Horst-Tanu Margraf

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Horst-Tanu Margraf (born October 26, 1903 in Dresden ; † April 3, 1978 in Halle (Saale) ) was a German conductor .

From 1922 he worked as Kapellmeister at various German opera stages until he was appointed music director in Remscheid (1935) and Lemberg (1943) . From 1950 to 1968 he was chief conductor of the Handel Festival Orchestra in Halle . In 1952 he was appointed general music director and in 1957 university music director . He was the artistic initiator of the Handel Festival in Halle and made a significant contribution to the Handel Renaissance in the 1950s.

Life

Horst-Tanu Margraf was born in Dresden in 1903 as the son of the ordained Protestant theologian and teacher Otto Margraf. His father worked as a missionary in the German colony of German Samoa on the Samoan Islands in Polynesia at the turn of the century . Margraf's Polynesian middle name "Tanu" probably goes back to his godfather , Prince Tanu and brother of Chief Mataafa , with whom his father used to hang out in Samoa. In addition, the reason given for the naming is that Margraf was born on a cruise ship .

From 1908 to 1919 he attended schools in Hanover and Berlin. After the First World War , he earned his living as a machinist. He also completed practical music studies at the Hanover Conservatory from 1919 to 1922 and in Bonn in 1923/24, where he studied musicology . Margraf was from 1922 a. a. active as Kapellmeister at the stages in Hanover, Hildesheim, Neisse, Bonn, Darmstadt, Chemnitz and Freiberg.

After the National Socialists came to power , he joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933 ( membership number 2.415.680). In 1933 he went to Remscheid in the Bergisches Land, where he was initially conductor of the theater. In 1935 he succeeded Felix Oberborbeck as municipal music director . He also acted as deputy director Hanns Donadt . He worked u. a. at the Remscheid Wagner Festival and performed with the Remscheid Choral Society. In 1935 he became an adviser to Gaufführung VII Rheinland of the Reich Association of Mixed Choirs in Germany . In addition to promoting youth and choral music, Margraf established master and folk concerts. In 1936 he founded the Remscheid Culture Weeks . In 1939 he was the municipal music commissioner. During his tenure he brought well-known performers to Remscheid. He also sought contact with contemporary composers. So he brought with the Bergisches Landesorchester a . a. Works by Wilhelm Kempff ( Dramatic Cantata , 1937), Ottmar Gerster ( Hanseatenfahrt , 1941), Fritz Ihlau ( Serenade , 1941) and Erich Anders ( Maienzeit , 1942) premiered . Jürgen Feld from the Bergisches Geschichtsverein stated "that the entire artistic work of this time also served under the banner of Nazi propaganda and the maintenance of 'German cult goods' in the sense of the rulers and was certainly also misused." During the British air raids on Remscheid in July 1943, that was City theater and thus Margraf's workplace destroyed.

Guest conductors took him to the Staatskapelle Berlin in 1938 , and in 1942 he made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra . During the Second World War he also made guest appearances in the occupied territories, for example with the German-friendly Philharmonic Orchestra of Antwerp (1943). Most recently, he worked briefly at the Lemberg Municipal Theaters, where he was appointed music and opera director in spring 1943. In the summer of the same year, however, the Lviv Drama Theater was forced to disappear to Krakow due to the advancing Red Army . There Margraf made a guest appearance in 1944 with the Propaganda Orchestra Philharmonic of the Generalgouvernement . In 1943/44 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht . The music historian Fred K. Prieberg (2009) classified individual appreciations of Margraf from the 1960s with regard to the assessment of his career during National Socialism as " falsification of history ".

After the Second World War he became conductor of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra in 1947, of the Bavarian Chamber Opera in Munich in 1948 and of the Landestheater Coburg in 1949 . In 1950 he brought in Coburg with soloist Sophie Hagemann the chamber concert of Franz Hofmann premiered.

Finally he moved to the GDR . From 1950 to 1968 he was the successor of Gerhart Wiesenhütter "musical head conductor" (chief conductor) of the Handel Festival Orchestra in Halle . Even before he took office, however, "a political intrigue was underway against him," as Susanne Range explained. Thereupon the cultural department of the SED state executive commissioned the theater management under the artistic director Karl Kendzia "to hold a discussion with Margraf about his political past". A report was made of this conversation. In addition, Margraf was " exonerated by certificates from the British military government ". In 1951, Margraf joined the SED . In the following year (1952) he was appointed general music director. During his tenure, the orchestra was a “springboard for highly talented artists” such as Kurt Masur and Klaus Tennstedt . In the state and party leadership he advocated better pay for musicians. Margraf was the main initiator of the Handel Festival and from 1952 onwards performed a total of nineteen operas by the baroque composer in Halle. He mainly worked with the director Heinz Rückert and the set designer Rudolf Heinrich . In 1955 he was a founding member and board member of the Georg Friedrich Handel Society . In 1959 the orchestra was honored with the Handel Prize of the Halle district , which it received in 1961. He was also a member of the Halle-Magdeburg district association of the Association of German Composers and Musicologists at a relatively early age , although he was not particularly committed to regional contemporary music . Instead, he introduced in 1952 with the soloist Ludwig Schuster , the Violin Concerto by Alexander Meyer von Bremen premiered. It was only after years of hesitation that he premiered Gerhard Wohlgemuth's opera Till (1952) at the Landestheater Halle "as the first opera premiere by a composer from the Halle-Magdeburg region in the GDR", as Gilbert Stöck noted. In 1960 he was responsible for the world premiere of the Commedia dell'Arte by Hans Stieber with the soloist Siegfried Behrend .

In addition to the GMD, from 1957 he held the university music directorate in Halle, where he was able to prevail against the shot Willi Maertens . As UMD he headed the Collegium musicum founded in 1958 . He held a professorship at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg .

Margraf was considered a “theater man” who was shaped by Konstantin Stanislawski and Max Reinhardt . But he also valued the works of Johannes Brahms , Anton Bruckner and Richard Strauss . In Halle he developed a preference for Georg Friedrich Händel : Margraf presented the following complete opera recordings: Poro (1958), Radamisto (1962) and Imeneo (1966).

Margraf died in Halle (Saale) in 1978. His estate (not disclosed) is in the library of the Handel House Foundation .

Awards

Posthumously

As part of the “Education in passing” project of the Halle Community Foundation , additional signs were implemented on August 25, 2010 for the Horst-Tanu-Margraf-Weg in the theater district in Böllberg / Wörmlitz with a donation from Adelheid Hochheim .

Filmography

literature

  • Karl-Ernst Bergunder: Horst-Tanu Margraf 65 . In: Musik und Gesellschaft 18 (1968), pp. 276f.
  • Manfred Bliefernich: Margraf, Horst-Tanu . In: Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990 . Volume 2: Maassen – Zylla . Addendum to Volume 1, Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-11176-2 , p. 511.
  • Herbert A. Frenzel , Hans Joachim Moser (ed.): Kürschner's biographical theater manual. Drama, opera, film, radio. Germany, Austria, Switzerland . de Gruyter, Berlin 1956, p. 464.
  • Ernst Klee : The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Completely revised edition, Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-596-17153-8 , p. 355.
  • Waldtraut Lewin : Horst-Tanu Margraf . In: Musik und Gesellschaft 13 (1963), p. 76f.
  • Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933-1945 . 2nd Ed., Kopf, Kiel 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-037705-1 , pp. 4754-4756, 9245.
  • Karin Zauft: On the trail of the Handel Opera in Halle. For the 95th birthday of Prof. Horst-Tanu Margraf . In: Handel House Communications 2/1998, pp. 12–16. 

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Joseph Hiery : School and training in the German South Seas . In the S. (Ed.): The German South Seas 1884–1914. A manual . Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2001, ISBN 3-506-73912-3 , pp. 198-238, here: p. 233.
  2. ^ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945. 2nd Ed., Kopf, Kiel 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-037705-1 , p. 4754; Walther Siegmund-Schultze : Lifted Handel's music to light and into people's hearts . In: Freiheit , April 11, 1978, p. 5.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Manfred Bliefernich: Margraf, Horst-Tanu . In: Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990 . Volume 2: Maassen – Zylla . Addendum to Volume 1, Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-11176-2 , p. 511.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 . 2nd ed., Kopf, Kiel 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-037705-1 , p. 4754.
  5. ↑ Wilfried Seibicke: Historical German first name book . Volume 4: Sc-Z . de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-11-017540-1 , p. 178.
  6. ↑ Karin Zauft: On the trail of the Handel opera in Halle. For the 95th birthday of Prof. Horst-Tanu Margraf . In: Handel House Communications 2/1998, pp. 12–16, here: p. 12. 
  7. ↑ a b c Karin Zauft: Handel and the Handel Festival in Halle. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2001, ISBN 978-3-89812-085-2 , p. 26.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f Karl-Ernst Bergunder: Horst-Tanu Margraf 65 . In: Musik und Gesellschaft 18 (1968), pp. 276f.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g Jürgen Feld: Symphony for parting. 70 years of the Remscheid Symphony Orchestra come to an end . In: History & Home. Bulletin of the Bergisches Geschichtsverein, Dept. Remscheid, Hückeswagen, Radevormwald, Wermelskirchen 62 (1995) 7, o. P.
  10. ↑ Hedwig and Erich Hermann Mueller von Asow (eds.): Kürschner's German Musicians Calendar 1954 . 2nd edition of the German Musicians Lexicon, de Gruyter, Berlin 1954, Sp. 598.
  11. ^ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 . 2nd ed., Kopf, Kiel 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-037705-1 , p. 4755.
  12. ↑ Hedwig and Erich Hermann Mueller von Asow (eds.): Kürschner's German Musicians Calendar 1954 . 2nd edition of the German Musicians Lexicon, de Gruyter, Berlin 1954, Sp. 540.
  13. ↑ Hedwig and Erich Hermann Mueller von Asow (eds.): Kürschner's German Musicians Calendar 1954 . 2nd edition of the German Musicians Lexicon, de Gruyter, Berlin 1954, Col. 24.
  14. ^ Peter Muck : One Hundred Years of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra . Volume 3: The members of the orchestra, the programs, the concert tours, first and world premieres . Schneider, Tutzing 1982, ISBN 3-7952-0341-4 , p. 459.
  15. ^ Eric Derom: Symphonic Music in Occupied Belgium, 1940-1944: The Role of “German-Friendly” Music Societies . In: Revue belge de Musicologie / Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Muziekwetenschap 69 (2015), pp. 109–125, here: pp. 110, 117.
  16. ^ Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 . 2nd Ed., Kopf, Kiel 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-037705-1 , p. 4754; see. Various communications . In: Musik im Kriege 1 (1943), p. 236.
  17. ^ Bogusław Drewniak: The theater in the Nazi state. Scenario of contemporary German history. 1933-1945 . Droste, Düsseldorf 1983, ISBN 3-7700-0635-6 , p. 107.
  18. ↑ Ernst Klee : Happy hours in Auschwitz. How German artists kept their murdering compatriots in occupied Poland happy . In: Die Zeit , No. 5, January 25, 2007.
  19. ^ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 . 2nd ed., Kopf, Kiel 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-037705-1 , pp. 4754f.
  20. ^ Cultural Notes . In: Neue Zeit , June 4, 1950, vol. 6, issue 127, p. 4.
  21. ↑ a b c d Susanne Range (Red.): Klangspuren. 100 years of the Halle Opera House orchestra 1897–1997 . Edited by the Halle Opera House, Halle / Saale 1997, p. 44.
  22. ↑ Susanne Range (Red.): Klangspuren. 100 years of the Halle Opera House orchestra 1897–1997 . Edited by the Halle Opera House, Halle / Saale 1997, p. 45.
  23. ↑ Susanne Range (Red.): Klangspuren. 100 years of the Halle Opera House orchestra 1897–1997 . Edited by the Halle Opera House, Halle / Saale 1997, p. 45f.
  24. ↑ Susanne Range (Red.): Klangspuren. 100 years of the Halle Opera House orchestra 1897–1997 . Edited by the Halle Opera House, Halle / Saale 1997, no p.
  25. ↑ a b c d e Karin Zauft: On the trail of the Handel opera in Halle. For the 95th birthday of Prof. Horst-Tanu Margraf . In: Handel House Communications 2/1998, pp. 12–16, here: p. 13.
  26. ^ Gert Richter: 50 years of the Georg Friedrich Handel Society . In: Handel House Communications 2/2005, pp. 52–57, here: p. 53.
  27. ↑ a b Christoph Rink: Chronology of the Handel price . In: Announcements of the Friends and Sponsors of the Handel House in Halle eV 1/2012, pp. 20–25, here: p. 23.
  28. ^ Gilbert Stöck: New music in the districts of Halle and Magdeburg at the time of the GDR. Compositions, politics, institutions . Schröder, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-926196-50-7 , p. 242.
  29. ^ Gilbert Stöck: New music in the districts of Halle and Magdeburg at the time of the GDR. Compositions, politics, institutions . Schröder, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-926196-50-7 , pp. 246, 271.
  30. ↑ Hedwig and Erich Hermann Mueller von Asow (eds.): Kürschner's German Musicians Calendar 1954 . 2nd edition of the German Musicians Lexicon, de Gruyter, Berlin 1954, Col. 832.
  31. ^ Gilbert Stöck: New music in the districts of Halle and Magdeburg at the time of the GDR. Compositions, politics, institutions . Schröder, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-926196-50-7 , pp. 282f.
  32. ↑ Klaus Schneider: Hans Stieber. Biographical data, catalog raisonné, bibliography . In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter , NF 26 (1972) 3/4, pp. 199–215, here: p. 207.
  33. ^ Gilbert Stöck: New music in the districts of Halle and Magdeburg at the time of the GDR. Compositions, politics, institutions . Schröder, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-926196-50-7 , p. 67 / fn. 143.
  34. ^ Karsten Steiger: Opera discography: directory of all audio and video recordings . 2nd, fully updated and expanded edition, Saur, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-598-11784-8 , p. 191.
  35. ^ Karsten Steiger: Opera discography: directory of all audio and video recordings . 2nd, fully updated and expanded edition, Saur, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-598-11784-8 , p. 188.
  36. ^ Karsten Steiger: Opera discography: directory of all audio and video recordings . 2nd, fully updated and expanded edition, Saur, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-598-11784-8 , p. 194.
  37. ↑ Archives , haendelhaus.de, accessed: May 18, 2020.
  38. ↑ High awards. Johannes R. Becher medals awarded . In: Neue Zeit , May 25, 1966, vol. 20, issue 120, p. 4.
  39. ↑ Education in passing: Horst-Tanu-Margraf-Weg , buergerstiftung-halle.de, accessed: May 18, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Margraf, Horst-Tanu
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German conductor
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH April 3, 1978
Place of death Halle (Saale)