Karl Münchinger

Münchinger 1968

Karl Münchinger (born May 29, 1915 in Stuttgart ; † March 13, 1990 there ) was a German conductor .

life and work

After taking violin lessons in his youth, Karl Münchinger studied orchestral conducting with Carl Leonhardt at the Stuttgart University of Music and worked as a choir director and organist at the Marienkirche in Stuttgart . After subsequent conducting studies with Hermann Abendroth at the Leipzig Conservatory and summer courses with Clemens Krauss, Wilhelm Furtwängler's support helped him lead the Lower Saxony Symphony Orchestra in Hanover (1941–1943). After returning from captivity , he founded the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra on his own initiative in 1945 , which he quickly brought to international renown and which he directed until 1987. In 1953, Karl Münchinger received the title of professor of the state of Baden-Württemberg and the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany , "in recognition of his artistic merits".

Even if Münchinger was not an advocate of historical performance practice , from the beginning he represented a soundscape freed from romantic ideas and purged. Low-voiced line-ups, rigorous adherence to tempo specifications and the composers' stylistic and interpretative stipulations were his guiding principles for his interpretations, which were consistently characterized by a transparent and homogeneously slim sound.

The name Münchinger quickly became a synonym for exemplary (i.e. anti-romantic) interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach's orchestral works . The cornerstone of the work with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra was formed by a wide-ranging repertoire of early Baroque and Baroque compositions, numerous recordings of which have received national and international prizes. In the immediate post-war period, compositions by contemporary composers were also increasingly on the concert programs. It was not until the beginning of the 1960s that the baroque repertoire was expanded to include compositions from the Viennese classic ; To this end, Münchinger founded the Stuttgart Classical Philharmonic in 1966 . Since then he has also been increasingly engaged as a conductor in other European countries and in the USA.

Awards

Karl-Münchinger-Weg above Uhlbach

• Large Federal Cross of Merit (1955) with star (1970) and shoulder ribbon (1985)
• Officer of the French Order of Art and Literature (1961)
• Honorary Citizen of Menton, South of France (1965)
• Gold Record Award (1969)
• Merit Medal of the State of Baden-Württemberg (1975)
• Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1972, 1976)
• Gold medal of the city of Strasbourg for special services to Franco-German cultural rapprochement (1980)
• Gold Medal of the City of Grenoble (1985)
• Officer of the Legion of Honor (1986)

literature

• Bernard Gavoty: Karl Münchinger . (= The great interpreters , Volume 2). Geneva / Frankfurt am Main 1959.
• Norbert Bolín: Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra 1945–1995. Biographical sketches . Concerto, Cologne 1995 ISBN 3-9803578-1-3 .

Web links

• Works by and about Karl Münchinger in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Karl Münchinger  in the German Digital Library
• Karl Münchinger in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)