Mecklenburg State Orchestra Schwerin

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Mecklenburg State Theater in Schwerin, Great House, main venue for the Staatskapelle

The Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin is the third oldest orchestra in Germany. It was established from 1563 and has its seat in Schwerin in the German state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania .

history

On June 17, 1563, Duke Johann Albrecht I of Mecklenburg-Schwerin announced the appointment of David Köler from Zwickau as court conductor. Linked to this was the task of creating a “Hof-Cantorej”. Subsequent court musicians were Johannes Flamingus and Thomas Mancinus .

The Ludwigsluster Hofkapelle at a concert in 1770, gouache by Leopold August Abel

In 1701 the Schwerin court orchestra consisted of 12 instrumentalists and there was talk of a new formation. During this time Johann Fischer was Kapellmeister . From 1767 the court orchestra had its seat in Ludwigslust , since Duke Friedrich the Pious moved his residence to the hunting lodge there . During this time, the chapel developed into a widely respected orchestra under the direction of Carl August Friedrich Westenholz , who was in office until 1789 . In 1789, the music-loving Duke Friedrich Franz I signed the Bohemian Franz Anton Rosetti , who was considered one of the most important composers of his time. Rosetti worked as court conductor until his death in 1792. In 1803 Louis Massonneau became director and concertmaster of the court orchestra. At least temporarily, and regularly since Rosetti's death in 1792, Sophie Westenholz, as Kapellmeisterin , also conducted concerts in the court orchestra from the piano, until Louis Massonneau insisted, in a disparaging manner, on conducting from the lectern in 1811.

Court orchestra and music festivals of the Vormärz

At the 1st Mecklenburg Music Festival in Wismar in 1816, bourgeois music circles and the court orchestra played together for the first time on the initiative of Wismar's mayor Karl von Breitenstern . The central event of this first music festival was the performance of Joseph Haydn's creation in the Nikolaikirche with 100 choirs from the surrounding towns. After the previous reluctance of court circles, this was a breakthrough in northern Germany in the direction of more community. During this time, bourgeois musical life in the larger Mecklenburg cities was increasingly organized in music associations (Wismar (oratorio choir, 1814), similarly in Rostock, Güstrow and Schwerin). Senator Röttger Ganslandt also founded his first music association in neighboring Lübeck in 1816. The music festival was the initial spark for North Germans and for three other Mecklenburg music festivals. In 1817 the court orchestra and Lübeck musicians performed for the first time as part of a performance of the Messiah in Lübeck's Marienkirche . In 1819 the 2nd Mecklenburg Music Festival followed, also with the participation of the court orchestra, in Rostock. The orchestra in Rostock was strengthened to a hundred musicians not only by local musicians, but also by the Neustrelitz court orchestra, which was also delegated . The main events of this music festival were Handel's Samson and Beethoven's 7th Symphony. As part of this second music festival, the Blücher monument was inaugurated on the university square in front of the university . The III. Mecklenburg Music Festival was held again in Wismar in 1820.

Schwerin Court Theater Orchestra

The new court theater (1885)

In 1836 the residence was moved back to Schwerin and the chapel moved into the newly built court theater , which was built by Georg Adolf Demmler in the old garden opposite the castle. Although the orchestra is now firmly connected to the venue Schwerin did not look at the the Lübeck Music Director Gottfried Herrmann launched I. North German Music Festival 1839 in Lübeck, but in the 1840 in Schwerin following II North German music festival, the role was of course given again. It is said to have been the largest choir festival in the city of the 19th century. 300 singers alone took part in the concerts under the direction of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy . In 1856 the opera composer Friedrich von Flotow , a native of Mecklenburg, became director of the court theater. He won Georg Alois Schmitt (1827–1902) as the new Hofkapellmeister, who organized large music festivals, set up a subscription system and, until his departure in 1892, made Schwerin a place of pilgrimage for the northern German Wagner community. He was supported by the director of the Schwerin Castle Choir , the composer and Grand Duke. Music director Otto Kade (1819–1900). In 1882 the court theater was destroyed in a fire and in 1886 it was re-inaugurated as a new house. Hermann Zumpe was now the artistic director and conductor, who continued the work of Flotow and Schmitt.

From the court orchestra to the state orchestra

From 1918 the court orchestra was called the Landeskapelle, and from 1926 the Mecklenburg State Orchestra Schwerin. The Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle is also involved in the penultimate of the series of music festivals that began in 1816 and which, under the patronage of the sovereign, had cemented the state capital's reputation as a city of music. The 15th and initially last Mecklenburg Music Festival took place in 1922. The general music director Werner Ladwig had to resign in 1932 in view of right-wing extremist attacks against him. In 1945 Schwerin was one of the few cities whose appearance had been largely spared from the war and at that time had a structurally intact, playable theater. The previously ostracized compositions by Mahler, Schönberg, Prokofjew, Webern, Eisler, Hindemith and others have now also been performed in concerts. a. played. The Staatskapelle has now been enlarged. In the years that followed, important conductors shaped the spirit and soul of the band. To be mentioned here are Rudolf Neuhaus, Karl Schubert, Kurt Masur , Heinz Fricke, Hartmut Haenchen , Horia Andreescu and Klaus Tennstedt . Concerts have taken the Staatskapelle to regional music festivals, including Berlin, Dresden and Leipzig.

"[...] 1563 [-] 2012 // Finally peace"; and "Fat Diets // Lean Muses "; Protest boards at the Theaterstrasse 6 building in Schwerin

The orchestra survived the so-called turnaround years without damage. In 1992 the city's second orchestra, the Schwerin Philharmonic , was dissolved and the band took over 20 musicians. Despite the partial waiver of collectively agreed pay, the orchestra had to cut eighteen jobs in the summer of 1997, and in 2000 more jobs were cut. The orchestra currently has 68 musicians permanent.

When GMD Matthias Foremny took office in 2003, the situation around the orchestra stabilized, but it cannot be ruled out that the financial situation of the city of Schwerin will necessitate further interventions in the staffing of the orchestra. In September 2013, the state of Mecklenburg and the Staatskapelle, represented by the German Orchestra Association, agreed to gradually reduce the size of the orchestra to only 58 posts by 2020, with salaries being reduced by 15.66 percent and working hours reduced by 10 Percent. Lars Tietje has been General Director of the Mecklenburg State Theater and thus also of the Mecklenburg State Orchestra since 2016.

Chief conductor

Court chapel

Landeskapelle (from 1918)

Staatskapelle (since 1926)

literature

  • Hans Erdmann: Musical relations between Lübeck and Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In: Der Wagen 1967, pp. 160–169
  • Clemens Meyer : History of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court orchestra . Verlag Ludwig Davids, Schwerin 1913 ( digitized version , HathiTrust )
  • Röhlig, History of the Mecklenburg State Orchestra Schwerin . Publishing house HW Bärensprung, 1964

Web links

Commons : Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the discussion The Kapellmeisterin: Title by marriage or also function? at Ruth Heckmann: Sound composers: On the reception of women composers in Germany around 1800. Wiesbaden: Springer 2016 ISBN 978-3-658-13839-4 , ebook ISBN 9783658138400 , p. 239ff.
  2. ↑ See Matthew Head: Sophie Westenholz and the Eclipse of the Female Sign. Doi : 10.1525 / california / 9780520273849.003.0006
  3. ↑ (Source: http://www.focus.de/regional/rostock/tarife-brodkorb-lobt-orchestergewerkschaft-nach-tarifkompromiss_aid_1106921.html )