Helmut Kretschmar

Helmut Kretschmar (born February 3, 1928 in Kleve ) is a German concert and oratorio singer ( tenor ) and emeritus professor of singing at the Detmold University of Music .

Life

education

Helmut Kretschmar first studied at the Musisches Gymnasium in Frankfurt am Main with Kurt Thomas and Hans Emge , then with Frederick Husler at the Detmold Music Academy . In 1953 he received first prize at the singing competition of the German music academies and in 1958 the sponsorship award of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for young artists .

Career

In 1953 Helmut Kretschmar began his successful career as a concert and oratorio singer. He took part in the Berliner Festwochen , including the Bach Festival in Lüneburg and Heidelberg from 1960 to 1962, where he proved to be a great Bach interpreter. He also participated in the Göttingen Handel Festival and made many concert tours around the world. Helmut Kretschmar joined a. a. on in the concert halls of Berlin , Düsseldorf , Cologne , Paris , Madrid , London , Bombay , India , Korea , the Philippines and Sri Lanka . In 1954 he took part in the world premiere of Arnold Schönberg's opera Moses und Aron with the NWDR in Hamburg under the baton of Hans Rosbaud .

Helmut Kretschmar concentrated his artistic work mainly on the interpretation of the works of JS Bach , but was also successful in performances of the oratorios by Handel , Mendelssohn-Bartholdy , Haydn and in works of modern music. Together with his wife, the pianist Renate Kretschmar-Fischer , who was also a professor at the Detmold University of Music, he gave concerts as a song singer, in which he a. a. dedicated to the songs of Franz Schubert , Robert Schumann , Hugo Wolf and Claude Debussy .

Teaching

In 1960 he became a lecturer in singing at the Detmold University of Music , from 1961 he worked there as a professor until his retirement in 1990. Helmut Kretschmar's students include a. a. Cornelia Wulkopf , Uwe Heilmann , Tomoka Nakamura , Maria Venuti , Klesie Kelly-Moog , Yvi Jänicke , Guido Baehr , Axel Mendrok and Birgit Remmert .

Private

Helmut Kretschmar was married to the pianist Renate Kretschmar-Fischer until her death in 2016 , with whom he has two children; the daughter Corinna Kretschmar is an international interior designer. Kretschmar lives in Hiddesen near Detmold.

Recordings

There are numerous recordings on the record labels Columbia, Decca, DGG, L'Oiseau Lyre, Vox, Philips, Discophiles Français and Edition Schwann, including some opera recordings (e.g. Beethoven's Fidelio , Schönberg's Moses and Aron ), although Helmut Kretschmar did not make an operatic career. In the first place, however, were recordings of Bach's St. Matthew Passion , Christmas Oratorio and the Mass in B minor , Beethoven's Missa solemnis , Haydn's Seasons and the Mass in A flat major by Schubert.

Web links

• Works by and about Helmut Kretschmar in the catalog of the German National Library
• Helmut Kretschmar at Operissimo  on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon