Gerhart from Westerman
Gerhart von Westerman (born September 19, 1894 in Riga , † February 14, 1963 in Berlin ) was a German composer, artistic director and music writer.
Life
After graduating from high school, Westerman studied composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, where Paul Juon was his teacher. From 1918 he continued his studies with Walter Courvoisier and August Reuss in Munich and received his doctorate in 1921 with a thesis on " Giovanni Porta as an opera composer".
In 1925 he became head of the radio department in Munich, and later with the radio stations in Berlin and Saarbrücken. In 1939 the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra appointed him its artistic director (as successor to Hans von Benda ). He held this office until 1945 and then again from 1952 to 1959. In 1951 he launched the Berliner Festwochen , which he organized every year until 1959.
He is buried in the Dahlem forest cemetery. His grave is dedicated to the city of Berlin as an honorary grave .
Works (selection)
Orchestral works
- Serenade , op.7, 1928
- Intermezzi , op.9, 1929
- Divertimento , op.16, 1940
Operas
- Promethean Fantasy , Composition and Libretto, premiered in Dortmund in 1960
- Rosamunde Floris , libretto, music by Boris Blacher , premiered in Berlin in 1960
Books
- The Russian Folk Song as Sung Today , Orchis Verlag, 1922
- Knaurs Konzertführer , Droemersche Verlagsanstalt, 1951
- Knaurs Operführer , Droemersche Verlagsanstalt, 1952
Awards
- 1962: Berlin Art Prize
literature
- Gerhart from Westerman. A little monograph. Bote & Bock, Berlin / Wiesbaden 1959 (with contributions by Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt and Peter Wackernagel , also contains a catalog raisonné).
- Friedrich Herzfeld : The Lexicon of Music. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Vienna 1976.
- Gerhart von Westerman, Karl Schumann: Knaurs opera guide. Paperback No. 216.
- Helmut Scheunchen: Lexicon of German Baltic Music. Harro von Hirschheydt Verlag, Wedemark-Elze 2002. ISBN 3-7777-0730-9 , pp. 286-287.
- Carola L. Gottzmann , Petra Hörner: Lexicon of the German-language literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg . De Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019338-1 , p. 1399-1401 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Gerhart von Westerman in the catalog of the German National Library
- Picture of the composer and explanations of his compositional style
- Westerman books
- Gerhart von Westerman archive in the archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
- Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry on Gerhart von Westerman. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital
Individual evidence
- ^ NN: Berlin heads - Gerhart von Westermann [sic] . In: Berliner Blätter. The in-house magazine of the capital. Issue B, Volume 7, No. 10, October 1957, p. 31.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Westerman, Gerhart von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German composer, artistic director and music writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 19, 1894 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Riga |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 14, 1963 |
| Place of death | Berlin |