Helmut Zacharias

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Helmut Zacharias, 1965
Be-bop composed by Helmut Zacharias in the recording of the "Amiga-Star-Band" he directed
Helmut Zacharias' grave

Helmut Zacharias (born January 27, 1920 in Berlin ; † February 28, 2002 in Brissago , Switzerland) was a German violinist and composer . He gained great public popularity through his television appearances in the 1960s and 1970s .

Life

Zacharias was called the “magic violinist” because of his characteristic style of playing. He started playing the instrument at the age of four and was able to read notes when he started school. From then on he made music with his father ( Karl Zacharias ), who was also a violinist and composer . In 1931 he was heard for the first time on the radio with the solo part of a Mozart violin concerto. After studying at the Academic University of Music in Berlin (master class by Gustav Havemann ), he received the Kreisler Prize and the Molique Prize in 1936 .

In 1939 he became a member of the Berlin Chamber Orchestra, but his great love was swing jazz, which was frowned upon during the Nazi era . Besides American swing, the Quintette du Hot Club de France was his role model. At that time he cultivated close camaraderie with the musicians Heinz Gerlach , Horst Wende and Heinz Munsonius , in whose soloist ensemble he participated. On November 29, 1941 he recorded his first record under his own name ( Helmut Zacharias and his soloists ) at the Odeon in Berlin-Kreuzberg, which was a success not least thanks to Ernesto Romanoni's novelty as an accompanist on harp instead of piano. In 1942 he worked as a member of the Wehrmacht for Radio Hilversum , which was also legally audible in Germany .

After the war, he performed at the Paris Olympics and in the USA. In 1948 he jazzed at the NWDR . In 1957 he appeared as himself in the film Under Palms by the Blue Sea . In the 1960s and 1970s he made numerous appearances on television with his own band . In 1960 he settled in Ascona on Lake Maggiore in Switzerland , where he had spent the last few years since 1997 because of Alzheimer's disease . Helmut Zacharias was buried in Hamburg at the Ohlsdorf cemetery.

Zacharias composed around 450 tracks and arranged more than 1,400. Worldwide he sold over 14 million records and CDs . He has received several prizes and awards. In 1950 he won the AFN Frankfurt jazz poll as best jazz violinist and published a textbook, Die Jazz-Violin . In the later years he also brought elements of swing into popular music. In 1985 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1995 he received a Bambi .

Helmut Zacharias is the father of the journalist Sylvia Zacharias , the high jumper Thomas Zacharias and the composer Stephan Zacharias . His widow Hella Zacharias donated the creative estate to the German composers archive in Dresden in 2006 .

Filmography

successes

  • When the white lilac blooms again
  • Boogie for violin
  • I kiss your hand, madame
  • Tokyo Melody
  • Ask the wind

Trivia

In the 6th part of the Hunsrück saga Heimat - Eine deutsche Chronik, Edgar Reitz dedicated a small homage to Helmut Zacharias in the role of a young soldier with his name, who was stationed in the Hunsrück during the Second World War with the air defense and who played the violin for a "long distance marriage".

literature

  • Bernd Meyer-Rähnitz, Frank Oehme, Joachim Schütte: The "Eternal Friend" - Eterna and Amiga; The discography of the shellac records (1947–1961) , Albis International Bibliophilen-Verlag, Dresden-Ústí 2006, ISBN 80-86971-10-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut Zacharias career on soesi.ch/soci/fuct/
  2. ↑ With Ernesto Romanoni (harpsichord, celeste), Alfio Grasso , Meg Tevelian , Jani Nemeth (guitar) Cesare Cavaion (kb), With you it was always so beautiful , the men are already worth the love .
  3. ↑ Michael Kater, Different Drummers: Jazz in the Culture of Nazi Germany, Oxford University Press 1992, p. 115
  4. ↑ Zacharias, Helmut. Entry at komponistenarchiv.de. German composers archive , accessed on April 4, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Zacharias, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German violinist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin , Germany
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 2002
Place of death Brissago , Switzerland