Gustav Classens

Gustav Classens (born October 12, 1894 in Aachen , † June 18, 1977 in Bonn ) was a German conductor .

Act

From 1933 to 1949 Classens was the municipal music director in Bonn and thus director of the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn . From 1949 to 1971 he was head of the Bonn Bach Society , which he founded in 1949. From 1952 to 1966 he was also a music teacher at the Godesberg Otto-Kühne School (PÄDA) .

With the Bonn Bach Association, numerous classical choir and orchestral concerts have taken place in Bonn over the past forty years, making them an integral part of Bonn's musical life. Concert tours led to the wider area around Bonn as well as to Belgium and Luxembourg.

In 1952 Classens premiered Bach's Easter Oratorio in Bonn. Three years later, the West German premiere of the Magnificat by Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel was given under his direction . The performance of the unabridged version of the St. Matthew Passion in March 1959 was a special event for Bach fans.

Founded to maintain the work of Johann Sebastian Bachs , the repertoire of the Bonn Bach community was soon expanded. The creation of Joseph Haydn was heard as early as 1951, and in the course of time the great oratorios Judas Maccabäus and Messiah by Handel , The Seasons by Haydn and A German Requiem by Brahms were developed and successfully performed. Lesser-known works such as Stabat mater and Requiem by Antonín Dvořák , the “almost forgotten” Canticle of the Sun by Hermann Suter and Psalmus Hungaricus by Zoltán Kodály later expanded the stylistic spectrum.

literature

Herbert Wagner: The Bonn Bach community and the programs of their concerts in the period from 1949 to 1971 under the direction of Gustav Classens. In: Bonner Geschichtsblätter (Ed .: Bonner Heimat- und Geschichtsverein and Stadtarchiv Bonn) 24, 1971, pp. 143–174
Bonn Bach Community 1949-1999. Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the choir. Bonn 1999
Gustav Classens: Gustav Classens , in: Karl Gustav Fellerer (Hrsg.): Rhenish musicians. 5th episode . A. Volk, Cologne 1967, p. 31

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Biographical data of Gustav Classens in: Rheinische Musik: In connection with numerous employees , Volume 5, by Karl Gustav Fellerer, A. Volk, 1967, page 31

personal data
SURNAME	Classens, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German conductor
DATE OF BIRTH	October 12, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH	Aachen
DATE OF DEATH	June 18, 1977
Place of death	Bonn

[1] Biographical data of Gustav Classens in: Rheinische Musik: In connection with numerous employees , Volume 5, by Karl Gustav Fellerer, A. Volk, 1967, page 31