When friends make music . Wiesbaden courier. August 13, 2010. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved on November 24, 2010.
  10. ^ Gabriel Dessauer: Four Organ Concerts and a Choir Rehearsal in the US / A travel journal ( English ) American Guild of Organists / European Chapter. 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
  11. ↑ Tabea Müller: With a consoling tone - memorial concert - music as a warning: Duruflé Requiem before the Reichspogromnacht in the Bonifatiuskirche . Wiesbaden courier. November 9, 2009. Archived from the original on December 13, 2010. Retrieved on November 24, 2010.
  12. ↑ 21st Wiesbaden Bach Weeks / From Heaven on Earth . Johann Sebastian Bach Society Wiesbaden, 2015, p. 15.
  13. ↑ Doris Kösterke: 150 choir singers work on performance of two compositions by Gabriel Fauré in one day . In: Wiesbadener Kurier , November 9, 2015. Accessed November 10, 2015. 
personal data
SURNAME Dessauer, Gabriel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cantor, organist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH 4th December 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg