Karl Richter (musician)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karl Richter (born October 15, 1926 in Plauen ; † February 15, 1981 in Munich ) was a German conductor , choir director , organist and harpsichordist .

life and work

Karl Richter was the fourth of five children of the Protestant pastor Christian Johannes Richter and Clara Hedwig Richter. His family moved to Marienberg in the Ore Mountains two years later . After the early death of his father in 1935, the mother and the children moved to Freiberg, Saxony, where the young Karl was given the opportunity to practice on the great Silbermann organ in Freiberg Cathedral . From 1937 he attended the Kreuzgymnasium in Dresden and was a member of the Dresden Kreuzchor . In 1940 Karl Straube accepted him as the last student after his retirement. His mother died in 1944, while Richter had to do involuntary military service during the last two years of the war.

After the war, Richter studied at the Leipzig Conservatory and at the Church Music Institute with Karl Straube and Günther Ramin . In 1949 he became a Thomas organist . The good training he received from his teachers and his excellent state examination helped him with his application.

In 1950 Richter traveled to southern Germany and Zurich with the St. Thomas Choir under the direction of Ramins, where he met his future wife Gladys. In 1951 he turned his back on the GDR - only equipped with a small suitcase - and initially went to Zurich to look around for a job. After an audition, he was given the position of cantor at the Markus Church in Munich. In the same year he took over the Heinrich Schütz Circle, which later became the Munich Bach Choir and two years later the Munich Bach Orchestra . In 1952 he married Gladys Müller in Zurich. The young couple moved to Munich in the same year, where their son Tobias was born in 1953 and their daughter Simone in 1961. He taught at the Munich Music Academy , where he was appointed professor in 1956. From 1967 the Richter family lived in Switzerland again.

Richter continuously expanded his reputation and was valued internationally as a musician. In 1964 he carried out the first major tour in Italy with the Munich Bach Choir. This was followed by appearances in the USA, France, Finland, England, Spain, Japan, the Soviet Union, Switzerland and Austria almost every year. Richter worked, for example, with the sopranos Edith Mathis , Ursula Buckel , Helen Donath , Agnes Giebel , Gundula Janowitz , Maria Stader and Evelyn Lear , with the contralto Hertha Töpper , Marga Höffgen and Christa Ludwig , with the tenors Peter Schreier , Fritz Wunderlich and Horst Laubenthal and Ernst Haefliger or with the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau , the bass-baritone Walter Berry and the bass Franz Crass . Instrumental soloists such as trumpeters Maurice André and Adolf Scherbaum , horn player Hermann Baumann , flautist Aurèle Nicolet , recorder player Hans-Martin Linde and harpsichordist Hedwig Bilgram also played regularly with Richter. From 1955 to 1964 he led the Bachwoche Ansbach as harpsichordist and conductor .

Richter had numerous fans among his listeners during his lifetime. John F. Kennedy was one of them. On November 22, 1965, Richter gave the official Kennedy Memorial Concert in the Philharmonic Hall in New York, exactly two years after the US President was assassinated. In 1968 Richter directed performances of the Johannes Passion and the B minor Mass by Johann Sebastian Bach in Moscow and Leningrad . His interpretation of the 2nd Brandenburg Concert leads the musical part of the record Voyager Golden Record , which left our solar system as a message from humanity on board the probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 .

Richter died of heart failure in a hotel in Munich in 1981 at the age of 54. He was buried in the Enzenbühl cemetery (FG 81163) in Zurich. In the memorial concert for Karl Richter on May 3, 1981, his friend Leonard Bernstein conducted the Munich Bach Choir and the Bach Orchestra in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residence .

Style and repertoire

Karl Richter's travel organ exhibited in the Valley Organ Center , a custom-made product from 1974 by the Deininger & Renner organ building company

From 1953 until his death, Richter was one of the world's most famous interpreters of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Handel . What is less well known is that Richter also performed and recorded works by other composers, for example by Joseph Haydn , Johannes Brahms , Anton Bruckner and Antonín Dvořák . His style was characterized by expressiveness and an impulsive joy in making music. The music critics occasionally criticized Richter's “romanticizing” Bach interpretations or the use of strong choirs. Richter was not particularly interested in the historical performance practice with original instruments that was emerging at the same time , even if he tried occasionally. Ultimately, he stayed true to his style until his death.

As a soloist on the harpsichord and organ, Karl Richter set standards: These are the interpretations of the ("Doric") Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 538 or the Passacaglia in C minor BWV 582 on the Silbermann organ in Freiberg Cathedral still interesting recordings of these key works by Johann Sebastian Bach. The same applies to the recording of Bach's organ concerts (BWV 592–597, after Vivaldi) on the Silbermann organ in Arlesheim Cathedral in 1973. The interpretation of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 on the organ in the Victoria Hall in Geneva is still considered to be Reference recording. On the recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations with the Deutsche Grammophon label in 1970, Karl Richter shows his skills on the harpsichord.

When preparing his live concerts as an organ virtuoso - for example in Ottobeuren - Richter tried to achieve the maximum sound effect in the room. He succeeded in doing this, among other things, through carefully worked out phrasing on the instrument. Alongside Helmut Walcha, Richter was the most important interpreter of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ music in his day . A concert at the Ottobeuren basilica was filmed.

It is thanks to Richter that vinyl recordings of classical music were made known to a wide audience in the 1950s. The first recording of the St. Matthew Passion in the archive production in 1958 attracted a lot of attention with the use of a powerful choir. This LP cassette recording sold 50,000 copies over the next seven years. In 1964, Bach's Johannes Passion was recorded . In 1980 another recording of the St. Matthew Passion was released with the Munich Bach Choir and the record label "Deutsche Grammophon".

At the age of 30, Karl Richter was offered the position of Thomaskantor in Leipzig. But Richter refused. He later said: “It would have been the culmination of my career. But I built something in Munich that I can no longer give up. ”Karl Richter's pupils are Hedwig Bilgram , Günter Jena , Walther R. Schuster , Albrecht Haupt and Rudolf Kelber . There was a musical and personal partnership with the Munich violinist Otto Büchner (1924–2008).

Discography (selection)

  • Johann Sebastian Bach: St. Matthew Passion, Munich Bach Choir and Bach Orchestra, 1958, archive production.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: St. Matthew Passion, Munich Bach Choir and Bach Orchestra (with Mathis, Baker, Schreier and Fischer-Dieskau), 1980, Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Johannes Passion, Munich Bach Choir and Bach Orchestra, 1964, Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: The 6 Organ Concerts, Silbermann Organ Arlesheim, 1974, Polydor and archive production.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Doric Toccata and Fugue, Passacaglia, Silbermann Organ zu Freiberg, 1978, archive production.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Toccata and Fuge, Famous Organ Works, Victoria Hall Geneva, 1960 and 1967, Decca.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations, harpsichord, 1970, Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Johannes Brahms: A German Requiem, with Evelyn Lear and Thomas Stewart, 1964, EMI.

literature

Movies

  • Tobias Richter in collaboration with Klaus Peter Richter and Klaus Lindemann : Karl Richter's Legacy (The Legacy of Karl Richter) (1986). Deutsche Grammophon, 2006 [DVD]

Web links

Commons : Karl Richter  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Roland Wörner: Karl Richter's life and work. In: Karl Richter Archive 1951–1981. (Website by Johannes Martin)
  2. ^ Andrea Bliese, Klaus Stadler: 60 Years of the Munich Bach Choir. In: Website of the Munich Bach Choir.
  3. ↑ The history of the Bach Week Ansbach. Website of the Bach Week Ansbach.
  4. ^ Wolfram Schwing: Bach from Munich. On the death of Karl Richter . In: Die Zeit , No. 9/1981
  5. ↑ a b Karl Richter. Just awesome . In: Der Spiegel . No. 48 , 1965 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Judge, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German choir director, conductor, organist and harpsichordist
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Plauen
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1981
Place of death Munich