Helmut Plattner (organist)

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Helmut Plattner (born March 31, 1927 in Sibiu , Transylvania , † December 29, 2012 in Berlin ) was a Romanian-German organist from Transylvania.

biography

Career in Romania

Helmut Plattner grew up in the rich tradition of church music in Transylvania, which was shaped by immigrants and German musicians. Even before studying music at the Bucharest University of Music in Herrmannstadt, he had private mentors from the Karl Straube student and the Sibiu city cantor Franz Xaver Dressler (1898–1981). He was not allowed to study music planned in Berlin in Romania, although at that time there was no official opportunity to study the organ here. That is why he majored in piano from 1946 to 1953 at the Bucharest University of Music. Plattner later became the first organ teacher at this music college when this subject was first established there.

In Prague, Plattner continued to take organ lessons from Jiri Reinberger . In the same city he won the Prague Spring Organ Competition in 1958 .

In the West

After moving to Germany in 1973, his first station as a church musician was the Neue Pauluskirche in Essen . He then became the town church organist and church music director in Bayreuth , where he regularly introduced special cyclical concert series (with him as a soloist), such as B. the performance of all Handel organ concertos with orchestra and Bach's complete works for organ, which he performed several times. With his cantata choir he initiated the Bayreuth cantata concerts and went on concert tours to Switzerland, Denmark, Vienna and the former GDR.

Appreciation

The phonographic appreciation of Plattner's, among other things, widely praised organ art in newspaper reviews has remained a desideratum to this day, which is partly due to the difficult political situation in Romania during Plattner's most active artistic time. There are radio recordings in Bucharest , Brno , West German Radio and Hessian Radio , as well as a few recordings. According to the Association of the Transylvanian Saxons , Helmut Plattner belonged to the "almost legendary triad of organists Kurt Mild (1914–2008), Helmut Plattner (1927–2012) and Horst Gehann (1928–2007)".

Recordings

(as far as known)

  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Organ Works. Munich Music Seminar (1977)
  • Concert recording 1976 from Berlin churches (West) by three organists: Heinz Lohmann , Feliks Rączkowski and Helmut Plattner. Works by Lotte Backes . Record sales in Berlin BSW 305 (1977).

literature

  • Contributions to the music history of the Transylvanian Saxons , Volume III. Gehann-Musikverlag, Darmstadt.
  • The remarkable fruit of a musical life: Helmut Plattner turns 80. In: Siebenbürgische Zeitung March 31, 2007. Also reports from September 15, 2000, March 15, 1991, March 20, 1988, August 15, 1987, April 15, 1982 and December 31. August 1976; New way from April 25, 1970.
  • General German newspaper for Romania , May 7, 2004.
  • GDMSE music newspaper (Munich), November 2004

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ To Dressler's biography
  2. ↑ On the death of the organist Helmut Plattner , Siebenbürger.de , January 22, 2013.
  3. ↑ see On the death of the organist ...
personal data
SURNAME Plattner, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian-German concert organist, church music director
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Sibiu , Transylvania, Romania
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 2012
Place of death Berlin