Otmar Suitner
Otmar Suitner (born May 16, 1922 in Innsbruck , Tyrol ; † January 8, 2010 in Berlin ) was an Austrian concert and opera conductor .
biography
Otmar Suitner studied piano with Fritz Weidlich at the Innsbruck Conservatory and from 1940 to 1942 at the Mozarteum in Salzburg also piano with Franz Ledwinka and conducting with Clemens Krauss . From 1942 to 1944 he was a ballet repetiteur with conducting engagements at the Tyrolean State Theater in Innsbruck . After that he mainly gave concerts as a pianist , among others in Vienna, Rome, Munich and Switzerland. In 1952 Suitner was music director in Remscheid . In 1957 he became general music director of the Palatinate Orchestra, today's State Philharmonic of Rhineland-Palatinate in Ludwigshafen am Rhein , with which he made guest appearances in Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Italy and Greece. With this orchestra he also accompanied the legendary soprano Maria Callas . He held his GMD position there until 1960.
From 1960 to 1964 Suitner was chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden . From 1964 to 1967 he conducted the Flying Dutchman , Tannhauser and the Ring of the Nibelung at the Bayreuth Festival . From 1964 to 1971 and again from 1974 to 1991 Suitner was general music director at the German State Opera in East Berlin . Suitner has made guest appearances in almost all European countries, especially in Sweden, Italy, Switzerland and at the Vienna State Opera , but also in the USA ( San Francisco Opera ), Latin America and Japan. He has been made Honorary Conductor of the Tokyo NHK Symphony Orchestra . In the Federal Republic of Germany , especially on the part of the CDU , he was resented at his living and working place in East Berlin, and his rehabilitation by Helmut Kohl , who still knew him from Ludwigshafen, helped him little, so that his guest performances abroad mostly played in other countries.
Otmar Suitner was closely associated with the composer Paul Dessau . He conducted the world premieres of Dessau's operas Puntila (1966), Einstein (1974) and Leonce and Lena (1979) at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin.
From 1977 to 1990 Suitner was also professor of conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna .
In the course of the 1980s, Suitner got increasingly serious health problems, which meant that he had to stop conducting in 1990 due to Parkinson's disease .
He is buried in the cemetery of the Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichswerder communities in Berlin-Mitte.
family
Otmar Suitner had two families. He was married to his wife Marita (1924–2008), the daughter of the composer Friedrich Wilckens , with whom he came to the GDR in 1960 and later lived in East Berlin . He also had a lover in West Berlin whom he visited on the weekend. In 1965 he met the West German student Renate Heitzmann in Bayreuth, who gave birth to son Igor Heitzmann in 1971 . His life became a balancing act in divided Berlin, the border of which he could cross at any time with his Austrian passport. After the fall of the Wall , his family life changed as both families met more often.
In the documentary After the Music , his son Igor Heitzmann tells the story of a rapprochement: to his father, the distant conductor, to the vanished country GDR, the unusual life of his parents - and to music. In conversations and pictures, he reconstructs the family history between East and West and connects it with his own fragmentary memories of the encounters with his father.
Awards
Suitner received numerous awards, among others
- 1963 National Prize of the GDR, 2nd class for art and literature
- 1973 by Pope Paul VI. the Order of Gregorius
- 1982 National Prize of the GDR 1st class for art and literature and
- 2004 Tyrolean State Prize for Art . Suitner had close ties to this Austrian state since his early youth. In January 1944, he had already directed a performance of Rigoletto at the Innsbruck Theater .
He was awarded the title of professor several times (for example in Berlin in 1965).
In 1975 and 1976 he led the conducting course at the Salzburg Summer Academy .
meaning
“Otmar Suitner represents the dying type of the solid, 'German', late-romantic bandmaster. With a clear, effective way of conducting, trying to make music quickly, he never put his person in the foreground and did not aim primarily for success, but for continuous, conscientious work. "
Discography
(Selection, alphabetically by composer)
- Beethoven : The nine symphonies / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1980–1983 / Soloists in Symphony No. 9 Magdalena Hajossyova, Uta Priew, Eberhard Büchner and Manfred Schenk.
- Beethoven : Overtures to Egmont , Coriolan and Fidelio / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1984
- Beethoven : Overtures Leonore III, The Creatures of Prometheus / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1984
- Bizet : Symphony No. 1 (C major) / Staatskapelle Dresden
- Brahms : Symphonies 1–4 / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1984–1986
- Bruckner : Symphonies No. 1, 4, 5, 7, 8 / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1987–1990
- Debussy : Prelude a l'aprèsmidi d'un faune / Staatskapelle Dresden
- Dessau : Einstein / Complete Opera Recording / Schreier, Adam, Büchner and others / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1977
- Dessau : Leonce and Lena / complete recording / Süß, Büchner, Nossek, Menzel, Schaller, Leib, Eisenfeld, Garduhn / Choir of the German State Opera Berlin / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1980
- Dvořák : The nine symphonies / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1977–1981
- Eisler : Ernste Gesänge / Günter Leib / Staatskapelle Dresden
- Grieg : Three orchestral pieces op. 56 (on “Sigurd Jorsalfar”) / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1976
- Grieg : Suite "From Holberg's Time" op. 40 / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1976
- Grieg : Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 op.46 / Bamberg Symphony Orchestra / 1959
- Grieg : Peer Gynt Suite No. 2 op.55 / Bamberg Symphony Orchestra / 1959
- Handel : Acis and Galathea / Kunitachi College of Music / 1980
- Haydn : Symphony No. 100 (“Military Symphony”) / Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra / 1950s?
- Humperdinck : Hansel and Gretel / complete recording / Springer, Hoff, Adam, Schreier / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1969
- Lanner : Waltz, Court Ball and Steyrian Dances and The Schönbrunner / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1970
- Liszt : Orpheus Symphonic Poem No. 4 / Bamberg Symphony / 1957
- Liszt : Mazeppa Symphonic Poem No. 6 / Bamberg Symphony Orchestra / 1957
- Lortzing : The opera rehearsal / Complete recording / Litz, Hirte, Lövaas, Marheineke, Gedda / Choir and Orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera / 1974
- Mahler : Symphony No. 1 / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1962
- Mahler : Symphony No. 2 / Hajossyova, Priew / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1983
- Mahler : Symphony No. 5 / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1984
- Mozart : The Marriage of Figaro / Complete recording / Prey, Güden, Rothenberger, Berry, Mathis, Schreier, Vogel / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1964
- Meyer : Violin Concerto / David Oistrach / Staatskapelle Berlin
- Mozart : Così fan tutte / Complete recording / Casapietra, Burmeister, Leib, Schreier, Geszty, Adam / Choir of the German State Opera Berlin / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1969
- Mozart : Die Zauberflöte / Complete recording / Adam, Schreier, Geszty, Donath, Leib, Hoff, Kuhse, Vogel / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1970
- Mozart : Symphony No. 29, A major, KV 201 / Staatskapelle Dresden
- Mozart : Symphony No. 31, D major, KV 297 (Parisian) / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1968
- Mozart : Symphony No. 32, G major, KV 318 / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1974
- Mozart : Symphony No. 33, B flat major, KV 319 / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1974
- Mozart : Symphony No. 34, C major, KV 338 / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1974
- Mozart : Symphony No. 39, E flat major, KV 543 / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1976
- Mozart : Symphony No. 40, G minor, KV 550 / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1976
- Mozart : Symphony No. 41, C major, KV 551 (Jupiter) / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1974
- Mozart : Symphony No. 41, C major, KV 551 (Jupiter) / NHK-SO Live in Tokyo / 1982
- Pfitzner : Palestrina / complete recording / Schreier, Lorenz, Nossek, Lang, Polster, Ketelsen, Garduhn, Trekel, Bär, Priew / Choir of the German State Opera Berlin / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1986–1988
- Schubert : Alfonso and Estrella / complete recording / Mathis, Schreier, Fischer-Dieskau, Prey, Adam / Rundfunkchor Berlin / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1978
- Schubert : Symphony No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1983–1986
- Schumann : The four symphonies / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1986–1987
- Smetana : The Bartered Bride / Complete Recording / Burmeister, Schlemm, Lange, Leib, Teschler, Adam / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1962
- Strauss : Salome / Complete recording San Francisco House of Opera Live / Rysanek, Varnay, Nimsgern, Hopf / Orchestra of the San Francisco Opera / 1974
- Suppé : The Most Beautiful Overtures / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1969
- Wagner : Tannhäuser / Complete recording San Francisco House of Opera Live / Thomas, Rysanek, Napier, Stewart and others / Orchestra of the San Francisco Opera / 1973
Berlin / Staatskapelle Berlin 1974
Movie
- 2007 - After the music. Otmar Suitner. Director: Igor Heitzmann
literature
- Dirk Stöve: My wonderful chapel. Otmar Suitner and the Staatskapelle Berlin. Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89487-424-4 .
- Thomas Brezinka: Witness to a bygone era. A portrait of the conductor Otmar Suitner. In: Das Orchester 6/1997, pp. 16–20.
- Christian Krause: Suitner, Otmar . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
Web links
- Sound carrier by Otmar Suitner in the catalog of the German National Library
- Movie website Based on the music about Suitner directed by his son ( Adobe Flash required)
- On the death of the conductor Otmar Suitner - A lawyer of the beautiful sound in East and West Gerhard Rohde in FAZ.NET from January 11, 2010, accessed on October 14, 2010
- Conductor Otmar Suitner dies at the age of 87 Obituary in welt.de on January 11, 2010, accessed on October 14, 2010
Individual evidence
- ↑ Game without limits . Frank Kallensee. In: Märkische Allgemeine of January 12, 2010. Retrieved on August 7, 2012.
- ^ Website for the film After the Music
Julius Rietz (1874–1877) | Franz Wüllner (1877-1884) | Ernst von Schuch (1884–1914) | Fritz Reiner (1914–1921) | Fritz Busch (1922–1933) | Karl Böhm (1934–1942) | Karl Elmendorff (1943–1944) | Joseph Keilberth (1945–1950) | Rudolf Kempe (1949–1952) | Franz Konwitschny (1953–1955) | Lovro von Matačić (1956–1958) | Otmar Suitner (1960–1964) | Kurt Sanderling (1964–1967) | Martin Turnovský (1966–1968) | Herbert Blomstedt (1975–1985) | Hans Vonk (1985–1990) | Giuseppe Sinopoli (1992-2001) | Bernard Haitink (2002-2004) | Fabio Luisi (2007-2010) | Christian Thielemann (since 2012)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Suitner, Otmar |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian conductor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 16, 1922 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | innsbruck |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 8, 2010 |
| Place of death | Berlin |