Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer

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Hans-Georg Brunner-Schwer (left) with Christoph Spendel on the piano (2004)

Hans-Georg Brunner-Schwer (born July 29, 1927 in Villingen-Schwenningen ; † October 12, 2004 ibid) was a German sound engineer , music producer and owner of the record label MPS ( Musik Produktion Schwarzwald ).

Live and act

Brunner-Schwer grew up in an upper class; his mother was the heiress of the SABA company , the father a first-class violinist. From 1961 he was technical director of SABA-Werke (and his brother Hermann commercial director).

In 1963 Brunner-Schwer began to produce sound carriers for the family company under the label "SABA-Schallplatten". Among other genres of music, the range of jazz records was conspicuous: on the one hand, he produced recordings in his own recording studio, for example by Hans Koller , but also by Wolfgang Dauner and Attila Zoller (film music for Katz und Maus ). On the other hand, selected American records from smaller labels that had no distribution in Germany, such as the recordings by Eric Dolphy with Mal Waldron from the “Five Spot”, were distributed in Germany via the Saba label.

Five years later, when the SABA family sold GTE to the Multi , Brunner-Schwer turned full-time to his true passion, his recording studio and jazz music . He bought back his own productions and founded his own company with MPS . The infrastructure for the first German jazz label was built on the former Saba site. He benefited from another foundation: as a piano enthusiast, he had been inviting star pianists like Oscar Peterson to his house parties since 1963 ; With the best sound technology, he recorded the concerts that the artists gave in a relaxed atmosphere in his living room, but could not market them until 1968 for legal reasons. In June 1967 he distributed the LP Handle With Care by the Kenny Clarke / Francy Boland Big Band, recorded in the Electrola studio in Cologne .

One of his most important achievements as sound engineer was the complete recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's cycle The Well-Tempered Clavier with the pianist Friedrich Gulda , which was made in 1972/73.

Brunner-Schwers self-image as a producer did not allow him to bow to conceptually or artistically fashionable trends. On the other hand, thanks to the skillful selection of his co-producers, almost the entire spectrum of jazz was covered and brought onto the market: Joachim Ernst Berendt , then known as the “pope of jazz”, was responsible for the freer jazz .

Brunner-Schwer invested enormous sums in the operation of his studio and the commitment of the musicians to MPS. The VS-swingt jazz festival taking place in Villingen and the Villingen jazz club , with which he maintained a friendly relationship, also benefited from his connections . In 1983 Brunner-Schwer sold MPS to the Dutch Philips group. However, he continued to make music recordings in his studio, which appeared in small editions under his name initials HGBS . In his private life, Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer lived withdrawn.

Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer died on October 12, 2004 as a result of a car accident. He left behind his wife Marlies, his sons Andreas and Mathias, and three grandchildren.

Brunner-Schwer had an extensive collection of Maybach automobiles.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ discogs.com: Hans-Georg Brunner-Schwer. Retrieved September 15, 2017
  2. ↑ S. Blocher, genius with two left hands, Black Forest messenger
personal data
SURNAME Brunner-Schwer, Hans Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brunner-Schwer, Hans-Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German jazz producer and label operator
DATE OF BIRTH July 29, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Villingen
DATE OF DEATH October 12, 2004
Place of death Villingen-Schwenningen