Rolf Liebermann

Rolf Liebermann, 1980

Rolf Liebermann (born September 14, 1910 in Zurich ; † January 2, 1999 in Paris ) was a Swiss composer and artistic director .

Life

Rolf Liebermann came from the well-known Berlin Liebermann family, other members were Georg Liebermann , Max Liebermann , Felix Liebermann , Hans Liebermann , Emil Rathenau and Walther Rathenau . His father, Franz Joseph Moritz Liebermann-Roßwiese (1872–1931), as a young lawyer, had cured his broken bones from a riding accident for months in a sanatorium in Switzerland, met a French-Swiss woman named Lucie Lang in Zurich and eventually joined them after they married your Swiss citizen.

Their son Rolf Liebermann attended the Trogen Cantonal School and studied law at the University of Zurich from 1929 to 1933 . He also took music lessons at the private conservatory from José Berr . After completing his studies, he brought out his first chanson compositions and took part in various cabarets .

In 1936 he took a conducting course in Budapest with Hermann Scherchen and in 1937 became his assistant at the Musica Viva Orchestra in Vienna . 1938-1940 he did military service. From 1940 he began to study composition more intensively and took lessons from Wladimir Vogel . From 1945 to 1950 he was a sound engineer at Radio Zurich . 1950–1957 he took over the management of the orchestra department of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG . In 1954 he received a commission for an orchestral work from the Donaueschinger Musiktage, wrote, to the amazement of everyone, his Concerto for Jazzband and Symphony Orchestra and thus presented something that would later have been referred to as third stream or crossover . Rolf Liebermann created a wealth of compositions of different stripes: from political songs (Liebermann was on the left) to opera, from piano sonata to music for machines, from concerts to multimedia projects. After Harry Hermann Spitz resigned , he was head of the main music department of the North German Broadcasting Corporation ( NDR ) in Hamburg from 1957 to 1959 .

Autograph R. Liebermann 1968

Rolf Liebermann was artistic director of the Hamburg State Opera for fourteen years from 1959 and again from 1985 to 1988 . During his first directorship in Hamburg, 24 commissioned works were premiered, including Staatstheater by Mauricio Kagel , Die Teufel von Loudun by Krzysztof Penderecki , The Prince of Homburg by Hans Werner Henze and Hilfe, Hilfe, die Globolinks by Gian Carlo Menotti . Liebermann directed the Paris Opera from 1973 to 1980 .

In 1963 he was appointed honorary professor at the Hamburg University of Music and Theater .

In the 1930s Liebermann was in a relationship with the singer Lale Andersen , for whom he set the poem Der Sauerampfer by Joachim Ringelnatz to music around 1933 . Rolf Liebermann was the model for the character of Robert Mendelssohn in the film " Lili Marleen " by Rainer Werner Fassbinder .

Works

Compositions

• 1943 Polyphonic studies for chamber orchestra
• 1944 Une des fins du monde , cantata for baritone and orchestra after Jean Giraudoux
• 1945
  • Chinese love songs for high voice, harp and string orchestra, broadcast by Klabund
  • Furioso for large orchestra (1947 premiered in Darmstadt)
• 1946 stage music for Giraudoux ' Irre von Chaillot and for the Basel Festival Das neue Land by Albert Ehrismann
• 1947 Suite over 6 Swiss folk songs for orchestra
• 1948 Musique for speaker and orchestra based on Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine
• 1949 Symphony No. 1 Chinese Song , dramatic scene for alto, tenor and piano
• 1950 argument between life and death , cantata for soloists, choir and orchestra
• 1951 sonata for piano
• 1952 Leonore 40/45 , Opera semiseria , libretto by Heinrich Strobel (premiered at the Basel Opera)
• 1954
  • Penelope , Opera semiseria, libretto by Heinrich Strobel (premiere at the Salzburg Festival)
  • Concerto for Jazzband and Symphony Orchestra (WP in Donaueschingen)
• 1955 Die Schule der Frauen , Opera buffa, libretto by Heinrich Strobel based on Molière (Premiere Louisville / Kentucky USA, European premiere 1957 at the Salzburg Festival)
• 1958 Geigy Festival Concerto for Basel drum and orchestra
• 1959 Capriccio for soprano, violin and orchestra
• 1964 Concert des Echanges for machines (commissioned by the Swiss National Exhibition in Lausanne)
• 1966 Musique pour Clavecin
• 1981 Essai 81 for violoncello and piano
• 1983 Liaison for violoncello, piano and orchestra
• 1984 Ferdinand , parable for speakers and instruments
• 1987 La Forêt , opera, libretto by Hélène Vida based on Aleksandr Ostrovskij (premiere in Geneva)
• 1988 Herring Quintet ; Cosmopolitan Greetings , multimedia project in collaboration with Allen Ginsberg , George Gruntz and Robert Wilson (WP Hamburgische Staatsoper on Kampnagel )
• 1989 Medea monologue , cantata for soprano, female choir and large orchestra, based on a poem by Ursula Haas (premiere 1990 Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg)
• 1990 3x1 = CH + X , commissioned for the 700th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation
• 1992 acquittal for Medea , opera, libretto by Ursula Haas (premiere 1995 Hamburg State Opera)
• 1994 Enigma for large orchestra (Premiere 1995 Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg)
• 1994/95 Concerto for violin and orchestra
• 1995 piano concerto (commissioned by NDR)
• 1996 Die Schlesischen Weber ( Heinrich Heine ) for chamber choir and piano quintet
• 1997 Variations on an Appenzell Theme for five instruments
• 1998 Mouvance for nine percussionists and piano

Book publications

• 1976 Actes et entr'actes
• 1977 in German translation under the title Opernjahre
• 1980 En passant par Paris
• 1981 in German translation under the title And everyone expects a festival

Movies

• 1965 (together with Richard Leacock) Géza Anda - pianist, conductor, educator. A work report. (Switzerland 1965)
• 1965 (with Richard Leacock) Igor Stravinsky - portrait of a composer
• 1966 (together with Richard Leacock) Paul Burkhard - A portrait.

Awards

• Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Prize (1949)
• Medal for Art and Science of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (1970)
• Hans Reinhart-Ring (1971)
• Large Federal Cross of Merit (1974)
• Large Federal Cross of Merit with Star (1986)
• Honorary lock keeper (1987)
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Bern
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Spokane (USA) (1957)
• Music Prize of the City of Zurich (1957)
• Mozart Prize of the City of Bremen
• Conrad-Ferdinand Meyer Prize (1947)
• Commandeur de l ' Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
• Commandeur de l'Ordre de la Legion d'Honneur (1974)
• Premio Lorenzo il Magnifico (1991)
• Silver Leaf of the Dramatists Union (1969)

Rolf Liebermann Studio

The Rolf-Liebermann-Studio of Norddeutscher Rundfunk was named after him in honor of the former head of the main music department of the NDR.

literature

• Gisa Aurbek: Rolf Liebermann . Ellert and Richter, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-8319-0006-X .
• Göndi Liebermann: Tensions: my life with Rolf Liebermann . M. von Schröder, Düsseldorf 1985, ISBN 3-547-76060-7 .
• Verena Naegele: Rolf Liebermann . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 2, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 1105 f.
• Regina Scheer : We are the Liebermanns . List-Taschenbuch 60783. Ullstein, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-548-60783-2 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Rolf Liebermann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Rolf Liebermann (1910–1999), curriculum vitae
• Rolf Liebermann (1910–1999), a contemporary witness of the 20th century, from Max Nyffeler
• Biography and list of works at Ricordi-Verlag

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.universaledition.com/de/rolf-liebermann-429/werke/furioso-2593
2. ↑ Prize winners - Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Foundation. Retrieved July 17, 2019 .