Michael Balling

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Michael Balling

Michael Josef Balling (born August 27, 1866 in Heidingsfeld , † September 1, 1925 in Darmstadt ) was a German violist and conductor .

Live and act

The son of a lithographer grew up as the youngest of six children in poor circumstances. He was supposed to learn the trade of a shoemaker, but after he had received singing lessons, he studied with Hermann Ritter Bratsche at the Musikhochschule Würzburg .

As a violist he got an engagement at the Bayreuth Festival , where Felix Mottl "discovered" him. In 1896 he got a job as an assistant in Bayreuth and directed the Parsifal performances there from 1906 to 1909 . After engagements as a violist and as a conductor at various orchestras (Hamburg, Lübeck, Breslau), he succeeded Felix Mottl as court conductor at the Grand Ducal Badische Hofkapelle Karlsruhe in 1904 , where he worked until 1907. In 1912 Balling succeeded Hans Richter as director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester and in 1919 was appointed general music director of the Darmstadt State Theater .

Balling has the merit of establishing Richard Wagner's works in England and as a guest conductor in Spain, Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand he founded, among other things, the Conservatory in Nelson (New Zealand) . Richard Wagner's works, however, were only one focus of his interpretations. Among other things, he also performed the Bach Passions and the Bruckner Masses in F minor and D minor. He also had Pfitzner From German soul and the Stabat Mater by Dvorak in the repertoire. On January 29, 1920, he conducted the world premiere of Reznicek's Ritter Blaubart in Darmstadt , and on January 26, 1923, a new production of Schreker's Der ferne Klang there .

Balling's first marriage to Mary Levi was born. Meyer, the widow of the conductor Hermann Levi , married. He was buried in the Darmstadt forest cemetery (grave site: L 8b 52).

literature

  • Heiko Bockstiegel: Gentlemen, do you know the piece? , JLG Grimm, Wolfratshausen 1996, pp. 133-136.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information board at the main entrance of the Waldfriedhof Darmstadt
personal data
SURNAME Balling, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Balling, Michael Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German violist and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Heidingsfeld
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 1925
Place of death Darmstadt