Peter Rocholl

Peter Friedrich Alexander Rocholl (born January 10, 1929 in Chemnitz ) is a German journalist , editor , producer of television games and music programs, director and author in the media sector of radio and television.

Adolescent and academic years

Peter Rocholl was born as the son of the future association director Dr. Erich Rocholl (1901–1978) and his wife Rose b. Schönberg (1902–1974) born. After school years in Chemnitz and Dresden, he first studied music from 1947 to 1950 at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold in the subjects of piano and conducting. His teachers were u. a. Kurt Thomas and Rolf Agop . After that he worked for a few years as Kapellmeister at stages in Göttingen, Hanover and Gelsenkirchen. From 1955 he studied economics at the Universities of Bonn and Münster up to a doctorate . Subsequently, Rocholl was executive assistant at the Institute for Settlements and Housing at that university.

Broadcast work

In 1964 Franz Mai , director of the Saarländischer Rundfunk , brought him to Saarbrücken as his personal advisor. There Rocholl soon moved from the artistic director to the television division, which was being set up, in order to set up a program department for the development and production of television games . After just a few years, the Saarbrücken television game found high recognition at home and abroad. Rocholl hired top theater and film directors such as Peter Zadek , Hans Dieter Schwarze and Günter Gräwert . Success soon came. The production of Valentin Katayev's surgical interventions in the mental life of Dr. Igor Igorowitsch , director: Helmut Käutner , was awarded the Gold Adolf Grimme Prize in 1968 . The television play Death in the Studio , directed by Eberhard Itzenplitz , received the television award in 1972 from the then German employees' union DAG.

In those years, under Rocholl's direction, a music department was set up at SR television. In a few years he succeeded in making the Saarland Radio Chamber Orchestra with conductor Karl Ristenpart known throughout Germany through numerous concert broadcasts in the first TV program of the ARD. These programs with the participation of well-known soloists such as Helmut Winschermann (oboe), Jean-Pierre Rampal (flute) or Maurice André (trumpet) contained musical works mainly from the baroque and classical periods.

After Ristenpart's death at the end of 1967, Peter Rocholl also increasingly brought concerts with the Saarbrücken RSO Radio Symphony Orchestra to television. In 1969 the great American conductor Leopold Stokowski was engaged . For example, a rehearsal with a concert performance of Stokowski's most famous orchestral transcription of an organ work by Johann Sebastian Bach as well as the 2nd piano concerto by Kurt Leimer with the composer as the soloist was recorded. In the 1970s, further concert broadcasts followed with the RSO in the first and third TV programs of the ARD, from 1978 also for the first time with Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, who became known primarily as a Bruckner interpreter . More and more of these concerts were broadcast live on television, as an experiment at the time with radio programs switched on at the same time, in order to enable reception in stereo quality. The participation of well-known soloists such as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Alfred Brendel (piano) or Henryk Szeryng (violin) made these programs particularly attractive.

Rocholl gave the Alban Berg Quartet, founded in 1971, a broad artistic impact through its television productions. His series shot by Wolf-Eberhard von Lewinski with portraits of well-known singers and pianists such as Viorica Ursuleac , Elisabeth Schwarzkopf , Hans Hotter , Peter Schreier , Claudio Arrau , Andor Foldes and Wilhelm Kempff also set the trend for other broadcasters.

Rocholl took a different path with a series of television films in which he had song cycles depicted. With the mezzo-soprano Trudeliese Schmidt, songs by Modest Mussorgski (“Kinderstube”), Hector Berlioz (“Summer Nights - Les nuits d'été”) and Paul Hindemith (“The Young Maid”) were inserted into play activities.

In 1972 Rocholl took over the post of Deputy TV Director at SR. In 1980, the directors of ARD appointed him music coordinator for the first and third programs. He was appointed to the board of trustees of the German Phono Academy by the German Music Council . It was thanks to his initiative that with the memorable Ring of the Century , staged by Patrice Chéreau , a complete performance of the Bayreuth Festival could be seen on television for the first time. In 1985, on the occasion of the 300th birthday of JSBach, the WDR organized a Bach Night lasting several hours on the initiative of Rocholl , moderated by August Everding in the first television program. In 1990 Rocholl became head of music at Saarländischer Rundfunk, for the entire range of radio and television. In this function he coordinated the programming of all ARD stations for Mozart's 200th year of death in 1991.

In early 1994, Rocholl's radio work ended when he retired. He lives today with his wife Dr. med. Angela Theissing-Rocholl in St. Ingbert in the Saarland .

Publications (selection)

• Questions about the different mediation of musical works in the media . In: Music in the mass media, radio and television . Schott 1976
• The interview: Wulf Konold in conversation with Peter Rocholl . In: Musica - Music and Media . Bärenreiter May / June 1978
• Three articles in: 111 key works of music . Bouvier Verlag, Bonn 1990, ISBN 3-416-02240-8

swell

• History and stories of the station on the Saar. 50 years of Saarland broadcasting . Herder, Freiburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-451-29818-9