Hans Hilsdorf

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Hans Hilsdorf (born March 16, 1930 in Mainz , † November 17, 1999 in Berlin ) was a German conductor , choirmaster and composer . From 1973 until his death he was director of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, founded in 1791 . He held a professorship at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin (HdK), today's University of the Arts , Berlin (UdK) and was director of studies at the Deutsche Oper Berlin .

biography

At the Deutsche Oper Berlin he has conducted the standard repertoire from Monteverdi to Verdi , but also those outstanding performances of Alban Berg's Wozzeck and Lulu , Arnold Schönberg's Moses and Aron and Stravinski's Petruschka Ballet.

Guest conductors have taken him to the Berlin Philharmonic , the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin (DSO), the Vienna Philharmonic , the Staatskapelle Dresden , the major Paris orchestras and to the USA as well as to many opera houses in Germany and abroad. In 1994, at the invitation of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice , Hans Hilsdorf conducted Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde , and in March of the same year he conducted a Wagner concert at Bayerischer Rundfunk .

Hilsdorf also worked as a concert pianist and song accompanist. Song recitals and radio recordings with many well-known singers are among them - including the Deutsche Grammophon -CD Beethoven Edition .

For 36 years Hilsdorf was the artistic director of the Academic Orchestra Berlin and, thanks to its well-founded music-pedagogical competence, led this amateur orchestra into areas that are otherwise occupied by professional orchestras.

Finally, in accordance with the old Sing-Akademie tradition, Hans Hilsdorf presented himself as a composer with, among other things, his Zelter cantata, which also pays homage to the history of the Sing-Akademie. He offered Morgenstern settings (Der Hecht, Der Mond) and wrote a motet for the anniversary concert in 1991 (200 years Sing-Akademie zu Berlin) . Carl Heinrich Graun's cantata The Death of Jesus was extensively edited by him and presented to the public with the Sing-Akademie on Maundy Thursday 1999 in the Berlin Cathedral .

In 1998 Hilsdorf celebrated his 25th anniversary as director of the Sing-Akademie.

Grave cross by Hans Hilsdorf

In 1983 Hilsdorf was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and in 1989 for his services to the promotion of relations between Finland and Germany - in particular for his commitment as a teacher of soloist training at the Savonlinna Festival since 1975 - with the Commander's Cross of the Order of the Lion of Finland .

Hans Hilsdorf died in Berlin in 1999 at the age of 69. His grave is on the Trinity Cemetery I in Berlin-Kreuzberg. A black granite cross on a base serves as a tombstone.

Works / literature (selection)

  • The dance flute , 65 dance styles and folk dances, Verlag Schott Music, 44 pp.
  • Our Christmas songs - for two C recorders or other melody instruments , Verlag Schott, 1951, 31st p.
  • Our Christmas carols for one or two soprano recorders or other melodic instruments , Schott, 1951
  • Three Kings March
  • Pastoral
  • Zelter cantata
  • The pike , the moon (texts: Morgenstern)
  • Motet (200 years Sing-Akademie)

Discography (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 226.