Hans Richter (conductor)

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Hans Richter (around 1880)

Hans Richter (born April 4, 1843 in Raab (today Győr ), † December 5, 1916 in Bayreuth ; actually János Richter ) was an Austro-Hungarian conductor and honorary citizen of Bayreuth.

childhood

Hans Richter was born on April 4, 1843 as the son of the cathedral music director Anton Richter and the singer Josefa Richter, née Csazenszky, in Raab, western Hungary. His mother gave him piano lessons from the age of four, so that, thanks to this thorough musical education, he was accepted as a choirboy in the Vienna court orchestra from 1852 . After his father died at an early age, he went to the “Löwenburgsche Konvikt ” in Vienna until 1860 , a school that trained boys with gifted voices for the Vienna court orchestra. From 1860 to 1865 he attended the Vienna Conservatory.

Relationship with Richard Wagner begins

As early as 1862 he became a horn player at the Theater am Kärntnertor , the then court opera , and after a few years received the certificate of proficiency as Kapellmeister from his court conductor. Through this recommendation Richter came to Richard Wagner , who was looking for a capable musician. On his behalf, he presented as Wagner's assistant, the artwork of the Meistersinger - Score ago, a copy of Wagner's original. He later did the same work with the score of the opera Siegfried . Through his work, Richter earned the full trust of Richard Wagner, so that he was allowed to take part in his wedding with Cosima Wagner as best man. At the performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony in the Bayreuth Margravial Opera House , which Wagner conducted on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone of the Richard-Wagner-Festspielhaus , Richter played trumpet, triangle and timpani, among other things.

Career successes

Judge as conductor; Silhouette by Otto Böhler
Richter's tomb in the Bayreuth city cemetery

From 1868 he was choir director of the Munich Opera on the recommendation of Richard Wagner. In 1870 he directed the first performance of Lohengrin in Brussels. From 1871 to 1875 Richter was Kapellmeister at the National Theater in Budapest . From 1875 to 1900 he was Kapellmeister of the Vienna Court Opera, from 1875 to 1898 conductor of the Philharmonic concerts in Vienna. From 1880 to 1890 he was concert conductor of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna , from 1878 second and from 1893 first court conductor in Vienna. In 1876 he conducted the first performances of the Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival . Richter also accompanied Richard Wagner on a subsequent concert tour to England, which Wagner undertook to help cover the financial deficit of the first festival. This made Richter known in England and received an invitation to a number of concerts, such as the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival . These were so successful that the universities of Oxford and Manchester awarded him a doctorate.

Richter worked in Vienna until 1900, where he supported young composers and distributed Wagner's works. In 1883 he conducted the premiere of the Viennese performance of Tristan und Isolde . Then he accepted an invitation from the Hallé Orchestra from Manchester and took over the musical direction there. From 1904 to 1911 he was chief conductor of the newly formed London Symphony Orchestra . In 1911 he left England to retire in Bayreuth. The city of Bayreuth made him an honorary citizen in 1913 for his musical merits. He died on December 5, 1916. His grave is in the Bayreuth city cemetery . His Bayreuth house from 1743, called tablature , was demolished in the late 1960s in connection with the construction of the New Town Hall .

In addition to his Wagner performances, Hans Richter also made a special contribution to the dissemination of the works of Anton Bruckner , Johannes Brahms and Edward Elgar . The works premiered by him include the 2nd and 3rd symphonies by Brahms, the 1st (2nd version 1891), 3rd (3rd version 1890), 4th and 8th symphonies by Bruckner, the Enigma Variations and the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius by Elgar, as well as its 1st symphony , which is dedicated to Richter. The 6th Symphony by Antonín Dvořák is also dedicated to Richter, but Richter could not premier this work in 1880 due to illness as planned.

On the return of his 150th birthday in 1993, the Vienna Philharmonic presented a Hans Richter Medal , the first recipient of which was Sir Georg Solti (1912–1997).

In 1919, Hans-Richter-Gasse was named after him in Vienna-Döbling (19th district of Vienna ) .

literature

Web links

Commons : Hans Richter  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ W. Bronnenmeyer: Richard Wagner. Citizens in Bayreuth . Ellwanger, Bayreuth 1983, p. 49 .
  2. ↑ Richard Morrison: ORCHESTRA The LSO: A Century of Triumph and Turbulence . Faber and Faber Limited, London 2004, ISBN 0-571-21583-1 , p. 253.
  3. ↑ Bernd Mayer: Bayreuth - The last 50 years , pp. 153–154
  4. ^ The Vienna Philharmonic honor Hans Richter . In: Burgenland Freizeit . LXIII. Volume, No. 11/1993, March 17, 1993, ZDB -ID 2391662-X , p. 45.
personal data
SURNAME Judge, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Judge, János
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-Hungarian conductor
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Raab (Győr), Hungary
DATE OF DEATH December 5, 1916
Place of death Bayreuth