Karl Anton Rickenbacher

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Karl Anton Rickenbacher (born May 20, 1940 in Basel ; † February 28, 2014 in Montreux ) was a Swiss conductor .

Life

Karl Anton Rickenbacher studied at the Berlin City Conservatory , attended conducting courses with Herbert von Karajan and Pierre Boulez and was Otto Klemperer's assistant . In 1966 he began his career as a répétiteur at the Zurich Opera House , and in 1969 he took up his first permanent position: as the first conductor and deputy general music director at the municipal theaters in Freiburg im Breisgau . From 1975 to 1985 Rickenbacher was head of the Westphalian Symphony Orchestra in Recklinghausen . From 1978 to 1980 he was chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow, which he saved from funding cuts and threatened dissolution. Since 1987 he has also led the Brussels Philharmonic (BRT Filharmonisch Orkest). From 1990 Rickenbacher worked as a freelance guest conductor at major orchestras and festivals.

Rickenbacher conducted the main works of classical music literature, devoted himself to the discovery and dissemination of forgotten works and also campaigned for contemporary work. He was friends with Olivier Messiaen . He commissioned Werner Egk and Jean Françaix with compositions for the Westphalian Symphony Orchestra Recklinghausen. Rickenbacher's discography contains works by Beethoven, Wagner, Liszt, Bruckner, Mahler and Messiaen, among others with the London Philharmonic Orchestra . Between 1997 and 2000 he recorded the 14 CD series “The Unknown Richard Strauss” in Berlin, Bamberg and Munich.

He received the Grand Prix du Disque for his recording of Darius Milhaud's “Petites Symphonies”, the Cannes Classical Award with Karl Amadeus Hartmann's “Sinfonia tragica” and the ECHO-Klassik -Preis of the German Phono-Academy in 1999, 2000 and 2001 for works the Richard Strauss series and for Olivier Messiaen's “La Transfiguration”.

On February 28, 2014, Karl Anton Rickenbacher died in his house in Montreux due to a heart failure, sitting at the piano, the score of Gustav Mahler's Totenfeier (the early version of the first movement of his 2nd symphony ), which he wrote on March 16, 2014 in Geneva should have conducted.

Fonts

  • The orchestral works by Olivier Messiaen. In: Wolfgang Rathert , Herbert Schneider , Karl Anton Rickenbacher (Eds.): Olivier Messiaen: Texts, Analyzes, Testimonials. Volume 2: The work in a historical and analytical context. Olms, Hildesheim 2013, ISBN 978-3-487-14766-6 , pp. 99-142.

literature

Sound recordings (selection)

  • Sir Peter Ustinov - my world of classical music . Peter Ustinov in conversation with Karl Anton Rickenbacher. Peter Ustinov recites “Between Day and Dream”. 4 CD. BMG Records, Munich 2004.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Hagmann: Music and only music. Conductor Rickenbacher has died. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . March 14, 2014 .;
  2. ↑ Press release of the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen: Neue Philharmonie Westfalen mourns the loss of its former chief conductor , March 7, 2014, accessed on June 29, 2019.
  3. ^ A b Eleonore Büning : The perfect Kapellmeister. The conductor Karl Anton Rickenbacher has died . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , March 5, 2014, p. 12.
  4. ^ Recklinghäuser Zeitung, March 7, 2014, p. 10: NPW mourns Rickenbacher .
  5. ↑ The conductor Karl Anton Rickenbacher is dead. Www.br.de ( Memento from March 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
  6. ^ Obituaries: Karl Rickenbacher , The Herald (Glasgow), March 5, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Rickenbacher, Karl Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss conductor
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 2014
Place of death Montreux