Juerg Wyttenbach

Jürg Wyttenbach (born December 2, 1935 in Bern ) is a Swiss composer , conductor and pianist .

Life

Jürg Wyttenbach studied piano and composition with Sándor Veress at the Bern University of the Arts with Kurt Fischer and at the Conservatoire de Paris . This was followed by teaching activities at the Biel Music School and the Bern Conservatory. Since his youth he has had a busy concert career as a pianist and conductor, especially of contemporary works. Jürg Wyttenbach now lives in Basel.

As a conductor he has performed well over 100 works by contemporary composers; most of them in world premieres or premieres. He performed a. a. with the Dresden Philharmonic , the Südwestfunk-Orchester , the Hessischer Rundfunk-Orchester and the Krakow Symphony Orchestra. Jürg Wyttenbach has given many concerts with smaller, specialized ensembles for new music such as u. a. the Ensemble Modern , Klangforum Wien , Ensemble recherche , Ensemble der IGNM Basel, Ensemble l'Itinéraire Paris and the Ensemble Forum Lyon.

Teaching assignments

From 1967 to 2003 he taught a concert class for piano and since 1970 the interpretation of contemporary music at the Conservatory of the Music Academy of the City of Basel .

Guest pianist and guest conductor

He is a regular guest at the Donaueschinger Musiktage , the “Festival d'Automne” in Paris, at “Wien modern”, the “Festival musica” in Strasbourg and the “Warsaw Autumn”. The musician works with the Basel Symphony Orchestra over and over again. For example, he was a guest with the orchestra at the “Archipel” festival in Geneva and at the “Octobre en Normandie” festival in Rouen .

Works

As a composer first by Béla Bartók , later influenced by Mauricio Kagel , Jürg Wyttenbach writes mostly works that deal with theater forms (theater collages).

• Exécution ajournée for string quartet
• Lamentoroso for soprano and 6 male clarinetists
• Tarantella for a singing, dancing violinist
• Encore for an actress and a cellist
• Harlequinade for an actress, two clowns and a string quintet
• Divisions for piano and 9 solo strings
• De Metalli from the Prophecies of Leonardo da Vinci for baritone and orchestra

Awards

Among his many CD recordings, especially contemporary music, he recorded the complete works of Giacinto Scelsi for choir and orchestra, which was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque and the German Record Critics' Prize . In 1993, Jürg Wyttenbach received the Art Prize of the City of Basel and in 2003 the composer prize of the Swiss Tonkünstlerverein.

literature

• Rudolf Kelterborn : Jürg Wyttenbach: Abundance and Commitment (Dossier Music 4), Zytglogge, Bern / Zurich 1994.
• Ivana Rentsch : Jürg Wyttenbach . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 3, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 2128 f.
• Jürg Wyttenbach: Laudation for Klaus Huber , in: Musik -tex 81/82 (1999), p. 16 f.

Web links

• Christoph Ballmer: Jürg Wyttenbach. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Literature by and about Jürg Wyttenbach in the catalog of the German National Library