Hubertus Franzen
Hubertus Franzen (born September 12, 1934 in Mausbach (Stolberg) ) is a German cultural manager and writer .
Life
He studied singing and church music at the Cologne University of Music, among others . In 1960 he was a prizewinner at the International Singing Competition in 's-Hertogenbosch , Holland. He sang at home and abroad, he was tenor soloist and harpsichordist at the Complesso di musica antica , Florence, and soloist with the Zagreb Soloists under Antonio Janigro .
From 1970 Franzen was dramaturge for opera and concerts at the Städtische Bühnen Mainz and author and speaker of the satirical program "Spitz und Scharf" of the Südwestfunk . From 1972 to 1981 he was head of the cultural department of Hilden and head of the Hilden-Haan adult education center . Franzen founded concert and theater series there with more than 4,000 subscribers, which led to the construction of a concert and theater hall in Hilden. With the conductor Franz Lamprecht , Franzen founded the Hilden oratorio choir and organized art exhibitions, including a Käthe Kollwitz exhibition and Rembrandt's graphics.
The cultural-political activities of Franzens were thematized in the debates on incorporation of the government of North Rhine-Westphalia under the Prime Minister Johannes Rau , which led to Hilden retaining its independence and not becoming a district of Düsseldorf . Not least because of these debates, Franzen moved into the focus of politics, which led to the fact that he was nominated as a non-party member of the Frankfurt CDU for the office of head of culture in the Main metropolis. However, he was narrowly defeated by the incumbent Hilmar Hofmann.
Franzen wrote the book "Hilden as it was", which was published in 1977 by Droste Verlag Düsseldorf.
In 1981 Franzen became artistic director and administrative director of the Munich Philharmonic in one person and, alongside Sergiu Celibidache, played a part in the orchestra's growing international importance. He increased the number of subscribers from around 1,900 in 1981 to over 15,000 by 1985 and increased the number of concert series in the new concert hall on Gasteig. During Franz's time as manager of the orchestra, the first USA tour took place in 1985 under the direction of Lorin Maazel . Together with personalities from Munich, Franzen founded the “Society of Friends and Patrons of the Munich Philharmonic.” For the opening of the concert hall at Gasteig in 1985, in coordination with Sergiu Celibache, Franzen commissioned the composers Gottfried von Eine , Hans Werner Henze , Siegfried Matthus , Luigi Nono and Krzysztof Penderecki .
In 1982 the orchestra manager founded the "Festive Summer of the Munich Philharmonic". The conductors of the First Orchestra Festival were Sergiu Celibidache, Eugen Jochum , Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Lorin Maazel . For the festival weeks for the opening of the concert hall in autumn 1985, Franzen signed the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Kurt Masur and the Vienna Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel as a guest orchestra . Disputes between Franzen and the city of Munich arose when he signed a five-year sponsorship contract between the Munich Philharmonic and Audi AG in 1985 without obtaining the consent of the Munich city council. Franzen and the city parted by mutual agreement.
In 1988 Franzen became manager of the NDR-Sinfonieorchester Hamburg under chief conductor Günter Wand and founded, in addition to the two existing ones, three further concert series in the Hamburg music hall, plus others in Kiel and Lübeck . Under his management, the NDR Symphony Orchestra traveled to Argentina, Brazil and Japan, among others, and he tied the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki as Principal Guest Conductor to the NDR Symphony Orchestra.
In 1991 Franzen went to Leipzig as the main department head of the orchestra of the MDR and in this capacity founded the festival MDR-Musiksommer in 1992 in the three sponsoring countries of the MDR, Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, and built concert series of the MDR ensembles in Berlin , Hamburg , Munich and Düsseldorf , thereby promoting the new federal states. The guest orchestras at the MDR Music Festival included the Vienna Philharmonic under Riccardo Muti , the Milan Scala Orchestra under Carlo Maria Giulini , the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam and others, as well as well-known soloists such as Anne Sophie Mutter , who took part in the 1985 MDR Music Summer with the world premiere of II. Violin Concerto by Krzysztof Penderecki and the MDR Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons opened.
In the 1992/93 season, Franzen, as the main department head of the MDR ensembles with the artistic director of the Semper Opera in Dresden, founded the series “Master Interpreten in the Semper Opera”, in which Maria João Pires , Bruno Leonardo Gelber , Shlomo Mintz and Rudolf Buchbinder performed. In the same season, Franzen also founded the “Meisterinterpreten” series in the Leipzig Gewandhaus, in which the same soloists usually performed as in the Semper Opera. Franzen founded further concert series of the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Chamber Philharmonic and the MDR Choir in the cities of the MDR broadcasting area Erfurt , Halle (Saale) , Magdeburg and Weimar .
In 1995, thanks to Franz's initiative, the musicians Fabio Luisi , Manfred Honeck and Marcello Viotti became the main conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra. One of the guest conductors of the MDR and the MDR Music Summer in the Franzen era was Enoch zu Guttenberg , who conducted the St. Matthew Passion, the Christmas Oratorio and Bach's B minor Mass . In 1993 and 1998 Franzen was responsible for the Vatican concerts of the MDR on the occasion of the 15th and 20th anniversaries of the election of John Paul II as Pope. In the concert on October 16, 1998, Krzysztof Penderecki conducted his Te Deum, dedicated to John Paul II . Franzen was also jointly responsible for organizing the world premiere of Penderecki's “Seven Gates of Jerusalem” on the occasion of the 3000th anniversary of the city of Jerusalem under the direction of Lorin Maazel with the MDR choir, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. The speaking role was taken on by Boris Carmeli, a survivor of Auschwitz , whom Franzen also engaged as bassist for the MDR concerts in the Vatican, as well as for the role of the evangelist in Penderecki's St. Luke Passion in the context of the MDR concerts.
As a result of Franzen's collaboration with Walter Blovsky, the managing director of the Vienna Philharmonic, a collaboration between the Central German Radio Choir and the Vienna Philharmonic resulted in the MDR choir and the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Riccardo Mutis on December 12th. In May 1997 he played the gala concert “850 Years of Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral”, the opening concert of the Wiener Festwochen 1997 and two subscription concerts by the orchestra in the Goldnen Hall of the Wiener Musikverein and in La Scala in Milan.
Franzen became involved in 1998 as a member of the board of the “German Society for the Preservation of Art Treasures of the Vatican Museums” for the restoration of frescoes in the Sistine Chapel by organizing benefit concerts in the Papal Museums (Cortile Ottagono and Capella Sistina). This enabled the company to provide the funds for the restoration of the fresco “The Death of Moses” by Luca Signorelli in the Sistine Chapel .
Franzen was also involved in founding the “Festival die Musica e Arte Sacra” in Rome with the Vienna Philharmonic as orchestra in residence.
From 2002, Franzen devoted himself exclusively to his writing. His novel “The Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Goldner Hirsch in Salzburg 1851”, published in 2006 for the Mozart year , was printed in the “Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung” during the Mozart year.
Publications (selection)
- Hilden as it was. Droste, Düsseldorf 1977, ISBN 3-7700-0482-5 .
- Madonna mia. (Roman), Herbig, Munich / Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-7766-1478-1 .
- Murder in the conclave. (Roman), Brilliant-Books, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-938477-66-0 .
- Mozart's death in the Goldener Hirsch in Salzburg: 1851. (Roman), Brilliant-Books, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-938477-68-7 .
- Mozart's death in the ›Goldner Hirsch‹ 1849. (novel), edition-efm-voltaire, Leipzig 2013, ISBN 978-3-944657-04-2 .
- Oktoberfest. (Roman), edition-efm-voltaire, Leipzig 2013, ISBN 978-3-944657-02-8 .
- Candide Voltaire - Book I. (novel), edition-efm-voltaire, Leipzig 2013, ISBN 978-3-944657-01-1 .
- Murder in the conclave. (Novel), edition-efm-voltaire, Leipzig 2013.
- Hitler's popes. (Roman), edition-efm-voltaire, Leipzig 2013, ISBN 978-3-944657-03-5 .
- The maestro. (Roman), edition-efm-voltaire, Leipzig 2013, ISBN 978-3-944657-05-9 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Franzen, Hubertus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German cultural manager and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 12, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mausbach (Stolberg) |