Josef Schelb

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Josef Schelb 1956

Josef Schelb (born March 14, 1894 in Krozingen ; † February 8, 1977 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German composer , pianist and music college professor (piano, composition and instrumentation) of the 20th century, who wrote about 150 works and groups of works from almost all of them of musical genres.

Life

As the youngest of five sons of the general practitioner and spa doctor Dr. med. Albert Schelb and his wife Luise, b. Oestreicher, born into a bourgeois Catholic family tradition, Josef Schelb grew up in what is now the spa town of Bad Krozingen and in Freiburg im Breisgau. The early budding musical talent was encouraged by lessons in nearby Basel , where the conservatory director Hans Huber , who also had a respected name as a composer, became his teacher. After attending the Bertold-Gymnasium in Freiburg, he finally decided to become a musician, so Schelb continued his studies in Switzerland, at the Conservatory in Geneva , in the piano subject with one of the most brilliant piano virtuosos of his time, Liszt student Bernhard Stavenhagen , in counterpoint with the Organist Otto Barblan .

Although the First World War , during which Schelb was called in for war replacement service, was associated with considerable limitations in his artistic possibilities, Schelb's active pianistic concert activity at home and abroad is documented as early as 1916. He also worked as a pedagogical private teacher and lecturer at the Freiburg Conservatory. Already at that time he had his first successes as a composer of piano pieces and chamber music.

In 1924 Josef Schelb was appointed to the Baden Conservatory , since 1929 the Badische Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe , an institution which he held for 34 years, with interruptions due to the war, until his retirement in 1958 as a lecturer and professor for piano, later also for Composition and instrumentation, should stay true to it. In addition, Schelb undertook extensive concert tours through Europe and South America, especially in the late 1920s, including as piano partner of the then world-famous Spanish violin virtuoso Juan Manén (1883–1971), with whom he performed 80 concerts - a first highlight of his pianist career. In 1936 Schelb married Lotte Schuler from Baden-Baden, who had initially studied piano in his class, but soon switched to singing and further studies in Berlin. Most of his songs are dedicated to the trained soprano and concert singer, and the couple performed them together in many concerts up until the 1960s. The hardest stroke of fate in Schelb's life was marked by a heavy air raid on Karlsruhe in 1942, in which the majority of his works and all of his belongings went up in flames.

Josef Schelb with his wife, the soprano Lotte Schelb

After his retirement, Josef Schelb lived in nearby Baden-Baden , where his wife came from. In spatial and spiritual proximity to soloists and conductors of the then SWF symphony orchestra , symphonic and chamber music older works were created. In the last years of his life, the composer often stayed in his holiday apartment in Feldberg-Falkau (southern Black Forest), where he combined work and relaxation in even greater calm at an altitude of 1000 m. On the occasion of his 75th birthday in 1969, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class . After two strokes, Josef Schelb died on February 8, 1977 in a Freiburg clinic. His final resting place is in the main cemetery in Freiburg . Schelb's birthplace Bad Krozingen has named a square in the Kurgarten district after him.

plant

Josef Schelb's oeuvre includes eleven symphonies and eight other comparable symphony-like orchestral works belonging to the older work entitled Music for orchestra or Movimento per orchestra , several orchestral concerts with and without soloists, chamber music with various ensembles from duo to chamber symphonies, piano, organ and Accordion works, songs, choral compositions, the ballets Notturno (1940, premiere at the Nationaltheater Mannheim in 1941) and Die Schöne Lau (1943, first performed in Saarbrücken in 1952), the operas Charlotte Corday (1942), Die Falken (1963) and Elodie (1975) as well as stage music to Herbert Tjadens' Bellmann comedy Der trimmed Eros (1963), finally radio play music for Xanthippe by Herbert Tjadens (1964). In the field of sacred music, the cantata De Sancta Trinitate for soloists, choir and orchestra from 1930 should be mentioned.

Stylistically, Schelb's work ranges from late Romanticism through Impressionism and Expressionism to a modern age that is still shaped by tradition in an expanded tonality or twelve-tone technique . Accordingly, influences from composers such as Claude Debussy , Max Reger , Paul Hindemith , Béla Bartók and the Second Vienna School found expression in his music. Conductors such as Hermann Scherchen , Josef Krips , Hans Rosbaud , Ferdinand Leitner , Bernard Haitink , Hans Müller-Kray and Paul Angerer conducted world premieres of orchestral works. As instrumentalists, artists such as Ellen Epstein and Sontraud Speidel (piano), Martin Schmeding (organ), Albert Dietrich and Jean-Eric Soucy (viola), Martin Ostertag (cello), Sepp Fackler (clarinet), Anton Hollich (bass clarinet), Helmut Koch (English horn), Lotte Schelb and Kornelia Eng (soprano) compositions interpreted by Josef Schelb and partly published on sound carriers.

Since 2008, Josef Schelb's entire musical estate has been kept in the Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe.

literature

  • Margot Eisenmann-Eschenbacher, The composer Josef Schelb, Frankfurt am Main 2001 (monograph, 372 pages)
  • Freudenberger, Berthold, Josef Schelb. In: MGG XI, pp. 1656f.
  • Zentner, Wilhelm, a musician from the Upper Rhine. Josef Schelb on his 60th birthday. In: Zeitschrift für Musik, 115th vol., No. 4, p. 216f.
  • Moser, Hans Joachim, Josef Schelb. In: Musiklexikon, Nachtr. To 4th edition 1958
  • Frithjof Haas, Josef Schelb, composer, in: Badische Biographien , New Series Volume 3, p. 234 f.
  • Schneider, Albert, Josef Schelb and his new piano music. In: Der Freiburger Figaro, Heft 20, Freiburg 1925, pp. 9-12
  • Zentner, Wilhelm, Josef Schelb. On the composer's 70th birthday on March 14, 1964. In: Ekkhard-Jahrbuch 1964, pp. 144–149
  • Fischer, Klaus, the composer Josef Schelb. In: Baden-Badener Tribüne, Issue 9, May 1968, pp. 18-19
  • Wallner, Emeran, A Loerke of the tone poem. For Josef Schelb's eightieth birthday. In: Musica, Vol. 28, Issue 2, 1974, pp. 161-162
  • Wattrin, Konrad, The Baden composer Josef Schelb was born 100 years ago. In: Badische Heimat 1994/4, p. 661
  • Adolf J. Schmid , 1920: Deepest time, the program of the 800th anniversary in Freiburg. In: Badische Heimat 1995/3, pp. 511-516

Discography

  • Music for orchestra , CADENZA 800 874 (Bayer-Records), with: Music for orchestra No. 1 and No. 2, Movimento II per orchestra and concerto for violin, cello and orchestra, 2nd movement. Interpret .: RSO Stuttgart, SWR-Sinfonieorch. Baden-Baden u. Freiburg, Hans Müller-Kray, Jiri Starek, Hilmar Schatz (conductors), Günther Weigmann, Anton Käsmeier (soloists).
  • Orchestral Music, Vol. One , TOCC 0426 (Toccata Classics London), with: Movimento I per orchestra; Music for orchestra No. 3 and music for orchestra No. 4. Liepāja Symphony Orchestra / Paul Mann and Philharmonie Baden-Baden / Pavel Baleff.
  • Chamber music , ANTES-EDITION, BM-CD 31.9080, with: bass clarinet concerto, clarinet quintet, string trio, English horn concerto. Interpr .: Anton Hollich (bass clarinet), Südwestdt. Chamber ensemble, conductor Roger Epple; Helmut Koch (English Horn), Südwestdt. Chamber orchestra. Pforzheim, conductor Paul Angerer; Sepp Fackler (clarinet), bus quartet; Diego Pagin (violin), Jean-Eric Soucy (viola), Martin Ostertag (violoncello)
  • Josef Schelb , ARS-PRODUKTION - FCD-368 363, with: String Quartet No. 4, cantata “Childhood” according to R: M. Rilke for soprano voice and string quartet, four chants based on texts by Georg Trakl, sextet for flute, clarinet and string quartet. Interpret .: Kornelia Eng (soprano), members of the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg.
  • Piano music , ANTES-EDITION, BM-CD 31.9188, with: Piano Music No. 2, Partita ritmica for 2 pianos, 15 small piano pieces (1954), four piano pieces (1962). Interpr .: Sontraud Speidel, Ruben Meliksetian.
  • Piano pieces for 2 and 4 hands , ARS 38 522, with: Small sonata for piano for 4 hands (1940); Longing dance of the Lau (3 piano pieces based on the ballet "Die Schöne Lau"); 10 small piano pieces (1949); 3 piano pieces op. 6 (1917); Dance suite for 2 pianos based on the ballet "Notturno". Interpr .: Sontraud Speidel, Ira Maria Witoschynskyj, Ruben Meliksetian.
  • 21 songs , ARS-PRODUKTION FCD-368 387, with: 5 Storm songs, 3 Hebbel songs, 3 Dauthendey songs, 2 songs based on Kalidasa, 5 songs based on old Chinese texts, 3 Rilke songs. Interpr .: Kornelia Eng (soprano), Felicitas Strack (piano).
  • Organ works , ARS-PRODUKTION-ARS 38 049, with: Orgelwerk IV and Martin Schmeding at the Karl Schuke organ in the Immanuelskirche in Wuppertal.
  • Chamber Music with Clarinet , TOCCATA CLASSICS, TOCC 0358, with: Sonata for clarinet and piano (1947), clarinet quintet (1954), quartet for clarinet, viola, violoncello and piano (1955) and quartet for clarinet, violin, violoncello and piano ( 1965). Interpr .: Bettina Beigelbeck (clarinet), Busch Kollegium Karlsruhe.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of estates of the composer Josef Schelb. Website of the Baden State Library . Retrieved February 16, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Schelb, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer, pianist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Krozingen
DATE OF DEATH February 8, 1977
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau