Hans Gierster

Hans Gierster (born January 12, 1925 in Munich ; † September 20, 1995 in Straubing ) was a German conductor .

Life

Education and early years

Gierster was a student of Clemens Krauss and from 1942 worked as a répétiteur in Munich. He was engaged at the Düsseldorf Opera House from 1945 to 1952. From 1952 to 1956 he was Kapellmeister at the Bavarian State Opera and conducted primarily operas by Mozart, Verdi and Richard Strauss in the performances in the then alternative quarters of the Prinzregententheater . In 1956 he became general music director at the Freiburg Theater . There he realized Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen as well as the Hindemith operas Cardillac and Mathis the painter , which made him known nationwide.

GMD at the Nuremberg Opera House

From autumn 1965 to summer 1988 he was general music director at the Nuremberg Opera House . He made his debut as Nuremberg GMD at the opening of the 1965/66 season with Fidelio . In the interim season 1964/65 he had previously supervised two productions as a guest conductor, Boris Godunow and Aida . After the death of general manager Karl Pschigode , Gierster also took over the opera management at the Nuremberg Opera House from 1971 (until 1976) and received a lifelong contract as GMD.

In concerts and operas, Gierster focused on composers such as Gustav Mahler (1977, 8th Symphony ), Anton Bruckner , Arnold Schönberg (1981, Gurrelieder together with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra ), Hans Werner Henze and Krzysztof Penderecki and directed numerous world premieres and premieres , including works by Boris Blacher , Werner Egk , Wilhelm Killmayer , György Ligeti , Aribert Reimann and Hans Zender . He enlarged the Philharmonic Orchestra to 87 musicians, increased the rehearsal times, reduced the number of operettas in the repertoire and relocated the Philharmonic concerts to the newly built Meistersingerhalle for reasons of space .

As an opera conductor, he was particularly committed to the musical avant-garde. He directed highly acclaimed performances such as Moses und Aron (premiere: December 1970, director: Hans-Peter Lehmann ), The soldiers by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (premiere: June 1974, director: Hans-Peter Lehmann), the double opera Träume by Isang Yun (Premiere: February 1969, Director: Wolfgang Weber / Image: Peter Heyduck) or Intolleranza 70 (Premiere: May 1970) by Luigi Nono .

With the dream production, Gierster made a guest appearance at the Wiener Festwochen , as well as in Berlin , Munich and Frankfurt am Main ; with Intollerenza 70 at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino .

As opera director he engaged numerous directors at the Nuremberg Opera House, including Hans Neuenfels (1974 for Der Troubadour ), Hansgünther Heyme (1974/75 season for Wozzeck , with Dunja Vejzovic as Marie), Hans Hollmann , Hansjörg Utzerath , Luca Ronconi , Alfred Kirchner and Peter Mussbach .

Withdrawal and death

His last Nuremberg opera premiere as GMD was Elektra in the 1986/87 season (premiere: May 1987). After that, Gierster, after prematurely terminating his contract in August 1988, withdrew from the office of the GMD for health reasons. He conducted his last concert in February 1989 in the Nuremberg Meistersingerhalle, the 1st Symphony by Gustav Mahler with the Nuremberg Philharmonic.

Gierster died at the age of 70 in a Straubing hospital from complications from a stroke . He was buried in the Johannisfriedhof in Nuremberg .

literature

• Hans Bertram Bock: A pioneer of the avant-garde . Obituary. In: Nürnberger Nachrichten of September 21, 1995. Page 21.
• Staatstheater Nürnberg (Hrsg.): The general music directors . In: 1905 Opera House - 2005 State Theater . Nuremberg 2005. pp. 120/121. ISBN 3-924773-12-2 .

Web links

• Works by and about Hans Gierster in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Horst Seeger : Musiklexikon Personen A – Z / Deutscher Verlag für Musik Leipzig (1981) p. 276
2. ^ State Theater Nuremberg - The Nuremberg Philharmonic Orchestra