Robert F. Denzler

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Robert Heinrich Friedrich Denzler (born March 19, 1892 in Zurich ; † August 25, 1972 there ) was a Swiss conductor and composer . He advocated Richard Wagner's music and contemporary works.

Life

Denzler was the son of a master rope maker . He studied with Fritz Niggli (piano) as well as with William Ackroyd and Willem de Boer (violin) at the Zurich Conservatory . He also received private lessons in theory and composition from Volkmar Andreae , chief conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra . In 1911/12 he was trained as a concert pianist with Lazzaro Uzielli at the Cologne Conservatory . In the summer months he also worked as a musical assistant at the Bayreuth Festival under the conductors Hans Richter , Karl Muck and Michael Balling and as a répétiteur at the Cologne City Theater.

From 1912 to 1915 he was the municipal music director in Lucerne. In 1913 he became the cantonal music director. He then took over the first position of Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater Zürich, succeeding Lothar Kempters . There he directed several world premieres such as Othmar Schoeck's Don Ranudo in 1919 . From 1917 to 1927 he was also director of the Zurich teachers' choir. From 1925 to 1931 he was responsible for organizing the Wagner Festival at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in cooperation with the Orchester de la Suisse Romande , where he premiered the works Das Rheingold , Götterdämmerung and Parsifal . Guest conductors led him a. a. to Paris. In 1927 he moved to the Städtische Oper in Berlin-Charlottenburg.

From 1937 to 1947 he was musical director at the Zurich City Theater. There he campaigned for “ degenerate music ”, which the Nazis disdained . He premiered Alban Berg's opera Lulu in 1937 and Paul Hindemith's opera Mathis der Maler in 1938 . He was also responsible for the Swiss premieres of Richard Strauss ' Die Schweigsame Frau (1936), Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mzensk (1936), Heinrich Sutermeister's Romeo and Juliet (1940) and Heinrich Schoeck's Das Schloss Dürande (1943). In 1946 he had to resign because of his ties to National Socialism in the early 1930s; During his Berlin years (1932) he joined the NSDAP as a foreigner , probably to keep his post in Berlin. He later admitted his political flaws.

From the late 1940s he worked as a guest conductor at home and abroad. Concert tours have taken him through Europe and South America. Among other things, he appeared at the Salzburg Festival . In 1959 he received the Hans Georg Nägeli Medal from the City of Zurich (on the occasion of the world premiere of his Romantic Symphony ). In 1960 he took over the Sunday concert in the Tonhalle Zurich .

As a composer, in addition to chamber music (including two string quartets), he also wrote orchestral and vocal music.

He was reformed in Calvinism and married to the singer Idalice Anrig-Denzler (1894–1974). Their daughter Sylva Denzler (* 1919) became an actress.

After a family donation, his estate is kept in the Zurich Central Library.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Rudolf Vaget : "Wehvolles Erbe". Richard Wagner in Germany. Hitler, Knappertsbusch, man . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2017, ISBN 978-3-10-397244-3 , p. 425.
personal data
SURNAME Denzler, Robert F.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Denzler, Robert Heinrich Friedrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss conductor and composer
DATE OF BIRTH March 19, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 1972
Place of death Zurich